Any newspaper commenting section (Canadian examples would be the Toronto Sun, National Post, Toronto Star, and Globe and Mail). Honestly people just write the most vile and bitter things on them and they often jump the gun doing it.
So true. I read an article a while ago about Breaking Bad in The New Yorker. It was an interesting take on the final episode, but some people were so offended by it they threatened to rape and/or murder the writer.
My faith in humanity was pretty much destroyed by newspaper commenting sections. Well, that and all the slavery, genocide and bigotry.
Full of people with a billion posts, that constantly insult other people (with the worst vocabulary possible) that have even slightly different opinions and also anything other than Planescape: Torment, Arcanum and some obscure DOS RPGs is absolute garbage and you deserve to be verbally lynched because they know better and "you are a f*ggot/retard/idiot/whatever".
But, despite their Demi-plane of Acid forums, their reviews and lists are interesting. It's one of those "love them or hate them" forums.
I freakin' love the RPGcodex...like one would love a pit of rapid battledogs. In between all the vitriol, hatred, mysoginy, elitism and trannyporn, there are the occasional insightful or really funny posts that make it all worth it. Plus, rarely does anyone get insulted who doesn't have an equally venomous reply at the ready themselves.
My apologies I've been lax in running my own creations the last few weeks!
This talk of Arcanum I should thank you guys for! It reminded me of an AMAZING game I hadn't played in way to long, so I dug up my CD and have been enjoying it quite a bit!
I've also managed to pull together enough people on Dark Crusade to play a game, which was amazing there are still enough people hanging around to get several 2v2's and a 4v4 going at the same time! I binged on DC with some friends so much that at one point we were ranked top 3 one after the other. . .
The very first topic in this video, I believe, is also why we are becoming more polarized (and thus more toxic in discussing issues of all kinds) ... and not just Facebook is to blame.
I tend to watch a lot of Youtube videos around political topics. I don't have my youtube account logged in - but I do have a static IP address.
For a while, I stuck to my side of the political spectrum. The concept of "targeted content" led to my "Recommended" content becoming highly polarized to my political preference.
Once I started noticing that, I started watching videos from the other side of the political spectrum and after a week or two of that, my "Recommended" content started reflecting content from pundits and content creators from that side of the aisle almost exclusively.
I switched gears again, and focused on anarchist and libertarian content (from their algorithm's perspective, I have GOT to look like either Sybil or The Carvill/Matalin household with Kokesh visiting on occasion). Yup, affirmation/confirmation bias kicked in again.
I suspect with everyone targeting content based upon viewer behaviors on the web, this is causing limited exposure to opposing arguments unless the audience member performs overt actions to override it. This limited exposure makes it seem to the audience theirs is the prevailing opinion and any deviation therefrom is wrongthink and should be corrected.
I used politics as an example, but it could apply to anything - watch videos or read articles from aggregator sites expressly badmouthing a movie or game and the recommended content will eventually morph to that point of view. Consume content expressly fawning over the subject, and the same thing will happen.
I'm very glad people have started noticing this. It's so easy to be convinced by all the targeted searching and results that yours is the only opinion. Some people are STUNNED to find out theirs isn't the only opinion on Earth. . .
Would be really nice to see a little more balanced system, certainly throw in a lot of stuff that people will like, but it would be nice to have every 4 or 5th suggested video as a random or opposite of. Especially in politics, religion and science. Exposure to different ideas can be very enlightening. Presuming of course you have an open mind to such things to begin with.
Our government very much has the 'All is Well. All is Well.' attitude to everything.
@CaloNord It is a good thing I am not in charge of directing the content people receive on Facebook (or any other source, for that matter) because I would give them only the results which portray the opposite opinion. "Oh, you support x? Well, then, allow me to give you ten articles which support 'not x'. Enjoy."
