If you haven't already, I encourage you to read Shaun's summary of the demise of the New Winnipeg internet forum if you were ever one of the NWers.
Read it? Good. Now I don't have to write all of the same stuff.
NW was a good time waster for the slow periods at work, but it was also the source of a great deal of insightful and passionate discussion. I echo the thoughts of the guys on today's show over at Winnipeg Internet Pundits that it would be a shame for all of that intellectual capital, if you'll allow me to call it that, to be lost for good. There seems to be some sort of archive feature here but I can't seem to make it work.
For all the good things that happened at NW, it was also the cause of this blog's rise from the internet's primordial mud. I created this blog during a prolonged NW outage and my very first post was about NW. I met many good folks at various NW meet-ups, and like the discussions themselves, it would be a shame to lose contact with all of those people, most of whom I only knew through the forum.
Happily there is a movement afoot to arrange one more get-together. Credit goes to Gabriel (aka Munchkinguy) for getting the ball rolling. Shaun has jumped aboard with his blog conceitedjerk.com. So if you're a former forum member, or perhaps just a lurker or autograph seeker, contact either of them, or feel free to contact me (cherenkov *at* live.com) and we'll try to figure out a time and place to meet. We'll get some discussions going, have a few drinks, maybe toss around ideas of what if anything can fill the void and bring fresh discussion that involves thoughts greater than 140 characters in length.
8 comments:
Alas. Is social networking killing the need for these types of websites? Would it be beneficial for forums to allow for better integration? I know I limit the number of sites I personally sign up for.
I mean, is the PC users group BBS still running? Is anybody still talking in hte fidonet winnipeg forums? Hell is anybody still using usenet for discussion purposes? Theres nothing really stopping anybody from taking over the new winnipeg website name or starting something new. Aside from perhaps ennui.
While a few diehards (myself included) are still using the Usenet for discussion, it's not what it once was. Not even close.
To combat morons, trolls, and spammers, my newsreader's killfile has grown to epic proportions, to the extent I think I'm blocking more stuff than China.
Further to Reed's comment, I haven't seen anything that really replaces general interest forums like New Winnipeg and others.
Ideally, a forum has a large variety of different topics being discussed. NW certainly had its share of lengthy and thoughtful posts as well. By contrast, Facebook, Twitter and social networking sites are more about very short hits, e.g. disseminating a breaking news story with a link to a website. There is little depth to the conversation that takes place there which makes them an imperfect replacement.
What I had an idea for a while back would be a site that combines multiple blogs with a forum. Basically it would be a community of Winnipeg-centric thinkers and writers where you can get multiple views on a topic all from the same source.
Seems like a good idea to me, but at the same time an unrealistic one since it would be hard to get enough buy-in to start it.
@Sean: sounds interesting. You should come to our get-together and expand on it. Maybe a paper like the Metro might be willing to partner and get it off the ground. They could use it as a source of content and ideas.
Yes it would be shame of their was is no choice as to what and where to discuss ideas . Count me in if I can help.
@cherenkov: I like your idea of a connection to a news source. These days its getting harder and harder to find good commentary on the news, and commentary is what Winnipeg bloggers excel at.
The Facebook page for our last NewWinnipeg meet-up is at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=175747359160914
Post a Comment