State of AO!

I came to this site to learn about computers and security . I have learned from the other links that were recommended to me I know a bit more about routers and OS systems and it has helped me to refomat my drive. Books have been recommended to me also.Perhaps you should have simple tutorials for beginners such as I and easy links to them and other more advanced technical tutorials for those who really know their stuff and understand all the terminology being used. If this site were very cut and dried and very very technical I would most likely know I was up against a brick wall. But it is made up of human beings with all of their virtues and faults. That is one of the things for me (personally) that makes it different To bump up against another intelligenceand learn from it is fascinating as for being a sheep I simply try to be courteous , I think that quality greases the wheels fo the world and makes it easier to co-exist Auntie

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But honestly...all of us make AO...it is only as good as each of us make it.

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then with me here this site must be almost God like :D

lol

v_Ln

OK, I am putting on my flame retardant underwear because I am going to bring a couple of counter points.

When I read posts it is the quality of the post that is important not the number of AP points the person has. I qualify this by saying that most members sporting that full line of greens have fairly consistently high quality posts. However there are new members whose posts are also top notch and this means new insights and new input (reference TheOldMan and Chuck66 as well as many others). So while I hope all of the old members stay a good influx of new members also adds to the power and viability of the site.

The second point is that this is a fairly hard core technical site. The tutorials run the gamet from fairly simple to fairly deep with some being very deep (or at least very deep for me). There are a lot of them and they cover lots of topics. The fact that they weren't posted in the last 7 days or so does not detract from them at all. Also, the fact that you probably should not post replies to them should not be a reason to avoid reading them. This business is very dynamic but there is an underlying bedrock of knowledge that can be learned as well and does not change very quickly.

I also love the non-technical topics. Sometimes I am at work and just want to scream if I have to deal with one more technical fact. I love scanning the new threads looking for interesting things whether they are technical or not. I like hearing about new stories that I would probably not find on my own. I like getting into debates about topics designed to stretch our views. I enjoy having some humor topics where I can enjoy the lighter side of life for a bit.

There are lots of security only sites. I go to some of them but I always come back here. I spend more time here than the rest. Why? Because you get to know people a bit here. You converse with them technically and socially. Because it is a community and when some one who has contributed leaves it is noticed. Whether the topics and threads are good today or bad I will be back tomorrow because this is a fun and useful place to be. Furthermore I would bet that the statement that the quality of the threads are declining started appearing about two days after this site was first put up :)

I disagree with the opinion that long time members come up with better posts then new ones. A new member here doesn't mean the guy has no experience with security. All of us were newbie once...

I have to agree though that many posts are about antipoints and that annoys me a bit since in my mind they are not very important... Whenever I get antipoints, the comment that comes with them is only 2-3 words long... It doesn't give me any new information neither affect the quality of the experience here for me.

I have to agree though that poor quality of posts has one important effect on the community, it will not help get knowledgeable people to become members. I wish we had less whining and fighting posts as they give prospects a bad image of what AO is.

Yeah, I disagree as well. Just because your status at AntiOnline says "Newbie" doesn't mean you are a newbie to Computer Security or that you don't know anything. I'm sure some newbies are very smart (I hope I am :() and I also think that as much as most Senior Member's are highly intelligent individuals, it also isn't hard to get Senior Status. Remember, I think that most of the Senior Member's here are EXTREMELY bright and intelligent people. But, like I've stated, it isn't hard to achieve Senior status.

ok.. it's all because I haven't been posting here that the quality hasn't "been there" .. RIGHT ?
I'm sure you all missed me (not).. :rolleyes:

but really... I have to admit.. for the past few months (or 4-10) .. seeing all the crap going down, it just depressed me to see this place slip.. I don't FEEL the presence of the "community".. I feel hosility, resentment.. trickery.. banned folks come back to haunt and pillage.. I suppose that's what happens to a big place and where so much was put upon the antipoint system.. I ain't saying that I'm leaving..(too much here to miss in the way of entertainement) I will visit.. read.. learn..help where I can.. but somehow, I'll always feel that something much greater than what we have now was lost. :(

/me slips into coma...

All the green dots really mean is that you provide good information, you say things that lots of other members agree with, or you got lots of friends who will green you for no good reason. Other than that, they should have no bearing on us at all save for the task they were designed to do. Easy for a senior member to say, right? Yeah, probably so....but I got here by watching how others posted and learning, then by trying to formulate decent posts myself....the system is designed to reward good posters and punish bad ones. Aside from a few cases of blatent abuse, it works pretty darn good.

As for the quality of the posts, well thats a 'subjective' subject, to be sure. Has there been a general drift away from the security aspect of the forums? Yeah, it looks like there has been as of late. Is this a bad thing? Probably not....AO is going to go thru 'growing spurts' that cause 'growing pains' just like any other community. Who's to blame? ALL of us are, since we are each in some small way responsible for the threads posted and the quality thereof. But I will say this...if AO was meant to be a PURE security site, then there would be no "Cosmos", no "General Chit Chat", and certainly no "Tech Humor" forum present. If someone has a problem with the fact that those forums do exist, then they should ask JP if he can set the system up to allow you to 'block' posts in certain forums from being displayed on the main page by your browser...that way if you only want to see a certain type of post, thats all you'll see. As for me, I want the whole AO enchilada...the good, the bad, and the....well, lets try to keep the ugly to a minimum, OK?

LOL i didnt knew i was missed.. oh well.. sorry if i havent been on lately.. actually i havent been on AO for MONTHS now.. hehehe sorry... just found a new craze.. playing Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption on-line.. heheheh but i do visit this site now and then.. checkin whats happenin. anyhow.. i hope AO is gettin better thann the last time i was an active member. i think i will be active again soon.. hehehehe. its k. ill be checkin from now and then.

anyhow.. AO's fate lies on the hands of u new members, not on us Seniors coz we wont be here forever. so DO WELL!! MAKE US PROUD! *raises his cane with his right hand and cheers*

He said 'cane' but we all know he ment 'drink'... :)

Panic over - I was on holiday ;) (Bali - 4 weeks - WOW!)