Let's Start Again
Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 2:35 am
It has not gone unnoticed that there has been a certain degree of aggro happening on the forums. Usually I hope that things will cool down without my intervention as usually my participation escalates problems. However, after the thread "Let's Try Something Radically New" I suddenly got a string of trolling reports apparently from those I assumed were of the same clique reporting each other.
Anyway, it's evident that I will have to do something.
First of all, I would like to apologise. Certainly this would not have occurred if we were giving you what you want. The people have spoken and they are unanimously unhappy.
My defence is that we are only people with real, non-internet lives. Both myself and Jenn have not had it easy in the recession and money earning has had to take priority over the things we love and strive for. This is the horrible truth of being an adult.
I have been running my own business for over a year now. I work a minimum of ten hours a day, so yes I usually veg in front of the TV when I don't work. I barely have enough time to play let alone write. Fortunately, as those who know me are aware, I'm changing jobs to one that will allow me a lot more freetime so at least that issue is remedied. I would like to try and salvage what is left in this walking cadaver.
However, what I don't need is to be attacked when I try. Previously, when I have tried to do things, people have attacked me personally regarding my weight and my sexual mores. As these people don't know me, they are obviously being callous and have way too much time on their hands. But this does not encourage me to sit at the computer for hours trying to fix things. I'm well aware that there are pockets of internet residents who look down on this site and believe themselves to be superior in every way, shape and form. They most probably are.
When I log on to enjoy my hobby. I want to enjoy it. I want to enjoy chatting with friends, learning and progressing together. Therefore, I would kindly ask that people could support me with what I will say in the rest of this post. Criticism is accepted. Criticism of myself as a person is hurtful. For those who have met me, I'm sure I can be irritating but I'm not a bad or arrogant person.
I think people should remember that only criticism is not helpful either, just like any child, I need encouragement too.
However, now that I have more time in my life, I will try to give you what you want.
Let me tell you what I am for those who may not know. I speak Chinese and Japanese. I am a professional translator in these languages. I read the blogs and I have a considerable library of mahjong strategy books from Japan. I may not be the best player, BUT I do know the theory. This is what I can offer to you.
For the short term I will do for you:
1) I have deleted ALL recent threads that I feel have had some sort of confrontation. I'm sorry if you felt something was deleted that shouldn't have. Please consider this was not censorship, but rather me trying to put this fire out.
2) For the time being I will now be the mod of all mods. This is not to undermine Shirluban but, in the end, it should be my responsibility if problems happen. This to me seems the best way to proceed considering the most recent arguments. If something goes wrong, you can curse me by name. On the other hand, you will have to live by my rules:
- Do not behave like mardy and arrogant teenagers.
- Do not use aggressive language with each other. English is a beautiful language and you can find ways to disagree respectfully.
- (less important but...) Please, please, please don't start threads in capital letters or overuse coloured text. Use it to highlight something interesting like:
"I think that discarding rather than keeping the 2s is better.
Don't use it to shout at each other. Don't use caps to shout at each other. It makes me sad.
- Be mindful that there are beginners here. Of course some of you are very clever and very experienced. Try to bring people into the fold rather than use your cleverness to push them away.
3) The site still has bugs. I will open a master thread for you to report these. Please try to do it in good bug reporting format. Those of you with computer experience will be able to set the tone.
4) I would kindly ask that people respect I have a real life and that I may not be able to answer your needs straightaway. I will try but I'm moving countries again this week so patience.
Well... I guess the final conclusion of this post is to bring it back to the beginning and what started this off. RichardK8's thread about the owner's vision for the site. I can only speak for myself...
I'd like to point out that I didn't get involved with this site to push myself as an individual. There is no Gemma (TM). I got involved at the very start because I was a complete beginner and it seemed like an excellent way to get friends who would help me find my way. As this progressed, I hoped to bring more beginners in. I also had ideas that I could bring my skills as a linguist to the site. I wanted to expand mahjong in Europe. Most of all, I wanted people to have a place for their hobby.
Things brought me down. The constant negativity from some groups of people on the internet. I hated reading the diatribes about how I was an idiot. It didn't give me the impetus to come back from a long day of translating at work to sit down and translate some more to only feel like people would attack me. So I admit, I've drifted and lost the faith.
That said, there are some awesome positives. Most of my best friends are mahjong players. I look forward to meeting my friends in real life. I think that the site is an improvement. The forum does not timeout anymore. Japanese works. These were achievements for us. I know some of you could have fixed it easily but we don't have programming backgrounds. Overall, the actual structure is better. What needs to be improved is content. I'm aware of this. I need to find the やる気 to move this on now.
So I guess I need to shake myself off and start getting my act together. That is my feelings and ambitions for this site.
