Is this forum dying?

[Queen Titania]

I go there so seldom I didn't even realize I had a "time out" until it was over............ I don't enjoy posting with the people there. They expect it to be an echo chamber and if it's not - "time out".

It is a horrible forum - lots of us have tried it but it is just nasty and the rules are ridiculous and misused.

 

[Jen]

It is a horrible forum - lots of us have tried it but it is just nasty and the rules are ridiculous and misused.

You're right. The reason I was suspended wasn't something that would get me suspended in a normal forum.

 

[Queen Titania]

You're right. The reason I was suspended wasn't something that would get me suspended in a normal forum.

Ditto - ridiculous.

 

[Days]

I don't think the forum has died, but I always felt this place was not versatile enough. It was set up for politics, it was set up by someone who was trying to attract that one ring circus. By sheer chance, it was in the right place at the right time and back then, it had a thread view, and justoffal said "Let's head over to Political Jack" and we all followed. The self moderation in place is way better than any editor at Slate could hope to achieve. We forget how bad the treatment was from Slate and how ridiculously the rules were abused.

If I had to point at failures - and these were probably unavoidable - I would say there was 2 big failures that cost this forum most of the circulation it lost. First, Dave didn't adjust to the clientelle; he stuck with his format, which was good for politics, but he lost the arts and humanities and special interests ... he crushed them all into politics; even economics was narrowed to government focus. He lost half the Fray right there. Then, over time, thread view was phased out... I left the place when that happened, was gone for over a year. He probably didn't lose many others over that single item, but it limited the conversation, and so it was a subtle influence, but the place lost some of its luster, threadview was the whole purpose for posting at Slate Fray, the whole community was built around it, so when PJ lost threadview, it was like losing the Fray all over again. When Fraysters do pop in from time to time, it hurts that they don't have that familiar architecture. Threads is how we learned to post, maybe we have grown up past that, but it still attracts us, and just like grown-ups acting like kids when they are having fun, it's a nice feature to have in the forum.

Time was, I put up a post in Money box, in 5 minutes time, I had 600 views. Same would happen over in BestoftheFray. Here, we use "Recent Posts" as if it was a Fray for the entire forum (which, I guess it is) - and the feature of moving recent posts to the top; that combines all the old tools into one; it is so effective, I'm afraid if we still had threadview, there would be nothing but fights happening. human nature is a real bitch.

All in all, I've enjoyed posting here more since I came back (I returned to put up that apology on the two aspects of the holy spirit) Spring 2015... I would say I've enjoyed posting here more than any other place I posted, not at first, but in the last 2 years; I like the pace, I like the way BD's blog has worked out, it is easy on my old nerves, I'm not into flame wars any more.

I don't think the forum is dying, I think it has slowed, but when guys like Pogue Mahone drop by, you know people know about the place, you've got some tough veteran posters here and you get visited by the same, it is a tough place for a young poster to fit into... not much you can do about that, you can't teach these old dogs new tricks, if you can keep the inmates from rioting, you gotta be happy with that. New posters are what grows a forum; we have no feed from a mainstream media, so growth has to happen organically, and really, a bunch of political hacks are not going to go for Christian nurturing; it just isn't their style. So, don't expect any exponental growth any time soon, at the same time, the place has a good mix of writers that are talented; maybe we are not the cream of the old fray, but we have stayed with it, the quality is pretty good around here, everyone knows how to play the game, that's not easy to come by, it offers a sandbox for people to come play in; it worked for me, I came back to play in the sandbox and I'm still getting my hands dirty. When the community still has some vibrancy, that's a sign of life, so if it is living, it ain't dying; not yet, anyway.

 

[Jen]

I don't think the forum has died, but I always felt this place was not versatile enough. It was set up for politics, it was set up by someone who was trying to attract that one ring circus. By sheer chance, it was in the right place at the right time and back then, it had a thread view, and justoffal said "Let's head over to Political Jack" and we all followed. The self moderation in place is way better than any editor at Slate could hope to achieve. We forget how bad the treatment was from Slate and how ridiculously the rules were abused.

