sleeper;1242461 wrote:Unfortunately, and thankfully, there is no credible research or study that shows the decline of the forum. But if you honestly believe this place is growing you might want to get your head checked.

An admission that there is no reason to believe what you do ... followed by an insult of anyone who may disagree. I don't mean to be rude, but the contrast is hilarious.

sleeper;1242461 wrote:Member attrition happens to even the best of forums, but the best of forums can replace those users fairly easily.

Is this your expert opinion, which is pretty much the best case scenario for the statement? If not, I'm curious how someone who doesn't know how to build, let alone run, a forum knows how "easy" it is to avoid net negative members.

sleeper;1242461 wrote:We don't replace users here, not now and not ever.

More baseless, unsubstantiated fact claims. Seems counter-intuitive to post fact claims in such a way as to not sound credible.

sleeper;1242461 wrote:You can point to the 32 users in 2 months(read: a damn joke) that have posted at least once, but none of the members I recognize nor do any of them post with any regularity to call them active and engaging members.

#1. "Joke" is subjective. A Bentley owner can call a Mercedes a joke. However, I daresay that unless you're running a more successful web forum, you really have no frame of reference that qualifies you to establish someone else's fruits as a joke.

#2. Forum visitors often don't sign up and just start posting like crazy. That's hardly exclusive to this forum, so it's not unusual for someone to go unnoticed when they start out.

#3. Do you not consider that those who post may be doing so in forums you don't frequent, or at least threads you don't frequent? If someone signs up and is very active in posting about their local HS basketball team, but you never open or read any threads about their team, you're probably not going to know who they are. Doesn't make them contributors.

#4. Perhaps you're not familiar with the term "long tail," which can pretty easily apply to forum content a la members. There is going to be a group of posters who account for a large bulk of your posts, and the long tail accounts for the rest. They are less active individually, but there are a lot of them, so it still adds up to plenty of individuals providing unique content.

#4. Who cares who you notice? If it's your site, then it matters. If not, you're just another poster on here.

sleeper;1242461 wrote:The only reason the forum has survived this long is that we have allowed the trolls to generate content and branch out discussion from the usual "Oh I had a cheeseburger for lunch and probably will have one for dinner" to something more interesting like "Cheeseburgers are terrible for your heart and you will die by 30, and if not will drain the already aging and overworked healthcare industry causing millions(perhaps billions) in excess costs, Go Find Yourself".

If you had ACTUALLY read my post about the active threads on Page 1 of Serious Business, you'd note that most of them don't have the kind of shallow content you seem to think they do. To equate saying you had a cheeseburger for lunch and discussing the Olympics, or what NASA is doing, or even what celebrity got shot down for a meal with another person is disingenuous.

sleeper;1242461 wrote:The former is FB, and a joke ...

Yeah, Zuckerberg's content model certainly doesn't work. :rolleyes:

sleeper;1242461 wrote:... the latter is interesting and sparks debate but that is deemed trolling because someone's feelings got hurt.

Debate is when two people who genuinely believe conflicting views discuss them. Trolling is when a person disingenuously posts outlandish things for the sole purpose of causing trouble. It doesn't spark debate, and you're either being naive or intentionally dense if you think trolling is the only thing that keeps a site active or that it sparks serious, genuine discussion. You do know the difference between an honest disagreement and an infantile name-calling flame fest, right? It has nothing to do with someone's feelings being hurt.

Debate is sparked by hot topics in the public square. Not someone being an asshole for the purpose of being an asshole.

sleeper;1242461 wrote:QQ, grow the Fuck up.

I suggest you take your own advice.

sleeper;1242463 wrote:You are physically incapable of upping your post per page limit? Sad. :thumbdown:

Where did I say that? Please cite.

Are you older than you say? It seems like your reading comprehension is diminishing.

DeyDurkie5;1242475 wrote:he's too busy jerking it!

See, THIS is an accurate example of trolling.

Sleeper, is this the kind of "high brow" stuff you think is going to "spark a debate?"

tl;dr

That isn't trollling. Trolling is a art form.

sleeper;1242488 wrote:That isn't trollling. Trolling is a art form.

Trolling is an art form? Your shit's weak. You've created 3+ names that everyone hates. Not 3+ names that people find hilarious. Time to hang up the cleats sleeper and move on. Plenty of mcdonalds and hoes in this world to keep you feeling adequate.

DeyDurkie5;1242498 wrote:Trolling is an art form? Your shit's weak. You've created 3+ names that everyone hates. Not 3+ names that people find hilarious. Time to hang up the cleats sleeper and move on. Plenty of mcdonalds and hoes in this world to keep you feeling adequate.

The cleats are very close to being hung up for good.

sleeper;1242500 wrote:The cleats are very close to being hung up for good.

