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Things that have changed with posting forums over the years

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Mudcat

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Just casual personal observations based on my ~10 years on sports/gambling forums. Totally non-scientific. No reason to think the forums I have focused on are representative of any grand law.

Just throwing it out there.



1) Tolerance of STIFFS. When I first came around, being a stiff was a pretty disgraceful thing. Confirmed stiffs usually just ended up having to go away. Their posting activities became too bogged down with constant shaming. And of course they would come back with a different identity which would lead to all kinds of ghost hunting activities. Ghost hunting hasn't changed.

I find that now STIFFS are much more tolerated. There is much more of a tendency to blame the person being stiffed. Sportsbooks stiffing is still pretty universally frowned upon - but individual stiffs get much more slack than they used to.




2) Tolerance of intolerance. Talking about racism/homophobia etc. When I first came around, there was a huge disconnect between my real life and forum life in regard to those issues. Forums were like a time before I was born, the 50's perhaps. Racists could make their little comments and often find many like-minded individuals and there would be packs of them roaming freely going largely unchallenged. Homophobia was even more carte blanche. Occasionally forums would crack down when the racism got too extreme but unevolved airheads could always tee off on FAGS. I remember in my early days at Covers, I would usually be a very lonely voice when I challenged that kind of thing.

I find that over the years, this has changed drastically. MANY more people are willing to tell racists how stupid they are. As for homophobia, there is no need to spell out to gaymelive where that stands. No doubt most forums are not as tolerant as gamelive but compared to 10 years ago, the change is still dramatic.



3) Presence of women. There were very few women when I first came around. There were no shortage of posters posturing as female but they almost always turned out to be guys. There was case after case after case finally culminating in the biggest stupidest case of all: Roxygurl at theRX.

Obviously that has changed. There are chicks I know are chicks. Quite a few. Personally, I am so affected by my early experience that I will still assume a new female poster is a guy until I have some proof otherwise. But things have changed and it is wonderful.
 
If I am at SBR and a new poster joins I initially think they are JJ, here I automatically think they are Bread. Except HonestAbe, I still think he's Muddy.
When females join like most I also think they are dudes. I don't accuse them of being a guy or anything but I pay close attention for signs. In all honesty I even thought Shari was a guy at first (sorry Shari) cause of how she fought back and the willingness to go potty mouth. I never gave her crap ot anything because you simply never know until you meet them or in Shari's case speak to her.

Muddy, was there more sports interaction when you first started? Obviously the available Sportsbook information has evolved over the years you've been active as well.
 
I tend to think they are female. With all the hassle of being a female on a male dominant board why would you pretend?

Plommer....no

Cause some guys get a kick out of trying to pull one over. There are a lot of lonely people out there and many (MANY) of them find themselves drawn to the online. There are those that know there are these types out there who like to prey on them and seem to get off on getting over.

This happens, that's why there is so much distrust of females ESPECIALLY in a male dominated environment.

Another reason males tend to think females are really makes in disguise is due to the nature of the site itself. Stereotyping exist and most guys can't grasp the concept of a female gambling. Sometimes even if they think it really is a female they simultaneously think there is some kind of catch coming.

We are a cesspool of distrust.
 
Bread, if I missed an opportunity to give you more creative ability than you deserve wouldn't you feel shunned? If I didn't take the opportunity to point out that I automatically assume everyone is a ghost at first and more importantly that I only credit certain posters for having the imagination and access to be a ghost I would feel empty.

Bread wear the :fok:'n badge of honor I bestow upon you and wear it proud.
 
Yeah Nina, even with Wally's explanation I still don't understand it either. The guys who come to the Mommy forum I belong to are at least pretending to be women because they want invites to playgroups either to try to score some tail, sometimes forcefully, or because they're pedos. A guy pretending to be a chick at a gambling forum achieves nothing unless maybe he's gay? :dunno:

Then again I don't understand the cheap thrill I assume one gets when they create a ghost account. Who cares if you've managed to fool strangers on the Internet? Not really something you can put on your resume.

To answer your original question Muddy - I assume a seemingly female poster is a woman until/unless it's proven otherwise.
 
Shari, ever see that Bruce Willis movie Surrogates? There was this one lonely fat guy who lived vicariously through his surrogate which was a beautiful blonde female. While his character may or may not have been as Matty put it a “picklepuffer”, the reason he chose the female is plainly obvious.

While an attractive male will always garner attention in the physical world a beautiful female will garner more because of how guys are wired. When you include the online world a female will garner even more attention because of being filled with so many other lonely people.

Now in case I offended any females who clearly are as blatant about throwing themselves at men and men are to women, I have seen the DancingBear pornos so I know this happens.