Board 8 > What happened to User of the Year?

(+) Yeah! (+)

On some level, having the opportunity to vote like this can be cathartic, especially on a board that's always been obsessed with polling and numbers. It's a natural extension of where this board started. But it's easy to see the entire UotY affair as a popularity contest, much like a Save-My, where the idea of one vote becomes lost in the shuffle of mob rule. But if you take a step back, is it really mob rule? Or is it just a matter of differentiating between the Haves and the Have-Nots of the board? It can be pretty tough to wrap your head around the idea of being unliked or unpopular, even when you see people with whom you have a contentious relationship posting these concretely negative numbers towards you. It chips away a little bit each time. As long as I've been on the board, I think I've never been good at playing the game of the board. And while I can rationalize that and I can accept it, I still am hit pretty hard by negative feedback. It kind of caused me to develop this early warning detection system of being nasty on the board as a precaution. And that cycles further, causing more and more people to be alienated by me and, in extension, me to feel more outcast by these contests as I try to shield myself from feeling less-than.

Now, I could be entirely alone in the feeling that User of the Year can be harmful to some users, and as someone who has had battles with depression over the years, being able to remove oneself from the balloting was nice. But what it likely did was really put a crimp in the excitement of others, bringing the excitement levels for a popular tradition down. And, in the end, I think people pulling out of UotY was a small but crucial factor in the end of UotY. Because it's hard to look in a mirror at the perception of yourself by others and really accept that you're kind of a shitty person. Just a little bit, and just to some people. But that's all you really need sometimes; just a little validation of those tiny little demons that whisper horrible things in your ears, causing you to doubt yourself.

It's easy to blame the Discord, and it's easy to blame other easy targetable names on the Board - when I arrived on the Board, there was a certain level of cultish behavior surrounding Chris and how his decisions in epop contests were kool-aid to be drunk, for example. It's easy to hate people or to consistently put yourself in situations where you feel demeaned and insulted on this board, because that's a lot of what this board is about - unleashing opinions and gathering a mob of like-minded people in a thread to agree with you. But there's a lot of good to the board as well. And even as something of an outsider, I don't think that Discord can really be blamed for User of the Year dying. Anyone here could start the project up tomorrow. I just don't believe anyone actually will, and that's the real point of this long-winded diatribe. No one wants to feel shitty.

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Ngamer64 posted...

@Whiskey_Nick defend yourself!

BARTZ WAS ONE OF THE HOSTS

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You must be insane. Why would I spend hours talking about a fucking user contest
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especially while driving!

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Thank god we don't do this anymore.

Lopen posted...

Well the discord is good because some of the sub discords are pretty cool

The main b8 discord not as much and actually has a lot of the board not on it though, and that's where you find the UUL cast-offs that made up the UotY voting base in its twilight years were/are by and large.

1. i'd never heard the phrase "sub discord" for a channel in 5 years of discord until genny said it yesterday and now you today. just a weird coincidence
2. i was referring to the entire server

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scarletspeed7 posted...

Now, I could be entirely alone in the feeling that User of the Year can be harmful to some users,

i agree with this, but i also think rate the user was way more harmful to me than user of the year ever was tbqh.

i still remember how bad i felt when HGR unceremoniously rated me a 0/10.

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I feel like HGR gave most users a bad score though

but yeah Rate the User was just a bad idea all around

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It was a weird thing to do but it was also a fun thing to do if you didn't take it too seriously. I saw it as kinda in the same boat as UCA in that sense. You can have fun trash talking and/or getting into stats and predictions and stuff, but it's real hard to keep that going forever without somebody's feelings getting hurt, by its very nature.

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Steiner posted...

i was referring to the entire server

I know you were but I'm saying the people NGamer was talking about-- and they do exist there's a reason I was calling the UotY the UUL for the last few years it was run-- are in the main board-8 chat primarily. But a lot of users, despite being on the server, pretty much ignore that place, so I would call it disingenuous or a misunderstanding of his point to say "who isn't active in the discord at this point" as a counterpoint when I doubt he's really talking about the server as a whole.

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LeonhartFour posted...

I feel like HGR gave most users a bad score though

sure. still felt pretty crappy to have someone tell you "i think you're worth 0%," though. it also came out of left field for me because i didn't recall having any unpleasant interactions with HGR.

to be fair, there were several users rating me a 0, i just remember him doing it in particular (possibly because he was a well known presence on the board at the time and those other users weren't).

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i rate Lasa <whatever the average score he'd give to the songs i nominated is>

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i also don't get the "well if you didn't take it too seriously it was fine!" outlook. like, we were literally rating people we knew and interacted with here. how can you NOT take that seriously? it's not rate the video game character or babe brawl or best ass in gaming.

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if you're bothered by low ratings then stop acting in a way that causes people to assign a low value to your behavior.


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Mr Lasastryke posted...

how can you NOT take that seriously?

by just....kinda....not? I think for UotY and for me it helped that you're being ranked comparatively, not absolutely. "Lasa likes Wigs more than he likes me" feels a lot less personal than "Lasa thinks I'm a 2/10"

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which I'm not saying it wasn't a weird hobby to have

or that it was that easy for folks lower down the social ladder

but eh I think there was a space of a few years where folks were pretty chill about it and the ones who weren't could opt out

or maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention

either way I enjoyed it but I'm not losing sleep wishing it'd come back

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Mr Lasastryke posted...

i agree with this, but i also think rate the user was way more harmful to me than user of the year ever was tbqh.

i still remember how bad i felt when HGR unceremoniously rated me a 0/10.

