Are Some "Serious" ZP Users Caricatures?

**wingnut2600** · November 10th, 2007, 09:18 AM

From time to time I peruse these forums and wonder if posters can actually be real. There are a few posters with signatures and presences that are a little too truthful about their personal lives, and they seem like artificial caricatures.

I have no doubt that several are 100% serious and naive to the artificial or unreal manner in which their sig/av/posting style feels. I am shocked by what is posted in links in signatures... I just wonder what people think about when they put their personal lives on the internets and how others will view it (I may have a link, but that is in my profile and not completely insane).

I am trying to write this post in a sensitive manner, because some of these people are tender souls, but I wonder if I am the only person that gazes in disbelief at certain posts and posters and questions why they post on this forum or how they found it.

**MoonMan** · November 10th, 2007, 11:26 AM

Actually, you know, I retract my statement. It's too obvious whom I am talking about and it will just come off as an attack, which is something I would rather not do.

**wingnut2600** · November 10th, 2007, 11:44 AM

That is basically what I was going for... It just seems sometimes like people are a little too honest and forthright about their personal lives. I feel like it must be fake, because who would give so much info about themselves willingly on a website about filesharing (if that is what this place is anymore).

Things such as multicolor posts, social forum pictures, cute/sparkly attachments and inspirational/funny quotes seem out of place here...

Plus... websites in links (just click on them people and look), are an affront to web decency and the strides of graphic designers for the past ten years. I can't believe that these sites are real and not just a satirical lampoon based on an artificial caricature.

My post isn't really fully fleshed-out; it is more of a trend analysis and question about the very character of the site...

**MoonMan** · November 10th, 2007, 11:49 AM

Sorry wingy, didn't mean to do the runaround on you. I agree with everything you have just stated though.

**HelenaP** · November 10th, 2007, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by wingnut2600

.... but I wonder if I am the only person that gazes in disbelief at certain posts and posters and questions why they post on this forum or how they found it.

Speaking only for myself, I came to ZP last year without joining, looking for BitTorrent site links, to check for openings. To find out if certain trackers ever open or stay closed forever, blah,blah, so on and so forth.

For me personally, the community feel and the brutal honesty of (the majority) ZP's members are why I decided to sign up, and have remained.

Some of us find a myriad of interesting gems here at ZP. Some of us come here to simply have fun.

At the end of the day, does it really matter?

**wingnut2600** · November 10th, 2007, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by HelenaP

Some of us find a myriad of interesting gems here at ZP. Some of us come here to simply have fun.

At the end of the day, does it really matter?

No it does not... I rarely speak of filesharing proper on this forum anymore, and I am not saying that this forum should not be inclusive to all people that want to join in the forum.

I am trying to insinuate something without speaking it explicitly; this is my dilemma. I want to start a discussion about something without creating a climate of discomfort.

The title of this thread and the initial post should have been more refined, but I decided to just neuter its initial theme and go with the gist...

I am going to clarify using analogy. There are several forum members that are purely fictional and are literally characters created for a joke or as an alternate personality (e.g. Mr T, Sean Connery, crackerjacker, etc.). I feel sometimes that people that are brutally honest about themselves seem to be so open that I wonder if they too are caricatures.

This is a forum with an open sign-up; we take people (largely) on their face value. I take for granted that people are who they say they are, but I have seen posts now and in the past that are completely in character and congruent with their online personas that they make me wonder if the posters are fabricated.

It is an abstract premise, I realize, but it is a fascinating question about the nature of web reality and trust. We know no one here...

For example, perhaps Jorge is really a fabricated individual that is the facade for a company scraping the forums for marketing data for online companies and there are artificial posters created with the sole intent of asking marketing questions under the pretense of a forum post...

So, who do you trust? I trust the Spud by the way...

SeaPlankton · November 10th, 2007, 02:42 PM

If you ask me it's hunger for the, en la francais "mystérieux" (delibrately pretentious French word insertion there), or fame, or the desire to hide your head in the sand like a camel, away from the dire miseries of life and TV.

- o - "meh!"
LL

**Sephiroth** · November 10th, 2007, 03:29 PM

I think I see your point. I think this theory is true in explaining why some people act like jerks and I don't think most of them really are like that in real life. Another part is before the move to vBulletin there were forums at this site, which were unmoderated and full of jerks who just flamed and made it a hostile environment. I think some of that carried over into these forums over time.

The other thing you said was when you mentioned the discomfort and trying to be all inclusive. I think it is that way because of bad forum design which has degraded the importance of the P2P section to other stuff like general chat. If you took someone who never been to this site before and gave them a link to the forums, I don't think many would know they were at a P2P site. I also think because of that the people who visit the main page may be turned off from the forums because they are expecting the forums on a P2P site to be about P2P and since its not it probably turns some people off.

