This just in: People on the Internet SUCK!
I hate the CBR forums. Hate, hate, hate. I hate them as much as the haters love to hate. 9__9 They give comic book fans a bad rep. In fact, they are the bad rep. If someone's only experience with comic book fans was with these guys, I wouldn't blame them for a second for believing Western comics are weirdass crap.
The X-books forums at CBR seem to go unmoderated, although there is a mod - I'm not exactly sure what he does. If a certain couple threads are locked tomorrow, I'll feel better, but the damage has already been done. People are ganging up on this one woman and hitting her with personal attacks ("except they're just jokes!") because she dares to take their insensitive, made-to-provoke humor seriously. Honestly? They're being so insensitive that even though I know they just want to get a reaction because it's ever so funny, I still want to lash out at them. Have held back, so far, because I also know I just can't win. When you're fighting someone with nothing to lose, you can't win. They won't take you seriously and will ignore your every opinion.
This is what I hate: at CBR, the jerks can make all the stupid, offensive jokes they like and get away with it, because they talk about it in the context of comic books. "What would the Catholic church think of mutants?" is just a way to stir up trouble between religious and anti-religious members. The influx of "Did Nightcrawler approve of Cyclops's actions?/ Is Kurt in Heaven or Hell?/ Who should we blame for Kurt's death?" threads, mostly not created by his fans, are, or become, ways to rile up Nightcrawler fans. They're entertained by the fact that we miss our favorite character. For our part, the Nightcrawler fans should not be taking the bait. But most are upset and discontent with how/why Kurt died, so they bite right away. And we aren't all as thoughtful and kind as Nightcrawler, so you can imagine the results.
Then, when the jerks discover they can make us react by bashing our favorite character, they start doing it more. There's a thread for appreciating Marrow - a minor character I happen to love, although I'd rather not talk about her with the people in that thread, ever. In that thread, there's an entire page devoted to "Marrow should stab Kurt" "Kurt is an insensitive jerk to Marrow" "Kurt wants to teach Marrow how to be an evil witch-child" posts. And for some reason, this is funny. Y'know, I don't care if someone hates a character. Nightcrawler fans tend to think nobody hates him. I have no idea why. Every character has a hater. And I always thought Kurt, being Catholic, a nice guy, and a character with a lot of fans in spite of not doing much over the last several years, would have many haters. People read comics for different reasons, just like with anything else, and there are fans who really don't find Kurt's interactions with other mutants in the chapel very interesting or compelling. They might find them a waste of panel space. I think that's silly, but that's how some people feel, and because we have those aforementioned different reasons for reading, I'm just as silly to complain about them. But they loooove to complain about me.
Anyway - like I said, I don't care if someone hates Nightcrawler. If they say they hate a character's fans, well, lots of people have that experience. Sometimes the fans do come on so strongly that if you don't back away, it can ruin the experience for you. But character-bashing is just not cool. It's intolerant, rude, and just causes wank. It's disrespectful. It makes you a small person.
Not that CBR cares! CBR is home to everyone who ever wished the world were more tolerant of jerks with a rude sense of humor who like to refer to women as whores. It's the best place for them. Really, the only places I feel safe on those boards is the Nightcrawler Appreciation thread and its spin-offs. Not surprisingly, most of the posters in those threads are girls. There's more than a little misogyny that runs free everywhere else.
I'm not even saying the girls are better fans than the guys. I've learned a lot from the guys; they know tons about comic book canon, events that influenced comic book history, and lots of other knowledge. I also have personally never met a guy who didn't like to debate (though I'm sure they exist), so it doesn't surprise me they're involved in all the most controversial threads.
Girls on the board do these things too. Even girls who aren't making stupid insensitive jokes, but who let themselves be provoked and keep the discussion going cause wank. Girls also have plenty of knowledge about comic books and other subjects themselves.
But some people are just louder and more obnoxious than others and give everyone else a bad rep. That's most of the users on CBR. Character-bashing? Check. Personal attacks? Check. Inappropriate jokes? Check. The Internet is a party zone, people! It's totally okay to drink and type!
