Was the death of Mikado a good thing?

Morbert

I think everyone agrees that mikado was an excellent student service, especially when it came to announcements from clubs and socs. And Boards.ie, sin.ie et al don't have the same community atmosphere that mikado had.

But I'm not so sure if that atmosphere was appropriate online. We are social creatures who communicate vast amounts of information through gestures and bodylanguage, so an online community is all well and good, but it may have 'manifested' a series of online identities which bore surprisingly little resemblance to the actual users due to the limits of communicating via text. And in many cases, the online identity became more important than the opinions and posts from the user. (Note:I'm not accusing anyone of being fake, but although an online forum is a medium perfectly suited to communicating opinions, it's not so appropriate when it comes to communicating entire personalities.)

I think that setup often lead to excess complaining and arguing, to the point where an entire forum was set up with the sole purpose of providing a place where people can insult one another. Which is testament to the fact that mikadoers were much more concerned with who they were and how they were perceived, as opposed to what they were saying.

Now that mikado is gone, I use online forums (fora?) to write polemics and little else. It's just... refreshing.

Note: I am aware of the fact that no one was forced to use mikado, and that all I had to do was not log on. But all a smoker has to do is stop buying cigarettes.

And I admit that mikado drinkies often went a long way towards developing a 'community' that was not exclusively online.

Placebo

Just regarding
"I think everyone agrees that mikado was an excellent student service, especially when it came to announcements from clubs and socs."

mikado was heavily used by around 25/35 odd users. Most of the college has never even heard of it tbh.

MrJoeSoap

It was a good thing for boards.ie anyway. I never used Mikado myself though.

NotWormBoy

Placebo wrote:

Just regarding
"I think everyone agrees that mikado was an excellent student service, especially when it came to announcements from clubs and socs."

mikado was heavily used by around 25/35 odd users. Most of the college has never even heard of it tbh.

Ah, I think thats a bit low. Most of the college had heard of it too..

But on its usefulness and all that ****e - I usually used to i to discuss sport or take the piss.

One thing it would be useful for is getting or shifting a bar-ex ticket, for example. Or something like that.

dory

Mikado is not dead it is sleeping!!

And no, its not a good things that its gone....I want it back, NOW!

shroomfox

Note: I am aware of the fact that no one was forced to use mikado, and that all I had to do was not log on. But all a smoker has to do is stop buying cigarettes.

Jaysus, what a comparison - you don't smoke, do you? It's a fair bit harder than quitting Mikado. Also even though Mikado can cause serious damage, cigarettes kill you. Dead.

I got to hate that place. Nerds saying sh*t online that they'd never dare to say to your face, either hiding behind anonymity or - nearly worse - behind their username as if it were some kind of shield. Is that a community spirit? F*cking pathetic.

Seanie M

Guys,
why is Mikado broken anyway?

DingChavez

shroomfox wrote:

Jaysus, what a comparison - you don't smoke, do you? It's a fair bit harder than quitting Mikado. Also even though Mikado can cause serious damage, cigarettes kill you. Dead.

I got to hate that place. Nerds saying sh*t online that they'd never dare to say to your face, either hiding behind anonymity or - nearly worse - behind their username as if it were some kind of shield. Is that a community spirit? F*cking pathetic.

You're the one who is F*cking pathetic!

*hides behind username* >_>

Morbert

shroomfox wrote:

Jaysus, what a comparison - you don't smoke, do you? It's a fair bit harder than quitting Mikado. Also even though Mikado can cause serious damage, cigarettes kill you. Dead.

Yep. I agree.

But my point was that Mikado can be addictive.

Teller

Room 101 was fun!

Placebo

Seanie M wrote:

Guys,
why is Mikado broken anyway?

if(not_in_clique)
{
report_to_headOFdepartment();
}
else
{
nothing();
}

public report_to_headOFdepartment()
{
System.out.println("WE HAD ENOUGH, TOO MUCH TROUBLE");
}

public nothing()
{
System.out.println("youre in the clique, well let u go, drinkies for all");
}


icantrememberanyjavaatall,gay

shroomfox

But my point was that Mikado can be addictive.

