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 Manchu wrote:
Lots of nostalgic feelings reading the last few pages of this thread. MGS - seems a good as time as any to say I'm glad you're still around. The same goes for any number of long-time users, like HBMC, BrookM, Melissia, Ahtman, I could go on and on and still miss people who, whether we disagree or not, I would really miss if they stopped posting. Cheers to you guys!

Aww shucks.

I have gone very quiet in the last couple of years, hobby interest waning and lack of gaming opportunities here being a driving force for that. 30k has been pulling me back in of late and fired up the brain and inspiration somewhat though.

I just need to reply.
Imho, dakka has gone very soft.
Back in 2010 or so, when I joined up, I felt like:
"Hey, this is like 4chans /tg/, but as a "proper" board with lasting threads and images"

Dakka is not that anymore. It is definitely not that anymore, instead much more civilized. Which I also like. ( I lurk mostly ).

However, I'll amend this a little bit:
Imho, discussion is always more honest when only the argument counts, and nothing else. Creative Environments thrive on hostility, confrontation and harsh reactions to gak ideas.

In this regard, I prefer /tg/: When I want some truly creative discussion, or have some project I'm working on ( lately: some heraldry ), /tg/ has always been there for me. Sure the tone is rough, sure people cuss and swear, but shi/tg/ets done.

On this note: /tg/ has also become much more tame. Back in 2008 or so it was basically all "elf porn rape wat do" and "dragongirl hentai dicknipples" with some crazy creative discussion and some of the most creative quests sprinkled in.

The relatively laissez faire policy of dakka I like
I cannot find much hostility or toxicity here.

Unless you're one to be easily offended.

So, you want toxic behavior, do you, punk?

Well, I've got toxic behavior for ya.

I've just eaten hard boiled eggs, cabbage, and baked beans, washing them down with a pitcher of beer.

And we're in an elevator....

The Auld Grump

I've always found dakka to be a majority of positive posts. Ive never shared pics/battle reports/ect..without very encouraging remarks. Its why I come to this site pretty much everyday and never plan on leaving.

There is always going to be snark on the internet, but I think dakka has a solid record of moderating it fairly.

 Tim the Biovore wrote:
Joined Dakka back in 2009. Twelve years old, and a complete donkey-cave. I had a friend who joined up shortly before me at the time who I'd, on an almost weekly basis, flip between amity and animosity with, and I'm fairly confident I only joined to have another way of getting under his skin. I used to treat this site like it was a competition. I'd start rumor threads based on my own theories and post them as alleged facts, and start fights with anyone who called me out on it, all to boost my post count, as though the number of pages on a thread or the counter below my name actually had any intrinsic value. I'm honestly embarrassed by the way I used to behave here, I'm almost cringing too hard to write this.

I mellowed out over time, and I think that's true of pretty much everyone else here. As the years go by, more and more people have either acclimatized or left, so while the influx of hot-headed new'uns has remained steady, the ranks of chilled out folks who just want to have a good time have grown ever larger. Maybe the toxic vitriol levels have stayed the same, but they've become more and more diluted since I first joined. Or maybe I just notice it less myself because I'm not looking for it.

Essentially I learned how to grow up here. Be it through simple observation of polite interaction, or the few times I had be given a talking down, this site was always in the background for me during my formative years as I matured into the bloke I am today. And while I might be a little biased in saying this, I like to think I've turned out reasonably well, so Dakka can't really be that bad.

I can vouch for that. I had a similar experience although mine was not a competition but more of a "One World View" due to depression lasting a year in school.

Now days I just laugh at it all, hell I check out my old threads. Check them out and laugh with me; If I could chuck you a beer through the internet I would

Honestly there is toxicity on Dakka but I find this to be all throughout the 40k section, I mean lets take a look:

40k Army Lists: Dare you have an original opinion on there.. If its not netlist X, Y or Z then you're just waiting for a wave of passive aggressive comments.

YMDC: Well as others have mentioned its a place of activity of all sorts of behavior...

40k Battle Reports: The tamest of the lot although occasionally you get the odd spark here and there.

40k background: second tamest, but you will see more sparks up here than the Batreps.

40k General Discussion: Well the tales to be told.. tbh its a routine of a dislike of certain armies (or top 5 armies you dislike, etc, etc), Followed by how much people hate Tau in general and how everyone hates how OP Eldar then the grand display of how CSM was great in 3.5 ed Vs. the amount of white knighting loyalists who just get aggressive because they just want to hear the sound of their own voice and how cool loyalist rules are with free transports. Then its all about those threads about GW's game balance which I swear is only there as a historical contingency plan so if the day GW does actually drown and burn like so many people supposedly "dream" of, then when people ask "What went wrong?" we can then point them to this grand ornate decade long Librarium of the same thread.

Theres a reason why on FB, DD is whispered in ushered tones likes a scary campfire story... Besides the amount of GW White Knights that prowl there who firmly believe that GW can do no wrong..

In all seriousness you could say Dakka is a victim of its own success, as something gets more and more popular the more variety of people with all flavors of life that come into this community and some are a bit sour.. bearing in mind we don't know their story either so the sourness could be a product of what they maybe going though at the moment, so I would never take too much to heart here That and bandwagoning, Jumping on bandwagons only serve of witch-hunts which are a mess unto themselves that just spiral out of control. An example of bandwagoning that I use in IRL to which a lot of people agree is a lot of discussions in the 40k GD about game balance, you have a few minority of people such as Peregrine who accurately reflect what they feel is wrong with the game in a detailed, civil manner to which a lot of people can agree with (myself included), however when a majority agree with it they will usually consume that info into their own views and inevitably warp it, mutilate it and make it lose the validity it once had to fit their own ideologies, leading to more heated discussions and at times, witch-hunts.

In addition as others have posted anonymity just exaggerates the ego of people and as a second point a lot of reasons why people think DD is so toxic is because under this internet mask people start confusing civility with entitlement and so crude language is seen as some badge of office in which people feel the need to berate others in any aggressive manner then just label it "entitlement", which always amuses me since I always hold the view that you can do both. For example in terms of criticism I see people commenting " This is , and here's why so do this instead!" which I don't understand to me as it seems counterproductive as it seems more provocative, inciting a heated discussion when there was no need for one at all; Instead I people would say "That's a cool concept, however I don't feel this may not work in they way you intend it to be for X, Y and Z and here's a way you may want to consider instead" make it feel much more inviting and therefore promote civil discussion instead.

A final point is that that tone is hard to express or communicate on the internet (hence why there is use of emoticons imo), so that lack of tone can also be misinterpreted to be something more aggressive than actually intended which can escalate.

When you all all mentioned above and smash 'em in a blender, you get the toxicity, but DD is not all that bad. P&M blogs are usually very good and other game systems are a very pleasant place to be, I've encountered very little snark in other game threads and a lot of it has a lot more enthusiasm (aside from AvP KS.. Ohhh boy you're in for a treat there).

My best advice to the OP is maybe take a break from DD for a bit, I know my 40k spirits were low from the toxicity in the 40k section, so I took a long break from DD and 40k as a whole, found the Batman Miniatures Game and enjoyed it. I then found joy in Ad. Mech and now I'm enjoying Dakka a lot more with a lighter heart, now I just laugh at some posters who beat the dead horse about certain armies being under powered, and although they may have my sympathies with their situation I just laugh at the scale of their crusade of how long they repeat the rhetoric over and over again in multiple threads just as much as I laugh at my old threads.