August 23, 2008

• In Defense of Xanga Whiners

  Once
  upon a time I was a member of a forum devoted to one of my favorite
  games. And on this forum there was a member whose wisdom and knowledge
  of the game was unsurpassed. He was a genius who had studied the game
  down to its most minute details. And he was elegant and persuasive in
  his writing about the game. He had numerous ideas about how to make the
  game better, more balanced, easier to learn, and how to make players happier.
  Now he wasn’t *always* right. Who is? Some of the things he said I
  downright thought wouldn’t work. But everything he said was clearly a
  *good* idea, well thought out and worth taking into serious
  consideration. 
  
  Well what happened to this amazing forum member?  Well he got banned of course.
  
  You
  see the forum was the forum of the game manufacturers and there was
  just one thing about this guy that I forgot to mention…
  
  He could be a royal pain in the ass.
  
  I
  mean he was blunt. He was rude. He was unyielding and without remorse.
  If he thought something you said was stupid… he said so, and always
  in what was perhaps the most insulting way possible. He didn’t insult
  the people so much, but he would tear apart the idea in such a language
  that made you, the originator, feel like you were less than the scum of
  the earth. And of course he cursed up a storm.
  
  And
  he never backed down either. He wouldn’t ever apologize. He never
  stopped challenging. If a forum member challenged him on something he
  knew was right, the gloves would come off and he’d be merciless.
  He’d send those poor writers crying home to their mommies. And he was
  no less brutally honest to the developers of the game than he was to
  random forum members. If he thought some decision was really idiotic he
  would question the mental faculties of the person who originated the
  idea.  By most measures, he was a real jerk at least a good portion of the time. (of course as with many people like that if you got to know him he was actually a pretty nice guy)
  
  So
  eventually some conflict got a little out of hand and on some poor
  pretext the forum managers banned him. It’s arguable whether he even
  really broke any of the rules. But he was labeled a troll and *most*
  users who were aware of his existence were probably even happy to see
  him go.
  
  Later he went onto another forum
  about the game and spouted his same crude brilliance and of course…
  he got banned again.  I know not how many forums he got banned from but
  now he resides in a small out of the way forum that only gets
  relatively small traffic primarily from the people who followed him all
  along.
  
  Now some of you are probably
  nodding to yourselves and thinking: “yup yup, serves him right!  He
  needs to learn to be more polite! His parents should have taught him better manners! He should be more careful with his
  language. How dare he insult the developers who are just doing their
  best? What’s wrong with him? Why can’t he express himself in a calm and
  reasonable way? Why’s he gotta be so dang difficult all the time?”
  
  I
  KNOW some of you are thinking that, because you’ve SAID as much before.
  I can’t tell me how many times I’ve read Xanga entries that say
  something along the lines of: “For Christ sake stop complaining about Xanga!”  And indeed, I’m sure I’ll read many more, because whenever the
  criticisms of Xanga start to fly, or whenever a user is not particularly
  careful in the way he or she states his or her negative opinion about
  some aspect of Xanga, it doesn’t take long before people rally to
  Xanga’s defense. And usually their defense is something along the lines
  of: “If you don’t like Xanga shut up and go away and if you must
  complain don’t be such a Dick about it!” 
  
  
  
  Can there be any doubt that when people believe this they would have
  seen the forum managers of my friend as having done the absolute right
  thing by banning him and making him go away?
  
  But I personally have a very different perspective:
  
  I think they should have hired him.
  
  Because
  when all was said and done, he was RIGHT. Again and again and again he
  was dead on. His understanding of the game was better than others. He’d
  studied it more. He clearly *cared* about it more than most people. He
  cared so much he refused to let it stay as it was. He wanted it to get
  better. He wanted a game he could love.  And he was clearly not going
  to rest or take no for an answer. He was the perfect critic.
  
  And
  better yet he brought together people who were similarly knowledgeable
  and skilled. He attracted the people who had the intelligence and
  awareness to be able to match him wit for wit. Exactly the kind of
  people who could keep him honest when he, in his zeal, on occasion went
  a little over board.
  
  This is EXACTLY the
  kind of person designers of any system need working for them. The kind
  of person who can keep THEM honest. And he was doing it all for free!! 
  The last thing they should have done was alienate him and make him go
  away.
  
  I have no doubt whatsoever that if
  they had listened to him, the game would be extraordinarily better than
  it is today. I might still be playing the game. I don’t. I can’t stand
  the way the game has stagnated instead of improving when there were so
  many ways it could have gotten better.  I guess I’ve been corrupted by
  that crazy forum dweller. I can’t go back to the way the game was
  before. Not when I know how much better it could be.
  
  And
  you know what? There are almost *always* people like that.  In every
  forum I go to. Maybe not all of them are as surpassing brilliant as
  this one person, and maybe a lot of them only *think* that they are.
  But there’s *lots* of people who just aren’t particularly polite in
  their criticism. But does that mean they should be ignored, shunned, or
  told to grow up? I don’t think so. I think they should be listened to
  just like everyone else, commiserate with the quality of their
  criticism, no matter the nature of their presentation.
  
  So I never agree with these posts that get posted that say stuff like:
  
  “Shame on you, Xanga critics!” 
  
  “How dare you not give the Xanga Team high praise for their work!”
  
  “Stop whining and be happy with what you have!”
  
  
  “Complain in private! We don’t want to hear it!”
  
  
  
  “Go away and join some other blog if you don’t like Xanga!”
  
  No…
  I say… whine away! Be as rude and as crude as you want! If your ideas
  are bad people will just ignore you. But if you have good ideas they’ll
  filter through and be seen and be heard and if the Xanga Team is smart
  they’ll follow up on them. They won’t ignore you just because you
  happen to be a little rough around the edges in your presentation.
  That’s part of what it means to be a professional at anything really.
  It’s part of your job.
  Your goal is to make the best product possible. It isn’t to rest on
  your laurels and feel good about yourself. It’s not to protect your own
  pride.
  
  You see there’s always going to be people with different dispositions. Some people are going to make criticisms like this:
  
  “Xanga
  Team you are so wonderful and I love you and please please please don’t
  take this as a criticism. But wouldn’t you possibly please consider
  getting rid of the mini system? I mean it’s awesome and amazing and was
  SUCH a great idea at the time, but it hasn’t been working out too well
  and now I think it’s time for it to go away.”
  
  And then they’ll list a bunch of reasons about what’s wrong with the mini system and close it up with something like:
  
  “But
  you’re all still wonderful! And I can’t imagine a better group of
  people running Xanga. You’ve done such amazing things. Xanga is the
  best blogging system EVER! Please don’t hate me!”
  
  But
  others are gonna wake up one day, after having lost their wife, gotten
  fired, gambled away their fortune, shot their dog, and having a
  horrible hang over and they are gonna log into Xanga and what will they
  see waiting for them? A Mini. And they’ll think. Fucking minis. And they’ll rattle off a post real quick and it’ll go something like this:
  
  “Listen
  up you boneheaded Xanga Team fuckups! The mini system is absolute ASS!
  They are so fucking retarded! If you don’t get rid of this system asap
  I swear I’ll hunt you down rip out your spines and shove it down your
  throats! And here’s what’s wrong with minis…”
  
  And
  then after that they’ll list perfectly reasonable well reasoned and
  logical criticisms of the mini system. After which they’ll follow it up
  with something like this:
  
  “And that’s why
  you HAVE to get rid of this shitty system! I mean I can’t believe you
  could be so stupid as to come up with this crap in the first place? God
  what is wrong with you! I could come up with something better in my
  sleep. Fucking change it. Right now. Or else!”
  
  And
  then at the very itty bitty bottom of their post long after you’ve
  stopped reading they might put a tiny little note that says something
  like this:
  
  “P.S. I love Xanga and I don’t know what I’d do without it.”
  
  You see? Now why would you find that offensive? They aren’t really *trying* to piss you off.
  
  That’s just the way they roll.
  

  • 11:58 am
  • 15 Comments