Why is there such a bad reputation?

i haven't posted here much but i can say that when i do i am welcomed with kindness nothing unsavory has happened as of yet. I had heard of some of the negatives of this site but as i have been here or more than a year id say it's what you make it as long as you continue to be kind as you seem to be you'll get that in return.

 

The reputation was more warranted around the time DoA boomed in the mid 2000s. At the time, the overall climate was much more strict; excessive moderation left people afraid to speak their mind within reason, and the on-topic doll list was woefully inadequate. The revolving door of fresh blood into both the user base and administration addressed all of the above years ago, however, and aside from some of the baffling choices for off-topic dolls, things have been greatly pleasant for some time.

Some people just don't know when to let go of a grudge. Ironically, no other alternative to DoA exists that I know of, certainly not anything with a comparable library of knowledge, much less a safe market for sales and trades.

 

When I posted on Tumblr more frequently, I would come across many angry rants against DoA or its members. YouTube also has its fair share of constant criticism for this forum, but the rules this forum has makes it one of the safest spaces we can get online.

The forum works well because there are more people who are willing to follow the established rules and norms than not. Because we choose to follow the rules and a culture of politeness has been established, this site harbors a constructive and informative environment where we can all interact and share our ideas.

That is not to say the forum is perfect, but I personally enjoy being here and I am happy to have access to the vast collection of information.

 

What shocked me recently was how many of those people who badmouth DoA and tell newbies it's a dark and horrible place they should never venture to full of elitists and bullies have themselves never even been on DoA. They read someone else's angry post bashing DoA, take it as the gospel truth, and repeat it endlessly to other newbies who do the same until it snowballs out of control. I think it stems from a few bitter and angry people who don't follow the rules and are extremely sensitive about being corrected or who buy recasts and hate anyone who doesn't condone that and those people spread this vitriol around on social media getting newbies to just follow along with it.

 

@Nefla you just summed up one of the biggest issues with social media as a whole. I've also seen "warnings" being spread about DoA by people who have never used it, and it's a real shame that people are being scared away from something that could be an awesome resource for them. That kind of mindless passing along without fact-checking first seems to especially be a huge problem on Tumblr...

 

Daaayum.......I had no clue ... I didn't realize Big Brother was so hands-on...

 

I've been a member for 5 years, and have found other members and mods to be friendly and helpful. I have seen someone bad-mouthing the site because they had a problem with the "On-Topic" rules. As others have said, negative drama bout DoA is generated by a handful of people who don't follow the rules and take it too personally when they're reminded of the rules.

 

Alright, storytime (but it ends on a happy note)...
Although I haven't seen any of the recent negativity you mention (I don't have any social media, DoA is the only forum I'm on besides LiveJournal for EGL), I might be able to explain what you describe by relating to you how I eventually came to DoA. It's a similar experience to what some other users posted about the early days... When I first found out about DoA's existence 10+ years ago, its reputation was preceded by a strange infamy spread by nonmembers who claimed DoA was this exclusive, unwelcoming hivemind that unjustly refused to entertain new or different ideas on bjds, like you would immediately be shut down or banned for something minor. That reputation initially intimidated me not to join. And why not? A place like that sounds horrible! But I think the people who had those ideas about DoA bred their resentment out of fear, because fear of not being accepted is a powerful thing, especially when it comes to exposing the very personal side of yourself that makes the BJD hobby so enjoyable. When you talk to people about their dolls, most of the time you'll find out aspects of them you couldn't assume from the outside. There's usually a deeper meaning to their involvement with the hobby, whether it's that a doll represents a shelled character from their original story, a hidden version of themselves they want to express in resin form, or even a stand-in for someone they loved and lost. It's horrifying to think that secret part of you may be insulted or rejected, and for that reason I think people would rather stay away based on what they've heard rather than jump in and explore the community themselves. Of course there's also the fact that some people don't like the idea of being in a closed forum with specific rules, where there are moderators rather than a free-for-all. But I think mostly the issue is that people are willing to forego joining and seeing this place on their own after they hear a single bad story from someone else. Sometimes one bad experience, even secondhand news, is enough to scare people off. This forum is huge, and there are so many discussion threads you can pop into to meet new people and get really friendly positive feedback, but people won't know that until they come explore this place for themselves! For me, it took meeting a member in person (by total chance!) years later to get brave enough join. She told me how she loved having a place where no one would make fun of her for her dolls, because in real life her "friends" could be cruel about them, and that's why she wouldn't really talk about dolls outside of DoA. I guess in a way, DoA was her safe space, so perhaps these negative things you say you hear about DoA outweigh the positive because that positivity gets contained inside DoA! People who have good things to say about this place probably aren't as active about their doll hobby in other corners of the internet, so the people who are happy with DoA stay inside DoA, and the people who had a negative experience (or more likely no experience at all) are the ones posting those dismissive things outside the forum that you read. If you have a positive experience here, perhaps share that with others. Your story of liking the community here may really make an impact on someone else and encourage them to join and find their niche. That's how it happened for me many years ago

