First of all, the most important ability in a forum community is the ability to discuss subjects. Without that, you're pretty superflous to the future development of the player base. And in order to be good at discussion, you need to read carefully about what the topic or subject is about before you start contributing.
However, even if you read carefully, write a sufficiently eloquent post, with decent points and perspectives, there is no guarantee people will listen to you. Unless you're a Nice Guy. This denotes a person who very rarely makes mockery out of other people, someone you can respect and even as far as admire. It's easy to admire nice people, because they never step on other people's toes. They take up little space and that is comfortable for other people's ego. Someone who doesn't intimidate will not get intimidated.
Most importantly, people
listen to nice guys. They hear them out, read every letter, maybe even reply to them to show their support. Even devs like nice guys. In fact, they'd be inclined to like them more, because nice guys are role models in the community. They never break rules, they never start conflicts, they're just
nice. And who else if not the devs, wish for a community that is respectable, amicable and admirable?
To all the assholes out there, me included: Wouldn't it be better if everyone didn't hate your guts so much?
Sure. It would.
So why aren't we changing? Why aren't we doing something about our attitudes, our bad manners?
My honest answer? I like being an asshole, it has come to be my persona in this community. I like telling people that they're wrong in an edgy way, it's more effective and it sure is a hell of a lot more fun. For me, for everyone. Well, almost everyone.
But at the same time, I want people to recognize that it's
just a persona. I can still be civil. I can still be respectable, amicable and admirable. I can be a nice guy too. Nothing is definitive. The same goes for nice guys. They may be nice 90% of the time, but for the rest of those 10%, they can be just as edgy.
So what I'm saying is, treat everyone like you would treat yourself. Slap yourself in the face when you do something stupid, pat yourself on the shoulder when you do something good. If everyone lived by this policy, there sure would be a lot of face slapping, but also a lot of shoulder patting. Eventually people would realize which the more comfortable alternative is. Sure as hell won't be getting external facepalms applied with extra force.
The summary of this thread, for you tl;dr people:
Assholes can be Nice Guys; Nice Guys can be Assholes. Don't be so srs.
