Subject:
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Re: Should AFOL websites keep to themselves?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:03:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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3130 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Bob Parker wrote:
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While not naming any specific sites, I would be interested in hearing the
Community’s thoughts on whether you think it right or wrong for one AFOL site
to talk about another AFOL site. For purposes of this discussion, we will
assume that by talk I mean badmouth.
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Well, here’s an important distinction: who’s doing the saying? And in what
capacity?
Let’s say AFOLS.com is run by Mortimer. And a frequent visitor to the AFOLS.com
is Jezebelle. And there’s another site called LEGOGEEKS.com, which they hate.
It’s totally fine if Jezebelle to talk about how much she hates LEGOGEEKS.com.
It may not be productive or worthwhile, and she may take some flak about it on
that level, but it’s probably fine.
Mortimer can even do the same thing, and it’s probably fine too, BUT! it’s
dangerous. It can be construed as the website itself as an entity being caught
up in stupid politics, which it shouldn’t be. And certainly, if Mortimer decided
to voice his grievances on the front page of his site, that’s out of line in my
book.
Basically, I’d like people to be able to work together, even if they don’t get
along on a personal level. If they can’t work together thanks to bad blood,
that’s probably a sign of immaturity.
As for the particulars:
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For example, let’s say Site A starts threads mentioning that the murfling on
Site Z is out of control and that the mods are too heavy handed.
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Since “murfling” exists only on ONE site that I’m aware of (since Todd made up
the term), this may not be such a hypothetical example :) But regardless, that’s
a totally fine personal assertion to make.
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Then Site Z responds by saying that Site A is just a bunch of ‘loser
poopy-pants who can’t make any cool Lego creations.’
...
Site A then points out that it was created before Site Z and that they know
more about Lego than anyone else plus who would want to join Site Z anyways
since only posers go there.
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Now, this brings up something a bit more interesting, indirectly. Lego fans
aren’t sites. There’s a lot of cross-population. I (for instance) regularly
visit about 5 Lego forums, with occasional visits to 4 others. I imagine that
lots of other people do the same. So making assertions about a site’s citizenry
versus its administration or the site itself seems to be a little sillier. It’s
not necessarily untrue, as trends among site readership tend to follow norms,
but still, a less verifiable claim to bother making.
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Site A counters with some name calling and threats of ‘as yet to be
determined actions to be taken in the future against Site Z.’ The members of
Site Z vigorously defend their beloved site and call for all members of Site
A to be banned from joining Site Z forever.
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That’d be crossing the line as far as I’m concerned.
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Is this a large problem in your eyes?
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I haven’t really seen much of it recently, although there have been a couple
instances where this has gotten out of hand. Maybe I ought to do some surfing
around to my less frequented forums!
From what I know, at least 2 forums of which I’m aware *started* purely on the
basis of bad blood. At least 2 others (and probably more) started as something
of a mix between discontentedness and a desire for increased control and/or
functionality.
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If so, are there any steps that could be taken by anyone that you believe
could help the situation?
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Professionalism in administration. And if you’re administrating a site where
fights of this nature break out, be sure to usher those discussions somewhere
relevant (which may or may not mean quashing them, depending). But the minute
you start treating people unfairly as an admin is when people start seeing it as
an infringement on their *rights* rather than a personal matter.
DaveE
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Should AFOL websites keep to themselves?
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| (...) The word has been adopted by the AFOL community (or some of us anyway) and is used in a more general sense to refer to the actions of admins or other personnel of any website. It's a great word, useful and colorful, and more descriptive than (...) (17 years ago, 11-Apr-07, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Should AFOL websites keep to themselves?
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| While not naming any specific sites, I would be interested in hearing the Community's thoughts on whether you think it right or wrong for one AFOL site to talk about another AFOL site. For purposes of this discussion, we will assume that by talk I (...) (17 years ago, 10-Apr-07, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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