social topic

Edit history:

Idkbutlike2: 2010-09-06 04:32:44 pm

2010-09-06 04:32:28 pm

Meh, they aren't that bad, but some of them do lack a sense of humor and willingness to accept others' ideas. But I mainly hang out at #sda, so what the hell do I care?

arkarian

2010-09-06 04:35:05 pm

red chamber dream

the forum is probably a lot worse. i ignore most of it though so who knows.

tomatobob

2010-09-06 04:35:13 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I don't have a problem with elitism so much as unwarranted elitism, which sda has in spades. Being less shit than Twin Galaxies is does not make you cool, but god damn are they sure it does.

Doesn't help that it's run by tools, who go on about how forum staff need to be "good representatives of the site" and proceed to be the worst possible representatives of the site. Also that bit about play quality being up to "sda standards" in the verification process is such a complete joke that if it wasn't made by an sdaer I'd think it was trolling. It's just so utterly meaningless and subjective, yet somehow it's taken seriously.

Basically the more you see of sda's inner workings the uglier it gets.

Quote from Idkbutlike2:

Meh, they aren't that bad, but some of them do lack a sense of humor and willingness to accept others' ideas.

Problem is that "some" is 90% of the people that take any sort of interest in things on the site. And lacking a sense of humor is a criminal offense in my book.

I don't have a problem with elitism so much as unwarranted elitism, which sda has [i]in spades[/i]. Being less shit than Twin Galaxies is does not make you cool, but god damn are they sure it does.

Doesn't help that it's run by tools, who go on about how forum staff need to be "good representatives of the site" and proceed to be the worst possible representatives of the site. Also that bit about play quality being up to "sda standards" in the verification process is such a complete joke that if it wasn't made by an sdaer I'd think it was trolling. It's just so utterly meaningless and subjective, yet somehow it's taken seriously.

Basically the more you see of sda's inner workings the uglier it gets.

[quote="Idkbutlike2"]Meh, they aren't [i]that[/i] bad, but some of them do lack a sense of humor and willingness to accept others' ideas.[/quote]
Problem is that "some" is 90% of the people that take any sort of interest in things on the site. And lacking a sense of humor is a criminal offense in my book.

Idkbutlike2

2010-09-06 04:40:13 pm

Jesus Christ, dude! You sound like you hate speedrunning in general (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Quietus

2010-09-06 04:45:19 pm

Super Secret Area - Dead Ahead!

It's nothing to do with speedrunning. What tbob is saying is that there is no reason for a person who happens to be good at speedrunning to be a douchefag, or whatever the current 'in' word is.

sda is OK if you know what you're going in for. I appreciate the site for its videos, but wouldn't register on the forum. The forum is primarily targeted toward information for speedruns (makes sense, considering the site's purpose), but it sacrifices any levity for that purpose. All threads are usually very serious, as the aim is to help with the current run. If that's not you, it'd be hard to find places to make light of things, unless you stuck to just one or two threads.

In short, elitism doesn't have to come hand-in-hand with a complete lack of personality.

072

2010-09-06 04:53:50 pm

coral to complement blue

Interesting. I guess I don't visit SDA's forums often, but I've never noticed any strong elitism. Are there any prominent examples you have in mind that you could link to, tbob?

Idkbutlike2

2010-09-06 04:55:22 pm

The Half-Life team run thread is a good example, as well as that one thread regarding categories for Echoes.

arkarian

2010-09-06 04:56:58 pm

red chamber dream

yeah i'm actually debating not submitting my wario land 5 runs. we'll see.

tomatobob

Edit history:

tomatobob: 2010-09-06 05:02:20 pm

2010-09-06 04:58:47 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

I don't know if I can link anything specific since everything I read there just oozes smug these days. But yeah, the Half-Life thread in the casual speed running board was fucking abominable. That Metroid stuff a while back was pretty nasty.

Actually, there's a Grand Theft Auto 4 verification thread, that displays a lot of what is wrong with sda's system. This is the one. So much stupid there.

Quote from Idkbutlike2:

Jesus Christ, dude! You sound like you hate speedrunning in general (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Quietus covered it pretty well, but it has nothing to do with speedrunning, I really don't see where you're getting that. It's just the general attitude of that particular group of speedrunners and those running it. A lot of it probably has come down from those at the top.

arkarian

2010-09-06 05:02:41 pm

red chamber dream

that said, some of the staff and many of the users are pretty cool (particularly irl). so it's not all bad.

tomatobob

2010-09-06 05:12:19 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

The cool people are pretty much only in the irc channel or post here from time to time, the majority that stick to the sda forums are insufferable.

If they'd even just define what "sda standards" are supposed to be it'd go a long way in making the place less bad, but that would be admitting that they might be wrong and that they cannot do. They need better people in charge, regardless of coolness outside of the site.

arkarian

2010-09-06 05:12:53 pm

red chamber dream

tbob for sda prez

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2010-09-06 05:15:04 pm

2010-09-06 05:14:48 pm

Wow, I think I got enough from that GTA thread just from the first few sections of THE FIRST POST. Seriously, they are THAT precise with how a player must play the game in a speedrun for it to be considered a "quality" run? Just from the way it was written, I got the feeling that one tiny inconsistency, or one little mistake, means the run is horrible and you need to do it again if you wish to submit it at the end.

