General question to CSI fans...

[partly]

Do any of you hang out at Talk CSI over at CSI Files? And if you do, has that forum always been so full of people who are so very... rabid in their opinions? Or is that only the NY forum?

I read Talk CSI for it's news and spoilers, but in the two years of being a member of the forum I've found that the conversations in the forums are on the far side of scary. You can't read two posts without running into hostile opinions or diatribes about the characters and the actors. I've been fortunate that whenever I've posted something I've just been ignored because I've noticed that lately disagreeing with the majority opinion means that you become the snark of the day. And are the reviews for CSI:LV and CSI:Miami accurate? I always used to rely on the summary/reviews from there to fill is some of the episodes I've missed. Lately (well, since I've been able to see some of the episodes) I've noticed that the reviewer often gets things wrong -- mis-attributed quotes, actions out of sequence, missed plot points.

I realize that online material is only as good as the people who post to it, and that forums are often defined by the lowest common denominator. I know that I generally just lurk at forums and I don't really have an interest in the LV or Miami forums, but is it the same over with them or is NY just blessed to be populated by high-school mentality cliques?

Comments

[k-kinnison.livejournal.com]

Hostility in a forum is the surest sign of a badly moderated forum. I admin a forum and it has become the #1 forum for a game (granted that game is over 10 years old). mainly because everyone is friendly to new members (including the Mods) and the occasional troll is quickly dealt with if not by mods, by the members themselves

[partly.livejournal.com]

Well, since I'm unsure who the mods exactly are, I'd say that there is a lack of overall moderation on the boards. If the people whom I think are the mods, really are the mods, that problem is compounded by the fact that they are part of "vocal opinion". I've never seen any mod action, except for people being told that if they want to voice a dissenting opinion, they need to do so in specific threads.

There are one or two threads that I feel comfortable reading/commenting on, but mostly I just stay clear.

[k-kinnison.livejournal.com]

And that is the worst mod, one who encourages a click. It allows his "friends" to attack with impunity.

There was one forum where you were not allowed to join if under 18, but if you joined and spoke in someones stead you were viciously attacked for lying and the mods supported the attacks

[afteriwake.livejournal.com]

I avoid the forums, but I generally avoid all forums to begin with. But having heard so many bad things about that forum in particular, I don't know why a lot of people bother.

I will note that the Miami reviews seem to be a little off sometimes, but it's more that they've got an obvious bias than anything else. When I was still watching LV, those reviews seemed to be pretty accurate.

[partly.livejournal.com]

I will note that the Miami reviews seem to be a little off sometimes, but it's more that they've got an obvious bias than anything else.

I think "obvious bias" fits for the problems I see with the NY reviews. I just remember reading the review, then watching the show and going "Wait, that's not the way I heard it happened". I would comment on the mistakes but it's so far after the airing of those episodes that it doesn't seem worth it. Besides, the last person who did was was accursed of being a "meanie" and was told to keep in mind that the review is a real person.

That board seems like a wank waiting to happen.

[kitap.livejournal.com]

I don't but I have read from other Nick fans that the GSR and Greg fans are running rampant. GSR fans want everything to be GSR related. Everything. If a story line had, for example, Warrick winning $11 million in th lottery, or Nick becoming the guardian for a niece or nephew, or Greg being abducted by aliens, their only response would be "How will this impact GSR?" I more or less called them on using the term "haters" to talk about anti-GSR people on TWoP and one of the mods noticed and gave them a smackdown. Heh.

Greg fans are almost as bad, from what I have heard. If Sara has been Deified (Gil is somewhere on his own; sacred yet not deified), Greg is being Sanctified. He should run the Graveyard Shift! He is perfect! He is...Captain Awesome!

CSI:Las Vegas has one of the most divisive fandoms I have seen. Except everyone tends to like Warrick and Jim Brass. GSRers and Gregites tend to hate Nick. Nick fans tend to dislike GSR, especially since his storylines get very little follow-up and GSR is ubiquitous and especially dislike GSR fans who are very vocally anti-Nick and pro-GSR and I have read one GSR person remark that "You better get used to Season 8 being all about GSR and if you don't like it, stop watching". That other people have the right to like other characters, and that on an ensemble show other characters have the right to have some attention paid to them seems to be as alien as Face fans realizing that fans have the right to write BA-centric fic.

[partly.livejournal.com]

I think "shipping/slashing" is the most divisive element in fandom. And it's not TPTB that make it that way, its the fans who believe that the show should be "all about what I like".

I hate fans that choose characters over the show. I mean, without the show, you wouldn't have a character, no? But I've seen it done in almost every online fandom I've been involved in.

I've heard that GSR fans are overzealous, I think they could be comparable to Danny/Lindsey fans. DL fic is almost all you get over at ff.net. The difference is, from what you say, I don't see the DL fans trashing the other characters (although I may just not be seeing it). In fact, the only character that gets routinely trashed is Lindsey. And since the board has decided that Anna Bellknap (the actress who plays Lindsey) can't act, it's perfectly acceptable to not only trash Lindsey, but also Anna.

It's ironic that people who so vehemently declare their hatred for a character/actress spend so much time talking about her. Now, of course, it's become something of a bonding experience: everyone posts of version of "she was so bad in that scene a threw up a little in my mouth" and everyone else responds with a LOL and a snarky little comment of their own. As far as I can tell, this is the accepted view of the way things are and any dissenting views are only allowed in certain threads.

I stay out of the whole Sara/CSI thing, mostly because I never did like Sara. Sara and I? Would so not get along. Everyone else I think I could work with. The most interesting relationship, IMO, is between Gil and Nick (and not slashy, please). There are two very different personalities and to see them work together is always good.

I've always loved the episode where Gil gave Nick the promotion after Nick basically said that he didn't care about it. Sara doesn't believe in anything, which makes her uninteresting to me.