those who feel they can say whatever they want behind the curtain of an annonymous internet profile will always at times get very brave and say things they would never dream of in person
there is no reason to expect any more or less from archinect
and it is just as pathetic hiding behind internet anonymity here as it is everywhere else
i really am not bothered by vapidity. thats fine. bimbos can be nice people. what bothers me more is the occasional surge of racism and hatred of other peoples subtle or otherwise, often expressed by quite intelligent people and often in the guise of warranted criticism of these people. concurring with fp, i'm fine with sadness and melancholy as well. these are regular human feelings. you want to be happy all the time, buy yourself a sex drug and a sex toy.
Although I could reveal my identity here, I choose not to because it makes my screen name like a pseudonym, and similar to the way famous writers use them, anonymity gives me more freedom in what I can write...Emilio then being an alter-ego: like me but not exactly me. (It's funny, though, that there's a post up right now on J.D. Salinger, who wrote about phonies...I wonder if he had a secret pseudonym).
most of you guys here are different than i, meaning you are anonymous.
when i go to architectural community, academy, social events i am a known duck, a goose, a thief, a cook and even a lover.
i am not saying this to prove or shine anything but simply walk you through another place, opposite of anonymity.
i should stop posting here because it is not fair to me. you guys see me. but since you are invisible, i have to use a lot of imagination based on what you have written. i am like the blind person who has to excel on his other registrative and analytical abilities, deal with a public image, and function with it in the actual world. for me the link is open both ways.
it has gotten to a point that i can't even have an alias because people recognize me from my particular writing accent and it is against my grain to fake whole other personas and that would be a monumental multi personality trip for which i don't have time and money.
i have an another pen persona which overlaps with me. i have developed it not for hiding my id but more like a fictional character, he writes short episodes from slightly exaggerated life of orhan. he is a well known (mostly in archinect) alter ego who is an award winning international architect hero to many. so, i know what it is like to be invisible from my own past.
i don't want to say it too loudly, but most people hide their real life person because you think this place is less than where your real life exists.
with my blind eyes i also see the following;
to some, this is a place where you can piss in public, sometimes onto my beautiful and hybrid culture... there is nothing i can do other than deal with your dark invisible persona and hatred, with your fearful, repressed and angry alter ego, with your unabashed rudeness and clumsy unromantic unhappiness.
these are the negative ones. those, i send congratulations e-mail when they get their architecture license.
to some other few, i am your fucking money shot face. you cum on me. these are the pornographic ones. but they pay. they come with the territory... it is a living, doing the dirty job.
and still yet, there are some multiple personality cases, who double or triple up on me in gestapo costumes and tell me to shut up and tell me what to write, and what to think, and how to talk, and where to live.
these are the violent ones. but i hold a mirror to their face or hold a cross and repel them...
and sometimes i get e mails saying, "i am not so and so and i am your friend but i can't show myself in your street because i might lose my job and social status or lose my reputation as a respectable architect for posting in a juvenile place that is waste of my real name's time...
i am really afraid i might say the wrong thing, as superman and i don't want to make mistakes because i am perfect.
signed: 'your name.'
this is their linkdump, short stop in the blogosphere, 5 minute coffee break, paid by the anonymous visa card that is discretely billed as business expense.
i don't know.. you are invisible...
but i am a nice guy and i still like to think the overwhelming majority of people here whose posts are really stimulating and knowledgeable, funny, human, giving, generous and who perhaps didn't make the initial mistake of going public like i did and who still have an option to disappear unscratched.
that is why i am not looking for a scape goat in 'anonymity.'
i will now repeat what i said in my very first post in this thread which drew some angry responses:
The screen names come and go but what you build up and say.., remain.
Although you don't pay in monetary terms, the membership and time at the lectern in this forum is not free.
And, your posts eventually show how much you have paid for your membership and how much your opinions and contributions worth.
here is some 'food for thought' or something to 'make you vomit.' enjoy the previous, and please don't do it on my tie if latter.
now i will go to boring and distructive thread central and talk to the people whom i know and see, to find out how their day went by, eat their pie and pet their dogs.
I kind of assume that more than a few people who patronize these boards know who I am IRL.. I went to school with enough of 'em. I, however, choose not to disclose my name to those who may not know, since to do so would require me to give up playing here during downtime at work....
