Let's all grow up...

You know, we've had a lot of 'kiddie' **** (pardon my french) happening around here lately, and all it has done is hurt the community as a whole. The purpose of the AP system, as I see it, is to reward those who make posts that are informative, helpful, or make a major contribution to the subject at hand, and punish those who post bad info, incite flaming, or seek info for illicit purposes. Like everyone else here, I have a streak of vanity running through my personality, and I would love to be one of the 'Top Ten' AP earners. But if I ever do make that list, I want to get there because I EARNED it, not because I joined up with a group of AP vigilantes who think they have the right to determine who stays and who goes i this community. And if I ever make that list, I don't want to stay on it by unjustly 'negging' anyone who appears to be earning more AP's than me. If I don't ever make the list, it's no big deal. I've got more than enough in my life to be proud of, accomplishments and contributions that have made a real difference to the community that I live in. I got out of high school and its popularity games a long time ago. While I realize that a great portion of the membership is considerably younger than myself, AO is a community that deals with real-world grown-up issues, and we all need to behave that way. Popularity contests and mud-slinging are for children and politicians....they have no place here.

I've been asked in the past to join such groups. I've alway responded by saying that I am happy to give positives to posts that deserve them, but that I will not give negs just because someone asks me to. That kind of behaviour is wrong...no ifs, ands or buts about it. At one time I had a tendancy to seek out posts that were wrongly negged and apply my AP's to correct them....that was wrong too. So now it's time to do it the right way...give the post the points it deserves based purely on the merits of the post, not who wrote it or who asked you to assign points to it.

Nice post Allenb1963! To let you know, you did make the list, LMFAO. Anyways, nice post and I agree with everything you have said in it. I think that after the last few "senior bannings", people need to realize that JP will be weeding out the **** and it will stop. I think that newbies as well as senior members need to watch out because as JP has proven, newbie or senior, you **** (sorry for language) with the AP system or abuse it, or you pull some kiddie crap, you will be banned. Nice post all the same, and I'm sorry for the language. -- Jason Copeland

Agree wholeheartedly, Allenb. I've been negged for disagreeing with somebody on an issue. What's the point of a discussion if you don't have differing views? Without opposite views, you have a group of posters patting each other on the back for all being in agreement.

nice post ya,i agree with you that its realy annoying and should be baned

My protocol for giving out negative AP's is like this:
If your post is a flame, flame-bait, encouraging immoral behavior, or is misleading or malevolently pointless, I MAY neg you. However, I refuse to neg someone for merely disagreeing with me, or having an unpopular opinion. I simply wish other AOers would do each other the same courtesy. Not to be a whiner but /whine/Past couple of days I've been negged on a few posts for outrageous reasons/whine/ and it's just sort of stupid if you ask me....

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cant we all just get along

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i just say let JP do his job and which he seems to be doing a great one infact.. even i wouldnt have suspected him to ban the people he did

--cheers to jp

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Originally posted here by allenb1963
Like everyone else here, I have a streak of vanity running through my personality, and I would love to be one of the 'Top Ten' AP earners. But if I ever do make that list, I want to get there because I EARNED it

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Welcome to the list....Although it's a great honor, the novelty soon wears off.

Growing up. growing up. yes, it's time to use the system correctly and to "purge" it.
We should put into the antipoints assignement box the message "be an adult, your power implicate responsabilities".

I forgot...and this may or may not have anythng to do with antipoints. Feel free to delete if it doesn't. I was warned via pm about making too many posts. The warning said that some people were taking offense, or might take offense, if I posted too much in a day. The poster wasn't threatening me and I don't remember who it was. I did take it to heart though and have backed off on responding to posts.

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The warning said that some people were taking offense, or might take offense, if I posted too much in a day.

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Chuck56 I don't think the amount of posts that anyone makes in any given day, week, month, etc...means diddly squat to any "real member" of AO, and I do believe that I am speaking for the majority. If you post meaningful advice or ask for help or advice thats within AO's guidelines, then no-one will ever get upset. In essence you will be improving the overall state of this community by adding your input.

allenb1963, all I can say is what others have already said in this thread, thanks for being a contributor to one of the best informative places on the internet...and congrats to you on your making the TOP 10...hurray!! /me bows in thine presence...LMFAO :D

I cannot express enough how much I agree with allenb on this one. I just started posting regularly on AO about two months ago. At first I was very pleased with the way the site was run, and still am for the most part. But I don't go to this site for lame ass children posting hate based messages and trying to make my way up into the elite part of antionline. I'm not here for recognition and I'm not here to deal with other people's insecurity problems. I deal with that **** enough on a daily basis to have to deal with it every time I decide to get online. When this first started occuring I thought it was a rather minor problem of just a few people, but every time I get on here I see two or three more members with large post numbers being banned. Not to mention only a few moments ago a read a post betweein rioter and JChosting trying to decide who was trying to gain the upper hand upon the other. One question......who the **** cares?! We've got people complaining because someone may not have used original code and others complaining that the accuser is actually trying to deface members. Since when did AO become a site of independent internet police officers? I'm on this site to learn, and I would assume that the majority of members are as well, and if you aren't here for that then you are nothing but a hindrance. So my advice is either post relevantly to the sites specifications and stop trying to make this the second generation, "days of our lives" or go waste your time on IRC.