Granted. I say we follow the Mikado example with Cigarettes.

egon spengler

there was so much pettiness on mikado and it was very cliquey, the first I guess that was due to its anonymity

Gone West

egon spengler wrote:

there was so much pettiness on mikado and it was very cliquey, the first I guess that was due to its anonymity

Mikado was not anonymous

Mr Rivers

FuzzyLogic wrote:

Mikado was not anonymous

Shhh peter

egon spengler

FuzzyLogic wrote:

Mikado was not anonymous

Not fully anonymous but there was a certain degree of anonymity which enabled people to say or do things which they would dare say or do in person. It would explain the trolling

DingChavez

egon spengler wrote:

Not fully anonymous but there was a certain degree of anonymity which enabled people to say or do things which they would dare say or do in person. It would explain the trolling

How do you know that if you didn't know them in person?

speculation=/=fact.

Tchocky

FuzzyLogic wrote:

Mikado was not anonymous

It was for me for a good while *points out helpfully*

egon spengler

DingChavez wrote:

How do you know that if you didn't know them in person?

speculation=/=fact.

I knew some of them in person, also speaking for myself too

r3nu4l

Mikado certainly had its' uses and could have been an excellent student resource but the fact that people were allowed to openly bully and harass was just wrong.

The University has a duty under law to pretect students from bullying and abuse (physical, sexual, psychological, emotional...you get the picture) so in the end if the students didn't regulate (moderate) the forums the University had to. I'm surprised they didn't act sooner!

A major problem was that some (not all!) of the heavy users seemed to think that just because they had been around a long time or posted regularly they somehow had a [insert deity name here]-given right to abuse others for any opinions that disagreed with their own. Also flaming in general, which is banned on a lot of forum boards seemed like a hobby to some Mikado posters.

Let Mikado sleep for now and when it comes back let the moderators have the b*lls to stand up and ban the twerps* who abuse others.

*ironic use of abusive term

oldnamebanned

Morbert wrote:

Was the death of Mikado a good thing?

One word answer? Yes.

Whiskeyjack

Morbert wrote:

Note: I am aware of the fact that no one was forced to use mikado, and that all I had to do was not log on. But all a smoker has to do is stop buying cigarettes.

That is an incredibly innapropriate analogy.How can you say that an online forum is exactly as addictive as cigarettes?I haven't gone through any kind of withdrawal since it shut down.I just have to find other ways of occupying my time between lectures.

As for whether it's a good thing that it's gone or not, well I wish it would come back because I'm at home right now and I'm bored as hell.And people wouldn't be insulting each other and hiding behind usernames if it was modded anyway decently like boards is,(I'm not saying boards is better, I liked knowing who people were on mikado, it was a great way of keeping in touch) but if the mods had the guts to enforce a much stricter regime then none of that **** would happen, the whole ten warnings thing is a load of crap.

Demotruk

Whiskeyjack wrote:

That is an incredibly innapropriate analogy.How can you say that an online forum is exactly as addictive as cigarettes?I haven't gone through any kind of withdrawal since it shut down.I just have to find other ways of occupying my time between lectures.

I like the use of the word "exactly"...

Morbert

Whiskeyjack wrote:

That is an incredibly innapropriate analogy.How can you say that an online forum is exactly as addictive as cigarettes?I haven't gone through any kind of withdrawal since it shut down.I just have to find other ways of occupying my time between lectures.

Did I say it was exactly as addictive as cigarettes? I'm curious as to how you inferred as much from my post.

Reread my post again.

Whiskeyjack

Morbert wrote:

Did I say it was exactly as addictive as cigarettes? I'm curious as to how you inferred as much from my post.

Reread my post again.

Fine, you didn't say it was exactly as addictive as cigarettes, but it's still stupid to compare something that causes an extremely strong chemical and physiological addiction to a bleeding internet message board.

