Into the Ether

[niky]

I was a moderator on a music site back in 01'. Now our subforum is no longer listed on the mainpage, but it is still there, and still active... weirdly.

It's a Network 54 forum... very ancient... hardly any security. Anyone can post under any name... but since it was obscure (but active!) we didn't have trouble.

Two of my bigger original auto forums died. One, a local Nissan site went belly up... goodbye data. The other, Nissanforums, suffered an almost total loss of membership when the original owners sold out and left (taking with them Mike Kojima from SCC and some of the other writers of Nissan Performance Mag, who went on to start MotoIQ). I think my login still works, but it's frigging depressing going there.

Then there's Mazdas247, which I left because I no longer have a Mazda, Protegetech (same reason), our local Ford Club (same reason), our previous online magazine (dead), my second online magazine (still alive, but I'm no longer an editor) and The Truth About Cars (not a forum, but it feels like one... still... rarely comment nowadays).

Right now, I maintain only four or five different forums, and only two I'm active on on more than a weekly basis.

When I disappear from those two, I will definitely say goodbye. Have invested several years and over 20k posts each to them. Anyway... the people from there that I want to remain in contact with are on my FB account, so no huge loss. C'est la vie.

[Fat Charlie]

And FB is different... How?

These things are focused communities. I don't need to be nagged that someone I was in third grade with having a birthday today or a sponsored post. A tight focus results in people coming and going, but it also keeps things alive as long as anyone is intersted in that focus.

I don't have to like any of you and maybe none of you would want to say two words to me on the outside. But here, within the focus of Ecomodder, we're all one big, happy family. Nobody needs to be bothered with what someone liked, friended or tweeted when they're here.

[niky]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

And FB is different... How?

These things are focused communities. I don't need to be nagged that someone I was in third grade with having a birthday today or a sponsored post. A tight focus results in people coming and going, but it also keeps things alive as long as anyone is intersted in that focus.

I don't have to like any of you and maybe none of you would want to say two words to me on the outside. But here, within the focus of Ecomodder, we're all one big, happy family. Nobody needs to be bothered with what someone liked, friended or tweeted when they're here.

Oh, I totally agree with you. And I really wish FB and other social platforms weren't strangling forums left and right, because targetted info on FB is just so ludicrously garbage, due to the poor moderating they do. It's just that, realistically, I don't see myself staying on any forum that I don't have a part ownership/stake in, either as an owner, moderator or publication contributor, for more than a few years.

I wish that weren't true. And I wish that there was a place I could gather up all the cool, interesting and knowedgable people I meet online so that we could all have a good talk (that includes all of you lot!), but that's not going to happen. Just having pieces of those people and places I once knew on Facebook makes it easy to find them again. It's a horrible place for car talk, but it's better than losing them completely.

[Andrei_ierdnA]

Maybe alien abductions are the reason why people disappear

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Once I got a warning from the admins that a post (in their lounge) had been considered offensive by someone. Someone had been sad that a world figure had retired. I said "His biggest legacy was concealing horrific crimes. I guess that got too strenuous. Anyone at all in their system would be better in that job." And I was being offensive? I logged out and never went back. Pity.

That is my biggest gripe about forums; when the mods are too sensitive to discussion. People don't have to participate in threads or discussions that they are either not interested in, or too emotional to have a rational discussion, so threads should mostly be allowed to evolve without much external influence. While ad hominems are cause for a warning, simply disagreeing with something, or seeing things from a different philosophical perspective is no reason to sensor a subject.

People need thicker skin, not a padded white room where they are never exposed to anything that disturbs their fragile sensibilities.

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

here, within the focus of Ecomodder, we're all one big, happy family.

Someone here told me to "go to hell" (which I'm surprised that doesn't happen more often). I suppose some families are like that. At least they felt comfortable enough to bluntly express their feelings towards me.

It doesn't bother me, and I wouldn't even want a mod to warn someone for saying that. I'd rather know the limits of a person's ability to approach a subject reasonably rather than emotionally.

[user removed]

My sensibilities have been tested in the real world of face to face events, far more than could ever occur here, voulentarily.

Once called the cops to keep me from tearing a jerks arms off and beating him to death with them. He accused me of wrecking his car, while his idiot kid, who wrecked the car, stood there and was silent.

Had a customer tell me once he was going to rob me but I always treated him so well he didn't. I showed him my 45 auto and told him I was sure glad he didn't try, then I fixed his car again.

real life

regards
mech

[freebeard]

redpoint5 -- I'd read through that whole thread and it was locked before I got to the end. I had a similar experience with that persona. Now I notice that they were banned.

So, that's another way to go.

[niky]

Surprised it was so sudden... but considering his history of abrasiveness, I think it was only a matter of time.

[Frank Lee]

Could be a temporary ban to give a little time for the heels to cool. Don't know.

[Xist]