I don't know what to think of GC anymore

kddani · #1 11-24-2002, 01:59 PM

With all the crap going on lately, I haven't been posting much.

I used to love GC because it was a fun, friendly, supportive atmosphere. But more and more it's turning into anything but.

Why, all of the sudden, is it acceptable for people to just be blatantly rude and spiteful, or just downright nasty.

The UF Pike thing- not that that needs another thread- but there's no reason that he shouldn't have been gone along time ago. I'ive seen some of the PMs and we've all read his posts. Some of you said that if people had a problem, they should've reported him. Well he'd been reported several times, particularly for these nasty abusive PMs. John and the Mods, for whatever reason, did not take any action.

No one really cares about the lying as much, it's more the nasty nasty indecent and scary things that he has said to people. But then people just keep turing it into the lying thing.

Or what about other people who just randomly join a thread and post something nasty and abusive, for no reason that to just be a jackass?

Or what about when people express concerns and uncomfortableness, other people (mods included) jump all over them and tell them they're paranoid, it's not that bad, it's just the internet, blah blah blah.

Almost all of us are brothers and sisters in the greek community (with a few exceptions), why can we not treat each other with respect? Why do we tolerate people being abusive and nasty to our sisters/brothers/friends?

No one deserves to be spoken to in the matter some GCers verbally assault other GCers. Would you talk with that mouth to your mother?

And I don't want to hear about "blocking" someone anymore. I don't seen why we should have to block someone who's being abusive and nasty! There shouldn't be toleration for that at all by ANYONE, instead of just telling the person it was directed to to ignore it.

So my question is essentially why do we tolerate people abusing our sisters/brothers/friends? This is only weakening the greek community.

The1calledTKE · #2 11-24-2002, 02:20 PM

It's not that the mods don't care. A lot of us do. Each mod only has the power to delete and lock threads in the forums they moderate. Only John can ban people. John cares as well but this site is not the only he has to run on top of all his business work he has to do. He promised to review the Uf Pike thing as soon as he can. He just can't ban some one because some one asked him too, he has to review all sides.

kddani · #3 11-24-2002, 02:41 PM

I'm sorry, I didn't mean that the mods don't care, because i'm sure some of them do. However I have read a number of mods posts lately that have been very critical of people who are upset about all that has been going on. And it's just my opinion that mods of all the GCers should be somewhat sensitive to people's feelings and concerns. Some are, but other's haven't been.

A few months ago I know for a fact that several PMs from UFPike to another GCer that were pretty nasty were forwarded to the mods, and no response was ever taken. I obviously don't know the reasoning,but I was just bringing up that it had been reported before.

I think i'm more upset with how people have been treating others, and the other people besides UFPike who constantly do not add anything of value and just add nastiness and rudeness to every thread they can. And the fact that a lot of people seem to deem this acceptable.

It just confuses me how some can think it's okay for others to talk to their sisters/brothers/friends like this.

Betarulz! · #4 11-24-2002, 02:54 PM

It happens...

There seems to be a cycle of how GC goes. There will be times where everything is interesting, threads don't become stagnant, and life is good...

I was just thinking that we are entering one of those periods in which there haven't been that many new and really interesting threads. It seems as though there haven't been that many new threads anywhere, and if they do get posted, they don't seem to last.

I think is partly due to the fact that for the undergraduate members of GC there are bigger things to worry about right now, with respect to class work, upcoming formals and Christmas. For the organizations that have already initiated their new members, that post initiation let down has hit, for the rest of us who wait until 2nd semester, well again there are a lot of things going on.

For the Alumni members on GC, the holidays are just as stressful.

UF_Pike is not the first person to get banned, and surely won't be the last. I was here during most of the SH80 incident, but I never really payed attention. But it was a similar in nature to the current situation.

As for the people who come post things to be a jackass. To borrow from Steven Covey's 7 Habits for Highly Effective People: Be proactive with your feelings. Worry about what you can control (how you end up feeling about these posts) and not about what you can't (the people who do post such things). This extends beyond "oh it's just the internet".

Just be glad you missed out on most of the whole Gamma Chi thing...

James · #5 11-24-2002, 03:17 PM

Its not always as clear cut kddani.

If someone spams all the forums with advertisements, its an easy decision to delete their posts. They are more than welcome to post in an appropriate place.

When it comes to taking action against members its harder. When should we take action? There are no clear cut guidelines on what to do.

Different patterns usually happen with postings. The most common we see as moderators is that someone comes on GC and has a different type of voice you might say.

They write colorfully. They will make general statements in a colorful fashion and people will take offense even though those posts may not be directed at them personally. Those people will then personally attack the colorful poster. Who will attack them back and eventually we have a locked thread.

What moderators see a lot of, or at least one Chit Chat moderator has pointed this out to me, is that the people that originally started personal attacks will then start complaining about the person attacking them. And urge that they be banned or whatever.

And sometimes that might end up in a ban even if the person was provoked because we don't have time to look through every post and say "hey the person didn't getting personal, until the others did."

All we will see is that 13 people may have attacked him once or twice, but that she is attacking 13 seperate people. Looks really bad in a thread review.

Moderators aren't being mean when they say to ignore people. They are just trying to give you the simplest solution to a problem. You can't get nasty Pm's from an ignored member, nor will you read the vast majority of her posts. It just seems rational.

Also, to be impartial we need to take into account that not everyone gets offended by what some people will. So a whole handful of members may be upset about someone, while a lot more just don't really care.

Another pattern we see as moderators is that often the same people seem upset time and again

Dionysus · #6 11-24-2002, 03:22 PM

To be frank, some people on here are setting themselves up for "abuse".

