# What’s the real purpose of a non-teaching internet forum? Is there any such purpose?



## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

Notice I said “non-teaching.”

It can’t be for a sense of human connectivity that’s in any way comparable to the way connectivity happens in real life.

So I’m just curious.


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## Foxee (Apr 24, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> Notice I said “non-teaching.”
> 
> It can’t be for a sense of human connectivity that’s in any way comparable to the way connectivity happens in real life.
> 
> So I’m just curious.


Do you consider this to be a non-teaching website? If you don't then why do you frequent the forum? It can't be for human connectivity according to you so why? Discussion? Mischief? Free booze?


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## Hawke (Apr 24, 2011)

WF, you mean? Then again, constructive critiques _do_ teach, so...

Ah but just to say, I'm here for the constructive critiques, the interaction, the humor, the reads, the camaraderie, the friendships, and the sense of community and belonging in an otherwise solo writing existence. Might sound sappy, but... well, there you go.

By the by and as for connectivity on a forum not being comparable to real life. I have to disagree with you there. I've met some wonderful folks through WF. Just because they type their words doesn't mean the connectivity is less than in real life. Real people are behind the keyboards.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

Foxee said:


> Do you consider this to be a non-teaching website?


Where did I say that? THIS is a teaching website. My question was clearly about other sites. Why do you (always?) turn stuff inside-out? :smile:


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

Foxee said:


> Mischief?


Mischief? _Moi?_


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## Custard (Apr 24, 2011)

Well, we can't compare this to actual social sites but this is so much better. People want to socialize but the computor has changed that we now have a NEED to sit in front of it. So we socialize with other people, its fun to just realate to other people. Damn it I sound like ..... a fool or (using guy's words) a sap but that dosen't change the fact that it is true.


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## Foxee (Apr 24, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> Where did I say that? THIS is a teaching website. My question was clearly about other sites. Why do you (always?) turn stuff inside-out? :smile:


Nope, the question was just as I asked it, inquiring if WF was, in fact, what you meant. It was a yes/no question not a huffy 'what do you mean by that?' question. The reason I ask is because some parts of the site teach and some don't. Clarification was therefore sought.



The Backward OX said:


> Mischief? _Moi?_


 aaaaaaaaaaaaaabsolutely my dear Ox!


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## Eluixa (Apr 24, 2011)

Not sure which one's are non teaching. I only have 4, three of which have teaching qualities and plenty of potential for education, one is mostly social, but I've still learned plenty from the people on it. 
As for the social angle, I like the forum for coming and going at will. Sometimes I do well socially, sometimes I dearly wish I did not have to deal with anyone at all. I don't have to stand around unnecessarily wishing I knew what to say next, or risk sticking my foot in it. I don't have to brush my hair or put shoes on either. I can take half an hour to get my thoughts in order, which I need sometimes. 
I get my share of human connectedness, the face to face kind, and too much sometimes. So, see again what I wrote just before ^^^.


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## spider8 (Apr 24, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> Notice I said “non-teaching.”
> 
> It can’t be for a sense of human connectivity that’s in any way comparable to the way connectivity happens in real life.
> 
> So I’m just curious.


A non-teaching internet forum? I suppose this means like comment boards that I've come across on sporting sites, or under a youtube clip, or newspaper sites, where people comment on the above clip/story or whatever. And before you know it, everyone's having a conversation. It _is _comparable to real life, just. But, there's even a little body language like this  . And even a tone of voice LIKE THIS, OXY. Or like this LOL. There can be familiarity and also anonimity. Also, there can be crossed wires because of a lack of skill with the written word, humour can be mistaken or lost. 

I think a forum itself, rather than a comment board is just more options for people. I'm sure if you jump back in time to your first ever few posts, you'll see much less skill in yourself communicating than you have now. Again, a learning process is comparable to life. Even as adults in the real world, we meet new people and have to learn about how to be with them.
(I know, cyberspace is still part of the real world).


