This place used to be so lively...what happened? 9 9

[VintageComics]

On 11/25/2023 at 7:36 PM, Kramerica said:

What kinda rockin'? Band? Session player? Sunset Strip cruiser?

I haven't sung since before the pandemic except in a few friendly circles, but I am going to get back into it. It's just been a very busy few years. 

As I stated in a thread on here, I'm helping a good friend put on a charity fundraiser. It's basically a rock concert to raise money for the 100 year old Midnight Mission in Downtown LA and I've gotten quite a few people from the comic community involved including John Dolmayan from System of a Down (who is also famously Torpedo Comics) who helped by donating some great signed gifts for the raffle, Jim Halperin CEO of Heritage, who I got to sponsor the event and make a donation and I'm also donating a high grade copy of Marvel Super Special #1, the KISS issue to the raffle. 

So I get to mix 3 of the things I've always loved - comics, music and charity. 

I'm not good enough to be a session player. Music is just for fun. 

[VintageComics]

On 11/25/2023 at 7:24 PM, COI said:

We all have different experiences and temperaments, so I can only really speak to mine. When I'm having issues with people, I just don't expect any sort of moderation to make things right or even be consistent. That's not to say they can't, I'm just not holding my breath. I'd rather be proactive and focus on myself and my own behavior.

When the room is turning on me, I try to figure out exactly what it is that people are trying to say. That doesn't mean I have to agree, but I can at least address the issue when we're clear about what the issue is. As opposed to getting defensive and doubling down. And that has served me well. I can be pretty argumentative, but as far as I can tell no one has held any grudges in 20 years on here. If they have, they're keeping it to themselves.

Meh, I have a saying that someone really close to me once taught me that rings true. 

"You don't remember what was said, but you always remember the way it made you feel."

The point of this string of discussion from my end is to improve the morale and perception of this place. Not to make me personally feel better. 

I'm at a point in my life where I quite literally don't GAF. I wasn't always there in that place, but I have been there for many years now. 

But the damage done to the forums is openly apparent to everyone, and that really was the reason for my replies on this string of discussion. 

I think it's kind of cool that we had 3 knuckleheads from Toronto in this thread at once. It's been a while.

Edited November 26, 2023 by VintageComics

[CGC Mike]

On 11/25/2023 at 5:48 PM, VintageComics said:

Or when that boardie...oh God, who was it again? Every time he posted his post would multiply infinity times and jammed threads up?

@Ringfinger  His reply was something like "I funnied my own post he he"   A man of few words.

[VintageComics]

On 11/25/2023 at 8:31 PM, CGC Mike said:

@Ringfinger  His reply was something like "I funnied my own post he he"   A man of few words.

That's him! 

He had a Pete Townsend avatar IIRC. 

Every time he posted, his post would self-multiply dozens of times and fill pages...which makes calling him a "man of few words" funny in this context.

He was definitely a cool cat!

 

[Prince Namor]

On 11/26/2023 at 1:01 AM, VintageComics said:

Kav was very generous here with his efforts but was driven out by haters.

Driven out by haters? He was given his own section of the forum for God's Sake. 

[Ken Aldred]

On 11/25/2023 at 5:44 PM, VintageComics said:

Even worse, when they type them out they're usually rife with all sorts of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes (tho? wut? wya?). I know I make mistakes too, but I generally try to fix 99.9% of that stuff. Most online statements are atrocious

Text speak, that’s all.

[Prince Namor]

On 11/26/2023 at 1:27 AM, VintageComics said:

 The root cause is the same, though. People can't ignore what they don't like. That is the reality of what happened and I don't think anyone can disagree with this. 

Pot meet Kettle. Put them on ignore and don't respond.

It'd be nice if it was TRUE ignore function like on Facebook. But play the obstacles. 

[VintageComics]

On 11/25/2023 at 9:49 PM, Prince Namor said:

On 11/25/2023 at 1:01 PM, VintageComics said:

Kav was very generous here with his efforts but was driven out by haters.

Driven out by haters? He was given his own section of the forum for God's Sake. 

As always, you're hyper focusing on convenient, inciteful parts of the discussion for effect and ignoring the breadth and depth of the rest of the discussion.

It's a lie by omission and it's how half the world preferably operates these days. 

The Cornfield thread was started because several posters, Kav being only ONE of them, were clogging up threads with banter. The thread was started so that EVERYONE can have a place to just talk nonsense.

