Media Central and Press Start

Given the nature of some discussions in Media Central and Press Start, perhaps it would be a good idea to extend the Blue Room paradigm of allowing the use of the Red Room Rules icon in those two rooms so folks can choose if their thread is moderated style or Red Room style.

Like the Blue Room, it will be the thread starters choice and people will have to behave in non-labeled threads.

I kind of like leaving the option up to the posters to decide and having both options available.

What do you guys think?

I like the idea of this for Media Central, and I am indifferent either way for Press Start. The only potential conflict I see is two topics about the same thing occurring at once with a different set of rules. For example, would we move the Red Room "Star Trek Into Darkness" thread started by Black Dove back into Media Central with an RRR icon, and leave the new one that was started in there by Spaceturkey?

Personally, I would be OK with two similar threads with one having enforced rules and the other not.

I voted yes. I never use Press Start so technically I have no opinion. To people get into geek fights over video games like we do over TV and Movies? I don't know.

I'm always on the side that gives more options and not less.

I'd say leave them both.

Why not? If a thread isn't interesting it will die on it's own. If they both are interesting, awesome!

This is like the first good idea the staff has had in years... it feels like The Twilight Zone.

Why not in all forums?

For those who aren't in the Blue Room, this is the icon:

I don't know.

Techforge is usually serious science topics and is a memorial forum to boot...seems inappropriate.

Green and Red are meant to be the opposite of each other.

Do we need more shit flinging in the Help Desk?

Iron and Gold look to be on their way out.

I guess Camp Wordforge could be considered for this as well.

It serves no purpose in the Green Room since the Red Room is next door and is essentially a no-rules version of the Green Room.

It wouldn't feel right for most of the forums under the "Knowledge" section:

Techforge is there for more sciency/intellectually flavored discussion. The only real potential for Red Room-style controversy I could see is in a Mac vs. everything else type thread. But I would be with the RRR icon in there.

The Workshop is there for posters' creative works and constructive criticism of those works. Red Room Rules would detract from this, I feel.

Camp Wordforge is there to protect gun owners from anti-gun flaming and trolling. They feel the need for a pro-gun nanny forum, I guess, but I don't care either way. I see the desire for it, even if I'm not a regular.

Gold and Iron will be gone soon anyway.

The Help Desk should remain one of our more heavily moderated forums and shouldn't have the RRR icon.

I frequent both forums and I honestly never feel the need to resort to flames and insults based on one's personal taste, but if others do, then more power to them. What I don't want to see is conflicts from the Red Room spill over into Media Central and Press Start. Just my 2¢.

I don't want to see that either.

The beauty of it is, if it is a unmitigated disaster then we just go back to the old way, no real harm done and lesson learned.

The Red Room icon is fine, but the way I see it, this is the symptom of a larger problem WF has had lately, and that is trolls getting around rules, either by feigning outrage over small offenses and trying to get their 'enemies' a warning, or playing a game of one upmanship to see how much they can get away with while their 'enemies' are enjoying themselves in the other forums. It's sort of difficult to put into words but I think it's adequate in explaining the shenanigans which have occurred lately in some of the other rooms.

In regards to Media Central, we really should talk about what we are as a community and the direction we want to go as a discussion board. Are we a forum used to promote TV shows? Do we want to have a friendly, inviting forum for all sorts of people? What type of discussion do we wish to facilitate?

If this were a Paramount board, anyone who comes in and trashes any of the Star Trek shows with things like "Voyager suxxx", "Insaneway Janeway" or "Enterprise is for retards" would probably be banned on the spot. Over at TrekBBS, it's a little bit more lenient, but even then, a member who watches all the episodes coming into the ENT forum and continuously trashing the show would probably get warnings and eventually be banned from the forum. On Wordforge, we founded this board as a free speech board where we were free to give our honest opinions about whatever show was on.

This was suppose to mean that if Mewa wanted to come into a Firefly thread and trash Mal Reynolds, or if Dayton wanted to come into a NuTrek thread and trash NuTrek, or Sokar wanted to say "Fuck NuTrek!" then they should be free to do so. But then, with the 'No Trolling' rule, it then ends up for the mods to decide when someone is giving an opinion and when someone is crossing over the line and just doing it to troll the fans of any given TV show.