 

As someone who shuns "social" media I have yet to encounter any outright negativity. I have seen all of two discussions on here that turned somewhat ugly, and honestly, that happens. Anywhere. If there are people, and opinions, and discussions, every now and then things may go downhill.
Imagine someone comes off worse in a discussion like that and goes off someplace else to vent. People read that, read where it took place, and think this is how things are done round here ... they have no way to know that's the exception, not the rule.

 

Agree with this! I have used many diverse forums over the decades and this is the only one I feel safe on, and therefore still use, having encountered outright nastiness, power struggles and bullying on all the others. I assume this 'culture of politeness' is due to the mods being vigilant, and I appreciate it because DoA is a nice place to spend time online

 

I think it's because of insecurity or jealousy. I sincerely agree that everyone who answered my questions are kind and very helpful that I could not stop thanking them wholeheartedly.

 

I really don't know, I've had a great time on DoA! I do think maybe people can be sensitive or insecure about the responses they get (sorry for the generic answer). I like it here, doll customizing is so niche and this community is really just a nice place to see what everyone else is up to.

You can browse the forum and threads and get ideas, or walk away for some time just to recharge or redirect your creative interests. I find DoA to be just a really casual place!

 

I have been registered for a long time and don’t post much. I admit, I am intimidated and confused sometimes. To be clear, I’m totally supportive of strict rules for honesty and not promoting recasts. I'm over 40 and want no part of forum dramas. But I am new to this hobby and feel like there's too much I'm expected to know.

I get lost in figuring out what is on and off topic, and the limited range of what's allowed makes it difficult for me to understand where I want to fit in as a collector. Like why doll X isn't allowed just because it doesn't have certain joints, even though it's made by a reputable BJD company. Or why only resin dolls are allowed; as someone on a major budget, I am interested in finding out more about other materials being used to create dolls with the same look but a lower price point. ABS, vinyl etc. Since there isn’t a place to discuss them here, I can’t even find out which companies make them and Googling only gets me anime and cartoony dolls, not dolls with gorgeous faces like many of the BJDs featured here. Anyway, I just have the fear of "if I post about something I think is on topic but it's not, will I get banned?"

I have two definitely on-topic dolls from Impldoll, and like coming to this site to get information, but posting feels like walking on eggshells because I don't know what I don't know. And I have belonged to tons of forums on various topics over the years. Just my 2 cents as to why I mostly lurk.

 

As mostly everyone else has stated: strictness, rules, and the apparent threat of being banned is probably what scares em off, but honestly, I've found this community to be incredibly kind. As someone who makes lots of mistakes, I've had a few of my posts moved around, but never was there any hostility - and mods are just keeping the site organized. That's a good thing! I guess it just comes down to whether they want a civil place to discuss a hobby, or if they want a platform to be chaotic, lmao. The lack of drama on here is so refreshing.