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## Olly Buckle (Apr 24, 2011)

> It can’t be for a sense of human connectivity that’s in any way comparable to the way connectivity happens in real life.


My mother wrote half a dozen letters every day, people have always communicated with the written word as well as face to face, there are improvements in the technology but I don't see how they make it totally incomparable. I also object to this separation of "real" life, why is life more real sometimes than others? Why is the thought I give to a face to face interaction real and that I give to an on line one un-real? In my experience they feel the same.

There is a dismissive tendency concerning the trivia of life amongst older alpha males of the species. They hold themselves aloof and tend to view the interactions of others as pointless and trivial. There is a lot of the verbal behaviour of humans that equates in some degree with the mutual grooming of other species, when you are established and self confident its purpose may not be so obvious, but it serves a function.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

spider8 said:


> I'm sure if you jump back in time to your first ever few posts, you'll see much less skill in yourself communicating than you have now.


 
I could say, Touché. Then again, I might say, That’s not what my post was about. WMPWA was that if _you_ - for example - got hit by a bus, no-one here would be any the wiser, possibly only a few would notice you weren’t posting anymore, and maybe even fewer would be emotionally affected. But if I went down the shops and found that the plumber's secretary, or the deli lady, or even at a pinch the chatterbox librarian were no longer there, I think I might feel a twinge of something.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

Olly Buckle said:


> I also object to this separation of "real" life, why is life more real sometimes than others? Why is the thought I give to a face to face interaction real and that I give to an on line one un-real? In my experience they feel the same.


 


The Backward OX said:


> ...what my post was about...was that if _you_ - for example - got hit by a bus, no-one here would be any the wiser, possibly only a few would notice you weren’t posting anymore, and maybe even fewer would be emotionally affected. But if I went down the shops and found that the plumber's secretary, or the deli lady, or even at a pinch the chatterbox librarian were no longer there, I think I might feel a twinge of something.


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## JosephB (Apr 24, 2011)

OX, you still have a mindset of someone who's lived most of his life without online communication. Most people don't spend a lot of time comparing what you do on the internet with "real life." Because it's part of real life. People do it because they can -- and they don't think twice about chatting or interacting online any more than you would question why you'd talk to a neighbor over the fence. 

Here you are, in the lounge, talking about what amounts to not much -- as usual. Why are you doing it? Is it such a big leap for you to see that people might do it elsewhere on a forum or social networking site that isn't attached to something that is supposed be about "teaching?"


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

*blows raspberry*


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## JosephB (Apr 24, 2011)

Good. My work here is done.


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## spider8 (Apr 24, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> for example - got hit by a bus, no-one here would be any the wiser, possibly only a few would notice you weren’t posting anymore, and maybe even fewer would be emotionally affected.


 This could be pretty much like my real world.





The Backward OX said:


> But if I went down the shops and found that the plumber's secretary, or the deli lady, or even at a pinch the chatterbox librarian were no longer there, I think I might feel a twinge of something.


Yes it sounds pretty much like the real world to me.


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## spider8 (Apr 24, 2011)

Outside our nearest and dearest, people's lives can often be vague. I do see a difference on the net than in the real world. But not that much of a difference.


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## Baron (Apr 24, 2011)

Edna has been reading the "reputation thread" and is miffed that, with all those posts, fame is still eluding her.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Apr 24, 2011)

Hmm... I tend to think that, theoretically, all forums are learning ones. I believe that in any number of people, if dialogue is established, learning is to exist. True, some, and perhaps, most of conversations tend to appear just for leisure, but I am pretty sure that once a conversation is established, one party in that conversation is near-certain to learn something new.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

TheFuhrer02 said:


> I am pretty sure that once a conversation is established, one party in that conversation is near-certain to learn something new.


This was part of my line of questioning. There is NO guarantee of continuation, when the contact is merely online. People post stuff and then vanish like mist before the sun. Phooey to that. It would take a highly uncouth and bad-mannered person to walk off in mid-conversation in real life. And yet in forums it happens all the time. What does that tell you?


