Originally posted by K.T.B.
It's interesting you bring up this point since just the other day on the Discord some users were discussing very similar points you are, but were afraid of actually speaking their mind in case of receiving backlash for their opinions. You're definitely right that this site seems to often push new users away nowadays and has an air of hostility toward them, though I'm not sure of what could solve this.
I did say I wanted to make a thread to see if we could discuss more about this problem without the thread completely falling apart, but not only do I not know how to do it, I don't know exactly what I would even talk about in that thread in the first place.
But I guess I can start with something that I just haven't really understood lately:
Yes, that is webcomicname. This situation is: when a person, instead of openly (but respectfully!) voicing their concern, complaint or disagreement, hide their complaint behind jokes, sarcasm and the like.
This, um, I don't really understand this. The internet is naturally full of places with sarcasm and memes, that's no problem when it's all good-natured, but when you hide your complaints behind it, it becomes kind of messy to understand. Maybe others react differently, but I personally have difficulty interpreting a complaint when its worded like that. Are they personally attacking the other person? Are they having a bad day? How do you react to it? Do you just write another witty response and potentially let it dissolve into an insult-fest?
Why the need to voice your opinions like that either?
I don't want people to feel alienated, because this might just be my way of looking at things, but, why not assume good faith? I can understand not assuming good faith when it's somewhere else on the internet, like Reddit, or 4chan, or wherever else when you really don't have the time to care about some rando behind a bunch of letters*, but here? Is the level of trust we have in this community that low? I don't think it is.
*Side note: I personally try to assume good faith even in situations where it's actually detrimental to do so, but that can wear down on you, which is why I understand that others might not always do this.
I am so going to hate myself for writing this post.
Uh, for example, remember the whole discussion in the Bar & Grill about Skewer's avatar? I never actually commented on it because, well, it was already after the whole thing happened and I didn't want to bring it up again and potentially cause more arguing and etc. But, the original complaint done toward the avatar was...reasonable but way too filled with sarcasm, to the point where it felt like the post had both an reasonable argument in it and also a personal attack. So, when there was a reply, how did it end up? A reply to what felt a personal attack is likely to be...another personal attack! How fun!
And then the situation was resolved, I think. I'll be honest, I don't know if it has, I don't know if it left a sour taste on anyone or if it's actually something that's completely been solved so far. I don't know! I've been afraid of bringing it up to anyone ever since! People would probably think that me, trying to bring that discussion back, would just be trying to defend my side of the argument, and from there it would go downhill again.
That's another thing that's been bothering me, everything being about "grab one side of the argument, defend it to hell and do whatever against those on the other side of the argument". I don't think that's actually a problem on SMWC most of the time, but it became apparent on the whole "Culture and Censorship" thing. That said, boy oh boy I am not going to write any more words about that here, because that was a mess far more complicated than this.
Is this side-tracking the thread? Is this even relevant? I tried making this post compact and to the point, but I might have made it confusing in the process. I just, don't even know at this point.