Respect the theories, and respect the posters

It's only movies, entertainment, and supposely fun ...

 

I agree with you my friend as I myself have fallen out of line in a few posts as I have gotten tired of being mistreated sometimes. I love to debate about SW as I'm pretty sure that all of us here love SW with all our hearts. What I don't agree is when fellow posters try to make you look like a moron just to try to make their points more valid. Everyone has a right to their own opinion and I am not one to accuse anyone who may think that Dengar is way cooler than Boba Fett but it sometimes gets really frustrating here in the Cantina to be called a troll just because you post a simple opinion. It really sucks when a poster asks something like ''Who's your favorite Bounty Hunter?'' and when you type something like ''Zuckuss or Durge'' posters who disagree start trying to make you feel bad with dumb comments like ''Anyone with half a brain knows Durge sucks.'' That is not debating, that is downright insulting said person. Another thing that I find hard to deal with here is the way that some posters treat you wrong if you don't go with the flow.

Why do I HAVE to think that Fett is the best Bounty Hunter ever? Why do I have to hate the PT or am treated like a moron if I say that TFA was not so good? For me, there are things we can debate and others we shouldn't and we should just post our opinions and keep it friendly. A post that I think deserves debate is one where someone asks things like ''Who would win in a fight? Yoda or Mace Windu?'' This is a post where we can discuss many points as we can all have different opinions about the outcome of said fight but when someone writes something like ''Which is your favorite alien species from SW?'' it really is a bummer to see the insults and negative quotes you get if you say that the Gungans or Ewoks are your favorite species. A few days ago I saw a fellow poster get a trolling quote just for saying ''I suspect that many do not want the CGI additions "fixed". They simply want them removed.'' What's up with that?

 

I too started out never giving a negative quote as I simply debated my points with others in a friendly manner even if I disagreed with them but sadly one day I couldn't take it anymore as the negative quotes flew randomly on my comments simply for expressing my opinions. It was then that I started giving negative quotes to those that unfairly gave them to me. I don't like doing that and I still just talk on posts without giving negative quotes simply because I disagree with them but I won't tolerate getting blasted with trolling quotes or dislikes simply because I say that I think Greedo is cool or things like that. What's worst still is that there are many trolls here in the Cantina that NEVER write anything and never even give you a reason on why they blast you with negative quotes. If you are going to hit me with a dislike or disagree or even a troll quote I would at least like to know your reason but there are many here who just read a comment and if they don't like what they read they simply negative quote you and move on. Even new members who have never written anything tend to go crazy that way.

 

Personally I've never had bad experiences on this forum or have I ever I seen it. Maybe I just don't notice it when I'm reading.
As a general thing, treat others as you wish to be treated.

 

Unfortunately there are people who will always attack people unnecessarily. For me, it doesnt matter if you get passionate about your thoughts or wahtever but attacking in general shouldnt be happening besides a civil discussion...but it happens anyways.

 

Yeah it typially is seen with people who are on here more often that sense these things .

 

You and me both

 

I generally don't like to speak out as a moderator, but there were a few things brought up here that I felt should be addressed.

First, I really appreciate the original sentiments of @Maximus. I'm glad that the Cantina is a community valued enough to speak up for. When @Viral Hide opened the doors to this place, I'm sure that's all he hoped it would become. That so many feel that way is a special thing.

For better or for worse, being a moderator here is not a full-time, paid position. We have families, school, work, and a generally finite amount of time to be here. We simply can't see and catch everything. But in addition to that, we view the job differently than I think is common on other message boards. We see our jobs as facilitators of conversation, not obstacles to it. It's not our job to tell others what to talk about, nor to tell them how to talk about it. Most conflicts resolve themselves, and I think that's to everyone's benefit.

It has not been my experience that there has been a decline in respect here. Quite the opposite, in fact. But obviously things happen, abusive posts are made, and the ranking system is misused occasionally. In those cases I would ask everyone to consider a few things:

• Don't automatically assume negative intent. Sometimes things don't come across the way they were meant.
• Don't automatically respond. Consider that maybe the post is something that can be left alone. When that happens, people usually (but not always) just move along.
• Don't combat abuse by being abusive. That just does not compute. If abusive posts are bad, then what point would you be making?
• Contact a moderator. You can always message us and we will always follow up on what you're reporting to us.

And please don't retaliate with the post rankings. It is, admittedly, a flawed system. We tweak it when we can, but it's something that's pretty hard-wired into the forum software. If needed, we can remove negative ratings from your posts. But nothing kills sympathy like a rankings war.

I think things are going pretty great around here. But, as in any community, we can always improve. The fact that there are enough issues to be brought up in a thread like this is a testament to that. But there are things that we each can do to raise the level of respect on these boards even higher.

