Why?

I know this will get locked as soon as a few people read it but at least I can ask my question.

WHY are so many people here just plain rude? I was just reading a thread someone started asking if they were the only ones who thought CP needed another wooden coaster. The first response was totally uncalled for and said something snarky like "yes you are the ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD" blah blah blah.

I've been to a lot of message board/forums and this is one of the most unwelcoming one I've ever seen. I realize there's a place to read all the FAQ's about what to do and what not to do but why are so many of you, who hang out here all the time, so rude to new people who sign up and ask questions? Not a very friendly community and although I don't matter one bit around here, I think this will be my last visit to your unfriendly corner of the 'net.

Have a good day!

These threads are popping up with more frequency.

This is actually one of the most welcoming on the net. I don't know which boards you've been to, so maybe you've just been lucky.

I think people get irritated when a new poster starts a thread that is in direct contradiction to the FAQ/Guidelines, because it shows they didn't take the time to read them.

Have a good day!

You too!

Just to let you know Mill Fan, must people here are kind and do know a lot and will answer your question, but as always, there
are a few bad apples that make everyone look bad, sorry
if you don't come around anymore.

Out of all the boards I like this one the best. Rude people are just a part of everyday life. And I agree with Jugga these have been poping up quite a bit.

Keep up the Good work Walt and Jeff!

There are several reasons. First is that the people who hang out here all the time because they have nothing better to do are so self centered and smug that when someone knew comes along and asks a question they have to respond. Their response is also based on the fact that they are always hanging around… they assume that since THEY know every single thing that has been talked about here, some innocent person who was searching Cedar Point on Google for a place to ask questions must ALSO be required to know everything that has been talked about. They then will berate that person, exerting more energy and resources in doing so then it would have taken to just answer a question and let them be on their way.

Speaking of wasting energy and resources, it is also VERY common for a simple typo to spawn several comments from several people. Newsflash: While you may think it necessary to spell check every single post, most people don’t because this ISN’T an English course. It’s just a little message board where simple typos should be left as that… typos, not a reflection of someone’s education.

That brings up another good reason. Guess what people? You may spend all your time here… you may think about Cedar Point all the time, but that doesn’t make you a moderator of this message board. As much as you may think you are enforcing and helping and as much as you may want to join the “high ranks” of this website’s moderators someday it isn’t needed now. If they wanted your help they would have asked you already, so going around attacking other people and making assumptions about what this website’s owners would think (it doesn’t matter if they agree with you in the end or not) is just rude and wasteful, not helpful.

As a conclusion I will just say that while this place may seem like one of the most “welcoming” and “friendly” boards on the net, I have been to places that are a lot less “friendly” but they are better because it isn’t the regular people being rude. That is left up to the people in charger. If there is something you don’t like, just ignore it, and don’t waste other people’s time and energy trying to prove how big of a man you are on the internet.

Oh and “These threads are popping up with more frequency.” Is a sign, not a fluke.

I think it's rude when someone opens an account and then starts a thread that violate our guidelines (you know, the rules that are in place to help make this the quality community it is). Or who wouldn't think someone else has already asked a question. Or who starts a thread without saying anything useful.

http://www.linuxbench.org/Posting.html

This is a very friendly and welcoming community. Not only is that evident from the growth we continue to experience, but it can also easily be seen from just reading through the message board.

Walt sent me a message about this.

"Thanks for the message and sharing your concern.

I understand your point and also have seen, at times, the issue that you bring up. A lot of these issues are dealt with behind-the-scenes and are transparent to the users. Just in the last two days I've quietly handled two inappropriate posts made by members. In one case, I used our warning points system (which is only seen by the member in question). That prevents the poster from participating in the forums for a few days. In the other case, I PM'd the person to let them know what they said was not appropriate for these forums. Keeping that stuff behind-the-scenes allows us to handle the problem without disrupting the forums. There's nothing worse than a message board with overbearing moderation in public.

Some of it just personality driven, so there is a fine line between inappropriate and just the person being who he/she is. It all depends on the message. I think we do a tremendous job at maintaining a strong community, keeping people in line without being overbearing. And I think the level of inappropriateness for a message board our size (nearly 8,700 members) is very low. And that's a credit to our members.

