A Forum

[Stevesanity]

When did the first internet forum begin, well I can't give you the answer to that but isnt it strange how popular they've become.

Internet forums have become one of the most popular communicating tools for people around the world (possibly only next to mobiles). I mean you can find a forum on any topic these days run by all types of people. From basketball to italian recipes, from neo-nazi's to forums about pornstars.

But how and why did it become popular? Is it because forums allow you to keep a certain level of security and privacy when communicating with people or cause you are able to share your views and get information from people from all parts of the world.

Also what makes us behave like we would everyday in a real situation. We show emoticion, from anger to love and we debate with people we will never meet and will eventually forget about in our life. We feel hatred or disrespect towards members(ghost faces), we make brotherly/sisterly friendship even though we have no idea what he/she does in real life (no proof) and we even back up or protect people because you have identified that person as a friend who you shall always back up like you would with your best friend when he's been attacked verbally (flamed, burned etc).

It also makes people behave differently. From spammers to pessimist members that will never be subject to a change of opinion, we have people that join forums to get mods and patches, pictures and music. It has members that join because they get a thrill from posting meaningless english or graphics, it has members that speak like gangsters or like really dick lickers.

Each member in a forum has their own personality, I would find it hard or near impossible these days to find a forum where its a hippie community of love and sharing and their is no debating or flaming and spamming.

I know I might sound quite confusing right now but the idea behind this thread and the discussion I'm try to get feedback on is the evolution of internet forums and your thoughts on how it is? I mean a few years back people would laugh at you if you would be over emotional in a forum, asked for dating advice or didn't type in clear cut English but now thats all out of the bag and most forums take most things in a serious way and people specially our generation takes things to a near personal level.

Are internet forums one of the best things to happen or has it made people more anti-social or made them so involved in them that they lack the people skills that the previous generations tend to have in bigger majority. Look at the amount of teenagers these days are go online and spend their day on forums or write up blogs or chat to their e-boyfriend or e-girlfriend. But then these things only bring people together and allows someone from Australia to be able to communicate with someone all the way in The States, would that happen if we did have people skills? I think not because even with multicultarism kicking in its very rare your going to have friends from different parts of the world, different backgrounds maybe but not different parts(in terms of where they reside).

Forums also can be unsafe as it allows access to people that only use it in a negative way or use it to benefit a criminal plan such as stalking. Even though your face and address may never be seen or heard in most forums people seem to open up after a month of knowing each other via the net these days and that gap allows the cruel and bad to strike. But you can stop discrimination at the same time, all you have to do is pretend to be a white power supporter on a neo-nazi site and you'll get the respect of your peers and you dont even have to be white by any means cause they can never know unless its a requirement that you show some sorta proof you are full on white. But at the same time even in forums without preference to only one race such as the NLSC or so on you will get discrimination and racism.

If your an Australian living in Sydney you are likely to recieve a tad bit more of love than if you were from Manilla in the Phillipinnes. Im not saying its some major issue the NLSC cause I really dont give a shit but its probably true due to the fact this forum is mostly run by Australians and the Phillipinnes members here have gotten a bad name with the community.

Internet forums are a debatable topic on whether it has more positives or negatives, for me its a split at the moment to both sides. The biggest downfall is it has just made more and more kids stuck on their computers and made them lose their people skills, I mean seriously theirs very little talk these days even when it comes to relationships. Girls have become almost purely money oriented cause nearly all of them don't give a shit about how great the guy is inside as long as he's got green on him and guys think all girls are these objects that they can conquer and get them to do anything they want, it kinda plans out like that but what happend to good ol' romance? Pick up lines these days are cheap and corny, nothing new and exciting comes out.

But whilst the people skills reduction is a downfall it allows the power of communication for people around the world and gives the chance for people to get to know other cultures even though you won't meet that person you can always learn something about them and get an idea of how life is and what interests people of a certain nation that you would normally not even have a clue about or give a shit about has.

So go on, Ive already said too much some of which I think I didnt explain well but Im sure you'll get the basic points of the discussion here.

[J@3]

I agree with you that it's split down the middle... I love the fact that we can interract with people from all over the place, I think it broadens peoples thinking and can definitely break down some barriers as far as racial stereotypes and whatever go. There's alot of positives to a place like this, I mean we all have our own group of friends (apart from Dweaver I suppose) but do any of you guys really think you could go and talk to them about NBA Live, the NBA, find out what they think about patches etc etc...

The only reason I started coming to the NLSC was because I didn't know anyone else who played it. Now I go to other forums, whether they're about rugby league, certain television shows etc for the exact same reason. I live in a state where no one likes rugby league, no one I know watches the TV shows I like and god knows no one is into basketball. It's a social outlet, if you have nowhere to discuss your interests then you end up boring everyone with stories they don't care about.

