Time to leave

[sbug]

I can't say I've benefited directly from your knowledge but it seems a shame for you to leave. Despite being a newer member of the forum I can say that this forum has an excellent moderator and a great group of veterans who are highly knowledgeable, accepting and doing a damn fine job of steering the RFF ship. I hope we can welcome you back sooner rather than later.

 

[Beniliam]

Dont go away Tom.

I dont understand why the people enter in the forums to bothers other member. Internet is ideal for the anonymity... and everything what it entails. I hardly understand your language, but some of you have helped me. Everybody is not bad, why then only remain the bad things?

 

[Bryan Lee]

This is easily the nicest forum I viset. While there are a few new participents who I disagree with we are all lucky to have a nice place to hang out. If you go to any public place you will find people who are lacking in social skills or with agendas or even nice guys having a bad day and this site is no acception. In the end there is no alternative for this site. Where else can you go and ask any rangefinder related question you can dream up and have it awnsered so quickly and most of the time correctly.

"RANGEFINDERFORUM.COM IS INVALUABLE"

 

[Bill K.]

While I don't post very often, I do look at this forum almost every day. And even at my tender age I have learned a lot.

Some of the discussions do get a little "spirited" but then this place is very international in scope and I enjoy reading other people's reactions and opinions on controvertial topics from various locations around the globe.

As for "trolls", well, I admire and am amused by the skills of more experienced members in their identification and ultimate demise.

This a friendly and informative site and I hope you will still pop in on occasion.

Regards and thanks to all for my continuing (and free) education.

Bill K.

 

[JoeFriday]

what's ironic here is the response from from members who are chastizing Tony for his opinion and decision when it's that sort of attitude that most likely caused him to make is final decision.. rather than offer support, people seem to prefer to debate what's right or wrong.. well that's still a personal issue, IMO

Tony, if that's how you feel, I'm sorry to see you go, but I wish you luck with your photography

 

[laudrup]

Hi TPPhotog,

it's a shame that you've decided to leave the forum although I can understand why.

When i first joined and read the posts there definately seemed to be an air of cameraderie (pardon he mispelt pun). People seemed to be keen to offer advice and support and the tone of posts was generally pretty friendly.

Naturally it's a bit too idealistic to expect everyone to get along, but there does appear to have been a definate shift in the nature of some posts.

Constructive criticism & support seems to have given way to sarcasm, oneupmanship & downright pettiness.

Unfortunately internet forums seem to attract people who lack the skills & personality to socialise with people in the real world. As Richard commented they tend to try and impose their will & share their "expertise".

It's a pity that the minority try and ruin what is essentially a good forum with some good guys & gals who post.

All the best & happy shooting

Adam

 

[bobofish]

Joe Friday,
You make a good point, but one that I find myself disagreeing with no matter how I look at it....it's a forum we have here, and if one were to extinguish expression of opinion, then it would cease to be a forum, and would rather become a pulpit for a few.

This site is remarkably devoid of idiots, and as others have said over the past months, it seems an island amidst the raging sea of fools, trollish and inane.

I really look down on swan songs or 'suicide notes' as such...they are just far too melodramatic. I would say that it is far better to go quietly, especially since most likely the person writing the swan song almost invariably comes back after a time, thanks partly to the 'pleas' of his friends. To say that the person will then look foolish is too extreme, but there is an element of the absurd in the return.

There is a forum I used to frequent daily, almost to the point of obsession. A few months ago, due to some incidents involving members, it gave me a very sour taste to even look at the site, much less participate...I simply stopped posting, and reading. Problem solved!

As in life, if there is a problem, it serves to deal with it. Especially when your friends or family are involved, you deal with a problem, otherwise it will most likely fester for a long time to come.

I imagine that if one of your neighbors were to start yelling in your window at 4 in the morning, every morning, not too many days would go by before you invested in a paintball gun or a box of rotten eggs....you would be silly to simply pack up and leave, because the person is a 'troll.'

Either way, Cheers, and I wish you the best.

 

[cp_ste.croix]

I wish you the best...

I have enjoyed your posts and want to thank you for taking the time to write them and share your experiences. I know that whatever decision you are making is the right one for you, and I respect that.

I'm reminded of a Utah Phillips quotation "i'm going on a low social cholesterol diet...no more fatheads!"

