Author Topic: Forum CPR  (Read 35207 times)

oldkid

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Forum CPR
« on: May 12, 2014, 09:20:36 AM »
It has been noticed, I think by everyone,  that the activity on the forum has gone down dramatically over the last year.  I'd say it really started with Froham's "shower", since he was the most active board member and "stirred things up" quite a bit.  Some have tried to pick up the slack, notably 1SO, but everyone is tired and busy with our lives and the forum is fading away.

And the main culprit is Letterboxd.   I've noticed that many active forum members are posting reviews on Letterboxd instead of the forum. Some of the discussions we used to have about movies on the forum are taking place at Letterboxd. Also, Adam and Josh will give free advertising to Letterboxd every week, but will mention the forum only a few times a year.  I understand.  Letterboxd is pretty and it offers much of the same services that we have here.  If you want to talk about movies, Letterboxd is a fine place.  Letterboxd is the main competitor of the forum.

However, it is no community.  No one is going to post You Laugh You Lose on Letterboxd or have a discussion about soccer... oops, I mean football. We aren't going to have the Top 100 Club on Letterboxd, or the common top 100 list. 

Perhaps we are tired, or busy, and we don't want to fight for the life of the community we have built.  Perhaps it doesn't seem worth it.  But right now, the forum seems to have only a half life.  I've seen other forums go this way. 

Please, if you have a review, go ahead and post it on Letterboxd, and post it here, too.  Come and visit more often.  Post something, anything.  If you think something you thought of might not be worth posting, post it anyway.  You lurkers, please get more involved.  We aren't super-smart or anything, and we post questions and just our thoughts.  Sure, we might disagree with some comments, but that's part of the fun.

One last thing, to the admins.  Sometimes we get into intense conversations.  Correct us when we do, but please don't block anyone (unless they are just a troll).  I know of at least one long-term person who doesn't feel comfortable posting because he was told not to come on the forum for a week.  Take it easy, guys.  If it feels like we are being judged for sharing our opinion, we won't share it.

Please, folks, do what we can to keep our community alive.  And if Adam and Josh want to take a little bit of time to advertise every week for the forum that Adam helped create, that would be great.  An occasional appearance would be nice, too.  Last I heard, we have some petty good conversations about film, here.

-Steve/oldkid
« Last Edit: May 21, 2014, 07:37:48 PM by oldkid »
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1SO

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Re: The Death of the Forum
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2014, 12:39:37 PM »
Applause.

It's tough that in order to weed out a couple of true trolls, we've lost some of our best debaters. It also kills me how much people have jumped on Letterboxd instead of being more active here.

I started spending more time on ICM forums because they do monthly group lists, with normally enough submissions to justify a Top 250. (The downside being those boards have a lot more aggressive cabals, and will deliberately leave off popular choices even if they also like them.)

pix's busy schedule right now is a prime example of the downswing on the boards. Profile shows an average of 11.8 posts/day, yet there were only 18 posts in the entire month of April and pix has been M.I.A. since April 18th. (Come back to us, friend.)

I'd like to bring back the Top 100 Directors, but in our current state I'd be surprised if we received 20 submissions. I liked the idea of pixote's Top 100 Horror Discovery Project, but we're not the group to jump on something like that. From what I see, right now are television Boards are way more active than our movie ones.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: The Death of the Forum
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2014, 01:16:46 PM »
I'm around, but I'm finding myself less a part of the conversation because I'm not as active a movie-watcher as I used to be. Life priority shifts mean that I don't think I'm going to be watching 20-30 films a month anytime soon. Trying to get out into this "real world." 4 evenings a week I'm out and most weekends this year have been  consumed with running errands or family/friend activities.

I'm thinking about doing some film writing, but more academic stuff than review stuff. Think my movie reviews going forward are going to be pretty sporadic. Maybe 2-6 a month. I love movies, but I think I'm finding it better to enjoy them in a bit more moderation instead of compulsively watching everything.