I do honestly believe some forums are better than others as far as the impact they have on people socially goes... like alot of those World Of Warcraft forums I checked out when I was looking for info about that funeral crash there were guys with upwards of 50,000 posts... they virtually lived on these forums and PAID to play the game with others. They were anti-social to the point of cruelness, i.e if someone made a thread about a person dying it was met with "Who gives a shit, we didn't know them"... they basically put up this front to impress each other, it just made them look completely heartless and disconnected with society. I don't think we have that here so I'm glad.

You listed most of the negatives, one I would add is the arguments sometimes... normally I don't give a shit if I get into a fight with someone, when I was younger I actually went looking for fights, but there's times when you've had a shit day, you come online to unwind and find someone's decided to flame you or has continued an argument or something... but that's only real extreme circumstances when it bothers me, 90% of the time it's game on lol.

[Stevesanity]

Yeah those online gaming communities are ruthless and full of heartless people, people blow each others brains out in a game and feel like they have accomplished one of life's greatest missions and its unbelieveable how personal it can get. I have a little couzin whose 14 thats full on into onling gaming and he's a psychopath when he's playing the game (Lines like - "If I dont kill Sauron500 today then I know God is not on my side.", "You should have seen how I killed RobinHood1000, he's head got blasted into pieces and his blood was like all over, I was like fuck you man your asswipe." etc) and this real Mamma's boy the rest of the time, it's just freaky.

[Riot]

I would rather have kids be at home on their computer at a World of Warcraft forum than on the streets doing some deep chronic.

[Andrew]

I'm pretty sure forums/message boards evolved from newsgroups, which of course are still around but don't offer the same kind of bells and whistles that forum scripts, even a free one like phpBB, are capable of providing. To that end, the appeal remains the ability to communicate with people around the world and in some cases find other people who share similar interests to you since one doesn't always have a circle of friends or know a lot of people outside of the Internet that shares the same hobbies and interests. That's definitely the case for me with NBA Live and basketball in general.

Perhaps forums encourage anti-social behaviour but no more than chat programs, video games, television and DVDs/videos. The people who take part in the most unhealty forum participation around the Internet most likely have social problems to begin with. If they weren't spending a lot of time posting they'd be playing a video game or engaging in another hobby to the point of avoiding social interraction and/or sunlight. For the rest of us, it's something else to do, something we don't have to partake in if we don't feel like it but if we've got the time to spend a while on a forum and don't feel like doing anything else, that's fine too.

My perspective is a little different as an admin because I feel that my work on the forums and the site has helped me as far as my career is concerned, first and foremost because it's impressed employers and gained me both employment and interview opportunities but it's also helped me in dealing with the public. And in turn, my experience in customer support has probably helped me with my admin duties here as well.

[Tuomas]

I have the same kind of circumstances than Jae, no-one else here doesn't give a shit about basketball and NBA Live. I was only looking for patches and a place to share my work, but it became more than that. I love the fact that I can go to a "place" that has people that share a same interest. It's also interesting to talk to people from different locations, it makes the world seem smaller

[Stevesanity]

Isn't it funny how a thread that has a long post to begin with scares off spammers.

Another question, have forums helped increase poor grammar and punctuation in students? I know many teenagers these days tend to use "u", "nice" and various shorten form words that are not part of the English Dictionary or words used in conversation but not totally approriate for essay writing.

For example (I use dude and sweet too, not in essay writing but when I type) people would write

"The two dudes went to the store and saw the sweet skateboard."

Whereas before it would more likely to be

"The two boys went to the store and saw the skateboard."

[Tuomas]

Of course. It has helped me at understanding English, translating and not to count out the numerous new words I have absorbed. Learning English for me is a huge upside, so I wouldn't say forums are a waste of time

[J@3]

Perhaps forums encourage anti-social behaviour but no more than chat programs, video games, television and DVDs/videos.

I don't agree with that. Chat programs yes, but with video games/tv/movies etc there's no person to person interaction. It's entirely one sided, you're watching someone do something on tv or you're playing a game in which a character does whatever... but on a forum you're communicating with other actual humans, and if you act in a certain way on a forum alot of that will drag on to real life, because the human to human interaction is quite similar.

[Jugs]

lol at "scaring off spammers"

Well this forum was my second ever forum and it includes the things I love, Basketball and discussion, although I've spammed the shit out of this place, it means that I love this place. The forum I was at before was a slow GTA forum, which means I didn't like it and didn't enjoy posting many times per day.

As for language, it has help me become more consistent in English, I don't know how, but it has. In year 7, I got no higher than a B (70% marks) in English and such but practicing typing and such on forums has helped my creativity (with dynastys) and confidence in making an essay.

