there is a growing problem with tangst, one which i feel must be adressed.
there was a post earlyer today regarding the posting style of thewordofrashi, specificly it's likeness to a shriveled baloon. i made a joking comment aimed at rashi (who i know, calm down) that i realize now could be easily seen as malicious.
tangst has taken a disturbing turn away from the emoey, free-expression and advice site it once was. it is now innundated with putdowns, hatered, and obsessions with contributors.
i know many of the comments are in jest, as all of my (possibly) mean-seeming ones are, but an ever increasing number are not.
the best example of tangst's drifting away from it's original purpose is the recent dealings with the new contributor "alli somethingicantremember." many people seem to dislike this person, simply because they posted too many things too close together. while yes, they could have clumped them together, it was still one of the few attempts recently to return tangst to it's origins. it was genuine teen angst, not some bullshit about how you happen to not like pchis as much anymore.
i offer up one solution, and if you don't like it i don't care. im not sure if it is "possible", but whatever. one way i feel to reverse the direction the site (i don't even want to call this "tangst" anymore) is going, is to do away with "contributors" all together. At the very least, links to profiles on the main site can be deleted. at best, we can do away with the blogger display names altogether, and make every post and comment anonymous. this will keep us from easily picking out an individual to hate, or worship, as some posts lean twords. this will return the site to it's roots of anonimity and teenage angst.
to get the ball rolling, i will in every furure post refrain from using my blogger name in posts, and i hope you will all join me.
any effort to get tangst back would be fantastic, and all of you who will undoubtably attack the ideas presented in this post can go get your own site, because you aren't welcome on tangst anymore.
and to those of you who are confused and may take this wrong: you know exactly what i mean.
thank you for your time.
sd
09:09:23 PM
11 comments:
eh, i kinda agree on the anonymity thing, but i dont think its quite as serious/drastic as you put it, sd.
tangst is still tangst, its an evolving kind of thing.
i miss it too
Bravo to you, sd, for speaking up. I have also noticed the trend towards flaming and away from angst, but my frequent abscences from the tangst board have limited my view a small amount.
As far as contributors are concerned, the Creator has asked us to serve as moderators and help with the upkeep of the site, and as such our names have to be on here somewhere.
Regarding the use of names, i have to say i agree. Now that I've lost a measure of anonymity due to people finding out who I was, I've been posting a majority of my comments anonymously. I think that this allows people to judge me for what I say and think, instead of who they think I am based on my actions and words in school (phew!)
And again, I'd have to say that you are correct in your observation that tangst has moved away from a pool of teenage angst to what seems to be at least partially an extension of the Enloe social circle from whence it was born.
I say back to the old ways. I kind of liked it the way it was before people knew me, and I knew people. Sometimes it was just fun to sit around and try to figure out who was posting basecd on the content, not the name.
As of right now, I pledge to use my account name for the purposes of moderating only, and to post anonymously unless an issue appears in which I feel it is necessary to display my ideas without hiding who I am, at which point I might consider using my account or possibly even my name.
Wow, that was a long rant.
Bye now!
Flaming is a form of angst, especially since angst is just extreme emotion. Honestly, I feel that tangst had this large problem, and was addressed about a month ago, and a few weeks afterwards... sort of like a quake and its aftershocks. Seems to me that things are better than they were, if perhaps different. Tangst continues to grow.
i agree, tangst has changed... and a lot of times it seems like the comments under posts have just become jokes, even just between admins, instead of constructive advice on how to deal w/ the given problem... i mean i guess just fuming is angst, but does it really help? is it really constructive?
I don't really think that this is quite the correct step to take. Why would taking away the contributor status from people automatically make this forum a "nicer" place?
We all deal with big issues here, and strong opinions are the warp and woof of the medium. Maybe we can't always be sweet and forgiving, but by "we" I don't mean the named contributors. Sixteen people giving up a portion of their anonymity did not automatically cause tangst to become a more hostile place.
If there is a large movement that follows this logical fallacy and believes that the solution to unfriendliness in tangst is the dissolution of administrator/contributor personae, then I am willing to dissolve mine. But this isn't the way to go about making tangst more friendly. Why doesn't everyone just try to be a little more considerate?
This argument has been made before. And I have declared it bullshit before.
I will not do it again.
Yes you will rashi, we will stand up to it whereever we find it.
But in all seriouness, the two arguments (one about the flaming and one about the contributers/admins), and now it's been *gasp* combined.
People can be mean if they want, above all I feel this place has become a place of free speech. Sure there are a few flamer posts but for every one of them there are at least one person saying "don't worry, you can do this", and one saying "shut up the anonymous that said blah blah blah about OP."
I try not to be mean if I feel that the situation is a more serious one. If I have failed in this someone can always tell me and perhaps I will reconsider my words (as perhaps I mispoke or perhaps they were misheard).
I like having my name although I must say I've been posting at least 1/3 of my posts as an anonymous just as a matter of course.
Tangst hasn't really changed all that much, there are just brief instances of flaming and excessive niceness followed by the mellow norm, check back in the posts, it hasn't changed all that much.
as to "the new contributor 'alli somethingicantremember'," he posted like 8 things and people were just telling him that they would appreciate it if he stopped posting so many in a row, or at least compiled them into a concise thought. I believe he should have done this as a matter of courtesy and that the lashback against him was not all that unwarranted.
If you're not a he, I'm sorry, I just use that pronound as a default I guess.
You're right Pchis. I will say it.
This argument is bullshit. See Pchis' response for the reasons why.
i don't think that taking away identity would be a solution.
sometimes it's helpful to know who you're talking to. also, i'm more likely to check back on my posts/comments if i posted under a username.
also, how would increasing anonymity help to decrease flaming/mean posts? i do not understand your reasoning, OP. wouldn't you be LESS likely to say something unnecessarily mean if you knew it could be traced back to you?
alright. that's my 2 cents. see pchis's post for a more explanatory and logical argument.........
I post on/check tangst because I enjoy it, mean posts or no.
When I stop enjoy it I'll stop posting.
Having a username so some of the things I say can be attributed to me by people who know me makes the confession more real, albeit through an online medium. This is a cause for my enjoyment.
Sd perhaps made the issue a little more dramatic than it really is, but the admins/contributors aren't going anywhere. The great thing about it is that anyone can be a contributor if he or she wants to be one.
I can still post anonymously...if I wanted to.
This is a blog about choice, not just confession.
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