Hmm... not sure if this thread will actually achieve anything. The question is being asked to regular members, who by default must be happy enough with the way things are to keep visiting day after day. From my own point of view, the personal stuff about and between members spilling all over the board bores me witless and leaves me with little room for input. Then you find less and less reason to visit until you forget about WF completely. Bitchiness and hostility leaves me cold. There's no wit behind scathing comments anymore. On the plus note, there are some well established and likeable characters on here who just need to find their mojo/maverick streak again.
What would be nice would be if it were possible for a thread starter or moderator (one who moderates) to insert a flag at a specific point in a thread reading 'NOTE: The next N posts in this thread are totally irrelevant to the topic at hand. Skip ahead? [link]'. I know, I know, that's totally unrealistic, but I'm just brainstorming here. Oh, another totally unrealistic thing would be macros. Not in the sense of lolcats, but in the sense of a set of preprogrammed commands that can be executed all at once. So if someone sees yet another stereotype-able squabble between X and Y brewing, hit the appropriate macro button and it inserts a collapsible post containing appropriate yakking back and forth between X and Y. Saves time for everyone and helps keep the thread from ballooning.
With regard to the smilies: Do we really need all the Christmas smilies listed year-round? [-]...Hmm, actually, it looks like there are only two still in the list. No big deal, then.[/-] No, wait, there are several more in the "Newer Smilies" section. Some of them are big, too. JMHO, but I think is unnecessary now that we have the smiley, which combines all the benefits of with a little (optional) self-deprecation. Do we need all the "Metal Slug" smilies? In particular, the shooting ones? I realize there are subtle differences between them, but I have to think that there is enough redundancy among :tarmafire: :erimg: :soldiershoot: :marcoshoot: :soldierfire: (I'm deliberately omitting , as none of the others suggest sniping) that several could be dropped. Aaaand . . . those are about all that I'd want gone and that I expect to actually have any chance of cutting.
IIRC, all bans are "until the banned member contacts Elwood to make arrangements". Seems our two most recent banned members contacted Elwood PDQ.
^I did not contact Elwood. On topic, I've said before I wish there were a neutral commenting function either in substitute for or in addition to rep. That way when one just wants to give a quick shout-out to a post the comment serves its own purpose without getting anyone's panties in a bunch.
Well, that's an interesting argument. But it falls down on two counts: 1) I'm not talking about CheekyMonkey. I'm talking about preemptively banning GoldenEye. And 2) What in the post in question would ever make you think that a name or address was going to be revealed? Given that the whole post was just some shitty veiled comments and intimations made by another poster, why would it stand to reason that suddenly GoldenEye is going to start posting specific personal information? And is there really a huge faction of the Alabama mafia that just lurks on Wordforge, hoping that Elwood will slip up so that they can finally spring their nefarious plot against him? (Assuming the post in question was about Elwood.) I'm sorry to keep going on about this thing. Ideally it should be dead and buried. But things keep bringing it up and I'm too stupid to just let things that I think of as a double standard or an--how shall we say it--alternate view of events--stand unchallenged.
"Things" don't keep bringing it up. YOU keep bringing it up, thinking it's somehow relevant, when it's not.
Ok, but I think we both agree that someone posting "Volpone's real name is I.P. Freely" is not as bad as someone posting "Volpone's real name is I.P. Freely, and he lives on 123 Fake Street, Honolulu Hawaii. And by the way, here are some pictures of him at the tranny bar last month."
As sick as I am of Volpone dragging this shit up at every opportunity, I think we should reconsider letting Goldeneye back. He was a decent poster who shouldn't be punished because of who he dates.
Where to start? From what I can see - and I'm willing to admit I could be totally off the ball here - it feels like the warmth and soul and compassion of WF have either gone, or are just not in evidence anymore. Maybe it's old age but I can remember the vibe of this place when it first started out and everyone was finding their feet. I can vividly remember how after 9/11, everyone was justifiably shocked, but the main focus on here was to find out if Mewa was OK as everyone knew he worked in the banking district. It was the same after the 7/7 London bombings, genuine concern for British, and particularly London based, WFers. Then there was when Wayno was going through that hurricaine(?) and though I wasn't posting, Tech's passing. Now it feels like things like that wouldn't even warrant a mention and people are only happy when they're either bending the rules or ragging on someone else; which of course used to happen before but it just seemed more civil then. The sense of community is gone in essence, and when people talk about the 'WF family' I can't help but stifle a guffaw. We're all to blame for that but what is to be done about it, if anything?