I should clarify: I don't mind if people choose to remain anonymous; there are all kinds of legitimate reasons to not out yourself, for the reason I said above: architecture is a small community.
But hiding behind anonymity to be a jerk to others is just selfish. Though it does feel good to vent, and a well-written, nuanced rant can sure spark the empathy in everyone reading!
for the record, i've always assumed orhan and liberty bell faked their real identities on archinect. how would we ever know? i think you all are as anonymous as anyone. i don't honestly feel as though i know you, or anything tangible about you. i would never run around on the street and go "oh, i know _____." and i also believe that it is as the opposite of what you say: that people hide their real life person because they think their real life is less than what they can make it seem to be in this place. from sim city to second life, the virtual world is full of such things.
hey Orhan, i can sympathize. i've lived in saudi arabia and now in the uae where homosexuality, i'm sure you know, is illegal. yet, i have profiles that contain quite clear pictures of me on gay sites, navigatable to those with hotspot sheilds and to the..well..police should they choose to browse through. once someone chooses to be visible (and i mean a clear shot of the face, not the ass) s/he occupies both a site of power (casual self-confidence) and of danger: s/he can not only be victimized by the police, which is a real danger, but also by the snarkiness and bitterness of some anonymous members of the community (in real and cyber time). i guess i've managed to be slippery so far; many gay people in the middle east exquisitely fine tune the caliber of their anonymity to suit the context. as for archinect, for me personally, being anonymous allows me, or is due to:
1- to have a responsible rationalized opinion without having to justify it through my persona and its background or features.
2- the fact that this place is, pragmatically, not useful to me either in networking , professionally and personally. there is a huge geographical rift that i'm not interested in crossing anyways. i will not care to make friends either. therefore, its a question of functionality. my trivial 'coming out' lacks a function. i believe you, orhan, however, are living in the epicentre of the archinect engine. you have much to gain, on many levels. what you lose is really trivial because you lose it with people you don't care for or respect in the first place.
3- if i retain this veil, i can allow myself to change and alter as a cyber personality in keeping with the quite effective changes that happen to my real time personality. i don't know about others, but i change often and i do not wish to be weighed down by backward-cast eyes...not because in someway they would pin me down to certain responsibilities as much as that their absence allows me to actually be a freer, less pinned down, presence here.
of course, this is not to say i haven't in ways gained from being around archinectors. the functionality i refer to pertains only to the question of anonymity. i also know that, whether its done intentionally or not and whether they know it or not, most people here will not be able to discuss matters with a complete non-american non-western world citizen, as self-professed by that individual, as they would with someone whom they might assume as being on par with them simply due to their intellectual and linguistic skills. as such, anonymity saves me from both the patronizing "buddha bar" mentality of even those who might be amicable and sweet natured.
hey tammuz! you actually did want to give me some recognize you by after all. how nice.
while i haven't missed your primary-school-worthy manipulation of my non-fictitious name, i have missed your beautiful and romantically cynical writing.
Ohran, I really want to respond to your last post, but most of it is too eloquent to really pick apart or quibble with...nice bit of writing.
I'll just comment on one thing you wrote:
i don't want to say it too loudly, but most people hide their real life person because you think this place is less than where your real life exists.
I'll speak for myself, 'cause that's all I can really do: I'm anonymous here not because I think Archinect is less than real life; in some ways I think it's even a little more than real life...and I don't know if I can explain why. I really respect and admire that many people here are conversing with people they know, people they have stood together with, shared food and drink with, and consider friends.
I have chosen not to take that extra step with anyone here not because I don't think I would enjoy their personal company or even be pleased to have them as a friend. But knowing someone comes with burdens, too. The moment you meet someone in person, the game changes: the eye and the brain scan and decide and judge: who is this person, how are they dressed, how do they stand, how do they look at me, what have they achieved, what is their place in the game, in the power structure, are they above me or below me? I go through that daily dance, everyone does, but Archinect gives one the chance to set some of that aside for one moment of the day. When I come here I only read and think about what someone has written, free of the immediate judgment that comes with the face-to-face.