 

[JoeFriday]

I see your point, bobfish.. but I believe this is one of those situations where there is no right answer.. it's hard to see something that you felt connected to slowly shift into something uninviting without taking action.. but at the same time, this isn't a site where any one member can modify.. yes, we can all have an impact, but ultimately it's determined by the attitudes of the most persistent

your comparison of a neighbor yelling in your window at 4am isn't really valid.. doing something that confrontational would cause you to look into legal options.. placing a restraining order, most likely.. but a more accurate comparison here would be if your neighbor of 5 years bought a motorcycle and would start it up in the driveway at 7am every morning and revved it for a minute.. and you normally get up at 7:45

he's not doing anything illegal or outright confrontational.. it's really a matter of consideration for his neighbors.. icidentally, this happened to this past summer.. did I invest in a paintball gun or think about egging his house? no, I'm not a jerk.. instead, I've started to give some serious thought to moving

and FWIW, I don't think the problem here is trolls

 

[bobofish]

off topic...I've been dying to ask what FWIW means...I have some idea, but can't quite figure it out for sure....I had the same problem with GAS for a while

And no, the paintball and egg thing was not serious, but a joke.

As was the 4AM neighbor thing...as I typed it, I visualized to myself a greying man sticking his head in the window and asking "which is better, a CL or an R3A?;" I think in that situation, paintballs or rotten tomatoes might be my weapons of choice.

 

[dexdog]

For what it's worth, IIRC

 

[back alley]

what are people seeing as 'the problem' here?

hard to find solutions without defining the problems.

i know we have a couple of brash, harsh, blunt and at times rude members. given enough rope they will hang themselves.
i know we have a serial questioner but without answers he too will lose steam.

i'm not about to ban members without some time and 'proper' provocation from them.

but i am seriously interested in what others are seeing here.

joe

 

[cp_ste.croix]

I probably missed it too, though it may be due to my aggrivation levels in real life being so high that infractions here go unnoticed by me 🙂

I admire that you are vigilant without turning curmudgeonly Joe. 😀

 

[bobofish]

hear hear (or here here)

 

[Kin Lau]

For What It's Worth = FWIW

Opinions are fine... it's how we express them.

For TP, I sense a bit of online burnout. We all do need to moderate ourselves. Too much of anything isn't good. Many of the more "heated" threads were missed and/or forgotten if you weren't around for a few days, but if you're logging in every few hours/minutes, then things were indeed getting all "hot and bothered".

I hope TP does have a good vacation from the virtual world and gets refreshed in the real world... hopefully with some good pics to share with us.

 

[peter_n]

That's too bad, Tony. I enjoyed your posts very much and learned a lot from them. Good light to you.

A reminder to everyone: don't feed! 😱

 

[ray_g]

Tony, get back to shooting more photos, and be sure to post some in your gallery. Then come back in your own time.

As for trolls, I agree that we should be more active at policing our ranks. We have an "ignore list" in the Control Panel. Let's send them a collective "you are not welcome" message as members, and ALL put them on our ignore lists.

Of course you can read their message, and choose not to reply, but it is still irritating, and often gets you riled up.

Any NOMINEES ?

 

[doubs43]

IMO, this is still the most cortial and friendly forum on the web with regards to photography. It could be that I'm also missing the unpleasant exchanges. I don't really know. Joe seems to me to be pretty well in control of any unpleasant posters.

What I do know is that it's always a shame to have a valued member leave because they feel abused or turned off by the antics of other members.

Perhaps a better answer would be to simply lurk for awhile and not post anything or take an extended break before coming back. Whatever the decision, I wish you the best.

Walker

 

[dmr]

IMO, this is still the most cortial and friendly forum on the web with regards to photography. It could be that I'm also missing the unpleasant exchanges. I don't really know. Joe seems to me to be pretty well in control of any unpleasant posters.

I feel the same way.

I rarely see trolls here, or maybe I don't realize them as trolls, but again I don't read everything.

This forum is, however, one I usually keep up all the time and enjoy participating in.

What I do know is that it's always a shame to have a valued member leave because they feel abused or turned off by the antics of other members.

I've been here about 9 months now, and I've seen a few people leave in a huff (one recently came back, it seems) and in all cases I've wondered what rubbed them the wrong way.

This is one of the best behaved forums (fora) on the net, and the jerk level is amazingly low.

 

[richard_l]

what are people seeing as 'the problem' here?

I don't see any particular problem. Once in while a loony will wander in and try to be confrontational, but so far such things have been handled well by everybody.

There are a hell of a lot more rotten eggs out there in the real world than there are here in the virtual world of RFF.