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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Emotional Tone of the Boards
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Patdys
Iron Wannabe
RooK-Annoyer
# 9397
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Posted
Sioni asked an interesting question on another thread.
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:
If anyone can provide me with a halfway reliable means of divining the emotional state of another poster, in Purgatory, Hell, All Saints or even Heaven, do let me know.
It led me back to this Facebook experiment demonstrating there may be influence on emotion through electronic media.
I certainly find specific threads have a specific tone. I had always assumed this was secondary to the topic itself and it would certainly play a big part, but I haven't really considered how our interactions also set the tone. One example would be the concurrent depression threads in All Saints and Hell. One is for shouty tears and the other gentle tears.
I wonder how much emotional influence our Hosts actually have on the boards? (By setting the rules around discourse). Does our emotional state alter in response to where we read on this ship.
And yes, it would certainly depend upon how much time we spent on board.
In real life, my workplace has had a budget crisis, and people are scared. My own work runs out in August. I am actively trying to lift and support my colleagues. (Because I believe setting the culture is a major role of leadership). At times, there is a visible impact. At times, not.
Do we see an impact here on board? And do your contributions affect my emotional state and hence my workplace?
And if this is the case..
Lift your game. My workplace in still suffering. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
I think it reflects my relational understanding of theology. Every interaction, every relationship counts; good, bad and worse- indifferent.
What do you think, my learned peers?
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Marathon run. Next Dream. Australian this time.
Posts: 3511 | Registered: Apr 2005
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
To answer Sioni's question: No. There is no reliable way.
On to yours. First, I think Facebook not completely analogous of the Ship. For one, Facebook is more about emotion and the Ship is more about discussion.
That said, I think there can be transference, depending on how one approaches the Ship and how one sees the interactions here.
Are the interactions personal? Do you consider said interactions as on-line v. "real" life?
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
Perhaps the most significant difference between facebook and the Ship is that facebook isn't usually anonymous, and often (at least for me) the conversations are with people you know in real life. So it's a lot easier to judge other people's tone, intent, meaning, since you are able to match their written words up with something you've heard them say verbally. Much harder to do on the ship.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
Sioni Sais: If anyone can provide me with a halfway reliable means of divining the emotional state of another poster, in Purgatory, Hell, All Saints or even Heaven, do let me know.
Sometimes I can. When someone is bloody angry, I can usually see it pretty well.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I am on two Labrador forums. Each has its own 'tone' which is pretty much led by the mods and regular posters. A lot of people buy Labrador puppies thinking they are an 'easy' dog, then they quickly discover they've got a crocodile who rips their arms and clothes to shreds - so they rush to our forums for advice.
One is friendly and positive, the other not so much.
The first has much more success in helping the enquirers raise their pups than the second.
I think that it's great to be in a positive, forward thinking environment. I only work one day a week now, but the school I work in is like that. I really look forward to Fridays because of it, despite the early get up and long-ish drive.
I think hosts on forums and bosses in workplaces certainly help to set the tone. But a couple of negative grumblers can easily drag things down emotionally.
At Church, if someone says 'one person really disliked *whatever*' I always ask "Was it a habitual complainer?" If the answer is "yes" then I say ignore them. They would grumble whatever happened so what they say becomes totally irrelevant.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Teufelchen
Shipmate
# 10158
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Posted
The other forum I'm active on has a very different moderation policy to the Ship. Its mods police the discussion quite closely, and are firm in dishing out suspensions and bans to users who breach the rules. Certain political positions (eg Nazism, GamerGate, MRAs) are regarded as unacceptable: if a person hold such views, they should keep them to themselves on the forum or expect to be banned.
It makes for a peaceful, well-ordered forum. The theology discussions can be quite interesting - it's not a religious forum, but the 'miscellaneous' board allows such discussions, and we get Christians, Pagans, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Atheists chipping in quite civilly.
I like the way that forum works. But I also like the way the Ship works, or I wouldn't have come back.
t
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Little devil
Posts: 3894 | From: London area | Registered: Aug 2005
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Not
Ship's Quack
# 2166
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Posted
My observation - as someone who has read the boards for over a decade, but doesn't post a lot - is that the ship tends to run through an 'emotional tone' cycle every few months. At its best it is playful and creative with energetic debate over a wide range. This tends to tip over at 'regularly irregular' intervals into explosions of irritation/trolling/accusations/noisy conflicts which, though usually focussed in purgatory, dead horses, hell and styx, have an impact across the boards. Once the spleens have been vented, the odd suspension/expulsion taken place and the noise died down, there seems to be a period of peaceful but rather low key and even dull posting before it all becomes more lively again.
