I was a regular poster on the NewWinnipeg internet discussion forum. Not the most prolific poster at all, but I certainly enjoyed the discussions and debates.
About a month ago, I went on vacation overseas. As I was walking through the streets of cities in Europe, topics that were discussed on NewWinnipeg often came to mind: Urban Density of course is one. The contrast with typical North American cities, and Winnipeg in particular, is mind blowing. But also things like Bike Paths and Rapid Transit. Hey, did you know that Winnipeg isn't the only city with a fetish for Giant Banners? Check out this picture from Barcelona that shows an entire building covered by a banner, right next to Antoni Gaudi's famous Casa Batlló:
I returned from vacation armed with all kinds of thoughts and observations from my overseas experience, only to find that my favourite internet forum hath been cleft in twain, due to acrimonious comments, accusations of duplicity, banning - perhaps prematurely - of regular members, and other nonsense. Such drama.
Sadly, NewWinnipeg is a shadow of it's former self, and a rival forum, the Sandbox, has been set up by the disgruntled ex-NWers. So now what? Do I have to pick sides? Do I have to shun NW if I want to chat with the familiar virtual faces in the Sandbox? Can I post on both forums, or does that make me a double-agent? Jeeze. Can't we all just get along?
Fuck it. I probably spent too much time on the forum anyhow.
Sunday, 26 October 2008
My addiction has been cured
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Screw that. I've been on several other forums myself where similar situations arose.
At the end of the day, the control freaks running the existing forum get to have their little boys club and the disgruntled people set up their own forum, neither of which last long. Instead of making nice and realizing that they need eachother, both forums will go down.
It's kind of sad really, to think that your little forum has any real impact.
And then you leave. And you realize that a) you're better off not wasting so much time there and b) your world won't end if you don't log on everyday.
Which of course leaves more time for blogging. Wheeee.
True. Very true.
It's a bit of a shame. It was going well there for a while: there was a lot of traffic, they were making improvements to the site, John White was plugging the forum on his Free Press blog. Now most of the interesting characters have left.
I'll keep an eye on it though.
Its nice to get out of town and take a look see.
Makes you realize how petty most of the Peg issues are.
Both forums are a very tiny group of opinions that don't change much. Most of the posters are stuck in their little corner and complain without doing a thing to change it.....except, to complain, I did say that.
And I still hate banners.
The NW/Sandbox schism had me divided as well, as I have friends and "friends" on both sides - I've been offline completely for about a week myself and I don't really miss it either.
At least I still have my blog.
newwinnipeg is a much better site now that those crackheads were banned. The quality of discussion is much better now - more civic topics going on. More intelligence and less obsessive whining.
I checked out the sandbox a few times and it looks and feels terrible. The crackheads who run the sandbox sound very bitter. How very Winnipeg. :P
You sound somewhat bitter yourself, Anon.
It's like facebook changing their theme. Everyone started up group pages complaining about it but at the end of the day they continue to use facebook.
The only "interesting people" who aren't on newwinnipeg anymore got banned for acting like assholes. That's no one's fault but their own.
new Winnipeg
A dozen posters half of whom are moderators who together couldn't light a candle
Sandbox, the other half a dozen who are holding the lit match.
Between beating up on Brodbeck and trying to push daisy's out of their collective arseholes neither site is very interesting.
I've never been a fan of forums. Too Wild West for me. Not enough law. Perverse people lurk unabated there.
I am, however, on the Manitoba Weather Watcher's forum. I semi daily update the temperature, observations, and what I wore outside. I'm the only one.
It's a forum of one? Guess you can't complain about there being too many assholes polluting the discussion. :-)
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