There are actually quite a few. And, we are constantly having conversations about what goes on here. Honestly, moderators in some of the other forums that I'm a part of, would have deleted many of your posts as duplicates and/or cross-posts -- which are usually frowned upon. As we are a friendly place here, yours have not been deleted (yet).

Actually, as a user-contributed (and moderated) forum, this is exactly what should happen. It doesn't mean that all ideas will be acted upon, but every user (as you know) has a right to express their ideas. These days, I wish we had more "formal" rules here too, but it's never been an issue before.

All of the moderators here (myself included) receive emails and PMs from various members about all sorts of stuff that happens here. We also get email alerts to user-reported spam, etc. If anyone here ever has an issue, they are free to contact us and request an action or ask for an opinion. We don't need to clog up the forum with debates about whose posts might conflict with rules that don't (yet) exist.

Tim

The N900 is really going to open this place up-- for better or worse.

Change is inevitable. Question is, what form(s) and to what degree?

That was so tacky. Rude as hell. So new users that find this site formidable are idiots and *****s?! They don't need a cellphone?! This is classic apathetic behavior, and that's the stigma around here from the word around the Symbian community that coud easily be fixed with a little empathy and manners. We can read, you know? I'm sure you probably meant it in jest, but it isn't funny if you're the one referred to. I fight for the little guy everyday, and i don't like the elite attitudes that flow around here.

I'm sorry that you thought that was an elite attitude. I consider it a realistic attitude. We live in an age where information is more available than at any other time in the history of mankind. All it takes is the exertion of a small amount of effort to LOOK for it, this can be as simple as typing 1-5 words into a search bar. The growing trend, however, is to not even bother exerting THAT amount of work and simply starting a new thread asking a question that has been asked and answered many times before, people want things handed to them on a silver platter. That clutters up the boards and pushes threads of more importance out.

So excuse me if I have no tolerance for that. I grew up in an age where information had to be worked for. Google.com was something I would have KILLED for. I don't think we are doing ourselves, nor the new thread posters any favours by pandering to their every whim. As you say "We can read, you know" I suggest they start by reading the results of a simple search.

Edit: I am a new user and I managed just fine when I got here, does that make me smarter than others? or does it mean they were just less inclined to put in any effort to figure it out?

Considering the general climate here there will be probably more friction in the coming weeks, when new potential or actual buyers will come in to seek (also basic) information and may not be used to the maemo platform and web site intricacies etc..

Unless something is done to:

a) better organize and present information on the N900 aimed in particular at new users who have not been on the maemo ship before.

b) Keep the tone down, be polite and avoid certain posting contexts which are useless and create impression of an aggressive group at least to people who are just approaching maemo.

Otherwise I believe new users will just go to other sites which will pop-up if there is demand (and there will be) and maemo.org, to a certain extent, will have missed an opportunity to serve the community of users at large.

I for one must say that the tone and content of certain threads and posts in these few days have been such that I have been seriously thinking of just "abandoning" the community, which I follow since the N770 was on the market.

Regards,
Antonio

I agree noventa98, and after getting foolishly caught up in recent controversies I'm going to certainly do my part to focus more on signal than noise.

Who's with me??!!?

Well Bratag, my mother taught me not to call someone a name you wouldn't call them to their face, and to respect those with less intelligence than ourselves. You're lucky to be so smart, and you should honor the power that gave you such knowledge, not step on those without it.

idiot is a strong word. When my nephew comes here for information, please don't talk to him like that. He's 16, and probably smarter than us both, but certainly worth more respect than that.

The things some people think is acceptable... You can ruin the good thing we have without some adjustment.

Well since you ARE a mod, and you haven't acted like my father yet, and I totally think your media work is top notch, by the way, what exactly is cross posting? Because I was smart enough to use search to seek threads about screen rotation. I found a few, but none directly pertained to the N900. I didn't want to pose a question there and hijack the thread, so I posted asking those with pertinent knowledge to help me out in a dedicated thread/Brainstorm.