Honestly, I don't really "see you" in your day to day life: in fact, I try to stay away from member profiles, looking up their web sites, trying to know the intimate details of their biography, and I do this intentionally, because I want to come to the discussions with a light and free attitude. Hmmm...it's a bit hard to explain, but as an analogy, I could compare it to a person from a little town moving to a large city (and I speak from direct experience here). For that person, the little town life might have been claustrophobic, proscribed, pinched by the fact that everyone knew him, knew his childhood, his parents, his every move, and already had slotted him into who they thought he was. Moving to a big city suddenly freed him: his anonymity gave him the ability to expand and grow into what he might want to become, without the constant judging eyes of a little town.
Now, I understand that there is an imbalance here: some people are anonymous, some are not. I would frankly prefer that it were all one or the other, but I don't see that that the mix has hurt the level of intelligent discussion at this forum all that much (and here I exclude the abusers whose different categories of vulturism you described above).
One of the reasons that I started posting, 5 years ago now, under an anonymous handle, and a LOT, is because Archinect filled a void for me, a void of community that I hadn't had since college and that I missed tremendously.
One of the reasons I continued posting anonymously is because I began to see how easy it was for people to find each other on the internet, and Archinect's general lack of moderation meant there was always some profanity or other strong language around that I didn't necessarily want to be associated with.
One of the reasons that I stopped posting at the high rate that I used to - actually I went on hiatus and still only drop by occasionally - was because frankly I got tired of every discussion devolving into accusations of who's racist, and who's profane, etc. And I don't like being a Troll Herder. I suspect a lot of other people don't either.
I think we were promised changes to the site a very long time ago that we thought might fix some of the structural problems that open us up to having to deal with trolls or otherwise unhelpful and unfriendly characters. Those changes never happened except for in our own imagination, so does that somehow make the site a more frustrating, self-loathing place? I don't know. But I certainly don't spend as much time here as I used to. Or maybe I've just found other ways to spend my time.
Also, I'm not sure if you guys realize this, but way back when, this is the type of thread that would have gotten deleted by the Big Green Floating Head. It was nothing personal, except the rule was "you can talk about anything ON Archinect EXCEPT Archinect". Ironic, no?
It is said that if you put 100 monkeys in a room with 100 typewriters, eventually one of them will bang out some Shakespeare. Interestingly if you put 100 CADmonkeys in a room with 100 internet-connected PC's all you will ever get is 100 older, more bitter, and angrier CADmonkeys. I offer as proof the entire current discussion section of Archinect. Enjoy your throwing of feces at one another, CADmonkeys.
I am Crabcakes (AKA Leon Phelps and 100 other aliases during the Pimpin' Architecture days) and I approved this message.
this thread is silly - archinect is absolutely no different no than it was in the pimpin' days - except there is more traffic. there is always a percentage of jackasses, whiners, students asking obvious questions, etc.
myself, my career is doing just great right now - i don't post very often because i'm busy.
If you want a more serious, respectful, and content-rich Archinect experience, stick to the News section and the school blogs. The stuff going on there is a lot less frivolous, and more topic-focused than what you get in the discussions. The great thing about the 'nect is that all those options are open to you: if you find one to be generally distasteful, you don't have to click on it.
when i was an undergrad i was surrounded by forward thinking artistic types who's politics were firmly rooted in the left. when i went to grad school in architecture i was surrounded and comforted by the same kinds of people. people who read books who had ideals about making the world a better place or who believed in the power of art and design. very positive experience. as i moved into the "real" world, however, it became harder and harder to find these environments. the jobs i found were actually in firms that had republicans in them. people who praised right wing ideologues who i considered fascists. i was surprised to find all of these conservative thinkers in a profession that i deemed a progressive one. silly me.
i think that archinect allows many different views on the discussion boards and because of that, people who may think the way i once thought, that architects were a progressive lot and being an architect was a calling rather than a paycheck, can see that, in fact it isn't. the architecture student or the person who is considering becoming an architect, after say getting their degree in philosophy, will see here that architecture is not a monolithic block of progressive thinking, but an industry filled with the same amount of dullards that populate any other group of people.
