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Why is ERA so particularly angry this 2019?
- Thread starter Mr. Fantastic
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It's nothing new, forums are practically designed to make people react to things in angry ways and it's very difficult to consistently overcome that influence, even with the best moderation and most self-interested community, especially when the state of things gives people more reason to be angry. Perhaps it's more prominent now, but that underlying frustration was always present and people were always looking for things to lash out at.
OP
OP
I used to frequent a Harry Potter forum when I was a kid and the meanest post there was someone calling a kid dumb for shipping H/Hr. Forums can be GOOD dream machine
I could be wrong, but it seems like a good deal of people on this site are also socially awkward and pretty much loners....maybe I'm incorrect.
Wizards of the Coast used to have some of the most civil, well-behaved, intelligent message boards on the internet.
Before their idiot community management team gutted it, that is.
There's a ton of resentment everywhere, no matter what crowd you see, too. Shit oozes out.
Everyone on that forum was talking shit about your bad posts via private message, Mr. Fantastic. Remember when you floated that theory about Hagrid being Harry's brother? Pathetic.
Nah. There's always been arguing and some shitty people, but the ratio of good posts/posters to negative/hostile ones has shifted for the worse for sure.
Granted, that trend started a long time ago and some probably weren't on forums back in the "good ole days." I've been on forums since the late 1990s and they started going downhill probably in the 2005-2010 range. Gaming one's got way worse post Gamergate and all of them got worse post 2016 election, Brexit, #MeToo and everything else that's made everything so politicized and tribal.
All that aside, my biggest disappointment is it's damn hard to find active forums about hobbies where people actually seem to still enjoy the hobby. Most places pleasant are small forums with a handful of members, or less active community threads on a sight like this. Most everything else is people complaining and ranting about the hobby instead of talking positively about things they enjoy.
That's a huge bummer as someone that does hobbies purely for fun and used to love having fun chatting about them with other like minded folk. I quit movie and sports forums years ago due to the hostility, and gaming ones are probably on the way out too. I wish their were more paid forum options, I finally signed up for the VIP membership on my college team's most active recruiting news site/forum and the discussion on the VIP board is a gazillion times better and more civil than on the free boards.
Really? Users posting about their mental wellbeing is grounds for ignoring them?
I guess the joke's on me, I'm probably on their ignore list
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Find the cause, fix the cause. Doing anything else is a waste of time, money and effort.
Now I'm mad.
OP
OP
There is nothing in my post that contradicts your OP, so I'm not sure why you would say that.
Just the extreme ones. But to be fair, I usually give the post history a look. Most tend to have histories full of being negative and hostile.
In any case, I come to forums for news and having fun, casual chats about my hobbies. I feel bad for people with issues, but I don't have the time or energy to deal with strangers being miserable online regardless of the underlying cause. Forums are negative/hostile places anymore and my last ditch effort is making heavier use of ignore user and thread features to see if I can cultivate an experience I enjoy before just completely disengaging.
The OP is basically: have money, if you have money you will be happier. Gym, ganja and dating aren't exactly cheap options for improving quality of life and mental wellbeing. Although admittedly I absolutely swear by smoking weed, but it's definitely my most expensive pastime.
Planet fitness is $10 a month. Running outside is free. The gist of it was "work out," but I guess it needed to be 100% spelled out. Making it a class thing is horse shit
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I'm not admonishing anyone for caring about things so yeah, not sure which OP you read but it definitely wasn't mine.
There is no gym in this country that is that cheap. Average price is £35 a month. I would love to be able to run outside but at this time of the year it'd literally kill me.
This. Money definitely helps with happiness. But I have plenty of friends that make $100k plus like me who are miserable and always ranting and raving about politics and other things. I also have friends and family back home in the rural state who are poor as shit and happy as they don't pay as much attention to that stuff and are fine just having a place to live and spending time fishing, hunting and doing other low cost or free outdoorsy things.
Life isn't fair, things can suck, bad shit happens to people due to nothing but bad luck. So some people just understandably have a harder time being happy (or at least not negative/angry).
