Popular People on Forums

[Smithereens]

Hello, people! I suck at making friends (too shy), so I spend a lot of time on forums. Well, here's a complaint I have about one in particular that I like to frequent.

On this one particular website there are a few popular people who regularly post comments to whatever the topic is. That's fine. What gets to me though, is the amount of sheep who follow these guys around, talking about how genius these people are, or how they're their heroes just for saying sensible gobbledy-gook that anyone else could have said. The popular people will get their comments voted up significantly, even if what they said was totally stupid.

Another thing that really ticks me off sometimes is when the popular person is in an insignificant argument with someone else, and resort to name calling making personal attacks, and other people back them up. If I or anyone else were to call them out or tell them to chill out, we'd get immediately voted down so fast that our comment would end up getting buried, and then have the popular person and their followers call us names for disagreeing in the first place.

Now, I'm not usually interested in fighting on forums. I'm the guy who will offer good advice if I do have it, or occasionally call someone out if I feel that their comment is inappropriate. It just annoys me when I and some other people have something valid to say but get ignored because one of the popular regs made an appearance in the comments section. Keep in mind I don't really have any sort of ill will towards any popular person on forums.

[smileyeagle1021]

Oh, I know exactly what you mean... there are those people even on CS who will make a post and 20 people will post the same thing every single time "oh, your stories are so great, I don't know how you stay sane, blah blah blah"
Seriously, I get that some people really do have interesting posts, but you have to wonder if they actually read the post or just wanted to comment to look cool (that is not unique to CS, that's just the site I see it on most often because I spend so much time there)

[Mytical]

Well Smiley is one of my favorite posters..does that count? I know exactly what you mean though. I 'tried' to moderate a very popular poster on another forum, got outvoted by the other moderators, and pretty much got shoved under a bus because of it. *shrugs*. What I get for trying to do my job I guess.

[AdminAssistant]

Oh, I know exactly what you mean... there are those people even on CS who will make a post and 20 people will post the same thing every single time "oh, your stories are so great, I don't know how you stay sane, blah blah blah"

Yeah, I've never understood that either. Or the whole "minion" thing. But then again, I've never been one of the cool kids.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Me neither. I remember on another forum, one of the popular kids took against me and started bitching and making little snippy remarks whenever I posted. So, I left, but not before I made a thread saying what a total tool this person was and how the forum was ruined cuz of him and his small penis syndrome. Much to my surprise, cuz after I left I never had any intention of returning, I had people who posted on that forum say to me on other forums that they too were sick of that guy and had left the forums when I did. I never did return to that place, but heard thru other people that the forum eventually was abandoned, cuz most people just left it and never went back.

[blas87]

I hate the fanboy-girl-minion-bitch-whatever bandwagon.

[Andara Bledin]

...or how they're their heroes just for saying sensible gobbledy-gook that anyone else could have said.

And, yet, the vast majority of people never say them. Heck, if you watch the Sightings section on CS you'll find many instances of people watching shit go down and never speak a word.

I'm not saying that makes them bad, it just makes them normal. People who speak up deserve praise for being willing to do so.

The popular people will get their comments voted up significantly, even if what they said was totally stupid.

This crap, I hate. But if you allow voting, you will get clique voting unless the moderators make a specific point to discourage it. You shouldn't really blame people for being people.

Most of your complaints are more about lack of effective moderation than anything else. It's a problem with nearly every forum on the 'net. Very few are held to a higher standard.

^-.-^

[Rageaholic]

Yeah, I hate the comment rating system for that very reason. If a comment gets enough thumbs down, it will be hidden, which discourages actual discussion. It's bad enough on youtube, but on an actual message board? Yikes...

Also, I hate the popular people who get away with being jackasses to noobs. On this other forum I used to post at long ago, there was a member who would always get on people's cases over petty things like spelling errors, posting in the wrong forum, or even disagreeing with her. Whenever someone would stand up to her, she'd have several people supporting her. How DARE we criticize her because she's trying to make the forum a better place. Never mind that any potential discussion would be highjacked by her holier than thou nitpicking, she was making the place better.

[Smithereens]

I 'tried' to moderate a very popular poster on another forum, got outvoted by the other moderators, and pretty much got shoved under a bus because of it. *shrugs*. What I get for trying to do my job I guess.

See, that just sucks if you're the one doing the moderating, especially when the popular poster is violating rules or is really trolling.

