i have been shocked the last week to find how many people know about this place, but, think it is a message board...
so, i have heard some pretty dumb questions and statements...
like "oh, alot of people use passport there???"...
i say "there are polls where people let everyone know what browser they use"
they say "oh, i never looked in the polls... i just thought it was a i-hate-planetweb board or something"
great...
yeah, we are really getting the message out...
and then questions like...
"you can use the pso dreamkey to surf the web???"
i say "there is plenty of info in the faqs"
they say "oh i never read message board faqs"
i say, they are not posting faqs, they are faqs and guides about how to do stuff...
they say "ohhhhh"
wonderful...
that's just perfect...
as a matter of fact, i have met a great many people who know about this place or have some info from here but, they come and look, see it is a message board and leave, never having gotten any info...
and it seems most that DO know a few things only know HALF of the info because someone else told them, but, the person who told them apparently didn't quite understand it themselves and were too busy playing know-it-all to give a link to where the FULL info can be found...
just yesterday someone says...
"well, i know to hold A and press start ten times, but, it doesn't bring up a menu or connect to the web or anything"
i said, "that unlocks the locked commands..."
he said "what commands?"
i said "??? b+start for bookmarks, y+start for history, etc."
he said "oh, the guy didn't mention any of that"
fucking unbelievable...
there is a word for this...
failure...
i have even heard moronic statements like "why do i want to look at a message board's bookmarks??? what's in there, other message boards??? ads??? if gamefaqs had bookmarks, i wouldn't care, either! i am just there to find out good places to get information!"
absolutley fucking ridiculous...
there is still this problem that has been here all along...
people show up and SHOULD say to themselves... "ah! a place full of answers!"
INSTEAD (since they think it is a goddamn message board) they say...
"ah! a place to ask questions! well, i have a question, so, i think i will post it!"
and then they never even bother to look around... and we get the same dumb questions over and over and over...
so, i think it is high time to take the next step and close public viewing of messages...
this is a place that reflects months of work by many people and that work is being absolutely ignored... if it is not needed, we should not be here... the site does not run itself, so, i am not just leaving it open, unattended...
i started the week by feeling pretty good that we were so widely-known and people were being helped...
until it became obvious no one seemed to know
anything except that we were a message board for asking questions and almost no one had gotten any help from here...
lots of people know about us, no one knows what we are... i have seen people say things like "go ask them" and give the address... they don't even seem to know the answers are already here...
plus, there seems to be an inherent problem that i still can't put a name on... it seems to transcend run-of-the-mill laziness...
example...
some guy in the pso lobbies asking how to take screenshots...
someone says to go to the djdubz site, it has all the info in detail...
the first guy says "why don't you just tell me?"
the second guy says, "well, it isn't quite that easy, but, the site has all the info"
the first guy says "i don't want to go to a site"
2nd guy: "well, all the info is there"
1st guy: "so, you don't know"
2nd guy: "it just isn't that easy to explain in chat bubbles"
1st guy: "then simple mail it to me"
2nd guy: "just go to the site!!!!!!"
when he can't force the guy to answer, he goes and asks someone else... like the guy was just
refusing to answer...
not to mention this whole free seganet thing...
everyone is asking about it, i say "sega.com, click on community"
many replies like "dude, just tell me"
i say: "i am not going to stand here and try to recite all the info, even if i remembered it all"
they say: "so, you don't know" (do they think this will make people tell???)
i say: "just go to the site for all the details"
so, they go and ask someone else...
and, in many cases, the someone else has the info all screwed up (they didn't even know there WAS a site in many cases, they just heard it from somone else)
so, occasionally, i spoke up and said the info is wrong... they would say things like "how do you know?"
"BECAUSE I WENT TO THE SITE!!!"
or, worse, they would say "yeah, well, at least he is willing to tell me!" like all they wanted was an answer, who cares if it is right or wrong...
the guy with the screenshots... someone told him "put a card in d2, press a+start and the screen will go black... that's it, you have a screenshot..."
a minute later, the guy asking for the info says "YESSS!!!! thank you SO much!!!" and takes off... with an absolutley useless screenshot file that he does not know how to convert...
people seem to want an answer and don't care if it is right...
like in the beginning when i had my "send yahoo instant message" bookmarklet...
and i get an email from someone saying he wants to receive...
i say "dc can't receive, but, here is a copy of the script to send..."
he says "no thanks, i want to receive, i'll just go ask someone else"...
WHAT???
i didn't say "i don't think the dc can recieve", i made a dogmatic statement "the dc can't receive", but, he acted like i just didn't want to tell him or that maybe i didn't know, but, someone else would...
again, it is like people just want the answer they want, right or wrong...
that is dumb, but, at least i can see it is just stupid impatience and unrealistic ideas...
but, the fact that no one ever wants to go to asite for reliable info is a mystery to me...
like with the browser post and i have said this many times...
i post and give a link to the group...
then people ask dumb questions like "so, where do i get this browser?" and such and i say "well, i gave the link to all the info you will need"...
and the responses i get are usually like the above!! "well, i don't want to go to a site, just tell me"
what the fuck is this??????
do they feel they are being tricked???
is it some kind of laziness???
people know they can get correct info and they still ask just anyone!
like when i saw a post "yay! they are going to
make dreamcasts again!" and the first reply was "yayyyy!! * does the hamster dance *"
does no one care about accuracy? sources? facts???
my point is it is useless to just answer question people post, at least 90% of the time...
and hopefully all the examples above make it clear why...
so, anyway, i can't fix the stupidity described above, but, i can at least do whatever i can to make people stop calling this a message board...
it is a yahoo group... which is a form of a feature-laden email group... or just call it a group... most specifically, it is a user group... (a group of people that all use the same or similar device/software, sharing info and resources about it and making it available to others who may use it... if that doesn't describe us, i don't know what does...)
all sorts of things that it can rightly be called, but, "message board" is totally untrue...
and, for that matter, as i have said many times
how can you people even use this as a message board??? pop-ups and banners and those stupid ad pages between posts and no features whatsoever and one goddamn message per page...
take a look at dreamserv, THAT is a message board...
i do not see how anyone could think this is a message board unless they have never heard of anything else... i mean, damn, clubs, groups, boards, forums, email groups, yahoo groups, msn clubs,
tightcircle, communityzero, topica, listserv...
those all just run together somehow??? with no difference whatsoever????
so, no public viewing of messages is probably happening soon and then whatever it takes after that to get the point across...