That awkward moment when Conchaga says "I told you so."

[GTC]

What do the rest of you think about this?

For the past few years I'd check in on the board once every three or four months and see that threads I had looked at months ago were still on the front page. I had never seen the board be so quiet and lifeless. The raw numbers you posted confirm those feelings.

The board is a pale shadow in comparison to it's golden age of 2005/2006. We didn't just have more posters and active threads at the time. We had a lot of board culture content as well. The radio broadcasts, TK House, Ouch! (why is that link even in the navbar btw?), original fiction, and other related things.

I'm not saying we need to bring all those things back. But it does highlight part of what has changed over the years.

What could the staff do to make this place better?

The staff aren't required to do anything other than enforce the lax rules that are in place. How they choose to participate in the board is up to them.

This is gonna get me some flak, but a good 70% of what gets posted down in the MF could be parsed into the upper, on-topic forums, instead of having one giant forum.

Forget the Minefield. They're their own little ethnic enclave in TK, and I doubt they give a shit what goes on in the rest of the board as long as it doesn't affect them.

I would however encourage everyone else to poke a little more into the Media Center.

Also, we currently have four off-topic forums: MF, BL, TR, and SF. We could just merge the BL, TR, and SF, because they all have the same users anyway. So, keep the MF as a troll-free off-topic forum and unite the other three under a new name and banner.

Historically those forums did have their own atmosphere. Speak Freely was the trollish off-topic area. The Tea Room was more relaxed and was home to those spammy forum games that women seem to like. The Badlands ended up being a substitute for what the Minefields original intent was, and housed our nonsense spam.

Personally I think there's quite a few lurkers out there who would start posting if discussion on the board did pick up again. I don't believe we need to make any drastic changes to bring them in. All we need to do is post more.

 

[whisky]

Seems to me the massive drop in posting happened right about the time Gagh got an X box.

 

[GTC]

Seems to me the massive drop in posting happened right about the time Gagh got an X box.

Ah so Microsoft is to blame for all our ills.

 

[whisky]

it usually is.

 

[Ilyanna]

First of all, numbers of threads and posts can be deceiving. I would like to remind anyone who was here at the time of Spamcapital, flooding, and mindless NoU kind of posts we made by the hundreds a few years back. And the anger that caused a few others who actually wanted to contribute with more than some syllables.

I am not even sure if what really counts is the growth or decline of the membership numbers in comparison with past years. Things change, numbers don't say anything about how comfortable the active members feel at their mb, and you can have one hell of an active forum with less than 50 active posters.

The only way to get new members I can think of is to rely on those already here to bring back people they might think would like it, and possibly to revive the good old tradition of invasions. Don't even have to be the tough kind (I am not trying to advocate hardass trolling here), but just visiting other places and make ourselves visible might be a good way to go about it. That, of course, takes time, effort, and interest from the individual TK members themselves, so it's nothing we can actively pursue as a united course of action.

One thing Con said somewhere else is that with some of the bullshit posting that went on mainly in SF, even if we get new members, quite a number would not stick around due to being bored/annoyed. He does have a point there. Something the staff could do in this case is to apply the existing rules swiftly and without much fuss, and revive DC as a means to deal with those people who don't break rules but still disrupt the board constantly, unfunnily, exclusively, and to the point where pretty much everyone else is annoyed. I am convinced that this would already be quite a good start to make TK more interesting for people to stay around.

The subforums...
I see nothing wrong with the Minefield (and I am not counting myself as being a MFer myself). If people want to make media-related posts, they can do so either in the MF, or in MC. Nobody keeps anyone from opening a thread in MC. So most regular MFer probably won't contribute there, then. Big deal, it's their potential loss, not that of the others imo. And if the threadstarter really wants to get the MF core group's opinions,hey, link to the thread or make a second thread or whatever!

If there really needs to be a restructuring (and I still try to grasp the idea of how that would improve anything), then imo GFHH and SF could just as well be merged. GFHH have served its purpose fine back when invasions were done much more often, but nowadays, every thread in there can just as well be in SF, too.
The Grasslands sub was a nice thing, but really - anything posted in there can go into either TR, or BL.
The threads in MC, DA, and Writer's Whatever can just as well share one forum imo. It would be spam-free, and posting in there is not too prolific that one would be confused by the sheer number of new posts.
I am completely opposed to merging anything else at this point. All major subs serve different purposes, even if some of them aren't frequented on a regular basis.

 

[Gagh]

Seems to me the massive drop in posting happened right about the time Gagh got an X box.

Like!