If you want a more serious, respectful, and content-rich Archinect experience, stick to the News section and the school blogs.
not to specifically defend the discussions forum or anything, but much, and i mean most, of the school blogs section is equally 'trivial' for anyone except students interested in attending these schools and the rare individuals interested in architectural pedagogy: the tutor gave me this to do, we researched the anatomy of frogs, and i came up with this newt of a concept...etc. and honestly, much of the news section i personally completely bypass. why should i give a shit if theres another new young firm doing mildly interesting work thats slightly skewed, lets in nice light and looks trendy and they present their images here with a really typical interview. they almost all look the same to me now. i'm not putting down those firms, of course, but perhaps what gets to me is the typical glibby method of presentation that underlines our consumption of news rather than anything else...rather than analyitical and critical thought. this doesn't onl;y happen in the news section of course; holz can spew countless images on the discussion forum as well. but...what is interesting about the discussion forum..is the omniexistent possibility that even a small trivial idea or question can snowball into quite a surprising and unexpected development of ideas and confrontation thereof. it is, of course, an equal possibility, maybe even a high probability, that it will dissipate or dwindle back, into trivial skirmishes then silence and death. a thread almost never collects itself into one resolved end. unlike the more inert news or school blogs section, the forum is a more imbalanced rather violent arena of wrestling forces. each thread that might exhibit a certain interesting strand within it (fr example, the subjectmatter of the thread itself can be quite boring, for me, but a new introduction or a certain nuance can lead to a bifurcation) mighr invite a new virginal possibility for the confrontation of nubile ideas. forum = one night stands with its excitement of confrontations, where action will seduce, cajole, spank,etc to solicit a reaction. the chain is unpredictably linked.
the more formal areas of archinect are more akin to marriage. contractual, formalized, the end is contained within the beginning, formulaic...etc.
I do feel that it should less anonymous. while i do not blast my name as my user name. I do have a link to our website in my profile. Read: if you want to find out who i am i have always made it pretty easy.
I look at this as a professional site - where profanity, racisim and plain stupidity should not be tolerated. i always try to offer candid opinions about my slice of the architecture profession and i hope that it has been helpful. We all may not agree but that is our privilege.
Today i have been debating, and asking opinions in the"unpaid internship" thread. For my view i was threatened of being blacklisted on the pimpingyourarchitect as an exploiter of interns.
Worse, the upset person had not read the entire thread and jumped to the wrong conclusion. I will say he/she later apologized for the for the remark.
Because of this I now have to give my involvement in Archinect pause. I did not like the idea of my professional livelihood being jeopardized by an anonymous user making accusations based on assumptions.
There has to be better policies and repercussions in place.
I'd suggest keeping things anonymous for that reason... I'm all for owning up to what you say, but there is always the risk of an unbalanced and unfair separation between those who reveal their identities and those who remain anonymous... In some regard, I think it makes sense to remain anonymous anyway... I think maintaining anonymity allows for free discussion without the problems that you encountered and I think there are places for open unanonymous discussion, but this is just a different kind of medium...
I actually don't think the forum benefits from revealing real life professional identities... I think it actually complicates things... There are only so many places you can speak frankly, and people can openly raise discussions affecting our profession at large without being unfairly reprimanded for opinions...
Btw, you have a good perspective on the unpaid internship thread... I think it's important to look at it from the perspective of someone actually faced with making difficult and real decisions... I really appreciated your counter point as a point of discussion... I think sometimes though, people don't read carefully and overreact in an emotional way... There's no way of predicting how anonymous posters might react, so for that reason I think it's better not to tie forum identity officially to professional identity... But I hope you'll continue to make use of the forums, your contributions are valuable!
Archinect, Attitude and the Future.
this forum is like any other forum on the web
those who feel they can say whatever they want behind the curtain of an annonymous internet profile will always at times get very brave and say things they would never dream of in person
there is no reason to expect any more or less from archinect
and it is just as pathetic hiding behind internet anonymity here as it is everywhere else
i really am not bothered by vapidity. thats fine. bimbos can be nice people. what bothers me more is the occasional surge of racism and hatred of other peoples subtle or otherwise, often expressed by quite intelligent people and often in the guise of warranted criticism of these people. concurring with fp, i'm fine with sadness and melancholy as well. these are regular human feelings. you want to be happy all the time, buy yourself a sex drug and a sex toy.
Although I could reveal my identity here, I choose not to because it makes my screen name like a pseudonym, and similar to the way famous writers use them, anonymity gives me more freedom in what I can write...Emilio then being an alter-ego: like me but not exactly me. (It's funny, though, that there's a post up right now on J.D. Salinger, who wrote about phonies...I wonder if he had a secret pseudonym).
and it's only pathetic to be anonymous if you do in fact abuse it by being racist, abusive, and generally insulting.
