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

[jimjum12]

On 11/25/2023 at 6:09 PM, VintageComics said:

But if someone abuses Bosco, they're gone pretty quickly.

It can be done, but you need to get a room, and it helps if he's passed out drunk. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

[namisgr]

What happened?

• Distributors of dystopia
• Purveyors of paranoia
• Blowhards of baloney
• Antipodes of self awareness
• Nellies of narcissism
• Palaverous posting
• Miscreants of misinformation
• Flyers of fantasy
• Envies of expertise
• Pushers of pretense
• Nabobs of negativity
• Cynics of scholarship
• Slanderers of civics
• Avatars of avarice and anger
• etcetera, etcetera, etcetera

For posters who view the world and surround themselves with people in their daily lives filled with optimism, selflessness, positivity, commitment, sensitivity, community, fairness, earned expertise, rich experience, deep knowledge, joviality, and admiration, this place has become too often an unenjoyable and ugly turnoff.  So many have either stopped posting entirely or bunkered themselves into small and highly focused pockets they've found still bring enjoyable social interaction.

Specific to comics, whereas the boards were once predominated by collectors and hobbyists sharing enthusiasm and love for the comic book medium, they have evolved to predomination by investors, flippers, and the like focused on the commercial aspects of the hobby more so than the entertainment and creative art.  There's nothing wrong with that evolution, which flowed naturally from the  huge increase in comic book values and appreciation by the culture at large for the characters and their stories since the boards were first started.  It just doesn't support a set of discussion topics that some of the longstanding hobbyists and collectors find especially interesting.

Edited November 26, 2023 by namisgr

[Gaard]

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

Bosco, Adamantium, 1950's war (no offense meant against any of them), ME. There's always going to be someone to complain about.

People really had a problem with @ADAMANTIUM? He seems like a pretty jolly fellow.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/26/2023 at 10:24 AM, namisgr said:

What happened?

• Distributors of dystopia
• Purveyors of paranoia
• Blowhards of baloney
• Antipodes of self awareness
• Nellies of narcissism
• Palaverous posting
• Miscreants of misinformation
• Flyers of fantasy
• Envies of expertise
• Pushers of pretense
• Nabobs of negativity
• Cynics of scholarship
• Slanderers of civics
• Avatars of avarice and anger
• etcetera, etcetera, etcetera

For posters who view the world and surround themselves with people in their daily lives filled with optimism, selflessness, positivity, commitment, sensitivity, community, fairness, earned expertise, rich experience, deep knowledge, joviality, and admiration, this place has become too often an unenjoyable and ugly turnoff.  So many have either stopped posting entirely or bunkered themselves into small and highly focused pockets they've found still bring enjoyable social interaction.

Specific to comics, whereas the boards were once predominated by collectors and hobbyists sharing enthusiasm and love for the comic book medium, they have evolved to predomination by investors, flippers, and the like focused on the commercial aspects of the hobby more so than the entertainment and creative art.  There's nothing wrong with that evolution, which flowed naturally from the  huge increase in comic book values and appreciation by the culture at large for the characters and their stories since the boards were first started.  It just doesn't support a set of discussion topics that some of the longstanding hobbyists and collectors find especially interesting.

Blimey, is that what happened?  I just thought someone had farted. 

[KCOComics]

On 11/26/2023 at 5:24 AM, namisgr said:

 

Specific to comics, whereas the boards were once predominated by collectors and hobbyists sharing enthusiasm and love for the comic book medium, they have evolved to predomination by investors, flippers, and the like focused on the commercial aspects of the hobby more so than the entertainment and creative art.  There's nothing wrong with that evolution, which flowed naturally from the  huge increase in comic book values and appreciation by the culture at large for the characters and their stories since the boards were first started.  It just doesn't support a set of discussion topics that some of the longstanding hobbyists and collectors find especially interesting.

This is an interesting take I haven't thought of.  

I think you see this play out in the "clubs" for Key books. All talk these days is generally about auction results.  That happens because the barrier to entry is so great on books like AF15, you don't see a lot of new collectors "joining the club".  

I do wonder though... how many of those long conversations were purely about comics? I've read through a few old threads and there was plenty of mud slinging and personal jabs, but not a ton of conversation purely about comics? 

 

[stock_rotation]

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

Dude, it's not like I went through the entire Cornfield thread with a microscope and then conspired to twist the facts. 

Lol, of course not. You just spouted whatever you thought would support your opinion and then presented it as if it were the objective, unassailable truth. 

Some people have a deep-seated need to always be right on the internet, all the time, every time. Truth be told, it's a little tiring.

[joeypost]

I cannot speak for everyone, but in my case 90% of my posting and communication on these boards has moved to PM. It wasn’t on purpose, it just happened organically. 

[VintageComics]

On 11/26/2023 at 5:24 AM, namisgr said:

this place has become too often an unenjoyable and ugly turnoff.

