The Nature and Purpose of Fiddlesticks

[Toy and Minion]

What?  The counter is off?

 

That's no fun!  The counter has been a big variable in me being in Fiddles!  6 thousand...something of my posts are all in Fiddles. 

 

I agree that the counter isn't a REAL BIG DEAL, but still...it was fun...

 

I had a goal to reach number #1 when I started in Fiddles...I got to #7...so close!  I hardly spend any time in my ORGs, so I doubt I'll make it.

[Toy and Minion]

Yes, Monty, I believe you are quite right...

[Toy and Minion]

You know, I hope we get some benifits...

[jackdaw]

That just totally sucks!!!!!  I mean, the only ones who really care about it ARE the spammers, for fun!

 

No one is listening to us, are they?  That makes me feel real good! >_<

[Toy and Minion]

Oh well, we still have fun, right?

 

*feels somewhat empty without the counter counting for Fiddles*

[Toy and Minion]

it really does send a bad message of what everyone thinks about us...

[loki redfern]

who cares what other people think. we stay true to the spam thats all we need to know :P

[Alys Kinch]

Guys. Shut up for now. There are more pressing issues to work on atm. Give it a rest for at least a week. This is not top priority. If you would like to be heard, wait until someone has the time to do something about it. Right now, they are doing an impressive amount of work for people with Real Lives and everything else they do.

[Toy and Minion]

That worked wonders, Alys.

 

Do it again! ;D

[loki redfern]

wait ...you dont spam in RL *gasp/shock/horror* alys how could you :'(

[Monty]

Guys. Shut up for now. There are more pressing issues to work on atm. Give it a rest for at least a week. This is not top priority. If you would like to be heard, wait until someone has the time to do something about it. Right now, they are doing an impressive amount of work for people with Real Lives and everything else they do.

 

I realised that, but i wouldnt have minded if someone just came in and said something like " wel look at this later, right now we're fixing things that are more important than your post count for a week/etc.

[GoodGrief]

There's people who scorn Fiddles? Now I get how it isn't everyone's thing, but seriously, stop the hate! I could post something longer about the virtues of the Fiddles community and how it makes no sense to disable a feature for the only people who seem to care about said feature ... but for now I'll just say: Come over and see what we're about. If any of you are even listening ... *twiddles thumbs, has a nap*

 

And ... Oh yes. Alys, a sensitivity pill would have helped.

[Toy and Minion]

Now I find it funny.

 

In an ironcally (is that a word?  It is now) and twisted way.

[loki redfern]

iv been apreaciating all your views and im glad im not the only one that feels this way about fiddles and the like, and would like to make a final suggestion that maybe its the people who use fiddles and how, that give it its purpose in the long run even if it is perhaps a little different from originally intended ?

 

however as it has been brough to my attention that this is annoying people, and you dont have time for us at the mo, so i'll lock this for a little while, untill your less busy or im sure the mods can unlock it if they want to say something(i think?), meh im sure you'd find a way

 

also i hope you dont take our gripes here to mean that we dont appriciate all that you guys have done getting this place up and running, because i think i speak for most, if not all people here, that we do :) so thanks if you were listening

[loki redfern]

So now all of the 'major' things are out of the way, like the ads and the user group thing and you've had your big consolidation thing argument, maybe someone could re-look at the Fiddles situation, with some added points.

 

This is also a link to a thread in fiddlesticks with comments from people who didn't get a chance to see this and so it isn't something that has been forgotten as it was created just a week ago

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,18332.0.html

 

 

 

Jason has posted and Corki is taking things up with him, yes. Not once from the few times I spoke to Jason have I seen any of the 'my way or the high way' attitude that we do get from Kath's posts. It is not whàt is being said, it's 'how' it's being said. And how the community is being treated that ruffles feathers more than anything else. The whole attitude towards the people of Fiddlesticks is a perfect example of that. Kath herself has posted somewhere on these boards that it is of vital importance that people are active 'here' in order to generate the income from the adds. I wonder... Since the Fiddlesticks people are so eagerly being ridiculised, laughed at, treated with condescendence, reduced, taken their post count away. Is the income generated by their activity (which as I understand it has àlways been solely on DM proper) also being cut off? I guess not.

 

I'm going to quote someone else on that one.

