Mutability and Wordforge; Where should we go and how should we get there?

The threads about old posters has me thinking (never a good idea) about where we all go from here.

This kind of medium is a last vestige of internet 1.0.

We literally broke off from a forum that had BBS in its name.

What % of the internet population could tell you what BBS actually means today?

Which gets us to no new people. Every couple years we might get a new regular but the actuary table is winning.

So what to do?

Can this board/this format be rehabilitated or are we just all going down with the ship? Eat, Drink and Be Merry for tomorrow we die? At the moment that seems like the most likely/most preferred option. Just keep on keeping on like we are until the last person turns off the lights.

Would new software help? Would new forum organization/consolidation?

An ad campaign?

Something else?

What?

The floor is open.

I still don’t know what BBS means

Bulletin Board System.

Before there was the internet as we know it there used to be text based BBS servers that you could log into, read and then would basically send an email to and it would show your email to everyone on that server in chronological order depending on which ‘thread’ of the server you sent it to.

Always assumed that was the plan.

BBS were also local systems which had global email, searches like kermit, and some propagation of network news groups from usenet. They did not have full internet access all the time, and would instead dial into a ISP and synch their systems with the global internet late at night. I do not think trekBBS went back that far according o what people have said, but I used to do some admin work on local dial up boards which were pre-internet providers. Just on a technical aspect AOL became the dominant BBS system before dial up ISPs took off, but I think Prodigy and Earthlink also maintained a huge BBS which allowed for lots of local areas to have dial in access on local numbers.

At this point Wordforge is very much like a private club. So unless we add some kind of media service . . . yeah, not getting a whole lot of new members unless we become r/wordforge.

I think there will always be a place for a smaller messaging board like this. However, I think WF is doomed because it is too specific to it's group. TrekBBS can maintain longer being it has gravity to bring in new users using a continuing fanbase. It is going to spawn spin off satellites over time, but eventually those satellites will die off because the new users will have their own satellites and history. From the new kids perspective, why bother coming here to make a name for yourself when you could make your own place and not have to deal with your judgmental oldbies shitting on them for being newbies? I do not even know if TrekBBS has the same gravitational pull with Reddit doing what usenet used to do in spawning smaller moderated places.

If you look at the history of the internet usenet, which is what reddit was, spawned moderated werbsites because people were either pissed at free speech, or they were pissed at the rules of usenet. That seems to be what formed trekBBS was the need for a moderated trek discussion which old usenet could not provide, but the new web BBS software could do. Now that you have reddit being the first place to look, you will have the private groups spinning off from there.

It is really interesting to see how these groups form and fade away over time.

There's not much you can do. BBSes have been dying for some time. People may come back around to them, as long form discussions are far, far better to manage on a BBS than on any other form of social media. The only boards really surviving right now are ones that had large memberships in the late 90s, early 2000s, or ones that tie directly into some major brand, corporation, or well established community. Otherwise, many people have moved on. Hell, even though I visit WF, TBBS, and a few others, I'm primarily on Twitter because that's where most of the people are plugged in, and it's kind of the less restricted aspect of social media, in that I can tell politicians to go fuck themselves, and it get seen by 500,000 people.

This question comes up a lot, though, and likely will until forums either make a resurgence due to social media burnout, or the lights eventually get turned off.

Yep. I ran my own BBS in the 1990s. It was a single node science fiction based BBS. I had a whopping 12 users, but the door games were fun. Legend of the Red Dragon, Lemonade Stand, and a few others. I also had FIDOnet implemented, so people could email across BBSes. Ran it off of Renegade software. Had to ditch it after 1999, though.

I was very late on the scene and ended up being dragged in mainly because the admin of Kiss of Thy Love, a BBS based near Saugerties, wanted me to get all sexual with her (as an open sissyboy) and brought me on to "get her all the hot sexual freaky usenet groups." I had a lot of flashy stories about furries and some sexual campouts, but I was always a bit of an asexual person floating around the sexual happenings. It was a fun time, but I was really just eye candy having just come out and being new onto the scene. I knew the old BBS dial ups were dying, but I did get along with a bunch of their tech geek owners. Between the porn fiends and the furries I felt like I knew every damned admin in the northeast. I knew just enough lingo from my dad's video store porn exploits to fake a lot of shit.

It got me into a lot of really strange places, and I love my strange places.

Here's an idea, stop running off everyone you disagree with and stop calling everyone you disagree with a Nazi or a racist. Try realizing that just because someone doesn't vote the way you do, that doesn't automatically make them a Trump supporter. Even if they are a Trump supporter, it doesn't mean they are a Nazi. It also doesn't mean that they endorse every single thing that Trump did. Also realize that even if someone agreed with a few things that Trump did, it doesn't mean they support everything he did and it doesn't even mean that even if they supported a few things he did, that still doesn't mean that person voted for Trump. Maybe try realizing that not everything Trump did was bad and one can acknowledge the good that he did without being an overall supporter of his policies and therefore that person is not a Trump supporter. Lastly, realize the difference between what the Nazis and Hitler actually did and what Trump and his administration and contrast and compare them. You might find that the Nazis and Hitler were way worse.