If you show what makes you "tick", there will definately be someone who will push those buttons. Is it right? Absoulutely, not. But that's reality. That's anywhere, greeklife and greekchat isn't the exception.

carnation · #7 11-24-2002, 04:37 PM

We should take action when people violate the GC user agreement. People should be out of here if they spam, post filth, harass members (especially by pm or e-mail) or try to start something. This includes the losers who create new usernames just to start trouble.

Dani, I'm with you. It's beyond me why someone would do that just for the so-called joy of getting a rise out of people. That is truly the kind of person who needs to get a life.

texas*princess · #8 11-24-2002, 04:44 PM

I have to agree with what carnation and kddani have posted. I have been away from these boards for awhile and haven't posted as much recently and when I randomly decide to read the boards I'm surprised with some of the stuff I have read here.

#9 11-24-2002, 04:48 PM

I agree with dani.

Now, i don't pay much attention to these ignorant posters, but there are some who's only mission is to try and provoke other members. To me, comments that are obviously meant to insult, i.e. you're ugly, you're fat, etc. have no place on here. I joined this site expecting a little bit more intelligent convo than that. I joined to share ideas and thoughts with fellow college students and alums who are Greek or Greek friendly.

If i wanted to immerse myself in juvenile banter, i'd join a yahoo chat group or something like that. Now, i expect that my ideas differ from some GCer's. I'm sure not everyone there shares my view on politics, religion, abortion, war with Iraq, etc., and i'm willing to listen to these and other varying ideas to expand my horizons somewhat. But the more we allow people to get away with 'throw away' insults, or get away using language that would make a trucker blush we decrease the worthwileness of this site.

Just my $0.02

Kitso
KS 361

James · #10 11-24-2002, 04:51 PM

Aggie, You do realize that we spent a couple hundred posts talking about how we can influece what our sexual fluids taste like? LOL.

Quote:

Originally posted by AggieSigmaNu361
I agree with dani.

If i wanted to immerse myself in juvenile banter, i'd join a yahoo chat group or something like that. Now, i expect that my ideas differ from some GCer's. I'm sure not everyone there shares my view on politics, religion, abortion, war with Iraq, etc., and i'm willing to listen to these and other varying ideas to expand my horizons somewhat. But the more we allow people to get away with 'throw away' insults, or get away using language that would make a trucker blush we decrease the worthwileness of this site.

Just my $0.02

Kitso
KS 361

carnation · #11 11-24-2002, 05:27 PM

Why have a user agreement if you're not going to enforce it? Either have one and enforce it or don't bother.

Lady Pi Phi · #12 11-24-2002, 05:28 PM

I've been reading some of these posts but felt that it hasn't been worth it to post a reply. I've had things to say, but I just didn't feel like it was worth posting. Now I feel I have something I want to post. It's really sad that we have to continually remind people here that everyone is entitled to their opinion and that while we may not agree with everyone 100% of the time that we should respect what they have to say. We are all adults people, we should not have to be reminded of this.
Okay, that's all I have to say. I will go now.

Imthechamp · #13 11-24-2002, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AggieSigmaNu361
I agree with dani.

Now, i don't pay much attention to these ignorant posters, but there are some who's only mission is to try and provoke other members. To me, comments that are obviously meant to insult, i.e. you're ugly, you're fat, etc. have no place on here. I joined this site expecting a little bit more intelligent convo than that. I joined to share ideas and thoughts with fellow college students and alums who are Greek or Greek friendly.

If i wanted to immerse myself in juvenile banter, i'd join a yahoo chat group or something like that. Now, i expect that my ideas differ from some GCer's. I'm sure not everyone there shares my view on politics, religion, abortion, war with Iraq, etc., and i'm willing to listen to these and other varying ideas to expand my horizons somewhat. But the more we allow people to get away with 'throw away' insults, or get away using language that would make a trucker blush we decrease the worthwileness of this site.

Just my $0.02

Kitso
KS 361

INTELLIGENT CONVO?? I don't think I've heard one intelligent thing come out of your mouth. Everytime I read one of your posts, you're either pretending to be drunk or trying to find a date with someone online.

Not to mention your sig. It stopped being clever 264 posts ago.

Kddani?? You are such a freakin baby. When someone hurts you in the real world, do you go crying to people and say "please take this guy away, he is rude!" I'm not sure what world you live in, but in the place called REALITY, there are going to be people who are rude.

I don't deny that I often make silly little comments. Do I feel like I am offending anyone? Nope. Unless you say something to me directly, I prolly won't even know you exist. It's kinda funny that some of the people that I've argued with on GC are the ones who I talk to the most on AIM. And to tell you the truth, they are really great girls.

It really annoys me when people talk about "OH I AM SO AFRAID AND UNCOMFORTABLE!". Um...why? If you are stupid enough to believe anything anyone says off the internet, then you deserve whatever you have coming to you. There is no reason you should take anything I say personally because you don't know me, and you prolly won't ever be lucky enough to ever meet me in the real world.

I think a big reason why some of yall are so shaken by this UFpike thing is because half of you idiots told him a lot of information about your real life or planned to meet him. Hahahah!!!! Won't ya please raise your hands so I can point and laugh at yall.

I never took a word UFpike said seriously after he said something like "I'm getting tired of driving my BMW"...um, hello??! WHO GETS TIRED OF DRIVING A BMW?

Shine · #14 11-24-2002, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by carnation
Why have a user agreement if you're not going to enforce it? Either have one and enforce it or don't bother.

Not to mention that you should have standards for actions against those rules being broken.

Thrillhouse · #15 11-24-2002, 06:51 PM

I vote for this thread to be locked, its basically a personal attack thread more than anything else.