Nothing sharpens and strengthens one's arguments like trying to point out the weaknesses in the opposing side's arguments. Combine this with the fact that in order to become really skilled at something you need to practice a lot this means that you need to be presented with lots of articles or views which oppose your own. Note: this sort of "all in" approach is not for the faint or heart or weak of spirit.
Reddit is definitely up there with 4chan, depending on which subreddit you are talking about. I don't care to link because f' that, but I would call subs specifically for posting/enjoying pictures of "cute" female corpses somewhat toxic. (Just one example of many.) Reddit likes to claim to be super tolerant and open minded, yet homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism and generally bashing a new group/sub every week is common, and the "tolerance/open mind" mostly extends to "OMG yes legalize it", various fetishes and such. In any other matter, every opinion is wrong (except the "bad guy of the week", currently anti vaccination - like that only became a thing last Friday).
I made a Reddit account after reading every now and then, but soon gave up posting because it just seemed pointless. I never understood the karmawh*res. It's stupid internet points that do nothing, same as likes/agrees/insightfuls are pointless. I never understood the "GAAAAAAAAH WHY DID I CLICK THAT" when various (and by now, well known) awful links are posted. For me, they are all blue/unclicked because it's really not hard to guess what you want or don't want to see. With less restraint/more curiosity, or just being less familiar with the internet, you'll be exposed to a lot awful stuff right in the defaults (even if you unsub the more shunned ones right away). I've already been fairly desensitized before reading Reddit (and not venturing to 4chan either) and I did not want to go in that direction any further. I do think the day I look at snuff videos/pictures and think "hm, the camera work is awful, but I'd rate it 5/10" would be a very dark day. Spend enough time on Reddit, and you'll get there, probably without realizing it. Had Reddit existed when I was a teenager, I'd long be there. And I wouldn't be posting here, I'd discuss the most recent chainsaw beheading somewhere in depth of the virtual underbelly.
@jackjack Star Trek Online does indeed have an awful community on the forums. Not so much in game, where you can just turn off zone chat. The funny part is, people on Fed side seem WAY weirder than KDF or Romulan players. At the main Fed hub, I saw dead serious discussions about how and why the illuminati control the world finances. The Rom hub is mostly quiet - to a point you hardly notice if your local chat is turned off. KDF chat is the usual fleet recruiting and an occassional spambot. I generally don't like MMOs because of the players, but even that is a non-issue in STO. The game is so solo-friendly, if not encouraging, it's more or less jokingly called an MMO. I occassionally team with a friend or fleet member, but you wouldn't have trouble if you pictured all other ships as NPCs. The interaction level is even less than that, and if it happens, players are mostly very civil and helpful. I had zero problems finding fleets after years of being away, and people who would patiently explain the last 7 major updates.
MMO made it easy to justify the million micro-transactions and having the store. Which is why I'm poor. But my KDF character is just oh so pretty. So is my Remen/Romulan. I don't play Feds so I saved so money there. . . ( God damn lack of will power. )
I assume it could be fun to play with friends in a fleet? I don't have any so I wouldn't have the slightest clue. That said, I've only seen around 3 or 4 fleets in one place and that was mostly around the Dyson Sphere. Doing PvE in a group or the main missions does not seem to be a thing.
I believe I've already mentioned DoTA 2, but just to reiterate. . . I played 3 games yesterday, Oh my god. First was hellish, we had one disconnect, another who sat around in the fountain sending items to the enemy and then reporting everyone else for yelling at him. Middle one was actually not to bad, it was completely silent which is a bloody good thing for DoTA. Last one was even worse, we had a Templar Assassin who ran around the map being fairly useless, refused to join any team fights, insulted pretty much everyone and just did everything they could to ruin it for the rest of the 9 players.
Is there something that drives SO many people in the DoTA community to just either be asshats about everything/not take anything seriously/take it so seriously you'd think an unranked single draft was the end of the world?