 

@Ayesha the joint and resin restrictions are mainly to keep the forum to a manageable size by focusing on certain types of bjds. However the Brigadoon subforum has some discussions on ABS/vinyl dolls.
You won't get banned for posting about an off topic doll. Most likely scenario is your thread will get moved, or locked with an explanation. Bannings are reserved for really egregious rule violations (marketplace scammers and the like). The mods are really very nice!

 

To be honest, I don't understand the idea of off-topic dolls, too (although I strictly respect it). It would be great if every BJD resin doll could be welcome on the forum. I remember that I was afraid that my boy will be off-topic because he's an anthro. I think that it could be one of the reasons why some collectors don't like this place.

 

Well, if you read the rules it should be quite obvious which dolls are off topic and which dolls aren't ...

 

Yes, I read the rules, but I was still new in the hobby and wasn't sure if I understood them properly, especially when somebody told me that her doll was off-topic because it was an anthro doll (now I know that it wasn't a real reason).

 

I joined DoA several months after it started as a forum in 2004. It was smaller then, but still a fairly large forum with lots of posts and lots of information--and still a bit overwhelming. DoA was pretty much the ONLY place with lots of information on bjds. (There were a few other boards, but they were always smaller.)

DoA kept growing and was seriously outgrowing it's available space. That's when more rules about what dolls and topics were allowed on, to keep things focused, yes, but to also keep things from overflowing. That was well before moving to this current forum... And more rules had to happen as the Marketplace grew.

One of the things people first complained about were the rules about being nice! A whole group went off and formed their own forum where they could be as nasty as they wanted. This was sort of like the precursor of all the Confessions stuff. Personally, I avoid drama in any form and never wanted to check out that group or Confessions.

There was also a time when there seemed to be a lot of rules and a lot of moderation. I had posts removed and figured if I got a Marketplace ban for some reason, I wouldn't be surprised. But the harsher modding had tapered off years ago.

There was a period when it was very difficult to join DoA. I think there were forum reasons and maybe some problem with scammers trying to make accounts... I'm not sure at all. But for a while people applied and had long waits, or the membership was closed for a while, or only available through member invites. That also was years ago.

I think a lot of the grumbling started with all that. But if people could grumble about not being allowed to be as rude as they wanted to on DoA, I figured that a lot of the bad-mouthing was just the dark side of being online. A lot of complainers were the pro-recasters. There was even a smaller bjd forum that was anti-recast and pro-recasters went as far as buying a similar domain name to sabotage them! And some people just feel hurt because things weren't going exactly their way. Like all things online and on social media... if you're a better-known target, you'll attract trolls and those who have a gripe against you.

I do think it's sad that newbies might feel intimidated--or might fall into the recast trap because they don't know any better (and they actively try and recruit by saying they are friendly, unlike those horrible snobby anti-recast places). Even through the rougher times on DoA, I have always felt it was the best resource for a lot of bjd information and the members here were some of the most knowledgeable and helpful. That has remained true all through the years.

 

When I first started getting interested in BJDs awhile back, it was about a 50-50 in terms of peoples' opinions. Some were like 'oh yes, you should go check out DoA, they know everything!' and others were like 'don't go to DoA, they don't accept anyone and they're all snobs'. As a newbie, there's something really freaky about entering a pretty exclusive community knowing absolutely nothing and being surrounded by people who know way more than you! I think younger me never even considered signing up because I was shy and super scared of being snubbed because I was only interested in aspects of the hobby and not in a position to actually get a doll - like I wouldn't belong. Now as I've got older I appreciate the structured and regulated approach of a well-moderated forum system as opposed to something like Tumblr, for example. Not only is there a ton of information that is easily accessible, but people are always willing to answer questions and share their love of the hobby in a constructive environment! So I think a lot of it is as much to do with your own personality bias as it is with any sort of external factor.