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Super Special SSMB Survey


Roarey Raccoon

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Okay, so it's something we've 'known' for years, the Sonic fandom is supposed to be a pile of bickering suck. Right? I dunno, I've never bothered to really look at it in detail, I've just sort of held a feeling in my gut that there's an overabundance of negativity around. Despite this, there's still that niggling little phantom of an idea that maybe it's just the way things are being perceived by my cynical mind. So, deciding that I'd like to do something constructive in my spare time, I'd like to really look at this forum in detail and see how badly it is affected. Is this a festering shithole of whiny teen scumbags? Only one way to find out. Statistics! Sort of.

Okay, what I want to do is on two fronts; first I'd like to get some qualitative material from you lovely members; I'd like to get some emails from you to tell me just how you think the forum is and the fandom in general. So if you're interested in participating, send an email to asktails [at] gmail.com and tell me how you think the Sonic fandom is doing and how you think SSMB is in relation to it. I've been a fat lazy admin lately and I want to see if there's a way to improve this forum to make it better for everyone who uses it.

As I said earlier, this is in two parts. The second part involves me going through random topic pages in the Sonic forums and sampling posts. I'll be looking at the post contents and noting down what I see in relation to hostility and politeness, things like that. I've heard so many times that SSMB is full of prats and is a shitty place, or that the fandom is horrible and yadda yadda, so fuck it, I want to find out for myself just exactly how bad (or good) it really is. Interested in helping me out? Think I'm wasting my time or should fuck off? Comment in here or something. Just, yeah, if you wanna talk about the state of the fandom and whatnot, please send it via email so I have a neat little place to keep it all and it doesn't have to be posted in public (so you can be really honest and not get flamed or laughed at).

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I am always curious about methods, so I’ll pitch a question

As I said earlier, this is in two parts. The second part involves me going through random topic pages in the Sonic forums and sampling posts. I'll be looking at the post contents and noting down what I see in relation to hostility and politeness, things like that.

How exactly do you plan to accomplish this? Is it a “close my eyes” and click at random deal or is there some complex algorithm your hiding. Choosing sample posts at true random (taking into account the fact that every post ever issued has to have an equal shot at being picked) might be incredibly difficult.

Poking at the “science” of your experiment is unnecessary, but could prove enlightening for future endeavors.

Edited by Gallia
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Sent you my opinion of the thing.

I won't say what it all was, but for those interested, my thoughts are basically this.

Theres the Sonic fandom, and there are a couple of idiots. The Sonic fandom acts roughly like any other fandom, it has it's problems and it's good times, like any...

Then theres the idiots, the idiots normally start with one idiots stupid idea, like boycott ideas, or poster campaigns, email campaigns and signature campaigns. They then manage to convince the other idiots to join them. They will then get in touch with some of the more mainstream media outlets that like mocking things more than anything else... Suddenly it's no longer "This idiot has this plan" but it's "The Sonic fandom has a plan!"

A modern example of this was the idiot who came up with the boycott Sonic 4 by buying Sonic 1 idea. Suddenly it became the Sonic fandoms plan! Urm... no.... don't lable me with that idiot and the rest of his petty friends.

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I am always curious about methods, so I’ll pitch a question

How exactly do you plan to accomplish this? Is it a “close my eyes” and click at random deal or is there some complex algorithm your hiding. Choosing sample posts at true random (taking into account the fact that every post ever issued has to have an equal shot at being picked) might be incredibly difficult.

Poking at the “science” of your experiment is unnecessary, but could prove enlightening for future endeavors.

Haha yeah, I'm aware of more scientific sampling methods and I find them quite tedious; to get around such things I'll be sampling as much material as I can find time for, making sure to have a thorough look in both popular and smaller topics. I wanted to try and get through all the posts on the first page of topics but then when one of em has over 9000 replies that's....not too realistic, rofl. So yeah, I'll be clicking on multiple pages and in topics and looking at all the posts on those pages. The more I look at the better.

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Haha yeah, I'm aware of more scientific sampling methods and I find them quite tedious; to get around such things I'll be sampling as much material as I can find time for, making sure to have a thorough look in both popular and smaller topics. I wanted to try and get through all the posts on the first page of topics but then when one of em has over 9000 replies that's....not too realistic, rofl. So yeah, I'll be clicking on multiple pages and in topics and looking at all the posts on those pages. The more I look at the better.

Works for me, but if I may make a suggestion, it would be to keep your eyes peeled as to when certain posts were made. Attitudes seem to shift as games are announced, shown and launched (with the recent Colors being a great example of this). You might be able to notice a trend of emotions that coincide with ASR or M&S as well.

