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[Maiden Voyage]

Come post in the Friday thread. It’s a positive place to be.

 

[jason10mm]

Check out the movie Knock Knock. They ain't small IMO. Must be the angle of that pic.

Or the marilyn monroe flick, or that spanish one she did.

Though as she ages and gets thinner, they will shrink a bit

 

[bender]

You might now just be noticing it but this isn't a new concept. Humans are just more apt to complain than praise (think about the last time you filled out a survey or spoke to a manager, was that because of a negative or positive experience) and are more likely to pay attention negative news rather than something positive. You'll see 10x the amount of stories in sports coverage about off the field troubles rather than the charitable work most athletes do in their communities while utilizing their platforms and the latter outweighs the former mightily. And that's by no mistake, we have all the data in the world and ways to analyze it to let us know what humans want to consume. The danger there is that if you only expose people to the negative of any given community, group, or organization, you'll paint an unjust picture by often representing the minority as the whole.

The bad news is you probably can't stop human nature, short of my sure proof plan of killing all humans, and you aren't going to slow down technology which magnifies this problem and gives everyone's negative voice the public town square. The good news is that you can take Gandi's advice. The next time you get really good service at a restaurant, talk to the manager. Or the next time a co-worker goes above and beyond, talk to their manager.

 

[DKehoe]

I think this is because shitposting for likes is more immediately rewarding than constructive criticism and actual discussion. It's time consuming to come up with a well reasoned and researched critique of "a thing" and then sit through 30 responses that are just memes, "you suck and yo mama sucks...me off every night!", or complete tangent insults.

Plus a lot of pop culture these days is addressing a very diverse and fractured audience. 20, 15, even 10 years ago a show like The Witcher would have had ONE audience locked into their sights....the horny straight white male. All the women on the show would have been naked half the time, all the cast would have been straight from the Scandinavian/Eastern europe casting pool, and only Geralt's opinion on things would matter. This would have gone over MASSIVE with the straight white male audience and quite a few straight femmes that just drool at Cavills pecs. It would have been hard to complain about it outside of the "it's all white people" and "where are the gays?" stuff that has been directed at EVERYTHING in recent years and while those are criticisms, I don't think they are particularly valid for that specific IP.

Anyway, a show like that could have generated a lot of positive buzz and discussion, basically like what GoT had, or other shows from that period. IMHO its the redirect of SWM IPs towards non-SWM audiences that has really fed this negativity loop because the old audience isn't feeling the love and the 'new' audiences aren't really that present to step in and replace the SWMs. Particularly when this happens also across the board, seemingly simultaneously in a forced fashion that FEELS like an outside agenda, it gets the hackles up for sure.

But yeah, we could do with a bit more "hey, I'm glad you liked it, I did like this part about it......" (and then keep the stuff you didn't like to yourself).

I do think there's plenty of good stuff out there just now. But the audience is seemingly less interested than ever in checking out things they don't have a familiarity with. So that's another factor in the media discussion having become (in my opinion) so bad on here.

 

[thefool]

What specific content are you talking about? Last three big movies i remember reading threads on gaf, I heavily disliked Dune part 2 but if you check the initial reaction everyone gushed about it. Furiosa was mostly appreciated by everyone. Oppenheimer got raves. Where's the negativity?

I think the real reason is the amount of trash that is produced, and there's just so much new content. When GOT was good everyone found it enjoyable, now its a bloody mess.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

You might now just be noticing it but this isn't a new concept. Humans are just more apt to complain than praise (think about the last time you filled out a survey or spoke to a manager, was that because of a negative or positive experience) and are more likely to pay attention negative news rather than something positive. You'll see 10x the amount of stories in sports coverage about off the field troubles rather than the charitable work most athletes do in their communities while utilizing their platforms and the latter outweighs the former mightily. And that's by no mistake, we have all the data in the world and ways to analyze it to let us know what humans want to consume. The danger there is that if you only expose people to the negative of any given community, group, or organization, you'll paint an unjust picture by often representing the minority as the whole.

The bad news is you probably can't stop human nature, short of my sure proof plan of killing all humans, and you aren't going to slow down technology which magnifies this problem and gives everyone's negative voice the public town square. The good news is that you can take Gandi's advice. The next time you get really good service at a restaurant, talk to the manager. Or the next time a co-worker goes above and beyond, talk to their manager.

