This Forum

[Richmond Clements]

I've had to writer some bad reviews in my time, and I do not enjoy doing it.
I always feel guilty after, knowing that someone has spend months, or in the case of a game, years working on it.

Link: http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/reviews/extra/2005/books/swine_fever/swine_fever.shtml" target="_blank">Like this one...

[Bongo Jack]

I was more making a joke that shutting down the messageboard would do more damage than it would limit.

[pauljholden]

'Surely there's no point in this message board if he or anyone can't say what they thought of the comic they spent their money on? '

I think this board has more going for it than the review thread (which I'm all for, but if people could lay off the negative - or, at least not pepper it with profanity, insult and innuendo - it might be a lot more useful for helping the creators improve the comic)

-pj

[pauljholden]

Yeah, clearly not working. If something doesn't work, in my experience, you simplify it.

I think its too big and difficult to enforce. Use your real name and don't be a dick, by contrast, or so obvious, enforcement should be easy,


(Also I've never done anything but glance at the rules and click the button...)

-pj

[Dark Jimbo]

It'd be a real shame if the board went under.

What comes through for me most here is a geuine love for our product. The art comps are really something special (wish I could still find the time to enter regularly), there's always tons of enthusiasm for the conventions and whatnot, threads like the Mega-City One Space-Maths Poulation-counting make me want to cry with geeky joy - we've even got a thread reviewing reader's Nerve Centre letters, fer crying out loud! If that ain't dedication and then some, I don't know what is.

It'd be criminal if all that was sacrficed just because one or two people can't put a little considered thought into prog reviews.

[the shutdown man]

I agree with many here, compared with damn near any other message board out there, this one is pretty much the only one I've come across where the users aren't preoccupied with one-upmanship, "board etiquette" (how I loathe that term) and slagging matches.

For instance, the official Heroes board at NBC.com (yeah, I have loads of time to kill at work). Any time someone posts a new topic there, about anything, they are immediatly set upon by a swarm of board veterans, who tell them that their topic has already been discussed further down the board "fuckin n00b!!!1".

But here, no such nonsense. For the most part, this board runs pretty smoothly, everyone seems to get on well, topics can be discussed without name-calling. There are the occasional incidents like the review thread, but it would be a shame if that brought the whole board down.

And besides, I'd have to go back to doing actual work while in work. Don't make me do that.

[pauljholden]

Well, I don't think the board needs to die, just needs to take a good long hard look at itself and ask what exactly it wants to be when it grows up? valued member of society, or a little git sitting around making sarcy comments all the time (as ever, Simpson's quote to the rescue: 'Dude, were you being sarcastic?' 'I don't know')

Further: just because there are worse places out there, doesn't mean this this place is perfect - no where is perfect.

To further my simplifcation of the rules - maybe there should be more moderators, people like Mike Carroll (sorry Mike) who are known and liked by many and grown up enough to know how to conduct themselves and how others should too.

-pj
-pj

[Art]

I volunteer PJ.

(ha, ha)

Though I've a bit of a suspiscion that the board lacks the admin tools that would make that kind of thing practical.

[Buttonman]

It must have got pretty bad for Matt to stick up his first post in 18 months. You can see the annoyance of producing a weekly anthology 50 weeks out of a year, choosing the best letters and juggling with deadlines and creator egos only to be rewarded with an 'meh'.

That said, I do agree with the attitude that if you cough up your cash you are entitled to your opinion even if it is poorly articulated and unexplained.

Personal jibes and sweeping generalisations should be outlawed, and I thought such a policy was already in place?

Don't kill the board Matt, I love the comic and have done so for 25 years, I write every week and have never called anyone a dick. Don't let the meh-sayers spoil it for the rest.

Oh and Dark 'Dick' Jimbo don't go hoisting me up as the high water mark of geekiness! Those spine fellas are far worse!

[Steve Green]

I guess the Norts are objecting to the London mayoral result.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oLuiS3PAio&eurl=http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/3318" target="_blank">If only this had been around when Rogue Trooper wa

http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/imageuploads/1211380390_80.177.117.97.jpg">

[pauljholden]

'That said, I do agree with the attitude that if you cough up your cash you are entitled to your opinion even if it is poorly articulated and unexplained. '

You know, this seems to need explained often, for some reason.  No-one would dare suggest that anyone here isn't allowed to express their opinion on the comic (or its contents) - whether they've paid or not - the question is, should this be the place for the overly negative harping that tends to erupt more often than not?

(there are, after all, numerous alternative venues out there: 2000ADreview, alt.comics.2000ad, not to mention blogs by the hundreds... or just, as you know, letters sent to the green dude - were he can filter the more offensive ones as he sees fit)

-pj

[pauljholden]

"I volunteer PJ.

(ha, ha)
."

Oh, I'm too egomaniacal to not let that kind of power go to my head.

-pj

[Matt Timson]

Anybody volunteering for power shouldn't be given it...

Interesting thread- as are the events leading up to it.  I think I called Pat Mills an unkind name once- and instantly regretted it- but by and large, I save my venom for other posters.

As PJ says, there are no perfect forums- but this is place is practically brimming with enthusiasm compared to most comic forums.  I find I can't even use a lot of other forums, as they're so openly hostile.

As with the real world, when certain things are tolerated (such as swearing, for example), it tends to become the norm and perceived to be 'alright'.  If it really isn't alright, then I don't have a problem with anybody saying so- but the point is, they have to say so.  I swear like a trooper and feel a bit bad that Mike Carroll doesn't send people here, in part, because I swear.

But that's OK- I don't have to swear to be heard.  So I guess I won't be swearing anymore.  It's no big deal.  

I don't mind using my real name either.  Of course, there's a difference between using your real name and using a name that sounds like it's real- and some people will always use fake names.

As for creators, I don't like to see senseless bashing and I don't think many of us do- but by the same token, creators could sometimes think before they retaliate to some imagined slight to their egos (no, the irony isn't lost on me- I know my faults), or at least accept that wires do get crossed.

Of course, one of the real reasons I've never tried to get work at the House of Tharg is that I've never fancied one of those scathing reviews myself- but that's neither here nor there.

My name is Matt Timson- and I shall swear no more.

:)

[Peter Wolf]

 Thats going to be a real commitment never to swear ever.Quite honestly if i had to sign an agreement that said no swearing i would have to say no because at some point i know i would break that agreement although not deliberatly.

 Thats it really but i could always improvise and use some other words that are not actually swear words like Drokk etc.


 If its a blanket ban on swearing then i would be happy to improvise if it secures the messageboard .

 Can someone clarify this :

 No swearing at all ?


 Or a modicum of swearing providing its not used for insults or attacks or reviews of the prog etc.


 I always thought s words and f words were acceptable if not *overused* but thats just my opinion.

 I am easy either way so just say yes or no.


 

 

 I dont need to change anything else as i have never been anonymous anyway.

[LARF]

"My name is Matt Timson- and I shall swear no more."

LMAO