When did being new to Interference become a BAD thing?

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Shono

The Fly
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At the cross roads in Ontario, Canada
Hey there.

To my friends and family, I am a rabid U2 fanatic. To other fans, I might pale in comparission.

I registered at interference in September 2004.

I have been a U2 fan going back to UF in 1985 and I can honestly say that JT and the October 3, 1987 JT Tour stop in Toronto changed my life.

I have been a distant observer of Interference for a few years now, so I guess it was just a matter of time before I saw a compelling issue in one of the many forums here, and decided to contribute.

91 replies later, it would seem that being new to Interference.com has now become a problem.

http://forum.interference.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=104605&perpage=15&pagenumber=4

I don't mean to pick on anyone in particular but when did being new to interference become a bad thing? When did having an opinion or speculation become questionable? I wouldn't question this over a single post, but this attitude seems to be common on a lot of threads.

I didn't see it before, but this site is becoming very exclusive. Just because you don't have 1,000's of replies or posts, your opinion or contributions don't seem to hold the same importance?

It would seem that unless you have been accepted into one of the many Interference "high school clichés", you don't fit in here.

Should being new really make you feel like an outcast? Come on.

I have been reading the posts a little closer lately, and people seem to be attacking each other over anything and everything. Attacks along nationality, gender, and financial status are getting more and more frequent. When did people forget that this is about U2? Did you join because you wanted to debate your political affiliations? Your national pride? Your level of fandom based on purchases? Did you join because you think you absolutely know more than anyone else?

I think most of us contribute as a result of our love of U2 and their music, which has impacted on our lives, both collectively and individually.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I hope (in this case) I am right about our true motives.

Thanks for you time. :)
 
i think you're going ballistic over the tiniest off-the-cuff post by martha.

but martha does have a valid point.

being new was NEVER, nor is it, a bad thing.

but you have to know what's happened here in the past couple of months to truly appreciate how skeptical we all are of new people who arrive and claim they have information.

a couple months back, someone by the user name of "Dalkey Beach" began posting. he/she posted some very cryptic messages that seemed to have a lot of inside information from the band. a lot of people were still skeptics, granted, but many folks here chose to believe the information this person had, and that they had an "in" with the band. some of the inside information that this person had ended up panning out, some didn't happen. people began speculating wildly as to who this actually was due to the information we were being given. then, a week or two after Dalkey started really firing off information at us, we magically have an interview with U2 themselves on the main page! there's no mention of who the member(s) of the band was/were who actually gave the interview, but it was accepted at face value by almost all of us. we all got really excited. two weeks after that, Dalkey disappeared for a week or so. then, lo and behold, out of the blue, The Edge himself signs up for Interland. people were so excited!! we had this big "Ask The Edge" feature, and everyone was all happy and enthralled that the Edge himself was posting on our message board! he'd stop by about once every day or two and post 3 or 4 messages, some with information, and some to rip up Jick. Ask The Edge was posted, and my question was asked!! i was so excited that the Edge answered one of my questions, i nearly exploded. a few days of this went by and everyone had Edge-fever, except for 2 of our super mods, who questioned as to whether this was truly The Edge. they were promptly canned by Elvis and banned from the site. Edge's posts gradually died off and then finally stopped for a few days. then a week after this, a lady makes a post on the @U2 message board stating that her daughter had made all this up, that she had been posting as the Edge and as U2. the whole thing was a sham.

we were FURIOUS! we had all been taken on a ride, and Elvis and those in charge of the content of this site did not check their facts and all of us were taken in on a big hoax. people were enraged, tearing Elvis, the content staff, and the mods (mods who did not deserve ANY of the blame for this, as they had no control over it) to complete shreds. people left, people demanded their money back for premium memberships...the whole thing was just complete chaos for weeks.

all because some newbie had popped into the site claiming that they had some "inside information".

can you understand why people are extremely skeptical when a newbie registers and tells us right away that they know something, or have a source for information?

we've been through that kind of shit too many times, and most of us old-schoolers are sick and tired of it all.

if you're new and got information to share, great. but don't expect us to love you, or even to believe you, for it.

sorry if this sounds rash, but i can see where both sides (including martha) are coming from.
 
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa.....

Thanks for taking the time to reply DaveC.

I am aware of the controversy that ensued regarding the appearance of "The Edge" a few weeks ago. I understand that feeling of "once bitten, twice shy" is still VERY fresh. Who wouldn't after that fiasco?

The information I posted was in no way meant as the definitive truth. I suppose I should have prefaced it in big bold letters by saying this is ONLY A RUMOR. The truth of the matter is that I posted it on a U2 Tour Rumor thread. I didn't claim to be THE source, but I did mention that U2_GTA was advising members of these dates. Everything else was speculation on my part, and I think that it was pretty clear.