What makes it difficult is when you see some sort of negative rating ascribed to you and there's really no reason why. "Why did I do wrong?" you ask yourself. In topics where people rate or rank users and there's a little bit of discourse, I can at least learn from my mistakes or understand what I've done wrong. But just getting hit with numeric values and nothing else, for me at least, can be pretty cold and unforgiving. That's why I opted out of later UotY. I don't think I would at this point in my life, but even now I yearn for positive validation even when my life is going great and I don't necessarily need it. Everyone has their quirks, I guess. So I can see where you're coming from.

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I mean, there are definitely people on B8 whose opinions of me I value, but it's also generally not the people who would rate me 0/10 in Rate the User

(except Semi)

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Steiner posted...

who isn't active in the discord at this point? i can think of like, 5 people, obviously NG and Leon being two of them

Former User of the Year FFDragon

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FFDragon posted...

Former User of the Year Ryokles

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ctesjbuvf posted...

Also I just remembered how much Naruto I watched predicting this.

I do too, lol.

Like, literally, the Naruto-UotY relation you had was hilariously well-done.

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MariaTaylor posted...

if you're bothered by low ratings then stop acting in a way that causes people to assign a low value to your behavior.

"if you don't like people thinking you're the scum of the earth then STOP ACTING LIKE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH LOL"

thank you for your genius advice that you've offered a lot of times before, this contributed so fucking much to this topic

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Tom Bombadil posted...

by just....kinda....not? I think for UotY and for me it helped that you're being ranked comparatively, not absolutely. "Lasa likes Wigs more than he likes me" feels a lot less personal than "Lasa thinks I'm a 2/10"

uh for clarity's sake, i was talking about rate the user, not uoty

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Tom if it makes you feel better.

I like you more than users I don't like.

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Lopen posted...

Steiner posted...

i was referring to the entire server

I know you were but I'm saying the people NGamer was talking about-- and they do exist there's a reason I was calling the UotY the UUL for the last few years it was run-- are in the main board-8 chat primarily. But a lot of users, despite being on the server, pretty much ignore that place, so I would call it disingenuous or a misunderstanding of his point to say "who isn't active in the discord at this point" as a counterpoint when I doubt he's really talking about the server as a whole.

you make my point exactly. the general chat is far from the only part of the server. also I've zero idea what your uul thing is about
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LeonhartFour posted...

I mean, there are definitely people on B8 whose opinions of me I value, but it's also generally not the people who would rate me 0/10 in Rate the User

(except Semi)

I told HGR about this topic and he said he'd rate me 2/10 which is pretty great imo
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wow he must really like you

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The whole Dear Leader thing was also hilarious. Mostly the b8chat reaction. It had its moments.

Advokaiser posted...

I do too, lol.

Like, literally, the Naruto-UotY relation you had was hilariously well-done.

Thanks!

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Steiner posted...

the general chat is far from the only part of the server. also I've zero idea what your uul thing is about

The general chat is the part of the server people are talking about when they feel there's a bad vibe from the Discord. It's also, to no coincidence the UUL segment of the userbase

There's good stuff on the Discord server if you check out the side rooms (if any appeal to you) but you need to not be turned off by the general chat to get there and some people clearly are.

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Lopen posted...

The general chat is the part of the server people are talking about when they feel there's a bad vibe from the Discord.

Does this "people" mean anyone outside of like, Ulti, Corrik, Sephy, uhhh SuperNiceDog, uhhhh there might be someone else

Yea that's a real great group to be taking word from good job Lopen

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Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Does this "people" mean anyone outside of like, Ulti, Corrik, Sephy, uhhh SuperNiceDog, uhhhh there might be someone else

Yea that's a real great group to be taking word from good job Lopen

Do you have a problem with me, Bane?

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The nsfw room is great

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Its for the best that UotY is gone, I dont have the attention span to stick with the discord and it sucks to find out people I thought I was cool with actively dislike me.


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the fuck does uul stand for

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ultimate user league, I think? it was this uoty like contest but it was year round and very cliquish, lots of traded votes and at least two accounts were run by the same guy to always vote himself
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Lopen posted...

It's also, to no coincidence the UUL segment of the userbase

i still don't know what this means

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Under Used or Lower

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Undulating Ungulates: Live!

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Steiner posted...

who isn't active in the discord at this point?

Yo.


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no i remember the UUL. I just don't understand what "uul segment of the userbase" means

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I think he's saying they're the ultimate users?

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The UUL people were the incredibly e-pop thirsty contingent, to where things often got weird and/or sad.

And that's in comparison to the already weird and sad nature of general e-pop shenanigans.

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Discord didn't "end" User of the Year; we just got older and our priorities changed. You can see that clearly reflected on the board - outside of the Politics topic, we aren't nearly as competitive or confrontational as we used to be. Hardly anyone tries to "make their mark" on the board these days.

I remember loving making a Stats topic so I'd get that guaranteed 500 posts. Nowadays, I'd really prefer someone else make the damn topic (bless you, Leon).

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Drakeryn posted...

I told HGR about this topic and he said he'd rate me 2/10 which is pretty great imo

wow he's getting soft in his absence and/or old age

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

(bless you, Leon)

I am the Switzerland of Board 8

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Mr Lasastryke posted...

"if you don't like people thinking you're the scum of the earth then STOP ACTING LIKE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH LOL"

thank you for your genius advice that you've offered a lot of times before, this contributed so fucking much to this topic

This is why you're 0/10

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yeah because that was actually incredibly worthwhile advice

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Time is a flat circle and at some point there will be an epop revolution again

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