Expanding scope: dealing with not-so-lolcows

[Vitriol]

If 100 Milo fanboys showed up here one day to post in our Milo thread about how Milo is basically the second coming of Christ, and a whole bunch of people see that and say "Gross, this thread is positive towards Milo, I'm not going to post my negative thoughts on him because it's against the current of the thread", then good. Fucking good. If people aren't willing to say "this is what I think" unless they're sure everyone else thinks so to, then what they think is even more worthless than the usual worthlessness of things people here think and their thoughts don't deserve consideration. Fuck them and fuck the value they think their opinions have if they won't even put them up against disagreement. If the hypothetical Milo fanboys start spilling out of the Milo thread, hotpocket them. That's what your hotpockets are for. They'll either fall into line and learn not to obnoxiously derail non-Milo threads, or they'll get shitcanned. No big deal.

maybe- but that's not how such a thing would typically go down. our hypothetical 100 fanboys might register to discuss say idk whoever milo typically debates. Then a month later someone starts a thread on milo and the thread turns into shit posting and attacks on each other as our 100 fanboys chimp out at the users wanting to discuss milo. The thread becomes heavily modded, tens of posts are deleted, members are threadbanned and its probably locked for a few hours. The thread is reopened and by this time interest has waned and numerous members won't go near it as they don't want to be caught up in drama. Eventually many of them might be banned but by then the damage is done. this happens quite often in DT and E&N.

The dobson thing is the same thing from the other side- occasionally people will post a dissenting opinion in there. they they kick up some fuss, there are deletions the odd threadban and then the local threads majority opinion carries on as before.

As a semi-related aside, as much as people mock Asterisk and ADK, I think they're two of the best posters in Deep Thoughts because at least 'other people disagree' isn't the same thing as 'silencing discussion' to them.

I don't disagree- it's why fueher desselar (or whatever his name was) never got a shallow thoughts ban.

 

[HG 400]

maybe- but that's not how such a thing would typically go down. our hypothetical 100 fanboys might register to discuss say idk whoever milo typically debates. Then a month later someone starts a thread on milo and the thread turns into shit posting and attacks on each other as our 100 fanboys chimp out at the users wanting to discuss milo. The thread becomes heavily modded, tens of posts are deleted, members are threadbanned and its probably locked for a few hours. The thread is reopened and by this time interest has waned and numerous members won't go near it as they don't want to be caught up in drama. Eventually many of them might be banned but by then the damage is done. this happens quite often in DT and E&N.

The dobson thing is the same thing from the other side- occasionally people will post a dissenting opinion in there. they they kick up some fuss, there are deletions the odd threadban and then the local threads majority opinion carries on as before.

Ya I love when this happens. Sometimes I jump in without even knowing who people are fighting over and then I forget which side I'm supposed to even be on lol.

So you basically agree with me how great it'd be.

 

[Vitriol]

Ya I love when this happens. Sometimes I jump in without even knowing who people are fighting over and then I forget which side I'm supposed to even be on lol.

So you basically agree with me how great it'd be.

haha I'd forgotten who I was talking to!

We both think the practical outcome would be the same

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

Honestly, with the amount of "Is he really a Lolcow?" lolcow threads cropping up. I would have said I agreed with this suggestion. And to some extent, I do.

However, the problem lies in just how quickly most of these kinds of threads die out, because there isn't much going for them to begin with (InternetAristocrat, anyone?). Person shares basic information on random internet user, others say "Is he really worthy of attention/lolcow status?" BOOM, instant thread closure. I don't see that changing all that much even if the subforum comes into play.

And while it would clean the messes that plague the main sub-forums. This idea will probably just come crumbling down within a short while. I still remember when the downfall of the Entersphere happened, and I get the feeling something similar may happen here.

I'd say, if we do go through with the sub-forum idea, just do a trial run as @Dynastia suggested. And if it falls flat on its ass, then we don't keep it. Plain and simple.

 

[LikeicareKF]

I'm just saying that with lolcows there isn't much nuance to absorb. "Chris chan shits himself, collects welfare and is autistic" is easy to understand and get behind. There's not much debate whether or not he's correct in doing that. There's not much thought process in following and talking about him. A person talking about something that is more nuanced though requires more restraint in order to get an actual conversation started.

I'm just predicting a large amount of bait posts flung in every direction and not much discussion on the individuals at hand. Mostly a lot of people defending that person and being mocked and ridiculed for doing so. It happens every time we have a joke lolcow thread about someone who people actually like.

Bait posts?!? On the internet?!? SAY IT ISNT SO

 

[CatParty]

Bait posts?!? On the internet?!? SAY IT ISNT SO

@Watcher is the guy who got ruffled the most about the IA thread

 

[champthom]

I don't think the PA request will be a huge deal. We've had them before and then laughed them of the forum. It may even provide more amusement and maybe even a chance to discover a new cow.

My experience on /cow/ was that it eventually reached a point where nearly every post was a thinly disguised PA request. It might not be an obvious "This person has wronged me, he's a total lolcow, so let's troll him" but it may be a subtle of "Check out this lolcow" when it's from someone who has a secret agenda and are smart enough to not make it obvious they're connected to this person. As I said, I have no issue with people talking about weird Internet people, I have an issue with people using the nature of the forum to get a personal army. Likewise, this was kinda why I tended to be strict about "no trolling" - it also served to dissuade people who would engage in personal army activity from being here. Null has a differing opinion on that matter than I do though but ultimately this isn't a place to launch full out personal attacks on people.

I also think as a general rule the OP should never be directly involved in whatever drama or person they are describing.

This is actually a very succinct rule of thumb here.

