I miss the pre-social media Greek Chat

[DTD Alum]

Not necessarily an active poster but long time lurker, well before my join date.

It's a combination of things.

1. Forums are dying left and right, almost every one I was involved with has slowed to a creep. Reddit has taken over most of the forums, largely I think because the more anonymous nature of the lack of avatars, post counts, etc makes it much easier for new posters to jump on and less of a clique based mentality. You used to join a forum, get involved, and then talk about off topic conversations on that same forum. Now, on Reddit you use one Reddit for Greek life, one for music, one for news, etc.

2. YouTube is the first point of entry for teens and twenty somethings looking to learn about something new.

3. Frankly a lot of people here were relentlessly rude to new posters and as those older posters disappear, there was no new group to replace them because many were ran off. Not something people want to hear, probably, but for every rude new member, there were nine that were chased off simply because they didn't know the right terminology or process and were seeking info. Hardly unique to GreekChat, this is a forum problem in general and one that Reddit dismantled.

4. The advice here tends to come from a national-istic/utopian ideals standpoint. A lot on grades and recs (which don't get me wrong, those are essential on many campuses) but very little on looks, extroversion/social skills, and social media, which seems to be how most chapters are picking their members, if we're being honest.

5. Well meaning warnings about waiting to post recruitment stories until after the process is over. This is probably fair advice but there's nothing like the excitement of the moment to encourage these threads rather than after, where you're either disappointed/embarrassed or more excited about your new chapter to do a play by play for strangers.

[28StGreek]

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

4. The advice here tends to come from a national-istic/utopian ideals standpoint. A lot on grades and recs (which don't get me wrong, those are essential on many campuses) but very little on looks, extroversion/social skills, and social media, which seems to be how most chapters are picking their members, if we're being honest.

I always wonder which schools that GCers who staunchly commit to the 'Its all about grades, recs and presenting yourself well'-attitude come from; versus the GCers who admit that 'yeah, what you look like/where you come from/who you are, does affect which chapters invite you back'

[honeychile]

I always seem to miss you, DTD Alum! Hope you're doing well!

[33girl]

Re #5, if there was ever one live rush thread that ruined someone's chances because they forgot these are public forums, I'd just as soonnever read another rush story again. This is these students' lives, not our entertainment.

[sigmadiva]

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

4. The advice here tends to come from a national-istic/utopian ideals standpoint. A lot on grades and recs (which don't get me wrong, those are essential on many campuses) but very little on looks, extroversion/social skills, and social media, which seems to be how most chapters are picking their members, if we're being honest.

I've been on GC for well over 10 years now, and as long as I've been here the NPC members make an effort to keep it pan-hellenic on the public side of GC. As I've read many NPC recruitment threads over the years, I've always had the impression that the "nitty-gritty" / true side of NPC recruitment was handled via PMs (private messages).

So, while on the public side of this message board there was / is an effort to stress grades and recs, because its true, more may being said on the private side, and we will never know.

5. Well meaning warnings about waiting to post recruitment stories until after the process is over. This is probably fair advice but there's nothing like the excitement of the moment to encourage these threads rather than after, where you're either disappointed/embarrassed or more excited about your new chapter to do a play by play for strangers.

I've always felt that this was the best advice to give. Some PNMs would post too much information that could identify them during recruitment and people could easily figure out who they were. There were some recruitment threads that NPC members could easily guess the school based on a little information. Kinda like "Name That Tune", but I called it "Name That School".

I also think that posting a NPC recruitment thread after the process is over is better, because the young woman has time to settle down, collect her thoughts and write a more reflective story.

IMHO, being mean about NPC recruitment is relative. I'm sure it is much tougher to go through recruitment at a Southern / SEC school, than a Northeastern commuter school. The "meanies" were just giving honest advice based on campus culture.

And, as it has already been stated, there are more social media and online outlets to get NPC advice. Or, maybe PNMs finally got the message to contact the Greek Life Office at their school for information and not rely on strangers on a message board.