posted
It's too bad really, OSC is my favorite author and I thought I had found a place where people with similar interests can have discussions. That's the way it was. Not so much anymore. I just don't like the way people talk to eachother here. I find myself coming to the site less and less and posting even less.
ketchupqueen, you have a beautiful family. Thanks for meeting me at Pie n Burger and making me "real". rivka, wish I could have me you on one of my trips to LA. Farmgirl, we live so close, yet have never met. I still have you on IM. Maybe we can change that in the future. Boone, you live even closer. We have to meet for Weber's someday.
To everyone else, good luck. Hopefully the attitude around here will change.
You don't have to reply and if you are going to flame me for posting a good-bye, I'd rather you not.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
I think some of us have gone into "hibernation", waiting to see if civility returns. I post so infrequently, I'm often forced to create new accounts. Then I get lampooned by some of the more roguish elements for being a "newbie" -- though I've been fairly active since the beginning.
There's still posts worth reading, from time to time, even if the community is gone.
Posts: 688 | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
What usernames have you had previously, Herblay?
Brojack, have a good life! You might pop back in here in a year or two and see if the place has improved. It's possible that we're seeing the beginning of a shift for the better here, between Papa Moose's new approach to moderating the place and a general desire that it become more like what it once was.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Herblay: I think some of us have gone into "hibernation", waiting to see if civility returns. I post so infrequently, I'm often forced to create new accounts. Then I get lampooned by some of the more roguish elements for being a "newbie" -- though I've been fairly active since the beginning.
There's still posts worth reading, from time to time, even if the community is gone.
posted
Oh, I certainly can't remember all of them. Hasn't it been around a decade or so?
The exact spelling might not be right, but I've likely used: BlackAdder (or TheBlackAdder) DarkKnight DarkPaladin C-Punk (or CPunk) BaronHerblay TheBaron
As an OSC fan in Utah, however, I keep getting drawn back in. Where else can I get good local science fiction / fantasy news?
Posts: 688 | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
Woah, you're DarkKnight? I had no idea! I also wasn't aware that you were TheBaron (those being the two of those screen names that I recognize well enough to feel like I "know" them to any extent).
When did you first sign up, any idea? I've been here since June of '99. The only screen name that I've seriously used (as opposed to one or two post throwaway alts, which were always used exclusively for jokes) other than "Noemon" was my first one, "Jake".
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Herblay: Oh, I certainly can't remember all of them. Hasn't it been around a decade or so?
The exact spelling might not be right, but I've likely used: BlackAdder (or TheBlackAdder) DarkKnight DarkPaladin C-Punk (or CPunk) BaronHerblay TheBaron
As an OSC fan in Utah, however, I keep getting drawn back in. Where else can I get good local science fiction / fantasy news?
I know several people on this forum do that, and I don't like it. It gives you the upper hand in a discussion to be talking to someone who doesn't know who you are. The only times I've ever used alts were for jokes, and I found it surprisingly uncomfortable.
And I don't at all understand this about creating new accounts. Do accounts go away if you don't use them? Can you not just request an email with your password in it?
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:It's too bad really, OSC is my favorite author and I thought I had found a place where people with similar interests can have discussions. That's the way it was. Not so much anymore. I just don't like the way people talk to eachother here. I find myself coming to the site less and less and posting even less.
I find this extremely unfortunate and hope to see you posting again soon, brojack17.
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: I know several people on this forum do that, and I don't like it. It gives you the upper hand in a discussion to be talking to someone who doesn't know who you are. The only times I've ever used alts were for jokes, and I found it surprisingly uncomfortable.
Yeah, I've never been a big fan of the practice either.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I have more hope of things changing what with the current discussion going on in the other thread. I think more people are interested in actually changing the tone of hatrack right now. I lurk off and on, and like Dr. Strangelove, I really feel like Hatrack taught me to think and to write, and I miss what it used to be.
Posts: 54 | Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Aww, I really liked you Brojack, you seemed like a good guy. Well I hope you don't really leave.
Posts: 1574 | Registered: May 2008
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I should point out that civil posters leaving constitute a significant part of the problem and are themselves partly to blame.
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I had to give up on my first handle, suneun, because I can't remember the password and the email account is long gone (college account, no forwarding set up).
Posts: 1261 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: I should point out that civil posters leaving constitute a significant part of the problem and are themselves partly to blame.
Kind of like how in the aftermath of Chernobyl, the people who vacated the fallout areas were a significant part of the depopulation problem and were partly to blame.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
No, not like that at all. More like middle-class white folks fleeing the inner city in the '70s.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Thats a good way of breaking it down actually. And I think a bit of both are actually at play. In particular, I have to wonder if the former is a pretty inevitable result of the latter (in the forum equivalents, not the real life scenario obviously).
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
I've been DarkKnight since 2005 and never had an alt....Unless I have a split personality that isn't talking to me....
