From sstoneb@campbell.mps.ohio-state.edu Wed Feb 20 13:07:34 2002 Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers From: Steve-o Stonebraker Subject: Re: Armada - Machine Beast Car Robot Wars in Disguise References: <20020220014059.27302.00001944@mb-mj.news.cs.com> Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 13:07:34 -0500 Message-Id: User-Agent: slrn/0.9.7.3 (OSF1) On 20 Feb 2002 06:40:59 GMT, GARDNER1138 wrote: > Of course that's what he means. When you say they're "the coolest damn > Transformer toys to come out in a long time" (you did see Fire Convoy and > Scourge, right?), it's your opinion. When someone makes any statement about > something being good or bad on here, it's arbitrary; It's their opinion, and > it's a given that "in my opinion" is implicit in any review. To me, this is only true to a point. I mean, sure, *any* statement made by anybody at any time is really just their opinion. But some opinions are factually wrong ("It's my opinion that gravity doesn't exist"), and others are subjective but stated in rude or offensive ways ("It's my opinion that all people from Michigan are assholes"). And the presence of an 'IMO' really *does* make a difference to the tone of a statement. Sometimes it's important, sometimes it's not. Tone, in general, is important. ("Steve-o's a self-righteous ****wit" versus "I wish Steve-o would post more TF content and less 'can't-we-all-get-along' meta stuff." Both have essentially the same objective content -- although the latter is a bit more specific -- but one of them is mean and the other isn't.) > Why is it that when someone's review is glowing for said line, well, > that's great. But if someone's critical of a franchise they care about, > they get shouted down? Well, I made a post about this a couple weeks ago, in a thread called "a line for the fans" or something. Basically, a braindead "I love [blank]!!! It's so AWESUM!!!!!!!" post is 'better', in my opinion, than a braindead "I hate [blank]!!! It's so STOOPID!!!!!!!" post. At that level of sophistication, both are pretty much useless, but one of them expresses joy and the other expresses derision. The ATT community is better served by joy than derision. Even when comparing more erudite posts, I'd almost always favor the positive one over the negative, assuming they are equally well-written and thoughtful, although the gap between them narrows as the posts themselves get better. This doesn't mean that I think people shouldn't make negative posts. I don't think people should be "shouted down" for giving a negative review. I *want* to see everyone with a unique angle on something post about it, because then ATT has the widest possible spectrum of posts, and that's a good thing. I just want those posts to be friendly. And TRUKK NOT MUNKY posts aren't friendly. (And I mean TRUKK NOT MUNKY in its broadest possible sense, as in "old not new" as opposed to "vehicles not beasts".) Posts that say "I prefer the older stuff, because the designs are more appealing to me and because I like modes that very closely match real-world machines", however, are friendly, and quite welcome. > I think it may be an American thing. Like Zobovor said, I think it's more of an ATT Thing than an American Thing. I really don't see this attitude too many other places. I wish I did, though. I like it. It leads to a less hostile environment where people can concentrate on celebrating Transformers instead of being bogged down by negativity. > In France, they teach you to have a critical mind, to be discerning. By saying this you're making an implicit statement that somebody is *not* using a critical mind. (It may be an unintentional implicit statement, but it's there.) Don't assume that just because somebody likes a new product that they haven't gone through a rational process of evaluation. > I bet it took Skyflight at least a bit of time to come up with that > somewhat humourous write-up of his impressions of the line. Thanks, > Skyflight, BTW. Yeah, I'm sure it did. It was pretty thorough, and I enjoyed reading most of it. At times I thought it was a little harsh, but, nothing I couldn't stomach. Obviously, we have some pretty vehemant Skyflight-bashers, though, who have developed a tender spot where he tends to poke. --Steve-o Buster & Hydra's Masterforce/Victory subtitling project needs donations! *** http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/hantaakiraa/pt/fansub.html *** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Stonebraker | Transformers FAQ Keeper | Astrophysicist sstoneb@yahoo.com | www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~sstoneb | AOL IM: srstoneb