I miss the pre-social media Greek Chat

[FSUZeta]

Mean girls =/= correcting misinformation. The mean girls I am referring to several years ago when a group of GC'ers would jump on any newbie that made a misstep or came here for advice when their daughters did not receive bids.

Ole Miss Dad needed to be corrected with his " not enough spots for all " misinformation. He was politely corrected, took exception to it, and lashed out. Completely different scenario, as AZTheta pointed out.

[DubaiSis]

From healthy discourse (which can only happen through disagreement) better understanding can result. I don't like the whole "thing" that recs have become. But I have read reasons that I can appreciate. I learned. And mostly I learned that if other sororities want to do it different from mine Let Em. But I like a little back and forth. Feels like being a grown up.

[28StGreek]

Originally Posted by TriDeltaSallie

Before social media took over, Greek Chat would come alive in late summer and into the fall. There were so many recruitment story threads you could barely keep up. Now it's completely different.

I miss those days. It was fun hearing what was happening with different people on different campi.

I joined Greekchat after those 'golden years' but I lurked for a while before I ever felt like I had the authority to dispense advice or add anything meaningful to conversations in threads. In the years since graduation I have found the need for engagement with this site quite diminished. The content that used to really interest me isn't the same anymore.

I particularly enjoyed reading about the different experiences and cultures at different campuses. Especially, the super large Southern recruitments, as well as historical descriptions of 'vintage' rush.

With zero interest in recruitment at USC, there has not been the need to offer my 2 cents. And any general recruitment advice has been rightly given by those more knowledgeable than I.

Maybe all the advice that needs to be said, and this site provides brilliant advice with regard to NPC recruitment, has already been given. And perhaps, PNMs are turning to other sources. Hopefully they have learned to ask their campus' greek life offices for help.

[iamamom]

Well, I came here a few years ago for some advice and education on sec recruitment. I wasn't greek, didn't live in the south and didn't have hundreds of hours to pour over every single thread. I haven't been here now in a super long time, I was just curious about Ole Miss and came to peek.

I quickly saw a few reactions....omg...did you just ask a question that was on the sticky list?! And plenty of attacking and seeming sabotage when mostly mom's came here to figure stuff out. IF people would ratchet down the rhetoric and seeming so hard core about sororities as adult women, perhaps you'd seem a bit friendlier and get more newbies coming to share and chit chat.

Instead it seemed like newcomers were welcome - but to be the newest fresh meat to attack. You either want to be a friendly place to help out people, or you want to hold staunchly onto rhetoric and make sure your exact rules are spit back at you and every marches in lock step. It just isn't friendly here, but heaven knows, you are precise with the rules and regulations.

[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.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Honestly, this forum is not very user-friendly for newbies to navigate and find information, and we've done a crappy job of dealing with folks who ask questions. We point to the stickies like it's so easy to navigate the literally HUNDREDS of pages of information.

I personally miss all of the recruitment stories. But how can we expect people to post their stories when we scare them away?

My other topic of interest is colonizations, and to a lesser extent, general Greek news and shenanigans. I still find that the inside info from members is useful, but GreekChat is rarely the first place you'll find colonization info nowadays.