"and it's only pathetic to be anonymous if you do in fact abuse it by being racist, abusive, and generally insulting."
that is what i meant
and i agree
annonimity shmanonimity. my friends call me Bossman, thus you call me "Le Bossman"
do your friends say it with a Jamaican accent? Say yes.
thanks liberty but as you can tell I watched Bill and Ted's excellent adventure far too much
most of you guys here are different than i, meaning you are anonymous.
when i go to architectural community, academy, social events i am a known duck, a goose, a thief, a cook and even a lover.
i am not saying this to prove or shine anything but simply walk you through another place, opposite of anonymity.
i should stop posting here because it is not fair to me. you guys see me. but since you are invisible, i have to use a lot of imagination based on what you have written. i am like the blind person who has to excel on his other registrative and analytical abilities, deal with a public image, and function with it in the actual world. for me the link is open both ways.
it has gotten to a point that i can't even have an alias because people recognize me from my particular writing accent and it is against my grain to fake whole other personas and that would be a monumental multi personality trip for which i don't have time and money.
i have an another pen persona which overlaps with me. i have developed it not for hiding my id but more like a fictional character, he writes short episodes from slightly exaggerated life of orhan. he is a well known (mostly in archinect) alter ego who is an award winning international architect hero to many. so, i know what it is like to be invisible from my own past.
i don't want to say it too loudly, but most people hide their real life person because you think this place is less than where your real life exists.
with my blind eyes i also see the following;
to some, this is a place where you can piss in public, sometimes onto my beautiful and hybrid culture... there is nothing i can do other than deal with your dark invisible persona and hatred, with your fearful, repressed and angry alter ego, with your unabashed rudeness and clumsy unromantic unhappiness.
these are the negative ones. those, i send congratulations e-mail when they get their architecture license.
to some other few, i am your fucking money shot face. you cum on me. these are the pornographic ones. but they pay. they come with the territory... it is a living, doing the dirty job.
and still yet, there are some multiple personality cases, who double or triple up on me in gestapo costumes and tell me to shut up and tell me what to write, and what to think, and how to talk, and where to live.
these are the violent ones. but i hold a mirror to their face or hold a cross and repel them...
and sometimes i get e mails saying, "i am not so and so and i am your friend but i can't show myself in your street because i might lose my job and social status or lose my reputation as a respectable architect for posting in a juvenile place that is waste of my real name's time...
i am really afraid i might say the wrong thing, as superman and i don't want to make mistakes because i am perfect.
signed: 'your name.'
this is their linkdump, short stop in the blogosphere, 5 minute coffee break, paid by the anonymous visa card that is discretely billed as business expense.
i don't know.. you are invisible...
but i am a nice guy and i still like to think the overwhelming majority of people here whose posts are really stimulating and knowledgeable, funny, human, giving, generous and who perhaps didn't make the initial mistake of going public like i did and who still have an option to disappear unscratched.
that is why i am not looking for a scape goat in 'anonymity.'
i will now repeat what i said in my very first post in this thread which drew some angry responses:
The screen names come and go but what you build up and say.., remain.
Although you don't pay in monetary terms, the membership and time at the lectern in this forum is not free.
And, your posts eventually show how much you have paid for your membership and how much your opinions and contributions worth.
here is some 'food for thought' or something to 'make you vomit.' enjoy the previous, and please don't do it on my tie if latter.
now i will go to boring and distructive thread central and talk to the people whom i know and see, to find out how their day went by, eat their pie and pet their dogs.
I kind of assume that more than a few people who patronize these boards know who I am IRL.. I went to school with enough of 'em. I, however, choose not to disclose my name to those who may not know, since to do so would require me to give up playing here during downtime at work....
I should clarify: I don't mind if people choose to remain anonymous; there are all kinds of legitimate reasons to not out yourself, for the reason I said above: architecture is a small community.
But hiding behind anonymity to be a jerk to others is just selfish. Though it does feel good to vent, and a well-written, nuanced rant can sure spark the empathy in everyone reading!