My opinion is, we are not a Paramount board where we want to make each TV show look good, and we are not TrekBBS, where we want everyone to ONLY enjoy talking about how great a show is. The spirit of this forum was founded upon the notion that it really shouldn't be a protected forum where the sensitivities of Firefly, BSG, Star Wars or whatever other TV shows or movies are shielded from unfavorable opinions about their shows. There are enough TrekBBSes and Paramount forums where fans of these shows can go to have people heap praise on them. Wordforge was suppose to be founded with people like Dayton, Mewa, Sokar in mind. People who wanted a place where they can trash a TV show and not get warned and banned for their opinions. Are we still the same place? Do we want to keep the spirit of why this place was founded? Or have we evolved into something different?

I think flaming and trolling of individual members should not be allowed in the "friendly rooms". (Friendly rooms being Media Central, Press Start, Green Room, etc.) But if someone wanted to trash a show because they hate it, they really should be free to do so without repercussions of a warning.

The John Castle/Legion/Visionrazer situation is a unique situation, and I'll give my take on it later.

Please don't merge Press Start with anything.

After I picked up my XBox a couple of years ago, I was really looking forward to chatting up some game action in there, but as soon as I stepped in, it was a fucking wasteland of useless, idiotic baba threads.

It's a fucking embarrasement.

And I don't have the first clue why 'he' is allowed to run wild in that forum.

Any frorum you move this content to, the dual known as baba will see that an OK to start spamming up whatever the combined forum is.

Speaking of baba in general, that was Lanz's retarded pet. Hasn't that routine played out now?

Put a chain on it or smother it with a pillow.

Trashing TV shows and movies is an acceptable practice, even without the need for the RRR icon. I think trashing an individual member for liking a particular TV show or movie is acceptable (i.e. Voyager sucks and Mewa is an idiot for liking it), but going out of one's way to flame/troll (i.e. Voyager sucks and on an unrelated note, Mewa sucks Chinese dick for discounts on egg rolls) is far less desirable.

This thread isn't about merging Press Start into Media Central. I think we've pretty much dropped that issue.

I know this thread isn't about merging the two forums, but I think we should.

BUT...

Only if the new forum could be called Movies, Games 'n' Other Shit

Baba exists solely because you believe that he's a dual.

Baba is a person and he's not a dual.

He really isn't. He was exactly the same in the Chat Room and it is exceedly difficult to keep up a persona for hours and hours every night and not slip. He revealed his real name in there and he acts the same way anywhere he goes on the internet.

Now, does he exaggerate the stupid...yeah, I believe he does sometimes...but he's not a dual.

And what, we need special rules for him? Elwood tried that for awhile. Didn't really work. And are we going to be a place who bans someone harmless just because we don't like him?

If people just ignored his threads and post new ones when they see one, they would disappear fast.

Actually this happens on a regular basis. We hardly ever respond to him.

Also symptomatic of another problem WF has had for a while now. Seems like nobody comes here to have fun anymore. Yes people still come here to vent, talk shit and tell tall tales, which is fine. Yet when it comes to humor? Not so much.

Little wonder we have so few new members, we come across as a small and hateful lot. Our discussions about politics and religion tend to be especially repellent. Who'd want to join?

Agreed, unfortunately. A few other boards where I post are a lot like WF, with older members leaving and few new posters replacing them.

I think message boards are a late 90s/2000s thing. Many people have moved on to Twitter and Facebook for their online activity.

So did Lanz want you to run this place while he was gone, or change the heck out of it? I find it very odd that you're making more changes ina couple of days than he has in 9 months.

Its true, we're trying to get a bigger slice of a shrinking pie. Which to me means we have to work even harder at getting new members.

Along with making the board more appealing and an active marketing campaign, we should also make it easier to promote WF via the social media tools you mention.

We do come across as a small and hateful lot. Our discussions about politics and religion tend to be especially repellent. We need to address that issue as well.

I'm not sure that is something we can address unless we give up our free speech focus and I don't think many people will want that.

The membership is going to have to decide what they want. An active vibrant board with lots of viewpoints and choosing their trolls a little more carefully or continue stagnating.

Perhaps trying to make the Green Room more active and interesting and primary and Red less of the main thrust of the site would be more useful.

Why don't you ask him?

I know you talk to him a lot.

It would be pretty stupid to go through all this work and effort if I wasn't told I could, now wouldn't it?

How would you do that, though?

If memory serves, Christian hated TNZ and kept trying to shove it further and further into a corner, but I don't think that changed its popularity.

The dude was petrified by change. Even threads in the help desk suggesting ways to improve the board were met with a lock.

Carrot and not stick.

Focus on making the Green Room better (moving that direction with the forum mergings) instead of the Red Room worse.