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(Edited Mar 28 2024, adding bullet about OTC and amending layout a little)
Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 11th 2024 at 3:20:25 AM
I never got involved with the Insecurities thread despite having both Asperger's and severe anxiety because:
A: TV Tropes is not a substitute for actual professional help, which I am lucky enough to have, and
B: I find such threads and places to be quite unhelpful at actually assisting with my issues, for reasons I can't really go into.
The Insecurities thread honestly should go. We are not therapists, we are a wiki for tropes and writing devices in fiction. See also the earlier explanation by Redmess.
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper WallTBF I have wanted to kill the shitposting and Insecurities threads for years. These last few incidents just proved that I was right.
Maybe we can take a more limited approach where all the forum games that involve some sort of RP get moved over to the RP section.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I also never understood Anti-Necro and that seems to have been the starting issue. The people from there migrating to Trash Heap, which I also don't understand. And someone posted in the Hangout Thread they didn't want any drama. I feel like most of the people in Yack Fest and Forum Games don't want this and don't really understand what happened.
“We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” - Lewis CarrollLike I said, I posted there once just to vent feelings on a subject that was starting to wear on me, and then never again. It might've served it's purpose that one day, but I certainly don't think it should be used a substitute for actual help.
Having a bunch of anxious, insecure, depressed people in a thread specifically designed to talk about those things sounds like an OK idea from the surface, but it actually gets super toxic when you realize that it'll just create dependency issues or force people to play therapist for each other.
As learned in my "banned user threatened suicide" story, suddenly becoming responsible for the wellbeing of an internet friend is not only very dangerous but also pretty traumatizing. It's not okay.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallYeah I relay can’t see a justification for reopening the Insecurities thread, replace it with a pinned single-post topic with links to mental health resources in various countries, that’d probably actually do a lot more to help people with issues then us playing amateur therapist.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranSo was it a problem that they were formatted as shitposts and not that they were general hangout forums? I could see why atleast the anti-necro was bad, but even after I read everything leading up to this I'm not quite sure why it's trash heap that's under review when the issue bled out from a unreleated RP?
Trash Heap has had its own historical issues, these date back to prior to this incident.
The issue bled out to Trash Heap in particular because it was a topicless hangout thread.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.I only posted in Insecurities maybe once or twice. I had some bad feelings and thought about posting there recently but it had already been locked - and that was probably for the best because these feelings involved some offsite toxicity with another tropernote and could have led to more drama. I've had really bad experiences with that whole "internet as therapy" mindset so I'm okay keeping Insecurities locked the more I think about it.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Combine that with Yack Fest's apparently nonexistent moderation, and...yeah.
If we're keeping the Insecurities thread locked, maybe we should give it one more update post with a link to this discussion so people who only post in Yack Fest can know the reasons why? Or just a brief description of the conclusion made?
Edited by WarJay77 on Jan 18th 2021 at 3:16:08 PM
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall![]()
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I like that idea. A single-post topic with links to mental health resources, as you said. Don't know what we would title it though.
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Jan 18th 2021 at 3:15:19 PM
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
“Mental Health Aid direction thread” ?
Links to a bunch of US based resources already exist as a forum post in OTC’s 2020 live election watch thread, and I think I’ve got a physical book with U.K. resources somewhere around my house.
As for Trash Heap, a shitposting thread is madness, a directionless general discussion thread without constant active moderation is only slightly less insane.
Edited by Silasw on Jan 18th 2021 at 8:19:03 PM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranWouldn't we have to try and get links to every possible region tropers might be coming from, though? We have more than just US and UK.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall![]()
We used to have a wiki page called UsefulNotes.Suicide Prevention that got cut as part of the mass purge of suicide PSA notices on creator pages.
Edited by ccorb on Jan 18th 2021 at 3:20:55 PM
Rock'n'roll never dies!Edit:NVM
Edited by WarJay77 on Jan 18th 2021 at 3:21:10 PM
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallI’d figure we’d want everywhere, I’m just noting that a US list already exists and I can whip up a U.K. pretty easily.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranOff topic but speaking of misplaced discussions, I think this evolved beyond what it originally was about and should probably get moved to somewhere like Wiki Talk, since it's now becoming about policy and what to do with certain threads.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallMight as well, yeah.
(Also as someone who's part of a bunch of the RP-style threads in Forum Games, I'd be fine with moving them to the RP section)
My favorite failed console tbh[Actually never mind, this was too much of a rant.]
Edited by mightymewtron on Jan 18th 2021 at 3:35:32 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.A mod earlier brought up that they didn't like the idea of mini mods for specific subforums because they didn't work. To my recollection we've only ever had specific mods for RPG Zone and OTC though, was the attempt in those two really that unfruitful?
I took that more as a statement that trying to assign mods to certain areas doesn’t work, mods moderate where they want to, telling them to go moderate an area they don’t want to sounds like a great way to get people to quit.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranWe're all volunteers and work in the areas we enjoy best. That's not the issue. Telling a mod "only moderate this" doesn't work because nothing exists in isolation and sometimes a forum mod will have to deal with a wiki problem, and so on.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I'd advocate for deleting the Insecurities thread altogether, considering its extremely sensitive nature. I don't think we should keep a treasure trove of people's very personal and sensitive issues laying around the forum.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Yea that. One of the reasons I never used that thread (despite my anxiety and depression) is that I didn't want a semi-permanent place of me venting. Nuking the insecurities thread is probably the best. Seeing that the majority here (myself included) binge-read the banned/suspended thread like a book, I assume that there are less savory people who would read the archived insecurities thread for laughs.
Edited by valozzy on Jan 18th 2021 at 6:35:51 AM

Anti-Necro was functionally a "general hangout" thread, as was Trash Heap; the only real difference between the two was that Anti-Necro explicitly encouraged posting as frequently as possible even if that means literally just spamming "POASTING" for entire pages.
Someone dug up an actual "Hangout Thread
" which seems to be serving the same purpose now... we've been reluctant to migrate there, though, since we half worry that "topicless hangout thread" is the problem.
Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.