Go on listening to my suggestions and I’ll make this experiment more than you bargained for lol

I guess I will participate too. I got some free time in the next few days, so I’ll write a little piece and send you my thoughts. Do we get an “I participated” sticker or something? I demand recognition. laugh.gif

Edited by Gallia
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For me the fandom can be summed up in two points:

1) The level of dedication to the franchise is unrivalled, and that's saying something.

2) Due to 1) above the fandom gets incredibly hostile to any idea related to the franchise - usually a new game in the franchise - that they feel has potential that won't (or can't) be realised by the creator(s).

Everything else is a consequence of or is one of the two points mentioned above.

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Works for me, but if I may make a suggestion, it would be to keep your eyes peeled as to when certain posts were made. Attitudes seem to shift as games are announced, shown and launched (with the recent Colors being a great example of this). You might be able to notice a trend of emotions that coincide with ASR or M&S as well.

Go on listening to my suggestions and I’ll make this experiment more than you bargained for lol

I guess I will participate too. I got some free time in the next few days, so I’ll write a little piece and send you my thoughts. Do we get an “I participated” sticker or something? I demand recognition. laugh.gif

Oh I'm aware of this as well, remember, I've adminned SSMB for at least 5 years XP. Obviously this isn't going to be scientific but it will put things in perspective when it's finished. I'd like to know how to most effectively improve the forum and getting peoples feelings/thoughts and reading their posts is the best way to do it.

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Basics of my e-mail...

-The fanbase isn't as bad as everyone says. And that "everyone" tends to be the Sonic fanbase itself.

-"Bad" Sonic fans consist of complainers, praisers, furries.

-"Complainers" call themselves "True Sonic fans". They nitpick and complain about everything and seem to only want a perfect followup to the Classics.

-"Praisers" are usually kids who came in during the Sonic Heroes era or so. They praise every Sonic game, character, and story to no end and think the series is the best thing that ever happened ever.

-Furries. Didn't get into that at all.

-Genuine Sonic fans like Sonic as a whole, but have their complains, opinions, and have favorite and least favorite games. They don't complain over the to, don't praise every single game. Or draw furry fan art.

-SSMB is mostly the genuine fans IMO. There are some moments of over-the-top complaining or praising, but they're basically good. Congrats, guys!

Edited by sapphire
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Genuine Sonic fans don't draw furry fan art? I'm totally missing something here, sapphire O.o

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I would like to mention that I am probably barely as aware as Roarz about the general state of the Sonic community. I may be somewhat sheltered: I personally think I have had it quite good by being part of TSS. I joined 3 years ago because, after years of merely viewing, I felt I wanted to contribute to what I perceived as definitely one of the best Sonic communities out there. So far, at least to me, SSMB has done a great job living up to that impression. I would say to keep up the good work, my friends. I could not care very much if the rest of the Sonic community is negative, because as long as SSMB is positive, this is all the Sonic community I need.

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The Sonic fanbase is often hateful, always highly opinionated, but never act like brainless sheep (a la the hordes of Call of Duty fanatics, who don't hesitate to suck up every molecule of FPS shite that Activision churn out like semen through a straw). We're a diverse community, and both advantages and disadvantages can arise from this; many of us grew up with the MegaDrive and Master System titles, others (such as myself) had their first taste of Sonic in the Dreamcast era, and some were familiarised with the hedgehog via the post-Dreamcast titles (Heroes, Advance and the like) and Sonic X - although I like (and, indeed, try) to keep an open mind, I always find that it's the first and last of the aforementioned groups of fans that enjoy stirring up shitstorms, whilst many members of the middle group are fairly content with the likes of Sonic '06, (however much they may try to hide it) and are happy to let Sonic Team experiment and to let the series run its natural course.

Those who refer to themselves as "Classic Fans" or "True Sonic Fans" (I personally call them "The Anti-Green-Eye Crowd", for reasons that should be quite obvious) aren't usually hesitant to profess and openly display their monumental and prejudicial hatred of virtually all of the modern titles in the series, and I'm fairly sure that it drives most other fans on the forums batty; there really is very little worse than a stubborn, moronic, jaded nostalgia-junky who can't take "no" for an answer, who has driven themselves to hate the company that they claim to love, and who completely refuses to accept - or even consider - any opinions other than their own. These foolish idiots claim to know what "real Sonic" is, but are completely stuck in a time-warp around 1994, and simply can't face the fact that the metaphorical cheese has metaphorically matured far beyond their liking since then.