Loomis

Placebo wrote:

if(not_in_clique)
{
report_to_headOFdepartment();
}
else
{
nothing();
}

public report_to_headOFdepartment()
{
System.out.println("WE HAD ENOUGH, TOO MUCH TROUBLE");
}

public nothing()
{
System.out.println("youre in the clique, well let u go, drinkies for all");
}


icantrememberanyjavaatall,gay

Oh you legend!

Morbert

Whiskeyjack wrote:

Fine, you didn't say it was exactly as addictive as cigarettes, but it's still stupid to compare something that causes an extremely strong chemical and physiological addiction to a bleeding internet message board.

Eh... It's not 'stupid'. And please stop trying to twist my message into a comparative study between cigarette addicition and Mikado usage. That's not what it was about and you know it.

Whiskeyjack

Morbert wrote:

Eh... It's not 'stupid'. And please stop trying to twist my message into a comparative study between cigarette addicition and Mikado usage. That's not what it was about and you know it.

You're right, I do know that, and I'm not saying that that's what it was about, my point was that it's an inaccurate ill thought out comparison, and I stick by that.

Morbert

Whiskeyjack wrote:

You're right, I do know that, and I'm not saying that that's what it was about, my point was that it's an inaccurate ill thought out comparison, and I stick by that.

Kay... I'm going to ask you to carefully read the next sentence carefully...

---

My post was not a comparison between mikado and cigarettes.

---

If my post was about a comparison between mikado and cigarettes....

It would have had links to studies like these:

http://web.sfn.org/content/Publications/BrainBriefings/nicotine.html

http://www.computeraddiction.com/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/effective-online-forum-usage.htm

It would have had highlighted similarieties and differences between the nature of nicotine addicition and internet forum addiction.

I would have posted pithy paragraphs like:

The enterprises most people engage in while on the Internet deal with chat rooms, discussion forums, e-mailing, or on-line gambling. This action is therefore said to be nothing more than socialization (Dr. Grohol, 2003, par. 17). Even though this new kind of socialization is employed in a different kind of modality. David Greenfield, PhD, founder of the Center for Internet Studies disagreed by quoting that "It's (the Internet) a socially connecting device that's socially isolating at the same time (DeAngelis, 2000, par. 7)."

http://allpsych.com/journal/internetaddiction.html


I would have posted images like:




But (now here's the important part) I didn't. Therefore I am not interested in your opinions on what is and isn't an accurate comparison.

The analogy was simply used to say that Mikado could be a temptation.

To be honest I think you're now just trying to turn my post into a comparison between the two in the hope of winning some fabricated argument that you think I'm a part of.

So stop wasting my time.

Whiskeyjack

I KNOW it wasn't about mikado and cigarettes, I KNOW it was an attempt to put forward the notion that mikado wasn't so great after all, and I've already said that I know that in my last post.I'm just criticising your use of that analogy and now I'm extremely bored of writing about it.And I didn't force you to waste your time writing an extremely long tedious post just because I said something you didn't want to hear.If I am indeed wasting your time then just don't reply, I won't lose any sleep over it.

So, to summarise:

I think you're analogy was merely a badly used literary device.

I KNOW that's not what your post was about and I've said so already.

You're obviously a part of this argument if you KEEP REPLYING.


Can anyone see that I'm arguing for fun?If you can, have a banana.

archdukefranz

r3nu4l wrote:

Mikado certainly had its' uses and could have been an excellent student resource but the fact that people were allowed to openly bully and harass was just wrong.

The University has a duty under law to pretect students from bullying and abuse (physical, sexual, psychological, emotional...you get the picture) so in the end if the students didn't regulate (moderate) the forums the University had to. I'm surprised they didn't act sooner!

A major problem was that some (not all!) of the heavy users seemed to think that just because they had been around a long time or posted regularly they somehow had a [insert deity name here]-given right to abuse others for any opinions that disagreed with their own. Also flaming in general, which is banned on a lot of forum boards seemed like a hobby to some Mikado posters.