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## Baron (Apr 24, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> This was part of my line of questioning. There is NO guarantee of continuation, when the contact is merely online. People post stuff and then vanish like mist before the sun. Phooey to that. It would take a highly uncouth and bad-mannered person to walk off in mid-conversation in real life. And yet in forums it happens all the time. What does that tell you?


 
It tells me that you really do need to travel and see the world a bit more if you don't think it happens in real life too.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

Baron said:


> It tells me that you really do need to travel and see the world a bit more if you don't think it happens in real life too.


We must move in different circles. Although I _do_ remember Olly saying the English are an insular lot, so maybe it _does_ happen over there. Here, anyone pulled that caper, they'd be blackballed everywhere.


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## Baron (Apr 24, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> We must move in different circles. Although I _do_ remember Olly saying the English are an insular lot, so maybe it _does_ happen over there. Here, anyone pulled that caper, they'd be blackballed everywhere.


 
Whether or not the English are insular depends on who you mix with, like anywhere else.  As for the other, it can happen anywhere; particularly in big cities or if you're a "foreigner" in a rural community.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

Baron said:


> Whether or not the English are insular depends on who you mix with


Slight correction to my comment about insularity and about its source: No, on second thoughts, I might keep my mouth shut. You're right; it does depend.


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## Baron (Apr 24, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> Slight correction to my comment about insularity and about its source: No, on second thoughts, I might keep my mouth shut. You're right; it does depend.


 
You can look at your own experience on this board.  In your recent health problems people have been offering you support, joking with you; those with faith praying for you.  Like with any community, you've become known, shared your problems and people have responded to that as in any community.

There are those who never really join in, never become well known and never really share anything about their real lives.  When they move on it doesn't get noticed because they've never really been an active part of the community.  This happens in life off of the internet as well; those who seem happy to remain aloof, or who don't know how to break free from that.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

12.26 a.m. is late enough. I'm out of here.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Apr 24, 2011)

The Backward OX said:


> There is NO guarantee of continuation, when the contact is merely online. People post stuff and then vanish like mist before the sun. Phooey to that.



Good point, and I can understand where you're coming from. Here in The Philippines, we people who belong to one community (much like a forum) don't talk to each other too much. We are often busy. But when we start the conversation, it's hard to stop. It'd be rare for one Filipino to cut off a conversation like what you suggest (unless the Filipino is talking to a foreigner speaking in a language other than ours. Most Filipinos tend to get easily intimidated by foreign language, especially English. I don't suffer the same phenomenon as much as them, though... I think). In fact, even if there's nothing else to talk about, the two parties wait for a while before actually leaving, or begin with another topic they grab from thin air.

At another point, true, there is no guarantee, but when that continuation connects, it becomes a learning experience, don't you think? Thus, there is no such absolute thing, at least in my perhaps too black-and-whitish view, as a non-learning forum. Any forum has a potential to become a learning one.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 24, 2011)

TheFuhrer02 said:


> In fact, even if there's nothing else to talk about, the two parties wait for a while before actually leaving, or begin with another topic they grab from thin air.


That's not unique to the Philippines. Western women have done that since the year dot.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Apr 25, 2011)

^ :lol: Really good point.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 25, 2011)

Baron said:


> There are those who never really join in, never become well known and never really share anything about their real lives.


 
And there are those who either seem unable to communicate or who don't take the time to do so. In the past six to eight hours I have stumbled across four posters responding to something I said, and each one of them made glaring errors of understanding. What hope is there of a continuing dialogue when stuff like that occurs? With three of the four I put it down to rushing, trying to squeeze as much stuff as possible into the day; the fourth is new and an unknown quantity.


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## Eluixa (Apr 25, 2011)

nevermind.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 25, 2011)

Eluixa said:


> nevermind.


My porch light went out years ago, hon. :-\"


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