I think you're right. When I say "clique", I generally mean circles of people who appear tightly coupled with one another. In this context, "cliques" can be good, bad or indifferent - it all depends how they interact with other people outside of their own circles.
I know i post way too much, have tried to cut down but just really love WOS, lots of great people here, one minute youre talking about the latest thing on TV, next minute about some great Ocean title etc.
I personally wish more people posted in the Games section whereas some of the 'old guard' might like more technical chats and not the latest contestants on Big Brother. As long as there arent 'chit chat' topics in other sections i dont see the problem.
I'm not a huge fan of the Emulators part so i stay away from that, no skin off my nose . But at the end of the day we're all fans of the Speccy and i'm sure many people might have played more games than before because of someone mentioning an old classic they had forgotton about etc.
I find it very interesting the different range of people here, thought there would be more active game players for the Games section but theres a vast variety of Speccy fans here.
I don't really understand "anti chit chat people". If they don't like chit chat, then don't go in the chit chat forum. It's not hard. If you got rid of the chit chat section, then all the chit chat would end up being off topic threads in other parts of the forum, a situation which would be far worse.
In any group of people there's bound to be a bit of disagreement here and there. If it's kept civil there isn't a problem.
I can only speak for myself here, well, and uncle Dustin - but he doesn't know how to use his hands, let alone a computer type thingy.
I've kind of moved on now, and am trying other things, but still come back here - such is the magnetic draw.
I feel intimidated when I post in some of the threads here - and I shouldn't. God only knows what a newcomer must feel. I, like everyone else, make mistakes and need answers, not grief.
There's a plethora of talent bundled here, like, I guess, everywhere else, but sometimes people's attitudes just stink too much, and cloud their own perceptions and reasonings - to the extent that they exclude everyone else from their centre of their universe.
I don't want to be pulled apart for being crap - I get enough of that at home.
I noticed there's been a lot of activity in that thread recently so I looked out of curiousity and the first post I see is a warning from Rollings? I was like eh? So I did some back-tracking.
That's "High Lord-Inquisitor" Rollings to you, and don't you forget it!:-P
I don't really understand "anti chit chat people". If they don't like chit chat, then don't go in the chit chat forum. It's not hard. If you got rid of the chit chat section, then all the chit chat would end up being off topic threads in other parts of the forum, a situation which would be far worse.
In any group of people there's bound to be a bit of disagreement here and there. If it's kept civil there isn't a problem.
indeed exactly how i feel
its like i didnt feel i knew / felt inclined enough to post in places like hardware / games / development............but the past few days i fancied a dabble, generally tho i dont venture in cos its not really my scene man
Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
I've seen people in other forums say they won't visit WOS because it's this or that. I fail to make them understand that WOS shouldn't be criticized as a whole when one or two people get out of line. WOS isn't the problem. The site is great, the forums are great.
If one day someone attacks me beyond what's considered acceptable, I wouldn't blame WOS, the forums, the community, or say it's not what it used to be. I would be mature enough to understand that my problem was with that individual, not with the site.
If everyone thought like this, we would still have Yerzmyey, Woody, Dunny and many others. People leave hundreds of people who were happy to have them here, just because of the actions of one or a few...
Yerzmyey, for example, left after he felt that no one wanted to help with .MOD playback for the Speccy. But if you read the old threads you see that there was a language barrier and he was also too impatient, wanting results a.s.a.p. In the end you saw a great Speccy musician leaving for a stupid reason. Until this day he still says things like "Your program is useless" or "people are lazy", and I assure you he's not being offensive from his point of view. It's the language thing.
I saw it happening again when someone told Beccy she was a liar. I know they didn't meant it that way. But a wrong word at the wrong time can make someone turn the table and leave.
If people from the U.K. can get into misunderstandings because they don't use the right words, imagine what can go wrong when people forget smilies or their first languange isn't English.
I think fingerpointing and shooting people down is the only thing that damages this community. When someone does this he or she should be told not to. If someone approaches this community and is happy because he thinks he had a "new" idea, don't shoot him down. If he wants to develop a super spectrum, don't shoot him down. If he didn't search the forums, don't shoot him down. If he didn't read the FAQ, don't shoot him down.
well can we have a miscellaneous forum for tech related things, and a separate one for the nonsense then?
I'd gladly avoid the chit chat thread if the useful conversations weren't buried in it...
well can we have a miscellaneous forum for tech related things, and a separate one for the nonsense then?