To me, if a runner makes a mistake and can STILL hold the record because they make up for it in some fashion, why bother with all of the nitpicking? There's a thing called "over-analyzing" and they seem to do it if that one thread is anything like their process for every game.

Now, I could be completely wrong since I don't know the whole story, but that's the first impression I got just from the "quality" and "consistency" portions of the description in that first post.

arkarian

2010-09-06 05:27:30 pm

red chamber dream

i don't think there's a problem with having such high standards, it's just the fact that they're not well-defined.

then again sda is pretty yikes for newcomers trying to submit runs. wonder how many people have had runs rejected and never bothered with sda again.

tomatobob

2010-09-06 05:32:11 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

Now, I could be completely wrong since I don't know the whole story, but that's the first impression I got just from the "quality" and "consistency" portions of the description in that first post.

This is the exact problem, yeah. Adding that board to shed some light on the verification process was a good idea and a terrible idea at the same time, it really exposed some of the silliness of the process.

There's literally no such thing a substandard run. There can't be if there are no standards. Play quality is just there to give them something to feel smug about, later in that topic the guy who rejected that run actually takes pride in the fact that he's a "harsh verifier" and nitpicks runs to hell and back. It's absurd. You can reject a run just on the grounds of not liking it if you throw enough words into it.

Quote from arkarian:

i don't think there's a problem with having such high standards, it's just the fact that they're not well-defined.

They aren't defined at all. And even if they were they're still placing viewer opinion over the time and that's unacceptable.

Quote from arkarian:

then again sda is pretty yikes for newcomers trying to submit runs. wonder how many people have had runs rejected and never bothered with sda again.

It's cool, we've got like a billion runs, we really don't need that one more. ~ sda staff

[quote="Prime Hunter"]Now, I could be completely wrong since I don't know the whole story, but that's the first impression I got just from the "quality" and "consistency" portions of the description in that first post.[/quote]
This is the exact problem, yeah. Adding that board to shed some light on the verification process was a good idea and a terrible idea at the same time, it really exposed some of the silliness of the process.

There's literally no such thing a substandard run. There can't be if there are no standards. Play quality is just there to give them something to feel smug about, later in that topic the guy who rejected that run actually takes pride in the fact that he's a "harsh verifier" and nitpicks runs to hell and back. It's absurd. You can reject a run just on the grounds of not liking it if you throw enough words into it.

[quote="arkarian"]i don't think there's a problem with having such high standards, it's just the fact that they're not well-defined.[/quote]
They aren't defined [i]at all[/i]. And even if they were they're still placing viewer opinion over the time and that's unacceptable.

[quote="arkarian"]then again sda is pretty yikes for newcomers trying to submit runs. wonder how many people have had runs rejected and never bothered with sda again.[/quote]
It's cool, we've got like a billion runs, we really don't need that one more. ~ sda staff

072

2010-09-06 05:34:51 pm

coral to complement blue

Yeah, that GTA4 thread was kind of wtf. I don't think I'll feel as bad now about abandoning my SM run.

Poision Envy

2010-09-06 05:47:09 pm

Club 27 Goals

Quote from Idkbutlike2:

Not till you guys allow sigs...

/agree

ryu

2010-09-06 06:07:11 pm

Quote:

also a lot of sda users are fairly socially inept and just aren't very likeable in the first place.

That's the impression I'm having too. I've been lurking there for years and I've never felt like I'd want to be part of that community.

Poision Envy

2010-09-06 07:07:43 pm

Club 27 Goals

Two relatives of mine are staying here for the week, and they came form Australia.

I went downstairs to get something to eat, and my mom, grandma, and the two relatives are all at the table talking. I listen to their conversation for a second, and they're all speaking Dutch. My uncle(?) said something funny apparently, and made everyone laugh, except me, because I can't speak dutch :[

tomatobob

2010-09-06 07:11:02 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Sounds a lot like several family gatherings I've been to. Some of the older aunts and uncles will just start going on an on in Dutch while the rest of us are all aiwebs_013

It's weird.

windy

2010-09-06 07:13:35 pm

gyrotechnic lollipop

cool. wish that happened at mine.

Quietus

2010-09-06 07:15:05 pm

Super Secret Area - Dead Ahead!

My family gatherings usually consist of me grumbling about having to 'so-shu-llyse' or something. It means I have to make unnecessary small talk about stuff that I'm not really interested in.

No, leave me at home to read my book on my own. Thanks.

nate

2010-09-06 07:43:54 pm

lol, why is it always dutch?

sarah and i are one generation too young for the foreign languages in the family. no idea what would have happened because picking up that shit seems really easy for us for some reason. and they were germanic languages too. for every 100 bizarre things you have to learn in japanese you only have to learn perhaps one in those that are so close to english.

Idkbutlike2

2010-09-06 07:53:34 pm

Quote from arkarian:

i don't think there's a problem with having such high standards, it's just the fact that they're not well-defined.

The real problem is that you can't have one clear set of standards for every video game out there, and people may interpret those standards in different ways.

Poision Envy

2010-09-07 12:53:48 am

Club 27 Goals

New google logo is fuckin cool