@CaloNord - Dyson ground is all PvE teaming, so is Defera Invasion (you can solo the easy/medium/zonewides, and there is ALWAYS teaming going on for the hard/not possible to solo missions). Everyone I know says Dyson Space/Undine is laggy as hell, so no-one bothers, but generally that's team PvE, too. There are various fleet actions (via queque), both ground and space, for teams of 5 to 10 as PvE. The silly part is that barely anything in the game points you there - it's so solo-driven, it just points you to next story/solo area. You can start doing many fleet actions long before even reaching captain/general, just no-one tells you. On Fed side (I have 1 pure fed sci, 1 rom fed eng), there is only a single instance I can remember where I was pointed to the Starbase Defense FA, and that was by accident (flying close enough to system to get the prompt when I was going somewhere else). My other toons are KDF/KDF Roms and none of them ever got sent anywhere near a team mission. There is an optional tutorial on warzones (PvEvP, but it often ends at PvEwithotherfactionplayerssomewhereonthefarsideofthemap) and PvP, but it's just an extra option you can click when talking to your current quest giver - not one he automatically gives you.
There are also chat channels for teaming (and fleets like Starfleet Academy who are all about teaming and helping players, though I don't know any KDF fleets like that). Mostly, however, you get teams together by asking in fleet chat (with exceptions like Defera, Dyson, New Romulus where the teaming is often done in zone/local). Many fleets, like my Fed fleet, have an open channel where their members can talk even when they are on a opposite-faction toon. If they need a 3rd, 4th, 5th for something, they can ask there and people might switch toons. Fed fleet is still very young, and I'm mainly a KDF player, but I'll often sign over to help out and in turn, some of them sign to KDF later and help me.
I still solo 90 % of the time, and talk in private channels like the cross faction fleet chat or just with friends I'm not teamed with (level difference, other mission, whatever).
The hard part is finding a fleet you're happy with. Friend and I went through 3 or 4 before we found the right match. The recruiting messages are meaningless (all say basically the same, just a long list of tag words), and asking in zone for a fleet will raise suspicions (many fleet banks robbed by randoms). If you are not in a fleet, you get spammed with invites every time you are near a hub - I ignored those, too, because I'm a snob. Ideally, go to a place with a lot teaming as solo - Defera is ideal, there is often general recruiting and you'll find a team very quickly, regardless of class and faction - and ask your team members if their fleets are recruiting. Doesn't hurt to have something to offer (fleet marks, dilithium, fleet provisions will all do nicely) for their starbase. "Gimmicky" fleets will often have very good organization and are selective when recruiting (less risk of being screwed over) - though I'm not Ferengi, my Fed toons are both in a Ferengi fleet who put a high emphasis on trade. Stay away from pure Roleplay fleets, those are drama. Ideally, find a fleet that is merely "rp friendly", has a T1 - T2 starbase already, "mature" tag (not "18+ only" - that's usually... different, in the non-good way. Cybersex in public chats, to be precise, where "mature" means "preferably players who don't use chat speak and don't name their characters LOLmaster3000"). No fleet I know has a problem with "n00bs", inexperienced or out-of-the-loop players - if you ask, you usually get an answer and people will help and explain.
If you need a KDF fleet, have normal (non- LOLmaster3000) names, don't play a skimpy-outfit-wearing-bisexual-orion (it IS an Orion fleet, but we accept all species - and our women wear armor because they are sane) and want the option to casually team on Defera, Dyson and such, drop me a message. We're at Starbase T3, access to some fleet ships already, Rom-friendly and mostly about PvE/solo.
Comments
My faith in humanity was pretty much destroyed by newspaper commenting sections. Well, that and all the slavery, genocide and bigotry.
This talk of Arcanum I should thank you guys for! It reminded me of an AMAZING game I hadn't played in way to long, so I dug up my CD and have been enjoying it quite a bit!
I've also managed to pull together enough people on Dark Crusade to play a game, which was amazing there are still enough people hanging around to get several 2v2's and a 4v4 going at the same time!
I tend to watch a lot of Youtube videos around political topics. I don't have my youtube account logged in - but I do have a static IP address.
