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I'd like to say something about a website that is currently very popular among demosceners. I'm talking, ofcourse, about goatse.cx, but since that might upset some of you I'll just talk about pouet.net instead.  You see, if you didn't have your eyes ritually gouged out during a cannibal ceremony in an italian movie made in the late 70s, pouet.net has these 'thumbs' you can click on when you've reviewed a demo. And by reviewing a demo I ofcourse mean 'say something totally irrelevant and start a flamewar with whoever will take the bait'. This system is obviously totally wrong. Let's say you are new to the demoscene and you've just written your first demo. It is appropriately called "first demo" by "ultrasuper corp" (or something equally inane) and people will think it's the worst demo they have seen since their c64-code crashed on them and started spitting out random characters. Now, if there was no site like pouet.net it wouldn't really be a problem, since the only people you'll speak to would be people you respect or people who are on about the same level as you are. They will love it, or at least fake loving it. On pouet.net people will freely 'dis' (and I use the eubonics freely here) your demo and vote 'thumbs down'. Okay, fair enough, but the newbie now has a few options. The second option is to become disenchanted with the whole demoscene and just give up. Yes, give up. Because you've just spent a ludicrous amount of time working on your demo, telling (fairly) gorgeous playmates that you didn't have time for meaningless sex, ignoring your family, etc. with the endresult that you are seeing your demo being teared down in front of your very eyes. This is the route most newbies would pick, I guess. So what about cutting people some slack on pouet.net? Instead of posting useless comments saying "this is so damned ugly I actually had to shower to get rid of the bad feeling" and voting thumbs-down, why not vote thumbs-down and tell people how to improve? Ofcourse, if the terrible demo is released by an arrogant bitch you're free to complain all you want. Anyway. A small follow up to the preceding article on Pouet. It came in a short while after the original article and was also sent to PAiN by Sagacity. Read on.. /ed. Well, allow me to retort. Pouet.net is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Your soul grievance seems to be the demo-discussion- voting-rating-flamethrowing-competition. What can I say: Take part in it, join the band of talentless yet bloated with self-importance. In todays world everyone's a sweetheart, a loveable huggable fellow human being with every right to spout his/hers opinion into every direction. Opiniated media are everywhere, and we have Amnesty, Greenpeace and other treehuggers to blame (that's another story). The point being, for the recipient there is no such thing as fair critisism. Brutal comments are dismissed with a mere 'that is your opinion'. Even more brutal comments are made, trying to force their way through the thick skulls of the ignorant and talentless (these talentless are not the same ones as mentioned above). Someone needs to set people straight, since this clearly does not happen at party-competitions. When was the last time you felt these were right? Tell it like it is, call 'm as you see them, bring forth your own opinion. Remember people died for that right! If that doesn't sell it, maybe this will. It feels good to have your name listed in a topten. Really. It does. We need charts / competitions, it makes us feel good, makes us want to achieve something, makes us try harder. We know voting is unfair, we know there is no fair critisism. I say: bring along the fair system, and have your mother tell you you're great. I will speak my mind, and want to hear from others. |