Originally posted by Toad
LOL, Santa.
I am known to be funny from time to time.
So because there are sooooooooooo many Americans, they shouldn't talk about American stuff?
No. My whole post was about common decency and courtesy, not about Americans. I attempted to show, as schadenfreude originally asked, that there are times when differentiated forums is a
good thing.
Now, one can simply say "well FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Just ignore what you don't wanna read!"
And my point is that there's more to it than that. One wants to keep the noise ratio down. One could want to keep the information either context sensitive (i.e. taking location into advice) or, as much as possible, keep the stuff posted as
generic as possible. To support my points, I referred to dropzone.com, which has had lots of success with a both generic and differentiated approach - without anyone whining about it or feeling excluded. That's all.
Do you have any suggestions where we should go to talk about this stuff?
Well, sort of. Since American politics is a very big thing in its own right, a subforum would be nice. That way we could keep the O' Club for the stuff that
unites us instead. And all the "u r not living in the us so shut up and keep outta our threads stupid eurotrash" and the "d00d. Amreekhans are eehv and stoopit and bushs are hitler!" crap too.
Seriously. Europeans and Americans on this forum are starting to see each other a bit like
opponents because of personal attacks that then are generalized to cover Europeans as a group and Americans as another. It's bloody ridiculous, harmful and stupid. Our governments aside, Americans and Europeans share so much culture, so many values and whatnot that the us vs them thing is really bad. All the bullsh|t isn't necessary and could easily be kept at a much more manageable level.
You know what I find neat about your "cultural dominance theory"? The US is indeed a "melting pot" of cultures. 
The US is a melting pot sure. In many places though, there's no fire under the melting pot. I've seen studies (and I'll dig up the links if necessary) that clearly point towards a population divided up into segments that by and large are homogenous. In other words, the US as a whole is very heterogenous, but there is a strong tendency towards people "keeping with their own". Thus you get your little Chinas and so forth.
Of course there is a lot of "melting" going on, but one should not be so naeive as to think that you chaps are as mixed as say soft drink concentrate and water.
Anyway, the O-Club IS the place set aside to talk about everything/anything. With respect to the game itself, the underlying "glue" that holds this community together, we have our "Incident" forums.
Why's Schadenfreude suggestion so bad? We'd reduce the noise ratio, leave people less frustrated and more friendly and keep the O'Club for that which isn't so context sensitive - which is just about everything except bloody stupid silly infuriating American politics, where people actually HATE a person they've never met (be it Bush or Kerry).
So, the purpose would be to create a friendlier atmosphere with less noise and more content. It's apparent many posters don't have an intention of good will towards others as a default. They'll tralk about themselves after inviting you over, if you will. So, we'll set up another house - if you decide to come over afterall, you'll know what you'll get.
That's not true in the case of Kerry/Bush is it? Correctly or incorrectly, many non-Americans here and many that don't frequent this board feel this is an issue that will affect their lives. Additionally, the International news is full of American politics. Everyone's an expert on OUR politics. Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Danes, etc., all know more than we do and feel free to instruct us. 
Kerry or Bush, it won't matter much. And as far as foreigners instructing you - you'd reduce that problem by saying "this forum is for A and B, not for C and D, so bugger off".
It is about ignore.
That's your approach and the one I currently am using too. Your noise ratio is a lot lower than mine though, since you belong to the culturally dominant group. Also, the ignore option semi-promotes the "being an ar$ehole" attitude, since it says "I can be an ar$ehole. You don't have to read what I write". Which of course is true - but what I am seeking is an approach where there's some group pressure towards adult behaviour, instead of a carte blanche to not thinking beyond oneself.
Ain't saying all this should be rules - on the contrary. What I'd like to see happen is that the environment, or culture, on this board changes somewhat. One way of achieving that is through structure.
I know you rarely get irritated or frustrated with the needless name-calling etc. that the ignore approach indirectly encourage. I do feel a twinge of annoyance when adults behave like kids - but that's up to them. I feel a little more than a twinge when it's indirectly condoned or promoted.
But really, I do what you do. I read some and ignore most And it doesn't matter, really - it's not important. But, it'd be nice if things were better, you know?
Maybe you guys should sign up 5000 Euro players. It'd surely change the cultural dominance on the BBS. [/B]
Heh, well, we're working through Ahnold now, so we'll get there
I think it'd be easier to just have an American Politics sub section. It'd be better for you too - you'd have less noise and more content.
Which, incidentally, is *exactly* why there's an o'Club and a place to discuss Fm, and to discuss bugs etc
.
I think people trashed Schadenfreude unfairly because they felt his suggestion was some kinda Ewroophehan elitism. I didn't read it like that at all, and now I am writing this ridiculously long post instead of working on the database migration. Heh.