I've never attempted to map or time it, but because I read from the 'recent posts' board, it is surprisingly easy to get an overall flavour of the mood of the ship and where in the cycle we are.
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Was CJ; now Not
Posts: 600 | From: the far, far West | Registered: Jan 2002
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
quote:
Sioni Sais: If anyone can provide me with a halfway reliable means of divining the emotional state of another poster, in Purgatory, Hell, All Saints or even Heaven, do let me know.
Sometimes I can. When someone is bloody angry, I can usually see it pretty well.
I initially read this as 'When I am bloody angry, I can usually see it pretty well'. Meaning one's own emotional state colours one's perception of another's. Which is a more accurate statement than many of us might which to concede.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Not:
I've never attempted to map or time it, but because I read from the 'recent posts' board, it is surprisingly easy to get an overall flavour of the mood of the ship and where in the cycle we are.
So, where in the cycle are we? ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Not
Ship's Quack
# 2166
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Posted
Hah! good question, think it's a neap tide at the moment, but whether falling or rising I'm not entirely sure!
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Was CJ; now Not
Posts: 600 | From: the far, far West | Registered: Jan 2002
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
I think we're in a fairly calm phase at the moment.
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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Mere Nick
Shipmate
# 11827
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Patdys:
What do you think, my learned peers?
Anyone who disagrees with me is a deranged, hate-filled tosspot consumed with arrogance and rage. Civility and decency are completely foreign concepts to them.
That, or they just see things a little different.
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"Well that's it, boys. I've been redeemed. The preacher's done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting's my reward."
Delmar O'Donnell
Posts: 2797 | From: West Carolina | Registered: Sep 2006
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Gramps49
Shipmate
# 16378
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Posted
I was not on this board at the time Bush was leading up to the Iraqi invasion, but I was probably one of the few liberals on another board that served Lutherans. On that board I was labeled a communist (my son even was given to saying I was so far to the left I made Karl Marx look like a tea partier). I was accused of being un-American. And several other names.
There were times I was so exasperated with that board, my wife would ask me why I stayed on it. My response was because I did not want other people to think all Lutherans thought the same.
I actually started visiting this board because I was invited my a fellow Lutheran. I found these boards much more rational and open to disagreements.
There are times, though, I think the moderators are a little heavy handed when it comes to controlling the content of the threads, but I am only a shipmate.
I very much enjoy the different boards and most of the threads on them. It has become part of my morning and evening routine to check these boards.
Keep up the good work, people; and carry on.
Posts: 2193 | From: Pullman WA | Registered: Apr 2011
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frin
Drinking coffee for Jesus
# 9
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Posted
I think that there are more genre conventions at play in our interactions with others than we realise. We are attuned to pick up the patterns of language and effective rhetoric of a conversation (or thread, or workplace). The hosts of a board shape these things, but so do all board users, and because conventions are collaborative they shift over time.
'frin
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"Even the crocodile looks after her young" - Lamentations 4, remembering Erin.
Posts: 4496 | From: a library | Registered: Apr 2001
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
There are so many variables and factors from hither and yon that moderating a board like this must be fiendishly difficult. I think there are phases though and I imagine it'd be possible to foresee emerging patterns over time. It's also possible to identify regular posters' style and pressure points over time - but that is a different thing to moods and emotions
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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Barnabas62
Shipmate
# 9110
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Posted
Formally, Hosts aren't required to second-guess emotional content, nor read between the lines. Essentially, we measure up words against rules.
Functionally, I guess it is not that simple. There's a kind of ongoing "temperature-taking" going on, but we probably don't have calibrated thermometers. When I first started as Host, the basic advice was to let the threads run as "hot" as possible within the guidelines, since that fits in best with the general ethos of unrest. If we get it right, or right-ish, then you get vigorous arguments involving folks with strongly held and differing viewpoints. Those aren't always comfortable, or emotionally "safe"; cherished positions can get heavily criticised. But that comes with the territory, hence the guideline "don't offend easily, don't be easily offended".
So I don't think these boards are always comfortable. Participation may get a bit bruising from time to time, even when folks avoid personal attack. When you're on the receiving end, criticism of an opinion can feel pretty much the same as personal attack. I've experienced the discomfort of that.
[ 28. February 2015, 23:54: Message edited by: Barnabas62 ]
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Who is it that you seek? How then shall we live? How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
Posts: 21397 | From: Norfolk UK | Registered: Feb 2005
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
I suspect you've been on the receiving end rather more often than meting it out ... but with most posters I suspect it's a both/and thing ...
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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