#thepokecommunity

Ho-Oh

used Sacred Fire!
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    Known as PC's main chat room, what do you think are the main issues in regards to it, how do you think they can be fixed - is it that we scare you off? And do you go there? If not, why and what'd persuade you to go there?
     
    i don't think there's a clique per se, but it's quite obvious that there is a social hierachy in there that new members to irc just don't like
     
    From what I've noticed it's not very welcoming to new people in the channel, I personally don't go there, but whenever I have the atmosphere has been quite cold.

    Oh and see Harlequin's post for my other point.
     
    I disagree on the welcoming point, actually. Whenever there's a new PC member there I personally welcome them because I stalk those things. But even so we try to help the new members except if it's for rom hacking and we generally link to the appropriate forums/IRC channels, so I'm not sure how else we could come across as welcoming unless it's something that happens while I'm offline.
     
    it's welcoming imo, but nica, you and the regular irc gang (i suppose i fall under that banner but i lurk most of the time) always dominate the conversations there and new members just get frustrated and leave most of the time
     
    Possibly because I never shut up! Idk I always try to get everyone to talk and half the time you can't tell the lurkers from those that have been there for years like uh vulpix and others that have talked lately :( plus when people join its generally quiet and it dies like a fox in leafage from what I've noticed for most of the hours I'm on and when there are a mass of randoms then it's not usually at the active time?
     
    This actually came up in a conversation between me and a few friends yesterday and I was really surprised at how many people said that when they went onto #tpc they were either ignored or someone was just flat out rude to them. I personally don't go on #tpc anymore because the regulars there aren't my kind of people so I can't really say what the problem is, but my guess is it's the way you say things, not the lack of things you say.
     
    Really? Cause anyone that's rude to others is usually... regulars to regulars who I tell off anyway, from what I've noticed.

    Would it help if all the regulars consciously made an effort to pay attention to everything everyone has to say - because most of the time I don't see this happen because people just lurk. XD;
     
    Well tbh; I would visit there more often. But when I used to chat there, I was either slapped in the face with a smart or rude remark or ignored completely. Whenever I went on tpc, I never felt welcome, I'd try and engage myself in the discussion, but everyone would fly straight past me. And yeah, like others have mentioned, there is definitely a social heirarchy which dominates the chat. I always felt excluded. As in, if you're not a part of the 'cool group' then you're a nobody. Which is something I always feel when I go in there, and few others have mentioned to me how they feel too.

    It's hurtful yes, I can't lie; you might think I'm being oversensitive, but yeah, the feeling of exclusion isn't a nice one.
     
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    I have rarely seen any case of people being rude to newcomers joining. Maybe not replying, yes, but no irc chatroom is active 24/7 no matter how many people are in it (idleing is common).

    Not surprised at claims of people put off by the social order - that's not something one can remove overnight though sadly - and there are some people who are harsh, so to speak, (especially if a debate's on about some serious issue), but said claims about people being rude to people who just pop in? News to what I have seen over the years, and I've been on fairly regularly the last month too.
     
    i think i might be one of these rude members.......................................
     
    I don't go on #thepokecommunity because I don't have any need to. All the people from PC that I want to talk to I can do so elsewhere.
     
    It's a little frustrating because I want new people to join but at the same time I feel like for a new person to feel welcome takes monumental amounts of effort on my part, to constantly pay attention to irc and talk even when I don't feel like it (so they don't feel ignored if it's been dead for 5 hours and they try to join and talk) and interrupt my ongoing conversation to personally reply to everything they say etc etc, for anyone that tries to join. It seems like new members see the people that chat in the room as robots programmed to make them feel welcome instead of people with things they want out of the room as well, and reasons they join.

    Idk just my two cents. I would like new people to join but I feel like people that don't join are demanding near-worship by irc standards from the regulars to even consider coming back and that's not what I want out of irc lol.
     
    I just have never really found the chat enjoyable, to be honest. I'm not part of the clique and I never will be... I mean I like people in there but I usually talk to them elsewhere. It's just not a place that I feel like I belong, so I don't bother going in there.
     
    I've started idling there again, since it was easy to add SystemNet to my autojoin list. :3

    So far I haven't seen any meanness in a few days of idling! I've used IRC for a long time as a member of many communities, and I think it's difficult for people to join relatively small channels in general, because they're more tight-knit. Posting on the forums is more impersonal and isn't realtime, so it's easier to contribute. When a channel is home to a clique (I don't mean this in a negative way at all, just as a close group of friends), then it can be difficult for members who aren't as established to inject themselves in conversation.
     
    The part I find frustrating is when I'm in another room and people talk about #tpc and classify it as an unfriendly environment and use words like 'clique' and 'excluded'. Because then as a #tpc regular you feel like a bad person for hurting people's feelings and making them feel unwelcome when you haven't done anything wrong.

    We're not trying to exclude or ignore people, but we can't drop everything and cuddle you to make you feel welcome, either. You have to persist a little, make yourself heard. That's what I did, it really wasn't that hard. We try to include people in the conversation but you have to meet us halfway. You have to give us something to work with.

