Originally Posted by Lex Leto

You may think that you see trolls, but what you fail to see is what they post outside of the STS sections. Sometimes the biggest trolls with the highest post counts have the best information in the other sections of the forums. Go ahead, click on their profiles and look at the threads they've started. Sure, there may be one or two complete trolls, but there are so many more extremely helpful members.

Those with so many useless posts are located and avoided by the red squares instead of the orange squares. That's a reason for extremely negative reputation. Either that or the individual did something so stupid that they deserve something to work their way back from. It's called motivation.

The thread for introductions is a perfect idea, and a great way to stay away from DP tradition of members sending 20 different versions of "welcom to dp" a day in order to boost their post count. Doesn't work like that here. People actually get things done, no matter how ass-backwards it may seem.

And some of the best "blowing off steam" threads are in the STS. Look at the CPARev thread. Look at the Skittles thread. Kidding about the Skittles thread, but at the same time I'm not. Introduction threads > off-topic discussion insofar as wasting server space and bandwidth and our time. Do you wonder why intro threads have very few views unless someone's thread title is "Who here is from [country]?" or "Girl here."? Because nobody cares. Contribute, that's what matters.

And that's how you network with people. Not through a "Hi, I'm [crap user] from DP. Looking to make monies." What kind of person would want to network with that? Not me. Do you, in all honesty? Or would you instead want to meet someone a little more professional in their field?