I'd gladly avoid the chit chat thread if the useful conversations weren't buried in it...
eh?? we do
theres the ontopic stuff and the offtopic stuff??
Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
well can we have a miscellaneous forum for tech related things, and a separate one for the nonsense then?
I'd gladly avoid the chit chat thread if the useful conversations weren't buried in it...
I can only speak for myself here, well, and uncle Dustin - but he doesn't know how to use his hands, let alone a computer type thingy.
I've kind of moved on now, and am trying other things, but still come back here - such is the magnetic draw.
I feel intimidated when I post in some of the threads here - and I shouldn't. God only knows what a newcomer must feel. I, like everyone else, make mistakes and need answers, not grief.
I dont know why you feel intimidated, i often say hello to any newbies in the intro thread. But granted if some plum writes 'I cant find roms....' or 'Where can i download Codemasters games....' then i will have some fun and rip into them when they simply are too lazy to use Google.
But as Winston says, whats the harm in off topic, i do think that it should be full of Speccy fans, if someone posted 100% in Off Topic then thats a bit weird. We're mostly all Speccy fans here who like to post in Games a fair bit but also have a good natter down in off topic. Nothing wrong with that.
The Emulators bit is way too techy for me and i wouldnt venture there as you get totally put down rudely if you say the wrong thing accidentally, whereas on the whole the Games/Chit chat is much more friendlier.
Do think 'certain' people should have lessons in chatting on forums though as often many of their posts can come across very very rudely.
Shame when you see people leave when they have a falling out with just one person. Its a great site but granted theres been many strange threads and 'happenings' over the years here.
I can only speak for myself here, well, and uncle Dustin - but he doesn't know how to use his hands.
I don't want to be pulled apart for being crap - I get enough of that at home.
So you uncle can`t do much Dusting then, how does he flick through his photo albums ?
You shouldn`t be pulled apart for anything, you have a right to be good or bad at anything and anything that others demand of you matters little, you will NEVER please people who are like that. It would be great to play the piano, but I am useless at it, but at least I didn`t have to answer to others about it, so I didn`t get a hard time over it.
As for cliques etc on here, well I don`t think I have noticed any here lately, perhaps I fly under the radar and no-one from them thinks it nis worth kicking me. It was worse when I first joined and I had a few run ins, but that was not a problem because I made a list, and one of these days I may get my revenge, Ha, ha, ha..............
As for different personalities on here I must say I enjoy the whacky humour of some people and I tend to not care whether what I say makes me look an idiot or not, I just take it as granted that I might get a slapdown from an old timer, but it matters little to me.
Every time I read that the oldest person in the world has died, I have to do a quick check to see it isn't ME..........
yeeeeesss... that's for "Sinclair Miscellaneous" (clue in the name ;))
where do you suggest we talk about PC related stuff, other retro computing stuff, technical things that aren't related to speccy hardware etc.
Maybe I'm alone in thinking there's too much noise drowning out the signal in chit chat? *shrug*
It just seems that when threads about how much someone is going to drink tonight, or the latest update to a list of nonsense are being posted and pushing more worthy (only in my opinion of course!) threads off the bottom of the front page in a matter of hours... well I think it's a shame.
Like I say, maybe it's just me. But I wish there was a way to killfile threads I don't have any interest in so I don't have to trawl through pages of similar threads about nothing in particular... :roll:
yeeeeesss... that's for "Sinclair Miscellaneous" (clue in the name ;))
where do you suggest we talk about PC related stuff, other retro computing stuff, technical things that aren't related to speccy hardware etc.
Maybe I'm alone in thinking there's too much noise drowning out the signal in chit chat? *shrug*
It just seems that when threads about how much someone is going to drink tonight, or the latest update to a list of nonsense are being posted and pushing more worthy (only in my opinion of course!) threads off the bottom of the front page in a matter of hours... well I think it's a shame.
Like I say, maybe it's just me. But I wish there was a way to killfile threads I don't have any interest in so I don't have to trawl through pages of similar threads about nothing in particular... :roll:
but thats just your personal preference??
maybe we should have a music section.or entertainment?
or a full drinking section?
maybe one for mongy lards and collander on head pics?
Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
But as Winston says, whats the harm in off topic, i do think that it should be full of Speccy fans, if someone posted 100% in Off Topic then thats a bit weird. We're mostly all Speccy fans here who like to post in Games a fair bit but also have a good natter down in off topic. Nothing wrong with that.