The thing is, our mind wants problems to solve, all the time. Modern western societies have solved the basic problems of existence for most people, yet we’ve never spent this much in healthcare, and anxiety and the mental problems related to it have been on the increase for a while.

Good news don’t push us into action. Good news are about problems that have been solved. You don’t hear about a dude donating a billion dollars to charity and think, ”hey, I want to do that too”. You think “good, somebody else solved that, that’s one less problem to worry about for me and so many others”. Then, having saved money, you proceed to order a smartphone that’s only marginally better than the one you bought last year, but costs more. After all, the old one was getting a bit long in the tooth by now.

Bad news can manipulate you into doing something. Suddenly your mind has something to find a solution to. So you go out and hoard toilet paper. Hey, it’s a problem solved. For a while. Meanwhile, how do I poop less? But oh no, the news is giving me more problems to solve.

There’s a good side to negativity, and that’s the fact that people are acknowledging a problem exists and want to vent about it so that more people know about it, and maybe someone will find a solution. Sure, unfortunately many people tend to vent about the smallest problems because they don’t think they can tackle the biggest ones. That’s why we have so many threads about the Switch having a chance to outsell the PS2, and so many people being so passionate about it.

Being ok is boring.
Being happy only lasts for so long.
Being worried and negative will keep you busy forever.

 

[Trilobit]

You can see things as negativity, but I choose to see them as refreshing honesty. On Gaf you can express both positive and negative opinions about media and other things without having someone ban you. This leeway is a breath of fresh air for 30+ year old people like me who don't have the woke sensitivities to not step on other people's humongous and sore toes out there on the interwebs. Posts may come off as brasher and more direct here, but most people on this site are kind and give you room to express differing points of views.

 

[Toons]

I've been wanting to make this thread for a while now but kept forgetting but once again another thread going over the same stuff has reminded to do so.

Over the past year or so there's one thing I've noticed about NeoGAF that's sadly become the new norm and that's we apparently absolutely thrive on negativity whether it's in regards to movies, games, TV shows, etc. We always have threads complaining about the current state of things and yet people constantly avoid the very things they claim they want. Why is this? Have we become so jaded that we just simply prefer to complain about things opposed to talking about things we like or find interesting? Now I know what some of you might jump to, "Why don't you make the threads yourself then?", and actually I have tried that, and majority of the time we're lucky if a thread about something positive or unique gets to a second or third page, meanwhile insert controversial thing gets multiple upon multiple pages of activity.

We always get threads talking about how much better things were in the past without a hint of irony whilst these people ignore or refuse to acknowledge that these eras also had trash and multiple sequels and spin offs, but we simply just don't remember them compared to the things that have stood the test of time and the things that we look back on fondly. The best case of this is that we have people now even talking about the 2010s being a better era from the younger generation, like I'm sorry but WHAT?

So I ask you fellow gaffers, why are things this way? We do we complain about TikTok videos but NOT post content from creators who stick to old school methods like L.A. Beast? Why do threads about "woke" and "diversity" span tens of pages when threads about unique games barely get off the ground? Why do we talk about TV shows we hate watch every week and argue with each other about how bad it is or how worse it is getting when threads about genuinely good TV shows have like two pages of activity?

It feels like over time we're also falling into the trap of being conditioned into being negative as it generates more responses and more activity, it feels like some posters are forever in jaded mode because they know people will argue with them whilst nice or positive posts are overlooked. It just feels tiring at times looking on this forum and my first thought is usually "let's see what you guys hate today" instead of seeing threads about cool things or stuff you actually enjoy. For example EviLore made a thread the other day about Gunpla models, I'm not interested in that stuff but it's nice seeing the posts about this subject with other members having a back and forth about what they have in their collections and how they build theirs.

I'm interested in reading other peoples thoughts about this, what has you experience of the mood on the forums been lately? Is there anything you agree or disagree with? Do you think we should make more of an effort to post about things we enjoy and are passionate about?

Not just gaf its happening a lot on the internet

Crapping on media you consume is seen as a virtue for the sake of it. Internet cliques basicslly come to a consensus on what is or isn't ok to like and everyone else is expected to follow that framework.

For me its way easier to spend my time enjoying the things I like and talking with those that do than complaining about what I dont.