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
You've been DarkKnight, and herblay has been DarkKnight? Are you different people? I was assuming you were posting as herblay for some reason, and it was annoying me. Now I don't know what to think... Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I'm guessing the original DarkKnight account got deleted. Which allowed the new DarkKnight to come into being.
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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We are different people. Maybe he was many years ago. I have never posted under an alt and have been DarkKnight since March-ish 2005 when I joined.
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:I have more hope of things changing what with the current discussion going on in the other thread. I think more people are interested in actually changing the tone of hatrack right now.
posted
Herblay, there are two other forums I know of that may be a better fit for you. One is Jon Boy's forum (I'm his wife), and it has a lot of Utah posters in it. The subject matter tends a bit more toward language and silliness than Hatrack does. The other forum is saxon75's, and I'm sure if you're willing to be civil he'd be glad to have you (I have no reason to believe you won't be). Saxon's is a larger forum, and it does tend to have more sf/fantasy newsy stuff (also a lot of silliness).
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by FlyingCow: I think the other site options tend more toward silliness as a defense mechanism to keep out the "serious" (read: incendiary) posters.
It's one of the reasons I haven't really made the jump.
If they do, it's only because most of the regulars have discussed everything serious ad nauseum.
Though don't be mistaken -- we do still discuss serious stuff.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I'm always suspicious of threads like this. I don't know the OP here and won't try to assign motivations, but I can tell you that my perception of these threads is that they always come off as rather puerile and petulant.
I mean, if you don't derive enjoyment from a given message board anymore, then, by all means, stop posting to it. I've done that myself. I used to be active of the board of a fansite devoted to a popular series of computer games. It was a lot of fun in its first few months, but it quickly grew very large and the conversations got more serious and a lot less friendly. Before you knew it, all the threads were heated political debates taken very personally, and any thread that we Hatrackers would call a "fluff thread" was being denounced as spam and vehemently rejected. I always found it ironic that a computer game fan site's board took itself so seriously and denounced any non-serious thread, while this official site of an author somewhat notorious for his incendiary political writings is full of people who treat one another like family and like to have fun together. In any case, that other board was no fun anymore, so I quit.
But that's all I did. I quit posting. I quit checking in to see what was happening. I didn't post a thread to inform everyone that since they weren't playing the way I wanted them to play, I was taking my ball and going home. This kind of thread always strikes me as being nothing more than that, I have to say.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by FlyingCow: I think the other site options tend more toward silliness as a defense mechanism to keep out the "serious" (read: incendiary) posters.
It's one of the reasons I haven't really made the jump.
If they do, it's only because most of the regulars have discussed everything serious ad nauseum.
Though don't be mistaken -- we do still discuss serious stuff.
I think it's true that there aren't many (any?) "serious" posters if by that you mean posters that only post in news or political threads and don't also participate in the more community-oriented threads. None of the hosts are famous (yet, JT's working on it) enough to attract members based on fandom, so the posters are mainly there because they like the other people.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
JT has a forum? Huh, I remember Grenme followed by GalacticCactus and SakeRiver. Honestly I don't even remember the order they came in though I do feel like Grenme was first. I see occasional references to these forums so I assume they're still around? As I recall I posted on Sake quite a bit before my mission though I wasn't exactly amazingly mature at the time ... *cough*
The indiscretions of youth, yes? How much longer can I use that card I wonder. Anyways, I quite enjoyed my time at Sake though I got the impression that a large portion of those active there didn't feel the same towards me so I haven't really gone back and posted there in years. Has anyone become a regular at any of these forums that wasn't first a regular at Hatrack? If so is it friends of posters, or how to people make it onto the site?
posted
Family and friends of posters, and I think there have been at least a few who found Sake by accident while Googling something. Also I think there's an occaisional poster on the cactus who got there because he blogs on the same topic as Jonathon. I might be wrong about that one, though.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Hobbes, you're more than welcome at Sake, I guarantee it.
I mean, the tiger kisses do still get mentioned occasionally, but it's more a form of infamy for you than any sort of antipathy. Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I have a single alt that I've used once or twice. Not even sure why I made it, or if I remember the password.
Posts: 3617 | Registered: Dec 2001
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I go to the various forums to converse with people I wouldn't be able to converse with otherwise. In the case of Galactic Cactus, that person would be myself
I have thought of the "flight to the suburbs" analogy for Sakeriver before. But since I'm kind of on the fringe of that community, it would have been a criticism.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I don't think that you're fringe there at all, pooka. You're not a constant presence there, but you're a member of the community all the same, and on the whole quite welcome when you do come over there.
Hobbes, for what it's worth, I agree with JT; people there would be happy to see you. You'd undoubtedly have to endure a little good natured "Tiger Kisses" ribbing, but you made that bed years ago.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Hey, thanks guys. I didn't mean that as a pity comment (truth is, I doubt I'd respond positively to the me of Sake however many years ago ... or the me of right now either but that's a different kettle of whatever) but I appreciate the response. Maybe I'll head over at some point here and reminisce, if only to myself.
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Maybe I'll head over at some point here and reminisce, if only to myself.
