What is and isn't appropriate to say on the SSSS Disqus pages has been much on our collective mind lately.
Between Minna's comments with Page 300 and Harris Wilkens' position statement on p. 299 (which engendered a LOT of response -- luckily, nearly all kind and constructive), I thought it would be useful to capture some of that commentary here, as food for thought. (Besides, some of the comments -- such as Eich's -- were so eloquent about our community that I think they *need* to be archived for posterity.)
Note: Unlike our Fan-Forum, which has no *formal* relationship with SSSS, and whose Admin has set the content standards as (more or less) family-friendly, the SSSS Disqus pages are owned and administered by Minna herself.
Note 2: If anybody would rather not have his/her/its/zeir comments archived here, I'm happy to either delete or anonymize them. I don't mean to point to *anyone* as a bad example. I think the whole recent back-and-forth actually shows our fandom at its best, in handling controversy reasonably well.
Note 3: I will edit and expand on this post over the next couple of days, with the goal of fairly and accurately representing various viewpoints. However, I won't be able to fit in every last comment those threads produced. Eventually, I hope to synthesize this material into some easier-to-read guidelines about How to Behave on Minna's Disqus pages. (Beyond what she says on p. 300...)
HarrisWIlkens • a day agoAlright, does anyone here know the definition of being "Too Sweet"? Does anyone see how sickening this comment section is getting? All of the "Welcoming Trains" all of the "Cookie Giving" does no one else see how silly any of this is? It is just people babbling to babble. This has become too much of a safe spot. If that can even be a thing. I think it can.
I am not trying to condemn those of you who are being this way, because I cannot. But for heavens sake people, just look at what you are saying!
"Hmm, I wonder if it is Monday yet. * checks calendar * AaAAAaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaAhHHHHHHHHHHhhhHHHhh! Only. . . Saturday? * whimpers * first chapter break and I am nearly dead."
What is this? Why would anyone comment in such a manner? To have people relate to you? I guess that could be a reason for doing this...a feeble reason...
"*begins humming and spinning around you, dressed as a clown*"
This is just pointless and cringeworthy. Why? Why would you even do something like this? Of course the context is to reinforce something creepy said earlier on in the thread, but for heavens sake, it is just pointless. It fails at what it tries to do, and the others will only pretend to be scared, while they are just being polite.
"*pat pat*
There, there. I've just cooked up a batch of Calming Cookies!
*takes out a tray of cookies from the oven*
[whispers] they may or may not be made out of clowns...
*ahem* Freshly baked Calming Cookies
"
This started as a thread which was a welcoming party, which in itself is pointless, and has devolved into people agreeing with each other that clowns are scary, again and again. Also, again with the cookies. They serve no purpose but to reinforce the "Friendly Atmosphere".
"*burp* HhhHHhhh... *accordion noises*"
This is someone taking up a completely serviceable comment spot to emote their ridiculous response to someone else's statement.
There were 24 responses, (and counting) to someone commenting on how hard it is to wait for an update. This is absurd. I don't want to say circlejerk, but this comment section, in general, is the quintessence of the word.
We have our dear author trying to take our words into account by reading all of our comments. PLEASE try to make them worthwhile for her to read, otherwise, you may lose this form of community to author interaction.
If you are all that desperate for friends, become self aware and go make some, please, for the good of yourselves and for our author.
Frank Royce Harr
There are people who have a tendency to push things to extremes. We would go to extremes of niceness or of meanness. Of the two, I prefer the former. And if I find a diabetic coma coming on, I just don't read for a bit.
P__ First off, disclaimer: we advise that Calming Cookies (A.K.A. Healing Cookies) be prepared individually, or in very small quantities, as the recommended dose is one, or two in severe cases, and overconsumption may lead to unintended consequences.
Now, for the serious stuff:
Of course we're silly! That's how we keep the place nice and friendly
This may make the more detailed/involved analysis a bit more diluted, but don't worry, it's there anyway -- this discussion counts, for instance. Most of the important stuff, though, has transitioned to the forum (ssssforum.pcriot.com), where it can stay and not get lost with each new update.
It may be a bit much at times (and I'm sorry it displeases you), but seriously, I'd much rather have that than anything less friendly and inviting to new people. Because that's what all this fluffyness and runing jokes brings: a commenterhood where people feel welcome to join, and aren't afraid of expressing themselves, even when they have something important and/or controversial to say.
Trolls don't like candyfloss, and this has made this commenterhood a safe-zone, rid of any infection risk. And be glad, many communities would have called you names for voicing disagreement about its standards. But not here.
TL;DR (sorry, it's quite long too) Too much sugar, cookies and fluff hiding the interesting stuff? Probably. But if that makes for a friendly commenting community where the welcomes are warm, the people are beautiful and the trolls stay well away while we invite you to vote, I'll take it any day. Besides, involved comments have not disappeared, just migrated to the forum, which makes lasting discussions easier (especially now that old comment-threads are locked).
Viisikielinenkantele And if you like the recipe of the calming cookies (yes, it is an actual one of Hildegard von Bingen), you can find it in the forum.
I for myself can only say that I probably never would have unlurked myself if the community here hadn't seemed so friendly and it helped that usually there are so many comments that my own disappear somewhere.
But this is my own personal issue... I usually apologize at least once in my comments because I´m feeling that my words are not good enough or silly.
I try to read all the comments and you are right, there is a lot that I am only skimming, but there are serious discussions, poetry and other wonderful things in the comments too and I never found such a creative community elsewhere.
If it is too much, the collapse-button certainly helps and sorting by best helps too. You will probably find the kind of discussions you like in the first 5-10 comment-rows there then.