Quit teasing.

sleeper;1242488 wrote:That isn't trollling. Trolling is a art form.

That was trolling to a 'T'. Plays off another thread, the topic of which was masturbating, and in which a jab similar to the one he posted here was delivered with no insinuation of sarcasm or joking.

DeyDurkie5;1242498 wrote:Trolling is an art form? Your shit's weak. You've created 3+ names that everyone hates. Not 3+ names that people find hilarious. Time to hang up the cleats sleeper and move on. Plenty of mcdonalds and hoes in this world to keep you feeling adequate.

Admittedly, one of the names that people have grown to hate was an excellent troll, but not one that sparked genuine adult discussion.

sleeper;1242500 wrote:The cleats are very close to being hung up for good.

It's a message board on the Internet. No need for a precursor or dramatics.

Interestingly, the fact that you continue to post here means you still believe that the site has some net redemptive quality.

Or, more appropriately, "the site can be redeemed."

O-Trap;1242476 wrote:
Debate is when two people who genuinely believe conflicting views discuss them. Trolling is when a person disingenuously posts outlandish things for the sole purpose of causing trouble. It doesn't spark debate, and you're either being naive or intentionally dense if you think trolling is the only thing that keeps a site active or that it sparks serious, genuine discussion. You do know the difference between an honest disagreement and an infantile name-calling flame fest, right? It has nothing to do with someone's feelings being hurt.

Reps. The whole "hurt feelings" garbage is one of the biggest strawmen on any number of discussions around here. It's not about feelings, it's about signal-to-noise, and the notion that trolling actually raises that ratio is absurd.

Curly J;1242507 wrote:Quit teasing.

this

In all honesty, I would miss sleeper's more serious discussions. The non-isadore and non-trolling sleeper does offer a lot to the forum.

Drama is what keeps this forum moving. The most active and entertaining threads are ones in which there is drama.

I suppose we could all go start up a what did you have for lunch thread.

That'll solve it.

sleeper;1242533 wrote:The most active and entertaining threads are ones in which there is drama.

The latter is not particularly true and is as much cause of people staying away as the "boring" topics you cite.

sleeper;1242500 wrote:The cleats are very close to being hung up for good.

Sigh. If only this were true.

sleeper;1242533 wrote:Drama is what keeps this forum moving. The most active and entertaining threads are ones in which there is drama.

I suppose we could all go start up a what did you have for lunch thread.

That'll solve it.

Christ, how many times are you going to mention a "lunch" thread???? Get the fuck over it already.

sleeper;1242500 wrote:The cleats are very close to being hung up for good.

GoChiefs;1242548 wrote:Christ, how many times are you going to mention a "lunch" thread???? Get the fuck over it already.

Says the guy who's had one too many lunches.

sleeper;1242566 wrote:Says the guy who's had one too many lunches.

Boom! You got me good! Reaching into skank's bag of jokes are you? Are you really that unoriginal?

Learn a new one fucktard.

sleeper;1242533 wrote:Drama is what keeps this forum moving. The most active and entertaining threads are ones in which there is drama.

For middle school girls, maybe. If that was the target demographic of the forum, then you'd be dead-center.

But no, adults with enough going on in their real lives don't need drama in order to be entertained.

O-Trap;1242573 wrote:For middle school girls, maybe.

Judging from his last reply, he just might possibly be one? I'd hate to think a grown ass man would feel the need to say something about someone's weight thinking it was funny/clever/original/going to hurt ones feelings?

GoChiefs;1242569 wrote:Boom! You got me good! Reaching into skank's bag of jokes are you? Are you really that unoriginal?

Learn a new one fucktard.

I think it's funny that you are requesting new material when the old material is just as effective without the effort.

O-Trap;1242573 wrote:For middle school girls, maybe. If that was the target demographic of the forum, then you'd be dead-center.

But no, adults with enough going on in their real lives don't need drama in order to be entertained.

I'd love to see you generate some discussion otrap. When's the last time you've started a thread that's reached 100 posts? It'll never happen, not now and not ever.

sleeper;1242592 wrote:I think it's funny that you are requesting new material when the old material is just as effective without the effort.

Yet you want new members...so old material is fine yet you want new members because the current threads are stale...you're a total contradiction, stfu.

sleeper;1242592 wrote:I think it's funny that you are requesting new material when the old material is just as effective without the effort.

Just as effective? Oh my god! You called a fat guy fat! You rebel! Smh.

Raw Dawgin' it;1242596 wrote:Yet you want new members...so old material is fine yet you want new members because the current threads are stale...you're a total contradiction, stfu.

I want new members because the old ones are not effective. My "joke"(read: truth since the user is a worthless fat fuck) elicited the exact response I wanted without the effort.

The two are not equal. Now kindly Go Find Yourself.