Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
Seems somewhat relevant
AZDuck
Member Posts: 15,381
@PurpleBaze posted this thing over at the Tug Tavern which I found pretty hilarious. I then started reading about the author, and found this article in an Australian newspaper (yeah, I know, an *Australian* newspaper is my source?) which contained this insight into the internets:
This struck me in the context of the history of this site, HHBs v. 1 & 2, The Pit, and the so-called glory (hole) days of doogman. Negativity drives up interest. Positive comments are "static" and not interesting.
Q: You have spoken about the fact that negative comments in part drove participation in the viral success of your site. This would be a horrifying concept for a lot of people and brands – can you give us a run down on how that worked for you?http://www.popmag.com.au/28371/david-thorne-the-haters-make-him-stronger/
A: Positive comments about the website are nice to read but they do not drive argument and discussion. I have, on many occasion, gone onto sites such as Reddit and Digg during positive discussion regarding my articles and left comments, under different names, that the content is juvenile and poorly written etc. This drives argument from others who enjoy the content, in effect creating factions that band together to argue and justify their opinion that the site is otherwise. Articles that succeed at driving discussion, argument and factions, are the ones that become popular and therefore viral.
Q: So, given what you’ve just said, would you advise brands to not be so scared of negativity from online communities?
A: Having all comments positive is static. If there are negative comments left, others will argue and/or justify their preferences and defend that preference in the online communities. A positive comment may be met with a few others agreeing with the statement but a negative one will be met with many people arguing against the comment. For a brand, this engagement is gold.
This struck me in the context of the history of this site, HHBs v. 1 & 2, The Pit, and the so-called glory (hole) days of doogman. Negativity drives up interest. Positive comments are "static" and not interesting.
Comments
It's obvious that there are some trolls here whose intent is to disrupt and eff up this forum before it can get started. Please have the mods ban those guys pronto.
I've been the mod of my own hobby board for years. If you don't ban those guys quickly and often, this board will get out of hand.