There is a belief that there are cliques and sense of exclusiveness at NEST. Right or wrong, some people believe it.
NEST is a HUGE gathering with, what, about 100+ attendees. Last year set a record of 130-some attendees. I'm not yet sure if this year met or broke that record, but either way, it's still huge. Like any social event, whether you have 30 or 130, people tend to flock to the people they already know. It's part of the reason it's often suggest for one to attend a small gathering like MTP, Bella's Bash, or UNY before going to NEST. It helps to know people before attending a social event. At least, I know it does for me.
Anyway, people tend to seek and hang out with people they know. It's a natural thing to happen, which gives of the idea that there are cliques at NEST. Despite the positives that are toted about NEST, there are negatives about it. The main one is exclusiveness. I don't know if that's true or not. I have never attended NEST, but I've heard stories, both good and bad.
I don't believe that people are exclusive at NEST. It's difficult to break through the awkwardness of meeting people for the first time, especially if NEST is your first gathering. It takes work and patience from both the veteran and the newbie. What the veterans can do, and I hope that they do, is to be welcoming, to chat with a newbie, invite a newbie when a group of you go out to a restaurant, overall help make NEST a memorable experience for the newbie. Yes, it's ultimately up to the person on what they make of an experience, but veterans can help make it easier for the newbies because all veterans were once newbies themselves.
Yet the clique and exclusiveness belief lingers. Right or wrong, some people believe it. Some people are so firmly anti-NEST for whatever reason. Some can ignore the NEST threads, but others bitch about it. Then there are those who are pro-NEST, typically the ones who've attended, and will defend NEST against any mudslinging.
It seemed like every single year there was a bitchfest about NEST, up to and after. The tickling discussion area was often flooded with NEST threads. The "Hey NEST is set for this weekend" and the "Are you ready of NEST?" kind of threads prior to NEST and the "Thank Yous" and the "I had such a blast" kind of threads after NEST would bombard the TK discuss area.
Bombardments like that often bury any other discussion thread. Not interested in NEST, well, you have to go to page 2 to find a non-NEST thread that you could post your two-cents in. It's like posting dozens of jokes in the general discussion area. Man, that's annoying. So the NEST threads bothered people, pissed them off. So they would bitch about it. Bitch about NEST, bitch about the elitism of NEST, the exclusiveness, the cliques, the whatever.
Bitch, bitch, biiiiiiiiiiitch, bitch, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch.
Of course, you can't bitch about something without someone bitching back, defending the gathering that they had so much fun at, being with friends and whatnot. Flame wars would erupt and locked threads would end them.
Enough complaints were made or maybe the NESTers just had enough of the bitchfests, that last year was the start of keeping most of the NEST threads in what is the most appropriate spot for NEST threads: the NEST gathering section. It was a start, but it didn't stop another year of flame wars. This year maybe only a handful of NEST threads were started, pre-NEST and post-NEST. As far as I saw, that is.
One thread started by a non-NEST-ee wanted to get people's experiences at NEST. I understand that. If you've never attended NEST or any gathering before, you want to know what happens, to get an understanding of what the gathering is all about. So you ask and hope the ones who've attended will provide some insight with their experiences. Anyway there were complaints in that thread. Pretty tame, pretty mild to what has happened in years before that they could be ignored or not enough to really erupt into a flame war.
Yet a moderator, one of the founding fathers of NEST, started a thread complaining about those complaints. A MODERATOR!!! I made a couple posts in that thread and I was going to make a thread post but it was locked just before I could post it. I'm glad it got locked, but there wouldn't have been a need to lock it if it hadn't been started.
As I said in that thread, threads like that DO NOT HELP. They only make things worse. Yes, there were complaints but starting a thread to complain about complaints is not the answer. It always leads to a bitchfest, a flame war. ALWAYS. It never ends well. NEVER.
It's annoying, frustrating to see people bitch about NEST, seeing people piss on someone's parade. It sucks. It makes you want to throttle them because it's not necessary to do. I understand that desire to defend, to fight because someone's being a douche.
Instead you come across just as douchey as that person. That exclusiveness that people believe about the people who attend NEST, guess what, you're reinforcing that belief. You only make things worse. So it's better to ignore the complaints. It's not easy to do, I know, but these flame wars are just tiring to see every year.
