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Featured
Writers Deck
Garage MTG Fan Articles Community
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The Heretic's Sermon
Help Me! - The Testament
of a Registered User on the M:TG Board
By John Hornberg
-This article reflects only
the views of the writer, and by no means is rleated to
the views of the sites runners, creators, or my fellow
featured writers.
First, before I get on with
my article, I need to do a couple of lines of ranting.
Has a comic store ever
accused you of stealing, and even gone as far to ask to
see your backpack or to empty your pockets?
It’s embarrassing, and it
happened to me. For those of you who live in my
area, I HIGHLY urge all of you to detest A-1 Comics
Roseville. They possess no right to do that to
anyone, especially at the front counter in front of
everyone else, let alone select people, which happened
to me there, because there were other people, with back
packs like mine, thumbing through the singles and the
clerk didn’t even talk to them when they went up to
pay.
If anyone who works there is
reading this works for A-1 Comics, consider this your
warning, because next time I won’t be so ho-hum about
the incident.
Well, I’m done ranting,
on with what I actually wanted to talk about.
I’m going to tell everyone in about the message board,
the people on it, and the pro’s and con’s to it from
the regular registered-user/players point of view.
Truthfully, the message
board is not for the light at heart. There is some
course exchanges, followed by a lot of resentment.
Still, most of the people have reached a consensus, and
the Magic: The Gathering Message Board has hit an almost
renaissance.
Almost.
It still lacks the necessary
acclaim and recognition that the Pokémon board receives,
and the boom of different miscellaneous forums that all
the other sections have received over the passed few
months. This especially ticks me off, because you
look at the Harry Potter forum, which is relatively new
as opposed to the Magic forums, already has more forums
than the Magic Section.
Still, this is relatively
minor compared to what you get from the board. it
is like judging a book by its cover, which is something
you should never do, especially if it’s written by
Vonnegut, Bierce, Pratchett, or Jacques.
The benefits severely
outweigh the problems with the board. One such pro
to going on is the free deck help. You can simply
post your deck, ask for help, and the people most likely
help you.
I will at least.
Also, you get the benefit of
reading things that great, pro tour caliber players
suggest, although some of them can be a bit stuck up at
times.
It also allows people to air
out their debate skills without actually having to stand
face to face with someone to do so.
Now, you’re probably
asking, “Why is this such a plus?”
I’ll tell you why!
For those of you who are shy, or just not big talkers,
it allows you to but in, and not to worry about being
told off or being injured because, and I don’t speak
for the crowd but I certainly should, it’s a lot
easier to handle criticism and when it’s in type and
not being said verbally, because you don’t always
respond without thinking, or out of pure anger at the
spur of the moment.
Aside from that, the con’s
can be glaring.
One such con has to do with
the good players..... a recurring theme with them is
that they can be snotty.
Now wait! Before you
pull out the torches and pitch forks, hear me out.
A lot of the good players, and I won’t name names
because I’ve been that way as well, can be insulting
when it comes to proving a point.
To put it this way, they all
have the “I’m right all the time” attitude.
Being one of them sometimes,
I’ll speak for the crowd with a two word response:
“Damn straight!”
Another con has to do with
insulting. If you tend to write in short hand a
lot of the time, like this:
I h8 ppl w/ bd grmmr.
.... you tend to get a bad
picture painted of you. A lot of people try to
write everything in it’s entirety, and tend to give
the “Newbie” blow off to people who right like that.
I’m sorry, but I don’t
respond to things like this either. Why?
Because my English teachers Ms. LaRocca and Ms. Roberts,
as well as my anal-retentive, story-writing older
brother, Andrew, have taught me too well. I
don’t accept, let alone read, things that are written
with poor grammar. Please, I beg of you, write
EVERYTHING there as though you were going to send it to
this site.
I’m more hard line on
this, most people are a lot more lenient on this,
though.
Another con Can be the
moderators. They've had streaks of being, well, real
pricks. I’m not insulting their characters, nor
am I trying to insult them directly or at all for that
matter, but I’ve been the grunt of a moderator’s
fury before, and I found it insulting. It had to
do with the issue of me becoming a moderator (he said
the equivalent of he’d have a drink with the devil
before he recommended me.)
I never did let him know
that I was incredibly offended by his comments, so I
haven’t really tried to patch things up with him.
He still seems to have some
resentment towards me...... well, enough reminiscing.
They can have hissy fits at
times, and they’ll lock topics with little cause, this
happened a little while back, and from the registered
users point of view, seemed unfair. They’ve done
it over one word, and over pure irrelevance.
Lately, the new moderators
have been really good, and extremely nice. The
existing ones have been in a state of dormancy for
roughly two months.
Which is good, and allowed
the users to “be free” to do as they please.
As I said, the con’s are
minor to the pro’s. You can become a better
player through the wisdom of everyone else, and all the
con’s do is inhibit what you might want to say, or do
just a little bit.
Still, the amount of
information shared is amazing. I single handedly
credit the people - The Whammy, TranceKuja183,
ItWasntJustaDream, millstoner5, and EVERYONE else who
contributes - for whom go to the message board with my
job writing for the site.
They indirectly affected my
play, thus I became a better player, went out, displayed
it, and got to where I am today, an emerging, almost
great player in my area.
Thus, I thank all of you in
the typical message board fashion:
THANK YOU!!!!!!
:)
I had little talent before I
started going, and then I started, and got good.
This wasn’t overnight. It involves opening your
mind to new ideas, closing your mind will get you no
where.
Believe me, I tell the truth
when it comes to the message board.
Signed,
John “The Happy Heretic”
Hornberg
You can reach me at
promiseland85@hotmail.com if you want to talk with me.
If I don’t respond right
away, I’m not singling you out, I’m just running
behind. We're getting ready to put out another
paper, so I might be running short on time, but that
doesn't mean I won't write. I have another article
that's half done already, so you'll hear from me soon!
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