Anybody just "people watch" on forums?

Sonofiam

Power User
I'm not able to get out as much as I used to and one thing I enjoyed was going to the mall, sitting back and watching people. Not a creeper, just watching people interact with each other or a guy with his girl trying to sneak a peek at another girl across the way. You see a lot of things, some of which you wish you could unsee, i.e. some Walmart shoppers, but it's interesting and sometimes funny to observe people in their natural habitat.

I've been lurking on and contributing to a couple of forums for some time now and finding a lot of entertainment value reading through threads. It's almost as much fun as people watching. After a while you begin to see who the regulars are, who the know-it-alls are, who likes to stick their foot in their mouth and the ones who want or need to be respected or accepted.

I've been watching a thread in particular here and one of the members keeps making comments that appears they actually believe they know what they're talking about but they really are clueless. Rather than troll them, which is against the rules, I figured I'd anonymously poke them here.

With all that's going on in the world it's nice to be able to get a good, cheap chuckle now and then.
 
Back when I took the bus to get to the university, I had a lot of waiting minutes on the bus station. Most of the time I had music on my ears or I listened to interesting radio podcasts. Since for the eyes there's not a lot to do in such moments I looked around. When I wasn't in the mood for music or podcasts I also listened. Especially listening to and watching kids and how they interact with each other was interesting, because I'm a teacher now and it's always good to know about their life.

But I cannot imagine to do something like that online on a forum. I'm not the biggest fan of forums concerning social interactions. It's nice to be able to talk to people all around the world, no matter what religion, what political views etc. Just a bunch of people sharing thoughts and knowledge. That's very nice and for me it's a symbol of how mankind could work together. But it has nothing to do with reality, sadly! What I don't like about forums is, that there's no real social interaction. Talking to people is so much more than just throwing words at each other! I'd never say I KNOW anyone of you guys. And noone of you knows me. It would be interesting to know what picture some users have about me or about other users here. I'm sure it's 99% wrong! It's impossible to learn to know the complexity of people's personalities on a forum.

Forums (and chats and other written ways of communication) aren't really honest. People in general are dishonest, but on a forum it's even more so. I could write a very angry post although I'm in a good mood, because I don't have to take care of my facial expression while writing it. Vice versa aswell. I could insult people I know nothing about. And so on...
When it comes to sharing knowledge about technical stuff, there's actually no need for such social interaction. It would be nice to have, but not required.

tldr; In my opinion forums don't really give much information about people, so watching people this way gives false inputs, which lead to false results.
 
Back in the seventies when I smoked a lot of pot, we used to cruise around (nothing better to do with ourselves), get high, and then go to one of these big "picture window" diners out on the highway, and watch and goof on the people inside and outside the restaurant. Much fun, laughter and camaraderie. So young and stupid.
 
I know nothing about guitars ....... I'm actually a trumpet player and I only post on this forum when I'm naked.
 
Before I was old enough to drive, my buddy and I would skateboard over to the local super market. They had benches right outside the doors on both sides of the store. We would sit there are make humorous (to us) observations and comments about the people coming and going... Make up stories about them, maybe what job they had, etc... Never so the people could hear us (I hope!).

I'm sure anyone watching us probably thought we were high or something... We had hours of free entertainment and it kept us out of trouble :)
 
What I don't like about forums is, that there's no real social interaction. Talking to people is so much more than just throwing words at each other!

I agree. I'm guilty of replying to threads as if it was a social setting and a bunch of us are standing around talking. It's just not the same. You don't get the visual feedback of eye contact, body language, facial expressions etc. You get the next reply from the next person in line throwing their comment into the hat. Forums strip away a lot of the social courtesies that we allow each other in person. Very sterile. Most of these threads (the good and the bad) would be much different if the conversations took place in person.

On the other hand, forums are awesome in that we can share vids, music and ideas with people from all walks of life.
 
Back when I took the bus to get to the university, I had a lot of waiting minutes on the bus station. Most of the time I had music on my ears or I listened to interesting radio podcasts. Since for the eyes there's not a lot to do in such moments I looked around. When I wasn't in the mood for music or podcasts I also listened. Especially listening to and watching kids and how they interact with each other was interesting, because I'm a teacher now and it's always good to know about their life.

But I cannot imagine to do something like that online on a forum. I'm not the biggest fan of forums concerning social interactions. It's nice to be able to talk to people all around the world, no matter what religion, what political views etc. Just a bunch of people sharing thoughts and knowledge. That's very nice and for me it's a symbol of how mankind could work together. But it has nothing to do with reality, sadly! What I don't like about forums is, that there's no real social interaction. Talking to people is so much more than just throwing words at each other! I'd never say I KNOW anyone of you guys. And noone of you knows me. It would be interesting to know what picture some users have about me or about other users here. I'm sure it's 99% wrong! It's impossible to learn to know the complexity of people's personalities on a forum.

Forums (and chats and other written ways of communication) aren't really honest. People in general are dishonest, but on a forum it's even more so. I could write a very angry post although I'm in a good mood, because I don't have to take care of my facial expression while writing it. Vice versa aswell. I could insult people I know nothing about. And so on...
When it comes to sharing knowledge about technical stuff, there's actually no need for such social interaction. It would be nice to have, but not required.

tldr; In my opinion forums don't really give much information about people, so watching people this way gives false inputs, which lead to false results.
For me it's much less about social interaction, it's the entertainment value I've found in some of the threads I've read. As I mentioned, I don't get out near as much as I used to (recent disability) so I've been working on guitar a lot more and, since purchasing the FX8 and AX8, have been on this forum fairly consistently. It started out as a resource for gaining knowledge of the units but over the last few months I've realized how entertaining some of the threads can be. I've also discovered a couple of other forums through gear research that have been added to my list of frequented haunts. It's been far more entertaining, and at times more constructive, than most of the stuff on TV.
 
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Dumb asses and smart asses, somehow it all balances out! Just don't be one of the no asses that sit back and judge but never add to the big stew pot!
 
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