The reason for the decline in forum membership - anyone?

@James
I have had a soft spot for him myself.
When he was first banned, I protested.

He's an engaging character, and clever with it, but he has no loyalty.
The last time he was on here he threw your clemency back in your face.

 

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Whaaa-aaat!!!!!
You think we should let him back?

Hey. that's so crazy it might work.

OK so a puppy shits on the floor, but hell, everyone loves a puppy!

 

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And in walks the Übermensch to save us all *swoons*

Is the puppy up from his nap yet? I'm bored.

 

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Has this forum suffered the demise of any of it's long term quality posters in recent years?

On another forum that I attend, we lost a couple of the most interesting and serious thinkers. They were also given to calling a spade by it's name and would run any fools off their own threads by ridiculing their ideas, not attacking the person.

Death is a far reaching event, even over the internet and even when it concerns people you have not met in person. If you have shared much time and dialogue, you have a vested emotional interest in that person's well-being. A worthy intellectual companion or opponent is a rare find.

New relationships, building projects, new hobbies and changing fortunes take people on to new paths. Once the 'colorful 5%' move on, the forum will continue because it serves as an archive and a repository of ideas and memories but one can only drink from the same river once, temporally speaking.

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The energy of engagement cannot be contained. By it's very nature, it must keep moving.

 

Are you talking to yourself ? and what are you talking about ?

 

Oh SZ, you sound so settled here. Of course you would be a valued member at any forum. But you are one of the rare ones like you are referring to, and some forums just don't ever pull themselves out of their rut.

 

Hello Stranger!

If truth be known, I divide my time between four science forums and the chess forum. That's when I'm not working, gardening or 'horsing around', lol...
Some days I drop in a post here and there, other days I just read. It really depends on the dynamics of the topic and the poster or how intense the chess games are.
You seem to have wandered off the beaten path yourself, although I do notice that you double back on your tracks on occasion.

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Thank you for the compliment. I try to offend them all equally, a generally useful means of obfuscation for an armchair student of psychology.

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This is how I know I'm not good at chess. I can't fathom how there's enough to talk about to fill a whole forum.

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Uh, maybe they play chess?

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The forum that I play on is Queen Alice Internet Chess club. They have some some message boards, all related to the topic of chess. Their messaging system allows players to communicate but no bells and whistles. Players who wish to converse at length would undoubtedly switch to their personal email.

Here are their stats from just minutes ago:

Chess is a universal game of strategy. If one can play chess, language is not a barrier to the enjoyment of this pastime.

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Do you play chess at all, Balerion? Our high school teacher taught us the game to give us something to do on breaks when it was bitterly cold outside. He felt the game was useful in developing critical thinking skills.

 

Oh I see. It's a place to play chess that has a messaging system. I thought you meant a Sciforums-esque site full of people just talking about chess.

Anyway, no, I don't really play. I used to fiddle when I was a little kid (like, under 10) but I had a friend whose father taught him gambits and whatnot, and after a few games of him beating me in 7 moves or less I grew bored and really haven't played more than a handful of games since.

 

There is currently a mod avaiable for VB Bulletin board to install threads that allow chess games with built in boards. Free I think and maybe worth a look.
re: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=153638&page=3

I play chess at Gameknot which is a fee based member site of reasonable standard. multiple games etc are the typical use etc, small chat boxes attached to the boards and a complete tournament system and computer analysis.
The potential to include a friendly chat and game zone for sciforums is not that hard to see. And in most cases be open source...nor would be all that hard to include a facebook style interface with in the sciforums platform for more casual networking in parallel with the typical forums and boards.
All these things will probably be needed for sciforums to compete for membership....as online forums across the web adapt to the needs of the consumer.

Personally I think a chess system/game system, included within sciforums would be a great idea and really not that hard to do.

 

ahh, the context. i ruthlessly expose your megalomania and you retaliate in the only way you know how...

that is the context. your trash talking ass inciting noobs to troll
i suppose your delusions might expect a thanks for that bit but reality merits nothing less than a big fat....fuck off, jdawg! (a reiteration)

ahh
resorting to lies and deceit again. what i said....

...was not "go fuck yourself"

"fuck off", if you can get past the epithet, actually means "get out of here". or... "take a hike". rather innocuous shit imo. you obviously realized that too so you upped the ante by engaging in lies and distortion hoping no one would notice. "fuck you/fuck yourself" is far more confrontational than "fuck off". even a piddling intellect can make the distinction. you however...

