There’s a lot of swagger around here about a person’s join date. Look at mine, I’m coming up on 12 years. You know what that denotes? That I joined the board twelve years ago. It doesn’t mean that I know more about X than a poster with a March 2014 join date does.
This is a fine intellectual board that I enjoy coming to, posting on, and reading a lot more than I ever post. But this repeated meme regarding a person’s join date needs to stop. Yes, there can be data extrapolated showing a brand new poster is more likely to be troll material. However, mentioning that as an arguement means that you are being too lazy to debate on the merits of the post and would rather comment on the person instead.
Here’s a list of recent examples. And like I said, we can see that a lot of the responses are because the original posters are just jackasses. But the jackassery extends to experienced-join-date folks dismissing a newb just for being a newb as opposed to explaining why their point of view is bullshit.
After 12 years, I’m pretty sure you’re not a shill. I need more time to make a ruling on new posters, especially ones with strongly stated yet poorly thought out political opinions in support of foreign countries.
Put all active posters who started in 2002 in Group A.
Put all posters who joined this month in Group B.
Take a wild guess which group is going to have more trolls, morons, spammers and socks. Guess which group is going to be far more likely to start a thread and never to return to it to answer questions or join in the discussion? There’s a reason we tell people to lurk for a while to learn a little about the board culture.
I think it’s worth noting when someone posts something really outrageous. It’s a way of reminding other posters that they may not want to waste much time debating the person. And seriously, this MB is waaaaaaay too troll friendly if you ask me.
In all the examples you gave the poster is getting grief for talking a load of rubbish, and pointing out the join date is just one way of insulting them. If it wasn’t the join date it would have been something else.
Nobody gets grief solely because of their join date.
This! The join date is almost always pointed out when it’s the current month, ie, the poster who just made an outrageous statement is unlikely to return and respond.
I’m pretty sure Ireland is a myth. Redheads and emerald fields? Good writing but it can’t be real!
I agree with John Mace. I’m not sure I’ve seen a message board populace rise to troll bait nearly as often or as well as this one’s does. I think people have improved a bit since umkay, but troll threads still always stretch out far longer than they should.
Do you know what you get when you combine crappy content with a <this month> join date? A crappy poster who’s not going to participate in their own crappy threads. And on this board, you can add in a healthy dose of posters who fall for it every. single. time.
A recent join date doesn’t invalidate factual positions, but it does get my back up when some rank newb starts aggressively lecturing me on my tone and motives for posting in GD. Seasoned with “I’m not impressed” snark, at that. Snark’s something you have to earn a right to, IMNSHO.
When I returned here after a LONG hiatus, a longer timed member scolded me for my tone and motives for posting. I sent him a PM justifying what I said and he rescinded the scolding. Via PM. It does go both ways. Having said that…
It’s pleasant when a new member introduces him/herself when they emerge out of lurkdom. That suggests to me they want to become part of this community.
It’s annoying when a newcomer has a (how to say this?) particular drum they want to beat and mostly wants affirmation. It’s even more annoying when, if they don’t get the agreement they want, they start a similar thread with their proposal slightly reworded. Then they get lambasted again and they’re never heard from again.
Maybe a truer test of a newcomer is how they react after being told they’re wrong after some back and forth? “I didn’t know that” and “Well, let’s agree to disagree” sort of people I think will be better members than “How can you be so stupid to not see that…!!!” sort of people. Though the latter don’t tend to stay around unless they MUST have the last word.
I think the join date is useful to let members know how gently or not gently they tell someone they posted a question in the wrong forum or have broken one of the rules, conventions, or traditions here.
Oh, how long do I have to be active here before I can turn my snark up to 11?
