The Hello!Project Newbie Guide To !WORA
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So, the Optional Realities or whatever thread got me to thinking, there are very common newbie mistakes that people make. I made all sorts of mistakes. I'll go through some of those mistakes and allow it to serve as a guide to general productivity.
- Having no idea what the hell this place is for.
I had no idea of the particular tone or overall expectations of posting in this community. I assumed that everyone would be nice to me because I was new, and that things I said wouldn't be poked at so hard, or interpreted too negatively.
This was obviously a mistake. If I expected these things early on, I'd have quickly learned when and when not to engage, and how to engage in a way that wouldn't blow up in my face immediately. But this is only one half of that particular problem, because...
- I panicked.
When I got the initial negative reaction, I reacted with panic and didn't know what to do. So like any good mammal, I got defensive and decided to act as such. Becoming a wounded animal meant that everyone smelled blood in the water, so it was down hill from there.
Of course, there are solutions to these things. Often those solutions are terrible, so of course I chose one of the most terrible solutions possible...
- I tried to be my interpretation of the community.
As a wounded mammal, I obviously interpreted the community in the most horrific light possible. Of course, this -is- a cesspool of scum and villainy, it's not as bad as it seems when you're a wounded animal.
When faced with the fight or flight response, I often choose fight at the worst possible opportunity and in the worse possible way (IE: "Keeping It Real", a psychological flu-like infection that can strike at any moment).
When I became my interpretation of the community, I started trying to be arrogant about all of my RPing experience, and treat others as inexperienced "noobs". Being a douchebag obviously backfired further and more horrifically, rather than making people like me.
Go figure.
So I declared the community to be a wasteland of sorrow and chaos, and decided that the only way to get my ultimate revenge was to strike back...
- The Rise of Professor Chaos; or, how to troll while being yourself.
In a last ditch effort to poison the well that rejected my attempts to drink from it, I decided to unleash the full force of my stream of consciousness upon the land. As I had no idea how to actually troll, but I knew that not filtering my thoughts would be irritating to most anyone, I decided that it would be the best possible revenge.
Japanese idols, wrestling, reports of watching The Tribe, ignoring the topics to instead respond to my interpretation of reality. It was the ultimate last ditch effort to become the ultimate evil and drive a stake through the hearts of the living.
Of course I regret when I made it personal by going at @Thenomain that one time, this was the moment I realized that I was becoming consumed by myself. Drowning in a pool of being free to express one's self in ways that no mortal man was ever meant to experience.
And then I got really bored and got myself banned by doing the only thing I was told not to do.
- It gets better.
Almost two years removed, I ultimately reached my current method of approaching the community. A method I hadn't tried before but is ultimately the most ideal approach that I've found. An approach that would work well for people who find themselves frustrated by the alien atmosphere of this community.
