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idle curiosity...
A2597
Fanboy
in Zocalo v2.0
this IS a B5/sci-fi forum right?
If so, why is it that most of the post now adays are anti-conservative, anti-religion, anti-Bush, overall bashing nearing flaming propaganda?
I'll admit, some are funny (Biggles Bush reported dead for instance. Although I think I was the only one that laughed) but on the whole we've seemed to compleatly forget that this is a forum for Babylon 5.
For many of us that is the one thing we have in common, a shared love of Sci-Fi. The more we drift away from that topic, the more I feel our numbers will dwindle.
So, I have a proposition. Kill the mods forums here, shoot, pretty much kill the number of forums to a select few.
Say, Babylon 5, Zocolo, Suggestions, Artwork, and the international ones.
We used to have a couple hundered regulars, but now we have a few, and from what I've seen, post are getting more inflamatory, and posters more contankerous than ever. I feel something needs to be done else we risk losing what small percentage we still have.
We came here to save Into the Fire. We lost. But in the process we gained something greater, numerous Modifications, and numerous friends. But in this time, we forgot the one bond that holds us together, Babylon 5.
Shoot, IFH is still working. Any post about that here? None.
the Freespace team had a huge release. Any post here? None. one in the news forum, and it got all of 19 replies.
This forum is dieing people, and we need to do something else we risk losing it forever...into the night.
If so, why is it that most of the post now adays are anti-conservative, anti-religion, anti-Bush, overall bashing nearing flaming propaganda?
I'll admit, some are funny (Biggles Bush reported dead for instance. Although I think I was the only one that laughed) but on the whole we've seemed to compleatly forget that this is a forum for Babylon 5.
For many of us that is the one thing we have in common, a shared love of Sci-Fi. The more we drift away from that topic, the more I feel our numbers will dwindle.
So, I have a proposition. Kill the mods forums here, shoot, pretty much kill the number of forums to a select few.
Say, Babylon 5, Zocolo, Suggestions, Artwork, and the international ones.
We used to have a couple hundered regulars, but now we have a few, and from what I've seen, post are getting more inflamatory, and posters more contankerous than ever. I feel something needs to be done else we risk losing what small percentage we still have.
We came here to save Into the Fire. We lost. But in the process we gained something greater, numerous Modifications, and numerous friends. But in this time, we forgot the one bond that holds us together, Babylon 5.
Shoot, IFH is still working. Any post about that here? None.
the Freespace team had a huge release. Any post here? None. one in the news forum, and it got all of 19 replies.
This forum is dieing people, and we need to do something else we risk losing it forever...into the night.
Comments
Oh, and noone's stopping you from creating new sci-fi threads.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by A2597 [/i]
[B]this IS a B5/sci-fi forum right?
If so, why is it that most of the post now adays are anti-conservative, anti-religion, anti-Bush, overall bashing nearing flaming propaganda?
[/B][/QUOTE]
Have you never noticed a parallel between B5's Nightwatch and a lot of things going on in the government these days?
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by A2597 [/i]
[B]this IS a B5/sci-fi forum right?
If so, why is it that most of the post now adays are anti-conservative, anti-religion, anti-Bush, overall bashing nearing flaming propaganda?[/B][/QUOTE]
well science isnt about being conservative, and the fiction never has been. while B5 dealt alot with religion, it was never about which faith was right. and IMO science and religion are incompatible, tho faith is something different entirely (and i realise there are many here who will disagree with me on this, but thats ok. its only wrong when we arent free to disagree). as for bush, he's an idiot.
what bashing near flaming propoganda?
The replacement for the Defective "Zocalo." In the Zocalo, anything goes! Except that.[/quote]
[quote]Babylon 5 forum label
The primary message board, dedicated to Babylon 5 (plus a few other things that tend to sneak in).[/quote]
So perhaps what bothers you is that Babylon 5 forums have been far less active than miscellaneous ones? Well, that and the fact that people are making posts that contradict your beliefs and perhaps you may find offensive.
What have you done as a gamer to get some sort of fun game with B5 in it? I actually purchased a Asus N7800GTX a few days ago to play the mods in super High Res.. More so then to really play Doom.
B5 Universe does have politics too so any post or blog is fine in my opinion
Given the lack of official B5 developments lately, there's just not enough interest to continue active conversations about things that are exclusive to B5. What we've seen is that this lack of interest translates into a reduction of active forum participants, and the shift from series-oriented posts to more general ones. After all, there's only so many times we can discuss the various episodes, movies, books, comics, etc before we reach some theoretical saturation point.
So hopefully the previous two paragraphs summarize the problem we are facing, as a forum. No news/No New Content = Decline in member participation. The inverse of the previous statement is also true - News/New Content = Increase in member participation.
So there's your solution - instead of restricting this site to B5 fans and B5 topics only, try to create new content and keep things interesting. Some ways this could be done:
1) Figure out a way to change this site to a content-generating one, and not necessarily just about B5, just any interest we have in common - given the diverse forum population, this could be anything from technology to science to philosophy to metalinguistics to "best sandwich recipe" contest. Whatever.
2) Identify new shows that most of the regular visitors like and introduce coverage for them. Similar to Amazon's recommendation engine, if you liked B5 you'll probably like the new BSG. And maybe if the BSG forum is popular enough maybe we could introduce some BSG-only fans to B5 and get some interesting B5-related conversations revived.
3) I'm sure there are more ideas, just can't think right now.
