Apparently, I have a new hobby. Or maybe it's an old one.

[gelbes_gilatier]

What I mean? Oh, just roughing up things in forums. Or rather just one forum. Yeah, it's that Stargate forum again (and quite seriously, if they keep annoying me, I'll have to give names after all).


This time, they're confusing me. They're telling me they all hate competition and being competitive, yet they have this incredibly stupid challenge system (winner of the last round announces topic and prompts for the next one, everyone writes what they think the last challenge winner would like to read does their best, last winner chooses new winner, everything starts again) that is very clearly competitive. Is there anyone here who doesn't think that this modus operandi is very much that of a competition?

Yeah, thought so.

But, when I mentioned that this is clearly neither a fair nor a very intelligent modus, they started ranting at me that the challenge is only about having fun and challenging oneself and so totally very much not about winning at all and they want to keep it like that, thank you very much. You know what I kept thinking? Yeah, that's right, "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck." If there's a winner, it's very probably a competition because events that aren't a competition don't produce winners, right? Is there a flaw in my reasoning? Please do tell me.

And please do tell me why people think that stuff like "We always did it like that, we will not change anything even if we're talking nonsense and probably know it but don't want to admit it because that would mean that you are probably right and we certainly can't have that." makes them look smart, progressive, competent and/or as if they know what they're actually talking about. Because I just don't get it. When has "we always did it like that, we will not change anything" ever led to things getting better in the long run?

And why is it so hard to actually read what I'm saying? I never said anywhere that I so totally want a competition (however, it didn't keep people from lecturing me on how awful they're finding competetive environments and how they only want to do it for fun and how I shouldn't see everything so doggedly and I AM SO TIRED OF PEOPLE NOT READING WHAT I'M SAYING AND LECTURING ME ON THINGS I DON'T EVEN CARE ABOUT GODDAMMIT!) but I did say that if it's a competition it needs to be a fair one... and a real one, not a popularity contest. I don't see anything challenging in writing stuff to personally please someone.

When I do that - write stuff to personally please someone - I do it without any intention of personal gain, just to actually please that someone, because I think they deserve it and because I want to make them a present. I don't do that to be chosen as a "winner". When I take part in a competition, I want to win for how well I wrote, not for how much I pleased the last winner by, and let's just call a spade a spade here, sucking up to someone. And no, I'm not saying all of this because I haven't won a challenge yet, I'm saying that because the modus operandi is unfair, stupid and basically bullshit. Mostly when everyone keeps telling me how much they hate competition.

If they really did, they'd just say "Oh well, maybe it's really stupid to have someone choose a winner and all that to find a topic and prompts for the next challenge... let's find a way to make this more democratic and logical." instead of "We can't change anything here, we just are here for fun and we don't mind other people aka the mods doing our thinking for us because let's face it, that's easier than a democratic decision process and we'd all totally rather do easy than democratic!" But they don't and I wonder how someone can be so stupid. Anyone got any logical explanations? Because I'm running out of them and I really, really want to know if they are stupid or if I am missing some vital piece of information here that would miraculously lead to everything suddenly making sense. Please, do help me out here. Seriously, I mean it.

PS.: Thank you so much, asugar for another year of paid account (and, susequently space for five new userpics)! You totally susprised me :D You rock!

Comments

[entchenmv.livejournal.com]

or if I am missing some vital piece of information here

ich muss sagen, als du erklärtest, wie's funktioniert (also mit den Gewinnern, wer wen wählt und so), da dacht ich mir schon "die schanzen sich die Siege dann gegenseitig zu".
Also ist es eher ein, wie du sagtest, popularity contest, mit 'nem anderen Namen und die populärste Person heißt nicht "populärste Person" sondern "Sieger". Geht eher in Richtung Ketten-Challenge in einem beengten Personenkreis.

Aber dass man bei einer Competition auch aus Fun mitmachen kann, solltest du denen nochmal beibringen...

[gelbes-gilatier.livejournal.com]

Aber dass man bei einer Competition auch aus Fun mitmachen kann, solltest du denen nochmal beibringen...

Aber nicht ohne Tasche :D

Ahem.

Was ich meinte: ich schrobte auch, dass ich durchaus auch bei Wettbewerben Spaß haben kann, aber ich glaub, die sind echt alle einfach zu dumm zum Lesen. So langsam kriege ich das Gefühl, dass es wirklich genau SO ist...

[entchenmv.livejournal.com]

Das ist eine Competition!
Und da macht man ja wohl nur mit, um zu gewinnen. Spaß haben is nicht.

Also um's gewinnen geht's also nicht, aber irgendwie schon, was?

Sowas muss man alles nicht verstehen. Menschen...

[gelbes-gilatier.livejournal.com]

Also um's gewinnen geht's also nicht, aber irgendwie schon, was?

Jo, genau. Schon irgendwie bekloppt, oder?