About the Lounge

[Bart]

Originally Posted by Cory

lounge is visible once people login

I was only joking but on reflection it is a wise move.

We bow to your visionary excellence and sound forum etiquette Master.

[zimmy]

Originally Posted by mattbeals

After all, would you really behave this way in person?

Maybe,depending how much I drank.

[JoePixel]

Originally Posted by mattbeals

There are some 3,677 member of the site. Yet the conversations seem to be dominated by 10 people. Much of which is purely fluff. If you read any of it, it happens to have little or nothing to do with prepress or is down right offensive

Bravo there Matt !!!!

That is why I rarely visit here anymore. If I do, it's sort of a quick browse, read a question or two and get out. I used to spend an hour a day or more here learning from other people's questions and issues. Now it's probably about 15 minutes a week and I hardly ever post messages anymore. There seems to be less and less technical discussions and more and more threads about "Word Association" and how Microsoft sucks, and classic coworker quotes, and none of that interests me so I don't visit much anymore.

I check in once and a while for some techy stuff, but the other stuff doesn't interest me and it seems to be the same people posting and reposting and just offering fluff.

I'm not bagging on anyone here, I believe that if I don't like something, then change the channel and move on and that is basically what has happened with me.

[UncleTwitchy]

Originally Posted by JoePixel

That is why I rarely visit here anymore. If I do, it's sort of a quick browse, read a question or two and get out.

Ditto. Particularly since there are certain people here who, if I've seen that if they've posted in a thread, I can't count on it being work-safe.

[Dupple]

All forums have their regulars, that's just the nature of them.

When a bunch of like minded people get together an association will form, it's natural. I try and post helpfully if I can, if I can't, I'll give a best guess and stand corrected.

For all the 'non-regular' regulars, if you were more regular there would be more diversity.

If you've learned something from the site, then you should post it back if a 'regular' can't get there in time and a similar question is asked.

As for the language thing, well, I can understand it in rants and raves and the lounge, I have a room full of guys who use 'the eff' as a form of punctuation and I tend to myself. You should have heard me today!

Personal attacks are unnecessary and uncalled for, however, some of the stuff said in the lounge is between 'freinds' - the association I mentioned earlier. It's just banter. Even so we must remember where we are.

All members have a responsabilty to the site.

How many members have we had since the last post here?

http://www.prepressforums.com/ftopic-4298-210.html

Are the 'regulars' scaring them away?

This is one of the freindliest forums I have ever encountered 8)

[mattbeals]

Yes, I think that there are several people who scare existing users and potential users off by their language and behavior. We've all seen it, we all know who some of them are. The problem is the few people ruining it for the rest of us. Is that what happened to desktoppublishing.com? Were there a few people who basically drove people away from the site? I think that there is a real danger of that happening here. As someone else said, I have to check and see who's posting before I read it for fear of setting off someones content filter. It is just getting too difficult to find real questions with real, pertinent responses.

I had asked earlier if this was the way you would behave in person and someone said "Depends on how much I drank". That's the kind of behavior I'm talking about. For crying out loud, take some responsibility for your actions. Don't say "the booze made me do it", or "People don't understand me, no one likes me". Well you know why no one likes you? Because you are poorly behaved. Don't use it as a crutch, it's getting too old and we're all too old to be reminded of this. I am still a bit surprised that there even need to be moderators here. I would have thought that adults could self monitor.

I personally am getting fed up with all of this. It's too tiresome to weed through the deluge of fluff. It's too tiresome dealing with the same junk day in and day out trying to be useful and help someone. This is the second time I've seriously considered stopping my participation and going back to Printplanet and Enfocus User Group exclusively. My patience is worn thin on this one. I'm too old for this and have too many other things to do to deal with all this crud.

[JoePixel]

I came back to the site today to see if there was any response to this thread and read the comments.

I found a thread (and I didn't even have to look that hard) that just sums up why I think a majority of the posts don't pertain to me anymore and why I visit so infrequently and for such a short time.

That thread is http://www.prepressforums.com/ftopict-6744.html

Look how quickly it goes off of topic.

Now, like I said before, I'm not complaining about anyone in general, I'm just agreeing with Matt about how some of the posters just post fluff material and this is a prime example. I don't care who posts what and how often they post, I come here to get good info, not opinions on squirrels.

Also, like I said in my previous post, if I don't like it - then I change the channel and that is what I'm doing lately.

How the discussion on squirrels ended up in the Photoshop thread is beyond me.

Also, look in the Photoshop thread. There has been only a few posts in the last month. Are we all experts in Photoshop or are all the posts going into pointless threads and pertaining to nothing.

This is not an attack on ANYONE IN PARTICULAR !!!! It is just one man's view on the forum and I believe that the site admin Cory will view it for what it is and that is all.

[positive_errata]

Well, on one hand I can vouch for the squirrel humor, but on the other hand...yeah, it seems kind of out of place in the Photoshop forum.

There is a lot of fluff within the walls of this entire forum, but thank goodness. When I first discovered it about ten months ago it brought much MUCH joy to my working life, and I've had many a laugh AND learned lots of things in between.

What are we, a bunch of robots who can't throw a bit of life and humor into something as mundane and (sometimes) infuriating as prepress? Jeez, if it wasn't for the Coworker Quotes or legitimate frustrations with Microsoft products, I'd have bailed out of here long ago.

Chipper up, monkeys!

[Bart]

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Lighten up Matt. Nobody's twisting your arm to moderate here and I seem to remember the time when it was really called for you in intervene, when someone was posting racist remarks at a poster, you sat on your hands. Now we haven't got a worldwide pre press community, we've got a western pre press community.

If you did leave, would you still come back to post free ads for your paymasters on the news page?

[mattbeals]

Bart, had I known about the racist comments I would have done something about it. I don't recall ever being made aware, either by reading or notification, of such behavior. Was any other moderator or Cory made aware of such behavior? There have been several times where I have gone in and edited a post because of language or content. I've been plenty active as a moderator when I have found need to through my own readings of the site or complaints by others. I think that you should make sure that you have all the facts before you start throwing out such accusations as you have here. I think that you are sorely mistaken when "I" specifically was called to deal with racism in your example. I think what you meant was "a moderator". What does your comment about having a world wide pre-press community vs. a western prepress community? Have you bothered to check the IP addresses, have you read all of the locations of the users? This site is plenty "world-wide". It by default is dominated by "western" members. Even that buttresses my position that this is a "world-wide" community. If you care to acknowledge that point then you will realize that you are from the UK, about half way around the world.

What free ad was posted on the news page? The Enfocus Road show? Had I left, what would be the point of advertising? I've had the same ad up for a long time that no one has responded to, and that's okay with me.

If you want to call me "boring" or "heavy" that's fine. Go right ahead and do it. But repeating it some eighteen times is pretty exemplary of the behavior I'm talking about. I mean come on, even my seven year old doesn't pull that junk. And since when is it "boring" to show respect or deference to someone when in public? I know this is the printing industry, I know the language used. I've been in it for sixteen years. That does not excuse flat out bad or rude behavior in public. On the press room floor is different than being on the internet as we are here. Here what we say in writing is totally public and the only way that we can be judged. So have a little fun, I'm all for that. Just be respectful and decent when doing it. Manners and maturity appear to be something sorely lacking with some people around here and it gets really tiresome. I spend more time here editing for language than I do for ill behavior with my seven year old. He has plenty of fun while still showing basic respect for himself and to others.