I don't understand why earning props and respect is an alien concept to you, MM.

A newbie off the street doesn't deserve the respect I, or you get. They deserve the same respect we give anyone, just because they're human. What they do, how they behave, what they contribute earns props.

It's not kumbayah, but it works. People have to work at making friends and influencing people. They have to contribute in such a way that doesn't alienate the people who built this community.

New blood, new ideas, all good. We have an assload of cool newbies. We've had far fewer people that grate. We're doing okay.

Protect the culture.

Or, go lurk at the BronzeBeta for a couple of weeks and see where "let's give everyone a flower and sing kumbayah" gets you.

Oh, wait. We all hug Jesse, too.

Nooo! Hug Connie! Only Connie!

I don't know if we've ever been the community MM suggests we were until recently, but I think the fact is that some of us think we are.

And gossip is what's made that possible. IJS. I mean, maybe I'm just a secret bitch, but I do a lot of eye-rolling in real life, and a small but significant amount of back-channelling because no one sees me roll my eyes at the computer. That's just the way it goes.

Or, go lurk at the BronzeBeta for a couple of weeks and see where "let's give everyone a flower and sing kumbayah" gets you.

Yes, I'm truly suggesting some hippie flower child "Give Peace A Chance" folk song crap like that. This is the guy who seriously advocated an "Asshole" thread.

I could reiterate my position again, but I think I've either made it and it's being ignored, or it won't be gotten.

and a small but significant amount of back-channelling because no one sees me roll my eyes at the computer.

See I would do this, but then it makes me wonder what everyone is saying about me! Because I am paranoid.

But I wouldn't come into Bureaucracy and scream about it, and I would be upset and embarrassed if a dozen or so other people chimed in with "Yeah, let's GET HIM!"

You may have been embarrassed, but all of those people had the right to express that discomfort. Just because many people jumped on Schmoker doesn't mean there was a pre-existing intention to try to get him pissed off enough to leave; it meant that that many people were offended.

Of all the things that annoy me about bulletin boards, it's the idea that we have a groupthink and act in concert. We don't ignore people en masse, and we don't all jump on people on purpose, either.

I could reiterate my position again, but I think I've either made it and it's being ignored, or it won't be gotten.

It's that I don't get it. Maybe i need a thesis statement.

See I would do this, but then it makes me wonder what everyone is saying about me! Because I am paranoid.

Me, I'm just as happy not to have to get into an argument every time I annoy someone, when they can just as easily ignore me. Because I'm conflict-averse, and believe in ignoring things until they go away.

Speaking as someone who has been around a while, and still doesn't feel completely like a Buffista(partly because I don't post a lot, partly because my opinions are frequently in the vast minority and partly because good percentage of my posts seem to be written in invisible ink), a lot of the discussion does seem come off as The Cabal Says There Is No Cabal, but I'm a bit hypersensitive on that issue.

I mean, I do realize that a good bit of the postings in Natter and elsewhere that irritate me are just So-and-So's wacky sense of humor, so I should just chill, but there does seem to be the feeling that some can get away things others can't.

Argh, I'm not making sense here, and I'm repeating what more articulate posters have said, so I'll go back to lurking in this thread.

Sophia is me, in here anyway.

The problem is that we---those of us that were here before the Firefly Population Explosion---are on the defensive with everyone.

I don't think any of the new members are really getting the kind of welcome that they would have gotten if they had shown up before Firelfy aired or if they had shown up on Worldcrossing.

From my point of view it seems that everyone new is seen as a potentional trouble maker rather than someone who is cool.

I know the attitude before about new people was "one of us! one of us!" and now the attitude is "prove yourself."

I've seen more than one post that starts "I didn't find this board through a Firefly Link" or "I'm not here because of Firefly, I 'm a long time lurker."

And frankly it bothers me that people feel that they have to justify why they are here before they even say anything.

Now, I'm not saying that's how ALL the Buffistas are acting, but that's how THOSE posters felt. That they had to make sure that we knew they were okay before they posted anything. back on TT, we aren't a collection of threads that had to go hide wh