For a while, I stuck to my side of the political spectrum. The concept of "targeted content" led to my "Recommended" content becoming highly polarized to my political preference.
Once I started noticing that, I started watching videos from the other side of the political spectrum and after a week or two of that, my "Recommended" content started reflecting content from pundits and content creators from that side of the aisle almost exclusively.
I switched gears again, and focused on anarchist and libertarian content (from their algorithm's perspective, I have GOT to look like either Sybil or The Carvill/Matalin household with Kokesh visiting on occasion). Yup, affirmation/confirmation bias kicked in again.
I suspect with everyone targeting content based upon viewer behaviors on the web, this is causing limited exposure to opposing arguments unless the audience member performs overt actions to override it. This limited exposure makes it seem to the audience theirs is the prevailing opinion and any deviation therefrom is wrongthink and should be corrected.
I used politics as an example, but it could apply to anything - watch videos or read articles from aggregator sites expressly badmouthing a movie or game and the recommended content will eventually morph to that point of view. Consume content expressly fawning over the subject, and the same thing will happen.
Would be really nice to see a little more balanced system, certainly throw in a lot of stuff that people will like, but it would be nice to have every 4 or 5th suggested video as a random or opposite of. Especially in politics, religion and science. Exposure to different ideas can be very enlightening. Presuming of course you have an open mind to such things to begin with.
Our government very much has the 'All is Well. All is Well.' attitude to everything.
Nothing sharpens and strengthens one's arguments like trying to point out the weaknesses in the opposing side's arguments. Combine this with the fact that in order to become really skilled at something you need to practice a lot this means that you need to be presented with lots of articles or views which oppose your own. Note: this sort of "all in" approach is not for the faint or heart or weak of spirit.
Reddit likes to claim to be super tolerant and open minded, yet homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism and generally bashing a new group/sub every week is common, and the "tolerance/open mind" mostly extends to "OMG yes legalize it", various fetishes and such. In any other matter, every opinion is wrong (except the "bad guy of the week", currently anti vaccination - like that only became a thing last Friday).
I made a Reddit account after reading every now and then, but soon gave up posting because it just seemed pointless. I never understood the karmawh*res. It's stupid internet points that do nothing, same as likes/agrees/insightfuls are pointless. I never understood the "GAAAAAAAAH WHY DID I CLICK THAT" when various (and by now, well known) awful links are posted. For me, they are all blue/unclicked because it's really not hard to guess what you want or don't want to see. With less restraint/more curiosity, or just being less familiar with the internet, you'll be exposed to a lot awful stuff right in the defaults (even if you unsub the more shunned ones right away).
I've already been fairly desensitized before reading Reddit (and not venturing to 4chan either) and I did not want to go in that direction any further. I do think the day I look at snuff videos/pictures and think "hm, the camera work is awful, but I'd rate it 5/10" would be a very dark day. Spend enough time on Reddit, and you'll get there, probably without realizing it. Had Reddit existed when I was a teenager, I'd long be there. And I wouldn't be posting here, I'd discuss the most recent chainsaw beheading somewhere in depth of the virtual underbelly.
@jackjack Star Trek Online does indeed have an awful community on the forums. Not so much in game, where you can just turn off zone chat. The funny part is, people on Fed side seem WAY weirder than KDF or Romulan players. At the main Fed hub, I saw dead serious discussions about how and why the illuminati control the world finances. The Rom hub is mostly quiet - to a point you hardly notice if your local chat is turned off. KDF chat is the usual fleet recruiting and an occassional spambot. I generally don't like MMOs because of the players, but even that is a non-issue in STO. The game is so solo-friendly, if not encouraging, it's more or less jokingly called an MMO. I occassionally team with a friend or fleet member, but you wouldn't have trouble if you pictured all other ships as NPCs. The interaction level is even less than that, and if it happens, players are mostly very civil and helpful. I had zero problems finding fleets after years of being away, and people who would patiently explain the last 7 major updates.
