Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Thread Hijacking: I loled, and I rolled my eyes...

Some time ago, a poster on the PilipinasPoker forums started a thread bewailing the futility of seeking help on large poker forums: 

"How am I supposed to improve my game if when I post a hand, I get mostly very brief general answers with no explanations??

How is "Lol call. poker easy" supposed to help me?

Last time I checked, poker was a very complex game that requires detailed analysis of multiple variables, so where do I go to talk to someone that actually realizes this, or am I just screwed and on my own?

Furthermore, ANYONE can post on 2p2, and a lot of them THINK they know what they are talking about but absolutely do not, or they like to just joke around and screw with you. How am I supposed to know the difference? It just seems like there's a bunch of idiots and a-holes on 2p2 with very few nice intelligent genuinely helpful people here.

Maybe I am just asking for too much to get any real help on this site?


The replies that followed were then so progressively unproductive that it crossed the line from slightly annoying to downright laugh-my-head-off ludicrous.  After three pages, the thread had turned into a juvenile bickering between two posters discussing an issue so completely irrelevant to the original poster's topic that they in effect gave him the answer he was NOT looking for!


Ah, you have to read it to believe it!  The thread escalates to a beautiful punchline from one of the forum's more balanced minds: 
"what a way to show the original poster that we are very helpful in this forum. Way to go guys."


And now my reply to the original issue:

I loved this thread you started.  Unfortunately, the reality of public forums where anyone can post is that threads get hijacked by awful and irrelevant digressions.  Part of your job as a seeker of information is to sort through a lot of the BS to get the answers that ring true for you and your style of play.

This forum is expected to behave a lot like any other forum, BUT the great advantage is that this is a smaller forum so you will find it easier to sort through the trash replies - in effect, it will still be very helpful.

What you can do is be proactive, and make sure you get the info you want:
1.  make sure the thread title is specific to what you want to discuss.

2.  make sure the thread is in the proper sub-forum.

3.  when your thread is being hijacked, please please please report it to the moderators, because some of us are reading your thread for your topic!

I hope you don't give up on public forums, and that you still post some hands here, because we all need to learn from each other.


and yes, poker is EZ, zomgnutlaserspowpowpow!


when all is lost, you can always PM the ones you want to hear from.

2 comments:

KidSpaghetti said...

I Loled and feel for Moto's post. But yea, I'd also direct the OP to www.asiapokeracademy.com where he'll get almost legit answers from the awesome coaches there. =)

RedAirkson said...

oh yeah, i was being proper and not wanting to plug one forum inside another forum's thread...

pero tama, sa APA forums we just reply with boring direct answers ;-)