But a lot of it is also do to perspective. If you make enough to afford a stable living situation (shelter, food, clothing, utilities covered with not much or any stress) there's little reason (mental illness aside of course) to be miserable. Focus on enjoying what you have, making the most of it and doing what you can to make a positive difference in the world while accepting that you can't change most things. It's not healthy to spend so much time and energy wallowing with other negative people miserable about all those things they can't change. Don't become some apathetic asshole--get involved with more positive people working actively to make a difference. Not angry, depressed people living online and ranting in echo chambers.
Can i still freak out about the death of our ecosystem or is that too much of a mood killer.
You got ganja covered apparently.
Dating can be cheap. Netflix and chill?
Exercise even when cold out can be done with body weight exercises inside. Squat, push up, sit up and pull up.
One can care and be involved without "freaking" and being a miserable person because of it.
Volunteer in clean up efforts, write or call your reps about the issue and ever time a relevant bill is being voted on, donate to the cause, seek a career working to fight climate change and so on.
Those are things that can both make a difference and bring more purpose and happiness to one's life. Being angry, depressed and hostile on an off topic section on a video game forum makes no difference (preaching to the choir at best here) and is bad for mental health. Anger, negativity and anxiety love company and people need to limit exposure to others like that if they're going to get happier and healthy themselves. That doesn't meant stop caring. It means associate with others who care and are positive in trying to make a difference. Not people who do nothing but complain and argue on message boards.
Most relationships consist of more than fucking while a movie plays in the background.
Who said you have to just fuck? Ok so maybe play a board game or take a walk.
I could also say a relationship is more than going to the movies and or expensive restraunts.
That's not what Netflix and chill has to mean. It means doing things together on the cheap. Want to see a movie, but are broke? Watch a movie on Netflix and wait for new releases to hit their or Redbox instead of paying high theater prices. Or go to the dollar theater if you have a cheap one. Find free events for dates around the city. Do free or low cost things like hiking together.
People get too hung up on needing a lot of disposable income to be happy. You need enough to be able to comfortably afford a place to live, food, clothes, utilities and transportation. Having disposable income is of course nice as it opens up a lot more activities, but I know way to many people with lots of extra income who are just as (or more) depressed and miserable than people who just get by fine and don't have much left over for fun (people struggling to make ends meet are the worst off of course).
As above, a lot of it is just being mindful and appreciating what you have and making the most of it. People compare themselves to what others have and are doing way more than at any time in human history with all the showing off people do on social media. We all would like to have more, but many of us don't truly need it and wouldn't be much if any happier for it. It's a capitalist/consumerist trap to all want more (again, not talking about people who can't make ends meet).
I've def got weed covered - it's beneficial for my physical and mental wellbeing so worth the cost. Not everyone can afford to though.
Hmm, those dates are cheap aye, but not a good suggestion for say, a first or second date :p Dating in this country invariably involves alcohol. I can do a few of those, unfortunately not squats. My knees are fucked, swimming is good but again, expensive. It's either a gym membership with a pool, or £5 a go.
I do get the gist of what the OP is saying, but I'm saying that it does seem to boil down to: be less poor. Because if you are poor you're likely choosing one thing from that list.
I mean, the Trump era wears on you. He just shut down the government to pay for a wall that he promised Mexico would pay for, with a record setting shutdown that has no end in sight. People should probably be more angry instead of less angry.
Ok? Y'all seem obnoxious because y'all wanna play a silly game of, "why you mad?" when there always is good reason too. I'mma be honest, this anger isn't just about the threads OP mentioned.
OP
OP
youre overthinking this lol
I mean, most of anything and everything costs money so there's no way around that, but I did try to keep it low budget, else I would've included actual expensive shit like "TRAVEL THE WORLD GUYS" or "HIRE SOME HOOKERS AND DO SOME BLOW OFF THEIR TITS"
I read the news. I get annoyed and irritated and even angry about it some times.
What I don't do is come on here in threads with a bunch of other people annoyed/irritated/angry about it and just rant about it in echo chamber threads. If some find that cathartic--more power to them. To me it just makes me more annoyed/irritated/angry, while at the same time doing absolutely nothing to promote any kind of change.