 

- Consistent branding across all DM affiliated groups

- Consistent handling of issues, problems, cases, etc

- More professional feel to the entire site if everything is on one

domain

- More than most WoT websites, DM is seen as representing WOT in

general. (Some places think we publish the books). Having forums

spread all over the internet is tacky and unprofessional and reflects

badly on the brand

- Banner ads on DM provide DM with revenue for upgrades, new servers,

faster bandwidth. [Jason hope to more than double our connection speed in

the next 12 months]

- Spreading communication or announcements to all org communities is

FAR easier with one set of boards

- Having all boards in once place is much simpler for all members

both new and old

- Having forums all linked together encourages people to more easily

check new places out.

 

So if you want more people to see the ads and get Dragonmount more revenue why are you taking away the attractiveness of Fiddlesticks? Also if you want Dragonmount to grow and be active ,one of the other main reasons for bringing the orgs on to Dragonmount, why are you stunting and suffocating one of the currently most, if not the, active group?

 

Having Fiddlesticks are a child board, or a place that has had it post count taken away is not going to get people to easily or more likely to check fiddles out either.

 

Have you guys seriously had trouble with admins interfering with your boards here? I know we never have...

except for being relegated to a child board, our post count turned off, and being told that were a useless waste of space, that basically and quite litterally doesnt count and threatened with the whole board being deleted - just because we were airing our views ..if thats what you call none interference yeah

 

I missed this before. I'm not sure why you feel offended by those things, except for the board deletion, which I apologized for. I was cranky from wrestling with an unfamiliar admin panel that day. Post counts don't grant you special privileges at DM. In fact, we discourage posting for the sake of posting on most boards. Many boards have been made child boards of other boards. None of the regular visitors to Debates and Discussions are complaining about being a child board.  If you're still unhappy a month from now, we can revisit it, but I advise you to be open minded.

 

Firstly, I have brought this up again before a month, because I don't think it will have gone away by then, seeing as it has already been almost a month since this happened and I don't think anything will have changed by that time. 

 

Debates and Discussion is a board for discussion, and so I can see why it belongs in General Discussion, and also in debates and discussion is very different from Fiddlesticks in it's general atmosphere and use for the most part.

However I do not see how Fiddlesticks belongs as a child board more than any of the other board still on the Dragonmount section, or indeed for that matter any of the other board still on the main index.This is the  equivalent to the White Tower org being made a child board, do you not think that would show a total lack of understanding of what it was for?, would that not insult and offend you?

 

Moreover, it has not increased traffic and activity that I can see from people who visit Fiddlesticks, which was one of the reasons you gave. So perhaps maybe a different board would be better suited to this end, for example a book discussion board, which Dragonmount is sorely lacking as evidenced by the continually repeated creation of 'recommended books' threads, or some board like that.

 

 

Even if the post count doesn't give you any special privileges, which by the way I don't remember hearing any one ever say it did, then why hasn't it been turned of for the whole of Dragonmount then, why only Fiddles, it makes us feel like we're being punished for what we do. and Fiddles is the only place were we really use the post count , as a gauge of how old/active someone is why turn it of in the place where it matters most, is it harming anyone?

 

and as to the posting for the sake of posting, if you read many of the other replies on this thread, you can see that its not posting just for the sake of post count, as you implied, (seeing as taking the away the post count to stop posting for the sake of posting wouldn't work now would it) we post because of what the rest of the communities on the rest of Dragonmount post for. to communicate. yes it make be a form that maybe your not familiar with but that one thing that we do there and also ours is probably, and definitely from what I've seen must better quality posting that most things outside Fiddlesticks

 

 

hopefully this thread and the link to the other one describe why we as disgruntled and what out problems are

[callandor]

 

Have you guys seriously had trouble with admins interfering with your boards here? I know we never have...

except for being relegated to a child board, our post count turned off, and being told that were a useless waste of space, that basically and quite litterally doesnt count and threatened with the whole board being deleted - just because we were airing our views ..if thats what you call none interference yeah

 

I missed this before. I'm not sure why you feel offended by those things, except for the board deletion, which I apologized for. I was cranky from wrestling with an unfamiliar admin panel that day. Post counts don't grant you special privileges at DM. In fact, we discourage posting for the sake of posting on most boards. Many boards have been made child boards of other boards. None of the regular visitors to [glow=black,2,300]Debates and Discussions are complaining about being a child board[/glow].  If you're still unhappy a month from now, we can revisit it, but I advise you to be open minded.

 

 

i dnt think that they care that much cause there isn't as many people their as there is on fiddles. and General discussions are more related to debates than they are to having fun spam.

[loki redfern]

So we are to take it that that all the 'little' insignificant people of Dragonmount are so far beneath the notice of, to quote from another thread 'the powers that be', that we don't even event further discussion or even comment? Ahh the lovely personal side of Dragonmount strikes again , but hey, its not like individuals matter at all is it.

