I think the argument that we shouldn't clamp down on negativity is a moot point. No body has been - and is that working? Are we gaining people? Are we even staying the same level? I dont know the numbers, but my impression is we are losing people over the last.. 10 months? So obviously something has to change. I think people do understand that this is the internet, and there is such things a jokes, but it often goes too far - or people making the jokes have no conception of timing, and just post it anytime anywhere.
Let's imagine a new person comes to the forum, vaguely interested, maybe saw it mentioned somewhere else, maybe from some website we've linked, or a msn conversation. Generally they have no impression of us at all. They come in, and what do they see?
They could see a place where people are lax, where they post what they want, and others generally have to deal with it, that if you try to protest that your feelings are actually hurt, you are ridiculed for caring about such things over the internet. A place where you need a tough skin to survive. If this new person has a tough skin, they will probably start posting. Cause yeah, this place is pretty fun if you have that. But if they dont, they will more than likely not post, or very quickly stop posting, or perhaps make no posts of interests which could raise the ire of others. Ultimately it is a oppressive environment.
The other situation is they arrive and see a place which has some negativity, has arguments, isn't just sunshine and rainbows, but people do respect each other. So even in the biggest arguments, there is the understanding that this is, in fact, the internet, populated with real people, who have real problems and real opinions. That the internet is no longer the den of the socially outcast who want to escape social rules - it is actually now an integrated layer of social interaction in which the majority of our society participates. Though disagreements exist, it is understood that we all actually have to get along with one another, just like the real world.
I think the majority of new posters would much rather stay in the second forum. Though I have skewed the image of each, I think the difference between what I have described is that of a forum and of a community. When HF existed with a steady stream of new people from a website (PVP), and wasnt finanically supported by a member, and so forth, it was a forum. I think what people are dancing around here, and what has to be understood is that we more than that now.
We used to be a forum building a community. We are now a community building a forum. I think what is causing problems here is that people don't understand that difference. If we want to be a forum, with 30 regular posters, running off of Dave's pocketbook, I say keep things the way they are, because I certainly am amused by it. I enjoy that forum.
But if we actually want to build a community here, things need to change.