I figured out this was the tone of the board right away. It's impossible to miss. The members like to provoke people and be as ridiculous as they possibly can without being banned (and some don't even care about that). I decided to just ignore it and hang out with the people I knew, because CBR is the place I go to for recaps of comics since I can't get them easily on my own. It's also got all the solicits, scans and speculations in one place. Very convenient for someone like me, who's way too cheap to subscribe. But what with all this wank, it really might not be worth it. It is so, so frustrating.
And you can't win. You can't win against one line posts like "Your avatar is fat" and "[CharacterX] is a spineless panty-wetter." Because the jerks cleverly disguise their personal attacks as more minor charges - (see above) commenting on someone's avatar or taking a jab at a character. In context, and with history on your side, you can tell it's a personal attack. But the offender can easily defend themself by saying "Whut man!? I was just making an innocent comment about her avatar! Why you have to be so meeean?"
I think it's cyber-bullying. I really do. Unfortunately, the internet is so hard to police. And I'm not a mod, so no one would listen to me if I said anything. And reporting is really tricky for those reasons I mentioned.
Why is it so hard just to be decent to people? Why is it so hard just to respect their opinions? Why the wank?
In one thread I particularly hate because it's got everything I just complained about, people started posting pictures of pie in the middle of the "discussion." And those pie pictures? They were the best part of the thread. The rest was trash, a bunch of people whining because someone insulted their favorite character, a bunch of people doing the insulting because it's just so much fun to make people mad!
Seriously, people. GROW UP. You're embarrassing the rest of us.
I'm so... urgh. So fed up. Even some of the people I thought were smart/decent turned around and did something offensive. I just don't get how it's funny. No, the world is not a more interesting place when people are fighting.
The irony? Right now they're debating how much the Church sucks. "Church ppl suck because they dun do what the bible sez!!!" Hey, it's got truth to it, no joke. But you guys suck too, so maybe you shouldn't be talking about how much everyone else sucks. ^___________^ Seriously, this right here is proof that religion is not the root of all evil. "If there were no religion, there would be less wars" makes no sense as a viewpoint. There would be just as many wars. They just wouldn't be about religion. People like to fight, the Internet is evidence for that. They would have found another reason to kill each other because the WINNER is always RIGHT.
The X-books forums at CBR seem to go unmoderated, although there is a mod - I'm not exactly sure what he does. If a certain couple threads are locked tomorrow, I'll feel better, but the damage has already been done. People are ganging up on this one woman and hitting her with personal attacks ("except they're just jokes!") because she dares to take their insensitive, made-to-provoke humor seriously. Honestly? They're being so insensitive that even though I know they just want to get a reaction because it's ever so funny, I still want to lash out at them. Have held back, so far, because I also know I just can't win. When you're fighting someone with nothing to lose, you can't win. They won't take you seriously and will ignore your every opinion.
This is what I hate: at CBR, the jerks can make all the stupid, offensive jokes they like and get away with it, because they talk about it in the context of comic books. "What would the Catholic church think of mutants?" is just a way to stir up trouble between religious and anti-religious members. The influx of "Did Nightcrawler approve of Cyclops's actions?/ Is Kurt in Heaven or Hell?/ Who should we blame for Kurt's death?" threads, mostly not created by his fans, are, or become, ways to rile up Nightcrawler fans. They're entertained by the fact that we miss our favorite character. For our part, the Nightcrawler fans should not be taking the bait. But most are upset and discontent with how/why Kurt died, so they bite right away. And we aren't all as thoughtful and kind as Nightcrawler, so you can imagine the results.
Then, when the jerks discover they can make us react by bashing our favorite character, they start doing it more. There's a thread for appreciating Marrow - a minor character I happen to love, although I'd rather not talk about her with the people in that thread, ever. In that thread, there's an entire page devoted to "Marrow should stab Kurt" "Kurt is an insensitive jerk to Marrow" "Kurt wants to teach Marrow how to be an evil witch-child" posts. And for some reason, this is funny. Y'know, I don't care if someone hates a character. Nightcrawler fans tend to think nobody hates him. I have no idea why. Every character has a hater. And I always thought Kurt, being Catholic, a nice guy, and a character with a lot of fans in spite of not doing much over the last several years, would have many haters. People read comics for different reasons, just like with anything else, and there are fans who really don't find Kurt's interactions with other mutants in the chapel very interesting or compelling. They might find them a waste of panel space. I think that's silly, but that's how some people feel, and because we have those aforementioned different reasons for reading, I'm just as silly to complain about them. But they loooove to complain about me.
