I haven't visited that place since maybe last September, and I decided to open it up today out of boredom. It has really gone downhill. Besides half the threads being started by Starguard or Aquehonga, I can see threads from September halfway down TGFHH and Speak Freely. It's not hard to see why all the TK rejects have been trying to get into here instead. What happened to this place? A few years ago, when there was a lot of drama here, TK was a viable alternative. Now, due to so little activity there, it could probably run as an EZ Board and no one would notice. So, what happened? Did the members just become insular and not welcome new people? Did infighting drive off other contributing members? I don't think Wordforge will suffer the same fate, as it seems much more accepting of newbies than that place. Or maybe I am wrong, and what ails them also ails us, only we are dying a much more protracted and slower death. Are boards in general dying? In the future, will we be meeting in virtual reality, in some sort of pub, instead of interacting through written word?
What about TEFLC or whatever? Abbreviated THe Eternal Fleet Captain's Lounge. I think that one was a more private club. Whatever happened to it?
It came about the first time TNZ tried to install rules and eliminate the no bars held atmosphere way back in...'01 or '02? Anyway, suffice it to say one could get warned for so much as mentioning TK or WF in a thread back in those days.
I was late to the TK party and never really caught on to what the whole point of it was. I did take part in a couple of Number_6's book discussion groups, which I found interesting, but really I have only so much time that I care to devote to any number of sites and the ones that I find stimulating and/or entertaining are the ones I go to and rather than bitch about some place not providing stimulation and/or entertainment, I just don't bother with them. That's why I haven't been to TK in probably at least a couple of years, even though I do get birthday greetings from them. Of course, the last time I tried to sign in, it seems that I was locked out because of inactivity. Whatever.
1. TK 2. EFCL 3. WF 4. Terran, Slipstream, Andromeda, ExIsle... not sure how these all interrelate. Lonaf is an EFCL spin-off. EFCL got trolled into the ground by Bastian and Calli and ressurrected by BobbyT and Mogh as REFCL before Mogh got booted and BobbyT sold it to Loki (Eggs Mayo). Lonaf is a shell of its former self; REFCL, from my understanding, is similar in name only. Lonaf's spin-off boards are dead; my board, named HavenBBS, is still up but only because it's on the same server and I've never outright closed it.
Terran was the first spinoff (unless TK beat it, in which case it would have been 2nd) and had a different name. Trek Talk, or something like that.
Yeah Terran was the first breakaway board. And IIRC it was formed because some members who hung out in spam central aka the Misc forum were unhappy that their spamming in Misc wasn't being added to their post count (one of Christian's smarter ideas). So they went off to a new board where they could spam as much as they liked and their 'ranks' could increase along with their post counts. That place must be a barrel of laughs...
Terran is not very active. Posts are infrequent. I think the membership is even smaller than here at WF.
Here's an idea to expand Wordforge: Gather up all the other forums. EFCL, Terran, Slipstream, etc. and then give them a home over here. They would still have all their forums, but it would make it easier for their members to cross over to here and join the discussion. As I see it, all these little forums are like wandering ships lost in space. Let WF be their Battlestar.
I joined Terran at one point. It was boring as hell over there. The community was pretty insular and didn't seem interested in having any new members. I was also a member of TK... a long time ago. I wonder if my account is still there?