Although you could argue that a lot of kids haven't grasped the concept of intelligence = more respect, but they've taken coolness = popularity. This happens every day for any intelligent people as they are perceived as nerd and dorks etc whilst the cool people are bow downed upon becauce they've "had da most sexxes LOL" etc, it shits me.

As for anti-socialism etc, I'm not really anti-social, it is just that I am really, really shy, especially with the girls. I just panic and wonder what is the right thing and wrong thing to say. I also dislike meeting new people in real life, I'm afraid of rejection really. I don't know if it is the result of forums or what not but yeah, that is my problem. The best example of me is I have a class where I'm one of only four year 9's, the only year 9 boy among a class of year 10's and I'm too afraid to speak to the guy I sit next to or even present any arguments that I have with the discussions we have, and they're a good discussions, Jackal-style, like Iraq war and such, but I'm too afraid to share my views because of rejection and I don't know anyone in the class. But in my Japanese class with year 9s and I have like 7 friends in there, I'm sort of confident and know what I'm doing and such because I know my friends and I'm just more confident around people I know.

Yeah, I'm just not good at meeting people and such, I hate it because it's probably a neccessary quality to have. Oh well. I like forums, I enjoy them, good stress relief and fortunately in this forum, there are great people to talk to off the forums.

[Stevesanity]

Jugs you should not get downed on by rejection specially with girls. I mean if you mess up with one of them move on, its not the end of your life cause you got rejected by some random person you'd never meet again. Course if its girls in your school or class then it'll be a bit different but again its nothing for you to be shy or be a wussy about. Words can't hurt you, they can be demoralizing but they can't kill you or ruin your life. You know even though most girls these days are after the rich catch their are the ones that go crazy about the shy quiet guy, the nerd, the self-proclaimed ugly ones and no I'm not talking about the SUV's or the chipmunk girls I'm talking about real babes.

I was no social giant in school by any means and I really don't want to sound like I'm some sorta babe magnet but trust me girls would always come to me to for advice or would make a bigger effort to interact with me rather than the rich catch. I've seen total nerds who are not rich or "good-looking" by any means go out with major blonde pussy.

It really isnt about your looks or your wallet everytime, if you aren't gonna put the effort pussy won't come your way. If a girl talks to you don't blush and cuddle up like a sissy, just talk to her like you would with a good friend of yours. She's not going to eat you up and if it doesnt go well your not going to melt away and never get laid. I'm not sure about girls over there and what interests the most of them so I can't give you a really good view point but most of the time good chicks don't mind talking about any topic even if it maybe boring. Always let her have her turn to speak but best thing would not be to talk about sports straight away.

Your the type of guy that needs a down to earth girl, somewhat similar to me cause I can't stand loud party sluts. It'll take some searching but I think right now you just need to focus on holding up a conversation, talk about the subject or about some teen related news and do not compliment a girl in school in your first convo, some girls like it some girls will dislike it cause compliments come up in a first convo at school only when your only after the pussy and don't really give a shit about what type of girl she is. Course if its a blonde brainless bitch she'd love it and she'd be happy to get her pussy licked by a croatian motherfucker but I hope you know the difference between good pussy, good easy pussy and bad pussy.

I doubt any of this helped but if it did somewhat help boost your confidence or spur you on to try something in the near future then that's great. All the best Jugs, don't let that shyness crap become an excuse. I hope to see stories of pussy licking come up between your next 1000 spam posts.

[peaches]

So.many.pussys.in.the.same.paragraph.

But yeah Jugs, girls really aren't the most important thing in life. One thing you could try is just, let them come to you and don't force anything. Most of all, be yourself because if you try being something your not everything will fall apart.

[Jugs]

The problem is also meeting new people, not just girls for a Croatian motherfucker to lick their pussy (btw, LOL), just meeting new people in general. Nice advice from both you guys .

There are only like 3 girls that I have decent conversations with because I've known them for a while and are actually interested in having conversations with me. It's just I don't have feelings for them and I don't want to ruin the friendship by trying to hook in with them.

So mainly meeting new people or just socialising with a group of unknowns is my main weakness with socialising. Maybe I should just start conversationing more with randoms at school and build up my confidence.

[Tuomas]

Getting a little off topic aren't we? One of my friends is a real chickenhawk, and what I mean by that he goes out with girls he doesn't even like then he bitches about it later to me, how much he disliked them. I don't see the point of trying to hook up with a girl you have nothing in common with, with the exception of trying to get laid.

