Is the TT community forum working as intended?

[MancFurter 12]

When I first moved to Germany, I was delighted to find the Toytown Germany website. What a wonderful idea and a fantastic resource.

 

The concept, a place where..

"English speakers can share news, ask questions, post answers, make advertisements, organise sports and social events, discuss current affairs, make friends, and generally engage with each other. "

 

For me and I'm sure many others, I had moved to a country where everything was different. Different culture, different rules and a language barrier on top. I had many questions, some I think about now were pretty stupid and in hindsight obvious, but nevertheless at the time they were important to me. I found TT an invaluable resource, if I had a question/problem I knew I'd find the answer on here, or at very least I would be pointed in the right direction by a helpful member of the TT community.

 

The concept, is a brilliant one... Unfortunately I think the vision has been lost somewhere along the way. On far too many occasions I've seen users who have asked questions or posted innocent comments who are met with sarcasm, ridicule and sometimes outright hostility. Don't get me wrong, I think the majority off TT members are friendly helpful people, unfortunately a few established members have let the side down. We were all new once, all lost, and that is why TT exists.

 

The community seems to have formed its own kind of 'old boys network', where the established members think they control the discussion boards. It seems to be that 'newbies' discover TT and ask one of those "stupid and obvious" questions, (which we have all asked) and are instantly berated, and are to be never seen again, new additions to the community are scared off and existing members keep quite, and don't post in fear of being mocked.

 

I felt I needed to post this, as recently I was reading a thread started by a 'newbie' Db0 Scammed in Frankfurt, someone who stated he had been the unfortunate victim of a scammer, his posting was;

 

1) a warning to the community, to make people aware, so they could avoid meeting the same fate.

 

2) To possibly receive some assistance from the community to help find, or catch out this person (something that has been done successfully a number of times on a number of forums.. See here for an example click here

 

I would suggest reading Db0's posting, in full. Now Db0 received a very negative response from some individuals, others were helpful, and some could have been interpreted as xenophobic. This is of course my opinion, and I would invite you to draw your own conclusions.

 

The negative comments seemed to be coming from a core group of individuals, some of which have been members of TT for a very long time, have posted a large amount of replies over the years and have earned a high 'reputation', I've also noticed postings from some of these people before, again with the same venom. On this particular occasion the discussion annoyed me greatly, and I was dejected by the responses. I was so annoyed that I voiced my opinions strongly and vowed to never return to TT.

 

Since that posting a number of TT members have contacted me saying they felt the same about the comments made and the attitude of some member of TT.

 

One member wrote:

 

 

"I get sick of the usual handful of bitter, narcissistic people that think they own TT.

But if everyone that isn't like that leaves it will just get worse!

There's lots of 'normal' people who read the forums and who don't post - I think you were right to say what you did"

 

So I would like to start a discussion, a civilized discussion, your views and opinions on this. I encourage everyone to post, regardless of time on the site and reputation level, Toytown belongs to you as much as anyone else, this is a community where everyone should have a voice. I would particularly be interested in hearing the opinion of EditorBob, and how he thinks Toytown has evolved and if it meets the original philosophy he envisioned….

 

I'm initially posting this in the Life in Frankfurt Rhein-Main section, but maybe this could be moved to somewhere more suitable if there are any suggestions.

[Jimbo 1,269]

 

Toytown belongs to you as much as anyone else

Interesting post, and not the first time thoughts like these have been voiced, though rarely in such detail and so coherently. I'll try and post a bit more later, but I'm pushed for time at the mo, however, I think the quote above is quite wrong - it belongs to Ed Bob, and ultimately, the site is therefore created in his image. Or at least he allows it to be organic and grow in its own way. There are many arguments pro and contra I think - is there a right answer? Probably not.

[don_riina 7,405]

 

The negative comments seemed to be coming from a core group of individuals, some of which have been members of TT for a very long time, have posted a large amount of replies over the years and have earned a high 'reputation',

FYI, the reputation system has not been around very long. Months, not years. If it had been around when I used to have time to write funny shit, my rep would be about 34 zillion.

[lilplatinum 7,142]

Meh, online communities are at least somewhat based on real life communities. Real life communities have lots of assholes, its unfair to expect an online one to be somehow different.

[katekatekoala 482]

Well, most of the people who respond to these "stupid, obvious" questions in a bitchy way are normally always like this. Go check out any old post by Mr Riina here, or perhaps Keydeck, or BigEnglish... the arses are always arses (I say this with the utmost love) and the nice people will most likely always be nice...

 

...unless it truly is a stupid and obvious question.

 

I found TT quite helpful. My very first post was asking questions about the s-bahn system. I wasn't in Germany yet and needed to know how things worked. I phrased my question clearly and intelligently, asked nicely for help, used grammar and punctuation, and was responded to in kind.

 

Sometimes I made mistakes, like starting a thread solely to show people how cute my pregnant guinea pig was, but it was dealt with nicely and such.

 

We're not all bad. From the people I know here in Munich, many act the same way online as they do off. The "mobbing" and poking fun at people might be a little funnier to me, someone who knows their senses of humour, than you, who doesn't. I think sometimes it gets out of hand. But mostly I think people take it way too personally.

