Is Neowin going downhill?


Is Neowin going downhill?  

356 members have voted

  1. 1. Is Neowin going downhill?

    • Yes
      117
    • No
      163
    • Yes, but only because of a select few members
      76
    • 0


Recommended Posts

its going downhill if you have to make a post to ask if its going downhill. think about it that way.

I dont get it?

I made this as I realised this forum has changed ALOT since about 2 years ago when I joined. I was noticing more and more flaming, and idiotic posts and was wondering what the rest of the communitys opinions were.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dont get it?

I made this as I realised this forum has changed ALOT since about 2 years ago when I joined. I was noticing more and more flaming, and idiotic posts and was wondering what the rest of the communitys opinions were.

well, what i mean is, if your feeling a decline in the memberships of neowin, its obvious that there must be something wrong...I agree with you, and I think most here would except they won't admit it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw this thread and i had to bite.

Neowin has been "going downhill" since the days before neonerds (time for a history lesson n00bs) but is still around unlike many others (including neonerds, activewin, and others). Just like any community, what happens is as the site grows and diversifies new issues arise. Neowin used to have very few rules and regulations and was open. I remember a thread asking, "who wants to become a mod". Neowin was just starting out. Several months later neowin had over 2000 members (and now, many times more). Neowin stands for "new windows" which was reffering to windows whistler (aka XP). In the meanwhile neowin has become far more diverse. It has artists, gamers, gadget geeks, windows kiddies, linux kiddies, web designers, computer science students, and even some old people. While it is true that the really olden days hardly had trolls (untill the whole nn incident :whistle: ), it is also true that this site was a lot more to offer than before.

Also.. there's the whole growing up issue. Most of Noewin's members are young and still growing up. What you thought waas coool 2 , 3, or even up to 5 years ago you might consider childish or lame or kiddie like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have noticed a lot more trolling and personal attacks than actually helping, these days at Neowin which is a shame! I don't think newoin is going downhill but there does seem to be an abundance of people that act immaturely and make hurtful and inapropriate comments on behalf of people that require some help.

For example, I made a thread about windows activation and how it kept failing on me and quickly the thread turned to people accusing me of software piracy and stuff like that without knowing my full story :s Still, Neowin is still one of the most respected forums out there and it has been very good to me so far despite the occasional bickering and whatnot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Think of it like this: A new member, called NewMember1, joins Neowin and starts to read some threads. He notices a member with 5,000 posts named 'FakeMember1'. He starts reading some his posts and see that a lot of people agree and respect FakeMember1.

NewMember1 then decides he wants to be respected too, so he decides he doesn't want to screw up on his first day. He heads on over to a thread he knows something about and finds (gasp) FakeMember1 flaming someone about what kind of browser/os/mouse/monitor/etc they use. Now NewMember1 is confused into thinking that you get popular by flaming, so he goes and flames a few threads himself.

A few days later, he goes to a thread and gives someone good dating advice. Several of the other members agree with him and the thread starter says thanks for helping him out. Guess what NewMember1 is thinking right now. "I guess all this flaming is paying off. People like me because of it." Unfortunately, it didn't sink in that his dating advice was what made him popular and not how much he flamed.

The cycle continues. NewMember1 gives more dating advice and becomes more popular. He still thinks that it's because of his flaming though. Sooner or later another 40 more members will want to become NewMember1. They'll all start flaming. Then 40 more people will want to be like those 40 people.

The people who could cause Neowin to go downhill (in this case I'm talking about flamers, but you could substitute in something else) may think that it makes them popular to flame, spam, bash, etc. Heck, even I thought that when I first joined, until I realized it's not the # of posts that make you popular but the quality. (Corny, yes, but true).

Do I have a warning? Yes, it's 20% because I called someone a moron. Then isn't my post sort've hypocritical? No, because I attempted to take what I had done wrong, pick myself back up, and learn from my mistake. Just because you have a warning on your head doesn't mean you have to act like you deserved that warning.

All that to say, I don't think Neowin is going downhill. I think the hill is changing the way it's sloping - whether for good or for bad. Yes, that was meant to be confusing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once again it's a defensive mod comment thing :rolleyes: . I personally think quite a few of the mods on NW are just, retards but it's my opinion only.

However for those mods with their head screwed on, and two feet on the ground I respect them greatly for the work they do.

How is that a "defensive mod thing" ? - the members that make these types of threads are either trying to dig up dirt, trying to get attention because of their past, or genuninely trying to help Neowin to be a better place - which is very rare.

We always welcome feedback regarding the site, but I can tell you since I became staff in 2003 - these types of threads are never done by members who have never had an infraction with staff.

You may call some of the staff "retards", but since you never worked with them in a staff capacity - you will never know how great they are on Neowin running things in the background.

Radish?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is it going downhill? yes, and im not saying that because of the memebers... i'm saying that because of the slow load times a lot of us still see, I've seen times where the site takes minutes to load, and times when it flys... just problems like that then SQL errors randomly, and the slowness in rolling out the new updates, etc... although the updates i understand because this isnt a full time job, but still its taking forever...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is Neowin going downhill? I don't think so. I would say it's aging: members come and go, the level of maturity is nice as along as you skip the trolls posts.

It's a bit depressing to see the veteran group growing with the former mods but you have to expect that in the life of such a large forum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The first (I think) stupid thing I can remember here was a certain homosexual member who flaunted their homosexuality and (I think) purposely caused conflict.

Bigots like this person are the reason I voted yes. I originally came on to talk tech, but got lured into the General Discussion forums by the sheer number of gay-bashing threads. I thought I could contribute by educating people and hopefully reducing the amount og homophobia here. Silly me.

