Monday, March 28, 2011

How to Annoy People on Forums

Yeah, not a lot of pictures for this one.

Okay, I don't comment on forums. Mainly because the two major ones: ranger crew and ranger board, are associated with power rangers, something I don't want to be associated with, and I'm busy enough as it is. I still read forums for news, updates, links to subs (I found out about one of the major sites I use to get subs thanks to these forums), and the occasional larf (that's laugh in britspeak).

After looking through the three big forums: rangercrew, rangerboard, and henshinjustice unlimited, I was able to find out different patterns of posting or posts themselves that pissed users off, and somehow pissed me off as well. Most of the perpetrators are newbies, but those who are still a little green or regular users shouldn't be making these mistakes. Usually they will be corrected by a moderator or a veteran, however, sometimes moderators don't have to correct them (and they have every right not to, moderators are busy people to). Either a bunch of other users will vehemently correct them. If the user doesn't learn from their mistakes, it will become kind of their signature, like you can tell who is making the comment even if they changed their name, or a forum war will erupt--and although these are hilarious, they are still somewhat useless and annoying for people who use the forum or just read it.

So here is a list on how to piss people off, specifically on tokusatsu forums.

Do not adhere to the basic rules. This includes formatting, quotes, signatures, spoilers, all that good stuff, which usually requires some html. This goes for any forum. Now, a lot of readers aren't annoyed by this, but the more meticulous users are.

Start a fandom war. This goes for pr vs. sentai, pr vs. kamen rider, kamen rider vs. sentai, etc.

Start a shipping war, or dominate the ships. Now, I admit it, for Shinkenger I am a diehard Takeru Kotoha shipper. I was intimidated and discouraged while reading the forums after the support the Takeru Mako shipping got, and how people worshiped Mako. I talked to my fellow Takeru Kotoha shippers, and they said they don't even bother to look at the certain forums that are dominated by the opposite shipping. I'm not sure if they scared us or we just got sick of it. So don't be an instigator. You can write once in while about it, but you shouldn't make every other post raving about the ship, and saying stuff that isn't evident at all. Because you're bound to attract an shipper from the opposite side who is bound to be upset. And behold: shipping war. Also, a lot of these shippers are self-inserters. Therefore, if you blatently insult one ship, you are indirectly insulting the shipper who sees themselves in this kind of relationship, whether if it is a real life relationship with someone that is a lot like the character, an crush on someone who is like the character, or an admiration for the character or actor. So you make the shipper feel bad.

Start a political war. Back to shinkenger, I remember when some people were upset with how Mako wanted to be a housewife and a good mother. Some feminists were upset about that, and said that it's non-progressive. Some feminists who were realists, or realists who weren't feminists said, it's just a kid show, and then more conservative people felt insulted, because they were or knew people or were married to people who are homemakers. Then people actually started insulting the conservatives, and the conservatives insulted the feminists, and I swear I saw a few death threats. I myself am an equalist. I believe everyone has the right to choose what they want to do--even if they are a fictional character, but fictional characters have no free will and--whoa existentialism. But yeah, it can get that dirty.

Rite gramaticaly incorrect massages with speeling misteaks that sond like u r righting this wile u r drunk. This usually invokes the wrath of grammar facsists. And you don't want that.

Discuss something that isn't in the forum topic.

Although this doesn't count as a fan war, just make one offhanded comment on how, for example, pr samurai is better than gokaiger in a gokaiger topic forum. This isn't fanwar bait, but it does make a lot of people frustrated that someone is on their turf: a forum specifically for their interest.

Troll. Period.

Attempt to act as moderator or dominate the forum. Forums have moderators. Don't try to steal their job and then claim you are the original one, or are better than them.

Repeatedly ask, "when is the sub coming out?" "when is the episode going to be on the internet?" "who uploads the movies to the internet? Or even worse "when is the episode going to air?" or "when is the movie coming out?" Subs take either a short time or a long time to make depending on the language strength of the subbers. Instead of asking, go to the sources themselves to see when the sub is coming out. Who knows, they might have released it already. Also, usually a nice poster will just post a friendly link without being asked to to a stream or episode. You know when the episode is going to air, and when  the movie's coming out. Google it. Finally, it's not a good idea to repeatedly ask which specific person uploads episodes or movie (especially youtube). Why? Because Toei has been purging copywritten videos from youtube, causing people to create several accounts, and make unlisted videos. People's accounts are being disabled because of it. If enough word is spread around, the people who are doing purging might catch wind of it, and it will be hard to find sentai on the internet. These uploaders like to be secretive.

Ask the above questions after being answered or corrected. You got a response, an answer, or you upset a bunch of people who told you to stop. So stop.

Any other forum peeves? Feel free to comment!

3 comments:

  1. Other topics that seem to cause a lot of arguments on fanboards:

    - Fansubs: how accurate the translation is, whether Japanese words and honourifics should be translated or left as they are, etc.

    - Liking unpopular shows (Go-onger, Goseiger, Kamen Rider Decade) or characters (Kiriya from Hibiki, Kusaka from 555, "loud" Red Rangers like Go-on Red or GekiRed, etc.) If you express support for any of these, people will jump on you and bash the show/character. Also goes for Power Rangers series: Wild Force, Operation Overdrive etc.

    - The ending of Jetman is a hot topic on some forums. I won't point out why, in case anyone reading this hasn't seen it.

    - On the subject of ship wars, people will also complain if you admit to disliking a popular canon 'ship (like Hikaru/Urara in Magiranger or Airi/Zeronos in Den-O.) Or if you admit to not supporting the usual "ship mate" to a certain pairing - e.g. you're a Chiaki/Kotoha fan, but you ship Takeru/Ryuunosuke rather than Takeru/Mako.

    - Whether tokusatsu was better before 2000 or after 2000. That seems to be the fandom's turning point

    - Whether Power Rangers should stick closely to the source material (like Time Force or Samurai) or completely change the story and characters (like RPM)

    - Disney vs Saban series of Power Rangers

    - Slash (yaoi) vs het. It's a contentious issue in any fandom, but I find that tokusatsu fandom has a lot of people who are very negative towards slash

    - Whether or not there is too much merchandising in newer shows

    - Whether Den-O has gone on too long or should continue

    - Which actor/actress is "hotter" than another

    It goes on forever

    ReplyDelete
  2. Couple more:

    - What is the right way to spell a name in English. It gets even more complicated when the official romanisation is changed (Philippe to Philip, Fangaia to Fangire, etc.)

    - Whose knowledge of Japanese culture/language/history is better than someone else's. I noticed this was a particular problem in Shinkenger (why is it always Shinkenger?) where people would argue that THEIR interpretation of a scene or character was right and anyone who disagreed "doesn't understand Japan" or "doesn't get the point of this scene/character." Presumably, none of these people were Japanese, or they'd be posting on Japanese forums.

    - Some people get very touchy if they think someone else has been using the graphics they made, or taken an idea from their fanfic, etc.

    - Sentai vs Kamen Rider vs Ultraman

    - Whether or not the Metal Heroes franchise should be revived

    - Which voice actors should take part if there were to be an official English dub of a show

    - Whether or not it is OK to download/stream fansubs. Whether it's OK if something is licensed (Kamen Rider The First and The Next are officially licensed, so people have had to take fansubs down)

    ReplyDelete
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