And, yet, the vast majority of people never say them. Heck, if you watch the Sightings section on CS you'll find many instances of people watching shit go down and never speak a word.

Most of the time people just let these popular ones be jerks, but I do breathe a sigh of relief when someone does stand up to them and think, "Finally." I do get what you mean. It is very true, both in real life and on the internet.

Most of your complaints are more about lack of effective moderation than anything else. It's a problem with nearly every forum on the 'net. Very few are held to a higher standard.

^-.-^

You know what, I didn't even think about that, but you're absolutely right. I've seen plenty of arguments where the popular person took to having a petty argument with someone less popular, even thread jacking and steering the conversation their way. Both would end up making personal attacks and using a lot of profanity, but only the less popular person would be banned for "trolling" while the popular person gets to stay and is treated like a god. Boy, if I had a nickel for every time that happened.

Yeah, I hate the comment rating system for that very reason. If a comment gets enough thumbs down, it will be hidden, which discourages actual discussion. It's bad enough on youtube, but on an actual message board? Yikes...

Youtube is notorious for people being jerks for no reason. I was watching a video of my (at the time) favorite band, and made a comment about wanting them to come back to the US and perform here. My comment got immediately voted down a bunch of times, and someone responded to me, saying, "They've already been here, you fucking moron." He got voted up. I had to explain to him that I already knew that, I only meant that for their next tour I'd like them to come back. Who'd think you could get voted down for saying something in support of something people like?

Also, I hate the popular people who get away with being jackasses to noobs. On this other forum I used to post at long ago, there was a member who would always get on people's cases over petty things like spelling errors, posting in the wrong forum, or even disagreeing with her. Whenever someone would stand up to her, she'd have several people supporting her. How DARE we criticize her because she's trying to make the forum a better place. Never mind that any potential discussion would be highjacked by her holier than thou nitpicking, she was making the place better.

This! I remember once someone popular who I'd never even met did something that violated the rules, and I made a comment about that. Boy did I get a shit storm raining down on me! Everyone and her telling me that what she did was well within the rules, even though if anyone less popular were to do the same thing would get a stern talking to. Someone else even said what I said later on, and she replied, "Where the hell are all these newbies coming from?" Sorry, I didn't know that popular people and regs were allowed to bend the rules.

[Mytical]

Hey now, all Minions are not bad. A minion has nothing to do with popularity

[Ree]

A prime example of why we disabled ratings ages ago, and will probably never use them.

[MadMike]

What gets to me though, is the amount of sheep who follow these guys around, talking about how genius these people are, or how they're their heroes just for saying sensible gobbledy-gook that anyone else could have said.

And sometimes they're just posting one bullshit story after another, and people just eat it up. When that starts happening, I don't even read that person's posts anymore.

[Rageaholic]

Youtube is notorious for people being jerks for no reason. I was watching a video of my (at the time) favorite band, and made a comment about wanting them to come back to the US and perform here. My comment got immediately voted down a bunch of times, and someone responded to me, saying, "They've already been here, you fucking moron." He got voted up. I had to explain to him that I already knew that, I only meant that for their next tour I'd like them to come back. Who'd think you could get voted down for saying something in support of something people like?

Doesn't surprise me unfortunately. When the minus score was available for comments, I was surprised at how many were thumbed down. Even comments praising a well recieved video were marked down while other similar comments were thumbed up. Are comments picked at random to determine which will get thumbs up or thumbs down.

And yes, I've been flamed on there for simply stating my opinion. And no, it's not because they disagreed. This one guy even admited he agreed, said I wasn't intellegent. I don't let it get to me, but I have to ask, what the hell?

[ZedOmega]

A prime example of why we disabled ratings ages ago, and will probably never use them.

Probably a good thing, too. A site like CS should be more focused on peoples' Stupid Customer Tricks than the people posting the stories, and a site like this one should be point-counterpoint-counterpoint and not 'downvote everyone who doesn't agree with me 105%'. I mean, they're threads, not webcomics!

[Rapscallion]

One of my abiding memories of the rating system of yesteryear was when I was posting from a retail perspective and got a huge amount of popularity from it. Had some classic tales at the time. I had the most popularity of all at the time.

I came out of retail and my posts diminished hugely from that alone. Know what? I was still getting a huge amount of plus votes to my popularity, just when I said something funny. Six months later, I was still the most popular. Didn't make any sense.

I also remember hunting around to try and find the one time I got a negative hit. Had far too much of a negative impact on me at the time.

It's not good for a community.

Rapscallion