edit: I want to make the last statement a bit more clear, before I get negged again about not being here very long by someone who obviously is lacking in comprehension skills. Notice the absense of the word "antionline" next to "IRC". Believe it or not, there is a reason for that. Why you say? Because the statement about IRC wasn't pertaining to antionline's IRC room, but to IRC chatting in general. Yes, I was expanding beyond the scopes of this site, into the much broader status of the internet. Sorry for all the sarcasm, but I was hoping the intelligence level here at AO was tipped off a bit more then that, or maybe it was just a simple misunderstanding. Either way, I hope it's very clear now.

y0 allenb, exaclty, you hit the hammer on the head. its extremely lame how ppl use the sys for "banning" other members. the people that do that either have to compensate for something with there antipoint power or have an inferiority complex. all im saying is damn , if you are as lame as to be threatened by new members or even old members that are doing betterr or worse than you, you shouldnt be able to use the internet, because you are always going to find someone better or worse than you. what i want is the old ao back, rather than it becoming overzealous and all. just a simple board like it used to be back in june and before ish where ppl can discuss security issues or hell, anything at all legal basically. come on guys, seriously, cant we all just please get along ;)

allenb1963, I want you to know that the following has absolutely nothing to do with you or your post:

Does it seem ironic to anyone other than me that when a newbie member who is frustrated with the AP system voices their opinion either here in General Chit Chat or in Site Suggestions the post goes suicidal faster than a lemming on downers, but when a senior member mentions the same problems with the AP system, they get so many green AP's that those legions of leprechauns drop dead from exhaustion? I'm tired of the double standard, and I'm tired of staying quiet about this. I've been here for quite a while, but I'm no where near overflowing with greenies. In truth, I never cared about the greens. I was just forced to care when people started getting banned for the stupidest reasons. I'd really like to just ignore the whole system, but I've gotten enough stupid and childish negs to keep me checking to make sure I never say anything too controversial in any of my posts -- I can't afford to lose any! In fact, I've gotten quite a few negs for the same stupid and juvenile **** that allenb is complaining about, but I've had to be tolerant becase I haven't had enough greens to speak out!. I love the AO community, but this is getting ridiculous. I got negged twice for telling some new user welcome to AO! It's easy as a senior/multi-green member to voice the problems with the AP system. You all have enough greens to voice that opinion without fear of being banned. I, for one, want to applaud some of the newbies with enough courage to speak up about the problems with the AP system. They're taking an enormous risk on this site in being banned, and they usually do by people calling them whiners. It's asinine! But there is hope. It's a rare thing, but it occasionally happens, and it happened to me once. After I got my 2 negs for welcoming the new user to AO, I was ready to drop this site. I logged on one last time, and to my surprise my greens were back. Here's why:

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Making up for the negs you got in the Thank you post, you should not have gotten negs, and the post shouldn't have been suicidal. Deb

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How cool was that?

This is not a plea to remove the AP system. I believe it has merit, and in most cases it works. The best and worst thing with the AP system is that it's stacked against new users. They have to work very hard to post quality items (great!), and be extra careful not to offend anyone, or it's the axe (suck!). It's just those few ignorant users who feel like it's an outlet for their tawdry revenge schemes because someone dared to (*GASP*) disagree with them. Hell, I welcome diverse opinions. Why the hell do you think I'm here day after day? To get a LOT of differing opinions about the widest range of topics I've ever seen in a forum. JP is doing all that he can to keep this system fair, but I think it's also up to the AO community (especially the senior or high-green members) to help keep the system working when they can. This is a plea to the AO community at large: watch out for injustly negged posts. Give greens when you see someone negged for no good reason. Protect your fellow members. They have just as much to offer this site as you do. Too many people are bitching about getting negged for no reason, but don't seem to care when others do. You're never going to get rid of the stupid people negging for no reason. The best thing you can do is counter that when you can. Show some pride in AO, and get pissed when someone takes advantage of it for their own personal gain. JP has made an awsome system, but it's one that requires support from all the members at large.

Amen, Roswell. That's about all I can say.

roswell to answer your question - ppl are going to be ppl. you give someone any amt of power, they can abuse that power if you want to. as the old saying goes power and money corrupt. well power can either corrupt or do good. the ap sys was intended for good, but also has one major flaw - Corruption. now with this corruption a user with power can either use it for good or bad. if you are a friend of someone bitching about someone, arent you going to support them? sure you could say no... but given popular soveignty in the situation if you so care to carry it that far, with its usage... you have to accept it. now if someone you dont know or dont like bitches, arent you going to be against them? of course y0. tis human nature. now apply the ap system to that and you have your answer.

er0k

I could not have said that better myself.

Regards
v/man:)

Excellent post roswell but I cant give any more AP's out today. Anyway regarding all these AntiPoint discussions I think its really starting to piss people off, there is like three threads like this and one is a debate about cheating for points. I closed one about the banned members also and I feel that a closed thread policy may stop all this Antipoint banter that seemingly goes nowhere.

This is not directed at anyone, in fact some of the posts have been great, good points but we all know by now that JP will change it his way, he will keep it clean regardless of our rantings, he just wont announce his plans.

I remember AO before AntiPoints, when you could post anything, I remember first joining and there was people like Seb-G etc. who would post random insults and abuse the community. Now before you think about getting rid the AntiPoint system think about the positive effects. When the system was introduced he was negged to hell. People realised his ways and JP could see he was of little value to the community.

He was banned.

Now the system has advanced and is still advancing, just give it time, its always getting better and if you feel you are getting negged unfairly let JP know.

Dont post in here saying:

I got negged unfairly...

So and so is cheating...

Ban Antipoints...

Etc.

Why, because its all been done before, we know about the faults...

Anyway this was a morning rant, hence it makes little sense.