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Personally I supect it might be due to differing expectations as to what social media conversations are. I think those who weren't super active on forums and ot

by CM30 2y ago

Personally I supect it might be due to differing expectations as to what social media conversations are. I think those who weren't super active on forums and other old school chat systems think of them as closer to a chat between friends in a bar than between randoms on the street, and struggle to handle the idea that anyone in the world can reply at any point. But that's kinda the thing. As you said, the whole 'messages with reply text box' design is set up to encourage responses from whoever wants to respond, and social media services are closer to a soapbox in Speaker's Corner or maybe Times Square than a chat between friends at home or in a restaurant.

bee_rider 2y ago
It depends on the “old school forum” I think. Most phpbb style forums had limited populations, so they were more like chats with your friends at a bar; people come and go, but if you are a regular, there are some familiar faces, and you will likely be engaging with the same people in the short term, so being incredibly rude is counter-productive. Really big boards like Something Awful were the ones known for their rudeness.
- CM30 2y ago
  I guess there was still an expectation that out of that population, anyone could reply to anyone about seemingly anything remotely relevant. I suspect a lot of people online don't see it like that anymore, and in some cases might even be surprised that anyone is responding to them at all. The rudeness is definitely the big issue with modern social media though, and as you said, that comes from how enormous these sites/services are now.
  - bee_rider 2y ago
    I think another big issue with modern twitter style mostly-one-interaction social media is the lack of a community. Even the good old forums, I recall, would have people show up and behave more poorly than was acceptable, get banned, and then you could go back to interacting with your online friends. There’s a sense that the angry person who showed up is the misanthrope, so their opinion doesn’t hurt you. Plus you have more of a model, so-and-so is grumpy and will insult me, but it’s kind of good natured or at least I know how to calibrate their ire.
    - CM30 2y ago
      Yeah there's not much of a community on any of these services. Probably in part because there's no shared ground in the way there would be on a forum or what not. If you went to a site about a particular series or video game console or band or whatever, you'd know many people there would share at least one interest, if not many more, and the disagreements would be on fairly neutral matters. On a large social media service, you not only don't have any shared interests to go off of much of the time, but there are groups and communities on there who actively hate each other and may want the other dead. In a sense, these sites are like a giant high school.

by CM30 2y ago

bee_rider 2y ago

It depends on the “old school forum” I think. Most phpbb style forums had limited populations, so they were more like chats with your friends at a bar; people come and go, but if you are a regular, there are some familiar faces, and you will likely be engaging with the same people in the short term, so being incredibly rude is counter-productive. Really big boards like Something Awful were the ones known for their rudeness.

CM30 2y ago
I guess there was still an expectation that out of that population, anyone could reply to anyone about seemingly anything remotely relevant. I suspect a lot of people online don't see it like that anymore, and in some cases might even be surprised that anyone is responding to them at all. The rudeness is definitely the big issue with modern social media though, and as you said, that comes from how enormous these sites/services are now.
- bee_rider 2y ago
  I think another big issue with modern twitter style mostly-one-interaction social media is the lack of a community. Even the good old forums, I recall, would have people show up and behave more poorly than was acceptable, get banned, and then you could go back to interacting with your online friends. There’s a sense that the angry person who showed up is the misanthrope, so their opinion doesn’t hurt you. Plus you have more of a model, so-and-so is grumpy and will insult me, but it’s kind of good natured or at least I know how to calibrate their ire.
  - CM30 2y ago
    Yeah there's not much of a community on any of these services. Probably in part because there's no shared ground in the way there would be on a forum or what not. If you went to a site about a particular series or video game console or band or whatever, you'd know many people there would share at least one interest, if not many more, and the disagreements would be on fairly neutral matters. On a large social media service, you not only don't have any shared interests to go off of much of the time, but there are groups and communities on there who actively hate each other and may want the other dead. In a sense, these sites are like a giant high school.