What do you guys think about this forum?

[GrimStride™]

Please read the whole thing if you intend to respond to it. I tried to make it colorful and as easy to "digest" as possible. It's not meant to insult any one

In the short time i've been here i've had a lot of fun.The forums seem to be more active than the time when i registered and posted.There are a lot of fun and nice people as well.But i've hit quite a few bumps along the path of the new member

There certainly are a lot of people here who don't hesitate to get into arguments and debates with little to no reason behind it. Simply because they can and/or feel like it. Problem is that they do it over small random comments you make.I'm not trying to flame any one here , i know this a forum. But from a new member's point of view this is a bit "intimidating".Having to watch out what you say and not being able to express an opinion because some one will take your words too seriously or out of context and start bashing you with wiki links stating how wrong/stupid you are. And im not talking about the "Serious Talk" section either.It happens in the seemingly most innocent threads which are supposed to be fun.

I'm left with the impression that disagreeing with a senior member is like committing a crime. I honestly feel like the older users gang up on me.This is how it goes down -
1.I say something(the few times it happened to me the comments were pretty much random)
2.The senior member who is looking for some one to argue with decides to pick on the new guy(that's me) even though other , older members , have posted far more outrageous comments (not the obviously funny kind)
3.Senior member writes a long post saying that i'm wrong
Here's the crossroad
A) I "admit" i'm wrong
B) I try to defend my statement as reasonably as i can and get picked on
In the latter situation a few members join in and start bashing me,insulting me,threatening to basically troll me till i leave,bad rep me,send hate pm's,dislike my posts etc. It doesn't matter what i say because they attack every single word i say and sometimes when my arguments seem reasonable enough they go into totally different directions from the main point but that's fine as long they're flaming me

More than one user has stated how proud they are that they have harassed other people so much that they made them leave and that they can do it to me without breaking any rules.You can understand how these statements could be considered aggressive

I think that a perfect example is that DrDoom character. I was playing in the arcade where you're only supposed to have fun and i guess i beat one of his high scores.He then starts sending me pm's full of insults, he bad reps me , says he's told other members and they'll all help harass me. I report the guy and all the punishment he received was 0 rep power.He then just tells me that that's not his first time harassing and receiving the same punishment and that he'll just keep on doing it

Difference between him and some other members is that he is honest about it. Some users are more subtle and simply do the same thing but as they themselves say within what the rules allow

This is simply the impression i was left with from being fairly active for a few weeks. It is not targeted at any one in particular. I just felt like sharing my experience as a new member on the forum. You might think "why would you stay?It looks like you hate it here".Truth is there are a lot of cool members and activities and they outweigh the "trollin". I guess i just said goodbye to my rep power

[Eris]

@Eris: @Missy: @Zedekiah: I am not closing the thread, partly because I have some hope that it can recover, but in a large part because I'd prefer not to mod in a forum with active staff unless its outright spam. So its your call.

Dunno, I think this thread is spent. If people have ideas on how to improve AF, they can just post them in site issues or blog them. These threads just tend to breed dissent and concern trolling.