Naysayers.

I deal with naysayers on a day to day basis, and some would think I would be used to it by now. Especially given my embarking career in Human evolution, I guess I should be expecting such things more so than I already do. I still however find the social grouping of naysayers on the internet to be quite a shock.

Examples can be taken from two forums I frequent. I will keep both their identities to myself because I'd rather not have the abundant sources of drama there following me to his blog. Also given my positions at each forum, I'd rather not perpetuate any further drama for those forums by having the naysayers come across this post here.

Although these forums in which I attend are fundamentally different to the core in both terms of the audience they cater to and the general genre of specialty I notice they are falling prey to naysayers in the same way. It seems to always start the same way, members attacking the staff of a forum due to their not liking a decision being made. This tends to be open to the general forum and done in such way that is disrupts the flow of the whole forum, these types of outbursts are usually met with disciplinary action. Depending on the severity and other considerations sometimes the member is even banned for their antics, and their fellow naysayers use him as a martyr to express their "point".

This is fine, I understand that social networking comes with a few detriments. I also understand that it is impossible to please everyone and that some no matter what will have problems with the way in which the rules are carried out. Actually some people simply feel that they have the right to say anything they want, and shouldn't be censored. WRONG! The internet is a nice venue of free speech but when you join a forum you forfeit the right to cause anarchy and disruption by going against the forum rules. I like to think about it like this, read the rules and accept them by joining and after this you are a guest. As a guest you are allowed to use the features of the forum, but if you break the rules you lose that privilege. It doesn't matter if you agree or not.

Anyway, back to the example. On these forums I frequent there is a huge member base, so much so that these social networks become very similar in nature to high school albeit a online based one. Members forge social relationships and tend to cluster in cliques. Unfortunately for the staff the naysayers tend to gather together, and if one gets banned the rest start an uproar usually crying out the terms "dictatorship" and "censorship".

This brings up a good point. Just because you live in a democratic country when you join a forum it doesn't mean it has to follow the same scheme. Most forums are dictatorships, in all fairness they try their best to accommodate everyone but will science those who just troll and become a nuisance. Think of it as high school again, the delinquent who used to throw paper balls was usually removed from the class and sent to the office.

So these naysayers they tend to start their own little online revolution and take on the forum publicly. This is fine, although it usually ends up with them losing privileges and being banned. After a couple of them go the rest either quit or shut up(at least openly). Those who are left usually stay in the shadows a while causing drama in other ways, or private messaging other members trying to get them to join their ranks, sometimes they even go as far as to stalk those they have a problem with online in an effort to harass them. Usually these are minor issues, but on occasion they take things to another level completely, and try to use their influence to effect those they disagree with in real life. I know of a case where a member tried to get an admin fired from their real life job by submitting a nasty e-mail to their boss.

The newest tactic in the naysayer arsenal is to create their own forum, it usually becomes quickly filled by those who are either banned or quit the other forum. Some frequent both using one to get members to the other and returning to the other just to complain about the administration. These forums are rarely long lived because they only serve as a medium for people to complain, and remain on that topic solely. It is actually quite counter productive in many cases because once the staff of the forum they hate finds out they can easily see who they can trust and promptly eliminate all those recruiting for the other forum.

I've been dealing with this on these forums for a few weeks now, and although I have once been part of these social networking revolutions against an "oppressive" administration I've now moved beyond that. This may have stemmed from my working as an admin and dealing with naysayers personally, but I particularly feel it came from seeing that their is no point in such things. Online naysaying is just drama for those who have no other excitement in their lives, and serves only as a medium for faulty personalities to gather and be pompous together.

Life is too short for such drama, especially online.