If I had to point at failures - and these were probably unavoidable - I would say there was 2 big failures that cost this forum most of the circulation it lost. First, Dave didn't adjust to the clientelle; he stuck with his format, which was good for politics, but he lost the arts and humanities and special interests ... he crushed them all into politics; even economics was narrowed to government focus. He lost half the Fray right there. Then, over time, thread view was phased out... I left the place when that happened, was gone for over a year. He probably didn't lose many others over that single item, but it limited the conversation, and so it was a subtle influence, but the place lost some of its luster, threadview was the whole purpose for posting at Slate Fray, the whole community was built around it, so when PJ lost threadview, it was like losing the Fray all over again. When Fraysters do pop in from time to time, it hurts that they don't have that familiar architecture. Threads is how we learned to post, maybe we have grown up past that, but it still attracts us, and just like grown-ups acting like kids when they are having fun, it's a nice feature to have in the forum.

Time was, I put up a post in Money box, in 5 minutes time, I had 600 views. Same would happen over in BestoftheFray. Here, we use "Recent Posts" as if it was a Fray for the entire forum (which, I guess it is) - and the feature of moving recent posts to the top; that combines all the old tools into one; it is so effective, I'm afraid if we still had threadview, there would be nothing but fights happening. human nature is a real bitch.

All in all, I've enjoyed posting here more since I came back (I returned to put up that apology on the two aspects of the holy spirit) Spring 2015... I would say I've enjoyed posting here more than any other place I posted, not at first, but in the last 2 years; I like the pace, I like the way BD's blog has worked out, it is easy on my old nerves, I'm not into flame wars any more.

I don't think the forum is dying, I think it has slowed, but when guys like Pogue Mahone drop by, you know people know about the place, you've got some tough veteran posters here and you get visited by the same, it is a tough place for a young poster to fit into... not much you can do about that, you can't teach these old dogs new tricks, if you can keep the inmates from rioting, you gotta be happy with that. New posters are what grows a forum; we have no feed from a mainstream media, so growth has to happen organically, and really, a bunch of political hacks are not going to go for Christian nurturing; it just isn't their style. So, don't expect any exponental growth any time soon, at the same time, the place has a good mix of writers that are talented; maybe we are not the cream of the old fray, but we have stayed with it, the quality is pretty good around here, everyone knows how to play the game, that's not easy to come by, it offers a sandbox for people to come play in; it worked for me, I came back to play in the sandbox and I'm still getting my hands dirty. When the community still has some vibrancy, that's a sign of life, so if it is living, it ain't dying; not yet, anyway.

PJ is annoying, infuriating, and irritating......... but at the end of the day we come to the place where everyone knows our name.

It's okay.
And despite losing threaded viewing ability, it's moderated and handled better than Slate Fray. So, while I'll grumble...........I'll also express appreciation.

 

[Days]

PJ is annoying, infuriating, and irritating......... but at the end of the day we come to the place where everyone knows our name.

It's okay.
And despite losing threaded viewing ability, it's moderated and handled better than Slate Fray. So, while I'll grumble...........I'll also express appreciation.

Cheers! I'll drink to that. (Orange Juice, of course)

We take for granted the posting tools.

 

[Queen Titania]

This is a part of us all xxx a cherished part of us all xxx

 

[Queen Titania]

Seems to be hardly maintained anymore...

Good luck!

Isn't it perhaps that we are all 'political weary' and it is the summer - politics is exhausted and the corruption of it all being so bloody obvious to even the old true believers that we are all having to adjust to new 'norm' arguments?

 

[Queen Titania]

Cheers! I'll drink to that. (Orange Juice, of course)

We take for granted the posting tools.

I never liked threaded - I know you all used it but I used to read through the whole threads - I liked it better that way, seeing what everyone was saying. Had to use threaded at times, of course, to see who each other were talking too.

 

[Jen]

I never liked threaded - I know you all used it but I used to read through the whole threads - I liked it better that way, seeing what everyone was saying. Had to use threaded at times, of course, to see who each other were talking too.

I like a forum model that allows for combined..... threaded view in a little slim box and flat view. That way if I see a response that doesn't have a quote, I can refer to the threaded part to see if it was meant for me.
This one automatically includes a quote, so really, threaded isn't necessary.

 

[Queen Titania]

I like a forum model that allows for combined..... threaded view in a little slim box and flat view. That way if I see a response that doesn't have a quote, I can refer to the threaded part to see if it was meant for me.
This one automatically includes a quote, so really, threaded isn't necessary.

Yes, I did feel so sorry for everyone who used it when it went though -

 

[Days]

I like a forum model that allows for combined..... threaded view in a little slim box and flat view. That way if I see a response that doesn't have a quote, I can refer to the threaded part to see if it was meant for me.
This one automatically includes a quote, so really, threaded isn't necessary.

