For those wanting the GN community to grow...

[Deep4t]

I feel like I should say this from a outsiders perspective.
You want the GN community to grow, but I can tell you. It is NOT a very good community at all.

Firstly, every time I go in the Chatroom (quite rarely), it's just so unpleasant. Everyone is so defensive, you can't talk without someone jumping down you're throat. Seriously, if you're not a regular there, it's just not a good place. No one makes you feel welcome, or even try. It's basically a group of people who all know each other, who see a newcomer and just gives them a nasty glance and ignores them.

I know it's the internet but there seems to be some real real ego problems with some members, if not all of them really tbh. I've never experienced any healthy debate, its just, I AM RIGHT. /end of discussion.

Now I dont go on the forums, but the comments are becoming pretty poor too. It's just far too fanboyish. Yes it's a Nintendo site, but unless you're a really big fan boy, I can't see people having a good time. I'm not saying everyone here is a blind fanboy. But, every time something remotely negative is said about Nintendo, no one ever agrees, its just a **** storm in the comments. It's just rubbish quite frankly.

So, the community is not gonna grow. It's just gonna be a small group of people patting each other on their back. While scowling at the outsiders.

Sorry for the rant but I just felt like it should be said.

[Kolma]

The chat may be rude, but only from regular to regular we often ask people to stay after podcasts and generally treat newcomers with respect.

That said, if you are a troll or just an idiot, what you had/have coming to you is not something that is exclusive to the chat but the internet as a whole.

We try to give everyone a fair shot, but if you rub people the wrong way that is generally on you

-IRC Admin

*edit
from the looks of it no one has used the name Deep4T in the chat for over 2 weeks, why rant now?

[Clowns8me]

It is NOT a very good community at all [...] Now I dont go on the forums,

there's your problem. i don't comment or chat too regularly but i can pretty confidently say that the message board part of GN is both the most (socially) accessible and rewarding of the three (chat, comments, boards). chat is good too though.

[t27duck]

Chat is like that click of people in high school that people are curious about but have to like ease their way in and be able to take some hazing.

A good thing? Not so much, but it is what it is sadly. Very hard to change that.


Also...

[cortjezter]

well, nobody's perfect i suppose. but, we do often hear that our site has one of the best communities among gaming-related sites, and without too much deadly sin, i take some pride in that.

our community should too; i like to think of life and everything in it is what you make of it. don't like the community? make it better; be part of making it better, even if it's as small as using the 'report' buttons littered around the site to alert us when something crap is going on.

i sympathize with those who feel powerless to do anything, but if they can't/won't help be part of the solution, i can't really do anything for them.

[Nintend()\/\/|\|312]

I feel like I should say this from a outsiders perspective.
You want the GN community to grow, but I can tell you. It is NOT a very good community at all.

Firstly, every time I go in the Chatroom (quite rarely), it's just so unpleasant. Everyone is so defensive, you can't talk without someone jumping down you're throat. Seriously, if you're not a regular there, it's just not a good place. No one makes you feel welcome, or even try. It's basically a group of people who all know each other, who see a newcomer and just gives them a nasty glance and ignores them.

I know it's the internet but there seems to be some real real ego problems with some members, if not all of them really tbh. I've never experienced any healthy debate, its just, I AM RIGHT. /end of discussion.

Now I dont go on the forums, but the comments are becoming pretty poor too. It's just far too fanboyish. Yes it's a Nintendo site, but unless you're a really big fan boy, I can't see people having a good time. I'm not saying everyone here is a blind fanboy. But, every time something remotely negative is said about Nintendo, no one ever agrees, its just a **** storm in the comments. It's just rubbish quite frankly.

So, the community is not gonna grow. It's just gonna be a small group of people patting each other on their back. While scowling at the outsiders.

Sorry for the rant but I just felt like it should be said.

I hope nobody hates me for saying this, but I kind of agree.

I do think that the forums are the best part of the community, thanks in part due to the awesome moderating by Cort 'n' co. However, I'm a little terrified of leaving comments under stories sometimes.

I think if there is ever a time to be critical of Nintendo's actions, now would be it. I have a lot of criticisms myself, but I don't want to be labelled a troll just because I think Nintendo is focusing too much on hardware and not enough on new and original software.

My best advice (that I'm going to try and follow in the future) is this: if you have some kind of criticism about Nintendo, don't be afraid to voice it. There's probably going to be thirty people that call you blind and ignorant and a Sony/Microsoft fanboy and throw all kinds of immature rhetoric at you. However, there's probably going to be at least one person that will agree with you or have a decent rebuttal that you might want to respond to. Just don't feel obligated to entertain the haters and if they breach the comment/forum rules, like Cort said, contact a mod and they'll take care of it.