Anyway, this is the unofficial reopening of RichardK8's thread. I hope this post was what he wanted to hear and was what he hoped to achieve. Please add whatever you like to this. Ask me more questions, direct my efforts, whatever you want. My ears are yours.
Anyway, it's evident that I will have to do something.
First of all, I would like to apologise. Certainly this would not have occurred if we were giving you what you want. The people have spoken and they are unanimously unhappy.
My defence is that we are only people with real, non-internet lives. Both myself and Jenn have not had it easy in the recession and money earning has had to take priority over the things we love and strive for. This is the horrible truth of being an adult.
I have been running my own business for over a year now. I work a minimum of ten hours a day, so yes I usually veg in front of the TV when I don't work. I barely have enough time to play let alone write. Fortunately, as those who know me are aware, I'm changing jobs to one that will allow me a lot more freetime so at least that issue is remedied. I would like to try and salvage what is left in this walking cadaver.
However, what I don't need is to be attacked when I try. Previously, when I have tried to do things, people have attacked me personally regarding my weight and my sexual mores. As these people don't know me, they are obviously being callous and have way too much time on their hands. But this does not encourage me to sit at the computer for hours trying to fix things. I'm well aware that there are pockets of internet residents who look down on this site and believe themselves to be superior in every way, shape and form. They most probably are.
When I log on to enjoy my hobby. I want to enjoy it. I want to enjoy chatting with friends, learning and progressing together. Therefore, I would kindly ask that people could support me with what I will say in the rest of this post. Criticism is accepted. Criticism of myself as a person is hurtful. For those who have met me, I'm sure I can be irritating but I'm not a bad or arrogant person.
I think people should remember that only criticism is not helpful either, just like any child, I need encouragement too.
However, now that I have more time in my life, I will try to give you what you want.
Let me tell you what I am for those who may not know. I speak Chinese and Japanese. I am a professional translator in these languages. I read the blogs and I have a considerable library of mahjong strategy books from Japan. I may not be the best player, BUT I do know the theory. This is what I can offer to you.
For the short term I will do for you:
1) I have deleted ALL recent threads that I feel have had some sort of confrontation. I'm sorry if you felt something was deleted that shouldn't have. Please consider this was not censorship, but rather me trying to put this fire out.
2) For the time being I will now be the mod of all mods. This is not to undermine Shirluban but, in the end, it should be my responsibility if problems happen. This to me seems the best way to proceed considering the most recent arguments. If something goes wrong, you can curse me by name. On the other hand, you will have to live by my rules:
- Do not behave like mardy and arrogant teenagers.
- Do not use aggressive language with each other. English is a beautiful language and you can find ways to disagree respectfully.
- (less important but...) Please, please, please don't start threads in capital letters or overuse coloured text. Use it to highlight something interesting like:
"I think that discarding rather than keeping the 2s is better.
Don't use it to shout at each other. Don't use caps to shout at each other. It makes me sad.
- Be mindful that there are beginners here. Of course some of you are very clever and very experienced. Try to bring people into the fold rather than use your cleverness to push them away.
3) The site still has bugs. I will open a master thread for you to report these. Please try to do it in good bug reporting format. Those of you with computer experience will be able to set the tone.
4) I would kindly ask that people respect I have a real life and that I may not be able to answer your needs straightaway. I will try but I'm moving countries again this week so patience.
Well... I guess the final conclusion of this post is to bring it back to the beginning and what started this off. RichardK8's thread about the owner's vision for the site. I can only speak for myself...
I'd like to point out that I didn't get involved with this site to push myself as an individual. There is no Gemma (TM). I got involved at the very start because I was a complete beginner and it seemed like an excellent way to get friends who would help me find my way. As this progressed, I hoped to bring more beginners in. I also had ideas that I could bring my skills as a linguist to the site. I wanted to expand mahjong in Europe. Most of all, I wanted people to have a place for their hobby.
Things brought me down. The constant negativity from some groups of people on the internet. I hated reading the diatribes about how I was an idiot. It didn't give me the impetus to come back from a long day of translating at work to sit down and translate some more to only feel like people would attack me. So I admit, I've drifted and lost the faith.
That said, there are some awesome positives. Most of my best friends are mahjong players. I look forward to meeting my friends in real life. I think that the site is an improvement. The forum does not timeout anymore. Japanese works. These were achievements for us. I know some of you could have fixed it easily but we don't have programming backgrounds. Overall, the actual structure is better. What needs to be improved is content. I'm aware of this. I need to find the やる気 to move this on now.
So I guess I need to shake myself off and start getting my act together. That is my feelings and ambitions for this site.
Anyway, this is the unofficial reopening of RichardK8's thread. I hope this post was what he wanted to hear and was what he hoped to achieve. Please add whatever you like to this. Ask me more questions, direct my efforts, whatever you want. My ears are yours.