Eplaya, a cross section of views?

[kiboy]

Hope this is the right forum for this topic but Mods feel free to move it.


Some of the discussions here have got me wondering how well Eplaya represents a cross section of the Burner population and their views as a whole. Do you think this forum is a pretty balanced representation of burner population as a whole or do you think it's skewed to one particular view or another? Why?

[Ano]

I think it's pretty heavily skewed. In what way? I don't know. But I do know that I have yet to meet a single human on Playa who gets visibly upset about loud noises, whereas Eplaya would have you believe that the second an Art Car with a DJ playing pulls up anywhere that the immediate reaction is vitriol and anger from the majority of participants... I also tend to meet the highest amount of jackasses here, On Eplaya... I don't think the raver population is very well represented here. Nor do I think the younger population is represented very much... kids don't give a shit about specialized message boards. I think Reddit's /r/burningman has more activity than here, simply because more people know what reddit is...

I think any message board about anything is going to be heavily skewed towards people who put a ton of time into the thing, but not neccesarily effort. A careful read of many posters around here reveals that some of the most common posters don't even attend the event anymore, and haven't in at least a few years. So... it's skewed, someway, somehow, but nobody knows. We can call it Eskewed?

[kiboy]

Thanks for that reply. I'll check out Reddit.

[AntiM]

I find Reddit humorless, but it has uses.

[Elderberry]

It's a lot like eplaya except with more people spewing tripe and even more people spewing rediculous comments and opinions about it.

[BeeWeeDee]

Heavily screwed in my opinion. I wish it were so anyway.

[kiboy]

I find Reddit humorless, but it has uses.

I've seen your posts there. It takes many years and many sorrows to really develop a sense of humor imo.

[kiboy]

Heavily screwed in my opinion. I wish it were so anyway.

Explain?

[theCryptofishist]

It's skewed to repeat participants.

[Ratty]

I just went to reddit for the first time. It looked a lot like the old style ebay boards. I immediately found this interesting post. I don't think I need to go back there. You guys are enough for me.

"I just came back from my first time. Burning Man is interesting. It's amazing and terrible. Awe-inspiring and depressing. Mind-blowing and cynical. Paradise, purgatory, and hell all rolled into one. I had a great time, I also had an awful time. But all in all I would go back. It's like a complicated book - you have to read it a couple times to figure out what it's about and if you like it or not. There are sad parts and happy parts, but hey man, that's life. You can still enjoy it."

[kiboy]

I read that one too.

However I will go back there.

Nothing is enough for me.

[lucky420]

There was a thread on redit regarding how mean some were on Eplaya...

[AntiM]

... and when I made a passing joke about eplaya, I got jumped on. "We do not disparage other communities here". BULL, and may I add, SHIT. Mostly I like the sub because it is full of eplayans, but honestly, the double standard stuck in my craw.

[lucky420]

My daughter, Sadie thought that thread was maybe actually started by someone from Eplaya who felt wronged or picked on. I'm not going to mention any names....

[Elderberry]

My daughter, Sadie thought that thread was maybe actually started by someone from Eplaya who felt wronged or picked on. I'm not going to mention any names....

I don't think you have to.

[kiboy]

Really? By all means mention names? And mention the wrongs that supposedly have been done? I'm totally confused/interested.

I think I started this thread if I remember right but at my age dementia is a real possibility.

[theCryptofishist]

"I just came back from my first time. Burning Man is interesting. It's amazing and terrible. Awe-inspiring and depressing. Mind-blowing and cynical. Paradise, purgatory, and hell all rolled into one. I had a great time, I also had an awful time. But all in all I would go back. It's like a complicated book - you have to read it a couple times to figure out what it's about and if you like it or not. There are sad parts and happy parts, but hey man, that's life. You can still enjoy it."

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way...

[Elderberry]

If you don't know, don't worry about it, they obviously aren't bothering you. (Unless, of course, it is you. )
Just kidding

[theCryptofishist]

I confess to a morbid interest that is stirred up by people complaining about the board--"Is it me?" I don't know if I've scratched that itch. If so, not often.

And since I'm here anyway, I just want to say that Lucky's daughter is a delight.

[kiboy]

I'm so out of the loop that the last several posts went flying right by me. Maybe best to leave it that way.

[theCryptofishist]

A careful read of many posters around here reveals that some of the most common posters don't even attend the event anymore, and haven't in at least a few years.

An even more careful reading shows that of the top ten posters, 8 were there this year, and I (one of the two who didn't) attended last year. If you extend it to the top 15, you get two more non-attenders, and at least one of those hasn't posted much in years.