Let Mikado sleep for now and when it comes back let the moderators have the b*lls to stand up and ban the twerps* who abuse others.

*ironic use of abusive term

Explain to me how Students acting in a volunteer capacity could act quicker to deal with the abuser than to delete the post, ban him and report him to the college as soon as they saw it?
I think if they had kept it in house they would have gotten away with it but it was the fact that they don't tollerate people abusing the system that lead to its "sleeping".

archdukefranz

shroomfox wrote:

Jaysus, what a comparison - you don't smoke, do you? It's a fair bit harder than quitting Mikado. Also even though Mikado can cause serious damage, cigarettes kill you. Dead.

I got to hate that place. Nerds saying sh*t online that they'd never dare to say to your face, either hiding behind anonymity or - nearly worse - behind their username as if it were some kind of shield. Is that a community spirit? F*cking pathetic.

cause serious damage? ROFLAMO
Come on, its a little internet forum, very little beyond peoples feelings being hurt happens to people on them.

Second of all, you say Nerd like its a bad thing, not like they are responsible for the maintainance of our society. I reckon Nerds like myself should start a secret Nerd police and if you oppress our Nerdkind we break into your bank accounts (also maintained by Nerds) and steal money and stuff.

Thirdly you speak as if you appriciate this stuff being said to your face, as if its a sign of bravery to be able to say something nasty when they are looking at you, I think its more a sign of quick wittedness, people are better able to think out responses cause they can spend more time on it than when speaking to someone.

Fourthly, Mikado was great, especially polemics, where debates like this could happen and it wasn't babygirl35309453409543 it was people I know in r/l because I see them everyday in the speakeasy, callen foyer or whatever.

lordgoat

I hope mikado comes back soon, so all the nerds here leave!

Whiskeyjack

Morbert

Whiskeyjack wrote:

I KNOW it wasn't about mikado and cigarettes, I KNOW it was an attempt to put forward the notion that mikado wasn't so great after all, and I've already said that I know that in my last post.I'm just criticising your use of that analogy and now I'm extremely bored of writing about it. And I didn't force you to waste your time writing an extremely long tedious post just because I said something you didn't want to hear.If I am indeed wasting your time then just don't reply, I won't lose any sleep over it.


So, to summarise:

I think you're analogy was merely a badly used literary device.

I KNOW that's not what your post was about and I've said so already.

You're obviously a part of this argument if you KEEP REPLYING.

Can anyone see that I'm arguing for fun?If you can, have a banana.

You argue for fun.... cute.

Pity there's nothing to argue about here. As I have made it clear that if my post was about the specific addictive qualities of mikado, or if I had used the analogy to say that mikado was chemically addictive, then criticisms like

That is an incredibly innapropriate analogy.How can you say that an online forum is exactly as addictive as cigarettes?I haven't gone through any kind of withdrawal since it shut down.I just have to find other ways of occupying my time between lectures.

would be perfectly appropriate.

But I didn't. I used the analogy to say mikado can be tempting. It was off the cuff and perfectly fine.

So stop arguing against whatever straw-man you've set up in your head.

And I have nothing against 'arguing for fun', but please limit it to places where it's welcome. I'm sure you can find a Drivel equivalent somewhere around here.

Mr. Nice Guy

Whiskeyjack wrote:

I KNOW it wasn't about mikado and cigarettes, I KNOW it was an attempt to put forward the notion that mikado wasn't so great after all, and I've already said that I know that in my last post.I'm just criticising your use of that analogy and now I'm extremely bored of writing about it.And I didn't force you to waste your time writing an extremely long tedious post just because I said something you didn't want to hear.If I am indeed wasting your time then just don't reply, I won't lose any sleep over it.

So, to summarise:

I think you're analogy was merely a badly used literary device.

I KNOW that's not what your post was about and I've said so already.

You're obviously a part of this argument if you KEEP REPLYING.