Anyway - like I said, I don't care if someone hates Nightcrawler. If they say they hate a character's fans, well, lots of people have that experience. Sometimes the fans do come on so strongly that if you don't back away, it can ruin the experience for you. But character-bashing is just not cool. It's intolerant, rude, and just causes wank. It's disrespectful. It makes you a small person.
Not that CBR cares! CBR is home to everyone who ever wished the world were more tolerant of jerks with a rude sense of humor who like to refer to women as whores. It's the best place for them. Really, the only places I feel safe on those boards is the Nightcrawler Appreciation thread and its spin-offs. Not surprisingly, most of the posters in those threads are girls. There's more than a little misogyny that runs free everywhere else.
I'm not even saying the girls are better fans than the guys. I've learned a lot from the guys; they know tons about comic book canon, events that influenced comic book history, and lots of other knowledge. I also have personally never met a guy who didn't like to debate (though I'm sure they exist), so it doesn't surprise me they're involved in all the most controversial threads.
Girls on the board do these things too. Even girls who aren't making stupid insensitive jokes, but who let themselves be provoked and keep the discussion going cause wank. Girls also have plenty of knowledge about comic books and other subjects themselves.
But some people are just louder and more obnoxious than others and give everyone else a bad rep. That's most of the users on CBR. Character-bashing? Check. Personal attacks? Check. Inappropriate jokes? Check. The Internet is a party zone, people! It's totally okay to drink and type!
I figured out this was the tone of the board right away. It's impossible to miss. The members like to provoke people and be as ridiculous as they possibly can without being banned (and some don't even care about that). I decided to just ignore it and hang out with the people I knew, because CBR is the place I go to for recaps of comics since I can't get them easily on my own. It's also got all the solicits, scans and speculations in one place. Very convenient for someone like me, who's way too cheap to subscribe. But what with all this wank, it really might not be worth it. It is so, so frustrating.
And you can't win. You can't win against one line posts like "Your avatar is fat" and "[CharacterX] is a spineless panty-wetter." Because the jerks cleverly disguise their personal attacks as more minor charges - (see above) commenting on someone's avatar or taking a jab at a character. In context, and with history on your side, you can tell it's a personal attack. But the offender can easily defend themself by saying "Whut man!? I was just making an innocent comment about her avatar! Why you have to be so meeean?"
I think it's cyber-bullying. I really do. Unfortunately, the internet is so hard to police. And I'm not a mod, so no one would listen to me if I said anything. And reporting is really tricky for those reasons I mentioned.
Why is it so hard just to be decent to people? Why is it so hard just to respect their opinions? Why the wank?
In one thread I particularly hate because it's got everything I just complained about, people started posting pictures of pie in the middle of the "discussion." And those pie pictures? They were the best part of the thread. The rest was trash, a bunch of people whining because someone insulted their favorite character, a bunch of people doing the insulting because it's just so much fun to make people mad!
Seriously, people. GROW UP. You're embarrassing the rest of us.
I'm so... urgh. So fed up. Even some of the people I thought were smart/decent turned around and did something offensive. I just don't get how it's funny. No, the world is not a more interesting place when people are fighting.
The irony? Right now they're debating how much the Church sucks. "Church ppl suck because they dun do what the bible sez!!!" Hey, it's got truth to it, no joke. But you guys suck too, so maybe you shouldn't be talking about how much everyone else sucks. ^___________^ Seriously, this right here is proof that religion is not the root of all evil. "If there were no religion, there would be less wars" makes no sense as a viewpoint. There would be just as many wars. They just wouldn't be about religion. People like to fight, the Internet is evidence for that. They would have found another reason to kill each other because the WINNER is always RIGHT.