[GoodGrief]

So, er ... can we revolt now? As long as we do it politely?

 

Transplanted from the Fiddles Thread:

 

Anyway, I too find the 'not priority' arguement a bit hollow when they went out of their way to take away a feature from us and us alone that only we really gave a rat's about.

 

Also, although I love the variety that the Organised Games board seems to be attracting, and love it in all its shiny newness, I'm kinda ... sad? Not quite, but there's a definite end-of-an-era-melancholy to the fact that Mafia has moved there. I mean, when the vote was taken to move the Suras Hunt from the Illuminator's board to Fiddlesticks there was even talk of making Fiddlesticks the unofficial 'Home of Mafia'. I liked that idea.

We already play many disorganised games here, and Mafia worked just fine here for ages too. I'd welcome games like Pictophone here too. It's right up our alley. Because let's face it: The forum description might have said 'Spam spam spam spam ...' but what Fiddles really was (and is) is a place for silliness and fun. It's a place for everyone and everyone in Dragonmount to come and have fun. That's why this was the natural developing place for the regular mafia games and why, in my opinion, they still belong here.

 

I do feel that there is an element of downgrading to 'contain the monster' here. Fiddlesticks was only ever 'supposed' to be a spam forum but it never really was just spam. Why not turn and embrace the monster instead of stealing its powers? I think it is safe to say that this Organised Games Board would never have come into being without the momentum that built up in Fiddlesticks. Fiddlesticks isn't a scummy backwater. It has influenced the greater entity of Dragonmount, and in a positive way. We don't deserve to be treated in this demeaning manner.

 

Okay so that was about two weeks ago and the debate has moved on. If the mods think that having a Game Board is easier then I can accept that. I'll admit it has advantages. But really this is a thing that arose from the Fiddles community so why can't it be made a child board of Fiddles? Right after Fiddles is restored to its rightful status, that is.

 

And the post count thing? Turning that off for Fiddles and Fiddles alone is just plain childish. We're the only ones who care and now we're the only ones who miss out. Honestly, why did you bother in the first place.

 

I don't appreciate the implication that Fiddlesticks is a useless waste of space. This site is about community. I came for the book discussion, true, but I sure wouldn't have stayed on DM this long for the WoT discussion alone. Community kept me here. I love this site. I feel welcome everywhere, bizzare in-jokes notwithstanding, but I've found my niche in the Illuminators and on Fiddlesticks. Well I'd be up in arms if the Illuminators was under threat but we're the darlings of DM right now. But I care about Fiddles just as much. I don't like to see my community treated like dirt. It's already happening to me in real life and I just wouldn't believe it could happen on this wonderful, egalitarian site.

 

If the powers that be ever bothered to glance at Fiddlesticks before giving it this treatment according to their own vision of its place and purpose, they'd have found a community of welcoming, intelligent, likable folk. We engage in a little nonsense - who on this site doesn't? Okay, so nonsense is most of the point in Fiddles. I don't know a single noble spammer who isn't active on some other part of the site. We all go to Fiddles to wind down and be a little silly with people who feel the same. But there's a thread of coherency nonetheless. There's a community. It's a great community where you can become a fixture overnight - look at Gramps - but when you move on to greener pastures people still remember you. I ought to know. I've had a comeback or two. Fiddlesticks matters to us.

 

Fiddlesticks is a community just as much as the orgs. No, we aren't org material and we don't wish to be one. We're a different sort of community, but still one that deserves to be treated with respect.

 

Let me reiterate: You are trashing my community. Please stop. We don't want this. It costs you nothing to give us a little respect and listen to what we have to say about the fate of our board.

[Monty]

Im starting to revolt now. Since this is being ignored that is.

 

Although, im often short on time, so all im doing stealing the idea that popped into my head when i saw griefy's sig.

 

Im taking the words "Disciple of Spam" and putting them in my sig, linked here.

[GoodGrief]

An excellent idea!

[loki redfern]

tis an idea i do like..better than the raw link :)

yes, release the pink ajah !!

[Monty]

*blushes from the support*

 

wow, i had a good idea! and no, dont say that, it was my second, i think....

[GoodGrief]

Any word on progress?

[loki redfern]

if anyone is interested i recently PMed Kathana about this and am hopeing for some form of return communication perhaps :)

[JenniferL]

I told him to email the correct address, because it wasn't my decision.  Harassing me isn't going to get you results.