To address these concerns, I've assembled a team of great minds out here in the middle of the Pacific to create a fake alien that I will then teleport into the middle of the Red Room. The effects of the teleportation, combined with the psychic damage inflicted by the fake alien's arrival will kill half our posters and drive a fair number more completely mad, but ultimately it will bring the survivors together in a common bond of solidarity and humanity.
Two problems. 1) The teleportation machine only transmits 25 meters. 2) It isn't actually a teleportation device so much as it is a quantum duplication machine... Meaning what or whoever you "teleport" leaves a copy of itself at the transmission point.
Totally agree with this. When I came back to the board a few months ago after having been away for a while I noticed a distinct change. It was blander, more cliquey, more immature and generally not as enjoyable as it was before. When I pointed this out I was told that the place hadn't changed but I am glad that other people feel the same way. You know, I used to sit in front of the computer at work or at home laughing out load at some of the stuff I would read here. Whenever I was at home I would always make some time to stop by. Now its no longer the case. I only come on here as a distraction from, work when I need 10 mins break. Otherwise theres no reason to come here. The problem essentially lies with the people. There are a lot of members who aren't here anymore who really provided variety. Now that they are no longer here the dynamic has changed. We have had new members, but not many have brought something new to the table. That's not their fault, its just sometimes you cannot replicate lighting in a bottle. Ultimately, every dog has its day. The board will live and die by its personalities and you can have a hundred threads debating it's problems but, in my opinion, the golden days will only return once there is a broad spectrum of personalities, including, nationalities, political opinions, both sexes and a variety of ages again so as to make the board the diverse place it once was.
If both you and Scruff are saying the same thing, maybe you're on to something. Just wondering, who do you miss and want to bring back? It could be not much has changed, but we've all grown accustomed to all the funny stuff we've said over the years, so much so that it isn't funny anymore. It's like if you hang out with the same group of friends - all the stuff that made you funny before has been repeated so often that they take it for granted, then you meet a new group of friends who laugh at all the stuff you say and think you're a great guy. This board is still one of the best out there, IMO. Most other forums have one person say something amusing, and 10 others post a smilie while quoting the original line, or they are boards that are so politically correct that people are afraid to post anything funny, save the most bland humor they can find, for fear of reprisal by a moderator with a stick shoved up his ass.
I've had more fun here recently than I have in a long time. It's all how you look at it. If you don't take yourself so seriously (or others), relax, point out the absurdities of most of what we post and try to get in a few laughs, then it's all good. We've got too many people here that think this shit is serious business.
^I miss some of the Brits who are no longer here such as PGT, ecky & Hood. I miss some of the more eccentric characters like Diacanu and I'm sad that people like Storm and Jeriko are no longer here, who were for better at the whole right-wing patriot thing than the people here now. Plus I find it a shame that the likes of Cass have just turned into complete nutcases.
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!! I'm still in touch with him, but IMHO he was a little piece of magic when on the board. And PGT. He was another smart chap. And a Tom Waits fan, so I can forgive his opposing views on some subjects as he obviously had some sense ETA: Ecky isn't here no more?
Hmm, ok, who do we have for their replacements? I'd say the heir to Jeriko is Sokar. His spewing of hateful "right-wing" bile and his general disdain for leftists pisses enough people off that he's an adequate, dare I say, great replacement. Jenee is a good old school Cass. She expresses her hippie tree-hugging views reasonably well, and she hasn't gone off the charts into crazy territory...yet. :flow2: Diacanu...hmm, I doubt you can replace him. Yeah, he's one of the guys that truly made this place unique, although people were getting pretty annoyed with him at the end. So yeah, bring back old school Dickynoo. PGT, was an engaging poster, but I don't remember him really being all that funny. 14thDoctor is here a lot, and makes up for his more left leaning views, but he's Canadian, so it's probably not as fun for you. Yeah, PGT was alright. ecky, I don't remember much of. If he can be replaced by a new British member, I am sure that would make up for his disappearance. Hood was one of the few right leaning posters from your side of the pond. He'd come by and make a few funny comments, but I don't think he was ever a major contributor here. At least I don't remember him participating in discussions to the degree PGT did. There is only one Storm. All in all, a lot of the posters you miss seem to be British ones. If we can bring a few more Brits here, I think you'll start to like this place more than you do now. It also didn't help that the board seemed to be filled with garamet vs. KIRK drama every week. It spilled out into every other thread, and got pretty annoying.