Orhan, lovely as always.
ranting is fine
anonymity is fine
that is the beauty of the internet
using your anonymity to be a jerk is a waste of your own and everyone elses time
and when decent conversations are derailed for pages on end because of a couple people who obviously know what they are doing, gets old really fast
for the record, i've always assumed orhan and liberty bell faked their real identities on archinect. how would we ever know? i think you all are as anonymous as anyone. i don't honestly feel as though i know you, or anything tangible about you. i would never run around on the street and go "oh, i know _____." and i also believe that it is as the opposite of what you say: that people hide their real life person because they think their real life is less than what they can make it seem to be in this place. from sim city to second life, the virtual world is full of such things.
hey Orhan, i can sympathize. i've lived in saudi arabia and now in the uae where homosexuality, i'm sure you know, is illegal. yet, i have profiles that contain quite clear pictures of me on gay sites, navigatable to those with hotspot sheilds and to the..well..police should they choose to browse through. once someone chooses to be visible (and i mean a clear shot of the face, not the ass) s/he occupies both a site of power (casual self-confidence) and of danger: s/he can not only be victimized by the police, which is a real danger, but also by the snarkiness and bitterness of some anonymous members of the community (in real and cyber time). i guess i've managed to be slippery so far; many gay people in the middle east exquisitely fine tune the caliber of their anonymity to suit the context. as for archinect, for me personally, being anonymous allows me, or is due to:
1- to have a responsible rationalized opinion without having to justify it through my persona and its background or features.
2- the fact that this place is, pragmatically, not useful to me either in networking , professionally and personally. there is a huge geographical rift that i'm not interested in crossing anyways. i will not care to make friends either. therefore, its a question of functionality. my trivial 'coming out' lacks a function. i believe you, orhan, however, are living in the epicentre of the archinect engine. you have much to gain, on many levels. what you lose is really trivial because you lose it with people you don't care for or respect in the first place.
3- if i retain this veil, i can allow myself to change and alter as a cyber personality in keeping with the quite effective changes that happen to my real time personality. i don't know about others, but i change often and i do not wish to be weighed down by backward-cast eyes...not because in someway they would pin me down to certain responsibilities as much as that their absence allows me to actually be a freer, less pinned down, presence here.
of course, this is not to say i haven't in ways gained from being around archinectors. the functionality i refer to pertains only to the question of anonymity. i also know that, whether its done intentionally or not and whether they know it or not, most people here will not be able to discuss matters with a complete non-american non-western world citizen, as self-professed by that individual, as they would with someone whom they might assume as being on par with them simply due to their intellectual and linguistic skills. as such, anonymity saves me from both the patronizing "buddha bar" mentality of even those who might be amicable and sweet natured.
(cont'd) and from those weilding the race-brush that jack clunkus speaks of.
On archinect, the main currency that builds our community has been intelligence, wit, erudition, & altruism.
and yes, Barry Lehrman is an alter ego and fictitious name to shield my real identity.
hey tammuz! you actually did want to give me some recognize you by after all. how nice.
while i haven't missed your primary-school-worthy manipulation of my non-fictitious name, i have missed your beautiful and romantically cynical writing.
welcome back!
Ohran, I really want to respond to your last post, but most of it is too eloquent to really pick apart or quibble with...nice bit of writing.
I'll just comment on one thing you wrote:
i don't want to say it too loudly, but most people hide their real life person because you think this place is less than where your real life exists.
I'll speak for myself, 'cause that's all I can really do: I'm anonymous here not because I think Archinect is less than real life; in some ways I think it's even a little more than real life...and I don't know if I can explain why. I really respect and admire that many people here are conversing with people they know, people they have stood together with, shared food and drink with, and consider friends.
I have chosen not to take that extra step with anyone here not because I don't think I would enjoy their personal company or even be pleased to have them as a friend. But knowing someone comes with burdens, too. The moment you meet someone in person, the game changes: the eye and the brain scan and decide and judge: who is this person, how are they dressed, how do they stand, how do they look at me, what have they achieved, what is their place in the game, in the power structure, are they above me or below me? I go through that daily dance, everyone does, but Archinect gives one the chance to set some of that aside for one moment of the day. When I come here I only read and think about what someone has written, free of the immediate judgment that comes with the face-to-face.