I didn't hold myself out to be stating a fact. I didn't hold myself out to be someone in the know. I didn't make a grand announcement from the mountaintops. I simply contributed.

My contribution came into question, and my status as a "newbie' was used as justification to question the content. FINE.

My point is that it should not matter if you are new, old, a forum moderator, or premium member. I don't want anyone to "love me" for the information I pass on. Take it anyway you want. It just seems to be part of these divisions I keep seeing grow on a daily basis. It bugs me that there is so much distrust and mean spirited content. I hate cliques, and I resent the fact that you have to be a part of a smaller group to count. It flies in the face of why I came to Interference.

If you want the God's honest truth, I posted the info for those people in the Greater Toronto Area who are not part of U2_GTA and who might be members here wondering about U2 Tour Rumors for the Toronto area.

Pass over info and disregard it if you feel the need to do so, but don't do it at the risk of offending someone just because they are NEW. It implies that we count far less.
 
Wow...much ado about nothing.

DaveC has a point, we've been a little more critical of "inside info" in the past couple months after the Dalkey Beach fiasco.

However, there was no question that Shono was just tossing out an idea. It was a "tour rumors" thread, and the post was filled with qualifiers like "my guess is..." People need to chill out and stop biting off the heads of our newbies. Having thousands of posts doesn't make you more important, or your opinions more valid.

-Mike
 
I moved this to Don't Expect, Suggest area - not sure that this is even the best fit for it but I think it will get more traffic here than in Discoteque. I do agree that sometimes us oldbies can be too harsh with the newbies - we all could use a reminder to think before we post, but also remember to try not to read too much into things either, it can be difficult to interpret the tone.
 
Macfistowannabe said:
Don't take martha too seriously, me and her disagree on almost everything.

Because you disagree with Martha on most things, you tell other people not to take her seriously? :confused:

No offense but I disagree with you on almost everything too, I just don't reply to most of it. Should I not take you seriously because we have differing points of view?
 
I said not to take her too seriously, meaning if she calls you a newbie, it's not like we all dislike you. Yes, people are more than welcome to disagree with me, I'm all for that. I basically don't want to give new people a bad impression, that's my concern. Of course I might take martha seriously at times, I don't let the slightest thing get on my nerves. I hope I've elaborated enough for our own good.
 
I don't know what happened here and I am not involved. But I will tell you that some of us 'with thousands of posts' have become skeptical of the actual newness of newbies. See, there have been so many people here who get banned and make new names, or regular posters who make aliases to say things they don't have the guts to say under their main name, or people making extra names just to goof around. So there is always doubt if a newbie is really someone new or someone trying to trick us. The recent 'fake Edge' thing made us even more afraid of trusting and being taken. So don't take it personally.
 
To EVERYONE at Interference.com,

I cannot stress enough that I DO understand the skeptical nature people have developed. I can also see that there isn't any real barrier to keep those evicted members from returning in another form. I can also see where long time members, familiar with past occurrences might be suspicious that those "new" former members might be hiding in the wings ready to throw a bogus bit of info onto a thread, spinning everything out of control again.

I understand it, but I don't have to like/accept it.

You should all be commended for your dedication to this site and to your love of U2. Through out all of this, that has been evident. You need to accept you aren't alone in your support and dedication to U2. We are members of a common cause, and we share to keep each other in the loop.

What I cannot accept is that because bad info has entered the "pipe" in the past, you scrutinize ALL the "newbies" and paint us ALL with the same dirty brush. It comes off as being very exclusive. It comes off looking very "High School". As much as you might not see it that way, you discourage all of the legitimate newbies on this site from trying to become validated, meaningful members.

To criticize a contribution publicly, and justify the criticism simply because the contributor is new, seems like a week rational. Not every new poster is a liar. Hell, most of us just want to participate. Had my post contained guaranteed dates, verified sources, or had I made comments that were unrealistic then I should have been taken to task or ignored. I agree with that. In this case, I just passed info on within a U2 Tour "RUMOR" forum. New poster or Old, it shouldn't matter, as it is a rumor forum and this was pure speculation.

Further more, after I took Martha to task on this I was told that it wasn't so much the content as the attitude of those posters who come off sounding like "they know something you don't know". This excuse just validated my feelings that this wasn't so much about past "mis-information" but illustrated an elitist clique mentality. Directed at me or not, it only serves to discourage new posters like me from bothering to participate or care. I hope that isn't the intent.