I am watching/writing about a lot of TV right now, though.

Jared

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Re: The Death of the Forum
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2014, 03:14:28 PM »
Not a huge letterboxd fan myself. When you respond to someone, your response is more "theirs" than something for everyone to see. Not my style.

Anyways, I have a lot of fun with some of the board projects. It just gets a little bit too discouraging when there aren't enough participants though. I had like 9 reviews or something in a row on the horror project.

Moved into a new house recently. Wasnt going to stop watching movies, but writing about them wasnt much of a priority in such stressful times. Ill be back to it.


smirnoff

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Re: The Death of the Forum
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2014, 05:19:19 PM »
It's also a pretty slow time of the year for good new releases too I guess, which must contribute to the quiet.

I tried letterboxd and didn't get into it. It felt impersonal and restrictive. Impersonal in that you're one of thousands, and restrictive in that it's only text. Things I did like about it was the ability to click "like" after reading someone's review. That's something I would enjoy having here, but instead of "like" just "read". Inevitably some reviews and long posts come and go with no response, and I assume a lot of that is/was lacking the time to respond in a meaningful way, and thus not responding at all. That's so often how I feel after reading a good review, but not really having anything to say. Nevertheless I would still love a way to acknowledge that I've read it, given that someone took the time to write it.

I would also like to see more arguments/discussions reach their natural conclusion. I say that, of course, without the weight of having to monitor these discussions, which is certainly an onerous task... and a line has to be drawn somewhere.

I've been watching fewer movies this year as well, and dedicating less time to sitting down and writing stuff than I used to. And now when I do write stuff it tends to be a long multiday process. :))

My enthusiasm for being part of the community hasn't changed though.

Junior

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Re: The Death of the Forum
« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2014, 06:06:16 PM »
While I agree in general with the ideas in this thread, I just want to make a clarification regarding our moderation policies. In general, we're fine with whatever conversations/arguments that you want to have on any topic given that there is respect on either side and that it also takes place within the appropriate thread. If, however, the argument gets personal and attack-y, we'll step in and redirect it. If that redirection doesn't work, we'll shut it down. This isn't really new and I think it's quite a lenient policy. The politics and religion threads are proof positive that these guidelines work, because we can talk on the internet about things you aren't supposed to bring up at the dinner table.
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smirnoff

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Re: The Death of the Forum
« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2014, 06:15:29 PM »
You have been consistent and fair to be sure. People tend to dig their own graves. :)

1SO

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Re: The Death of the Forum
« Reply #7 on: May 12, 2014, 06:23:26 PM »
I admit, I miss having sdedalus point out to me how wrong I often am. Then again, I miss that from MT too, and he's still with us.

Junior

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Re: The Death of the Forum
« Reply #8 on: May 12, 2014, 06:30:35 PM »
I wonder if we've all grown to kind of like the same sorts of things. There are still obvious points of difference, but in general I think we mostly all like the same stuff, to one degree or another. There used to be dissenting opinions on every topic.
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oldkid

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Re: The Death of the Forum
« Reply #9 on: May 12, 2014, 06:31:22 PM »
Well, I have little to speak to admins, as I am not doing it myself, and there are things I never see.  I suspect there are other ways to deal with things than blocking folks, but I can't say.

1SO, I think we'd get a lot more input in a top 100 than you think.  There are many lurkers, and a number of people are more interested in creating lists than posting in the forum.  I think we should step out to do a list.  I'm thinking of taking over a top 100 list myself, although I'm nervous because I don't how much time it will take.  But it's time for a new top animated list, and, of course the general top 100 didn't happen last year, which is a disappointment.

If there was one thing that is causing the forum to whittle down, I'd say it's the podcast advertising Letterboxd and not the forum.  All new blood is going there instead of here.  It's their podcast, they can do what they want and I have no right to tell them otherwise.  But I've always felt that this was a part of the Filmspotting universe and I feel a bit abandoned.
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