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Essay on a Social Convention on a Forum Topic
Essay on a Social Convention on a Forum Topic Or, ‘How I learnt to stop wasting words and love the reply’
In a certain forum, I will not disclose the forum or site it was on in order to not distract you, there was a topic that appears on almost every forum at some point. It is the artfully shallow one which goes along the lines of “What’s your favourite...” I say it is shallow because it often results in a lot of replies by people reeling off cliché titles and generally all posting a generic reply. In itself this similarity of favourites is not bad, being able to connect with a fellow mortal (I do hate when people use ‘man’ and human still results in that whole gender powder keg). In the modern world being able to connect with people on some basis is a good thing; it keeps alienation and isolation away and results in ‘idle’ talk that may result in making a few friends.
The social convention itself was, or rather is, not the problem in this case; it is more due to the way that this social convention is applied. Creating connections and relationships, requires some diversity, not monotonous falling-in-step creations. Variety is the spice of life.
The thing that is bad about the topic is that it follows a generic template. It makes the topic seem stilted and false, as though the poster has no imagination. It is a social convention with a goal to bring people together, to be able to better understand them. Yet it does not enable the replies to present the repliers individuality; they are consciously or subconsciously drawn into creating a generic reply. The topic itself does not engage the reader or replies; it encourages them to post their favourites with little other need to then follow the thread. It also stacks the replies up so that if some nefarious cyber villain garbed in data grey cloak were to come along they could simply say that certain people’s favourites were rubbish. And indeed, because the replies do not include why it is their favourite, they are left defenceless, left feeling assaulted with no one to keep guard over the gate and keep to their post.
The topic may be better if it was to ask for people’s more exotic favourites, ones that were not cliché and flogged to death with relentless tedious appliance in the same tones. Then although the repliers would not have a generic favourite to connect with, they could discover this new favourite together. Or it would result in a few choosing this new addition as their favourite, while the rest proposed newer would be favourites, thus perpetuating the thread and enabling the repliers and readers to become acquainted and show their individuality.
Therefore I advise people to follow these guidelines for the topic if they start it, or to point it in this direction if they join in the thread. This version has not been tested, that I know of, yet if it fails then all it will result in is a return to the generic topic title. That would show that although it is generic, it works, and I, have tried to fix a problem that was not broken and in no need of fixing. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
In a certain forum, I will not disclose the forum or site it was on in order to not distract you, there was a topic that appears on almost every forum at some point. It is the artfully shallow one which goes along the lines of “What’s your favourite...” I say it is shallow because it often results in a lot of replies by people reeling off cliché titles and generally all posting a generic reply. In itself this similarity of favourites is not bad, being able to connect with a fellow mortal (I do hate when people use ‘man’ and human still results in that whole gender powder keg). In the modern world being able to connect with people on some basis is a good thing; it keeps alienation and isolation away and results in ‘idle’ talk that may result in making a few friends.
The social convention itself was, or rather is, not the problem in this case; it is more due to the way that this social convention is applied. Creating connections and relationships, requires some diversity, not monotonous falling-in-step creations. Variety is the spice of life.
The thing that is bad about the topic is that it follows a generic template. It makes the topic seem stilted and false, as though the poster has no imagination. It is a social convention with a goal to bring people together, to be able to better understand them. Yet it does not enable the replies to present the repliers individuality; they are consciously or subconsciously drawn into creating a generic reply. The topic itself does not engage the reader or replies; it encourages them to post their favourites with little other need to then follow the thread. It also stacks the replies up so that if some nefarious cyber villain garbed in data grey cloak were to come along they could simply say that certain people’s favourites were rubbish. And indeed, because the replies do not include why it is their favourite, they are left defenceless, left feeling assaulted with no one to keep guard over the gate and keep to their post.
The topic may be better if it was to ask for people’s more exotic favourites, ones that were not cliché and flogged to death with relentless tedious appliance in the same tones. Then although the repliers would not have a generic favourite to connect with, they could discover this new favourite together. Or it would result in a few choosing this new addition as their favourite, while the rest proposed newer would be favourites, thus perpetuating the thread and enabling the repliers and readers to become acquainted and show their individuality.
Therefore I advise people to follow these guidelines for the topic if they start it, or to point it in this direction if they join in the thread. This version has not been tested, that I know of, yet if it fails then all it will result in is a return to the generic topic title. That would show that although it is generic, it works, and I, have tried to fix a problem that was not broken and in no need of fixing. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Published 19th Feb 2011
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