Around the time Gagh also started to pick up promotions at work, as well. There's just more to do in life right now. Part of me wants to savage the hell out of Conchaga's posts and motives, but the bigger percentage doesn't care anymore.

I'll leave it to those who do care to argue, before Conchaga disappears again, disillusioned at TK's refusal to change. I'll just carry on removing PI, banning Flagler's socks, and clearing up what I can with my safe aura of silence.

Face it, there's no drum-beating in me anymore. I just want everyone to get along.

Daisy chain?

 

[Conchaga]

I find your Margaret Dumont-like fake outrage hilarious. (Or should that be Florence Henderson-like maternal disappointment? Hmm.) I'd say this was the most entertaining troll I've seen in a while if I didn't know you were being serious.

But no matter what happens, you'll find a way to use all of this as foootnoted fodder for your academic work. Will you be needing any waivers signed from any of us in order to use our content?

I'm gonna let that one slide.

 

[Gagh]

Good job you did let it slide, because I've no doubt we'd all fear for our futures if you didn't

Oh wait, none of this shit matters, how quickly I forget in my dotage.

 

[Conchaga]

Well then.. Apparently I didn't have to worry about the usual rabble trolling this thread, BECAUSE THE ADMINS ARE DOING IT FOR THEM.

What the actual fuck?

 

[whisky]

I'm not an admin, must just be a rabble without a cause.

 

[Conchaga]

^ No, you're not even trolling, either.

 

[GTC]

Well then.. Apparently I didn't have to worry about the usual rabble trolling this thread, BECAUSE THE ADMINS ARE DOING IT FOR THEM.

What the actual fuck?

I'm pretty sure admins trolling QS threads has always happened. Though I'd prefer this lot over the passive-aggressive attitudes we got in the Cait/Hambil era.

Of course the ones always the most resistant to change are the people within the system.

 

[whisky]

^ No, you're not even trolling, either.

I'm 43, I'm kind of done with that.

 

[Mentalist]

Though I'd prefer this lot over the passive-aggressive attitudes we got in the Cait/Hambil era.

Yet the irony is, they probably helped TK's surge in popularity by being so bad/innapropriate at the job. Injustice fueled TK's latter heyday.

 

[Conchaga]

^ So, you're saying I need to arbitrarily scramble some more passwords, ban one or two innocent users, and become the villain that TK deserves?

:smfevil:

 

[Gagh]

Well then.. Apparently I didn't have to worry about the usual rabble trolling this thread, BECAUSE THE ADMINS ARE DOING IT FOR THEM.

What the actual fuck?

It's not trolling. It's called banter. I need to be a troll, to be trolling

Of course the ones always the most resistant to change are the people within the system.

Not me, guv. I'm not against a good lick of paint, but I don't see why some things should be changed without any real reason. Naturally, I am referring to the Mine Field, but I wouldn't even be against some of that being changed, if it doesn't mean everyone throws their toys out of the pram.

 

[Seph]

Yeah I dont see the problem with moving/posting movie/tv series threads in MC or it is redundant, they will all show up in the new post lists and it will serve to make another section of the board look more active but that is only one slice of this fuckcake.

 

[Donovan]

^ So, you're saying I need to arbitrarily scramble some more passwords, ban one or two innocent users, and become the villain that TK deserves?

:smfevil:

This right here is and has been the problem, not the productivity of the minefield or whether or not they color inside the lines. TK once was a bastion of rowdy free speech and more than occasional internal drama over such topics as gun control, and retards could be guaranteed a nice stint in daycare where they could be fucked with at will.

But somewhere along the way the PTB lost perspective and began fucking with EVERYbody: multiple board changes for no particular reason, clique mentality among warring admin factions, and blatant admin fuckery with zero cause. That isn't the way to keep your membership posting, and a message board with no messages is just a bunch of sad fucks sitting around their sekrit admin room stroking themselves to the memories of glory days.

Did you really announce your return to the board by announcing you planned to deliberately fuck with accounts and commit admin fuckery?

Problem = this. Not the only one, just the latest. Time was a person would lose their panel access for screwing around like that.

 

[Cassie]

It would help if we could ask people who used to post a lot why they left. My own suspicion is that sometime in 2007 the entire board became one big crapfest of spam, mostly perpetrated by one OCD former Jack dancer. After awhile, it became a chore just to open threads and at any time this same person had the last post in nearly all the threads. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the more interesting members we used to have drifted away out of boredom, especially since this went on for several months. (yes, I'm talking about pickle)

 

[Conchaga]

After awhile, it became a chore just to open threads and at any time this same person had the last post in nearly all the threads.)

Oh, sorta like how the Mine Field is now?

*ahem*