Perhaps my little "crusade" for the newbies has given rise to suspicions about me. Let me assure you that I am IN NO WAY looking to disrupt the balance of this community. I am not looking to pass false hope or make false promises to ANYONE. I am one U2 fan, from Canada, who wants to participate without being questioned based on the number of my posts or the presence of a premium membership.

I have nothing to hide. I just want to try to soften some of the stereotypes and misconceptions that seem to exist here.

" I just gotta let ya know..." all newbies are not created equal.

To Martha, :hug: Peace!
 
i actually have noticed the opposite....and i mentioned it during the whole "edge" fiasco. i'm pretty new here too, however i understand that it is like going to a new school for the first time. groups of friends have already been established. it's like the simpsons; nelson would always pick on the new kid first before bart/milhouse...even though he clearly loves bullying those two as well! taking that into consideration, it's really cool that people with 10 posts and 5000 posts both respect what i have to say. and it really surprised me at first how accepting the majority of people are here. maybe it's because i haven't had a bad experience yet....but i think this little "controversy" resulted because of a difference in opinion about speculation, not simply "newbie" hate.
 
Even folk with thousands of posts are still treated like shit around here.

Dont let it bother you Shono. If you have an issue with someone else being as you describe, then you are already in a better position than they.
 
take it from angela, she'd know. :sigh:

i'm sorry you've had a rough time over in EYKIW--tensions are running high with the new album and tour stuff, people are testy and anxious, and there's a lot of animosity in there. it's worse than Free Your Mind right now. :crazy:

i hope this experience doesn't discourage you from sticking around. i'm from canada and relatively new around here, too. :wave:
 
Thanks folks!

This issue is now put to bed. There is only so many ways to beat a dead horse. I think people either get the message I was trying to convey, or they could care less. The situation was unfortunate, and in the end we really need to continue to come together and tollerate each other.

Remeber, we are here because we love U2. I think it's best we always keep that in mind when we are here.

Peace to all :hug:
 
Whether you're the first person to have registered here or the most recent, it doesn't matter to me. Everybody starts out with a clean slate with me. I will be kind to somebody until he or she gives me reason not to be. If there is a way to remedy the situation, I'll try. If that doesn't work, then I'll just bugger off and move on.
 
I was never treated with disrespect here, but I also never felt part of the interference family either. People who have met each other or have posted a lot, I guess they have strong ties now.

I think everywhere, not just on this forum, there will always be cliques. I have been around here for a long time, but remained a lurker for some of those reasons. It still hasn't stopped me from enjoying reading the posts.

I hope Shono that you will be able to find your place here, being a newbie should not be an issue. All that mathers is that we're all U2 fans.

Take care,
Talie
 
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Shono,
I've been around listening to U2 since 1981. Going to shows since the War tour in 83.

Martha is ok and wasn't dismissing your information as inaccurate but not substaniated yet by a tour schdule.
That's all. I've met Martha in real life and she's ok:hug:
U2 will probably be in T/O this March.
They have an interest in what's going on in that town.

Do not count your chickens before they hatch as I've seen them scrap and modify tour plans a few days before an annoucement in the past.
So we will have to wait and see.:hmm:

It's very aggravating sometimes watching ppl slap ppl around and other ppl get their panties in a wad.:angry:
http://members.aol.com/diamondbruno9/Dave_BONO_04.jpg

As you said Shono aren't we here for the music?
peace
out
db9
:)
 
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This reminds me of 2001... when people wanted to start some sort of revolution and dethrone Elvis or something like that... ahhh, the good old times.
 
U2@NYC said:
This reminds me of 2001... when people wanted to start some sort of revolution and dethrone Elvis or something like that... ahhh, the good old times.

Elvis is the last person who will ever be dethroned, since he can pull the plug on the servers. ;)

I think we all need to relax a bit. And, yes, that includes me, at times. I think we all really need to remember not to take this place too seriously and that "fun" should be the main reason we post here anymore.

Melon
 
though I tend to agree I think the relax and have fun aspects are misused on the internet quite a bit to pretend some horrible behaviour towards other people didn't happen
 
I think there can be several instances of "horrible behavior"-that's the nature of some human beings I suppose.

As for me, I prefer "wallflowers". The "life of the party" types can be quite annoying.

I don't care how long someone has been here or how many posts they have.
 
Salome said:
though I tend to agree I think the relax and have fun aspects are misused on the internet quite a bit to pretend some horrible behaviour towards other people didn't happen

:up:

People really love to jab you then deny it and try to make you look like a fool, and it usually works because the average poster doesn't know the background or the whole story. I also hate the 'just a joke' and 'chill out' stuff. People know damn well when they're being shitty. People who take entertainment from trying to upset others for sport are the sickest piles of shit in the world. (this has nothing to do with the original subject matter of this thread.)
 
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