Any discussion on etiquette within a forum will draw ire because people usually do not look in the mirror before posting - they react, live in the moment and walk away with a sense of doing the right thing, regardless if it's right or wrong in most cases.

I've belonged to some absolute huge forums in my day and this place tolerates a wider range of folks than most other forums. The moderators are the good mix of vocal, visible, invisible and allow us to rant, rave, argue, come to agreements and perhaps agree to disagree moreso than most any other forum I've seen.

Some of the banter I've seen here, I would have banned you (temp or permanent) from Flashkit or Graphics.com. Instead, it's allowed, some understandings come from it once cooler heads prevail and things are directed back into adult conversation again.

Some folks hide behind anonymity and love to say things that they wouldn't say aloud if they had attached their full name (first/last name) and their address to it. That level of accountability rarely exists in a forum; shouldn't have to. But as it stands... when a random comment comes out of nowhere and screams at a person for having an alternative way of thinking/living than they, I've seen sparks fly.

I've had a ton of people come at me because I'm all over the place in regards to my mobile device of choice - I'm paid for that, btw. But in order for me to be fair, I have to test (or endure) most of the choices out there and I try to remain even handed in my approach.

You can't expect that from everybody. Some folks have purchased only Nokia their entire lives. That's not wrong, that's their decision. Some folks don't use the phone as a phone - even I balk at that, but hey... that's their decision as well. But to come off and say that they must have a disease or disorder because they've done one or the other that differs from me seems initially intolerant.

But it's really ignorance and egocentric nature that we're bearing witness to. Guide it, call it out and say that it's wrong and they the person is capable of better, more adult conversation(s). And don't join the flame match - not unless you want to and you know that the other people involved know your stance(s).

I'm one of the few volunteer spam moderators. I've had people that have come out and stated inasmuch that they did not like me still PM me and tell me that a thread looked like spam.

It's apparent that we all like it here. We just don't always have the way of showing/sharing that information first. We just go for what we like in regards to our life and gadget choices and defend that to the death sometimes.

We're geeks... that's what we do. But we can be more civil sometimes.

I'm done. Sorry for the long post. Congrats to Dousan for starting this thread.

Linux is not just politics or some abstract theoretical preference. It's also the time on the standby screen that I manged to get on the N900, it's sound on both internal and external speakers, it's a multitude of great desktop applications that I find more useful than their mobile counterparts.
I like certain features on my phone, and no phone has them all. Openness of linux gives the possibility for me to make some of the features I want available on my phone. It allows me to use the PR1.1 font on PR1.2 and not let nokia decide what is the best font size for me. It also allows me to code an app for my phone in my choice of programming language between 6 or more languages. Apple users defence that they have siri makes little sense to me but that does not make every siri user a fanboy. If they say that it's better not to be able to send files via bluetooth I'll consider it fanboyish, but if they say they feel more secure that not every app has access to all other app data on the phone I'll consider that a most valid point. In fact I would be a bit scared to install untrusted apps from the store on the N9 if it was the mass market device it was intended to be.

My preference is no more valid than another persons in any given field?

Are you high?

why is everything grey and orange ?




{had to}

High? No, it must be an all-time low what he is on...

I can't believe the progress of this thread. Any prejudice one might have towards newbee's and non or less tech-savvy posters could be seen as confirmed.

And all the while we still mix up different topics, that is: newbee's and what we can expect from them and vice versa, as well as the multiple forms of fanboyism and what not.

I don't think you get it actually. What you are talking about is the degree of knowledge/research/experience behind your preference. An average fanboy may not have coherent and well funded reasons for his preferences, but that does not make his preferences less worth for him than your preferences for you. A preference is a preference, it doesn't matter if it is founded on science or pure emotion or something entirely different.

I give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you are not a fanboy, but you are elitist. Elitists are every bit as hostile in all their eloquence as the rudest and most outspoken fanboy, they are just two versions of the same kind. Sort of like a pickpocket and a white collar thug, they are both criminals.

So, if I understand you correctly, the only way to not be accused of being a fanboy or elitist, is to not have any preference? I think you're right, and that's why, at the bakery this morning, I started yelling "Fanboy" and "Elitist" to the woman who ordered one brown whole-meal bread and refused the croissant, claiming the butter in it would make her fat...

a good topic here and several interesting opinions, but the mentioned facts are starting to be fulfilled even in the thread that is dedicated to solve them. sad :/

Real fanboyism to me is borderline fanatism, you could call it the hooligans of the mobile phones. As someone stated earlier in this thread they will defend it till death. It has become part of them, the thing they believe in. Their feelings and what the device stands for has meltet together.
So whenever someone talks negative about what they like or says that another OS is better, you, in their heads, talks bad about their person and it is understandable people will defend themself when they feel attacked, but that's the problem no one is attacking them personally and the fanboy can't see that and no matter what valid arguments you bring up the'll still feel attacked and protect their device (themself).
This is a very black and white point of view I state here, I know that and that's not how it's really like, it's more greyed out and not that esy to distingouish or label somebody a tru fanboy.
I used fanboyism in my first post as I see some people here on TMO fitting that label in some degree, on some level more or less.
There's more to it than that, you got personalities, upbringing, maturity and so forth.
I think the main problem is immature behaver and lack of lufe experience that'll show you won't get anywhere in life with an agressive behavior. You'll push people away and alienate yourself and won't broaden your knowledge/horizon.
The diversity if opinions is what makes the world move on, but fanboyism/fanatism is what makes people fight.
Disagreements is part of life, but as long as you respect the other person you wont demean the other person.

I feel some tension building up in this thread, remember an opinion is not a law and therefore opinions are equal no matter the deliver.

Regards Dousan...

Because that is the standard TMO color theme.

To right, those goddamned gluten fat free sympathisers.

Perhaps the real problem is that the majority of people here HATE noobs. Cannot stand them. They are the scum of the low. They should be forced to wear yellow stars and housed in intellectual ghettos. They demand sh**, they refuse to learn, they do not understand the most rudimentary of instructions and they never say thanks. Ban them. Ban them all. Ban them from the internet and cut off their thumbs so they cannot breed.

...

Newbies on the other hand. I love newbies (and boobies, however that is a whole different discussion for a whole different forum). We all love them. They are these people who do not understand a particular thing yet they are trying their damned hardest to figure it out. They post their cheesey scripts and say 'hay guys, how come my script does not work?'. We fall on them like hungry seagulls, devouring their problematic foodstuffs. We point them to the correct resources and usually write the script for them. Seriously, you pose a good noodle scratcher and your un-completed solution, people will take huge amounts of their personal time to help you.

These guys represent they way we were once. Young, free and optimistic un-constrained by the weighty mental burden of regex or knowledge that a perfectly good, cumbersome solution could be 'improved' upon with an AWK one liner. These people allow us the joy of learning the low hanging fruits again; vicariously through them.

It is like when I discovered my friend of some 20 years had not watched the films predator, robocop and starship troopers. I almost wept as I realised I could show him these films and he could enjoy them to their fullest extent as an adult in a way I could not as I had first seen them as a child. Through him I could relive 'this **** will make you a goddamned sexual tyranasaur"!

So yes, there is intolerance on this forum. Intolerance for recalcitrant noobery. Intolerance for the dumbass arsecandle who wants nothing more than to give away his freedom for an emasculated XMPP rip off just because his fellow peanuts breath buddies have it. Intolerance for the guys who are the poler-opposite of our way of thinking.

You WILL learn!
You WILL become self suffient!
You WILL crave knowledge and understanding!
You WILL push your own abilities to the limit!

or GTFO and RTFM.