Do as the Picture Says...

David?

I like Bewbs.

Who dis is?

It's Mr.X

It's my honest opinion that, if someone can be swayed by status over anything else, that person is simply not worth paying attention to. If the status of whoever is saying something factors into whether or not your opinion should be reevaluated, there's something wrong there.

Unfortunately, this does happen. I'd like to believe that it doesn't happen often, but then I look at JTV chat any time someone's arguing with Brad. It's sad that so many people will agree with Brad because he has a microphone, rather than exercising critical thought.

Do I think there's any way to make that not happen? No. I think it's simply a fact of human biology that there will be people that follow others because it's what they do. I think it's a downright shame that so very many people will forgo critical thought and blindly follow someone else. But, I really doubt that there will ever be a way to stop it.

As Mr. X said, there's always going to be some way for someone to say, "I'm better than you because..." whatever. I don't think there's any way to change that.

I dont see how this is such a shocker, its basically a microcosm of society in general. People in every walk of life whether it be work, school, politics, or a message board get seperated into some sort of hierarchy deservedly or not. In turn, people will follow them even if that status is not deserved. why? because people are stupid for the most part. Either they dont respect their own opinions enough, or they are somehow convinced that the other guy knows better. That, or they are too lazy to do their own thing and end up following the crowd.

Do I like it? hell no, but there isnt a lot that can be done to change it

Hi X! :D

"As I see it, the only way to revive pure and honest comments is to get rid of ranking systems."

To be cynical, you assume that there were pure and honest comments to begin with. I think if nothing else, the majority of the comments above me have proven that anonymity or ignorance usually is the cause of comments being "unpure" or "unhonest". I think you're cutting weeds when the roots are the problem.

I think something should be done to fix the fact that unless the writer puts there name at the end, no one knows who wrote the post.

Or at least dont sign it as "Mr.X".

Im talking to you David.....

Status is all in the context and in between the lines.

@Skyliner:

Well, if that's the case, what would you say the roots are? The anonymity of the internet surely spawns, to some degree, people saying things they don't mean because it's fun. But, on the other hand, that same anonymity affords some of us (myself not withstanding) the ability to freely express ourselves, to admit our opinions with the knowledge that, if we're shunned for those opinions, we can easily stop visiting the website, which is not something we can do in real life, because the majority of people we interact with in real life, we'll see on a daily basis.

Great blog post. This is especially topical because, as beers stated, this is a sort of microcosm. There is definitely a hierarchy in 4PP. It goes 4PP > Admins > Mods > Regulars > Chatters. A seniority is bound to happen because that's just how life works. People are not equal, and society does create its own sort of sieve, whether it be by ability or relation.

I've been on forums where opinions became fact, and when you're younger you're more easily susceptible to others' views. That's pretty natural. 4PP does attract younger viewers, and they're going to listen to the one who seems to know what they're talking about. When Brad argues, the younger ones will probably listen and take his word as truth. But that's just how younger people are, really, and they grow out of it for the most part.

Anyway, I really liked this post. It's good to see 4PP giving food for thought. I would look forward to these posts more, but I doubt that they'd become a frequent thing.

I don't think the cause is status, but the anonymity of EVERYONE on the Internet.

Wonna go bowlin' ?

I see it more as a struggle for acceptance and apparently the only way to gain such is by status ad titles that we acquire. Posters/members try to follow the norm of higher status to be accepted by the community and hence they lose their true opinion. I don't think theres a way to prevent this because it seems more dependent on the individual.

Unfortunately, you have people that base their opinions entirely on this hierarchy of the forums/chat. If a broadcaster/mod says anything, it's automatically considered right by many people. While you have those that develop their own opinions and stick by that no matter what, you have many more that's willing to give up and autonomy and assume that the older person is automatically right. Because a person might have 1,000 more posts in the forum doesn't mean they're right when they're compared to someone who has 10 posts but with a differing opinion. People automatically set these markers that they have to just get by so they can be considered part of the right faction so to speak.

I may not have been around the community as long as some other people, but that doesn't make my opinions less important than someone who has been here since the beginning.

Unfortunately, you also have people that put in tiny little comments like, "because you told me to" like with that wii ware game brad mentioned on the feed. People who never even heard of the game went to the gamefaqs board of it trying to do what brad said just because brad said it. I think the reason why there's so willing to do anything brad says is because they're trying to suck up. It's not Brad's fault at all, but people who want to try to get into good favor and try to change/doctor their opinions, like you said, to try to gain the attention of 4pp. I know I have my opinions and certain ones may make me a little unpopular, but they are just that: opinions and I will defend mine and whoever else has a differing one as long as they don't try to force theirs on me. But many people feel that just because a mod says something and another chatter disagrees, the mod is automatically right, that their opinion has more validity because of a red name or the ability to ban users.

That's just an example. It's not directed towards anyone.

Where's my gold star?