[The X]

Jugs, I was gonna post some advice & stuff, but Stevesanity more or less said it all & added some humour in there too

I was not to dissimilar from you Jugs many years ago, a lanky-ass shy guy with smarts, considered the 'nice guy', but I had no confidence....at your age I was probably at the same stage of shyness....wasn't very outgoing, blah de blah, just real quiet at school, even though I wasn't at home....over time that passes....as others have said, just talk to people....have faith in your conviction....if you think you know something about a topic, throw your 2 cents in....I don't know about other people, but I like being around people who can have intelligent conversations....sure I like to have a drink every now & then, but when I'm knocking back that pint of momma's milk at an Irish pub with mates, I'm not scoping the room for some easy thing, I am having some random, insightful conversation with a mate with some beer-drinking songs in the background....you'll realise when after high school that all that fawning over girls didn't matter....it was the mates, the laughs, the sports & the cruisy lifestyle....

if all else fails, you've always got Live, 2k & bball....heck, what'd you think I did when I was your age, good old Live '95 & played bball everyday

I probably haven't helped much as I have a habit of 'fluffing' a bit....the core message is somewhere in there....sorry, it's a bad habit I picked up from writing uni essay


on topic, this is the only forum I come to as I luv bball & anything bball-related (including computer games)....it just so happens it turned out to be a pretty good community so I stuck around....

[Stevesanity]

Jugs, I was gonna post some advice & stuff, but Stevesanity more or less said it all & added some humour in there too

I was not to dissimilar from you Jugs many years ago, a lanky-ass shy guy with smarts, considered the 'nice guy', but I had no confidence....at your age I was probably at the same stage of shyness....wasn't very outgoing, blah de blah, just real quiet at school, even though I wasn't at home....over time that passes....as others have said, just talk to people....have faith in your conviction....if you think you know something about a topic, throw your 2 cents in....I don't know about other people, but I like being around people who can have intelligent conversations....sure I like to have a drink every now & then, but when I'm knocking back that pint of momma's milk at an Irish pub with mates, I'm not scoping the room for some easy thing, I am having some random, insightful conversation with a mate with some beer-drinking songs in the background....you'll realise when after high school that all that fawning over girls didn't matter....it was the mates, the laughs, the sports & the cruisy lifestyle....

if all else fails, you've always got Live, 2k & bball....heck, what'd you think I did when I was your age, good old Live '95 & played bball everyday

I probably haven't helped much as I have a habit of 'fluffing' a bit....the core message is somewhere in there....sorry, it's a bad habit I picked up from writing uni essay


on topic, this is the only forum I come to as I luv bball & anything bball-related (including computer games)....it just so happens it turned out to be a pretty good community so I stuck around....

You forgot to tell him about the other option





Anyway about meeting girls, Im sure Australia has plenty of girls around just like we do. As I said I have no idea what girls are like there but I'm sure most of them won't mind giving head to a little zombie like Croatian. And if your a nice guy and aren't always after head then I'm sure you'd find plenty of real deals out there, but yeah start trying to use the girls at school as a base to become better with the chicks cause you don't want to go into College that is if you are going college or start a job where your likely to come across Women and possibly be involved in projects with them and look like a dick licker whenever you talk to them.

I agree with The X, you will realize that its not always abt whose popular and whose not at school or who got laid the most cause you prolly won't come across 90% of them. I say find a good chick, treat her like a Princess if she's worth it and make sure your friends aren't pounding on her too.

And Tuomas is right, this thread is going off-topic but it's for a good cause at least.

[Andrew]

Perhaps forums encourage anti-social behaviour but no more than chat programs, video games, television and DVDs/videos.

I don't agree with that. Chat programs yes, but with video games/tv/movies etc there's no person to person interaction. It's entirely one sided, you're watching someone do something on tv or you're playing a game in which a character does whatever... but on a forum you're communicating with other actual humans, and if you act in a certain way on a forum alot of that will drag on to real life, because the human to human interaction is quite similar.

Well, I did suggest forums aren't any worse than TV/videos/games. You're right, the human to human interaction is there but someone who is spending all of their time online in a forum and doesn't really have a circle of friends or activities/interests away from the forum is not unlike someone who just sits and watches TV all day in so much as a lack of a healthy and active social life.

[Nick]

you'll realise when after high school that all that fawning over girls didn't matter....it was the mates, the laughs, the sports & the cruisy lifestyle....

Amen to that brother.

Hey jugs, i had some of those tendancies in high school at one stage too (in like yr 10 or so). I really wouldn't worry about it. For me it seemed like mainly an age thing. It will pass.

When yr 12 hits, and/or high school finishes, the genuine people who are themselves, and generally nice and easy to get along with stand out a lot more. You will also discover a lot of people who are the "party go'ers" and loud or whatever, actually put a facade up the whole time. I.e. they're fake. (Well, atleast i noticed that at my school anyway. I can't stand people who act a certain way to make themselves look a certain way. Just be yourself for fuck's sake.)

Anyway, my point is, everything will work out for people like you in the end.

The only reason I started coming to the NLSC was because I didn't know anyone else who played it.

Exactly the same for me.

[MacGuyver]

great stuff. nicely done. opinion based and content wise. all in all forums were born the same time as the entire internet came to life.