Quote from: C.W.RichesonI just like talking about games.  As it happens, a good amount of RPG discussion between some smart folk occurs here.  Thus, I like theRPGsite

Emphasis mine. The rest of us are Muppets. :haw:

Quote from: Monster ManuelI include the "keetooms and pie" stuff in that category.

Damn, that sounded harsh. I'm not really a dick.

Gods that keetoom crap did my head right in. I mean who actually says "keetoom?" kitten, sure.  kitty, again, no problem. kitty cat, shnuzzle-wuzzle (that one might just be me) and yaarhgerrofyabastid are all accepted terms for infant cats.

keetoom is a sign of enforced cuteness in the same way that fat, ugly women will put love hearts over their i,s instead of dots.  fine when your 11.  not fine when you're  old enough to know better.

I'll stop ranting now

Quote from: StumpydaveGods that keetoom crap did my head right in. I mean who actually says "keetoom?" kitten, sure.  kitty, again, no problem. kitty cat, shnuzzle-wuzzle (that one might just be me) and yaarhgerrofyabastid are all accepted terms for infant cats.

keetoom is a sign of enforced cuteness in the same way that fat, ugly women will put love hearts over their i,s instead of dots.  fine when your 11.  not fine when you're  old enough to know better.

I'll stop ranting now

..mmmmm....keetoom pie....

Quote from: Tom B..mmmmm....keetoom pie....

You want some mango tea with that?

...I think i'm going to vomit.

What I like about therpgsite is that folks don't feel the need to talk about their sex lives.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RWhat I like about therpgsite is that folks don't feel the need to talk about their sex lives.

Regards,
David R

Or talk about their imaginary sex lives they wish they had.

I have to agree with the already mentioned feeling that people ignore you unless you are part of some group.  Been on there for years, hell I remember GMS's articles when he was writing Underworld.  I just don't post very often therefore I'm not worthy of notice.

Ah well.

Quote from: peteramthorOr talk about their imaginary sex lives they wish they had.

Quote...hell I remember GMS's articles when he was writing Underworld.  

JimBob, these articles have to go in The Biglist if they aren't already.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: Monster ManuelNo way, man. I'm actually reading your time travel thread right now. I'm getting some good ideas.

At the risk of giving One Horse Town a complex, what time travel thread?  I don't remember seeing that.

Quote from: David RJimBob, these articles have to go in The Biglist if they aren't already.

They're not, and I don't know which articles you're talking about. Post a link in my thread (see sig) and I'll take a look and sort it out.

Quote from: peteramthorI have to agree with the already mentioned feeling that people ignore you unless you are part of some group.  Been on there for years, hell I remember GMS's articles when he was writing Underworld.  I just don't post very often therefore I'm not worthy of notice.

Ah well.

Dude, I posted all the time and The 'A' Kids in Tangency ignored me after a while.

Me.

Doctor-fucking-Rotwang!.  

My ego aside, I got tired of...well...no longer feeling like it was my clubhouse.

It's just because of the size of the place. I've twice worked as a chef in a casino with more than 20 different food outlets, several thousand employees, you just knew those in your little corner - maybe 5-10 people out of the 10-40 working right around you - and that's all. When you arrive, the 10-40 people it turns out are in little cliques of 2-10, usually someone from each approaches you and starts gossipping, sounding you out to see if you're worthy to join the clique. If you join one, you're in it for the whole time you work there. If you disparage all cliques, then you'll be on the outer with them all, though you may find yourself pairing up with another loner and in that way forming a two-person clique of your own. Though the pairs tend to be more open to new membership than groups of 5-10.

The waiters, croupiers, managers, cleaning staff - they were whole little worlds of their own. I used to go to the staff cafe and sit with random people, if I was lucky they'd chat for a bit, but it never led to lasting work relationships.

Practically speaking, it's not possible to know everyone there. But human nature is to form small groups of 2-10, and then to largely reject outsiders. If you don't like the idea of those cliques, you find yourself spoken to by nobody.

So it's not rpg.net in particular. I think one reason for the non-cliqueishness of this place so far is the lack of support for the Off-Topic subforum. You form a clique by finding people you know and like personally. But if all we're talking about is rpgs, it's hard to know much about us. The Off-Topic/Tangency subforums of the online world are where people get to know one another as individuals.