Wow what an interesting post. I know who wrote it and am glad they kept their name a secret. If they didn't they'd be bombarded with questions and also people could say they are being biased. Anyways, I know for a fact that corruption and abuse of power happens everywhere because I have seen it happen first hand. My job is a small one but inside abuse of power is seen on a daily basis. It happens everywhere and there is nothing you can do to stop it, except challenge this person till they are removed. But in the end won't another corrupt person just fill their place? Most likely.

David Davidson, is that you?

I think the person who wrote this is secretly Speed Racer's brother. That's just my speculation, though.

Mr. X? It must be Homer Simpson >_>

Beers and Darknezz pretty much got it down. If I typed a large paragraph it would just end up as their comments paraphrased.

I do like what you did at the end, putting yourself as Mr. X so we can't say, "Hey, it's that guy! I have to agree with him because he's my favorite!" :P

You guy's, It's signed Mr. X because he's expressing the fact that ranks can influence people. If this was written by Brad, there would be many more comments than these. With the sign, Mr. X, you are just reading a text with the authors meaning. Good Job Mr. X.

I would love to write some well, thought out post...

But i'm not that intelligent. So instead, I would like to say that I believe that status absolutely makes a difference to a persons opinion. Even now, in this post, I value people like Skyliners' and Darknezz's opinion higher than others just because of their reputation around the site.

I wish it didn't work this way, but I don't know how to change it.

This topic has been discussed before but not on 4pp I believe the good people at penny arcade summed it up quite nicely.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/

Also I would like to add who ever posted this covered there tracks very well

Trying to track down the "Culprit" I discovered an Author named " ALAN "

Who upon further investigation no longer exists

?????So whoever created this alan sign in quickly destroyed it to cover it up

Interesting....

If you don't wanna value other people's opinions more than others based solely on their reputation, then don't look at their names. This is one reason why I think it'd be interesting if the 4pp would take fake names on the forums and just go in to see about the actual community. If nobody knows who they are, some people may brush off their comments and it'll help them understand and get to know the community a little more without suck ups coming up to them all the time saying, "oh, your opinion is obviously right since you're Brad/Travis/Nick/David/Joseph."

At least we know it's not Brad.

He tagged his post.

Oh this is absolutely true, peoples initial opinion can always be altered through a hierarchical system, as Mr.X said, whether it’s through an existing one or simply one in which was not deliberately premeditated for that use (e.g. Post counts, join date, seniority in the community), if there was anything I learned from the few Debate/Social Ed classes that I took, it’s to respect and evaluate others peoples opinions on a certain topic, regardless of their any factors that may come into play.

It has almost become completely subconscious for me to actually let the so called, ‘fame factor’, come into play into my opinion on a certain area under discussion online, the probability for me to be swayed in my opinion between say a post from David and a post from Darknezz based on their ‘Rank’ (not on the quality of their post), is virtually nil.

Observably I’m not alone on this, as I have witnessed in the community set up here, but I have witnessed people so clearly skewing their opinion significantly more in the chat, like from one minute, the same person going from “RE5 suckz dick, hated that shitty game RE4 was so much bettarr!” to literally “Yea I agree Brad, RE5 was a great game, people give it too much shit it doesn’t deserve”, the SAME freakin’ person!! Now, noticeably being the internet it’s not always the clearest when someone is being sarcastic at first with their opinion, but that time I was just gobsmacked.

I think the reason we hold things like join date, post count, or special banners to such high account is to rationalize or have something set on a high pedestal as a goal to strive for. It must have to do with the way our brains are wired as humans, let's take religion as an example (And this is an extreme). Why do people have to believe in a higher power?

I think every one has to idolize some sort of figure for any section of their life. People naturally want that higher power and in some sort of mind set they want to get on that persons good side by never disagreeing or questioning their decisions. So let's apply this thinking to a scenario that is frequent around 4PP, Like when someone like Brad frequently nitpicks a game while playing it so say he dislikes how a mechanic works in some situation and another chatter disagrees that sparks a discussion between the two, then regardless of the argument or their own opinion, people will side with Brad because he makes "Funny" videos and some chatters even resort to lowly insults just because he disagreed with Brad thus turning away the chatter.

In short if they are that easily swayed by someone's opinions just try to ignore them especially if you find yourself discussing something with Brad.

I pretty much agree with every comment so far. But like Faux said, I see this happen in chat all the time, and just about everywhere else.
But I think that the cause of this might be because 80% of the chatters are literally 13-15 years old, and some of them girls who are swayed by Brad's charm, making them biased. It sounds ridiculous, but it's true.
Another reason might ne that they have no idea what they're talking about so they just go with whatever the broadcaster/mod says and sticks with it.
"I never played Jericho, but Brad says it sucks, so it must ne a fact"

Maybe take a look at the written comments of acclaimed members and see if their opinion is well thought out or if its just a load of crap meant for appearances.

Thank you for this great post.
And I'd like to acknowledge Darknezz, Bearsofwar, Skyliner, ShilohDeGreat, Miggins, Bayonetta, and Faux, for your wonderful comments.