Can anyone see that I'm arguing for fun?If you can, have a banana.

arguing for fun? what a massive load of bollocks..... that is the most annoying thing about internet forums.

nobody really gives a **** about other peoples opinions on the net.... they see it as a chance for a dispute...like what i like, do what i do and think the way i think etc...... i'm going to borrow a piece of wisdom from an email i got the other day..... arguing on the internet is like racing in the special olympics, you might win but your still retarded

shroomfox

archdukefranz wrote:

cause serious damage? ROFLAMO
Come on, its a little internet forum, very little beyond peoples feelings being hurt happens to people on them.

Second of all, you say Nerd like its a bad thing, not like they are responsible for the maintainance of our society. I reckon Nerds like myself should start a secret Nerd police and if you oppress our Nerdkind we break into your bank accounts (also maintained by Nerds) and steal money and stuff.

Yeah, I was joking about the serious damage - obviously cigarettes are worse for you. And where did I say being a nerd was a bad thing? Also, please start your Nerd Police. I'd very much like to see that.

Thirdly you speak as if you appriciate this stuff being said to your face, as if its a sign of bravery to be able to say something nasty when they are looking at you, I think its more a sign of quick wittedness, people are better able to think out responses cause they can spend more time on it than when speaking to someone.

To be perfectly honest, no: I don't like it when people say nasty stuff to my face. But when people go on the Internet and badmouth others, the least they could do is not walk up to them in the street all smiles and handshakes as if they didn't do it - agreed? I don't have any personal grudge with Mikado really (as in, I've never been attacked really, and this isn't from any kind of hidden well of personal resentment as such:rolleyes:), but I've seen people get badmouthed and treated to that two-faced crap, and it's really not on.

Hiding behind the Internet to insult people you know in real life is despicable cowardice. If you don't agree with that, I've nothing more to say here.

Fourthly, Mikado was great, especially polemics, where debates like this could happen and it wasn't babygirl35309453409543 it was people I know in r/l because I see them everyday in the speakeasy, callen foyer or whatever

Which was exactly the problem with Mikado. On boards when you call somebody stupid or get overly aggressive with them for having a different opinion from yours or for not being as well-informed as they should be, you're not likely to meet them the next day in the Canteen.

shroomfox

Woops, double post.

Whiskeyjack

shroomfox wrote:

Which was exactly the problem with Mikado. On boards when you call somebody stupid or get overly aggressive with them for having a different opinion from yours or for not being as well-informed as they should be, you're not likely to meet them the next day in the Canteen.

The problem wasn't that people knew each other per se, it was just the fact that people (myself included) weren't mature enough to refrain from resorting to personal insults online, and the mods were too lenient with such behaviour.We all have to be more responsible when it comes back, and give up the pettyness that seems to be an occurence on a lot of message boards.

P.S:I'm aware that I (Hubert_Cumberdale in case you don't know) have been as bad as a lot of people on mikado, and I apologise.

r3nu4l

archdukefranz wrote:

Explain to me how Students acting in a volunteer capacity could act quicker to deal with the abuser than to delete the post, ban him and report him to the college as soon as they saw it?
I think if they had kept it in house they would have gotten away with it but it was the fact that they don't tollerate people abusing the system that lead to its "sleeping".

Hello Archduke, I seem to remember you following me around dissing all of my posts on Mikado...déja vu!! Good to hear from you and glad to see you taking an interest

Anyway, I agree with you to a certain degree (I know how flattered you must be but then flattery won't get me anywhere...I digress). The point is that the abuse got so out of hand that something drastic had to be done. I agree, it was always going to be difficult to moderate corectly with part-time moderators in place, not an easy task. If Mikado does come back to life then the moderators are going to have to stand up and face being very unpopular for deleting accounts of users who are abusive.

The Miakdo moderators allowed certain users to continuously hurl abuse and flames at other users, I don't know, but perhaps the moderators were friends of these people and didn't have the guts to say 'sorry pal, can't allow that, you're banned!' The fact remains that over and over again the same people were abusing other users left-right and centre and getting away with it. The mods did not do their jobs properly, part-time or not!