    The most pressing problem though is that the people posting in this thread have clearly already made up their minds about the channel and have resolved not to come back. If you don't want to give it another chance, don't, that's fine; but never let it be said that we didn't try to fix the problem. I'm not going to feel guilty about this anymore.
     
    I used to be there all the time, but I stopped going pretty much because I didn't like the amount of down talking that was going on. I also felt intimidated a lot because of the conversations going on between the regulars; it was difficult to jump in and be replied to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I was never that way or that I was never rude. I was. I know not everyone in #tpc is like that, but it was just enough to make me realize how uncomfortable I was after a while.

    But yeah, after a while, I just got busy with other things and forgot to go aha. Sorry if this post offends anyone, but the fact that a lot of people are thinking the same thing, surely that must mean there IS or WAS(I don't know I haven't been there in a while) a problem. Telling people they're just wrong about something when a group of people have the same opinion is kind of silly, right?
     
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    Shining Raichu said:
    The most pressing problem though is that the people posting in this thread have clearly already made up their minds about the channel and have resolved not to come back. If you don't want to give it another chance, don't, that's fine; but never let it be said that we didn't try to fix the problem. I'm not going to feel guilty about this anymore.
    Click to expand...
    To be honest everyone is happy not being on #tpc, they've found other places to hang out. It's the fact that the topic of "Lets make everyone join #thepokecommunity!" has come up quite a lot. Obviously if people keep asking what's wrong with #tpc you're going to get negative answers. Honestly I think that if someone wanted to be included in the IRC enough then they will persist or they will ask someone why they aren't included in conversations enough. You can't get everyone to stay in the IRC and enjoy it.
     
    I haven't ever seen anyone being rude in #TPC, but I haven't really been in there often.

    I popped in quite often, or left it in the background a bit, but I found that most of the time it was absolutely dead :/ didn't see the point in staying on a channel to talk to myself really.

    Since then I have discovered some of the section channels, some of which have been much more lively, so I visit those often.



    It seems kind of hard to promote an IRC except just making sure everyone knows about it, since you can't really have IRC events or anything D:.
     
    I've been on #tpc for a while now and this thread makes curious reading. A lot of people seem to have polar-opposite observations of #tpc and I may be able to shed some light on it (of course this is somewhat speculation).

    Above all I've noticed that this so-called 'friendliness' and responsiveness definitely changes depending on what time of day I visit. As a result I see where the people who can't see a problem are coming from, and I also see where the people who say there is a problem are coming from, because they both seem to be right - it's just a different points in the day. I think I might have a good position in the timezones (i.e. slap-bang in the middle) to be there are each point in time.

    For me, the mornings are the best and happiest time, since 9 or 10 in the morning for me is like 8/9/10 at night in Australia, and I'm must say that from my observation (with no offense meant to any other nation, including my own) that it appears to be the Aussies on the whole that are the most friendly, most good-natured and good-humoured people in the chat. By miles. There are exceptions of course as there are perfectly awesome people from other countries there but this seems to be the general case. Easily some of the best times I had in #tpc were during the morning.

    During the late afternoon and early evening (or 'prevening' if I am allowed to use a Big Bang reference), about 3/4 o'clock onwards, for me it either seems devoid of life and has a distinctly unfriendly atmosphere. Sometimes I'm ignored or ridiculed, made-fun of and on a few occasions I was told to 'shut up' when trying to break the silence. I have been forced to leave several times because of this. And yes, during these incidents I have felt excluded.

    Late evening, maybe 9ish/10ish onwards it sometimes starts to pick up again, but not always.

    My point is if someone really wants to be included amongst the regulars in #tpc then they should stop feeling intimidated and join in with the regulars. I managed it, and I've seen others manage it to. But crucially it has to be at the right time of day when the right group of people are online - i.e. the friendly, welcoming and completely crazy group who just talk about anything and everything and have a lot of fun (hugs to you guys, you know who you are) - and try to avoid the times when the 'other' group of people are online - i.e. the *****y and quite frankly immature lot that bully new users and don't seem to understand the true concept of fun.

    I hope I haven't offended anyone, it wasn't meant to cause offense - I just wanted to say that, so far as I know, both sides of the argument has merits - #tpc is really fun at certain times of the day and is quite frankly horrible at others, and there does seem to be a pattern. That's what I think anyway.

    Hybrid Trainer said:

    To be honest everyone is happy not being on #tpc, they've found other places to hang out.
    Click to expand...

    I agree with this - PC is split up into many, many different sections (including both forums and blogs) for a very good reason. Most members probably don't even visit certain sections and are very active in others. There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach; we have to tailor for everyone's needs. As a result, not everyone will want to join #tpc and we should respect that as a fact, and not demand that they come up with reasons why they don't.

    However, judging by the amount of discussion this thread has generated (more, might I add, than I've seen in a VIP thread in a looooooooong time), it does seem there are some very strong feelings about #tpc that everyone is keen to get off their chests - I think it's better to have things out in the open rather than have them boil over. Looking at the arguments it's clear that #tpc is not flawless, but it isn't completely evil either. Maybe in realising this and talking about we can make it better for everyone.

    If you read all of that, I owe you a gold star. :3
     
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