It's the Friday-time-all-the-time-thread. It was a BRILLIANT idea by Mike.

The thread has 2000 pages currently. It was started exactly 2 years ago. That's 1000 pages a year, which is an average 20 pages a WEEK. 

Kav hasn't been here in a year. Who has been posting in the Cornfield thread? Kav's ghost? His cat?

No. EVERYONE has been posting there, but this is just another clear example of Kav hate.

This is why I choose to not engage you anymore. The only reason I replied to you is to point out the Kav-hate dissonance which is so blatant and ugly it's off-putting. 

[Ken Aldred]

On 11/25/2023 at 11:27 PM, COI said:

I agree with the part in bold. I think any reasonable person would agree that abuse needs to be addressed and stamped out. But because social interactions are complicated, you can't always neatly delineate these things. We're already in a time and place where abuse is not only acknowledged, but is often overcorrected for in an attempt to make things simple when they just aren't. Hence why being able to read social cues and adjust your own behavior is important.

The other thing is, this is a comic message board and we're all adults. No one has to take any abuse here. I've had nasty things said to me over the years, and I just don't care. As soon as it becomes clear that the person I'm talking to is no longer engaging in discussion and is just trying to insult me, I mentally tag them as knuckleheads and stop paying any attention. Maybe that's easier for some than others, but this isn't like a woman getting harassed on the street or someone being abused at a job they need, so I'm not crazy about words like "bullying" and "abuse" being thrown around casually.

 

On 11/25/2023 at 4:30 PM, goldust40 said:

First and still best forum for me.

The only boards I’ve ever joined are this one and the UK’s autism board.  In both cases, choosing clearly-defined groups of individuals which I have a lot in common with. Of course, there’s still a wide spectrum of personalities, the potential for confusion or hostility, but greatly outweighed by the many positive experiences.  I actually feel quite threatened by the toxic risks of joining a more generalised medium such as Facebook, for example, being pestered by former school acquaintances who’ve forgotten how much verbal, physical and psychological abuse and damage was inflicted upon me. Common sense dictates that I keep a safe distance from them, and any resurgent memories. Who needs it.

Even after 15 years I still look forward to coming on here, enthusing about comics, old-and-new, stories and artists, whatever I’ve been reading recently, films, music and the many more unrelated topics over in the Water Cooler. I hope I contribute enough that’s knowledgable and relevant about comics, although I do have a borderline level fluctuation between trying to be humorous at one extreme and quite intense at the other to contend with. Still, I suppose that gives me a bit of range, at least.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[ChiSoxFan]

On 11/25/2023 at 4:49 PM, bc said:

Almost as good as the Hulu hoop girl 

-bc

I've forgotten a lot of stuff over the years.  The Hulu Hoop girl is NOT one of them.   

[stock_rotation]

On 11/25/2023 at 10:27 PM, VintageComics said:

The Cornfield thread was started because several posters, Kav being only ONE of them, were clogging up threads with banter. The thread was started so that EVERYONE can have a place to just talk nonsense.

[...]

The thread has 2000 pages currently. It was started exactly 2 years ago. That's 1000 pages a year, which is an average 20 pages a WEEK. 

Kav hasn't been here in a year. Who has been posting in the Cornfield thread? Kav's ghost? His cat?

The averages tell the story the way you want it told. The details tell a different story. Kav's last post in that thread was a year ago. In the first 11 months of the thread (when Kav was an active participant), it exploded to just over 1800 pages. In the year since, it's only grown by a little less than 160 pages.

Kav may not have been the only source of nonsense, but it's pretty clear he was the driver of it.

[ChiSoxFan]

I remember when I first joined the forum, after lurking for a short time.  It was an experience of having my eyes completely opened -- I learned SO much here.  Things about the hobby in general, its history, grading, niche collecting, genres I had barely appreciated at the time.  I was so ignorant about so many things (cue the "And you probably still are" joke  ), and my finding these boards was the best thing that ever happened to me as a comic collector.

But throwing all of that aside, it was a community, and I was glad to be a part of it then, and I'm just as glad to be a part of it now.  I think things feel slower, even if the numbers might not support it -- heck, even I took a hiatus for a few years when I was in a rough place, and I imagine that I'm not the first nor the last to have done so, or who will do so.  I definitely think the explosion of social media has been a big part of any slowdown, real of perceived.  Even I'm a part of that (I stream a video game on Twitch and have a YouTube channel devoted to it, so I'm part of the problem, I guess ).  I'm still a dinosaur who doesn't do Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, but there's people communicating there that might have been here instead, if those platforms didn't exist.