The only way to save the system is to ban users for their first abusive post. People will get tired of registering new accounts every time they are banned and perhaps think a little bit more carefully before posting an insulting piece of drivel or flaming another user.

I admit, there will always be some idiots out there who won't learn the lesson but such is life, give ten men a loaded gun and one is bound to look down the barrel to determine what will happen when he pulls the trigger. The other nine will then proceed to kill each other, just because they can

So come on Archie, I'm waiting for your reply, you always did like to have the last word

egon spengler

hmmm, i agree with all of the above there, there should be a 2 warnings system on average and an immediate ban for intentional flaming i.e. setting up troll acounts/porn. And bans for complaining about warnings.

Placebo

how about not have a forum at all, spending all this time coming up with perfect rules, go study like.

Unstoppable PoO

screw the warnings it should be fascist!! People kicked at Raptor's discression..(except me)

DoesNotCompute

Unstoppable PoO wrote:

screw the warnings it should be fascist!! People kicked at Raptor's discression..(except me)

Good idea

NotWormBoy

r3nu4l wrote:

The mods did not do their jobs properly, part-time or not!

Some mods, please, most did a good job.

If a mod gave a warning, like as not there would be a thread or two on it complaining and whinging and asking for an appeal. Gets a bit old.

r3nu4l

NotWormBoy wrote:

Some mods, please, most did a good job.

If a mod gave a warning, like as not there would be a thread or two on it complaining and whinging and asking for an appeal. Gets a bit old.

Either way, the few bad apples spoiled the whole d*mn bunch!

I can guarantee that if people get banned for moaning, complaining and general b1tch1ng then the complaints would soon dry up!! Simple enough really.

Fair play to those mods who did a good job, those not doing so should have had their mod priveliges stripped, they let everyone down.

Remember kids, Nothing sorts a mod out more than losing his/her power for a while and don't do drugs, give them to me instead

Gone West

r3nu4l wrote:

Either way, the few bad apples spoiled the whole d*mn bunch!

I can guarantee that if people get banned for moaning, complaining and general b1tch1ng then the complaints would soon dry up!! Simple enough really.

Fair play to those mods who did a good job, those not doing so should have had their mod priveliges stripped, they let everyone down.

Remember kids, Nothing sorts a mod out more than losing his/her power for a while and don't do drugs, give them to me instead

IMO
Mods don't (perhaps shouldn't) give a feck about their "power".
They have the ability to ban/moderate people on an internet forum. Its not exactly mind-blowing power.
Its more like a light service they are doing for the forums/society/whatever.
Some people need to get over this and move on.

r3nu4l

FuzzyLogic wrote:

IMO
Mods don't (perhaps shouldn't) give a feck about their "power".
They have the ability to ban/moderate people on an internet forum. Its not exactly mind-blowing power.
Its more like a light service they are doing for the forums/society/whatever.
Some people need to get over this and move on.

I agree this is the case for most mods that do their job properly and take their responsibility (not power) seriosuly. However, there are those (The few bad apples I wrote about earlier) who just don't "give a feck" fullstop and these people should not be mods. If you have a job to do do it well, otherwise get out and move on.

Mikado as a whole are responsible for their downfall for not making these mods do their jobs properly. Just my opinion! I could be right, I coouullld be wrong! (I feel a song coming on;) )

Buddygunz

Ahh no way. the mods there were really sound. Voyager and Gael really helped me through some tough times in college. I really miss Voyager and his hilarious posts.

shroomfox

Ahh no way. the mods there were really sound. Voyager and Gael really helped me through some tough times in college. I really miss Voyager and his hilarious posts.

No way man, Billybigballs was way better than Voyager any day of the week.

He was a shoulder to cry on for some...and a lover to others...

Buddygunz

yeah Billy was the don. As was Bolscho, base2, and buddyg....