This board in the old days — Page 2

A slightly different take. As my avatar states, I've been here almost from the start. I have taken a leave of absence a couple of times, not because anyone attacked me personally (I could handle that, and did), but because it sometimes felt as if cliques dominated. Thoughtfully composed weigh-ins, or critiques, opinions, etc. were simply sidestepped entirely as an insular dialog among a handful of people took over. If I sound like Alex Forster in "Fatal Attraction" not wanting to be ignored, it was sometimes the case. I wasn't in a group du jour, and didn't see the point of posting in a vacuum. That high school in factor made me disinterested. When people disgreed with me, even strongly, I was cool with it, generally.

I find there are still clicks and toxic behavior (though the ones doing it almost always accuse others of being the toxic ones--nice psychological warfare going on) and the moderators sometimes support this (moderators never give their names, so you don't know who is responding to you at any given time--if you get a response to a complaint). It's definitely strange around here. If it used to be much worse--yikes!

What I don't get about the current board is the inconsistent moderation. Any thread at all that steps into anything fun or frivolous gets deleted, along with thread based on factual evidence (that Lightning Thief tweet, for example) but a thread about the actress in Mean Girls the other night is pages of speculation and revived rumors about her behavior.

joevitus said: "I find there are still clicks and toxic behavior (though the ones doing it almost always accuse others of being the toxic ones--nice psychological warfare going on) and the moderators sometimes support this(moderators never give their names, so you don't know who is responding to you at any given time--if you get a response to a complaint). It's definitely strange around here. If it used to be much worse--yikes!"

The board isn't perfect now and it wasn't perfect then. Then and now, there were people trying to have intelligent and informed conversations about theater and popular culture -- just as then and now, there were trolls and people who only wanted to talk about bootlegs and Wicked. As others in this thread have noted, we tend to view the past through rose-tinted glasses, and to romanticize the way things were.

There was definitely a feeling of cliquishness that was dominated by a few posters. These people tended to commandeer conversations and ignore or deride those they felt were beneath them. Some are still around (though in a somewhat diminished capacity), others are a distant memory.

Yes, you are so right. Many of them are gone now, one is in this very thread, and one has the distinct honor of the only user to have a "suspended" badge underneath their screen name, still. It's a positive thing they are all gone or have grown up. People telling people to kill themselves, threatening violence, and one user telling the other "I know where you live" was especially appalling. This was constant and daily. The mods barely did anything about it, and I know this will be deleted because they don't like to admit past mistakes for some reason, even though those threads are still live.

My issue now is with the current moderation of this board. It's either none at all (months ago someone called Ms.Waterbury a whote and slut (NYCB scandal). It was up for eight hours. On the other hand, you have a thread that's been around for 3 days with no deletions or moderation warnings, openly talking about a current actress on Broadway. Not all of it kind.

It's uneven, and makes little sense. I remember someone starting a thread a few weeks ago suggesting they retrain their mods, and it was deleted in less than 10 minutes. Moderate moderation works for me. Not extreme (deleting the comment of "dramatic much?) and not lax (when someone accuses someone of lying about being a rape victim, it's best to delete, yes?). Somewhere in the middle. Cheers.

Updated On: 11/15/19 at 01:50 PM

I agree that at times things got WAY overheated and cruel but I miss the community feel it used to have. I don't know if it was just because there was a smaller amount of us but I remember WANTING to jump on here to talk to people and read posts that would make me scream with laughter and have dialogue with others (mainly on the "off-topic" board). It may be romanticized but I miss it.

Updated On: 11/15/19 at 02:18 PM

Auggie27 said: "A slightly different take. As my avatar states, I've been here almost from the start. I have taken a leave of absence a couple of times, not because anyone attacked me personally (I could handle that, and did), but because it sometimes felt as if cliques dominated. Thoughtfully composed weigh-ins, or critiques, opinions, etc. were simply sidestepped entirely as an insular dialog among a handful of people took over. If I sound like Alex Forster in "Fatal Attraction" not wanting to be ignored, it was sometimes the case. I wasn't in a group du jour, and didn't see the point of posting in a vacuum. That high school in factor made me disinterested. When people disgreed with me, even strongly, I was cool with it, generally."

It might not be so many people in a clique as you think. Instead it could just be one person with multiple user names. I also am a long time member and have never mentioned this. There was once a poster who a small group didn't like and were ganging up on this person. I usually don't participate in that kind of behavior because I strongly dislike bullying. However, once I disagreed with what this person wrote. I immediately got 7 pms from 7 long term posters all at the same time. The pm was exactly the same wording and they were giving me some additional info on the "disliked poster". I knew immediatedly that this one person had multiple profiles and wasn't smart enough to figure out what they just did. If you pay close attention, there are persons on here NOW with multiple user names. They are not very good with covering it up. The key is to watch them post something. Then they answer with the additional user name, instead of the user name they were using. I can call out a handful of people, if I really cared. If you are going to do a routine, do it well.

Deleted post.

Updated On: 11/17/19 at 09:33 AM

Jordan Catalano said: "Let me tell you that your romanticization of the “old days” here as being a wonderful place to hang out is just that - a romanticized version of the truth. While it wasn’t as moderated as it became and there was a whole lot more bitchiness and fun sometimes, there was also an oftentimes scary level of cruelty and harassment that went unchecked for far too long."

I agree with what you have to say but there were also some amazing breakdowns on here that supplied my popcorn habit. Not sure when the exact board started but I think I was around pretty much from the beginning.

Early on this board seem to be exclusively a forum for people to air grievances about a certain Glee actress whose obviously seemingly sociopathic extremes lead many on here to attack her in almost misogynistic ways that really disturbed me!

Oh those good ol' days.

Updated On: 11/16/19 at 11:47 AM