I assume it could be fun to play with friends in a fleet? I don't have any so I wouldn't have the slightest clue. That said, I've only seen around 3 or 4 fleets in one place and that was mostly around the Dyson Sphere. Doing PvE in a group or the main missions does not seem to be a thing.
I believe I've already mentioned DoTA 2, but just to reiterate. . . I played 3 games yesterday, Oh my god.
First was hellish, we had one disconnect, another who sat around in the fountain sending items to the enemy and then reporting everyone else for yelling at him. Middle one was actually not to bad, it was completely silent which is a bloody good thing for DoTA. Last one was even worse, we had a Templar Assassin who ran around the map being fairly useless, refused to join any team fights, insulted pretty much everyone and just did everything they could to ruin it for the rest of the 9 players.
Is there something that drives SO many people in the DoTA community to just either be asshats about everything/not take anything seriously/take it so seriously you'd think an unranked single draft was the end of the world?
On Fed side (I have 1 pure fed sci, 1 rom fed eng), there is only a single instance I can remember where I was pointed to the Starbase Defense FA, and that was by accident (flying close enough to system to get the prompt when I was going somewhere else). My other toons are KDF/KDF Roms and none of them ever got sent anywhere near a team mission. There is an optional tutorial on warzones (PvEvP, but it often ends at PvEwithotherfactionplayerssomewhereonthefarsideofthemap) and PvP, but it's just an extra option you can click when talking to your current quest giver - not one he automatically gives you.
There are also chat channels for teaming (and fleets like Starfleet Academy who are all about teaming and helping players, though I don't know any KDF fleets like that). Mostly, however, you get teams together by asking in fleet chat (with exceptions like Defera, Dyson, New Romulus where the teaming is often done in zone/local). Many fleets, like my Fed fleet, have an open channel where their members can talk even when they are on a opposite-faction toon. If they need a 3rd, 4th, 5th for something, they can ask there and people might switch toons. Fed fleet is still very young, and I'm mainly a KDF player, but I'll often sign over to help out and in turn, some of them sign to KDF later and help me.
I still solo 90 % of the time, and talk in private channels like the cross faction fleet chat or just with friends I'm not teamed with (level difference, other mission, whatever).
The hard part is finding a fleet you're happy with. Friend and I went through 3 or 4 before we found the right match. The recruiting messages are meaningless (all say basically the same, just a long list of tag words), and asking in zone for a fleet will raise suspicions (many fleet banks robbed by randoms). If you are not in a fleet, you get spammed with invites every time you are near a hub - I ignored those, too, because I'm a snob. Ideally, go to a place with a lot teaming as solo - Defera is ideal, there is often general recruiting and you'll find a team very quickly, regardless of class and faction - and ask your team members if their fleets are recruiting. Doesn't hurt to have something to offer (fleet marks, dilithium, fleet provisions will all do nicely) for their starbase. "Gimmicky" fleets will often have very good organization and are selective when recruiting (less risk of being screwed over) - though I'm not Ferengi, my Fed toons are both in a Ferengi fleet who put a high emphasis on trade.
Stay away from pure Roleplay fleets, those are drama. Ideally, find a fleet that is merely "rp friendly", has a T1 - T2 starbase already, "mature" tag (not "18+ only" - that's usually... different, in the non-good way. Cybersex in public chats, to be precise, where "mature" means "preferably players who don't use chat speak and don't name their characters LOLmaster3000"). No fleet I know has a problem with "n00bs", inexperienced or out-of-the-loop players - if you ask, you usually get an answer and people will help and explain.
If you need a KDF fleet, have normal (non- LOLmaster3000) names, don't play a skimpy-outfit-wearing-bisexual-orion (it IS an Orion fleet, but we accept all species - and our women wear armor because they are sane) and want the option to casually team on Defera, Dyson and such, drop me a message. We're at Starbase T3, access to some fleet ships already, Rom-friendly and mostly about PvE/solo.