Honestly, I don't really "see you" in your day to day life: in fact, I try to stay away from member profiles, looking up their web sites, trying to know the intimate details of their biography, and I do this intentionally, because I want to come to the discussions with a light and free attitude. Hmmm...it's a bit hard to explain, but as an analogy, I could compare it to a person from a little town moving to a large city (and I speak from direct experience here). For that person, the little town life might have been claustrophobic, proscribed, pinched by the fact that everyone knew him, knew his childhood, his parents, his every move, and already had slotted him into who they thought he was. Moving to a big city suddenly freed him: his anonymity gave him the ability to expand and grow into what he might want to become, without the constant judging eyes of a little town.
Now, I understand that there is an imbalance here: some people are anonymous, some are not. I would frankly prefer that it were all one or the other, but I don't see that that the mix has hurt the level of intelligent discussion at this forum all that much (and here I exclude the abusers whose different categories of vulturism you described above).
Emilio, very nice post, and excellent explanation of why staying anonymous has its benefits.
Free to be you and me, everyone.
One of the reasons that I started posting, 5 years ago now, under an anonymous handle, and a LOT, is because Archinect filled a void for me, a void of community that I hadn't had since college and that I missed tremendously.
One of the reasons I continued posting anonymously is because I began to see how easy it was for people to find each other on the internet, and Archinect's general lack of moderation meant there was always some profanity or other strong language around that I didn't necessarily want to be associated with.
One of the reasons that I stopped posting at the high rate that I used to - actually I went on hiatus and still only drop by occasionally - was because frankly I got tired of every discussion devolving into accusations of who's racist, and who's profane, etc. And I don't like being a Troll Herder. I suspect a lot of other people don't either.
I think we were promised changes to the site a very long time ago that we thought might fix some of the structural problems that open us up to having to deal with trolls or otherwise unhelpful and unfriendly characters. Those changes never happened except for in our own imagination, so does that somehow make the site a more frustrating, self-loathing place? I don't know. But I certainly don't spend as much time here as I used to. Or maybe I've just found other ways to spend my time.
Also, I'm not sure if you guys realize this, but way back when, this is the type of thread that would have gotten deleted by the Big Green Floating Head. It was nothing personal, except the rule was "you can talk about anything ON Archinect EXCEPT Archinect". Ironic, no?
"damned if you do, damned if you don't"
"damned if you do, damned if you don't"
It is said that if you put 100 monkeys in a room with 100 typewriters, eventually one of them will bang out some Shakespeare. Interestingly if you put 100 CADmonkeys in a room with 100 internet-connected PC's all you will ever get is 100 older, more bitter, and angrier CADmonkeys. I offer as proof the entire current discussion section of Archinect. Enjoy your throwing of feces at one another, CADmonkeys.
I am Crabcakes (AKA Leon Phelps and 100 other aliases during the Pimpin' Architecture days) and I approved this message.
i don't think this is an archinect-only problem.
see: why are you so terribly disappointing?
this thread is silly - archinect is absolutely no different no than it was in the pimpin' days - except there is more traffic. there is always a percentage of jackasses, whiners, students asking obvious questions, etc.
myself, my career is doing just great right now - i don't post very often because i'm busy.
Glad to hear it, agfa8x! And I agree with you.
If you want a more serious, respectful, and content-rich Archinect experience, stick to the News section and the school blogs. The stuff going on there is a lot less frivolous, and more topic-focused than what you get in the discussions. The great thing about the 'nect is that all those options are open to you: if you find one to be generally distasteful, you don't have to click on it.
when i was an undergrad i was surrounded by forward thinking artistic types who's politics were firmly rooted in the left. when i went to grad school in architecture i was surrounded and comforted by the same kinds of people. people who read books who had ideals about making the world a better place or who believed in the power of art and design. very positive experience. as i moved into the "real" world, however, it became harder and harder to find these environments. the jobs i found were actually in firms that had republicans in them. people who praised right wing ideologues who i considered fascists. i was surprised to find all of these conservative thinkers in a profession that i deemed a progressive one. silly me.
i think that archinect allows many different views on the discussion boards and because of that, people who may think the way i once thought, that architects were a progressive lot and being an architect was a calling rather than a paycheck, can see that, in fact it isn't. the architecture student or the person who is considering becoming an architect, after say getting their degree in philosophy, will see here that architecture is not a monolithic block of progressive thinking, but an industry filled with the same amount of dullards that populate any other group of people.
if you find this threadf silly, why do you contribute (your silliness) to it? whining about whining.