[Ano]

So, a quarter of the top posters don't attend, or have not attended the past year. I'd consider between 20-25% of the top posters to be an adequate use of "some of," especially considering that being a "top poster" signifies that, well, one posts a lot, and thus are highly visible across the board. Either way, It would then not be a stretch to say "some of the most common posters no longer attend the event." Unless "some of" must correlate to a number greater than 1/3rd, in which case, I retroactively change my post to say "between 20-25% of the most common posters" in order to please the statistical gods, and "either did not attend last year or have ceased their attendance of the event" in order to really please those who just need exquisite precision with the written word.

[kiboy]

Another thing that occurs to me is these are not high traffic forums. There seems to be just a handful of posters doing almost all the posting in the forums I frequent here. There could be several reasons for this. One that pops into my mind is that the oldtimers have developed a sort of language all their own. They have history and get each others references and jokes. I get replies that make very little sense to me at times because I'm out of the loop. There may be so much of this that it drives many newbs off the site.

Also the use of snark may be a factor. There is good natured snark and malicious snark. Some may not know or have forgotten the difference. I become snarky not when someone is ignorant but rather when they seem arrogant, or self important and entitled. It can take a long time to figure out the lay of the land in a strange forum. Had I not had a lot of experience in other forums for several years I would have blown this place off a couple of weeks ago. I would have been one of those 3 post and gone guys.

I'd be curious to know how many lurkers there are here who wouldn't make a post if you paid them.

Like that one poster said, "if you want technical info eplaya is the place, if you want to discuss the issues go elsewhere"

[Elderberry]

Like that one poster said, "if you want technical info eplaya is the place, if you want to discuss the issues go elsewhere"

I wonder why that is?

[kiboy]

Like that one poster said, "if you want technical info eplaya is the place, if you want to discuss the issues go elsewhere"

I wonder why that is?

What's your opinion, you read that post?

[theCryptofishist]

Another thing that occurs to me is these are not high traffic forums. There seems to be just a handful of posters doing almost all the posting in the forums I frequent here.

In total there are 79 users online :: 15 registered, 2 hidden and 62 guests (based on users active over the past 15 minutes)

To me that indicates that there are a number of people reading this. Even if we say half of those 62 guests are regular readers, that's more than 30. A forth is 15...
A continueing trickle of people sign up and confess that they've been reading for years. I'm just not sure how you'd actually figure out how many people regularly visit and use eplaya. Maybe all the regular posters are doing is keeping this place open for when other people want to use it.

[The Rod]

Jesus Fucking Harvey Christ.

Like that one poster said, "if you want technical info eplaya is the place, if you want to discuss the issues go elsewhere"

I wonder why that is?

You still have to wonder? After reading every single god damn post on the god damn board? You're a moderator right? What I wonder about is why boards exist on this forum that are named and seemingly created for the discussion of politics and philosophy if the guys who run this shit show are sick of hearing about it.

Just get rid of it then. If you cannot handle our unpleasant opinions then why in gods name do you work in the opinion department?

Here we are. Whether or not Eplaya represents a balanced cross section of views, there is definitely (defiantly?) a wide range of views represented here.

[kiboy]

Another thing that occurs to me is these are not high traffic forums. There seems to be just a handful of posters doing almost all the posting in the forums I frequent here.

In total there are 79 users online :: 15 registered, 2 hidden and 62 guests (based on users active over the past 15 minutes)

To me that indicates that there are a number of people reading this. Even if we say half of those 62 guests are regular readers, that's more than 30. A forth is 15...
A continueing trickle of people sign up and confess that they've been reading for years. I'm just not sure how you'd actually figure out how many people regularly visit and use eplaya. Maybe all the regular posters are doing is keeping this place open for when other people want to use it.

yes maybe that's true?

or maybe the rest don't want to mix it up with the regulars for whatever reason.

I'm not sure but it would be nice to see a little more activity here imo. Too bad there is no way to poll the unregistered lurkers.

[Savannah]

I wouldn't consider ePlaya a representative sample of Burners, nor do I think most non-users OR regulars would (or should) see it that way.

It is a vast storehouse of information, & quirky dive bar.

[Elderberry]

Like that one poster said, "if you want technical info eplaya is the place, if you want to discuss the issues go elsewhere"

I wonder why that is?

What's your opinion, you read that post?

I'm more interested in other people's opinion. And didn't your mother ever tell you not to answer a question with a question?