From time to time we here on the Badmovies board get off topic and lay into one another, but for the most part this forum is a polite way to pass along info, comments, share a common interest. The bad seeds are weeded out, there are police among us who keep us in line, and I think the whole website is the better for it.
I have just returned from IMDB.com. Holy crap. I will never post there again. Some time ago I replied to a post and was trounced by 5-6 other folk, and not good naturedly. The replies are generally hostile, peppered with uncensored obscenities; the phrase "f****ng idiot" pops up repeatedly. Blood flies, spit is spat, furniture goes all over the place. If any of those people were left alone physically in a room together, you'd have to call the cops. 'Tis a silly place.
Kudos to Andrew and the gang for keeping it nice here.
I would have to agree with you. I have been on several boards as a member and have not generally run into agressive mods so much as other members who either want to be cruel or push other members away.
This actually happened on a board where I was a mod and had built the board up from its start. I had place a post in the off-topic section which garnered quite a response due to Google picking up on it and bringing new people to the board. A few regular members did not like this and first tried to abandon the board leaving me to rebuild (they both did not want to share 'their board' and felt that 'these people' were not right for the board). I truly discovered what snobs they were.
The next round was my fault for thinking I could trust people to be human beings. While this was going on, my mother passed away suddenly. As I had to take some time off from the board, I posted about what had happened to inform the members. The members who abandoned the board returned and took advantage of the situation to take personal attacks against me. As I did not have admin permissions, I could not put a stop to this; nor did the admin seem to be capable of stopping it (or perhaps did not give a damn). As the board just became an uncomfortable place to visit during the aftermath of this tragedy, and I was frankly disgusted with such lowly behavior, I abandoned the board.
Since, I have started 3 boards of my own; keep in mind that means that they are infant boards at this time. Even though one of the boards is set up to allow flaming in certain sections, a few things I will definitely castrate someone over is attacks on another member, trying to tell other members what they are allowed to post, and harassment of a member through the messaging system or email.
I had also witnessed on another board where some members did not like a very popular topic on the board and went into the topic and started attacking the members posting to that topic (primaily one started it, but others joined in). How did the mods handle it? They removed the topic and did nothing to the members who started the attack; kind of like rewarding people for their bad behavior. If I were in that position, I would have barred the member who started it and given a stern warning to the ones who joined in (considering that they have 4000 members, they could have afforded the loss of a member or two compared to setting a poor and embarrassing example).
Got off subject a little, but it helps to make a point. I also posted about what happened with with my mother on this board and was treated kindly and even sent emails of sympathy by the members. Andrew and the mods on this board have been excellent in dealing with situations in having the tolerance to deal with others and the experience to recognize a problem and deal with it appropriately. Not that I can necessarily recognize what appropriately is, but I can learn by watching their example.
Perhaps another thing that sets this board apart is that most of the members have quite a tolerance and sense of humor. Hey, look at the movies we watch. They don't take themselves too seriously and are simply trying to have fun.
It was actually this board which got me interested in forums, and I am glad I started here or I could have had a bad impression of forums if I had started on another board, like the ones I mentioned.
I came to this board because I was a fan of Andrew's site and had noticed that there had been no updates for a while and was concerned, knowing that he was military. I saw this link for a message board and clicked on it hoping that I could find if things were okay with Andrew. Not only did I find out, but under the skin of Andrew's site was a vibrant community of bad movie fans and people in general who just wanted to talk and have fun. I have thoroughly enjoyed it since.
Sorry for rambling like I did. (:
Nah you didn't ramble Menard, you pretty much sumed up why lot of us come here. Everyone here is nice and considered about other members and have wicked sense of humor : )
I have my share of bad forum. The worst I have seen is music boards especially heavy metal/ punk boards. Man if you like anything but what music your posting about your a "poser" or much worse words than that.
-------------------------------------------------
Most of all I hate dancing then work, exercise, people,stupid people
Post Edited (08-17-05 21:39)
I have to agree with Menard about this board, very well written.
I am a member of a few other boards. One is moderated too harshly and any outbreak of individuality is crushed unless you're one of the "cool" ones who's been there for a long time, then they seem to look the other way. One is hardly moderated at all and even has an "Arguments & Fights" section as well as an "Anything Goes" section. That board is filled with mostly negative people that hammer anyone who they decide does not belong. The third board is actually taken care of fairly well. For the most part, people get along and there is very little "flaming". However, the mods make it very clear that if you step out of line, you're warned and then finished. You might ask why I would bother to be on a board such as those first 2 that I listed. One, I don't post to at all but I get information from it when there is any between the fights and insults. The other I get information from and will post to now and then.
BUT...this is by far above and beyond any other board I have ever seen. The people that Andrew selected to be mods do a great job and everyone for the most part gets along real well. Thanks Andrew and everyone involved in making this board what it is.