We've learned to work with it, what we are doing is constructing the thread in our minds, using the quote feature and looking back through the whole thread, and even then, we still mess up all the time, we still make replies to the wrong poster and misunderstand replies because we don't know where they were directed... threaded view was a very important tool.

Theaded view becomes much more important when threads get into multiple pages. It gets ridiculous trying to sort out 10, or 20, or even 30 pages of posts. I give up, it isn't worth the effort, and I know I am better at it than anyone else on the planet because I'm the one who helped to develop threaded view for this planet. (that was right after I taught Al Gore how to create the internet) You know, if Al Gore would have included those 2 words "I helped to create the internet" ... we would have lost one of the great bloopers of all time.

Threaded View is still lacking, and we are still hurting for it. Think about someone who looks in on Political Jack for the first time... what does that person see? confusion.

jes sayin"

 

[Queen Titania]

We've learned to work with it, what we are doing is constructing the thread in our minds, using the quote feature and looking back through the whole thread, and even then, we still mess up all the time, we still make replies to the wrong poster and misunderstand replies because we don't know where they were directed... threaded view was a very important tool.

Theaded view becomes much more important when threads get into multiple pages. It gets ridiculous trying to sort out 10, or 20, or even 30 pages of posts. I give up, it isn't worth the effort, and I know I am better at it than anyone else on the planet because I'm the one who helped to develop threaded view for this planet. (that was right after I taught Al Gore how to create the internet) You know, if Al Gore would have included those 2 words "I helped to create the internet" ... we would have lost one of the great bloopers of all time.

Threaded View is still lacking, and we are still hurting for it. Think about someone who looks in on Political Jack for the first time... what does that person see? confusion.

jes sayin"

It was exciting when we first came here, wasn't it? So many toys to play with and we got paid

 

[Days]

It was exciting when we first came here, wasn't it? So many toys to play with and we got paid

Way back in the day, a babysitter Fray editor who later became a regular editor and a good one (Adam) tried to bring order to the Fray. Bean counter meets real world kind of encounter. Adam IP banned the living daylights out of us. So, Catnapping and Sandy from Texas decided to start a msn group and named it Kausville. It was our first experience with a rich text editor. MaryAnne, justoffal, JackDallas, Lapcat, BoltLady, myself were among the exiled. You never got caught in the pokey, did you? whitelight was always clean as a whistle. Every time I wanted to give up, you would tell me, "Don't give up".

So we had the toys back then. And I recognize the toys from the old microsoft Works software version of Word. That used to come free on a new computer. I never owned Office in the old days, I was happy with the set up in Works. After they phased that out, there was a free office put out by Oracle using the money they won from their anti-trust suit against microsoft. Oracle set out to prove microsoft's argument in the case was false, so they used the reparations award in the suit to make a open source Office... it wasn't as good as the old microsoft Works, which was also free. Finally, I gave in and bought the student/teacher (cheapest) version of office, that's part and parcel of every new computer nowadays. I still have microsoft Works on a disc somewhere, but old software never works on newer computers. They pretty much force you to keep up with technology, even if we do lag behind. Windows 10 is actually a new platform for operating, but it still supports the legacy software built on windows 32. Be careful you don't buy a computer with windows 10c OS ... that's the same new platform except it doesn't support the old windows 32; hence, nothing works on it yet.

We are the dinosaurs of the dinosaurs. The first online magazine reader response forum obliterated into a thousands fragments, regrouped and rebroken over and over and it's like the old watering hole in the old west... old timers still drop by to see who might be there. It is kind of like when Tracy's Tavern (Irish) is real slow, that's when I will pop in and kill some time, dance with the barmaids, heh, whatever, or sing with Mike (used to have a band called "pegasus") like I did last night, or chat with the old barmaids that I used to bring home, or watch some sports event... you know the feeling, it's one big family. I come here to do the same, except, here it is with words and hopefully some inspiration from the great spirit. Whether we are right or wrong, we still write, we always write, in the beginning the idea was to post ideas, write something awesome, write a cool poem, uncover some nasty plot, explain the math or money or physics we even did lyrics and some of those guys had bands. Pretty soon, it was all about community. We came to see each other, maybe peek at the magazine articles once in a while. That was so frowned upon, but that was the real purpose of the Fray. Here, it is the whole enchilada, all we have is each other. Me thinks we are luckier than we realize.