There are different degrees of off-topicness though... That's what I always assumed, that this was a retro computing website. When I want to post about completely unrelated things I go elsewhere... It's not like there's a shortage of forums for talking about mongy lards ;)
The Emulators bit is way too techy for me and i wouldnt venture there as you get totally put down rudely if you say the wrong thing accidentally, whereas on the whole the Games/Chit chat is much more friendlier.
I don't understand that attitude either. It's a bit annoying when new people ask the same questions again and again without having looked at the sticky threads etc, but I always point people in the right direction (I hope).
I enjoy helping out new folk, and trying to make the feel welcome. I feel it's my duty to impart the wisdom that I've learnt here over the years to the next lot of people who join the forums. I also read the threads about things I don't understand, e.g. stuff in emulators about the latest emulation breakthrough or whatever, if I don't understand something then that's an oppertunity to learn something. (and if you take an interest in something, then people are happy to teach you. I am anyway)
maybe we should have a music section.or entertainment?
or a full drinking section?
maybe one for mongy lards and collander on head pics?
This is a spectrum website though... not a pub.
I agree, though, have some way of sorting the threads out. Maybe mandatory thread tagging so we can use filters? The tagging function is there, but doesn't get used.
where do you suggest we talk about PC related stuff, other retro computing stuff, technical things that aren't related to speccy hardware etc.
I understand the point.
Today if you want to ask on this forums something technical about C++ programming, digital electronics or hardware sprites on Amiga it will land on chitchat between Big Brother and Britney Spears.
So it may be hard to find and people interested only in technology may avoid such forums.
Maybe a purely technical, unreleted to Spectrum forum would be a good idea. "Other computers", "Technology" or something like that. Let the interested people choose the name.
There are different degrees of off-topicness though... That's what I always assumed, that this was a retro computing website. When I want to post about completely unrelated things I go elsewhere... It's not like there's a shortage of forums for talking about mongy lards ;)
I don't understand that attitude either. It's a bit annoying when new people ask the same questions again and again without having looked at the sticky threads etc, but I always point people in the right direction (I hope).
I enjoy helping out new folk, and trying to make the feel welcome. I feel it's my duty to impart the wisdom that I've learnt here over the years to the next lot of people who join the forums. I also read the threads about things I don't understand, e.g. stuff in emulators about the latest emulation breakthrough or whatever, if I don't understand something then that's an oppertunity to learn something. (and if you take an interest in something, then people are happy to teach you. I am anyway)
I post a lot in Chit Chat but as the name suggests its to have a 'chin way' so to speak about any news, progs etc. But yeah if someone posts in Chit Chat 99% of the time its a shame as theres lots of other sites for that.
I like helping out new folk, often PM many of them, give them links or enjoy threads newbies start about games (Which i'm sure have been done already but then again if you resurrect a 2 year old thread you get shot down so you cant win) but overall its great.
But if a newbie just turns up asking some stupid question then i feel its alright to have a joke at them
A section for non-sinclair tech talk... Interesting.
I forgot to add something to my previous post.
We should encourage people who arrive with new ideas. If they're terrible ideas or if they've been done before, we should let them know about it without making them feel terrible.
A few people come to mind now. The gentleman who developed a colour-clash-free Spectrum but got a very negative reception, the gentleman who developed an ethernet interface but got close to no feedback or was told Winston's Specranet was better, the gentleman who presented the .PZX format, etc etc etc.
I know some ideas are not feasible, but I've seen people arriving full of ideas and motivation and leaving before they had a chance to discover WOS, all because they felt that the general attitude was "We like it the way it is and we don't want anything to change.".
Yes, I know some of them wanted to change the world in a few days (read "the way WOS works"). Those are exceptions.
bollocks, thought id been waiting a while to be served
Oh here matey, have a bottle of this Icehouse crap :D
It's the closest thing to decent beer I can offer you, American beer is pish.....and the Brown Ale comes in half-pint bottles, but costs as much as pint bottles? Figure that one out?
A few people come to mind now. The gentleman who developed a colour-clash-free Spectrum but got a very negative reception
I don't recall that. Was it some sort of graphics card type addon (I assume it was some sort of hardware addon design with ram etc?)