As in every relationship, it takes at least two to tango. Every relationship is 50/50. Not 40/60, not 30/70, but exactly 50/50 because if one side doesn't like something they are always free to leave and not engage. I'm not going to go down that road again, and I have fully taken accountability for my part, but you were personally instrumental in 50% of the transformation of the forums into an argumentative place, so let's not go down that road. 

How does this relate to simply ignoring what people don't like?

On 11/26/2023 at 5:24 AM, namisgr said:

Specific to comics, whereas the boards were once predominated by collectors and hobbyists sharing enthusiasm and love for the comic book medium, they have evolved to predomination by investors, flippers, and the like focused on the commercial aspects of the hobby more so than the entertainment and creative art.  There's nothing wrong with that evolution,

I actually DO believe there's something wrong with it philosophically and have personally spoken out against it for as long as I've been here. I'm against money driving discussion because I feel it's a sort sighted path and I've been against this place turning into an investment forum probably since I saw it happening in 2010 when it started to be apparent that the movies were driving investment talk but I've also not tried to be dogmatic about it. 

[shadroch]

For many years, members would meet up at big shows for a forum dinner.  We'd rent a private room at a restaurant and share copious amounts of wine, food and small talk.  Those seem to have gone the way of the dodo.  A return would help the forum, IMO. 

[VintageComics]

On 11/26/2023 at 9:02 AM, stock_rotation said:

Lol, of course not. You just spouted whatever you thought would support your opinion and then presented it as if it were the objective, unassailable truth. 

Some people have a deep-seated need to always be right on the internet, all the time, every time. Truth be told, it's a little tiring.

It wasn't a spout, it was honest mistake on my part, but  it was truly irrelevant to the main point. 

The main point in this string of discussion is that it's far easier and more beneficial to EVERYONE to ignore someone WHO DOESN'T EVEN ENGAGE YOU than it is to complain about it repeatedly.

I can't believe anyone is arguing this point.

Everyone here pretends to be all about "inclusivity" and "diversity" until something annoys them and then their idea of "inclusivity and diversity" is to make everyone bend to their will, march in lockstep and eradicate the enemy. 

Sounds about right in this day and age. 

Have you even tried to use the ignore feature? Serious question. 

[wombat]

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

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". 

How many people (Americans or otherwise) would even care? Why is it sad that people don't know how tiktok operates in China? 

[VintageComics]

On 11/26/2023 at 10:51 AM, shadroch said:

For many years, members would meet up at big shows for a forum dinner.  We'd rent a private room at a restaurant and share copious amounts of wine, food and small talk.  Those seem to have gone the way of the dodo.  A return would help the forum, IMO. 

Yep. I loved these. 

@FlyingDonut used to organize the Wizard Chicago one and we'd get a 100 boardies on a Saturday night hanging out. Once he stopped that one fell apart. 

Wizard Chicago was always an easy one to do this at because of the way the convention area was structured. All the hotels circled the convention center and the steakhouse was across the road. 

The other large, comparable shows (like NYC, SD, Orlando etc) were a little more spread out across the cities so not as convenient for everyone. 

---------------------------------

I used to organize basketball games for boardies at Chicago and SD for years and everyone enjoyed these too. The pandemic kind of put a kibosh on that and some boardies have aged out (we've been doing the basketball games for at least 10 years) so some can no longer play. I still play daily so it's an important part of my life and I'm sure there is a young crowd that might enjoy it so I might start that up next year. 

--------------------------------

Plus, Dolmayan (System of a Down / Torpedo Comics) also started organizing music concerts around various conventions. I was a part of two of them, and they had a few others that I attended. We did shows in Chicago, San Diego and New York and people absolutely loved those as well. 

I think a takeaway here is that like in family and relationships, general community takes effort and as soon as people stop putting in the effort, things change very quickly and the general  community sort of drifts apart. 

On 11/26/2023 at 9:34 AM, joeypost said:

I cannot speak for everyone, but in my case 90% of my posting and communication on these boards has moved to PM. It wasn’t on purpose, it just happened organically. 

Ditto here. I spend a lot more time in PMs now than I ever used to and that has been partly because of the divisions formed and partly because as @COI stated, the complexity of moderating the forums has changed the culture. 

[VintageComics]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:03 AM, wombat said:

Why is it sad that people don't know how tiktok operates in China? 

I believe that knowing more about the world around you benefits society, and people with roots outside of the North America will generally agree with this. Talk to anyone from outside of North America and they know more about America than the Americans know about the other country.

Americans in particular have a very different view of the world in that they generally don't know or care what goes on outside of their borders. 

Your answer is in the @WolverineX post which you quoted with mine, but to expound:

Tik Tok is a Chinese invention, which is an important point, and in the West Tik Tok used very differently than in China. 

In China there are time limits and the content is different. People use it to promote their personal educational accomplishments, etc. 