[Mako]

Firstly, every time I go in the Chatroom (quite rarely), it's just so unpleasant. Everyone is so defensive, you can't talk without someone jumping down you're throat. Seriously, if you're not a regular there, it's just not a good place. No one makes you feel welcome, or even try. It's basically a group of people who all know each other, who see a newcomer and just gives them a nasty glance and ignores them.

Maybe you just had a bad experience or something, but the first time I went into the chat everyone was pretty nice trying to start conversations. Obviously, if you are nice to them they will generally be nice back. If they don't know you why would you expect them to talk to you right away? It takes time to get into the loop of things.

...there seems to be some real real ego problems with some members, if not all of them really tbh. I've never experienced any healthy debate, its just, I AM RIGHT...

There have been numerous debate threads here on GoNintendo. I don't think anyone has just stated they are right without hearing the other side first and listening/ arguing with what they have to say. Obviously with other things, like debating certain parts/areas of the site, Cort or tDuck will always be right because they make the final decisions.

Now I dont go on the forums, but the comments are becoming pretty poor too. It's just far too fanboyish. Yes it's a Nintendo site, but unless you're a really big fan boy, I can't see people having a good time. I'm not saying everyone here is a blind fanboy. But, every time something remotely negative is said about Nintendo, no one ever agrees, its just a **** storm in the comments. It's just rubbish quite frankly.

Yes, this is first and foremost a Nintendo site. Obviously, you should expect users like this that will be die hard Nintendo fans. While there are many like that not everyone is, not even close... I have seen my fair share of negative things said in the comments sections about Nintendo and you would be surprised with how much people agree with some things. Even more with the recent things Nintendo has been doing... (Not bringing over certain games, online, friend codes, etc, etc)

So, the community is not gonna grow. It's just gonna be a small group of people patting each other on their back. While scowling at the outsiders.

The community is growing every day actually:New members by date. Obviously, the close group of people that joined first are going to get along and know each other very well. That doesn't mean they are not going to welcome new users. I think everyone welcomes new members who bring new points of view to the discussion and who bring new interesting posts/threads to the site...

You can disagree with me if you want, feel free to. If I didn't think the GoNintendo community was great I wouldn't want to be a part of it. I've been on numerous game sites and I think we have one of the "better" communities here.
__________________

I think if there is ever a time to be critical of Nintendo's actions, now would be it. I have a lot of criticisms myself, but I don't want to be labelled a troll just because I think Nintendo is focusing too much on hardware and not enough on new and original software.

I agree with you and I have seen many other users that agree with you as well. No one is going to label you as a troll just because you don't agree with everything Nintendo does. No one does as of late imo. Like I said above, there are a lot of die hard Nintendo fans out there, but not everyone is like that.

[Steel Diver]

I only started going on this website recently within the past few months and I have found the chatroom and fourms to be quite welcoming. For fanboy problem, I havn't noticed anything, it is a Nintendo site so people talk about Nintendo, but they don't hate on other companies. For as much as people make fun of the other game companies they make fun of Nintendo even more "My body is Ready"

[gusto5]

It is unfortunate at times when newcomers feel like the veterans of any 'group' appear to be defensive in their approach and in their conversational nature. More unfortunately once a wall is put up, this generally leads to an opposing wall and all we end up with is a perpetual face-off in which two groups will and forever antagonize one another. This evidently happens in IRC, on forums, in school, in workplace and it just happens because it's human nature to be in the right, and that defensive instinct will always kick in.

There are a lot of approaches one could take to circumvent such a situation. There will always be that one individual who will antagonize anything outside their realm of opinion, so it may be wise to ignore their responses. Pick clear, concise, mature responses from other individuals who may be contributing to the conversation but is masked so hard by the fact that a fanboy is blahblahblah-ing a load of bs.

Be prepared to change the topic. Sometimes people are just oversensitive about particular topics. It's unfortunate, and while it may well be a topic you and I are both intersted in (say, new Golden Wii remote), some fanboy obsessed with the original white will bash the hell out of us for our blasphemous colour choice. Move the conversation towards the new Zelda game instead, a perfect transition given their obvious relevance.

These are just some general ideas you may or may not choose to implement, but they have worked for me in my past experiences.

I'm fairly positive the chat community is always there to welcome new users to join it's mist. Hopefully the chat will regain its privilege of having both you and your wealth of knowledge and contributions, as well as anyone who may have been within the chat and have received only a negative response to it.