I find that soft of idea interesting but I know there are people who think it "un-spectrumlike"
A few people come to mind now. The gentleman who developed a colour-clash-free Spectrum but got a very negative reception, the gentleman who developed an ethernet interface but got close to no feedback or was told Winston's Specranet was better
They told me there was no point in having an ethernet interface for a Spectrum. But I knew better, of course :-)
(I'm not even sure who "they" were now, but it seemed like a meme that there was no point doing ethernet whenever the subject came up, but I always thought the objections were unimaginative).
The thing is do what you want - damn the icebergs, full speed ahead.
Also there's a difference between a negative reaction as in, "I don't think it'll work" or "you're turning the machine into a MP3 player with a Speccy hanging off it" (skepticisim) and "You're fscking out of your mind!" (unfriendliness, closedmindedness and insults). The former, if accompanied with perhaps some constructive suggestions, or perhaps why $FOO is not a good idea isn't a bad thing. The latter, on the other hand, is not something that really fosters friendship.
yeeeeesss... that's for "Sinclair Miscellaneous" (clue in the name ;))
where do you suggest we talk about PC related stuff, other retro computing stuff, technical things that aren't related to speccy hardware etc.
Maybe I'm alone in thinking there's too much noise drowning out the signal in chit chat? *shrug*
I get what you're saying too...all the other stuff can knock some other console or PC talk down the forum a bit too far...maybe if you ask nicely a Techy non-speccy section can be added and we can all rejoice! We won't get if we don't ask...:)
Still dont know why people get so upset about the Chit Chat section though. If it was called 'Chit Chat - Computer related only' then fair enough.
Seems like theres a fair bit of rudeness to newbies in the Emulators/techy bit which surprised me as i thought it was mostly us here in Chit Chat but obviously not !
Forums which have a 'chit chat' style section often brings everyone together more in a friendlier way I reckon. Granted threads about politics/is it okay to call a pakistani a paki/what do you think of these 20 stone mongy lards/should i ask out a 15 year old girl/dont call it WOSmas or i'll go mental type threads shouldnt be allowed though as they'll just descend into chaos.
In 2009 its common as anything to have a forum with an off topic place to 'chat like its a pub'. Just seems like some of the old guard still arent happy with that, if you dont like it dont post in it. I'm not keen on the Emulators section as at times i feel its very stuffy and rude so i keep away
Comments
'Meme' might be better.
I think you're right. When I say "clique", I generally mean circles of people who appear tightly coupled with one another. In this context, "cliques" can be good, bad or indifferent - it all depends how they interact with other people outside of their own circles.
I personally wish more people posted in the Games section whereas some of the 'old guard' might like more technical chats and not the latest contestants on Big Brother. As long as there arent 'chit chat' topics in other sections i dont see the problem.
I'm not a huge fan of the Emulators part so i stay away from that, no skin off my nose . But at the end of the day we're all fans of the Speccy and i'm sure many people might have played more games than before because of someone mentioning an old classic they had forgotton about etc.
I find it very interesting the different range of people here, thought there would be more active game players for the Games section but theres a vast variety of Speccy fans here.
In any group of people there's bound to be a bit of disagreement here and there. If it's kept civil there isn't a problem.
I've kind of moved on now, and am trying other things, but still come back here - such is the magnetic draw.
I feel intimidated when I post in some of the threads here - and I shouldn't. God only knows what a newcomer must feel. I, like everyone else, make mistakes and need answers, not grief.
There's a plethora of talent bundled here, like, I guess, everywhere else, but sometimes people's attitudes just stink too much, and cloud their own perceptions and reasonings - to the extent that they exclude everyone else from their centre of their universe.
I don't want to be pulled apart for being crap - I get enough of that at home.
That's "High Lord-Inquisitor" Rollings to you, and don't you forget it!:-P
Andrew
its like i didnt feel i knew / felt inclined enough to post in places like hardware / games / development............but the past few days i fancied a dabble, generally tho i dont venture in cos its not really my scene man
If one day someone attacks me beyond what's considered acceptable, I wouldn't blame WOS, the forums, the community, or say it's not what it used to be. I would be mature enough to understand that my problem was with that individual, not with the site.
If everyone thought like this, we would still have Yerzmyey, Woody, Dunny and many others. People leave hundreds of people who were happy to have them here, just because of the actions of one or a few...
Yerzmyey, for example, left after he felt that no one wanted to help with .MOD playback for the Speccy. But if you read the old threads you see that there was a language barrier and he was also too impatient, wanting results a.s.a.p. In the end you saw a great Speccy musician leaving for a stupid reason. Until this day he still says things like "Your program is useless" or "people are lazy", and I assure you he's not being offensive from his point of view. It's the language thing.