A message board is kind of like its own little society. Problems between people are going to come up. But I think we have a message board with high quality conversations and a strong moderation that takes care of problems when they do come up."

Walt hope you didn't mind this posted.

Cedar Point Man said:
Out of all the boards I like this one the best. Rude people are just a part of everyday life. And I agree with Jugga these have been poping up quite a bit.

Keep up the Good work Walt and Jeff!

Couldn´t agree more.

Rider said:
There are several reasons. First is that the people who hang out here all the time because they have nothing better to do are so self centered and smug that when someone knew comes along and asks a question they have to respond.

I think they (we/I) are just trying to help, regardless of how it comes across. Rather than just ignoring someone completely they (we/I) are letting them know why there may not be many relevant responses, or why the thread will eventually be closed. If this is considered rude, what is considered helpful?

Speaking of wasting energy and resources, it is also VERY common for a simple typo to spawn several comments from several people.

I've never seen a simple typo get a comment here. Its the repeated offenses combined with a high frequency that get comments.

*** Edited 4/20/2006 3:49:53 PM UTC by djDaemon***

DJ, I think what he is referring to (and I'm guilty of starting this more than once) is when someone says - "Witch is the best place to stay?"
And I follow that up with a post that says: "If a she weighs as much as a duck she's made of wood." At which point the whole thread goes down hill on Monty Python quotes and discussion. Of course, that's more hijacking than being rude.

And I've made a typo or two (not to or too) before, but there is also the edit button for fixing such mistakes when you find them. When someone makes no effort to try and sound intelligent (capitalization, punctuation, spelling), they are going to be treated as though they aren't. I know I still get tripped up by some words, and putting a little "(sp?)" after a word you're not sure of goes a long way towards showing that you are at least trying.

First is that the people who hang out here all the time because they have nothing better to do are so self centered and smug that when someone knew comes along and asks a question they have to respond.

Really? People hang out here all day and pounce on new posters? Where?

They then will berate that person

Examples?

Like here?

Or here?

Or maybe this one?

Speaking of wasting energy and resources, it is also VERY common for a simple typo to spawn several comments from several people.

Don't confuse a simple typo with a hard-to-understand post. I've never seen a member get upset about a simple typo. Yes, sometimes a few get upset if a poster uses "their" instead of "there." But I think you're either vastly overestimating how often that happens, or you're ignoring all the other posts.

but that doesn’t make you a moderator of this message board

That's true. We do see that here from time to time and I've brought it up before. But it's not even close to being as rampant as you make it out to be.

If there is something you don’t like, just ignore it

That's good advice.

Oh and “These threads are popping up with more frequency.” Is a sign, not a fluke.

Actually, a lot of times it's people who already have a grudge for some other reason.

It's disheartening when someone looks at the occasional action of a very small number and applies it to the entire community, as if it's our policy to be rude. People see what they want to see. If someone wants to look at the 0.001% of bad or rude posts and ignore all the good in the process, then I guess that will happen. It's not realistic of me to think that absolutely 100% of the people who come here will leave with a good impression.

Also, let me reemphasize a couple of things from the PM I sent CP4eva'04.

"Some of it just personality driven, so there is a fine line between inappropriate and just the person being who he/she is. It all depends on the message."

"I think the level of inappropriateness for a message board our size (nearly 8,700 members) is very low. And that's a credit to our members."

"A message board is kind of like its own little society. Problems between people are going to come up."

I can assure you, Walt, that the threads you posted in your message were not made by me! I do have an 11 year old son, who I know for certain, posted those questions.

He asked me why he wasn't allowed to post anymore after us only registering a few hours earlier (this was a few weeks ago) and I explained to him the reasons why. He was told again last night, after I saw his post about the 4th of July, that anything else he wanted to post on this forum HAD to be checked with either his father or myself. I do sincerely apologoize for him taking up space on this board for questions that didn't really need to be asked in the first place. The first question he asked, which coaster is better, I didn't know that was against the rules until I read your guidelines myself...that's 100% my fault, not his.

