>>12
So here I am again, browsing a text board, trying to make a comprehensible post
which will hopefully depict my rage at its absolute purest form. It quickly gets
boring to debunk trolls and abominations every god damn day of my life, so I'll
summarize it all in this post. I will address most issues and problems this
board (and as a result, it's users) has, propose solutions, analize current and
past trolls, point out Why It's A Useless Thing (tm) to consider meta-trolling
and a few other things. Yes, this will be a rant. Get your popcorn and beer,
people.
Now, why all of the sudden so much RAGE you might rightfully wonder. I'm not a
bedlamite, nor some eccentric nobody. Granted - not completely sane, but who can
claim that? Facts are, past years /prog/ maybe did have some posters who could.
Any credible English dictionary will tell you a sane person is one whose actions
are reasonable. Reason, sounds familiar? Something that differentiates past
/prog/ from current /prog/. Reason is importand for a board. Reason is lacking.
/prog/ is turning into an obscure clique of imbeciles playing funny games. The
so called "memes", for example. Or games of other nature, ie repeating what the
previous poster said with a small change in the post. I am sure you have all
seen those. The problem is with the posters that downright assume that's how
it's always been here, and because of that, they join that particular game too.
But, where did these originate from? Hard to tell, maybe parrots in africa. You
will surely see them in other boards (imageboards, textboards doesn't matter).
Exempli gratia, /b/, /vip/, /dqn/, and older boards at 2ch. It's common to do
so and has a name, sarcasm. Repetition leads to innovation, that's what they
say. Innovation does not imply creativity. Sadly, I'm proven to be correct just
by reading a thread or two from /prog/'s index page. So, to name the first
problem, repetition. (note: this is a problem solely in /prog/. The other boards
addressed are doing just fine)
Repetition introduces memes to the board. Memes introduce people to the board.
As we all know, and as a quite popular manual page will tell us, less is more.
(and vice versa; more is less) Quality over quantity, harmony over chaos. One
cannot look forward to quality posts and harmony in a board populated by
unoriginal posters. You can certainly envision the next problem I am about to
name. Staleness. Without any doubt, other places are affected by staleness as
well, as per example, reddit. About reddit, I have posted my previous thoughts
here (
http://dis.4chan.org/read/prog/1205555865).
Other minor issues include advertising, meme forcing, homework questions (they
rarely are of any arousment to any programmer solemn about what he does)
I am too tired to post about them, take a look around if you are curious. I
propose we contact moot or some moderator and ask for actions to be taken.
Enforcing on-topic posts would be fabulous. Banning those who bump old topics
wouldn't be bad. There are certain caveats with this solution: I certainly don't
want to see /prog/ turning into a "police state". As it stands, even that would
be better! Another solution is to let the real posters take over the board.
Caveats with this is that there's a high possibility genuine posters get banned
and the morons stay. That'd be the worst. Come on guys, /prog/ used to rock. Do
something about it, contribute instead of all the cockwaving fagfest you are
into now.. FOR THE LOVE OF ANYTHING THAT'S HOLY, FUCK THE MEME BULLSHIT. Don't
be repetitive and avoid staleness.
Now, it is time to name some of the trolls we must avoid. Another problem with
naming repetition is that one simply contributes to that particular repetition,
and achieves something quite different from the original goal. Notwithstanding,
one cannot do something about it, so here I am naming them.
Rechan, any other board other than /prog/. I'm not a 4chan fanboy. Little
matters to me whether one is posting in rechan on 4chan. However I must alert
you why this is a bad thing. Rechan is controlled by one person, someone who
most likely used to post (or still posts) to /prog/. Making your own board means
two things: That you were disappointed and that you want authority over a
popular board. The former; I doubt. The latter is quite certainly true. Once
rechan (or some other board, for that matter) gets popular enough, be certain
that drama will ensue. See, that is impossible to happend with 4chan because
moot frankly does not care. 4chan is too big, and has too many boards to care
about a particular one. So stick to /prog/ guys.
Recursive acronym idiots: No. It's just boring. Most of the time it's not done
properly either (ie the recursive acronym is not really recursive) and I believe
that is done just to annoy those who enjoy the recursive acronym game, which in
return will post some flame and the correct acronym. All that leads to nothing.
It doesn't matter. Enlightened ones will certainly notice an acronym is simply a
collection of patterns with insignificant value. Say no to them. Don't attempt
to post a recursive acronym back to be funny. You'll look stupid like those
people who tell you not to talk in leetspeak because it's lame, in leetspeak.
Avoid like the plague.
SICP/Haskell saga idiots. Well these guys aren't that bad. Sometimes a funny
kopipe will be posted, people will like it, different versions of it will be
posted, and everyone'll be happy. That's fine, but leads to repetition which
leads to previous problems. So try to keep that shit to a minimum level. (note:
sicp is a fine book, haskell a fine language, fanboyism sucks et cetera, Sussman
told you that too)
BBCode morons: Keep it to one thread and it will be fine, no need to polute
every damn thread with (potentially broken) bbcode. BBCode is there to enhance
posts, not to degrade them.
This list is not complete, of course.
Last but not least, why meta-trolling shall not be considered. When you say a
foolish thing, and you get debunked by someone smarter than you, as defence you
could say "ha! you have been trolled". At that point the smart person, if he
really is worth his brains, will simply ignore you. He proved you wrong and
there's nothing more to be said. If you continue, that's when you get trolled.
Not by the other person, but by yourself. It's because you consider the original
poster to be a troll and not a genuine poster, which will lead to an infinite
loop of meta-trolling consideration, and nothing but wasting time will be
achieved. Once someone makes a dumb post, assume he's dumb and not that he's a
troll. At that point there are two options, either ignore or ridicule and move
on. Choose one, choose wisely.