How else should I have done it, especially with zero help in the way of guides around here?? I didn't have any disruptive intentions, and I didn't post anything else in the threads. How do I know who knows what and how to engage them for advice? What good does a brainstorm do if it can't be found without you directing them there?

I actually posted in my own community about the mentioned brainstorm. I'm working on self help, but I did ask for help! Know what I got? "Go do something about it!" How can I know I'm breaking a rule if the only people able to help are only willing to do so if it benefits them, or are willing to attempt to block and campaign against you getting help?

Some of my posts HAVE been deleted, or they're hard to find. I made some comments to a couple of guys in the heat of a melee that I wanted to remove, and they are already gone. Why, as a mod, are situations like that allowed to fester in the first place?

I'll be the first to say I dug into a few guys I found downright rude, but if you allow the guys to call people idiots and treat the incoming people here they way many do, why would you expect less? Everyone is ready to tell me how wrong I am, and I'll probably beat you to it, but you have to stick up for the new guys just as much as your rude cronies. Don't tell me you can't cross post and thread crap, as they say, but you can call people out of their names, treat them like dirt, and attempt to lock others out of the use of the forum services!

Do you think that is a good environment for this forum? Is that the type of atmosphere tolerated by the mods? Because if so, let me know. I certainly won't tolerate it. I have adjusted my attitude, but the same jerks that ran lips before still do. How many posts must I have before I can call you an a..hole and whatnot? See my point?


how about now? it SHOULD be that a user DEMAND that I acknowledge something I don't know? How do I know who to listen to? I won't ever listen to someone that approaches me like a jerk. I think you're letting your friendships with some of the members here get in the way of impartiality. I could be wrong, but I wasn't attacking anyone unprovoked. If you knew me, you'd know I'm not about that at all. But as a mod, you have work to do, in my opinion. I'll be your scapegoat, but now it seems like you're condoning the jerks and blasting me for being one back.

emails from who, your friends? I don't even know who the mods are, or their email addresses. Maybe you only know part of the story. I'm getting heated just writing this, and I ask that you be even handed when you do decide to deliver any justice around here. You can't have guys running around with that, "I'm not leaving until you acknowledge me" crap. If you have some authority, ok, but how do I know, and why don't i have that authority?

bunch of bs, bro, gotta admit. You should PM me and give me a call. I don't think you know exactly what has been going on lately.

this forum is so hellishly out of whack. how do you expect to get anything done with the double standards and cronyism? I will be here for years, Lord willing, and I won't ever be one of them. Can't stand good ol' boy buddy system bs.

Chris, Tim's last comments were general. The hostility toward him is completely unwarranted, as are the allegations of cronyism, etc.

As far as cross-posting: it can be avoided and still acheive what you were looking for very simply. Create your thread, and in the first post link in other related threads.

On a related note, your passion is certainly welcome I'm sure but if I were to give you one bit of advice (that I also frequently have to give myself) it would be to temper that enthusiasm a bit. Some forums are more open to that level of energy-- this is not one of them.

It's easier for the participant to adjust to the forum than the other way around... and more sensible.

Chris,

Look under our usernames. If it says Moderator, then we're Moderators. If you click on our username, the option to PM us is there (and, imho, what you just posted should have been a PM to me).

As for emails, well they're not so hard to find. Seriously, Google my last name.

Texrat just explained how not to cross-post. If you create a thread, people will see/read it -- no need to link to it in several other threads.

As for name calling... It has never really happened here to a great extent. There have been incidents, but nothing as seemingly major as this. We, as mods, are slow to react, because we're trying to figure out how to deal with it. But, admittedly, the flurry of posts makes it hard to keep track.

Contacting mods directly, would have alleviated a lot of the pain here. When one begins to get personal is when one opens themselves to personal attacks. That's just the way it is. The first time you felt offended, you should have contacted a mod with a link to the offense. These are the emails/PMs that we receive daily -- and no, not from my friends, although everyone here are my friends, so...

Tim