not to specifically defend the discussions forum or anything, but much, and i mean most, of the school blogs section is equally 'trivial' for anyone except students interested in attending these schools and the rare individuals interested in architectural pedagogy: the tutor gave me this to do, we researched the anatomy of frogs, and i came up with this newt of a concept...etc. and honestly, much of the news section i personally completely bypass. why should i give a shit if theres another new young firm doing mildly interesting work thats slightly skewed, lets in nice light and looks trendy and they present their images here with a really typical interview. they almost all look the same to me now. i'm not putting down those firms, of course, but perhaps what gets to me is the typical glibby method of presentation that underlines our consumption of news rather than anything else...rather than analyitical and critical thought. this doesn't onl;y happen in the news section of course; holz can spew countless images on the discussion forum as well. but...what is interesting about the discussion forum..is the omniexistent possibility that even a small trivial idea or question can snowball into quite a surprising and unexpected development of ideas and confrontation thereof. it is, of course, an equal possibility, maybe even a high probability, that it will dissipate or dwindle back, into trivial skirmishes then silence and death. a thread almost never collects itself into one resolved end. unlike the more inert news or school blogs section, the forum is a more imbalanced rather violent arena of wrestling forces. each thread that might exhibit a certain interesting strand within it (fr example, the subjectmatter of the thread itself can be quite boring, for me, but a new introduction or a certain nuance can lead to a bifurcation) mighr invite a new virginal possibility for the confrontation of nubile ideas. forum = one night stands with its excitement of confrontations, where action will seduce, cajole, spank,etc to solicit a reaction. the chain is unpredictably linked.
the more formal areas of archinect are more akin to marriage. contractual, formalized, the end is contained within the beginning, formulaic...etc.
just contributing my perspective. if this was a private whining session in which outside views aren't welcome, sorry for interrupting.
Sorry if ive been ruining archinect since my arrival.
I am pretty thoroughly addicted to whippets right now. Good god is this shit AWESOME.
reminds me a lyric in this natalie portman rap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpMPFGBtE7Q
re: vado's post
many left-leaning student have rich right-leaning parents. the cycle of life.
I don't post here anonymously; I am actually a mouse, albeit a dexterous and literate one...
and for the landscapers out there we have:
http://www.land8lounge.com/forum/topics/tone-of-the-discussion-board
landscape architects are much more entertaining!
"unrelentingly post subtle anti-American, Anti-Business or anti-anything else"
I take offense to this.
I like this thread.
I do feel that it should less anonymous. while i do not blast my name as my user name. I do have a link to our website in my profile. Read: if you want to find out who i am i have always made it pretty easy.
I look at this as a professional site - where profanity, racisim and plain stupidity should not be tolerated. i always try to offer candid opinions about my slice of the architecture profession and i hope that it has been helpful. We all may not agree but that is our privilege.
Today i have been debating, and asking opinions in the"unpaid internship" thread. For my view i was threatened of being blacklisted on the pimpingyourarchitect as an exploiter of interns.
Worse, the upset person had not read the entire thread and jumped to the wrong conclusion. I will say he/she later apologized for the for the remark.
Because of this I now have to give my involvement in Archinect pause. I did not like the idea of my professional livelihood being jeopardized by an anonymous user making accusations based on assumptions.
There has to be better policies and repercussions in place.
I'd suggest keeping things anonymous for that reason... I'm all for owning up to what you say, but there is always the risk of an unbalanced and unfair separation between those who reveal their identities and those who remain anonymous... In some regard, I think it makes sense to remain anonymous anyway... I think maintaining anonymity allows for free discussion without the problems that you encountered and I think there are places for open unanonymous discussion, but this is just a different kind of medium...
I actually don't think the forum benefits from revealing real life professional identities... I think it actually complicates things... There are only so many places you can speak frankly, and people can openly raise discussions affecting our profession at large without being unfairly reprimanded for opinions...
Btw, you have a good perspective on the unpaid internship thread... I think it's important to look at it from the perspective of someone actually faced with making difficult and real decisions... I really appreciated your counter point as a point of discussion... I think sometimes though, people don't read carefully and overreact in an emotional way... There's no way of predicting how anonymous posters might react, so for that reason I think it's better not to tie forum identity officially to professional identity... But I hope you'll continue to make use of the forums, your contributions are valuable!
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.