In the West Tik Tok is used by the crack smoking, trashy crowd to promote things like the Tide Pod challenge.

If Westerners knew about this, it may influence how they use Tik Tok. Again, knowing more about the world around you makes society better overall.

Social media has had a very negative effect on the West - that is indisputable, and some experts believe that Tik Tok is actually (either inadvertently or purposefully) dumbing down the West while maintaining higher social standards in the West. To be more blunt, some believe Tik Tok is a CCP device used to socially dumb down society in the West. We're at a level of foreign policy warfare now that this is actually very possible. 

That is an entirely different discussion, but you asked, so...

Edited November 26, 2023 by VintageComics

[wombat]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:30 AM, VintageComics said:

I believe that knowing more about the world around you benefits society, and people with roots outside of the North America will generally agree with this. Talk to anyone from outside of North America and they know more about America than the Americans know about the other country.

Americans in particular have a very different view of the world in that they generally don't know or care what goes on outside of their borders. 

Your answer is in the @WolverineX post which you quoted with mine, but to expound:

Tik Tok is a Chinese invention, which is an important point, and in the West Tik Tok used very differently than in China. 

In China there are time limits and the content is different. People use it to promote their personal educational accomplishments, etc. 

In the West Tik Tok is used by the crack smoking, trashy crowd to promote things like the Tide Pod challenge.

If Westerners knew about this, it may influence how they use Tik Tok. Again, knowing more about the world around you makes society better overall.

Social media has had a very negative effect on the West - that is indisputable, and some experts believe that Tik Tok is actually (either inadvertently or purposefully) dumbing down the West while maintaining higher social standards in the West. To be more blunt, some believe Tik Tok is a CCP device used to socially dumb down society in the West. We're at a level of foreign policy warfare now that this is actually very possible. 

That is an entirely different discussion, but you asked, so...

Sure, knowing more about the world is great. Knowing how a social media platform operates in China? To each his own I guess. To think that is sad seems really odd to me. And to think if people did knew how it was used in China would influence how it is used elsewhere seems like a major stretch to me. 

[VintageComics]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:49 AM, wombat said:

Sure, knowing more about the world is great. Knowing how a social media platform operates in China? To each his own I guess. To think that is sad seems really odd to me. And to think if people did knew how it was used in China would influence how it is used elsewhere seems like a major stretch to me. 

I think it's more of a stretch for someone born and raised here and less of a stretch for people who have roots outside of the US. My parents also came from behind the Iron Curtain to escape torture and jail (literally), so my view of the world is going to be very different than yours.

[Cat]

On 11/26/2023 at 5:35 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.

Stop bringing ADAMANTIUM up as though he were hated. That's never been true, and he's a lovely guy, and a good friend. You may have a problem with him, but keep it to yourself if you do, frankly I don't care. He's a 10/10 person. 

[wombat]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:53 AM, VintageComics said:

I think it's more of a stretch for someone born and raised here and less of a stretch for people who have roots outside of the US. My parents also came from behind the Iron Curtain to escape torture and jail (literally), so my view of the world is going to be very different than yours.

So how is it used in other countries? Closer to the US or China?

[grendelbo]

On 11/26/2023 at 9:58 AM, Cat said:

Stop bringing ADAMANTIUM up as though he were hated. That's never been true, and he's a lovely guy, and a good friend. You may have a problem with him, but keep it to yourself if you do, frankly I don't care. He's a 10/10 person. 

[VintageComics]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:58 AM, Cat said:

Stop bringing ADAMANTIUM up as though he were hated. That's never been true, and he's a lovely guy, and a good friend. You may have a problem with him, but keep it to yourself if you do, frankly I don't care. He's a 10/10 person. 

Why would you assume I have a problem with him.

I have even CLEARLY SAID I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST THEM. Duh. 

I simply noted out some of the more voluminous posters, because they've all had run ins with people at some point. At one point, I came onto the forums and noticed there were people applying heat to him. Do I have that wrong?

I have nothing against those posters AT ALL. 

Dude, recheck that Rorschach test. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by VintageComics

[Cat]

On 11/27/2023 at 3:01 AM, VintageComics said:

Why would you assume I have a problem with him.

I have even CLEARLY SAID I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST THEM. Duh. 

I simply noted out some of the more voluminous posters, because they've all had run ins with people at some point. At one point, I came onto the forums and noticed there were people applying heat to him. Do I have that wrong?

I have nothing against those posters AT ALL. 

Dude, recheck that Rorschach test. 

You've repeatedly used his name in a negative fashion, in multiple places. It's not cool at all. He's a great guy and not your whipping boy. He's never been involved in any drama, and frankly he'd be the last person I'd ever expect to see in any, he's just not that kind of person. He's polite to the extreme. 

You'd do well to try and emulate his behaviour. Hell, most of us would. 

Just not his grammar at times.