I was lurking around here for a long time before I decided to register on the Phorum. I've had my experiences on other boards too and this one is by far the most hospitable I've found.
I know that any time a regular around here has some personal crisis the other members tend to rally around to give comfort or advice.
I look at it this way, this is a place to share in something we all enjoy and to have fun. Isn't that the point of watching "Bad" movies. I just don't see the reason for hostility in a place that is all about enjoyment (and it's occasionally educational).
I think we have a highly diverse bunch of intelligent folks who want to share something they have in common and enjoy themselves doing it.
The only other board I post on with any kind of regularity is over at SciFilm.org. Gerry who runs the sight is a regular here. They have a real nice bunch of folks over there too. Their focus is little less general than ours and a little more serious, but if you are a fan of classic or modern science fiction you should check them out.
Post Edited (08-18-05 19:51)
I have had only one problem on one board, and it was my fault because I was going through a lot of bad things at the time and wasn't thinking too clearly.
trek_geezer wrote:
> The only other board I post on with any king of regularity is
> over at SciFilm.org. Gerry who runs the sight is a regular
> here. They have a real nice bunch of folks over there too.
> Their focus is little less general than ours and a little more
> serious, but if you are a fan of classic or modern science
> fiction you should check them out.
>
Wow, thanks for the plug, trek. I'll get that check in the mail this afternoon.
You're welcome Gerry. By the way how much are compliments going for now?
SciFilm is my OTHER favorite site, and the forum is run well, too. I just don't see the need to bash or flame other members, unless you are a closet pedophile who prefers arson and kitty torture to interaction with other adults. But then, society has a place for you, too.
I used to post over at Jabootu, but what a closed clique!
The only other post I go to is Taste of Shakespeare or Firesign Theatre --
This is a good group . . . despite the fact that Menard still doesn't know what I mean . . .
peter johnson/denny crane
(http://www.smileys.ws/sm/action/00000055.gif)
Very funny emoticons, Menard!!
Now, could you tell the rest of us what it is I mean?
I, for one, am dying to know!!
By the way, I went to the Portal O' Doom -- Damn! You're an ambitious soul, no? I mean, you're trying to throw up every single one(? -- perhaps) of your interests at once on a single site, what with Old Time Radio getting equal billing with H.P. Lovecraft, etc. --
You're insane . . .
I LIKE that in a poster!!
God be with ye . . .
much love,
peter johnson/denny crane
Did you go to the portal or The Cage (http://www.dracoforums.com/thecage/)?(http://www.smileys.ws/sm/grinning/00000005.gif)
Yep, I am probably being a little over obsessive in trying to include a little of everything. But I like it.(http://www.smileys.ws/sm/action/00000035.gif)
I looked at The Asylum, The Portal, and The Cage --
Phew!
How do you have time for anything else? I mean, just keeping track of whether or not all those numerous other sites to contact via The Portal are still alive or current or not would be a chore alone!
Hell, I have a wide variety of interests too -- lately visiting a lot of Neolithic/Stone-Art sites in preparation for my October visit to Scotland, wherein I hope to go underground -- literally -- into a lot of old burial sites and recently excavated houses on the Isle of South Uist, etc. etc.
(H.P. Lovecraft, call your agent . . .)
I would not, however, even DREAM of compiling a sampling of all said sites & combining them with my other interests into such an amalgam.
I mean this not as a putdown. I am genuinely impressed.
Wouldn't do it myself, but yeah, I think it's cool . . .
The rest of you board people would do well to go on over & check this out --
peter johnson/denny crane
There is a piece of software I can get which is a link verifier that is suppose to be able to scan and verify links on a web page. As it is at present, there are a good number of sites on the Portal which I visit regularly, so that helps to keep a heads up on some of them. As I add pages to the Portal, though, it will become more of a task to verify links (and verifying links is something I want to keep up as I get annoyed myself when I go to a web page and half the links are dead).
The forums are going to be a different matter as they are young now; The Cage just went online this week. As membership increases, maintaining several boards will become a headache. Hopefully I will be able to trust a member or two to be a mod, but it will take some time to feel them out to see if they will be a good mod. Creation City has the advantage at present that the few who have been attracted to it are webmasters and pretty even tempered (actually, I already know 4 of them who would be good mods). The Island and both of the Asylums do not have the ability to assign mod permissions, but nobody pays attention to the one blog anyway, so at least that one is not a problem.
Sites o' Doom pretty much takes care of itself. I just need to check in every now and then to make certain it updates and that no inappropriate sites have been listed.
The news site does not require any input from me as it is a remote service which runs off of rss feeds and updates automatically. I just need to include a a note with the link to remind visitors that it takes a while for a page full of newsfeeds to begin to load due to having to scan and update from all the feeds (nothing to do with connection speed).
