March 10, 2003
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March 10, 2003
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Web "message boards" or "forums" are similar to newsgroups in their structure. Message board software often gives users additional resources for creating an online identity. For instance, you may be able to use a small graphic as an icon which appears next to your post (people almost never use photos of themselves) and a "sig" (signature, text that is automatically appended to each of your posts).
On most forums, the "regulars" consider themselves to have a cohesive culture, and they spend a lot of time explicitly maintaining their cultural norms. Some of the categories and the norms that go with them:
Regular: someone who reads and posts frequently. Some message boards display "post counts" for each poster, or indicate when they joined; you can see from somebody's post count how much of a regular they are.
Lurker: someone who reads but doesn't post.
Newbie (or "n00b"): literally, someone new to the board; more generally, anyone who posts a question that "regulars" already know the answer to.
Spam: a message is interpreted as "spam" if it is unwanted. Unwanted messages on this board include anything that has already been said by someone else (new posters are expected to read at least 10 pages of the board before they post anything); "off-topic" or "OT" posts; advertisements for other websites or groups.
Trolling: Posting something incorrect, obvious or otherwise in violation of newsgroup standards deliberately in order to get a reaction; now apparently broadened to include anybody who behaves in a way likely to get themselves flamed (see below).
Flaming: aggressive or hostile post, especially one directed at a specific person. Officially disapproved of; in fact used frequently by regulars as a means of exerting social control, against posters who break the rules listed above.
A troll being flamed
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JEDI666 |
a.) Hit on all the girls in the Sex Census Post. c.) Sleep with Gryphon d.) Post up Bethesda number in hopes that people will scream why cant I climb.. e.) Tell Bluedev Im not into guys no matter how bad he wants me in bed. Doesnt exactly give him the warrent to close all of my posts! Were are my rights? What about free speech? (P.S. Sorry Gryphon I just couldnt keep it a secert any longer the world must know.) |
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Locklear93 |
I'm starting to think JEDI666 is a black hole of intelligence... As a black hole's gravity sucks in light, so that it can never escape, so he sucks the intelligence from this forum. One must wonder, however, what he does with it, as it certainly isn't being put to use. :P |
A newbie being flamed:
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i need... ineed some help to learn about the game ---------------------------- |
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...some help. actually, if you want help, be serious and take people's advice. people have told you to read faqs. do so. lots of info can be found in those. |
| I really wish there were a function to compare ip addresses to another users, to see if mistab's ip is different from JEDI666's... |
| jedi666 seems a little more intelligent |
Spam being locked:
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check my bio *smoke*, woohoo!!! im a kajjit!!! cant you see my furry tail!! wohoo, purr, hey! My tail has scales ! the skooma PURR must be goin |
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Calm down and take a deep breath, ok? Anyway, this thread is full with spam. |
Language norms in action
Language: On every public electronic forum, regardless of topic, discussions develop on norms of language use. In some cases, these norms may be made explicit in a "forum FAQ" -- a document expressing rules and expectations for the form and content of forum posts. Forum moderators may enforce these norms by editing or deleting posts or banning members. Forums may also provide their own "dictionaries" -- lists of jargon and abbreviations specific to that forum.
On some forums, it's expected that posters will use "proper English". In practice, this seems to mean standard written English augmented by game-specific jargon and also the older general Internet conventions (such as abbreviations originating in newsgroups like YMMV "your milage may vary", IIRC "if I recall correctly", IMHO "in my honest/humble opinion"). Explicitly discouraged are "chatspeak", "h4XX0r-speak" or "l33t-speak", and "sloppy" writing including excessive typos and grammatical "errors".
| AK404 05-27-01, 02:30 AM (PDT) "*sigh*" LAST EDITED ON 05-27-01 AT 04:06 AM (PDT) |
Mavfin, Griz, I'm sorry, but I really feel the need to get this off my chest. AGAIN. I am somewhat annoyed by the deluge of horrible grammar, spelling, and lack of punctuation presented on these boards, and I do not think I am being at all sanctimonious about this. For example... "i was looking at the amazon tactics page and u all r so wrong firstly for speed amazons twitchtroe a very must 4 strafe." WHAT THE ##### IS THIS #####? No capitalization, the words "you", "are" is spelled wrong, the word "firstly" is used even though there is no "secondly", "thirdly", or "lastly," and the last time I checked, "4" is a number, not a word! (Being that it is almost six in the morning, I forget exactly what kind of word "for" is, but I'm sure someone will remind me.) And horribly enough, there is no supporting argument being made for said statement. This is not a chat room, this is a forum; you are not chatting, you are posting. There is a difference between chatting and posting. Most, if not all, rules of proper English go out the window when chatting, as the point there is to merely convey an idea quickly, and before the trade spam pops up or b.net for some reason or another decides to send us on yet another free trip to Europe. In posting, you are participating in a multi-faceted, multi-author "novel" and should therefore conduct yourself in such a manner. In other words, you have all day and more to present your idea in a forum. The Lurker Lunge will not crash, there will be no trade spam, there are no server splits. Nothing irks me more than seeing a poorly worded, poorly punctuated, poorly organized post, and it offends me more where there is another post just like it on page TWO of the forum! Do you children not know how to hit a link that does not lead to porn? Have your parents not taught you to look for answers before asking questions? If your intent is to ask questions, then look before you leap. If your intent is to communicate your ideas, try to do it effectively. Make that point as obvious as with a sledgehammer to the face. Don't force others to sift through the verbal afterbirth that is your message. At the very least, don't be at all surprised when I don't take your ideas seriously. Thank you. EDIT: There, nice and clean. - AK404 |
| Leshy 05-27-01, 11:16 AM (PDT) 25. "Because I'm such a nice guy :P" |
>> This is a forum about a video game, not
a term paper on the functionality of the now extinct green hopping frog
of Peru. Last time I checked games are for relaxing and a release from "every
day life" or the "nine to five." So why should "we"
be flamed for using abbreviations? First of all, it is my opinion that the topic of a forum should have no influence on the minimum level of quality that all posts should have. That means that on whatever forum you post, you should try to keep your posts as comprehensible as possible. That means no word abbreviations like 4, u, r, etc. Of course, not all abbreviations are bad, and some are quite common. If I were to use RL or NT, that would leave no doubt as to the meaning, seeing as those are abbreviations inherent to Internet, and will most likely be used once, perhaps twice in a single post, and don't make reading the post any harder. It's not that bad to use an abbreviation now and then, it's just that when it comes to those short words, they get used all the time, and make reading posts incredibly annoying. JM2C (Just my 2 cents). -Leshy |
| Occhidiangela 05-27-01, 06:52 PM (PDT) 47. "There is a different issue" |
I learned this at the DSF. The regulars set the tone. All others either adapt, or feel left out. A simple social dynamic. Ciao |
E-Dialects
In fact, there are different kinds of non-standard language used on the Internet, including both "high" and "low" registers. Discussions of language usage often don't make useful distinctions. Different people use the following kinds of language, and often have negative attitudes towards the others:
Usenet/General Internet: computer and network-related jargon; abbreviations of common phrases including especially evidentials (YMMV, LOL, ROFL, IIRC etc.)
Leet: number-for-letter substitutions (1337=leet) or drawing letters (\/\/ = w) and a few others (z for s, sometimes "extra", eg. haXXorz, warez)
Chat: lowercase, absent or multiple punctuation, numbers etc. for words (4=for etc.)