When all we know about each-other is rpg stuff, there's less inclination to form cliques. It's sort of like a workplace where people only ever talk work stuff - no cliques there, either! The cliques come from gossip about issues outside the place, personal issues, internal politics and so on.

When talking just about rpgs, we realise how much we have in common, and forget the things which make us different, and/or which we dislike. That's why you get things like some poster who's called you a cunt for some years online, now reaches out an olive branch on therpgsite. It's also why you get some posters hated, because they regularly post about non-rpg stuff in the rpg threads.

Keep Off-Topic irrelevant and small, and it'll minimise cliques. Cliques will still happen, but not as much.

I think it'd help if we took postcounts and titles away from our posts. They can be on our profiles, just not near our posts. Having titles like "community leader" is just asking for cliques.

Quote from: BalbinusAt the risk of giving One Horse Town a complex, what time travel thread?  I don't remember seeing that.

Here it is. It's a good thread, but I didn't have anything good to add, so I kept my mouth shut. I do hope to have a good idea to post there so it won't fall off the page.

And JimBobOz, I don't know how to say this without sounding like a kiss-ass, but between your post here and the ones in the "What if Persia had conquered Greece" thread, I'm coming to respect the precision of your thought while posting. I never noticed that (or rather never attributed it to you) in the noise of RPGNet.

Of course, I prefer my own way of thinking. It's a fuzzier, "write whatever's interesting and accuracy be damned"* mode of thought, but that's just because it serves me creatively. I'm getting off track though.

*I'm not talking about being disingenuous or lying on a forum, just about playing fast and loose with things like physics or history in the name of a good game or story.

Anyway, JimBob and everyone else, I got off target, but here's hoping the weight of the off topic forum remains the same even as we grow. I know it's ironic that I'd say that here in a thread I posted off topic, but that's how I feel. One Tangency is more than enough for the universe.

That brings up another point- Off topic here seems more productive and focused- the Persia/Greece thread is a good example. it's a topic a lot of roleplayers actually give a damn about by virtue of being roleplayers. The signal to noise is good here.

Quote from: Monster ManuelAnd JimBobOz, I don't know how to say this without sounding like a kiss-ass,

There's no reason to think you're kissing arse, since flattering me, I can give you nothing

Quote from: Monster Manuelbetween your post here and the ones in the "What if Persia had conquered Greece" thread, I'm coming to respect the precision of your thought while posting. I never noticed that (or rather never attributed it to you) in the noise of RPGNet.

Thanks for the compliments. I assure you that I can be fuzzy and rambling, too. One common complaint is the length of my posts. But see, what other people to do is to post one vague thing in 100, get asked about it, then spend twenty posts of another 100 words explaining what they meant. So in the end they write 2,100 words on a thing. I just begin with 500 or 1,000 words and then we can avoid all that back-and-forth - mostly because people don't bother reading it, but still... :confused:

Anyway, if you liked that, you might like my Big List of Links, see sig.

But yes, interesting stuff does get lost in the morass of rpg.net.

Quote from: Monster ManuelI'm not talking about being disingenuous or lying on a forum, just about playing fast and loose with things like physics or history in the name of a good game or story.

Yep, when you're gaming, that's all that matters - an interesting, fun and fulfilling game session. Bugger all the rest!

There is something that irritates me, though. JimBob's example at work reminds me of how things worked in highschool. People, without really intending to (or purposefully, depending) formed cliques. Music heads, geeks, athletes, marching band, thespians, ect. mostly formed around personal interests with degrees of exception. It's human nature, not antagonistic or anything.

But, you bring that up on rpg.net, and someone'll be around shortly to tell you you're full of shit. And I think it's because nobody really intended to do that, and they're not aware of it, because people do it reflexively. When I go to class, do I know everyone there? I don't. When I go to work, do I know everyone in the building? No way. At rpg.net, do the 'regs' remember every joe who shows? Not a chance.

And there are a shitload of people there, posting. So when any individual shows up, it's no surprise that statistically, your voice is likely to get lost in the signal-to-noise ratio that is several hundred posters trying to talk at once. But, it would behoove the mods, at least, to understand that when they do stuff, they mostly only target the few people around them and not everyone notices the little dramas of the Big Purple.

That might be why there's a lot of snark and fights there, though. In order to get noticed and get their points across, it's easier if you're flashier and more antagonistic. Nobody replies to a 'me too', but they will respond to a 'your mama!'.