[Pas 8,133]

I've met Don twice and on neither occasion has he got his cock out. Thankfully.

[Jimbo 1,269]

Only TT'er, to my knowledge, to openly display their penis, is actually me. So there you have it.

[Bipa 5,814]

Dealing with those snarky, negative comments can be very good preparation in learning how to deal with German beamte. If you can't manage to handle an online virtual reality, how in heaven's name will you be able to manage in the real world?

 

That said, learn to either ignore or give as good as you get. Or combine the two and switch between them at whim. Whatever strikes your fancy at the time.

[db0 52]

 

Dealing with those snarky, negative comments can be very good preparation in learning how to deal with German beamte. If you can't manage to handle an online virtual reality, how in heaven's name will you be able to manage in the real world?

That's ridiculous. The real world each of us is likely to experience is nowhere near as negative and nor are the Germans you're likely to meet. Quite the contrary in fact. It's absurd to try and spin bad attitude as a learning lesson.

[swimmer 3,706]

 

Meh, online communities are at least somewhat based on real life communities.

I'd also say that an online immigrant community is perhaps not much like anything in the real world. Most of us aren't hanging out only with people who have gone to the effort of moving to another country (often with a lot of ups and downs) who speak our own language in real life here. In fact, I'd say very few of us probably are!

 

A lot of people who've been through that process have learned to be pretty tough and pretty ruthless and to cut through all the BS and not to bother wasting time and all that stuff. In that way, we are probably going to be pretty much the opposite of a touchy-feely diplomatic group, I'd have thought. A lot of us are: deal with it, do what you need, forget hare-brained, time-weasting schemes, cut your losses, move on, do the stuff that matters to build a life, forget the navel-gazing.

 

I can totally understand what that might seem negative to someone who's never had anything worse happen than a loss of 300 Eur.

 

And that's another point - perspective. Emigration often changes that totally. You are worried over a miserly 300 Eur? (Just an example, not reopening that issue). Compared to the amount of cash a lot of us fork out and the income we give up and the myriad other compromises / sacrifices we make, that sort of "problem" might seem utterly trivial. I can rack mine up past 100k - so do I see the loss of 300 as a big deal? Frankly no - to me, my perspective is now just: put it down to experience, move on.

[sarabyrd 18,767]

Manc, it's nice to see that you have completed the flounce cycle and are dealing with your issues openly on the forum.

 

 

One piece of advise I gave him, is to do what I am going to do and never return to this forum again.

 

All the best you bunch of miserable c**ts.

 

Hoorrraaah for TT!

 

 

 

Only TT'er, to my knowledge, to openly display their penis, is actually me. So there you have it.

 

Wrong, and I'm not talking about Scogs, either.

[Gen 2,454]

 

You are advised to spend a while reading the forum and understanding its culture before you make your first post.

from the Registration Form

[Bipa 5,814]

 

That's ridiculous. The real world each of us is likely to experience is nowhere near as negative and nor are the Germans you're likely to meet. Quite the contrary in fact. It's absurd to try and spin bad attitude as a learning lesson.

 

See? You're getting the hang of it already! Welcome to TT! :P

[don_riina 7,405]

Right, I just wnet and had a bitch on a thread for no reason, so we could have a working example;

 

http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=166981&view=findpost&p=1933023

 

Seems a little nasty, yes?

 

What is missing though, is context. I have consistently moaned at vegetarians since I joined TT in 2002; in real life and online. Ask MadAxeMurderer.

Years ago, everybody new each other pretty much, and people that know me, know that I take the piss out of everything. It is just the way things are. As has been said before on TT, in written text, alot of nuance is lost of course; facial expressions, context, situation etc etc etc.

 

I see alot of what the OP means, but at the same time, there is alot of stuff that is simply misunderstood; alot of which is just people who are not funny, trying to be funny.

[db0 52]

 

And that's another point - perspective. Emigration often changes that totally. You are worried over a miserly 300 Eur?

I've said it many times. I don't. And this post is not about me, it's about the attitude of the community, not any particular amount and whether it's worth it to help. If that's the case, maybe put a sticky disclaimer in the forum and say something like "Unless your problem's costs exceed 1000Eur, we are not interested in providing any assistance. Get some perspective you bum."

 

Yeah, put that in the FAQ.

[Punatick 124]

So basically MancFurter threw a piece of meat in a circle of Pit Bulls and now the predicted reaction is occurring. Hats off to MancFurter!!!

[bohemka 4,338]

 

Is the TT community forum working as intended?

The intention was to provide a medium so that English-speaking expats who lived in the same community could contact each other to meet up in real life for any great number of reasons. It's as simple as that. And it's obviously still the case based on the number of meet-ups in every nook and corner of this country that are organized through TT almost every day.

 

The rest of it is just time-wasting until we can all get together and drink again.

[Punatick 124]

Bohemka ....you got my vote

[Jimbo 1,269]

At the end of the day - it's just a website.

[Keydeck 9,248]

At the start of the day too for that matter. But then if a newbie runs away too quickly they'll never get to see both and will thus go off utterly disillusioned. Saddens my rock-hard heart it does.