the state of the forum

[Dids]

[ QUOTE ]
the fact that we've inherited an OOT troll who was banned is a bad sign, kdawg

dids,

still, the posters as a whole haven't exactly been embracing the spirit of the forum.

these OOT castoffs can only make things worse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pryor,

I think that points to the fact that this forum wasn't a very good idea. At first I thought it was working, but more and more it seems like things are breaking down.

[Phoenix1010]

[ QUOTE ]
What we've got instead is polls about movie trilogies and trip reports about board games and multiple posts in multiple threads that just name things. Everyone likes the same pizza toppings. Horay. Hell, we've even got a thread on Thai food that's running concurrently in OOT. Why? I haven't a clue.

[/ QUOTE ]

Half of the threads you mentioned were made to make a statement.

[junglewarfare]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm writing this off the top of my head, so take that into consideration.

As some of you may remember from the multiple threads on the OOT split, I was, for better or worse, at the center of much of the battle, and while I won't bother bringing up the specifics of that whole mess, suffice it to say that in some ways I consider myself to be one of the architects of the forum (along w/ several others like db, dom, blarg, el d, etc).

That being said, this is not the forum I envisioned.

The idea, as I understood it, was to create a place where long-form discussion, the type that was easily buried in OOT, had a place to flourish, where nuances could be explored and the obscure could have a place to find an audience. I saw a place where a discussion of the French New Wave would be next to an exhaustive study of different types of whiskey and small details from TV serials and alt.country albums and the like. There may only be 5 or 6 active posts, but they would be 5 or 6 really good active posts, and all other rubbish would be shipped to OOT.

What we've got instead is polls about movie trilogies and trip reports about board games and multiple posts in multiple threads that just name things. Everyone likes the same pizza toppings. Horay. Hell, we've even got a thread on Thai food that's running concurrently in OOT. Why? I haven't a clue.

What happens with all these polls and lists and nomination threads is it does exactly what OOT does to long-form discussion: it stiffles it. It creates a mentality where to the average poster, TL;DR is no different from OOT, only smaller. You get the exact same replies as over there, just fewer of them. The lists all end up being the same 10 movies that everyone's seen (favorite movie musical number?: uh, well I really like the dance scene in Pulp Fiction...) and doesn't do anything to create content, it's just clutter.

We've had some good threads. I thought El D's film lecture thread showed promise, as did Boro's film still quiz (although, that may be a bit borderline OOT. Still, it worked), and the QT plagarism discussion. We can do much better though. Put some thought into theads and posts. Regardless of what the FAQ says, I'm going to encourage people to do list and polls in OOT. I couldn't care less about the dramabomb that created this change. Some of us put forth a bit of effort and risked our good names (Blarg, for example, went out on a limb defending me when I was unable, and for that I'm thankful) to create this forum. To simply turn it into something different simply because of some petty politics is pretty lame.

And I realize that part of the problem is that I haven't really been creating any long-form content. I got myself over-extended with an on-going move, and I don't tend to review many of the summer movies, because I don't find them interesting. But, I've got a couple of half-written things that I should get a chance to finish in the near future.

It's also possible that the 2p2 community isn't mature enough to fully support a forum like TL;DR minus all the noise, but I highly doubt it. There's just too many intelligent people around here.

I'll probably come up with more ideas as people reply.

Oh, and this is nothing against diebitter, who I consider to be a friend. I think the forum was going in the wrong direction before he made the change.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now you are seeing that diebitter didn't really want an A&E forum, he wanted "his own" forum.

[mike l.]

i think it's interesting that the boring and trivial pizza toppings thread was left on here while my (admittedly tame) attempt at a wine thread was moved to oot where a bunch of 14 year olds could look at it and say "what's wine?"

[Madtown]

pryor,

I've mentioned it in some of the OOT threads, in some here, and in PMs to diebitter. I wholeheartedly agree with you.

The concept for the LoL/OOT/TLR divisions was one with a lot of potential, and if the OOT Culling results in OOT1/OOT2/OOT3, then it will be pretty disappointing.

[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]


That being said, this is not the forum I envisioned.



[/ QUOTE ]

As Yogi Berra said, if people don't want to come out to the ball game, you can't stop them.

You can't force people to sit down and have an interesting conversation. Frankly, it would probably be easier to find the forum you envisioned elsewhere than to try to create it here, starting from a blank slate.

Despite strong evidence to the contrary in OT in general and in OOT in particular, this is a poker forum. Walk into any card room in the country, preferably one that allows 18 year olds, and and look around. That's your core constituency here for exploring nuances. Good luck.

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What we've got instead is polls about movie trilogies and trip reports about board games and multiple posts in multiple threads that just name things. Everyone likes the same pizza toppings. Horay. Hell, we've even got a thread on Thai food that's running concurrently in OOT. Why? I haven't a clue.

[/ QUOTE ]

Half of the threads you mentioned were made to make a statement.

[/ QUOTE ]

i get that, those were just the ones i could remember

[[censored]]

Pryor-

I feel bad and sort of guilty. Perhaps if I would have just banned AK, this wouldn't have been such an issue.

Sorry about that one, I was trying to be more reasonable

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]
pryor,

I've mentioned it in some of the OOT threads, in some here, and in PMs to diebitter. I wholeheartedly agree with you.

The concept for the LoL/OOT/TLR divisions was one with a lot of potential, and if the OOT Culling results in OOT1/OOT2/OOT3, then it will be pretty disappointing.

[/ QUOTE ]

i think there's a ton of potential if we remind people that the focus isn't a list of topics that are acceptable, but way of discussing them.

your problems with Lost thread is an example of the kind of stuff that could be happening around here with regularity.

mike,

i assume the wine thread was moved b/c of Wookie's playground, but i'm not sure why it couldn't have just stayed.

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]
Pryor-

I feel bad and sort of guilty. Perhaps if I would have just banned AK, this wouldn't have been such an issue.

Sorry about that one, I was trying to be more reasonable

[/ QUOTE ]

isn't he just one of Dead's accounts?

anyway, i was probably gonna write this anyway.