After you sit and consider all of these things maybe you'll realize why so many have left and why so many don't want to come back. Maybe after all of that, you'll make this place more inclusive and welcoming?

Perhaps you could unban certain people and invite them back?

There are other BBS' out there that aren't running off members and aren't losing members due to partisan politics, maybe you can learn something from them?

Perhaps you could even reflect on your own ideology and biases and try and recognize that the Democratic Party and democratic leaders did a lot things, especially in the past two years with regards Covid, policies that a lot of people also could categorize a Nazi like in nature or at the very least authoritarian and perhaps you could reflect on whether it was the right thing to do all in the name of health safety or did it go to far?

Maybe realize that calling people names, attacking them and their family personally or intentionally trying to piss them off may be fun on occasion, but it's not going to result in meaningful discussion, which if I'm not mistaken, is the point of a BBS.

Some people don't like being called stupid all of the time and might react to this poorly or might get to the point to where they don't want to engage at all. Or when they do engage, they simply want to retaliate in response to being called stupid all of the time, even if it makes them look bad because at least they got to get their anger off of their chest instead off keeping it bottled up. So, you know, maybe stop calling people stupid and instead try and understand what it is they're trying to say. Maybe that would keep people from "running away", as you often put it.

Just a few suggestions.

Some people also don't care that much for Twitter and so when they see a thread full of Twitter posts, they simply just don't want to engage in those topics. As a result, when multiple threads are filled with Twitter posts, this turns people away. Maybe stop using Twitter so much?

The rep bullies ran off woman after woman, and minority after minority, and you said and did fuck all.
Then they ran away all on their own decision just because Anc was in charge.
He didn't do fuck all to them.
They just didn't like not having absolute power like when Tamar was their enabler.
So suck those crocodile tears up into an eye dropper, and shove it up your ass.

I'm not seeing anybody banned worth asking back...

who would you have us request back?


otherwise, yeah... the rest ran away of their own accord once they were no longer the loudest voice in the room.

Oh, and..

Fuck off.
If you're not a Trump supporter, stop being their sob-lawyer.
And stop regurgitating their talking points.

January 6th was treason, and it was fascist treason.
A Trump voter could be forgiven for voting for him in 2016, and then going "holy shit, what was I thinking? " in 2020.
But being like "I want more of that!! " for fucking 2024?
No.
There's no forgiveness or redemption coming for that.
They can take their swastika dunce cap, and STFU.

Dayton was banned for no real reason and it's been long enough. Some other people were banned for violating the very vague rule #8.

I'm beginning to think ShootER leaned into his name...

I dunno where we're going, but I have it on good authority we won't need roads.

Everyone that voted for Trump was the the January 6th rally and participated in the riot. Talk about condemning all for the actions of a few.

r/wordforge wouldn't be the worst idea if the board keeps shitting itself.

Quoting this for posterity.

No, you fucking pillock.

People who STILL support Trump or his ideals AFTER Jan 6th are condemned.

But then, you still think the South was in the right about the Civil War, so I dunno why we're expecting that sort of concept to sink in.

Edit-
NM, Matt's was more succinct, and to the point.

The way he's going, Elon Musk would be a good fit with some of the batshit righties/"Libertarians" we've had or still have. And he'd bring a userbase of.... oooohhh... dozens with him. $0.40 a share?

I also believe that we sure know where we've been.

I came to this thread because the title made some vague promise of changing WF posters into mutants.

So far, I am disappoint.

Conversely, Dayton wasn't banned for far too long.

I think there are maybe four "rule 8" offenders on the first page... half of which are Skrain duals and none of whom fail to fit the rule's spirit to a T.

Megatron or Soma? Heh, you think Tererun rides you like a my little pony?

Storm or Flashy back? Yeah, honest to dawg nazitru we don't have any obligations to provide a podium to.

Page two is more Castle duals than Skrain... probably better for that guy's mental health he's not here. He'd go at folks that agreed with him... has it really been six years since the Gturner affair? and I thought Dinner was banned? he's not even on there.

Seems most of your wouldbe fellow travellers-like I said-have simply run off because this isn't a safe space for them anymore and their BS hasn't held up to rebuttal.

FF has the superpower of morphing into a puddle of tears over the imagined victimhood of Dayton and Repforge.
Not the greatest power, but maybe we could mop him up with a sponge, and wring him out onto a bad guy's computer to short it out.

“HOW DARE YOU ACUSE ME OF LYING DOWN WITH DOGS!!!” he rages while scratching himself frantically.

The BBC had an article yesterday about a shapeshifting robot that could "melt itself" to escape a cage.

1) it was a molded metal figurine that looked like a robot, not an actual robot.
2) it didn't melt itself, it melted when exposed to an alternating magnetic field due to the gallium used in the alloy.
3) it couldn't change back into a "robot" (again, it wasn't a robot), they had to pour the molten shite back into the mold and resolidify it.

And THAT'S more impressive than FF's morphing.

I'm at an age where it's 50/50 whether I outlive the board, or the board outlives me. I'm fine with letting nature take it's course.