Bottom line - shutting down/restricting the site is the wrong thing to do. We need to do the opposite to keep things interesting, IMHO.
I come here out of habit now, since there isn't much in the way of B5 stuff now days.
I avoid a lot of conversations these days that I would have jumped into just a few years ago.
;)
In our heyday, there was at least one debate thread running at any particular time and quite honestly I loved it. I found some of the members of this board to be the most informed, intelligent and well spok..err..written individuals I know. The debates here almost always stayed above board while at the same time remaining passionate. Comparing this to some boards where even the slightest controversial topic quickly degrades into a flame-fest.
I think what is lacking at this point is quality discussion and debate.
Jake
Jake
[B]Oooh, that's the most dangerous form of green...one that's trying to masqurade as purple.
Jake [/B][/QUOTE]No green would ever consort with the enemy. It's a purple who has seen the light.
We just don't have much to talk about. Mods are dying out as people have found new shows to base their projects on, and those who would have modded stuff for a B5 world have grown into other things. Hell, who even plays homeworld 1 anymore. Most of the mods hosted here are pretty out of date these days. And Star Trek has always got more going on as it's always in syndication somewhere in the world. And I'm sure that if TMoS worked out, all of the forums would be feeling a new lease on life, but it didn't happen. Crusade died, B5LR died, TMoS died. Each time, a new hope appeared for some more B5 stuff, and each time the project failed for one reason or another and very little came from it. Hell, crusade's been off the air for over five years now, if I'm correct. It's been a while.
Consider this: We've been around since...a LONG time ago. This place has been here for so many years, and we're still alive and well. That's remarkable. We've seen so many places come and go, but Firstones Lives on. And damnit, firstones will always live on. I don't think any of us will let it slip away, which is part of why some of us post here, do our little projects. Hell, we've got a nice sized wiki going right now. I'm sure you've heard of [url=http://tgm.firstones.com]The Great Machine[/url], right? Yeah, it's pretty good, and only a handful of us are getting it to where it is!
I'm always open to project suggestions. If you have a b5-type project you want to start up, just drop me a PM and i'll get back to it. I can't promise I can do anything myself to contribute to the project, but I can certainly set it up for you :D We've got the space, and we've got the bandwidth.
I'm just ranting, but I'm sure you guys can figure something out from that.
[B]Hell, who even plays homeworld 1 anymore.[/B][/QUOTE]
LOL, I actually started playing it again a few weeks ago.
Silly monkey. ;)
[SIZE=12]ME[/SIZE]
[B]LOL, I actually started playing it again a few weeks ago.
Silly monkey. ;) [/B][/QUOTE]
I play it, Cataclysm, and HW2 at least twice a year...
:p
;)
Jake
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by A2597 [/i]
[B]this IS a B5/sci-fi forum right?
If so, why is it that most of the post now adays are anti-conservative, anti-religion, anti-Bush, overall bashing nearing flaming propaganda?
[/B][/QUOTE]
[Edited by Sanfam: Content Removed on the grounds that it was trolling; Reaver, you have been warned]
I dont mind the discussion, but when its all we talk about and it devolves into verbal slugfests almost immediately I just find it hard to even lurk. I do think that we should find some new topics to discuss, even if they are completely random. Maybe discuss Lost more, or computer games we are playing, or whatever. I dont think this place will die for a while yet, if it ever does, but we should be able to find a way to make things more fun and interesting (and less personal).
Anyways, I know that is somewhat rambling but its a friday night and Im completely exhuasted.
EDIT: Case in point, Reaver's sig. Now I know this is reaver (known for inflamitory talk), but I mean come on how does that serve our community (firstones) by basically saying that "I smile when people die"? Many of our members have been directly affected by such disasters. Im not advocating censorship or making things PC... but isnt stuff like that just making the problem worse?
[B]Ill be honest, one of the reasons I stopped coming by here as often was because of the politcial "discussions" that (in my opinion) devolved into rants and flaming and served no purpose. And the part that made it unbearable for me was that more that 90% of the threads would turn into fights that didnt really do anything but get people pissed at each other. Any thread related to any topic seemed to be pulled down by the same old fights.
I dont mind the discussion, but when its all we talk about and it devolves into verbal slugfests almost immediately I just find it hard to even lurk. I do think that we should find some new topics to discuss, even if they are completely random. Maybe discuss Lost more, or computer games we are playing, or whatever. I dont think this place will die for a while yet, if it ever does, but we should be able to find a way to make things more fun and interesting (and less personal).
Anyways, I know that is somewhat rambling but its a friday night and Im completely exhuasted.
EDIT: Case in point, Reaver's sig. Now I know this is reaver (known for inflamitory talk), but I mean come on how does that serve our community (firstones) by basically saying that "I smile when people die"? Many of our members have been directly affected by such disasters. Im not advocating censorship or making things PC... but isnt stuff like that just making the problem worse? [/B][/QUOTE]
yep, got a little tired of hearing opinions about Bush, just because I live in the USA.
This site really wasn't built for real world politics, or religious discussions, but for a while we were able to discuss both in calm even temper.
That changed, and so I lurked more than I used to for a while. I've decided that I won't really involve myself in those kind of discussions much.
But... Even with that, you still get lasting problems between members who have already slugged it out, and now don't see each other as they used to. Sad really...
If FO does die out, it will because of us...
:s
As for reaver my training suspects its much for attention
:p
Rangers playin Islanders soon anyone up for tickets they are dirt cheap.