 

[YCoCg]

You can see things as negativity, but I choose to see them as refreshing honesty. On Gaf you can express both positive and negative opinions about media and other things without having someone ban you. This leeway is a breath of fresh air for 30+ year old people like me who don't have the woke sensitivities to not step on other people's humongous and sore toes out there on the interwebs. Posts may come off as brasher and more direct here, but most people on this site are kind and give you room to express differing points of views.

Again, that's not what the issue is, being able to complain about things is good, but why does it feel we sometimes only do that? Surely there must be something people enjoy and want to share with others, let's see more things about what people like instead of constantly complaining and ironically giving more attention to things they hate.

 

[Wildebeest]

Again, that's not what the issue is, being able to complain about things is good, but why does it feel we sometimes only do that? Surely there must be something people enjoy and want to share with others, let's see more things about what people like instead of constantly complaining and ironically giving more attention to things they hate.

If you want answers to deep questions like this, you need to watch all of Evangelion and the movies on repeat.

 

[YCoCg]

If you want answers to deep questions like this, you need to watch all of Evangelion and the movies on repeat.

Oh god not again

 

[Wildebeest]

Oh god not again

You see, I'm being positive and open about something, and already you are recoiling, just like the hedgehog's dilemma in Evangelion.

 

[YCoCg]

You see, I'm being positive and open about something, and already you are recoiling, just like the hedgehog's dilemma in Evangelion.

It has been a while since I've watched, I've heard the Netflix dubs are the best now?

 

[Wildebeest]

It has been a while since I've watched, I've heard the Netflix dubs are the best now?

I don't know. I'm not sure if I didn't just watch my old dvds last time I watched it.

 

[near]

Again, that's not what the issue is, being able to complain about things is good, but why does it feel we sometimes only do that?

Having giving it some thought, I think it has more to do with a lack of willingness from users to create threads, as opposed to most threads leaning towards pessimism. If you look at the gaming section we mostly have OTs and informative threads. Opinion pieces by users seem like are rarity, and ones that gain traction tend to be hot takes or vent threads. You’ll still find users sharing their passion for specific genres, hobbies and whatnot in OTs, the Currently Playing thread or in an adjacent thread for an announced/upcoming game/series/film. If I was to isolate the issue, it’d be a lack of willingness for users to create threads about specific things that want to discuss.

 

[YCoCg]

Having giving it some thought, I think it has more to do with a lack of willingness from users to create threads, as opposed to most threads leaning towards pessimism. If you look at the gaming section we mostly have OTs and informative threads. Opinion pieces by users seem like are rarity, and ones that gain traction tend to be hot takes or vent threads. You’ll still find users sharing their passion for specific genres, hobbies and whatnot in OTs, the Currently Playing thread or in an adjacent thread for an announced/upcoming game/series/film. If I was to isolate the issue, it’d be a lack of willingness for users to create threads about specific things that want to discuss.

I'll admit that I'm guilty of this at times, sometimes I find something and think I should post a thread on here but then either end up forgetting or wonder if it's worth it, and I'd imagine others do the same thing, when you make a thread about something positive and it either gets ignored or has people just being negative in it then it can add to the feeling of not wanting to bother.

But I acknowledge that, I'll be trying to put more into actually posting threads.

 

[near]

I'll admit that I'm guilty of this at times, sometimes I find something and think I should post a thread on here but then either end up forgetting or wonder if it's worth it, and I'd imagine others do the same thing, when you make a thread about something positive and it either gets ignored or has people just being negative in it then it can add to the feeling of not wanting to bother.

But I acknowledge that, I'll be trying to put more into actually posting threads.

Yeah, it can be disheartening to see your thread get buried or lack community engagement, but at least you shared your opinion and the thread exists for future reference if anyone does a search for something related to your topic. I have a couple threads I will create in off-topic and the gaming section on things I want to discuss sometime soon, I know it will probably not resonate with most but who gives a fuck lol. I created a K-Drama OT in the community section because I wanted a thread to talk about dramas I’m watching, it has had little engagement but I still intend to use that thread to update those that are interested in k-dramas on what I’ve watched and share my thoughts on dramas sometime in the future.

I think when users enter a new thread and just decide to derail it, and when I say derail I mean shitpost or go on hard tangents without reading the OP, it pisses me off. There are possibly a multitude of reasons why some users refrain or shy away from creating threads, but I always encourage it even if it turns out to be a dead topic.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Unfortunately I'm one of those negative posters myself

But when it comes to entertainment I tend to drop anything I don't like immediately and find something else to enjoy. So instead delving on it like I used to, I just move on