In any case, I'm happy to see some familiar faces here in this thread, and I hope this board stays active for a long time to come.  I'm someone who generally wants to see the best in people, and it really takes a lot to put you on my bad side, and very few people here have ever done that.  I've made some great friends here over the years, and this place and the people here hold a special place for me.  A fitting thought around Thanksgiving, no?

[WolverineX]

On 11/25/2023 at 12:44 PM, VintageComics said:

I actually find that younger generations don't communicate as much. 

Gen X and possibly Y (and possibly only X) are among the last generations that really enjoy longform communication. 

Newer generations are just about the "likes" and memes. I watch social media posts for this specifically and having people type their thoughts out is a lost art. 

Even worse, when they type them out they're usually rife with all sorts of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes (tho? wut? wya?). I know I make mistakes too, but I generally try to fix 99.9% of that stuff. Most online statements are atrocious. 

I think that people's communication skills and mental faculties are going to be a real problem moving forward. Shortening attention spans, illiteracy, lack of social will to engage (young people have record high anxiety levels and they don't even know why, but certainly answering a phone is problematic to them) and many other reasons are reducing true online social interaction and trading it for, again what I call the quick sugar / serotonin fix rather than the long form, complex carb serotonin fix. 

We're becoming a society of knee jerk reactions, incapable to communicate properly and therefore unable to problem solve. 

Are you guys aware that Tik Tok in China is completely different than Tik Tok in the USA?

In the US Tik Tok is full of dumb stuff like Tide Pod Challenges.

Apparently, in China Tik Tok is nothing like American Tik Tok. It's full of old fashioned communication and personal accomplishments. Almost something you'd read out of a Golden Age comic book. 

Chinese tiktok promotes education materials and has time limits

[Prince Namor]

On 11/26/2023 at 10:27 AM, VintageComics said:

As always, you're hyper focusing on convenient, inciteful parts of the discussion for effect and ignoring the breadth and depth of the rest of the discussion.

In your opinion. The way I see it YOU'RE hyper focusing on convenient, inciteful parts of the discussion for effect and ignoring the breadth and depth of the rest of the discussion. 

On 11/26/2023 at 10:27 AM, VintageComics said:

It's a lie by omission and it's how half the world preferably operates these days. 

When people don't see things your way, they're liars. Got it.

On 11/26/2023 at 10:27 AM, VintageComics said:

The Cornfield thread was started because several posters, Kav being only ONE of them, were clogging up threads with banter. The thread was started so that EVERYONE can have a place to just talk nonsense.

The thread has 2000 pages currently. It was started exactly 2 years ago. That's 1000 pages a year, which is an average 20 pages a WEEK. 

Kav hasn't been here in a year. Who has been posting in the Cornfield thread? Kav's ghost? His cat?

See below:

On 11/26/2023 at 11:09 AM, stock_rotation said:

The averages tell the story the way you want it told. The details tell a different story. Kav's last post in that thread was a year ago. In the first 11 months of the thread (when Kav was an active participant), it exploded to just over 1800 pages. In the year since, it's only grown by a little less than 160 pages.

Kav may not have been the only source of nonsense, but it's pretty clear he was the driver of it.

On 11/26/2023 at 10:27 AM, VintageComics said:

No. EVERYONE has been posting there, but this is just another clear example of Kav hate.

Pointing out the obvious is hate. Got it. 

On 11/26/2023 at 10:27 AM, VintageComics said:

This is why I choose to not engage you anymore. The only reason I replied to you is to point out the Kav-hate dissonance which is so blatant and ugly it's off-putting. 

Kav gave as good as he got. Stop trying to paint him as a big baby.

Some people didn't like the change in moderation. Some people WANT to be able to get into heated arguments. Some people WANT to talk Politics. I suspect kav is actually much happier now. 

At least he isn't one of those people who constantly drops back in here to stir up trouble and then when challenged on it, cry foul and compares themself to a little kid on the internet being bullied. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Prince Namor

[s-man]

Blake used to be Lively too, until she married Reynolds 

 

[VintageComics]

On 11/25/2023 at 11:09 PM, stock_rotation said:

The averages tell the story the way you want it told. The details tell a different story. Kav's last post in that thread was a year ago. In the first 11 months of the thread (when Kav was an active participant), it exploded to just over 1800 pages. In the year since, it's only grown by a little less than 160 pages.