I saw it happening again when someone told Beccy she was a liar. I know they didn't meant it that way. But a wrong word at the wrong time can make someone turn the table and leave.
If people from the U.K. can get into misunderstandings because they don't use the right words, imagine what can go wrong when people forget smilies or their first languange isn't English.
I think fingerpointing and shooting people down is the only thing that damages this community. When someone does this he or she should be told not to. If someone approaches this community and is happy because he thinks he had a "new" idea, don't shoot him down. If he wants to develop a super spectrum, don't shoot him down. If he didn't search the forums, don't shoot him down. If he didn't read the FAQ, don't shoot him down.
Dunno if this makes sense...
I'd gladly avoid the chit chat thread if the useful conversations weren't buried in it...
eh?? we do
theres the ontopic stuff and the offtopic stuff??
http://worldofspectrum.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=12
I dont know why you feel intimidated, i often say hello to any newbies in the intro thread. But granted if some plum writes 'I cant find roms....' or 'Where can i download Codemasters games....' then i will have some fun and rip into them when they simply are too lazy to use Google.
But as Winston says, whats the harm in off topic, i do think that it should be full of Speccy fans, if someone posted 100% in Off Topic then thats a bit weird. We're mostly all Speccy fans here who like to post in Games a fair bit but also have a good natter down in off topic. Nothing wrong with that.
The Emulators bit is way too techy for me and i wouldnt venture there as you get totally put down rudely if you say the wrong thing accidentally, whereas on the whole the Games/Chit chat is much more friendlier.
Do think 'certain' people should have lessons in chatting on forums though as often many of their posts can come across very very rudely.
Shame when you see people leave when they have a falling out with just one person. Its a great site but granted theres been many strange threads and 'happenings' over the years here.
So you uncle can`t do much Dusting then, how does he flick through his photo albums ?
You shouldn`t be pulled apart for anything, you have a right to be good or bad at anything and anything that others demand of you matters little, you will NEVER please people who are like that. It would be great to play the piano, but I am useless at it, but at least I didn`t have to answer to others about it, so I didn`t get a hard time over it.
As for cliques etc on here, well I don`t think I have noticed any here lately, perhaps I fly under the radar and no-one from them thinks it nis worth kicking me. It was worse when I first joined and I had a few run ins, but that was not a problem because I made a list, and one of these days I may get my revenge, Ha, ha, ha..............
As for different personalities on here I must say I enjoy the whacky humour of some people and I tend to not care whether what I say makes me look an idiot or not, I just take it as granted that I might get a slapdown from an old timer, but it matters little to me.
yeeeeesss... that's for "Sinclair Miscellaneous" (clue in the name ;))
where do you suggest we talk about PC related stuff, other retro computing stuff, technical things that aren't related to speccy hardware etc.
Maybe I'm alone in thinking there's too much noise drowning out the signal in chit chat? *shrug*
It just seems that when threads about how much someone is going to drink tonight, or the latest update to a list of nonsense are being posted and pushing more worthy (only in my opinion of course!) threads off the bottom of the front page in a matter of hours... well I think it's a shame.
Like I say, maybe it's just me. But I wish there was a way to killfile threads I don't have any interest in so I don't have to trawl through pages of similar threads about nothing in particular... :roll:
but thats just your personal preference??
maybe we should have a music section.or entertainment?
or a full drinking section?
maybe one for mongy lards and collander on head pics?
I don't understand that attitude either. It's a bit annoying when new people ask the same questions again and again without having looked at the sticky threads etc, but I always point people in the right direction (I hope).
I enjoy helping out new folk, and trying to make the feel welcome. I feel it's my duty to impart the wisdom that I've learnt here over the years to the next lot of people who join the forums. I also read the threads about things I don't understand, e.g. stuff in emulators about the latest emulation breakthrough or whatever, if I don't understand something then that's an oppertunity to learn something. (and if you take an interest in something, then people are happy to teach you. I am anyway)
This is a spectrum website though... not a pub.
I agree, though, have some way of sorting the threads out. Maybe mandatory thread tagging so we can use filters? The tagging function is there, but doesn't get used.
I understand the point.
Today if you want to ask on this forums something technical about C++ programming, digital electronics or hardware sprites on Amiga it will land on chitchat between Big Brother and Britney Spears.