I think that covers it. Bound to change by next week though.(http://www.smileys.ws/sm/speechless/00000019.gif)
Moderation is a heck of a task. You do not want to discourage new posters, nor can you just let someone come in and start being a troll. I often pay careful attention to new posters, especially if they start off by disagreeing with a lot of points. Not because they are disagreeing, but because it can be an indicator they are just out for attention and like to get it by arguing. Not much of that since the registration process went into effect.
Oh, I also noted that Gerry had to go to a registration to post option. Probably the same annoying spammers who caused my change. I swear the world would be better if people would just do what they knew was right, rather than what they thought they should be able to do (and I think they often know the difference).
I had the unfortunate task of moderating a board, or perhaps mothering would be a better word as I was quite occupied with trying to keep content fresh in its early stages of growing (if members were not posting, I would start posting more to jumpstart them), where I was the only one moderating, promoting, and modifying the board. With a moderator, at least in the limited experience I have had, I would look at someone needing to be pretty even tempered if not outright tolerant, while at the same time not being afraid to step in when someone gets out of line (and certainly not giving in to someone just to keep them calm as I have seen happen on two boards).
One thing I certainly admire about you and the mods on this board is that you all have a lot of experience in recognizing the behavior of posters to be able to put a stop to a problem before it gets out of hand or to recognize when a presumed problem is really not that big of a deal (such as when Dunners b***hes us out every couple of months for not posting strictly about bad movies, then stops and converses with us like normal).
I will certainly come up against a few walls, especially with so many boards. Any advice is greatly appreciated.(http://www.smileys.ws/sm/grinning/00000018.gif)
I'd never do it --
Just happy that others do . . .
peter johnson/denny crane
Bless you all for your civility!
Tis a hard jewel to find, but is greatly to be sought.
Hummm...
Oh yeah! Menard is a big poopey head! Bw-hahahaha!.....
I like you Flangepart, you're a great judge of character!
Thank you, thank you. For my next act...serving haggis to a blindfolded East Indian movie producer!
(http://www.websmileys.com/sm/violent/sterb015.gif)
(http://www.websmileys.com/sm/obscene/eck27.gif)
Oh no! It's the War of the Smileys!!
Post Edited (08-22-05 20:46)
This board is singularly the best I've ever seen. I had one other board I frequented, but gave up last year about a month before the election. It got to where EVERYTHING was about politics, and one (relatively) small group would dominate every discussion, name-call and generally be butt-heads. The mods were loathe to ban anyone who obeyed the rules (pretty much spamming was the only thing not allowed, and they TRIED to keep it family friendly as some people did browse with their kids).
It's a shame, because by and large it was a GREAT group of people. I check out their Monday/Saturday IRC chats from time to time, but mostly just communicate with a few I know by email (or actually know). It's a great resource for info, but I just cannot take it.
Things I like about BadMovies.org forum (most have been said already):
** There is probably no other site on the planet with the collective knowledge of b movies in particular and perhaps movies in general as the regular posters here (myself most emphatically excluded; I only THOUGHT I knew a bit about b-movies when I started browsing Andrew's site in 1999).
** We can fuss at each other a bit, like any family, but in the end we act decent to each other.
** Most of the trouble comes from outsiders, who are VERY welcome until they prove themselves to be jerks.
** The level of humor is exactly what you'd expect from a bunch of people who like the kinds of movies many others try very hard to avoid: warped, silly and sometimes, very subtle.
** A large core group = a very active board, which has a high interest-keeping level. If you remove the flaming and trolling from many other boards (this one has very little of either, most content is solid), what's left? I'm of course talking only about "interest" boards, not purely informational ones (where the posts are mostly questions+answers, though there is a lot of trolling there, too).
Anyway, that's my two cents. This is a great board, and it reminds me of the old old old dail-up BBS's I used to frequent in RTP, NC in the early 90's. (One of my favorites was actually a Flintstones related BBS).
You pretty much summed it up for me in that post ulthar.
Quote** Most of the trouble comes from outsiders, who are VERY welcome until they prove themselves to be jerks.
HEY! Menard resembles that remark!
(http://www.websmileys.com/sm/evil/teu01.gif)
onionhead wrote:
> SciFilm is my OTHER favorite site
Man, got to get that check in the mail to you too Onion.
trek_geezer wrote:
> You're welcome Gerry. By the way how much are compliments going
> for now?
Er...uh...er...didn't say the check would be any good, now did I?
Andrew wrote:
> Oh, I also noted that Gerry had to go to a registration to post
> option. Probably the same annoying spammers who caused my
> change.
I had been debating it for quite a while anyway, so when the poker spammer hit me twice in one day from two different IP addresses, that was the sign o' the times as far as I was concerned.