Follow the leader

It might just be me,but I was going through the various forums,and it seems to me that a lot of the time,people don't seem to give their true opinions they just post what they think other people want to hear so they get AP's or don't get negative AP's.

If you take a look at some of them,they just say the same thing over and over in different words.Then you have the ones that just go around and throw AP's at people but don't state an opinion.I don't mean to complain,but I almost always see the same few people changing the flow of a forum(ie. throwing in their real two cents rather than posting their real point of view)and then people with that point of view follow them and start posting.

Is it that people are scared of negative AP's?Scared that their opinion is " wrong?Speak your mind.Although it may not put you in the top ten AP's earned,I bet it will gain you a lot more respect in the long run.There's plenty of people that I disagree with on a regular basis,but I respect someone a lot more that can debate an issue and not take it personnaly then someone that just follows the crowd.Your opinion is what a lot of these forums are about.

haha...i would have to agree with the exception of me...i just posted on the god vs god forumn and got neg for not going to church...i am not complaning it is just that i would say that i am not part of the majority...like you said..most do not say there true feelings... dont know why...points are not that important to me..

Black-Mage21

Perhaps only things are repeated here because like history if one forgets then you are doomed to repeat it. Oh not my words but old words take it as you will, but ponder the meaning :)

Perhaps some people just have the same ideas about certain stuff. (shrugs)

Though, in general, no matter what is said, a person will get negs.

Take care

::Chelle::

Nothing is duller then a whole string of "me too" posts merely kissing some member with high AP's ass, making a post carefully crafted to get AP's. Oh wait, there is something duller. A post complaining about the AP system :)
(jeez I'm JUST kidding hahaha)
But seriously, what's the point of collecting a bunch of APs if in the end you're a phoney?

Sometimes you see a lot of the same responses in threads but quite frequently you see a large diversity of responses. There are certainly those that will say what they feel will impress the masses, but I don't feel that it is the majority here at AO. I see quite a few disagreements in the forums. I also don't claim to know what people's true opinions are because I am not them. Perhaps they do agree more than you think, perhaps not. I personally do not care.

I do agree that you will get negs just cause it is life, usually not for posts that deserve negs but for differences of opinions. That is also a fact of life and there is nothing you can do about it.

I've noticed, and I won't lie, I sometimes refrain from posting at all for fear of getting negged... But I never post what people want to hear just to get APs. I always post my true opinion, and often get negged anyway. I really don't care anymore, I've got enough APs to assign, I'm just having fun posting. Just don't be a jerk and always speak your mind, and things should even out.

I'm not saying there's not a diversity of responses,but it's always the same few people that start the diversity.I refuse to believe out of thousands all but about 10 people have relatively the same thoughts on everything.I'll try and illustrate what I mean.

Thread starter>>
Look at this post.I think that(insert subject)is absurd people aren't going to put up with it.

Person 1>>I agree
Person 2>>I agree also
Person 3>>Me too.

change:Person 4>>I think it's perfectly logical.
Person 5>>I second that motion
Person 6>>Me too

It seems that's about the usual format.Don't get me wrong,I love the site,and the variety of opinions,but I feel the variety could be a lot more if people just spoke up.

Good question Mahakall here's the intelligent responses I got.

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If points aint important to you u wont mind this

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I think you need to learn to speak english and to read,because I said points shouldn't prevent you from speaking your mind.

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good saying what you think

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I'm not quite sure what the hell this is,it sounds positive,but was negative.Tried to contact user with no response.

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Then there's this one.Probably the most intelligent statement of the three,but there must be a problem with my computer because I don't see any letters just little marks.The funny thing is,they all removed the same amount of positive points.Coincidence or idiot?

You have a valid point gghornet, I have noticed that as well. But another thing I've noticed is that, it's always new people to the site that make comments like. Most times it's people with less than under 50 posts under their belt. Why...who knows? Everyone wants to belong and be accepted :) .


Edit: To whoever negged people here...why?

I didn't post much when I very first came here because I was afraid of being laughed at. I didn't want to appear dumber( about computers) than I am so I figured I'd keep my big mouth shut and sure enough I posted in the wrong places any way. Maybe some of the other new members felt as I did. Most of you write good letters that are interesting and even the insulting ones are funny. I like to log on and read them all and enjoy myself doing so. I think most of them show a great diversity of thought. Personally I like this site. Love Auntie

I post my opinion when I feel like it. And if people don't like it...nah nah nah nah nah naaaaaaah *taunts*

i think its just human nature. when most people join a group, any kind of group, they do so because they want to belong to that group.

when im new to a situation i dont really know whats acceptable or how far i can go without being insulting etc. nobody really likes being a newbie to anything. its a humbeling experiance. but i alway have to go threw accepting /being accepted before im comfortable enough to be myself ...if i want to be a part of that group. its not an initiation process its just a part of life.

i don't think its fair to knock people for being people. some are more confident from the start because they have more experiance dealing with others. some are compleatly new to it. give a kid a break!

I'm sorry, but I sincerely don't understand the point of this whole thread. If you're worried about negs that much...don't post.

If you have an opinion you feel strongly about, post it. But please stop griping about the negs you get....which is all this is, a thinly veiled whining about negs post again.

