What is the state of Broadwayworld now in 2025?- Page 2

[Seb28]

Posted: 8/29/25 at 4:56pm

James885 said: "What I appreciate about here is that there are number of users with industry knowledge and historical knowledge that are willing to share insights. The preview / review threads are extremely useful to me as someone who only visits NYC a couple times a year.

The moderation is definitely better on Reddit, as evidenced by the MHE thread that hasgone completely off the rails, but overall I find the content here a lot more useful, entertaining and insightful."

I totally agree with your first point, there is a lot of knowledge and understanding of the industry here. This is an amazing board and there are always people who understand your questions or to have a nice discussion with if they have different opinions. I totally disagree with your second point, the MHE thread was a wonderful discussion, fully about the current situation and current talk about the show. I love it when people are able to discuss with strong, well-substantiated arguments and life experience. You can like the subject or not, but it was about the show. I also think the moderators are doing a good job, like removing the unnecessary and depraved swearing of some users yesterday. That adds nothing to the discussion. In general, I Iove to see more discussions like the one about MHE, the casting, the roles, equality, the goal, the interpretation, etc, because it gets to the core of things and it really makes people think about the "often inadequate, unfair and ever-changing overton window", versus just posting superficial, snarky and supposedly funny one-liners all the time. It's nice to have a combination of both. The fact that there are some people on here who fail to see and recognize the wonderful arguments made on both sides in that discussion is worrying. It seems that some people are not able to cope with subjects or discussions they don't like or can not win. That's ok, but there is no need for all these dramatic terms and their screams for their discussion partners to be erased. There are hundreds of other threads you can take part in.

It also seems like there are a lot of silent lurkers on the board, thanks for all the private support. It would be nice if you participate in the discussions too.

I always saw (and still see) this board as a nice place to come home to, where I can share my theatre related thoughts and experiences and read about those from other people. A place where honesty is still allowed. Where people don't hyperventilate over a little sass when making a point. Hopefully it stays that way. And where I can read about all the theatre news. There is no other place like this online. I also think that the whole Broadway community and many, many people who are in shows or work on them are here every day. I think you would be amazed to find out who are behind all these nicknames.

Let's be less dramatic about it and more grateful.

Updated On: 8/29/25 at 04:56 PM

[bear88]

Posted: 8/31/25 at 2:56am

The endless trolling behavior by the same small group of people who hijack threads feels worse now. While I have historically not been a fan of aggressive moderation, it’s obvious that some people are taking advantage of their absence (aside from allegations of wrongdoing, which are quickly acted upon even when the issues are the subject of published reports).

All of this is driving good contributors away and discouraging everyone except for the trolls and people who take the bait by quote-tweeting their comments. That’s the limit of the block feature. It’s OK for dealing with one bad-faith troll (such as the one on the Boop threads). It’s less useful on the Maybe Happy Ending thread. I’ve tried there, even got a private message from someone I didn’t know thanking me, but folks have given up. I can’t blame them.

All I can do is try to keep my contributions constructive. I have still had some terrific online conversations with people here, most recently in a discussion about my critiques of a musical I liked overall, Dead Outlaw. There are folks here who know more about theater, the industry, and Broadway history that I ever will, and their contributions are valued.

I have gotten a lot of help from people here when trying to plan trips to strategize (yes, I am one of those people). I have tried to return the favor by reviewing out-of-town tryouts in my area. 

A little kindness and common sense would go a long way. If you have expressed a viewpoint, it’s not a requirement to repeat it over and over again.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 8/31/25 at 5:40am

I've been posting here for a while (not as long as some, but a fairly long time)... I do love it here and always have. I think there is a wealth of knowledge and experiences that are shared.

That being said, I have found the constant trolling and bickering lately to be rather disheartening. I hope that it won't drive away folks whose thoughts and experiences I do enjoy reading about, though.

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 8/31/25 at 8:54am

Reddit:

The site skews younger and that means that there are more posters there who are actually working at the moment in nyc and other area theaters. It is the best for short posts about opinions about working conditions and I appreciate that.

The discussions about shows and plays tend to be one sentence gushes about someone or something being brilliant with no explanation as why they feel it was so. Same thing with the dismissals or pans, there's no sense that they need to explain themselves. So the opinions are kind of useless.

The algorithm that uses downvoting does solve part of the missing moderator problem but then it also makes things worse. It solves the problem in that one lone weirdo who is trying to hijack a thread can get downvoted out of sight. It makes it worse in that the trolls and the flamewars that win are the ones shared by the majority, so its status quo flamewars, witch hunts, virtue trials...

Broadwayworld and ATC:

I think ATC has managed to become a lot more civil in the past five years. That probably has to do with a living non-bot moderator who has human eyes on the site pretty much every day. That's a lot of work and I hope someone is getting compensated for it with whatever tracking/advertising structure they are using.

Partly, ATC has become more civil because its posters are getting older and more tired. Age reminds you have less time to live on the planet and unless you are the President of the United States, stewing in sadistic glee is a dumb way to spend your time.

 I think the main issue is that both Broadwayworld and ATC are based on a communication about theater that is on its way out. It's basically based on a gamesmanship about stars, casting, factoids... where posters play by challenging each other with their knowledge. That's perfectly fine, games are fun. And for the most part healthy.

But younger people have their own games and they aren't chit-chatting about theater and jousting with opinions and knowledge. They do it in other arenas abut not in theater, I think. And most of the games they play online are designed by corporate behemoths. This was the issue with these chat sites from the beginning. After advertising/tracking there is no further monetary tier. Something like sports chat and fantasy football has been monetized into billion dollar business.

The fact that a corporate behemoth can't monetize our games is a blessing but is also a death sentence in 2025 USA.

 

 

Updated On: 8/31/25 at 08:54 AM

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 9/1/25 at 9:04am

The Good

Posters who have tons of knowledge about every aspect of Broadway and discuss it in a civil manner.

The Bad

The OT board and if I was in charge, it would be gone ASAP. Thankfully it is dying a slow death.

 

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 9/1/25 at 5:31pm

I think the entire premise of the original post is a bit off. As someone who has been here since the beginning, I can confidently say that this message board has always been filled with hardcore bickering, trolling, and personal insults. The only real difference that I have noticed is that this board has now been infiltrated by a small but very loud group of right wing Trumpanzees. Other than that, business as usual. 

[schubox]

Posted: 9/1/25 at 6:16pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I find the Broadway subreddit to be a much younger and less savvy crowd, and by nature of the platform it’s got a bunch of people who just pop in to ask a Q about seeing a show. Whichis fine but not what I’m looking for.

The interface of Reddit is also such that threads don’t pop back up when they get a new comment. Here, it’s really interesting to see the response to a show largely confined to one thread; it becomes more fragmented on Reddit.

I would say there is also a base knowledge about the industry here that feels less present on the Reddit page."

Yeah this is how I feel. I like being able to top old threads here with the older style boards. Reddit is great for some things, but I do find the general population much younger. And half the threads are "I did 9 shows in 2 days here are my reviews" and "hot take but I hate/love this show"