 

[Queen Titania]

Way back in the day, a babysitter Fray editor who later became a regular editor and a good one (Adam) tried to bring order to the Fray. Bean counter meets real world kind of encounter. Adam IP banned the living daylights out of us. So, Catnapping and Sandy from Texas decided to start a msn group and named it Kausville. It was our first experience with a rich text editor. MaryAnne, justoffal, JackDallas, Lapcat, BoltLady, myself were among the exiled. You never got caught in the pokey, did you? whitelight was always clean as a whistle. Every time I wanted to give up, you would tell me, "Don't give up".

So we had the toys back then. And I recognize the toys from the old microsoft Works software version of Word. That used to come free on a new computer. I never owned Office in the old days, I was happy with the set up in Works. After they phased that out, there was a free office put out by Oracle using the money they won from their anti-trust suit against microsoft. Oracle set out to prove microsoft's argument in the case was false, so they used the reparations award in the suit to make a open source Office... it wasn't as good as the old microsoft Works, which was also free. Finally, I gave in and bought the student/teacher (cheapest) version of office, that's part and parcel of every new computer nowadays. I still have microsoft Works on a disc somewhere, but old software never works on newer computers. They pretty much force you to keep up with technology, even if we do lag behind. Windows 10 is actually a new platform for operating, but it still supports the legacy software built on windows 32. Be careful you don't buy a computer with windows 10c OS ... that's the same new platform except it doesn't support the old windows 32; hence, nothing works on it yet.

We are the dinosaurs of the dinosaurs. The first online magazine reader response forum obliterated into a thousands fragments, regrouped and rebroken over and over and it's like the old watering hole in the old west... old timers still drop by to see who might be there. It is kind of like when Tracy's Tavern (Irish) is real slow, that's when I will pop in and kill some time, dance with the barmaids, heh, whatever, or sing with Mike (used to have a band called "pegasus") like I did last night, or chat with the old barmaids that I used to bring home, or watch some sports event... you know the feeling, it's one big family. I come here to do the same, except, here it is with words and hopefully some inspiration from the great spirit. Whether we are right or wrong, we still write, we always write, in the beginning the idea was to post ideas, write something awesome, write a cool poem, uncover some nasty plot, explain the math or money or physics we even did lyrics and some of those guys had bands. Pretty soon, it was all about community. We came to see each other, maybe peek at the magazine articles once in a while. That was so frowned upon, but that was the real purpose of the Fray. Here, it is the whole enchilada, all we have is each other. Me thinks we are luckier than we realize.

Oh yes my darling, oh yes ..... no one could have put it better xxx

 

[MrMike]

I don't think the forum has died, but I always felt this place was not versatile enough. It was set up for politics, it was set up by someone who was trying to attract that one ring circus. By sheer chance, it was in the right place at the right time and back then, it had a thread view, and justoffal said "Let's head over to Political Jack" and we all followed. The self moderation in place is way better than any editor at Slate could hope to achieve. We forget how bad the treatment was from Slate and how ridiculously the rules were abused.

If I had to point at failures - and these were probably unavoidable - I would say there was 2 big failures that cost this forum most of the circulation it lost. First, Dave didn't adjust to the clientelle; he stuck with his format, which was good for politics, but he lost the arts and humanities and special interests ... he crushed them all into politics; even economics was narrowed to government focus. He lost half the Fray right there. Then, over time, thread view was phased out... I left the place when that happened, was gone for over a year. He probably didn't lose many others over that single item, but it limited the conversation, and so it was a subtle influence, but the place lost some of its luster, threadview was the whole purpose for posting at Slate Fray, the whole community was built around it, so when PJ lost threadview, it was like losing the Fray all over again. When Fraysters do pop in from time to time, it hurts that they don't have that familiar architecture. Threads is how we learned to post, maybe we have grown up past that, but it still attracts us, and just like grown-ups acting like kids when they are having fun, it's a nice feature to have in the forum.

Time was, I put up a post in Money box, in 5 minutes time, I had 600 views. Same would happen over in BestoftheFray. Here, we use "Recent Posts" as if it was a Fray for the entire forum (which, I guess it is) - and the feature of moving recent posts to the top; that combines all the old tools into one; it is so effective, I'm afraid if we still had threadview, there would be nothing but fights happening. human nature is a real bitch.

All in all, I've enjoyed posting here more since I came back (I returned to put up that apology on the two aspects of the holy spirit) Spring 2015... I would say I've enjoyed posting here more than any other place I posted, not at first, but in the last 2 years; I like the pace, I like the way BD's blog has worked out, it is easy on my old nerves, I'm not into flame wars any more.