When I started this new thread and asked "why", it wasn't an attempt to bash this place, even though the people who run it and come here often, it probably came across that way and for that I am truly sorry. My question was a simple one and I got some fine answers and will leave it at that. It's not that I didn't understand why people would be irritated about not following the guidelines, I was curious as to why some people felt it was OK to say something mean to someone, to basically embarrass them on a public forum.

I've lurked on here for a LONG time and only recently registered because my son is such a big CP fan. (Aren't we all!) Please accept my apology for the threads my son started without *MY* reading your guidelines. I have talked to him about this and it won't happen again. But, I would like the chance to defend myself (and him as well) that with other forums we have been to (not all CP ones) the rules are a lot different and it's my fault, not his, for what he posted, because I didn't take the time to read the rules.

I just want to make it clear that when I asked this question, it wasn't meant to hurt the people who run this board and put so much hard work/dedication into it. But from a "newbie" who seems to be on the outside looking in here, it does seem that there are some pretty snarky people here. Not EVERYONE, just some, and I realize you run across that on the internet and in real life.

Thanks for reading.

The fact that this thread continues throws water on the fire that MF fan tried to start.

MrScott

You are wrong, MrScott, I did NO such thing!

How is my asking a SIMPLE question trying to "start a fire"? The "SNARKY" comment you just made about me is a PRIME example of WHY I asked the question in the first place.

There are some people here (notice I said SOME-not ALL) that choose to be mean and hateful to others, I've seen it more than once, and that's why I asked nothing more than a simple question in the first place.

I apologized to Walt and made myself more clear about what I meant and what happened with the first few threads that were started by my son. If you want to think that's me doing nothing more than "starting a fire" so be it!

It's smart-alecky comments like YOURS that made me only lurk here for over a year and only register a few weeks ago.

And school isn't even out yet...

I appreciate your follow-up post, Millennium Force Fan. But to be fair, your initial post wasn't all that friendly in and of itself. It's one thing to bring up a concern (though, I still think these things are better handled though an e-mail or PM to myself or Jeff), but quite another to declare this site the most unfriendly and that it's your last visit. When you use that kind of tone, you're inviting a certain type of response.

That said, I don't see how that particular post was mean or hateful or an example of how some people are rude.

*** Edited 4/20/2006 4:59:23 PM UTC by Walt***

I'm sure, based on his personality, MrScott meant no harm.

No, school isn't out yet but my son was on spring break when we registered and believe it or not, he does get to come home EVERYDAY after school at 3:30. WOW! That's hard to believe, isn't it?! (Was that snarky enough?!)

Nope, I wasn't all that friendly in my first post and I said I was sorry, I refuse to keep getting beat up over it time and time again. I realize that this place isn't like most message boards I go to and that there are a whole new set of rules/guidelines to follow, again, I said I was sorry for that, not only for me but my son as well since we didn't read things before his first post.

Didn't anyone notice the little JAB that Jeff made to me about school not even being out yet? I'm guessing he's a mod here since Walt brought up his name, but is that not being rude and basically calling me a LIAR?! *Shrug* If you wanna call that FRIENDLY, okie dokie.

Of course MrScott wasn't trying to be RUDE, he's a regular poster here, not some new outsider trying to make a few friends and get to know others who like CP as much as me and my family do.

It's OK though, no hard feelings towards ANYONE here! I'll keep telling my CP-loving friends about the site. It's definitely one of the most informitive I've seen. I just won't make the mistake of posting another thing.

I've defended myself all that I'm going to now. For friendly folks, you sure as heck don't know how to accept an apology. Although I can clearly see that I won't be offered one from Jeff for pretty much calling me a liar. This is a fair place though, I can clearly see that.

I had to post one more thought on the matter before I POOF myself right outta here.....

My family and I will be at CP on opening day. I'm sure it won't be a problem if I come and say HI to some of you? I'd LOVE for the person who called me a LIAR to say it to my face...and to my husbands for that matter.

**POOF**