Is it just photographers?

While browsing through these threads & on other photography sites, I've noticed that several people when answering a question on photography related topics, tend to get personal & insult others, just because they disagree with their answers or views. Is this unique to photographers or does it happen in any discussion forum? I haven't been a member here for very long & already have noticed some of the same individuals popping up with their smart ass answers to questions & basically just being a**holes with their replies. I've also noticed that some of the same individuals, while having many posts to their credit, rarely, if ever, actually post one of their own photographs for critique etc. I find it really annoying that when someone asks a simple question, that these people cannot give a simple answer without being insulting.

Welcome to the Internet!

Seriously, the behavior is prevalent in most photo forums, not just this one. Believe it or not, this place is very tame compared to some other popular forums.

Internet.

Lots of "armchair generals".

unfortunately, this is every discussion forum. for the most part i haven't run across many people on POTN doing that. this group is a pretty amazing group to work with. having said that, there are those with strong opinions, which can come across harshly.

i've belonged to other photo forums and left for the very behavior you describe, but i'm better for having left.

Thanks folks. I was expecting it to be across the board on the internet, but curiously, I found it to be more prevelant on photography forums that I visited lately. Thankfully 99.99% of people tend to be helpful.

I have to agree with Todd, this is one of the most tame forums I have ever be involved with. You should visit some of the construction-related forum's I belong to, talk about bitchy know-it-all "divas" and rude answers to legitimate questions. POTN is by far my favorite forum as far as professional and considerate behavior goes.

You even get that with people who don't believe in God

Apparently car forums are particularly bad. Computing Forums also rank right up there.

I agree that compared to some forums this one is generally pretty friendly.

However ....... I have to say that in the 12 months or so I've seen a lot of sarcasm and ramting at people for expressing their opinion here (thats what it is, after all). For the most part it seems to be from people that are fairly new to POTN.

So the question is, how do we maintain that "friendly" atmosphere here. When a lot of new people show up, just bought a DSLR and they post here they are really taken aback by the abrasiveness of some of the responses to their "stupid" questions.

In my opinion, people that just bought their first DSLR and log in to this forum are not denizens of all the other internet forums and don't understand the "divas" etc that we are all accustomed to.

Other than POTN, I belong to 3 or 4 other forums related to my profession and I've found for the most part they are pretty civil. So I have no experience with the stuff you guys have experienced.

Hopefully, the great mods we have and the high percentage of civil people will keep POTN as a great place to hang out.

Motocross forums are about as childish as they come, and snowmobile forums are not much better either.

Camera forums are bad, because its an elitist snob artsy type of thing, as opposed to a chest thumping "I'm the man" type of thing as the MX and sled forums have.

DJ forums are pretty bad, too... to the point where some call with death threats! o.O;;

Creative Types and "Engineers" have always come from different cuts of cloth so some conflict between "Artists" and "Gear Heads" should be expected.

Personally, the need to balance the two extremes is one of the things I find most fascinating about photography...

All forum, everywhere across the interwebs. I found that the more professional forums and the more tightly-knit forums tend to be a lot better. As others have said, I find POTN to be quite good in this regard.

Also, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of sarcasm, as long as it's not used offensively - just as with everything else.

Todd Lambert wrote in post #13493948
Welcome to the Internet!

Seriously, the behavior is prevalent in most photo forums, not just this one. Believe it or not, this place is very tame compared to some other popular forums.

All forums that are not moderated can get out of hand. This place is very good. I wish I had found it 6 years ago. My start was at DPreview. Good information but you had to pay the price to get it. If you asked a real rookie question you were often ignored. It is better in that regard now but is sure gets nasty there. They were asking for volunteer moderators a few months ago. It does not appear they were very successful.

Yeah. This forum is very tame compared to other "professional" forums. Any place where you get people comparing knowledge you get this. But nothing is as bad as the comments section of a news article on politics or religion.