So it may be hard to find and people interested only in technology may avoid such forums.
Maybe a purely technical, unreleted to Spectrum forum would be a good idea. "Other computers", "Technology" or something like that. Let the interested people choose the name.
whew! I was beginning to think I was the only one who knew what I was getting at :)
I suppose people will say that all those things have their own forums too. It's a valid point, so I'll make it before someone uses it on me :D
I post a lot in Chit Chat but as the name suggests its to have a 'chin way' so to speak about any news, progs etc. But yeah if someone posts in Chit Chat 99% of the time its a shame as theres lots of other sites for that.
I like helping out new folk, often PM many of them, give them links or enjoy threads newbies start about games (Which i'm sure have been done already but then again if you resurrect a 2 year old thread you get shot down so you cant win) but overall its great.
But if a newbie just turns up asking some stupid question then i feel its alright to have a joke at them
its not??
bollocks, thought id been waiting a while to be served
I don`t think that I have ever looked in the sticky threads! What is the point of wisdom that we don`t pass on ? We were all once a newbee.
Mods! Mods! grey key hasn't read the ruuuuules before posting!!!! :wink: < (please note, winking face :))
I forgot to add something to my previous post.
We should encourage people who arrive with new ideas. If they're terrible ideas or if they've been done before, we should let them know about it without making them feel terrible.
A few people come to mind now. The gentleman who developed a colour-clash-free Spectrum but got a very negative reception, the gentleman who developed an ethernet interface but got close to no feedback or was told Winston's Specranet was better, the gentleman who presented the .PZX format, etc etc etc.
I know some ideas are not feasible, but I've seen people arriving full of ideas and motivation and leaving before they had a chance to discover WOS, all because they felt that the general attitude was "We like it the way it is and we don't want anything to change.".
Yes, I know some of them wanted to change the world in a few days (read "the way WOS works"). Those are exceptions.
Oh here matey, have a bottle of this Icehouse crap :D
It's the closest thing to decent beer I can offer you, American beer is pish.....and the Brown Ale comes in half-pint bottles, but costs as much as pint bottles? Figure that one out?
I don't recall that. Was it some sort of graphics card type addon (I assume it was some sort of hardware addon design with ram etc?)
I find that soft of idea interesting but I know there are people who think it "un-spectrumlike"
They told me there was no point in having an ethernet interface for a Spectrum. But I knew better, of course :-)
(I'm not even sure who "they" were now, but it seemed like a meme that there was no point doing ethernet whenever the subject came up, but I always thought the objections were unimaginative).
The thing is do what you want - damn the icebergs, full speed ahead.
Also there's a difference between a negative reaction as in, "I don't think it'll work" or "you're turning the machine into a MP3 player with a Speccy hanging off it" (skepticisim) and "You're fscking out of your mind!" (unfriendliness, closedmindedness and insults). The former, if accompanied with perhaps some constructive suggestions, or perhaps why $FOO is not a good idea isn't a bad thing. The latter, on the other hand, is not something that really fosters friendship.
I get what you're saying too...all the other stuff can knock some other console or PC talk down the forum a bit too far...maybe if you ask nicely a Techy non-speccy section can be added and we can all rejoice! We won't get if we don't ask...:)
Still dont know why people get so upset about the Chit Chat section though. If it was called 'Chit Chat - Computer related only' then fair enough.
Seems like theres a fair bit of rudeness to newbies in the Emulators/techy bit which surprised me as i thought it was mostly us here in Chit Chat but obviously not !
Forums which have a 'chit chat' style section often brings everyone together more in a friendlier way I reckon. Granted threads about politics/is it okay to call a pakistani a paki/what do you think of these 20 stone mongy lards/should i ask out a 15 year old girl/dont call it WOSmas or i'll go mental type threads shouldnt be allowed though as they'll just descend into chaos.
In 2009 its common as anything to have a forum with an off topic place to 'chat like its a pub'. Just seems like some of the old guard still arent happy with that, if you dont like it dont post in it. I'm not keen on the Emulators section as at times i feel its very stuffy and rude so i keep away
I've not noticed any cliques, and the so-called techy forums seem plenty friendly to me -- no negativity towards this newbie that I've noticed.
Not all the 'Chit Chat' threads interest me, but I'm happy to pick the ones that look like they will (time permitting), and skip the ones that don't.
So I don't really see any problem, although, admittedly, I have never known WoS from 'the good old days'.