Blackjazz --> HarrisWIlkens
If you are all that desperate for friends, become self aware and go make some...
I dunno, I could be horribly wrong here, but I feel like by being completely silly and whatnot I am making friends. Just not in the traditional way. And yes, we do certainly get out of hand every once in a while, but we are quick to amend our crazy ways when Minna wishes us to. I think it's best to sit back, enjoy the ride, and laugh at people being ridiculous. :p
Piney *nods* And honestly I don't know how to make friends otherwise. And you can't just flick a switch and "become self aware", that's completely unrealistic and also condescending, like please, not everyone is as socially adept as you apparently think they are.
Kahli plus most of us are introverts...
Piney That's what I was getting at - and like, it's nearly impossible for me to start a conversation IRL.
Eich --> HarrisWIlkens I'm not sure if you're trolling, but... well, here goes: The community has greatly changed over the last 6 or 7 months, since it started getting larger. Things that started ages ago have just become traditional. I agree it can be a bit cloyingly sweet here, but I certainly don't think it's worth calling out or stopping. 'Certainly better than most alternatives.
It might seem pointless to you, but the happy, silly conversations are how we get to know each other. Several of us have already met up and hung out, been inspired to learn new languages, and taken up new hobbies as we've grown closer as a community. It's about having fun. Surely that's not pointless? Now, our way isn't the /only/ way to have fun, so why not... bring your own way, too? Our happier dispositions might belie our ability for intelligent discussion (if that's what you're after), but I think you'll find they coexist rather well.
Edit: One thing I think needs saying is that the comments have become perplexingly less personal with time. I remember talking with folks here about random life stuff, back in the day: car wrecks, work, school, all kinds of stuff. Now, it seems a little hard to squeeze stuff like that in anywhere. Maybe it's due to the number of newcomers less willing to share their life's details, or maybe the forum's become the new place for that, but I think the wall of sweetness has an effect there, too. As an answer to your comment, maybe we could try to shift the comments' focus back to something more personal and involved?
HarrisWIlkens --> EichYour words encourage me.
Eich --> HarrisWIlkens Glad they could.
P__ I think the "comments being less personal" is mostly due to the sheer number of people there are now, as you pointed out. It's much easier to talk about your life to a few dozen fellow fans, than to a hundred or more. Also harder to participate in such conversations, when the comments roll out so fast you're unlikely to see most of them. but by all means, do try to have more involved discussions. It would be good.
Richard Weir --> HarrisWIlkens
I get your point about all this making it hard for Minna to read through for serious comments. However, preventing this would be difficult and might be self-defeating. Consider: The community is to a large extent the market for Minna's books; trying to inhibit the excesses might create an unfriendly community; and people don't join unfriendly communities.
What is harder to judge is the degree to which people might be put off the community by the silliness...
Sunflower --> HarrisWIlkens This comment section may seem sugary and overly self-referential to you. However, our "community standards" have been remarkably good at self-policing to keep out bullying, vulgarity, ads, and other obnoxiousness, while encouraging active participation.
If the price for our friendly, playful atmosphere is indulging running jokes, I'm happy to pay it. Even the 9,000th joke about squirrel cookies or troll sounds. *accordion noises*Note: The above paragraph was later contradicted by Word of God. 
Moreover, when Minna has asked us to tone it down (including no more meta-comments on the # of comments, or "time-traveling" to future pages), we have.
So our community seems to work for us. I'm sorry if it isn't to your taste.
Kahli --> HarrisWIlkens I understand and thank you for your concern for Minna and our sanity, but I don't think that the comments are a problem. I highly doubt that our wonderful artist actually spends her time reading ALL the comments, as that would take forever.
[Oops, apparently she does...]Many of our responses are indeed random happy fluff after a while, but that's just a part of who we are as a community, happy random fluff loving people! We use the cookies to show newcomers that fact, a display that we're friendly and won't bite. (the same can't always be said for the cookies though! ;-P)
Please don't take this as anything against you or your argument, which is perfectly valid, I just don't think the fun silly commenting should stop! :-)
0z79 HarrisWIlkens • a day agoSome of this random, happy fluff has actually led to some pretty cool things; the other day, someone posted a fanfic which was actually worth reading.
I agree with a fair bit of what you say, honestly. If I find other boards where serious business is supposed to be under discussion and instead, it's all a big "CJ", then very likely I will stir things up, just to get people thinking about the things they're talking about, rather than just random, super-safe crap.
This place, though? It's a webcomic with a large, diverse and international audience in a wide variety of ages.. so I try to keep it light, or at least pad the heck out of anything too heavy.
jesty HarrisWIlkens • a day agoBah! Don't worry about that! This comment section is used to share each others opinion, right? And if you want to, you could sort the comments by "Best" instead of "Newest". I think the comments that get a lot of likes are the most sensible and even humorous.
Other than that, we can't help you. We just love being friendly to each other even if we are in the internet and anonymous. We learned that we can affect peoples emotions(either in a big way or small way) just by saying nice things. I also learned that people outside our little fandom are so used to the hostile places of the internet that leads them to think being nice in the comments isn't possible!
And I remember Minna replying to a comment saying that she enjoys our silly roleplays/canons/theories. Also, it seems that no one else is bothered by us being "Too Sweet"
HarrisWIlkens willowham • a day agoI understand completely. I just feel as though we have taken "Friendly & Interactive" to an extreme. It is certainly possible to be kind and welcoming without taking it over the top.
Hrolfr HarrisWIlkens • 11 hours agoI agree,to a degree, but i find when it gets on my nerves the "-" to the left of the flag icon is very useful. It collapses the sillyness.