 

I have had a pretty good experience overall with the message boards. But I admittedly have gotten involved in a few dust ups. But honestly every "mark" I have given I do actually believe the post deserves the "mark". I have never purposely given a person a negative mark knowing that they did not deserve it according to how I interpret the rules. For example the dreaded "troll" mark, any time I have given it, it has truly been my opinion that they were infact deliberately making an inflammatory post or specific comment designed to garner a negative reaction. Now I guess under the "Don't assume intent..." guideline there might be a couple of times I pulled the trigger to soon. But there is a difference between drawing a logical conclusion, given the content of the post, the context of the posts they occur within and just assuming an intent.

Now people's threshold gets drawn for all kinds of reasons. Specific to me I know my background in the Army has given me a low threshold for some things. For example in order for my complaint about something to warrant a response beyond an immediate scolding, intense work out session, and a swift dismissal to get back to work, I would have to have thought of multiple ways to fix the issue and if it couldn't be fixed it was pretty much tough luck and you keep it to yourself. Now I know we aren't in the Army any more, and what worked in the Army often isn't what works in the "regular" world but that way of thinking that was necessary to survive and be successful in the Army and it gets pretty deeply ingrained. I get that some people react for all kinds of reasons. While some people value rebelliousness as they identify with it from their personal history. And others may be a bit overly sensitive to their criticisms not being well received for a host of reasons, personal history, personality type, current state of their life, etc. I will try to be more accommodating to others in the future as I would hope people would be accommodating to me. From time to time though it's not always going to be a loving warm ah shucks let's all get along thing. To me that kind of bland state would lose more people than some ruffled feathers from an occasional natural spat.

 

One of the things that we should all keep in mind is that we don't have to get nasty with each other even if we disagree with one another. I'm pretty sure most of us here don't mind being told ''I disagree with you'' by another member but I do think we should be more careful with the comments that follow. It's ok to say ''You say that Boba Fett is cooler but I think Jango was the better hunter because he did this and that in said movie.'' and it's totally another thing to say to a fellow poster ''If you think Jango's cooler than Boba Fett you must really be brain dead.'' or ''Go re-watch the movie again cause you don't know what you are talking about.'' That is just plain rude and I truly say that if I have ever made one of you fellow posters feel bad in any way please forgive me. Sometimes things do get out of hand and like jmjawors said, sometimes we retaliate when we are attacked and this is not the best thing. If we are here is because we all love Star Wars and this is indeed the best site to share that love with each other so lets try to keep it friendly and understand one another and do our best to keep in mind that we don't have to see things the same way in order for us to get along. Lets debate and not fight. Let's agree or disagree without trying to give weight to our posts by degrading those who disagree with us.

 

Thanks @Maximus for bringing out your concern. It is good for all of us to be aware of any potential sources of conflict that might not be outright noticed.

I was watching some Star Wars documentary and I was realising how we all Star Wars fans might have different age, creed, nationality, ideology, gender, race, etc and no matter what, we are united in our love for Star Wars. Obviously our own perspective will influence either if we love the OT over everything or if we care about the PT dearly; either if we love Rey or we think she is just a Mary Sue, either if we think Kylo Ren is a great conflicted villain or if we'd rather have Darth Caedus any day, etc. The point I am trying to make here is that we have to be aware all of us have certain perspectives that can conflict with each other, and that is totally respectable. What it is not is to attack other posters just because they want Reylo to happen or they still have hopes that Rey is a Solo, just to cite an example. At the end of the day, none of us have control over the fate of these characters.

Good point! That's a sneaky way to insult the poster by indirectly mentioning the perspective we think is wrong.

The Golden rule.

I've learned through my life when someone wants to attack you, the best thing for that person is to provide a RSVP. If you acknowledge the attack, that person has achieved what they wanted. If that attack just goes unnoticed or if it's replied with sarcasm, no big deal. But as @jmjawors mentioned as well, sometimes we understand things not the way they were intended to be told.

 

I guess the most we are without any big spoilers, the most we keep speculating and that could keep causing frictions or such.

Actually, I wrote a list titled "20 random thoughts about Star Wars, Rey's origins and the Sequel Trilogy". And it is funny since it helps me to realize how perception might change.

 

Maximus thanks for your sage wisdom. I am brand new here because I wanted to come somewhere to talk SW with others as passionate as I. Let me tell you a story about a website with message boards that used to be epic --- IMDb. I was a member there for 15 yrs but they let their boards get out of control with much abuse and trolling. They shut their boards down in Feb, disappointing millions of users. I hope that the Cantina does not go down this path--I really enjoy it here so far.