NEST is a HUGE gathering with, what, about 100+ attendees. Last year set a record of 130-some attendees. I'm not yet sure if this year met or broke that record, but either way, it's still huge. Like any social event, whether you have 30 or 130, people tend to flock to the people they already know. It's part of the reason it's often suggest for one to attend a small gathering like MTP, Bella's Bash, or UNY before going to NEST. It helps to know people before attending a social event. At least, I know it does for me.
Anyway, people tend to seek and hang out with people they know. It's a natural thing to happen, which gives of the idea that there are cliques at NEST. Despite the positives that are toted about NEST, there are negatives about it. The main one is exclusiveness. I don't know if that's true or not. I have never attended NEST, but I've heard stories, both good and bad.
I don't believe that people are exclusive at NEST. It's difficult to break through the awkwardness of meeting people for the first time, especially if NEST is your first gathering. It takes work and patience from both the veteran and the newbie. What the veterans can do, and I hope that they do, is to be welcoming, to chat with a newbie, invite a newbie when a group of you go out to a restaurant, overall help make NEST a memorable experience for the newbie. Yes, it's ultimately up to the person on what they make of an experience, but veterans can help make it easier for the newbies because all veterans were once newbies themselves.
Yet the clique and exclusiveness belief lingers. Right or wrong, some people believe it. Some people are so firmly anti-NEST for whatever reason. Some can ignore the NEST threads, but others bitch about it. Then there are those who are pro-NEST, typically the ones who've attended, and will defend NEST against any mudslinging.
It seemed like every single year there was a bitchfest about NEST, up to and after. The tickling discussion area was often flooded with NEST threads. The "Hey NEST is set for this weekend" and the "Are you ready of NEST?" kind of threads prior to NEST and the "Thank Yous" and the "I had such a blast" kind of threads after NEST would bombard the TK discuss area.
Bombardments like that often bury any other discussion thread. Not interested in NEST, well, you have to go to page 2 to find a non-NEST thread that you could post your two-cents in. It's like posting dozens of jokes in the general discussion area. Man, that's annoying. So the NEST threads bothered people, pissed them off. So they would bitch about it. Bitch about NEST, bitch about the elitism of NEST, the exclusiveness, the cliques, the whatever.
Bitch, bitch, biiiiiiiiiiitch, bitch, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch.
Of course, you can't bitch about something without someone bitching back, defending the gathering that they had so much fun at, being with friends and whatnot. Flame wars would erupt and locked threads would end them.
Enough complaints were made or maybe the NESTers just had enough of the bitchfests, that last year was the start of keeping most of the NEST threads in what is the most appropriate spot for NEST threads: the NEST gathering section. It was a start, but it didn't stop another year of flame wars. This year maybe only a handful of NEST threads were started, pre-NEST and post-NEST. As far as I saw, that is.
One thread started by a non-NEST-ee wanted to get people's experiences at NEST. I understand that. If you've never attended NEST or any gathering before, you want to know what happens, to get an understanding of what the gathering is all about. So you ask and hope the ones who've attended will provide some insight with their experiences. Anyway there were complaints in that thread. Pretty tame, pretty mild to what has happened in years before that they could be ignored or not enough to really erupt into a flame war.
Yet a moderator, one of the founding fathers of NEST, started a thread complaining about those complaints. A MODERATOR!!! I made a couple posts in that thread and I was going to make a thread post but it was locked just before I could post it. I'm glad it got locked, but there wouldn't have been a need to lock it if it hadn't been started.
As I said in that thread, threads like that DO NOT HELP. They only make things worse. Yes, there were complaints but starting a thread to complain about complaints is not the answer. It always leads to a bitchfest, a flame war. ALWAYS. It never ends well. NEVER.
It's annoying, frustrating to see people bitch about NEST, seeing people piss on someone's parade. It sucks. It makes you want to throttle them because it's not necessary to do. I understand that desire to defend, to fight because someone's being a douche.
Instead you come across just as douchey as that person. That exclusiveness that people believe about the people who attend NEST, guess what, you're reinforcing that belief. You only make things worse. So it's better to ignore the complaints. It's not easy to do, I know, but these flame wars are just tiring to see every year.
I just booked my flight...