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<blockquote data-quote="Galethorn" data-source="post: 3348236" data-attributes="member: 7888">[irony style=facetious]&lt;Waits patiently for Werk to finish&gt;I think that your hypothetical causal relationship between laziness and non-constructive criticism is inherently lazy, and you're crazy for suggesting it!Errr, ahem, &lt;cough&gt;[/irony]But, in all seriousness, I agree. This seems to be a problem throughout the 'net, and maybe even in western (or at least US) culture as a whole. It could be argued that this is part of a more general trend...One thing I've noticed (and others have written entire careers worth of sociology papers on) is the ever increasing tendency for the agenda in a given field to be set by the noisy minority. In the case of RPGs and the internet, this trend is amplified by the inherent anonymity you get with the internet. People aren't as likely to pause and rethink before saying hurtful things because they know they're not going to get any teeth knocked out for saying them. On the one hand, it allows a more free exchange of ideas, but civility is thrown out the window.I think another part of this trend towards non-constructive criticism is a desire to impress others and display a dominant role in one's society (in this case, a forum). This goes back into the laziness problem; it's a hell of a lot easier to show off your forum muscles by eloquently ridiculing an idea than it is to actually contribute something to the discussion. I think this is one of the reasons ENWorld is such a...healthy forum; a lot of the 'big fish' here have gotten that way by posting Story Hours and art, and otherwise contributing to the Body of Knowledge®.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Galethorn, post: 3348236, member: 7888"] [irony style=facetious] <Waits patiently for Werk to finish> I think that your hypothetical causal relationship between laziness and non-constructive criticism is inherently lazy, and you're crazy for suggesting it! Errr, ahem, <cough> [/irony] But, in all seriousness, I agree. This seems to be a problem throughout the 'net, and maybe even in western (or at least US) culture as a whole. It could be argued that this is part of a more general trend... One thing I've noticed (and others have written entire careers worth of sociology papers on) is the ever increasing tendency for the agenda in a given field to be set by the noisy minority. In the case of RPGs and the internet, this trend is amplified by the inherent anonymity you get with the internet. People aren't as likely to pause and rethink before saying hurtful things because they know they're not going to get any teeth knocked out for saying them. On the one hand, it allows a more free exchange of ideas, but civility is thrown out the window. I think another part of this trend towards non-constructive criticism is a desire to impress others and display a dominant role in one's society (in this case, a forum). This goes back into the laziness problem; it's a hell of a lot easier to show off your forum muscles by eloquently ridiculing an idea than it is to actually contribute something to the discussion. I think this is one of the reasons ENWorld is such a...healthy forum; a lot of the 'big fish' here have gotten that way by posting Story Hours and art, and otherwise contributing to the [b]Body of Knowledge[/b]®. [/QUOTE]

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