The newer fans are usually young, ignorant kids who love everything to do with Sonic and can't stand the thought of anybody insulting their favourite franchise. Ergo, they simply love to engage in battle with the "Classic Fans" over matters like the quality of newer titles such as Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog - they always either end up losing miserably (thus making spectacular fools of themselves for all of the spectators to scoff at) or trolling horrendously, (which is a massive pain in the arse in itself) due to them being moronic and gullible "Sonic kiddies" who really don't know their onions as well as the well-seasoned (yet equally annoying) "Classic Fans", even if they might think that they do. Fortunately, they don't usually argue with each other as a result of their universal Sonic fanboyism, and will probably end up banned and made examples of like the thick, childish pricks that they so clearly are.

I find that the SSMB is rather lucky in the sense that it has a wonderfully balanced blend of all fan types; only having, for example, MegaDrive fanatics on a forum would lead to a total lack of discussion, as everyone would have the same opinion. Equally, however, a drought of them means that not all opinions are voiced and heard, and this is probably the most important factor in almost any discussion; a variation in personal belief is the initial building block for all decent debates, and the SSMB has this in droves - I'm fairly adamant that it's what keeps us all coming back for more.

EDIT: 700th post! I feel so proud...

Edited by Extaticus
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  • 3 weeks later...

-"Praisers" are usually kids who came in during the Sonic Heroes era or so. They praise every Sonic game, character, and story to no end and think the series is the best thing that ever happened ever.

-Genuine Sonic fans like Sonic as a whole, but have their complains, opinions, and have favorite and least favorite games. They don't complain over the to, don't praise every single game. Or draw furry fan art.

I see myself as a mixture of those two actually, heh. Is that good or not?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Haha, Christ, I've had to be absent for a good while due to some home-related shit, about which I am sure you are disinterested. But yes, anyway, I might be able to pick up this idea from where I last left it, but I can't make any promises to that effect. I will comment, however, on the fact that there has been hardly any strikes or bans on SSMB for a long time. I doubt that is reflective of having lazy staff members, but rather reflective of a more mature and better-composed community. That could be wishful thinking on my part, but I don't see the signs being negative XP.

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  • 1 month later...

Here is my take on the situation. It is long, I am sorry.

The only real problem with the fandom is that it is I have found sonic fans to be ridiculously loyal. They are loyal to a storyline or they are loyal to their nostalgic feelings of Sonic days gone by. This loyalty is a problem when you have at least 7 “cannon” universes, each one with a fanbase (not to mention the many fan created storylines). This problem that is somewhat unique to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and is a breeding ground for conflict.

For example, lets say that I grew up watching SATam and loved the show, but didn't really play the games. For me, that Sonic universe is what I am a fan off. When I get onto the internet to share my interest of Sonic I find out that not only do people not agree with me, but they can (and will) list many reasons why another “universes” are better and how mine sucks. This situation can be a bit of a shock to people because forums that are based on interests tend to be “safe” places to discuss something you enjoy, especially when you can't discuss it regularly in life (which is why SoS is freaking awesome!). When this happens people get hurt, then they defensive and before you know it you have a flame war.

This problem was exasperate by the way SEGA marketed Sonic during his prime, Sonic was marketed differently based on regions in ways that made it so that North American, European and Asian fans were fans of the same character but rarely the same “universe”. When the internet got into full swing in late 90's these people flocked to the internet with their set in stone ideas and discovered that the rest of the world had a different idea of who Sonic was and battles began. This event caused massive rifts and a general atmosphere of intolerance that are, in my opinion, still the cause of much of the hedgehog drama we deal with today.

I have also found over the years that older sonic fans (like myself) are very polarized in their loyalty of Sonic, and tend to have a generational attitude. For examples, “You like watching Sonic X? I remember when they made good sonic shows like SatAM. Sonic X sucks.” or “ You liked playing Sonic Heroes, blah. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles was the best, these new games all suck”. Newer fans do not appear to have these strong negative opinions and are more accepting of the diverse Sonicscape and as they become a larger percentage of the sonic fan population we will continue to see the community become more friendly and less dramatic.

I have seen over the years Sonic forums in general to be a much friendlier place with much nicer people and less trolls. And with events like SoS that actually let us sit and talk to one another, it goes a long way to fixing problems because it develops community and friendships based on mutual interests.

We don't all need to be holding hands in a circle around a campfire. Opinions and debates can be fun and interesting and should always be considered the spice that keep things new. If we all agreed on everything things would be boring. I have found that this board is one of the best if not the best at having a solid, diverse, friendly group of people, with far less drama then can be found on other boards.

Keep it up!

Canada Jay

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