Thursday, September 15, 2011

Logging Off TMP

I've been a member on The Miniatures Page since 2002, supporting and not supporting, but I've decided to part company with that forum.  Don't get me wrong, I believe it's a useful resource for our niche hobby, but times change, and so did TMP

The past few years have kept me busy and I've spent less time there with more commitments required to school.  However, there were more boards and more non-miniature related shenanigans going on which I found annoying.  Some of them I enjoyed-any talk about music or movies usually gets me blathering.  But there also seemed to be more of an edge to the posting, more needless nastiness that seemed unwarranted.  Sort of like American politics without the destruct button.

 The last straw for me, however was the harassment of a member through polls and in posts that I felt was completely unwarranted.  When the actions continued and reached their inevitable and ugly climax, I expressed my views in the forums and contacted the editor directly.  It was clear that this behavior of baiting and harassment was okay, and that was all I needed to be persuaded my time at TMP was over.

TMP wasn't always this way.  I've watched the editor ban others who were a pain.  I've seen him ban those who harassed him.  I've always believed him to be a fair and considerate person, but this latest issue leaves me with a different view. I've been a school teacher too long to condone such behavior with my support.  We're done here.

Note:  I've decided to backtrack on my decision to boycott TMP just a bit.  I have determined to post on blogs of war when I have something of significance to share, but I'm staying out of the forums.

6 comments:

Muskie said...

I've also chosen to leave hobby forums when I thought people have gotten out of hand. I've also left blogs too, as I put it in my most recent post on crap like this, "There is no 'FU' in 'Hobby'". It is embarrassing that some people share the same hobby and interests as me that are such ugly people...

Principals are important so is treating people well, too many people online and offline forget this.

The Angry Lurker said...

I've seen this and still visit for news but rarely get involved as somebody is always trolling, I've been the victim once or twice of a spiteful comment or two, use it now just for the blogs of war.

DeanM said...

I agree with you Kevin; but I'll still visit like Muski & AL - the hobby news is good; as well as searching for topics that I have questions on. More times than not, it's already been discussed to great detail. Best, Dean

P.S. being relatively new to the hobby, I've chanced upon really interesting topics and lines of figures I'd likely never known about.

Kevin said...

There are plenty of folks who will keep going back and I have no problem with it. This was just a choice I felt I had to make and I don't think any less of those who make a different one. I really appreciate your sharing guys.

Ted Henkle said...

Sorry to hear about your experiences on TMP. Like Angry Lurker said, I use it to check out other gaming blogs. Oh, and the Market Place. (Sorry for the late comment, I've just getting settled into my new home).

quindia said...

I did the same things, for exactly the same reason, back in April...

http://quindiastudios.blogspot.com/2011/04/goodbye-tmp.html