I was a bit obtuse in my original post, as I tend to be, but one concern I'd have is so diluting the user base. Not sure if that's the word I'm looking for but e-drama might attract a lot of people who are the type of people who don't realize that there are shady people here who can seriously do wrong against them.

 

[chimpburgers]

My experience on /cow/ was that it eventually reached a point where nearly every post was a thinly disguised PA request. It might not be an obvious "This person has wronged me, he's a total lolcow, so let's troll him" but it may be a subtle of "Check out this lolcow" when it's from someone who has a secret agenda and are smart enough to not make it obvious they're connected to this person. As I said, I have no issue with people talking about weird Internet people, I have an issue with people using the nature of the forum to get a personal army. Likewise, this was kinda why I tended to be strict about "no trolling" - it also served to dissuade people who would engage in personal army activity from being here. Null has a differing opinion on that matter than I do though but ultimately this isn't a place to launch full out personal attacks on people.



This is actually a very succinct rule of thumb here.

I was a bit obtuse in my original post, as I tend to be, but one concern I'd have is so diluting the user base. Not sure if that's the word I'm looking for but e-drama might attract a lot of people who are the type of people who don't realize that there are shady people here who can seriously do wrong against them.

I've been reading /cow/ in its current state and I don't really see much of the whole PA request thing going on. If you make a shit thread over there and it happens to be that kind of nature, they will call you out immediately for it and point out how shitty your thread is. I'm curious to know when you saw any of this happen.

 

[AnOminous]

I also think as a general rule the OP should never be directly involved in whatever drama or person they are describing.

A lot of times, though, nobody will know about a particular person without some connection to them.

These often do lead to shitty, pointless threads, though.

I just tend to be suspicious if someone shows up and their first post is an OP on some purported lolcow. There's a high chance of such threads being PA.

 

[HG 400]

Who cares if it's a PA or not? If the target is a lolcow we get a lolcow. If they're not a lolcow we get to assfuck OP with bullying. It's no big deal.

 

[Null]

Who cares if it's a PA or not? If the target is a lolcow we get a lolcow. If they're not a lolcow we get to assfuck OP with bullying. It's no big deal.

I think a good example of this was @Meowthkip. The thread on Vade was basically her experience with Vade on Tumblr and I still hold Vade near and dear to my heart as one of the funniest fucking insane people to ever grace the forum.

And that's really what it amounts to. I don't care who what when where or why as long as it's funny. That's why the Jace obstructionists pissed me off so bad. Just shut up and laugh or don't look. It's not a difficult prospect.

 

[HG 400]

I think a good example of this was @Meowthkip. The thread on Vade was basically her experience with Vade on Tumblr and I still hold Vade near and dear to my heart as one of the funniest fucking insane people to ever grace the forum.

And that's really what it amounts to. I don't care who what when where or why as long as it's funny. That's why the Jace obstructionists pissed me off so bad. Just shut up and laugh or don't look. It's not a difficult prospect.

We had Jace obstructionists?

 

[Null]

We had Jace obstructionists?

There were people who would sit in chat every single time we had a Jace stream and would bitch and moan ohhh it's so fake i can't believe you can enjoy this ohhh woe is me. One of the people had even gotten access to a lolcow's forum account and would sign it during Jace streams specifically to pretend to be that person as to try and divert attention to what they considered a more worthy person.

 

[HG 400]

There were people who would sit in chat every single time we had a Jace stream and would bitch and moan ohhh it's so fake i can't believe you can enjoy this ohhh woe is me. One of the people had even gotten access to a lolcow's forum account and would sign it during Jace streams specifically to pretend to be that person as to try and divert attention to what they considered a more worthy person.

lol what fags

 

[Pepsi-Cola]

I've recently been thinking about this and thought I'd mention it, the h3h3 vs. Leafy thread has shown that there is interest in general e-drama unrelated to lolcows, but I think that there's not really a avenue to discuss it. I suppose you could use the lolcow general, but don't you think a board dedicated to e-drama would be more equipped to deal with something like that? idk, it's just something to think about.

 

[Cthulu]

a board dedicated to e-drama would be more equipped to deal with something like that?

Who's more equipped to deal with that than a board dedicated to laughing at pants-shitting tards?

 

[Pepsi-Cola]

Who's more equipped to deal with that than a board dedicated to laughing at pants-shitting tards?

I don't know, I should probably add that I'm not the best with this kind of thing.

As I said, it's just something to think about.

 

[Cthulu]

I don't know, I should probably add that I'm not the best with this kind of thing.

As I said, it's just something to think about.

I just don't think it's going to be kiwi farms apocalypse if dear leader wants to do it. We've handled worse.

 

[Mr. 0]

I just don't think it's going to be kiwi farms apocalypse if dear leader wants to do it. We've handled worse.

I don't think some of us have exactly bounced back from Chris's "piercing" just yet.

 

[norrington]

I think the concerns about a POI subforum attracting someone other than kiwi's target audience is valid, and whether or not those new members would branch out into the rest of the site without knowing how to blend in would depend largely on how effectively their mod kept them humble and self-aware while still allowing them their own preferred brand of non-/pseudo- lolcow spergery in their own corner of the forum. You'd need another, POI-oriented Meowthkip, I think.

Also, seems to me like so many lolcow threads are prefaced with the OP's trepidation about the validity of the cow/the post, so a POI subforum (or tag) would probably be a welcome option for potential OPs who have some mild stage fright.

I don't know if you'd need some preset standards for lolcowdom, though. Seems to me like the site generally knows a full-blown cow when it sees one. If a POI thread were to turn into a bona fide cow thread, it'd probably be rare enough to keep it from being that much of a chore, and I also feel like it'd be easy enough to gauge based on the subforum/the larger site's response to the POI/potential cow without requiring some sort of grading scale a POI would have to measure up with, official or otherwise.