...are, how shall i put it....yeah... speshul! you distort what had been actually said to match that alleged precedent.

you do what you can. sci accommodates halfwits without batting an eye
yeah, your m.o. cavort with the loons and put on ignore, the intellects...

to trippy...

to quad...

hehe
half the fun is watching this thing being forced to take off ignore when the bloodying intensifies

 

silly jdawg
neverfly reserved most of his vitriol to bells while relegating you to lapdog status with a few dismissive lines. to infer....

...that from this is positively delusional. acknowledge that fact and understand that resorting to name calling is pure avoidance. also understand that you are a rather insignificant player in the grand scheme of sci. i mean, even neverfly, the person you idiotically profess not to remember, made more of an impact than you ever could hope for

yeah
jdawg who?

 

Fine. I'll play.

First, my warning Oystein was based on your history of trolling, which is well-documented. You probably wouldn't even deny that most of your posts are either--what did Geoff call them? Confused screeds?--or one- or two-line sarcastic comments full of insults and insinuations about people you think to be beneath you. The post of yours that preceded it was endemic of your obsession with me more than your penchant for trolling (Hey, if I didn't know better, I might just think you're a crazy fan).

Of course, you didn't "expose" anything. Neverfly clearly spent a lot of time thinking about me while he was gone. That he could be away for so long and yet talk about me with such fresh vitriol can only mean that I've been on his mind. Bells and I had a nice laugh about it afterward.

Yeah, I can see why you'd be upset. The ironic sincerity with which Oystein responded to your bullying made you look very small, and my public encouragement of this amazingly effective counter-trolling measure would no doubt rub you the wrong way. Don't get me wrong: it was never that I didn't understand why you say the things you do.

ahh
resorting to lies and deceit again. what i said....[/quote]

At that point I was simply demonstrating that it was context, not language, that I took offense to.

Well, then you don't measure up to your own standard. "F off" and "Go F yourself" are interchangeable. They are both derogatory ways of saying "get lost.'

Class. You've called me a retard and a halfwit in the same post.

Trolling doesn't always have to do with intellect. Smart people can engage in that behavior. You link to on every strong case-in-point with Quad. I otherwise find him to be a very smart guy (not that he needs my endorsement) and enjoy watching him dismantle bad arguments. But sometimes he crosses the line between logical crusader and forum troll. He's been spanked for this before, I'm not the first to point it out.

Of course, there's also the possibility that I was dead wrong and reacted poorly. I know you look up to me, but I'm not perfect. Take a second if you need to; I know that blew your mind.

Something about reading comprehension goes here...

In the post, Neverfly mentions me directly more times than he does Bells. In fact, he only makes one insult directed at her--he calls her a "sociopath," which is an exaggeration he no doubt learned from the Skuul of Gustav--while he insults me three times. The only individual given as much real estate in that post (aside from the person to whom he was originally responding) was James R, not Bells. And in case you missed, I wasn't even in the thread. I haven't talked to that guy in months. I literally forgot he existed. And even if he only mentioned me once, the acid in his words only supports the idea that he's been thinking about me a lot.

It's delusional to think otherwise. And it's no surprise that you're on that side of this. Really think about that, Gus. You're that predictable.

Something about a pot and a kettle...

Non-sequitur. I never claimed to be otherwise. If I thought of myself as some vital component or "Sci Celebrity" Neverfly's obsession with me (and yours, for that matter) wouldn't be so sad. Well, maybe they would be, but they certainly wouldn't be so surprising.

While I doubt that's true in any sense, so what if were? You mean you'd rather be known as a giant, troublemaking asshole than not known at all?

No wonder you follow me around so much.

 

Luposlipaphobia and all that balderdash.

Graveyard shift suddenly seems appealing and rather more enlightening than most of the above recent exchanges.

Another time, another place..........

 

yep this thread needs to be locked as primarilly due to the lack of self restraint by some posters.
A so many members are now subscribed to this thread their email inboxes are being spammed by repetitive flame wars..centred on one poster. Balerion.
Therefore I would recommend to avoid sending out all those notifcations of rubbish that includes inappropriate language that is able to be read by those not necessarilly thrilled to read it,[re: age ] to those subscribed members that the thread be locked and just leave sciforums wallow in it's own complacency.

 

You are beyond disingenuous, and a hypocrite to boot. From your latest post in the "Evolution is Wack" thread:

I could site similar comments made by you in this thread and that one. Should I go on?

 

yep time to go...

 

@ balerion,

certainly but keep it on topic...you know do what you're good at...flaming not any thing else...

You're so vain you may probably think this thread is about you
Flame Quantum Quack thread ~ Nows your chance!

yep I set it up just for you....

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[video=youtube;hIqe_lwKddw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIqe_lwKddw[/video]

sheesh... thats a top rendition... luv it!!!!