I don't think the forum is dying, I think it has slowed, but when guys like Pogue Mahone drop by, you know people know about the place, you've got some tough veteran posters here and you get visited by the same, it is a tough place for a young poster to fit into... not much you can do about that, you can't teach these old dogs new tricks, if you can keep the inmates from rioting, you gotta be happy with that. New posters are what grows a forum; we have no feed from a mainstream media, so growth has to happen organically, and really, a bunch of political hacks are not going to go for Christian nurturing; it just isn't their style. So, don't expect any exponental growth any time soon, at the same time, the place has a good mix of writers that are talented; maybe we are not the cream of the old fray, but we have stayed with it, the quality is pretty good around here, everyone knows how to play the game, that's not easy to come by, it offers a sandbox for people to come play in; it worked for me, I came back to play in the sandbox and I'm still getting my hands dirty. When the community still has some vibrancy, that's a sign of life, so if it is living, it ain't dying; not yet, anyway.

Well thought out and written. Thanks for sharing.

Mike

 

[MaryAnne]

Thank you for the snarky slap, @MaryAnne.
You just pretend to be nice sometimes......... I guess.

I am nice,unless some one tells untruths.

I check in here every so often. Keep in mind, I was one of the first ones from Slate,along with many of my friends

I had to search all over because we lost Arkady. I think Irish found him for me. LeRoy came with him. This board was packed. And Dave and Chris welcomed us all.

It would be nice if the regulars welcomed old posters,instead of what they do.

SW has nice MODS.

Most of us went to other boards,but that does not mean this was not home.

I call a truce to discuss things.

SW said you have 600 posts a day. I just do not check them out because the few

Those Lefties who left need an echo chamber. They found one. Good for them.

I just read one of Julie's posts. You have not succeeded in running her off.

 

[MaryAnne]

NinaS asking if someone is 12, yet her signature has "tinkle tinkle" in it.

You have to admit you are silly.

But Nina is not wrong,SW.

I have known these posters since 2000 on Slate.

I do want to correct Days on a couple of things.. Mickey Kaus set up a board for his regulars because when he posted an article they were swept off the board.

He named it Kausfiles Special. Loree,Cat,Sandy and others were there.

We were on a board called Damned Spot. Slate closed that,so we found KS. Arkady included.

From that point on,we had a close group. When Slate closed their many boards we all came here. Minotaur and Jen were named head MODS.

Dave created many different boards here

 

[MaryAnne]

K

I looked through some old posts by gorden gecko...bo4...and a bunch of other forgotten names. IMO they are all still here....just using different monikers.
If you notice every now and then a new moniker pops up that has a hauntingly familiar posting style. LOL..

Seriously though it's not just here all the posting boards are way down from their original traffic.

JO

Bo4 is long gone,but I still post with him.
Gordon Gecko posts.

Shall I tell you about one of your posters stalking Bo to another board,stealing his BO4 nic because he used a slightly different one?

 

[Jen]

I am nice,unless some one tells untruths.

I check in here every so often. Keep in mind, I was one of the first ones from Slate,along with many of my friends

I had to search all over because we lost Arkady. I think Irish found him for me. LeRoy came with him. This board was packed. And Dave and Chris welcomed us all.

It would be nice if the regulars welcomed old posters,instead of what they do.

SW has nice MODS.

Most of us went to other boards,but that does not mean this was not home.

I call a truce to discuss things.

SW said you have 600 posts a day. I just do not check them out because the few



I just read one of Julie's posts. You have not succeeded in running her off.

I am always the same. If someone is decent to me, I return the favor with no animosity. However, if someone gets in my face, I don't back down.

Furthermore, if someone is nice to my face and talks trash behind my back - there can be no trust. None. I won't say anything, but I know.

I can only speak for myself - and I have never tried to run anyone off this (or any) board. I enjoy batting our different opinions around. I don't want a boring echo chamber. My thought is that if someone chose to run away from diversity of thought, that's on them and it's fine by me. Some people do prefer echo chambers.

Personal attacks and ongoing personal conflict is silly and it weakens the board. I'll avoid it when I can. That's not always possible.

SW and the moderators here are good ones. That doesn't mean I always agree with them and it certainly doesn't mean that I keep my respect for them when they are nasty to me or others for no reason.......and that has certainly happened. But they do their difficult job well.

Thanks, MaryAnne. I don't have much trust in you, but if I disagree with you, I'll do it to your face, not behind your back. You can count on honesty from me. This was a good post.