Message boards. They serve a purpose and can be interesting, informative and entertaining. For some, they can be addictive or at least overly time consuming. For every message board, from toddlers to taboo sex fetishes, there are similar personalities talking about different subjects.
Doing a search, I came upon (www.semoball.com) the following definitions which reminded me of high school (long ago, by the way):
The Trolls. These are the troublemakers forever finding fault with anything anyone says. Their negative comments are often designed just to provoke other posters and get their blood boiling. Think of a bully patrolling the halls of the high school always on the lookout for his next wedgie victim.
The Gnats. These are people sort of like the trolls with much less bark or bite. They're pesky but ultimately harmless. They're not well received in message board land because their comments at times are just bizarre or out of scope. They're like your nerdish friend in high school who could give a five-minute answer to a yes-no question. "There was this one time…at band camp…."
The Chamber of Commerce Crowd. These are the cheerleaders for the local teams. They tend to object to any criticism of any kind. They're the 'anti-trolls." In their personal correspondence, these people use a lot of smiley faces and exclamation points and while out to dinner, think it's fun to sing along with the Applebee's workers as they serenade a stranger with Happy Birthday.
The Beautiful People. These are the most popular and most respected posters on the message boards. They may not post as frequently as some others but when they do people always respond and almost always positively. Even the trolls tend to stay away from the cool crowd and look for easier prey elsewhere.
The Norm and Cliff Crowd. Like the characters from the TV show Cheers, these people are always present. I really wonder how they do it. I'm convinced they're genetic mutants. That or they still live at home with their parents and don't have a job. I picture them with three arms typing away on multiple computer keyboards as fast they can. Their appetite is unquenchable. They either have an opinion, knowledge or question. Their total number of posts on these boards is well into the thousands.
Compartments, a smart blog writer with a sharp tongue and quick wit who can be brutally honest, has written about message boards in her new post, Bored With The Boards, from her point of view and it's more accurate than I think anyone else would ever admit. I have been reading her blog since it's beginning and ironically I believe her recent posting has to do with a link to her blog being posted on the local message board.
Kate
posted by Kate Bishop at 9:46 PM
2 Comments:
You're correct, of course, that there is a sort of culture of bulletin boards on various subjects ... and (in my view) that it encourages the kind of behavior people engage in when they're free to pretend to be people they're not, or to say things they aren't capable (for various good reasons) of saying to a "real" human being.
BUT, in this particular demi-monde (and, of course, in my opinion) bulletin boards serve a real and essential function.
If I'm interested in, say, snowboarding, I can either (a) actually GO snowboarding, meet some people on the hill, make friends, meet them for lunch and talk about snowboarding, etc. or (b) waste time sitting in a room typing about snowboarding to faceless people who might be 15-year-olds in Alabama who've never seen a snowboard, much less snow, and enjoy acting like idiots and making trouble.
If I'm interested in "this business," I - for various reason that aren't universal, but aren't unique to me either - am NOT going to start chatting with friends about it. Nor am I going to start hanging out, in person, with other guys who are interested and have information to share. Maybe I should. But I'm not. So ALL I know - other than what providers say about themselves - is what's on message boards.
Then again, I find unmoderated boards, like CLRB, depressing and too disgusting to be amusing. When I have read discussions there, I have found myself with a vague conviction that I might be from a different planet than the other posters. A tightly moderated board, like TRB, on the other hand, is useful and relatively (though not completely) free of people who stir the waters for the sole purpose of making mud.
The categories from semoball were fun to read. I suppose there is the category of The Lurkers, but what is there to say of them?
The group dynamics of categories seems to differ, yes? Some categories are comprised of loners. Other categories are like a posse. They rush to each other's defense, or join to attack a troll, or merely pat each other on the back heartily.
Thanks for the link to Compartments.
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