forums author unconscious dishonesty.

written in microsoft word. hence the proper punctuation...

I’ve figured out another reason why I blog. Posting on forums gives more publicity to your opinions than is imaginable. Your posts on forums though, are fair game. Forums hardly allow you enough credit in that the moment you introduce a new perspective or idea into the discussion, the next post, or a post another few posts down immediately plays on that original remark, the poster in effect taking the idea for their own. Introducing it into future topics, as well.

It may just be that I’m selfish, or not inclined to do that. I typically credit the author, poster, or site, or at the very least, if I can’t mention names, steer credit away from myself. By adding things like, ‘as has been mentioned multiple times earlier’, or ‘as others have pointed out’. It just doesn’t seem honest to do otherwise.

When I find that annoying, therefore, it’s not because I’m upset that credit hasn’t gone to me. I'm more of a silent visitor, I don't post very much because I tend to get carried away posting, as I do on my blog. Neither do i have ideas actually worth the taking, what I do is read and find myself re-reading the same originally unique points, posted by different people.

It just gets rather depressing because you realise – many people are not honest, and not inclined to be. It’s not quite as bad as not returning items to someone who died in front of you. It’s that it isn’t a conscious decision to take someone else’s thoughts for your own; it’s something that comes so naturally it’s not even thought about. That’s a terrible thing.

It’s when I come across this particular brand of dishonesty all the time on forums, just by reading threads and posts by others that I retreat into my blog for a week or so, and promptly head back for more disappointment during the weekend.

Why? Because otherwise, I wouldn’t be heard.

After all, it’s a fair price to pay for the pleasure of being heard. In the meantime, I’ll see it as that I managed to persuade someone to hold the same opinion as I. I’ll see it as a victory in being able to convince. A fair proportion of people taking the same courses as me are about as intent as I am on a graduate degree in law. I’d imagine most of them want to practice. I haven’t decided yet myself, which is rather a terrible thing, and terrible timing, but I’ll choose to view this, in the meantime, as practice for practice. In case I ever do need to convince anyone that way.

I’m only able to convince well, however, if I believe in what I’m saying. That’s exactly why I’m unsure about practicing law. How can you fight for what you don’t believe is true? How can you fight for what you don’t believe is right? How can you let someone who trusts you enough to pay you down by not putting in your best, at the same time?

But I digress.

I would, in any case, rather people practiced dishonesty by posting where I can see it, rather than anonymously reading my blog, and going away relaying again whatever I did say. Sometimes, I’m thankful that so little people actually read my blog. It’s occasionally frustrating, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It would be plain stupid to inform every person I saw in effect plagarising of their inherent dishonesty. It would start a flame war. It would eventually have me banned from the forums.

Some battles are won, after all, by retreating.

about the forums. call THIS my personal rant(s).

no, i haven't magically acquired a membership since last i've blogged. still. the forums are open to whomever it pleases to partake of (for the most part) adolescent inability to use proper english, or contain emotions into comprehensible words. (i'm partial to a lack of capitalisation. most words don't hardly seem to deserve it. and no, not poor grasp of the language. lack of situational awareness. sloth. as you might call said lack of capitalisation. i'm still trying to decide.)


jagex is a company. jagex is liable. jagex can be sued. officially.

officially, they forbid under-13s to play the game. but. regardless. the knowledge base's parent-friendly. the censor's kid-friendly. the whole game's structured, or has been restructured to meet the needs (or demands, if you're that conscious of how you name your spades) of a progressively younger player base.

a younger player base of which a substantial proportion lack the emotional maturity or moral direction to even interact socially without incident. factor in the adults who use this combination to their advantage with that (culturally-induced. i know, alright? my irritations aren't irrational) awfully pragmatic mindset of monetary gain, it gets...faintly sickening.

but enough of that. on to the point of this post.

i do believe jagex tries too hard to keep players cossetted and mollycoddled like some sort of warped online dictatorship of a intended-utopian dystopia.

only threads i frequent are those housed in the rants forum.

ignore what i said in that earlier post. the macro problem's beyond ridiculous. and jagex creates a stickie banning rants on that precise thing. although it gets faintly sickening listening (even to an outsider like me) to people repeat the same thing over and over again, the same rants about macros, covering your ears isn't going to help any. it's still there.

catering to a lazier player base lacking in drive isn't the answer either. home teleport my foot. popular rant topic, and not without cause. grating as it is to read though the posts of unreasonable, petty, spoiled ... people, the rants've more than their fair share of gems. well-thought out posts, not so much rants as justifiable questions. and question they should. home teleport nullifies the effect of the mom teleporting bots some place ruddy lousy software can't get those pixels out of. i would've been disgraced, ashamed to have to use home tele to find my way out of a mess. now it's just a matter of convenience my choob shouldn't have.

disproption. not jagex's fault. the compliments forum's full of people professing their love for "mods! forum mods, game mods, jagex mods, dual mods..." there's more than enough of that around, flattery isn't going to get you a thing, not from me, and not from any other self-respecting person mature enough to have been appointed fairly into that position. it just makes people nervours, and annoyed, because it's as if fishing for compliments, and when there's nothing commendable about the flatterer, it's hard to show more sincerity than was received to begin with. i can't quite put my finger on it, but that isn't the face of sincere gratitude. i don't like the idea of false flattery. so sue me.

whereras the rants forum. threads about the ineffectiveness of mods, or the system, simply aren't as well entertained or received. can't elaborate more here, it's just, that. dispropotionate.

and what're the forums without forum mods. to tell the truth, (as a game mod myself) i respect forum mods much more than the typical game mod. it takes so much more courage to act the way you should when all that's immortalised (fine, i'm exaggerating, but you get the picture) in words that remain even when you aren't around to take them back, or explain them. and when you talk, you're speaking to so many more people than can bear imagining at that moment of discourse, and it's so much more difficult to stand firm and defend your opinions, or be able to rightly justify them in an intelligent manner when you're being flamed.

then the life of it's so public. frankly i'm glad there isn't a list of game mods around like there is one on the forum mods. i'd be piss scared of being hacked. worse still, of people pming me ingame or something. it's a life almost less private than zezima's, and that's saying alot, and that's true, because the guy who maxed out the hiscores for a time appeals to the imagination, fufils a need for some sort of larger than life hero. while mods people don't mind so much treating like dirt because it's not like any claim was made of being that much better, if at all. which is also true.

and things suck, as things do. but more's the time i lose sight of how the things that suck don't outnumber (not by far) the things that don't. i haven't, right now. i do suppose that's what rants do.

keep ranting people. we'll all be waiting.

forum (pro)pponents.

it's interesting to see how people argue when either way, they've got everything to lose.

on one hand, the respect of their opponent, and of the wider community.

on another, their own honour, and their ability to live with themselves.

it's interesting because i admire their ability to realise that fact. acknowledging your vulnerability to loss is in itself commendable. factoring that in as part of your argument is in itself a strength.

hiding behind the view of the wider body and their perception of your character to nullify what you judge to be the first threat is, as i see it, cowardience.

how you choose to argue can ultimately be as decisive to your arguement itself.

just as awareness of audience is imperative.

it takes a big person to back down from an argument with dignity, not discarding for that moment views that stand up to closer, and ethical, examination.

then again, most of them from are.

and i respect them for that, among other things.