I don't think some areas of this forum really are all inclusive, its too tight knit that someone new doesn't feel comfortable posting here. Hell I been here longer than most other people and I don't even feel comfortable posting in alot of threads.

There doesn't seem to be much leadership from the administration either, there are some people here who have been warned probably over 20 times and are still here and still doing the same shit they always have without any fear of being banned just because they have a joined a long time ago or have x number of posts. I don't really see much from the majority of the moderators it seems only a about 2-3 actually do any moderating which just is not enough for a forum this size. From what I know back when I was a moderator I kind of get the impression that because most of them are buddies with one another it has kind of turned into their own little social club.

**Mels_Smileys45** · November 10th, 2007, 03:48 PM

I havent noticed anyone who has been an outstanding jerk lately. Will someone please come forth and be the jerk we all need? Im a jerkoff but not a jerk, usually. I can be both sometimes but I'm not very good at it.

SeaPlankton · November 10th, 2007, 03:57 PM

Pamela says, "What would a goose do in this situation?" (I say keep taking the valium). Honk, wonk, honk. Honk. Honk. What's this about? Caricatures? Oh yeah. The reason people come on here is because we are geese.

As I was saying, as I'm satan now, see left, I have to say there are no serious ZP users or even caricatures, as no-body writes our words. Mu-ha-ha.

**Mels_Smileys45** · November 10th, 2007, 04:02 PM

Hmmmm, most odd peeps be zeropain. Every jerk know that shit.

SeaPlankton · November 10th, 2007, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I think I see your point. I think this theory is true in explaining why some people act like jerks and I don't think most of them really are like that in real life. Another part is before the move to vBulletin there were forums at this site, which were unmoderated and full of jerks who just flamed and made it a hostile environment. I think some of that carried over into these forums over time.

The other thing you said was when you mentioned the discomfort and trying to be all inclusive. I think it is that way because of bad forum design which has degraded the importance of the P2P section to other stuff like general chat. If you took someone who never been to this site before and gave them a link to the forums, I don't think many would know they were at a P2P site. I also think because of that the people who visit the main page may be turned off from the forums because they are expecting the forums on a P2P site to be about P2P and since its not it probably turns some people off.

I don't think some areas of this forum really are all inclusive, its too tight knit that someone new doesn't feel comfortable posting here. Hell I been here longer than most other people and I don't even feel comfortable posting in alot of threads.

There doesn't seem to be much leadership from the administration either, there are some people here who have been warned probably over 20 times and are still here and still doing the same shit they always have without any fear of being banned just because they have a joined a long time ago or have x number of posts. I don't really see much from the majority of the moderators it seems only a about 2-3 actually do any moderating which just is not enough for a forum this size. From what I know back when I was a moderator I kind of get the impression that because most of them are buddies with one another it has kind of turned into their own little social club.

Hello, it's a been a while, how are you? You should get your old job back. Mel, have you got that woman's phone number? Also who's got in their signature "Mastorbator on Mel's avatar since 1996?"

SeaPlankton · November 10th, 2007, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by Mels_Smileys45

Hmmmm, most odd peeps be zeropain. Every jerk know that shit.

That woman can come into my jerk hole. Also you have Scooby's bus in it.

**evilmegaman** · November 10th, 2007, 05:31 PM

For some reason I don't recall you acting like you do nowadays a while back... are you the same seaplankton?

**HelenaP** · November 10th, 2007, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I think I see your point. I think this theory is true in explaining why some people act like jerks and I don't think most of them really are like that in real life...

I agree..and?

Maybe they [i]are[/o] like that in real life. Maybe ZP (or any other forum. There are arseholes everywhere) is where they feel comfortable being themselves because in real life, some behaviours are simply socially unacceptable.
Forums can be an outlet. Hella cheaper than a doctor.

Some people need the impersonal medium of the Internet to either be them selves, or pretend to be someone they are not.

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

...I also think because of that the people who visit the main page may be turned off from the forums because they are expecting the forums on a P2P site to be about P2P and since its not it probably turns some people off.

I have actually found very interesting P2P discussion going on here at ZP and learned a few things along the way...from the same "jerks" you speak of.

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I don't think some areas of this forum really are all inclusive, its too tight knit that someone new doesn't feel comfortable posting here. Hell I been here longer than most other people and I don't even feel comfortable posting in alot of threads. ....

I was told a long time ago, that if you want to be part of something, you don't hang back and wait to be invited. You grab on the shirtails and drag along. If I feel left out, it's me, not others that cause me to feel this way. I cannot wait for someone to say, "Hey Helena. Would you like to go with us too ____?"

This goes with an old saying from long ago, "Reaching out is the beginning of the struggle that will set us free."

Oh, and BTW, I am real. all across the board. :icon_salu