I think you're missing the point.It's not a gripe about negs,actually I've went from a grey dot to 2 greens in the last 3 days,my only gripe about the points was because the person who assigned them to me didn't read what I posted.
This post is about trying to get people not to follow others opinions and state their own opinion no matter what the consequences,and to get members with tons of AP's to take it easy on the newbies doing their first post and give them a chance to say something worth listening to before negging them to death.It's not a gripe about negs it's a gripe about how people don't think before they start throwing them around,which lowers the quality of the site by not allowing members to express themselves as they normally would.

The purpose of this website is to share information and learn. I really don't care about getting negged anymore. People neg me for some of the stupidest reasons. On the god vs god one I got negged with a reason of "ah yes good valid point raise," and when I pushed for a bit more discussion than the run of the mill "I aggree" bullsh**t I got negged for being off topic. I thought that both were kind of humorous. This whole AP system needs some major fine tuning if not being thrown out. People caring about the respect end of things can get their respect like the real world by other people remembering them and what they say.

heh...and here I've been thinking that I was actually speaking my mind.

/me wanders back to the 'herd'

I try not to post unless I have something to say that will feed the discussion, hmmm, I believe it was Mr allenb1963 who refered to me as the "Don Rickles" of AntiOnline...LOL I only insult the people I like, so Al "your mother is a hamster, and your father smells of elder berries" (a bit of Monty Python humor....

Anyway gghornet, I agree that there are lots of tiny little posts like you describe. These are from those who just "have to" put something in to make themselves feel like they are "noticed" as for the neg thing...well I just try to stay away from these types of threads...oops! Now da**it, you made me make a liar of myself. Ok...Ok... I do post to these threads, and it usually costs me, I'll send you a bill later. :deal:

In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having another opinion and posting it. But I think that there is something wrong if all people are negging someone just because he has got the balls to post his ideas. Poeple are different, that is a matter of fact. So let us accept that.
For example in this God vs. God thread: one user was apparently negged just for posting he is not going to church. That is not the style. We are heading to some sort of fundamentalism here and that is not for good.
But I also think that "c'est le ton qui fait la musique" so it depends on HOW you are telling the others that your opinion is different and you do not agree with them.

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I'm sorry, but I sincerely don't understand the point of this whole thread. If you're worried about negs that much...don't post.

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I think what he's getting at is what is known in First Amendment law as a chilling effect. Any time you have a system that allows people to punish others for any reason or no reason, it will have a chilling effect on expression. It's human nature. There will always be people who see the system as a way of suppressing or punishing certain opinions, and as such, other people will hold their tongues for fear of reprisal.

Expression becomes bland and the quality of the boards begins to atrophy. But that's the price we pay for a self-governing community like AO. We police ourselves to keep the skiddies and spammers out, and by and large we do a very good job of that. But since 120,000 people all have a different opinion on what deserves negs and what doesn't, there's really no way to prevent it from becoming a bludgeon to punish - and hence suppress - opinions.

A while back I got negged badly for saying that I thought Lindows was a piece of crap that would never work, and just today I got a neg for saying that I liked Red Hat's controversial Bluecurve interface. I don't care because I've been fortunate enough to accumulate enough points that I don't have to worry about it. But I got my points in part by avoiding controversial topics on religion and politics that I knew were bound to offend somebody on here. Nowadays, I choose to avoid those topics just because I don't like them, not because I fear negs. Accumulating greens is only half the battle toward free expression. Avoiding reds is the other half.

I do find it a little funny that the people who say to ignore negs are always the people who have plenty of points and can speak without fear of reprisal. For the newbie with 10 points who might be banned for expressing a very unpopular idea, however legitimate, it's a very big deal and I think it's important for seniors to appreciate that not everybody can afford to speak freely.

Follow the leader?

How ironic, this post is taking a similar shape to what you guys are talking about!
gghornet started with his opinion and sure enough, the leader was followed!
Coincidence? I think not!

r3b00+

Well heres my 0.02p

to start with i dont see what this post is about follow the leader think back to when you first joined ask your self the question why did you join antionline to learn more about computer SECURITY

now over the last few months i feel as if the more threats to computer security are getting over looked here because of threads like this and news that you read in the news paper or see on t.v are appearing on these boards i for 1 dont post to any of those threads im making an exeption here to try and get my point of view accross i know me posting this isnt going to bring back the quality of the computer related topics that were about when i first joined here but remember why we are all here for the purpose of computer SECURITY

i say stop the useless threads and bring back more security topics

i agreed with u auntie. well same as me, with a tiny knowledge of comp it really hard to answer some tough question. but wat i alwasy do is just view all the post and read throug it. well i found that reading all the post and the answer give me some knowledge and being member of ao is a great thing i have done in "comp world". and may be some other ppl just posted their post to upgrade themselves so they no more newbie status. well i guess.sorry if I'm wrong. and may be posting sth can decrease their ap. well if I not mistaken ppl get banned if the have -200 ap. well there a lot of assumption that we can make why ppl behave like that. but for me I not really care bout the ap or whether i post a thread for a day or not, as long as I'm not been banned. well it enough for me. but i think that y we have our expertise here, isn't.:)

I'm with ya prodikal. Seems like most of the securty topics are.....gone. Its not bad to have a community like this where people talk about whatever is on their mind...hell I think its great. Security related topics though are getting rather thin, and I for one am becoming a little less that interested in posting here. Its not that AO is a bad place, its just doesn't hold enough security topics or discussions anymore.

How's this for off-topic?

Ok back on topic....

I agree with you gg!