How did you come here (TrekBBS related)

I didn't come with the first wave. I'm not claiming that.

I wasn't particularly active, but my join date is much earlier than this account.

 

What was your original username?

 

No clue.

 

Based on his current persona? I'd suggest searching the usernames for "SparklePrincessForChrist".

 

Rapey McRaper the Rapingest Raper to ever Rape?

 

Coming up on four years on...

Just sayin'.

 

Holy shit, it worked!


I came over here from TBBS. When Wordforge used to crash all the time, the denizens with TBBS accounts would come back to post. I found many of them to be more interesting people than the bulk of the TBBS posters. I haven't made more than a dozen posts there since 2009, I like it better here.

 

never cared to lurk or post at tbbs. i think i'm one of the few people here who just isn't all that into star trek.

 

i know, i know. if i didn't come with boobs, i'd probably already be tarred and feathered by all you nerds.

 

I like bewbies.

 

Wait, you're a chick?!?

 

I'm just stupid enough to lurk in both boards.

 

I'm seeing this thread for the first time.

Can someone explain to me, concisely, the problems with TBBS that prompted this "Great Migration?"

 

Join up and you will see. Its a kinda thing ya gotta live through.

 

The short version is there was a forum called "The Neutral Zone" which was a lot like Wordforge's Red Room. Most of the folks here were members there at the time. Then the owner or the manager - not sure which - decided to "clean up" the Neutral Zone and eventually removed it entirely. A poster called MartoksSweetheart over there had a brother who had set up Wordforge as a board for artistic types and invited us to use a forum here, which wound up being the Red Room. Well, there was little to no artistic activity here, and the refugees from Trek wound up taking over this board entirely.

Meanwhile, there's been a management change at Trek. The Neutral Zone was reinstated and has sort of grown back into what it used to be, except with many of the original members scattered, the liberals have mostly taken it over (as opposed to Wordforge which is mostly conservative). Some of us still post at Trek occasionally, but none of us really trust the management there not to hose it again (sorry, Bonz, but it's true) and there you are.

 

I was never clear why the migration here was on political grounds though...there was an even batch of people in TNZ yet the migration was mostly conservatives? I never realized, of course, since I only came here for non-political purposes.

 

I think it's just more conservative/libertarian types and certain types of liberals don't like being told how to communicate, argue and debate.

 

There was also that bullshit rule that you couldn't call use degrading or derogatory names for public figures like "Dumbya" or so forth, because it can be a legal matter or some shit.

 

The biggest part was the decision to make TNZ play by the same rules as the rest of the board (no flaming, no trolling).

 

Actually, there was not a political balance there. I checked many surveys and the liberals always outweighed the conservatives by a huge margin.

And it was primarily the libertarian-leaning types who left. They wanted the freedom to post however they wanted. Those who were fine with being told how they could post, and having the management protect them from being insulted, were much less likely to leave. The latter group tend somewhat more to be liberal (though it is far from an absolute thing), while conservatives are generally more comfortable with libertarians than liberals are, because libertarians tend to be conservative on fiscal matters and liberal on social matters.

Add to that the tendency to consider more and more than any statement that there was anything wrong with homosexuality was trolling, just by the nature of the opinion. Even those who are absolutely fine with it being allowed to exist, with homosexuals and homosexual practices being fully protected by the law, with homosexual marriage being legal, but still think it is not normal, were looked at very closely. It was explicitly stated that "homosexuality is normal behavior" could be posted without justification, but "homosexuality is not normal behavior" could not be posted without backing up the position. Just stating it, without giving reasons why, was defined as trolling.

For example, when I was a TNZ mod (for all of six months before I got disgusted with the way the board was run and resigned), I started a thread in TNZ pleading for full liberty where homosexuality was concerned, from both sides: Homosexuals should have all the rights of everyone else, but those who think homosexuality is wrong should also have the right to say so. It should not be considered a "hate crime" to say so.

That resulted in a thread in MA asking for me to get a warning for that. Someone (who posts here now) specifically referred to it as my "Asyncritus hates gays" thread. (In that person's mind, thinking someone's behavior is not normal is necessarily hate, apparently.) There was a huge discussion about it in MA and it was decided not to give me a warning by a fairly narrow margin. If I hadn't been a mod myself, I probably would have gotten it.

That atmosphere also prompted a lot of the more conservative types to leave.

 

They were easy to troll...I'll give them that.

 

I’ve been a participant in various messageboard communities for over a decade now. It started with videogame plot analyses, of all things.

It’s a typical story: the community starts out free and liberal, and then as membership grows, more standards are put into place, freedom of speech is curtailed. Members often break away and form separate communities.

Are messageboards microcosms of societies at large? Governments become too tyrannical and new ones must be formed by revolution?

 

Yes, and I appreciate it! I've had quite a few interesting discussions here.

 

Well Lanzman, if I haven't proven myself after almost 8 years running the place, I guess it's not ever going to happen as far as some are concerned. That's the way it goes.

Pretty much, I am the management (Christian is almost 100% hands off and has been for years) so if you're not trusting the management, that's yours truly.

I'm pretty happy with how the place is now. Is it perfect? Hell no. Will it ever be? Hell no. Do I do everything right? Hell no. I wish!

My first year or two, yeah, while I was still learning and everyone was adjusting to me, you've have had a point, for sure. But now?

The funny thing is that for a time period here, I was helping some of the management and mods (not you, before your time), quietly behind-the-scenes and at their request when this place went through some turmoil.

Ah well. I suppose I should take solace that at least you're no longer actively hostile to me.

 

I'm not either. Never watched it. No idea why I should. Isn't it weird?

 

I came here just a couple months short of WF's second birthday, and when I first got here, the mix of conservatives and liberals was pretty even back in 2005. It just happened than the liberals were the ones that got fed up first, but we've lost a few conservative voices over the years, too.