Willing to answer a few questions?

[Symmys]

So, in an interesting turn of events, I've ended up writing a small paper on the GiantITP community. In the name of research, I'd like to ask anyone who has the inclination to answer a few questions for me. (Feel free to PM me if you'd prefer.) The more you can elaborate on an answer, the better, but a sentence or two is just fine.

1. What first brought you to these forums? What keeps you here?

2. How would you describe the community as a whole?

3. Which forums do you usually spend time in? Why?

4. What kinds of differences do you see between forums?

5. How do you feel this community has changed over time?

[Domino Quartz]

1. The first thing that brought me to these forums was noticing a link called "Forum" in the sidebar of the website as I was checking out the latest OotS strip. I didn't actually join for a while, though. I can't quite remember whether it was after or before the Kickstarter (which I contributed to) that I joined, but I do remember that it felt weird hanging around in the forums without being logged in and having the "login or register" stuff on the top right. I also thought it would be nice to be able to actually comment on some of the stuff I was reading. As to what keeps me here, it's mainly the discussions in the OotS subforum, but also the discussions in this very subforum, and to a lesser extent the ones in the "Webcomics" subforum. I'm also sorry to say that I get a perverse sense of enjoyment out of the sort of threads (again, mainly the ones in the OotS subforum) where people angrily argue with each other and descend into ad hominem attacks before the thread is eventually locked by a vigilant moderator.

2. In general, I think the community is made up of some pretty great people, though there are some members whose behaviour annoys me (not going to name names). Even then, however, it's not all the time that their behaviour annoys me, and not all such people are equally annoying.

3. This question is confusing - do you mean which forums do I spend time in on various websites, or on GiantITP specifically? If the former, I only really spend time in the GiantITP forums. If the latter, see my answer to the first question. Short version: almost exclusively OotS, Friendly Banter, and Webcomics.

4. I only really spend time in the forums I have already mentioned, but the main differences between them that I have noticed are these (and sorry in advance for being Captain Obvious): OotS discussions tend to be about the most recent comic, as well as threads about specific characters, groups of characters, the world OotS takes place in, specific parts of that world, the storyline in general, and specific story arcs. The discussions in "Webcomics" seem to mostly be threads dedicated to whole webcomics, with all discussion pertaining to a given webcomic taking place in its designated thread. The discussions in "Friendly Banter" are, of course, about almost anything, with the really random stuff going into the Random Banter threads.

5. This is a question I don't feel I can answer, because I've only been here for two and a half years. I haven't noticed any real changes (though that could be because the changes have been so gradual).

[Slipperychicken]

1. What first brought you to these forums? What keeps you here?

2. How would you describe the community as a whole?

3. Which forums do you usually spend time in? Why?

4. What kinds of differences do you see between forums?

5. How do you feel this community has changed over time?


1. My brother was on here when I first showed interest in dnd, and I came over to learn more about the game. I didn't even know about the comic until I was on here for a few months. I stay here because it lets me feel like I'm helping people with knowledge, both on these boards, and in my real life dnd games. I think it's become part of my browsing routine.

2. It seems helpful and playful overall. There's some passive-aggression (mostly related to determining who's the bigger, better nerd), but it doesn't seem to get in the way of helping people who come here for advice or answers (indeed, some queries are resolved within minutes of posting). We have our share of trolls, like any other forum, but strict moderation means they need to be pretty sophisticated to cause any real trouble. The mods can seem tough, but they're doing a good job.

3. I'm usually in 3.5 and roleplaying general, with recent forays into friendly banter, mad science, and 5e. I usually stick to dnd threads because that's what I'm interested in.

4. I don't visit many other forums, but when I do, there's usually more explicit name-calling and profanity.

5. I'm not sure. It seems like the dnd subforums here have begun placing more emphasis on out-of-game interactions and making games work as desired, in addition to examining their rules for powerful options.

[Aedilred]

So, in an interesting turn of events, I've ended up writing a small paper on the GiantITP community. In the name of research, I'd like to ask anyone who has the inclination to answer a few questions for me. (Feel free to PM me if you'd prefer.) The more you can elaborate on an answer, the better, but a sentence or two is just fine.

1. What first brought you to these forums? What keeps you here?

2. How would you describe the community as a whole?

3. Which forums do you usually spend time in? Why?

4. What kinds of differences do you see between forums?

5. How do you feel this community has changed over time?

1. I arrived via the comic. A friend of mine used to read the comic during a D&D campaign; I started to read it too, then when I realised there were more general-purpose forums here I joined to discuss a campaign I was GMing. I then drifted off for a while after that campaign finished, rejoining a few years later when I started GMing again. That time I started to check out subforums other than RPGs and ended up sticking around.

2. It's got a bit of a split personality. It's overtly pretty friendly, but it's also very cliquey, and there's a strong vein of passive-aggression. On the whole there's a lot of good advice to be had, though.

3. I spend most time on the forum in the threads related to games I'm playing, but I browse, in roughly descending order of time spent, Friendly Banter, Roleplaying Games, Media, and OOC. I have visited the OotS forum in the past but don't usually bother these days: it's one of the most acrimonious subforums, and I find the exhaustive discussion of the strips quite tedious. The other forums vary in attitude, but tend to be where the threads I'm more interested in crop up.

4. Different subforums have different cliques and different cultures. In some of the bigger ones (like Friendly Banter) there are multiple ones between different long-running threads, even. It's hard to make too many generalisations.

5. I don't feel that it has, particularly. I sometimes feel it's got smaller and quieter, but I'm not sure if that's an illusion because I've now been around long enough to start recognising the same posters everywhere rather than just seeing a big faceless mass.

[Symmys]

Thanks, everybody, you've helped me out a lot here. :smallbiggrin: