Other Features Article about Firebot

[xenu]

Firebot's probably one of the most misunderstood areas of the site, so I'd like to write an article that hopefully clears up some of these misunderstandings while also explaining, in a very general sense, what Firebot is really all about beyond the morass of loosely-defined "shitposting" most people associate it with. It'd also help newer users navigate Firebot's insular (and at first intimidating) culture without accidentally making an ass of themselves, as has happened so often recently. Make no mistake, though, I don't intend it to be a "Firebot cheat sheet" or a set of do's and don'ts for newbies, since rigid/prescriptive guidelines are the last thing we want in Firebot. Instead it'd be a half primer, half manifesto that crystallizes what little we know about posting standards & expectations in the subforum without sacrificing its overall "anything goes" vibe.

I'll probably be consulting with the other firemods for this article so it may end up being a collaborative effort.

 

[skylight]

I'm okay with this and I'm cool if RODAN/whoever else who has access is involved. But given it relates to Firebot I'll keep an eye on it in AW because yknow. I'm interested to see what you come up with. Approved.

Though I think it would be more suited to General rather than OF, because site related stuff goes there.

 

[xenu]

Thanks, and you're right, it probably is better suited to General - I'm not too familiar with the classification system yet so I'll just change the tag when it goes to AW.

 

[Bummer]

I may be necro-bumping this, but I have to see this article in the workshop so whatevs.

Do we really need an article specifically written about Firebot? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see some pointers about it, if only because people like magikarpmandude and Kingpoleon could use some guidance (ie stop making threads). But since Firebot is hidden from non-members, wouldn't an article about it make newbs more tempted to post there? Not to mention that there's not much to cover, as it's generally a place for michellangeous discussion / joke posting, but I could be wrong. So if anything, an article about several of our various social forums, from Cong to OI, could give new members other alternatives to get into the community, instead of venturing into Firebot where they're more likely to get burned from the experience (pun intended). Just trying to brainstorm here.

 

[skylight]

oh Bummer has valid points xenu what's your thoughts?

 

[Bummer]

yeah xenu what are your thoughts

 

[xenu]

yeah you're definitely right w.r.t it tempting more noobs to post... i'll try and word it in a way that doesn't misrepresent the fact that it does have a pretty insular culture and emphasizes the value of lurking i guess. but yeah i'm down for a more general social forums expo article though. there's two ways we can go about it, either i cover all of the social forums or we call in a moderator for each social forum (me for firebot) and have them write about their forum and lay down in a few paragraphs what "it's all about". the latter would be better IMO because i'm less familiar with Cong/OI than i am with firebot. what do you think?

 

[xenu]

Bummer skylight

 

[Bummer]

Yeah, I'm down for that. Jellicent might have suggestions for OI people, don't know about cong.

 

[skylight]

i like that a lot C:

 

[Jellicent]

RODAN's article on Firebot was just 3 issues ago. Also, Hulavuta did an OI article 2 issues ago. If you can avoid too much overlap with those, a general social forums article could be snazzy, though. You might want to consider Layell for OI and cookie for Cong. Both can see this forum and have good senses of humor, so it'd probably work well if they're interested~

 

[cookie]

for a cong article if I were to write it, it would be in a satirical tone, happy to do so though. One word of warning though: don't make the article from a first-person perspective like Rodan's (I'm guilty of this in my first ever smog article), I'm not a huge fan of this because it makes the article more about the writer than the topic which is 1. a bit egotistical and 2. means people might only enjoy it if they like the writer

as almost unrelated idea, I like the idea of a Firebot article written in a self-satirising style (think Encyclopaedia Dramatica) that covers notable users, gimmicks, threads and posts of firebot over its 10-year history. Tentative title: "Firebot: a Decade of Shitposting". I can fill in for most things since 2008, and get someone like DM to fill me in on stuff before that (especially the pre-2007 era for which few posts exist now).