These symbols are, in theory, supposed to reflect the truth about the individual they are attached to. But anyone who has ventured amongst the living within the past week has inevitably come across someone who has a symbol attached to them that the observer feels is undeserved. This could just be the observers bias, yes, but sometimes the gifts are undeserved.

There are many real-world examples, from expensive cars, to expensive college educations, cloths, and all sorts of material things, but also, as this post point out, titles. Titles come in many forms, even real world forms. But anyone who has played a game, and heaven forbid an MMORPG, has seen how crazy this obsession with titles, and status in general, can become.

Unfortunately this sort of obsession with wealth, status, and power, in whatever form it may take, is something that is entrenched in American culture. I cannot speak for other cultures because I am not apart of them, but I do not think they are immune to this disease. Some people are followers, and others are leaders. And some of those who are leading are leading for good, some for their own agendas, whatever they may be at that time.

A bachelor's degree in Social Work and a minor in Psychology has taught me a lot about people. The internet is a very interesting component in regards to behavior, especially in regards to this particular topic. I am, unfortunately, not at all surprised by the events that take place in chat and some of the things I read in the forums. I have to say, thought, while I absolutely love watching the live feed of 4PP and that I have total favoritism towards Brad (I find him extremely funny), chat makes watching almost totally unbearable. Yes I can ignore it, but my curiosity usually gets the better of me as I so badly want there to be a productive discussion. I want to interact with the broadcaster when he is talking in depth about a game he is playing or played and I have something to say or a question to ask and I want to be apart of the dialogue with other viewers doing the same, but intelligently! But with so many people mucking it up I have yet been able to fully enjoy this feature. I honestly do not know how Brad or any of the other broadcasters or the Mods handle the chaos. But I suppose it's simply one of the things that comes with the territory. And you all have my utmost respect for doing it well.
Game on!

I'm one of the people that almost always agrees with Brad. This is only because I actually agree with him most of the time. However, I don't agree with him ALL of the time. I'm a new 4pp fan. I spend a lot of time at work with only the music on my mp3 player to accompany me and lately i've cleared all music and have only the podcast on it. I started at 1 and am now at 54. I hope to one day be more in the 4pp community once i'm all caught up. I feel glad knowing I've made my first comment since I've been keeping track of this website for at least 2 months now.

@ShilohDeGreat - I just wanted to add as well that I am also really enjoying this post and the comments made after. After formally joining the 4PP, I have to admit that other than a superficial glance over of posts, there are not many posts that catch my eye or prompt the need to respond. Being a new member and not much of a 'Chatter,' I do feel disconnected from the 4PP community and unsure of how to either become a part of or even contribute.

I don't feel that I am subjecting myself to the ‘heirarchy,’ but I totally agree with Mr. X that it does show itself strongly at times, and I am sure for reasons explained above by other members. I honestly don't know much about the 'banners, 'stars' etc and I don't really care as it is what is written or being said that I pay attention to. I appreciate the open comments (whether they be valid or not) between the mods, 4PP, and members...except for that one day when everyone was trying to guess NinjaKitty's bra size - Thank God for Mods.

I like this post as it seems geared towards obtaining responses that require more than one word and the comments really show that the gears are turning…if you know what I mean. I hate leaving comments that are one-liners in both chat or the forum. What's the point in that? If a writer wants approval, they can create the same approval rating as Youtube. Total waste of my typing skills otherwise.

Thanks for the post, Mr. X and everyone else who left a comment. I hope more posts like this pop up. Pssst...@John L. this is my first post too since joining.

"Black and Blue,Who knows which is which and who is who?"

Nice show Mr.X,nice show

I'll be honest, I didn't read the whole thing. I kind of lost interest after "Do as the picture says..."

This is the first time that I've really wanted to say something on a post, and yet ended up being completely brain dead on what to say. Mostly because I think everyone else has typed down and covered what I might have mentioned to begin with.

It probably doesn't help that I'm a bit new still, although I do greatly agree with Faux's post. If only because I've seen the chat get hostile towards anyone who doesn't currently agree with the broadcaster, or anyone in a "higher status". Not saying that I probably haven't done the same, but usually when it comes to stupidity, I side with the one that has the most common sense (and can type readable sentences, good lord). Mind, that is when I do have the desire to say anything, and actually agree on what the person is typing about, which is fairly rare on my part.

So, from my own observations, I think there are some people that won't say anything simply because they do not want to put up with having a whole room of critics that don't listen to rhyme or reason on why they might disagree on something. Whether that's because you aren't well-known, or simply because it is the broadcaster's/mod's/regular's opinion verses your own.

Like a flock of sheep, pretty much. Not saying everyone in the community is like that, but it is most noticeable in the JTV chat room. Jokes and things of that nature aside.

Although, I am a bit surprised to see such a topic here, and apparently I did have a bit more to say that I thought.

So, much kudos to you, Mr. X, for such an interesting post!