I most often just read the news in the morning before I work out so I can blow off any steam that way, or find other ways to cope by just doing things I enjoy or focusing on my work (which I mostly enjoy). When I want to feel more positive and it's something like a bill vote coming up I'll write my reps and/or donate a little money to a group advocating for the liberal side on the issue.
It's perfectly normal for people on the left to be upset about the state of things politically. That doesn't mean it's healthy to fall into depression and anger and be in a bad mood and taking that out on others (especially random people online). Shit happens. You have to figure out how to cope with it, try to enjoy the one life we get and find positive ways to make a difference.
I'm not saying you did it on purpose! It is certainly possible to travel on a shoe-string. Cheaper than a gym membership anyway :p
Comedy = 4chan douchebaggery?? Nice leap, my friend. It would be nice to see some light-hearted discussion. "Pics that make you laugh" thread is the only recurring example of that that shows up on the first page of EtcetEra.
Exactly.
You know when this place got real dark...
When blame_space disappeared. He was the only novelty account I enjoyed.
I cling to the hope that we get a few "broken tv" and "green waves" threads someday
When blame_space disappeared. He was the only novelty account I enjoyed.
I cling to the hope that we get a few "broken tv" and "green waves" threads someday
Go make them
Be the change
Or just bitch at everyone who isn't living up to your standards of positivity that'll make things better.
I don't want to blame it all on 9/11
but that certainly didn't help
edit: Really though....There is a lot to be angry about these times, sadly
but that certainly didn't help
edit: Really though....There is a lot to be angry about these times, sadly
Not really. You interpret sarcasm and acerbic language with anger.
Which is pretty goofy.
Not... really? OP makes a thread about being angry that ResetEra is so angry (citing three threads, of which only one of them seemed to fit what he's supposedly mad about), and then excelsiorlef is all "Be the change you want to see and create the content you want instead of being mad about it," which seems like it'd be OP's jam.
Anyway at the end of the day, no one is keeping y'all here, and if you continue to be big mad about how big mad Era is maybe it's just not the place for you? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's fine, not every community is gonna gel with every individual. It'd be cool if y'all stayed, but it also seems like Era is making you really, really, really unhappy, and I don't want to encourage y'all to do stuff that negatively impacts your mental health.
(It is a bit weird that so many folks with low post counts but registered in 2017 are popping in all mad to say how Era Is No Fun, it's like, my friends, the internet is a big place!)
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In what universe?
Don't mind me, I just hate gyms. It's probably the most boring type of fitness.
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The internet is a big place, there just aren't really many good options for traditional video game forums that are both active and well moderated to limit the trolling and console warring. GAF before and now here are the only ones that were well moderated and have a ton of activity in sharing news immediately and having active OT/Community threads for more than the most popular games. Other places either lack traffic or are poorly moderated and full of even more toxicity, fanboy nonsense etc.
I guess some subReddits are semi-ok--especially ones dedicated to a single game, but I just hate the format there. It limits discussion and the user base just seems to skew to young and too full of people trying to make/share memes and farm for upvote karma.
Point being, you get people lurking and not posting much as it's still the best place for news aggregation and active OTs etc., but the negativity and hostility keeps them from visiting as often and posting as much as they'd like. Hence they voice those complaints in threads like this dedicated to voicing those kind of concerns.
I've mostly given up hope for online discourse and I'm just a broken record of lamenting for the days when forums weren't as toxic and people actually seemed to enjoy the hobbies they were discussing and the negative/hostile people were branded trolls and banned from the good forums. Some of it is probably just getting older and having more of a generation gap with the average, active posters on most forums as well.
That said, there is still good content on this and other forums though--it just takes heavy curation to find it, enjoy it and minimize exposure to the toxic nonsense. I need to work more on that and just stick to the gaming side, view once or twice a day for news and otherwise mostly stick to my watched threads list and the game OTs in there as that's the only worthwhile content here anymore. I haven't seen anything valuable or entertaining on Etcetera in months and need to just stop browsing when bored at work.
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