What I Love About PC

I was thinking of this earlier today because over the past week or so, I decided to look at a few other forums to see what they were like, and was really surprised at how...different they were. To me generally a forum is a forum is a forum, but visiting other ones made me realize that there are things on this one that I take for granted that I never realized was really nice.

Note that I'm not writing this blog just to bash other forums, which is why I'm doing my best not to name any names. This is just a positive PC post about what I appreciate here now.

1. The layout/design. There were so many buttons that I became so used to easily using that I missed them when I noticed them gone. The FAQ, the Rules, the drop-down menus on a few of them, those kinds of things were often missing and I would be confused and not sure how to get to those things because they're always so readily available to me. The things they were replaced with, if they were replaced at all, didn't ever seem to be anything I would regularly use. And as far as designs, I haven't yet seen a forum with better styles than PC. Maybe one day I can make a style and contribute to that (:

2. The avatar/sig freedom. I'm not just talking about sites like Serebii that don't let you use your own avatar; I'm also referring to our signature rules, our inclusion of CSS, and the general creativity of a lot of our members. Before I looked around the internet I was thinking about how large some signatures are, and how it might be a bad thing. But then I went on forums where the signatures were required to be minimal and/or didn't have the CSS option enabled, and I could barely tell people apart tbh. I realized that I love having the signatures because without those it makes every person just so bland and they all blend together, no one stands out and I have to actively read every single username to see if it's someone I know.

3. The moderation. "Bias!" you cry. I know, I know. I'm on the moderation team here so it's hard for me to objectively judge. But a few of the sites I visited, I felt actively uncomfortable because of trolls or just snarky, rude people that weren't taken care of. On PC, some people claim that it's whitewashed or over-moderated, but I've found I would much rather this "whitewashed" PC than the places where insulting one-liners are tossed around like free candy on Halloween and the 'style' of the site isn't to get rid of the insults, even if they don't agree with the post. I did visit one site where I had reported blatantly trollish posts and while the person was banned, all the insults they had slung remained there undeleted and I was just confused at the moderation technique.

4. The members. This brings me to my next point - the overall population of PC. Sure, there are the snarky people, the rude ones, the overdramatic ones, etc. But from the other sites I visited, PC has by far been the most mature. I tried to have a conversation on one of them and immediately got shot down by someone for no real reason; he just felt like being rude I guess. There are some threads in another one that are just a ticking bomb; if you post there, there's a 50/50 chance that someone will insult you or attack you. These places really made me appreciate the great members that PC has.

5. The real topics. There are some forums where the entirety of New Posts is: Game, Game, Game, Game, Pokemon Thread, Game, Game, Game, Poll, Game, Game. I guess this one is just personal preference but I don't like participating in games and to see that the forum is covered in them doesn't really make me want to stay.

6. The welcomes. In the first forum I REALLY frequented, the welcome forum was pretty much nonexistent. No one would welcome anyone, there was no community there, and when I came here I didn't make a welcome thread for that exact reason. I assumed it was something nublets did, not something I needed to do because I was just going to start posting and I didn't need any direction (tbh I didn't, but that was beside the point). After coming here, checking the new users section in other forums was one of the first things I did in each to see how the welcomes were - and I realized PC is the exception to the rule in that regard. While most welcomes here are unique and in-depth, other forums had mostly 15 posts per welcome all saying a simple variation on "welcome to the forums".

That's all I have so far. Feel free to add your own numbers if you'd like, I just thought I'd share some PC positivity (:

1. The design here is head and shoulders above some places. Rather it be through the creativity of the people in Style Studio or the designers themselves they pump out good stuff constantly. Other sites have bland generic skins that rarely ever change. What I like about PC is everyone has plenty of options to use and there are always new options on the horizon.

2. I can understand how some avys are limited to 100x100 since it seems standard at most places. And the lag issues may ensue.

3. I don't think you are being bias. I have generally seen other sites let a lot of things slide. Or the staff on the site actually takes part and some what endorses those one-liners and trollish/insult atmosphere. Yes it's good that site banned the user, but I'd think most sites at least that try and show a shred of responsibility and professionalism would either delete it or move it to a Graveyard forum only viewable to Staff members. The staff on those sites partly influences how the members on those sites act.

4. I think people are close minded every where. And I am sure there has been threads that are powder kegs here as well. Now will they end up in insults or attacks on you and others? No, which is what is different them some sites. It is okay to debate the issue, but to take a shot at the person or make the issue personal just seems to be out of bounds to me.

5. Same could be said about topics on every forum. How Attacks Hurt Humans, What attack would you use to chop a block of wood, What attack would you use to power a train, If you could be a pokemon what pokemon would you be, then we have an actual discussion. Most forums I go to the games are separate as they are here, so I don't see that as much of an issue.

6. Places I go to the welcomes are there, but they are just way robotic. People seem to make forced posts in welcome forums just for the heck of it. Like the standard "Welcome to the site, blah blah blah make sure you read the rules". Long story short it seems a lot of welcome forums people just go there to boost their post count.

Kenshin5;bt71795 said:

5. Same could be said about topics on every forum. How Attacks Hurt Humans, What attack would you use to chop a block of wood, What attack would you use to power a train, If you could be a pokemon what pokemon would you be, then we have an actual discussion. Most forums I go to the games are separate as they are here, so I don't see that as much of an issue.

Click to expand...

I use New Posts on every forum that has it, that's why this comes up a lot for me. I like seeing all the threads that are updated, but when 90% of each page is just a game then I get discouraged. That's why that one is so specific to me - people that like games would probably be happier with that kind of forum :P

What I love about PC: YOU

CENSORSHIP
BETRAYAL
ETC
*demods*

I expected to see one word when I clicked this blog.
The word was "Me!" haha ;3 <33 But then I clicked and saw and I was like... this is srs bsnss..

I really agree with you, Toujours. I've felt the same before when I'm on other forums. XD PC is a vB forum like no other vB forum in terms of features, at least I have to see any that are fancier.

I also feel about the members, and the welcoming, and that's not out of bias since I used to mod NU / W, there's a reason I used to enjoy that area so much. There's much more to it then there are to intro areas of other forums I've seen.

7. It's the blogs, mademoiselle, the blogs.