Kav may not have been the only source of nonsense, but it's pretty clear he was the driver of it.

Dude, it's not like I went through the entire Cornfield thread with a microscope and then conspired to twist the facts. This isn't 9/11. I just did a quick math equation because I couldn't care less. 

You should have seen the uproar when I upped my posting volume. If Mike showed a chart, it would have looked like Mt. Everest and boy did people complain.  

Bosco, Adamantium, 1950's war (no offense meant against any of them), ME. There's always going to be someone to complain about. The solution is to figure out how to get along, not how to stay divided. 

Oh, making 99% of someone's posts DISAPPEAR is not enough? Maybe a belly rub might make you feel better, then. Tough balls. Hit the ignore feature.

We quite literally live in a world where people can't control themselves but want to control everyone else...but they REALLY want world peace.

Edited November 26, 2023 by VintageComics

[VintageComics]

On 11/25/2023 at 11:09 PM, ChiSoxFan said:

I remember when I first joined the forum, after lurking for a short time.  It was an experience of having my eyes completely opened -- I learned SO much here.  Things about the hobby in general, its history, grading, niche collecting, genres I had barely appreciated at the time.  I was so ignorant about so many things (cue the "And you probably still are" joke  ), and my finding these boards was the best thing that ever happened to me as a comic collector.

But throwing all of that aside, it was a community, and I was glad to be a part of it then, and I'm just as glad to be a part of it now.  I think things feel slower, even if the numbers might not support it -- heck, even I took a hiatus for a few years when I was in a rough place, and I imagine that I'm not the first nor the last to have done so, or who will do so.  I definitely think the explosion of social media has been a big part of any slowdown, real of perceived.  Even I'm a part of that (I stream a video game on Twitch and have a YouTube channel devoted to it, so I'm part of the problem, I guess ).  I'm still a dinosaur who doesn't do Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, but there's people communicating there that might have been here instead, if those platforms didn't exist.

In any case, I'm happy to see some familiar faces here in this thread, and I hope this board stays active for a long time to come.  I'm someone who generally wants to see the best in people, and it really takes a lot to put you on my bad side, and very few people here have ever done that.  I've made some great friends here over the years, and this place and the people here hold a special place for me.  A fitting thought around Thanksgiving, no?

You also got to meet me. 

[VintageComics]

On 11/25/2023 at 11:22 PM, WolverineX said:

Chinese tiktok promotes education materials and has time limits

How many Americans do you think know this? Almost none. It's really sad. 

You know where I found out about this? On the #1 podcast in the world, which is a banned topic here because someone here convinced moderation that the podcast "spreads misinformation". 

[Prince Namor]

On 11/26/2023 at 2:35 PM, VintageComics said:

Dude, it's not like I went through the entire Cornfield thread with a microscope and then conspired to twist the facts. This isn't 9/11. I just did a quick math equation because I couldn't care less. 

You should have seen the uproar when I upped my posting volume. If Mike showed a chart, it would have looked like Mt. Everest and boy did people complain.  

Bosco, Adamantium, 1950's war (no offense meant against any of them), ME. There's always going to be someone to complain about. The solution is to figure out how to get along, not how to stay divided. 

Oh, making 99% of someone's posts DISAPPEAR is not enough? Maybe a belly rub might make you feel better, then. Tough balls. Hit the ignore feature.

We quite literally live in a world where people can't control themselves but want to control everyone else...but they REALLY want world peace.

Considering your whole rant against me was based on this false premise, a simple, "I was wrong" would've sufficed.

Instead you start a rant about someone pointing out your inaccurate statement. 

What's next, you feel bullied?

[Prince Namor]

On 11/26/2023 at 2:42 PM, VintageComics said:

How many Americans do you think know this? Almost none. It's really sad. 

Why is it sad?

They can go on Tik Tok or search the Internet if they want to learn Communist Principles. 

Douyin (the Chinese version of Tik Tok, owned by the same company - regular Tik Tok is blocked there - I just experienced it in Hong Kong about a month ago) isn't some remarkable educational tool. Anyone who lives in the U.S. and is championing it, has no idea what they're talking about.

On 11/26/2023 at 2:42 PM, VintageComics said:

You know where I found out about this? On the #1 podcast in the world, which is a banned topic here because someone here convinced moderation that the podcast "spreads misinformation". 

Just can't keep your politics out of here can you?