You should've seen us in our heyday. We held the keys to Link's metagame, it's a shame Brawl was such a bad time.
Ah, yes, I remember the painful times in
Brawl all too well... In all honestly, it's great to see others who pulled through despite that multiyear setback.
Context is everything. On one hand, this is the social, on the other, it's also the only thread on the board we keep open not exclusively dedicated to doing work. It is the only place we have to rip into one another when appropriate that does not derail another, important, thread.
Aye, that is a good point to mention, now that you do.
At the end of most of these scuffles things go back to the status quo. We've frequently had vets here rip into one another as a matter of course, it's what we do. This community does not operate like most sanitized online Common Interest Hugboxes. We behave like real people, real friends. We laugh, we fight, we staunch our bloody noses and shake hands at the end.
Sounds good on paper, but I'm still rather dubious with the execution. Communication is two-way, after all. Sure, it's fine to
say that the ribbing is meant in good fun, but that doesn't preclude misinterpretation of one's intent. And it certainly doesn't prevent anyone from growing hesitant to post in the first place.
And in the context of this being the Link boards, this is actually all quite tame. I can think of a grand total of four people on this entire site who have earned themselves a life time pass to Stay The Hell Outsville™, four. Only one of them has posted in this social in the last 15 pages or so. He's banned. Anyone else, anyone who we've ripped into and flamed and trolled remains welcome.
This is actually rather comforting to hear.
Although, then again, a particularly-persistent pessimist like me could interpret that as a request for punching bags to not become sentient.
Abide the rules.
Don't intentionally sow discord.
Don't spread misinformation.
Since you've repeated this twice, I'll go ahead and make this a mantra and commit it to memory, then.
Even Izaw, who is a popular target for community disapproval for what can be perceived as egocentric behaviour, always has a free pass to come back here, and has done so in the past and even been treated well. (When he isn't posting a ****ing Sheik video on the ****ing Link boards. ****.)
Oh, yeah, I remember that! Still not sure what was up with that, seriously...
Then he's open to criticisms, Unknown Hero has been posting her since the release of Smash4, and he knows what the culture is. He's also a victim of his own obliviousness. We've told him time and again to do what he wants and play what feels good. It's a recurring issue with him that has apparently rubbed raw with a few members. C'est la vie. Even so, as Zane the Patience outlined, he's welcome to stick around. It'd be nice if he read more than one post above his own before replying, however.
Open to
constructive criticism, sure. That I'm perfectly fine with. But "constructive" is the complete
opposite of what I'd call some of the posts decrying him in the first place. Not to ignore the posts you've mentioned giving him advice and supporting his choice--those are fine! It's the
other ones, the ones devoid of any sort of meaningful information whatsoever beyond flaming for the sake of such.
In an echo chamber situation I wouldn't be addressing you, oh foul dissenter. The social is the only thread on the board which is open season, and when dealing with the Link mains, people know what to expect, especially people who have been here for some time. We're not sensitive, and we don't filter ourselves, but we are not close minded. What would be the point of promoting such an uncensored dialogue among the members here if we weren't listening to each other speak?
...You know, that's a very good point.
Touche! I concede the "echo chamber" comment.
EDIT: Actually, I take it back. "We don't filter ourselves" is quite a bold claim, especially since it runs counter to one of my previous arguments. People
do filter themselves. I do it just by lurking, and I'm willing to bet others have, too. The fact that there's even a little bit of self-censorship in that regard lends credence to my claim. Unless, of course, your own claim has sufficient evidence that the boards are as inclusive as you imply.
If you lack that little floppy green hat, then you're free to post and hang out, but we will not change for you. And I think this is the thing that bothers people about us. We are not willing to change our ways for them. It's been a frequent frustration for this community to have people without that floppy hat come to our board and demand we change how we behave to suit their needs.
And so we demand that
they change? I don't mean to imply any disrespect toward this community's adamance toward changing their ways, but that sounds like having your cake and eating it, too. Perhaps the ribbing and such in good spirit would be fine if it weren't
borderline compulsory.
No. We do the work, if you wish to benefit from it, you will have to tolerate our culture in the process.
All of that aside, even visitors with no experience dealing with us tend to be treated well in this thread so long as they don't disrespect our community.
Very well. If I had at any point expressed disrespect for this community, I apologize.
However. If the community expects others to tolerate this sort of culture, then it had better expect
constant valid criticism in kind, which has been my goal here. And it's been received with mixed results, obviously, but thank you, Shin, for your respectful counters. Much appreciated!
Anyone who believes you're safe from everything here just because its social is an idiot.
The point of contention isn't whether or not people should be immune to what happens here. It's whether or not it's
justified given the circumstances. You did bother reading everything that's been written, right? Don't spread misinformation by setting up straw men.