I vote yes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I voted yes.... I dont think i actually have any legitimate proof to back that up with, but when i first found this site it had a special charm that made me feel 'in the loop' as far as all technology related stuff goes... and to me at least the quality of the news has decreased. Maybe im just imagining things though...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that as in any group of people, there is always a cycle. Neowin's members' maturity rise and fall in a periodic fashion. I think that we're in somewhat of a low spot right now, but I think as the maturity grows, Neowin will go back to its normal self.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure how to answer.

I haven't been around all that long, but I visited the site regularly for 6 - 8 months before I registered....Anyway, for what its worth, I think the site itself is doing great, but the members have gone down a little. I think there's a portion of the membership that's childish and inconsiderate and another portion that's overly sensitive. They don't mix well.

I think it is also worth noting that it in no way keeps me from coming back day in and day out. And I still know I can find really helpful and knowledgable people on here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is quite funny to me is that the members that make or comment on these topics always have a huge warning level.

Radish?

well if some mods didn't hand out stupid warns i think some of us would have lower levels

now i await my B&

Link to comment
Share on other sites

welcome to the word wibe web, our globalised world. Its a sad fact that the average age of a "surfer" is now ruffly 10 years old. As the web has become more accessible to people of all ages the average age level goes down.

6 years ago Neowin was a place for "poeple in the know" now well everyone knows neowin ;) that includes the kids...

...Having kids of my own im more used to the fluff that comes with younger (and some older) members.

Does that make neowin or the internet a bad place? Ask me in another 10 years cos Neowin will still be here along with me, members will still be moaning about Neowin going down hill, members will get younger and younger and yes we will have added another 50 none-tech forums ;)

On a side note i'd also like to redress the comments about neowin beoing cool back in the days of xp beta's, i'd just like to point out that its MS that hasn't updated XP, its MS that has chucked out the tried and tested B1/B2/RC1/RC2/RTM in favour of the CTP. We have had to evolve along what MS does, if MS doesn't dop anything for 5 years (yeh i know the do really) then you really should expect some changes of direction. Along with the re-emergance of the grad daddy Mac

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is Neowin going downhill?

Yes, but only because of a select few members. It's sad that some of these "members" are mods/newsposters and such.

I was handed only one warning in my life of Neowin, but that's only because the rules got way stricter... In a bad way.

Ahaha ^ The admin is double posting :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well if some mods didn't hand out stupid warns i think some of us would have lower levels

now i await my B&

Well, if some members didn't make stupid comments, remarks, etc, then Mods wouldn't have to do their jobs. It's a vicious circle ... person 1 says somthing, mod A warns, person 1 complains, person 2 says the mod was "abusive", mon B warns person 2 who then complains, and person 3-999 b*tch at mod's A and B and then ....

You see the circle?

ACT LIKE A MATURE PERSON, AND YOU WON'T BE WARNED.

I did have a th ought / suggestion though. Perhaps, there should be a 'private' forum ... the staff have one, what about members who A: Have xxx posts, B: have XX% warn or less (say 20% or less), and have been members for 6mths or more...

IF person X falls into that catagory, then they can PM the mod of that section, and ask to be allowed in. There, in that section would be MATURE discussions ...

Just a thought, don't shoot or flame me.

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it's going down hill for sure, when I joined few years back it use to be a mature site and now it's a teenage site for showing off or dragging other people down. People are just not helpful anymore or friendly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think its better than ever for actual news content and reviews and things like that.

The "community" feel has gone down for me. I only really ever frequented RWI and that forum really lost its marbles around the time of the US election in 2004. Just not fun for a real discussion anymore.

I still stop by every day though, so i can't say its really had an impact on me visiting the site.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I voted yes, because of a few select members. See attachment for an example.

post-2-1146238868_thumb.jpg

Ironic that you asked this question ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the looks of it I'm in this "immature surfer" category. I don't have a lot of techy intelligence. I have no idea how to use photoshop, and I bought a computer instead of building it. Does this mean that I am degrading the forum's material and content? Granted, I had a potential warez post a while back, but the original intent was innocent (I didn't get warned thankfully). Now, my actual focus on this website is limited to only a couple forums, so I don't waste people's time in the Hardware Hangout or whatever else. Again, am I making the website go downhill?

There are other forums on Neowin for a reason. I didn't see a requirement that I have to have X amount of knowledge, so I joined.

But I guess there is no room for younger people, if it is making the "vets" (whom I do have respect for, you definately know a hell of a lot more than I do) so uncomfortable.

I'll be sure to delete my account right away. Sorry to waste your time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is going downhill because I am not on as much giving free toast to Neowinians and keeping the jackasses at bay... :happy: .But alas as I now have a full time job and no more school I have not been able to keep Neowin in supply of fresh toast and it has irritated the members thus making them all less mature in their posts. :pinch: I am sorry Neowin I have failed in my duty but hey life goes on....... :)

On a bit more serious note, when I first joined maybe it was just the way it appeared to me, but there were a lot less stupid, immature, retarded, jackass, just plain dumb, posts and threads..... Also myself and a lot of other great members are not on here as much as they used to be so there are not as many intelligent posts/topics to balance out the wild posts and topics...There are still a lot of great members but it seems somehow since last summer a whole new group of members is around and they seem to be almost like 6 to 8 years younger than myself and the members I respect.... they almost all have grown up with computers and the internet and they just don't have the same respect for other people, they seem to think because they are online and are not face to face with a person they can say or act however they like because nothing is really going to happen, it is online....that is just how it has appeared to me :hmmm: So it while the site has more members than ever and is strong in that aspect it, the average just respect for others has gone down and that in turn has made Neowin slide a bit IMHO

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.