How The 'General Forum' Is SUPPOSED To Work

[bloodrayne]

We seem to keep having disputes about this, so let me see if I can help


1) The General Forum is to discuss topics that do not fit in any of the other forums.

2) Topics discussed in the General Forum can be about 'anything'

For example:

Topics about food, activities that are not necessarily horror-related, topics about your kids, current events, opinions, thoughts, questions, where you live, how old you are, your job, leisure activities...ANYTHING...If it doesn't fit in the Horror Movie sections, Music Sections, News sections, etcetera...It goes in the General Forum

3) The proper way to discuss ANY topic, is to create a thread ABOUT that topic, then post in that thread about that topic, while others respond to that thread about that topic.

For example:

In the Modern Movies section, there will be threads about certain movies...People will post in those threads about the movies (or subject pertaining to movies) that are named as the topic of each individual thread.

IE: Thread Topic: The Village...Common responses: "I didn't really like it"..."What was Shyamalan thinking?"..."I really DID like it, it was different"..."Where can I buy this cheap?"..."I bought this one because I got a really good deal on it"..."It was okay, but Signs was better"..."How can this be classified as a HORROR movie when there was no HORROR in it?"...etcetera...Now, if it were to degenerate like THIS:

Responses to "Where can I buy this cheap?":

Person 1: I got mine from a drug dealer
Person 2: Drugs are bad
Person 1: They're okay, but I like alcohol better
Person 2: You're an idiot
Person 1: What? I'm just stating my OPINION, what's wrong with THAT? What about freedom of speech?
Person 3: I agree, some drugs aren't all bad
Person 4: I think most prescribed drugs shouldn't even be legal, they hand those things out WAY too much
Person 5: Alcohol causes more problems and THAT'S legal
Person 1: I like to get wasted and have sex
Person 6: I can have sex for hours

New Person clicks on thread to read about THE VILLAGE...Has to read through 3 pages of shit about sex and drugs...That's fucked up


Now, this doesn't usually happen in the Modern Movies Section (but, it ALWAYS happens in the General Forum), perhaps because the Modern Movies section isn't as vague as the General Forums 'Talk about ANYTHING', so people know how they are and are NOT supposed to respond to a thread


So...The problem with the General Forum is:

1) 'Talk About Anything' is too often perceived as "Talk about anything, in EVERY THREAD, no matter what the topic of the thread may be"

2) A topic that is labeled as "Talk About Anything", is redundant because the entire FORUM is labeled "Talk About Anything"...We don't have a thread titled "Discuss Modern Movies" in the Modern Movies Forum...We don't have a thread titled "Discuss Music" in the Music Forum...We don't have a thread titled "Discuss True Crimes" In the True Crimes Forum...Etcetera

I originally believed (hoped) that a "Talk About Anything" thread would keep the people who wanted to CHAT, from chatting in EVERY thread, or from "talking about anything" in EVERY thread in the general forum, even if the topic was about politics (for example, since politics doesn't fit in any other section)...However, that hasn't happened, has it?...A thread about politics will inevitably contain shit about sex, alcohol, Britney Spears, bathroom habits, or who knows what else...If someone points this out, they will be hit with "This is the General Forum, we can talk about ANYTHING here...FREEDOM OF SPEECH!"...However, people fail to notice that the THREAD isn't titled: "Talk About Anything In THIS Thread"

3) Some people do NOT want to discuss any topics here, they only want to CHAT...Nothing wrong with that, except that there is a difference between a FORUM and a CHATROOM...Those people who would like for this place to be a FORUM are clashing with the people who want this place to be a CHATROOM

One of our members posted a link for a chatroom so that people would stop using this forum as one...Renob fucked that up (on purpose, as he admitted), and the 'chatters' just didn't like it for some reason

If people want to discuss topics (even things such as the color of your toilet paper, which HAS been discussed here), they do that on a forum...If people want to CHAT, they do that in a chatroom...If people want to chat AT a forum, they do that in Private Messages (yes, THAT'S what private messages are for, they are NOT for harrassing each other), or they add the people of the forum to their Instant Messengers and chat with them that way...You can talk to as many or as few people as you want, all at the same time on an Instant Messenger

That being said...The reason MOST people do NOT want to talk in a chatroom is because chatrooms are incredibly stupid...Have you EVER been to a chatroom?...ANY chatroom?...Check out one of the chatrooms on Yahoo (for example, because that was the one that I observed)...They have hundreds of topics, just choose one and check it out...What you will notice is, no matter WHAT the topic of the chatroom, everyone is saying the same shit in all of them...Childish nonsense, incessant mindless prattle, name-calling, arguing, flirting, boasts of sexual proclivity, and drunken puking, etcetera...Even in the AUTOMOTIVE chatrooms...Now, look at our FORUM...Notice any similarities?

Bottom line...Chatrooms SUCK...Most of the members here would prefer that our forum not become one...

4) People who create threads just to get people to talk to them...This would be someone who might say (over and over again) things like, "I don't like the other sections because no one will RESPOND to me there"...and..."Come on people, why won't you TALK to me?"...or..."I was really hoping for more responses in my thread"...And..."I need someone to entertain me"

Sorry...A forum isn't created with the sole purpose to stave off YOUR individual boredom, and people don't join with the sole intent to AMUSE YOU

When someone DOES create threads like this (usually MULTIPLE threads, in hopes of eliciting MORE responses), it tends to piss people off, but the 'attention seeker' usually enjoys this because in that way he IS getting responses...However, for the rest of the forum, it is beyond tiresome, and any NEW people who may consider joining (and could potentially bring us something BETTER to discuss, or at least add some interesting input) is turned away because of all the garbage they see here...

So, for those who say, "We can make as many threads about as many things as we want in the General Forum, and they don't have to have ANYTHING to do with horror"...You are correct...But, think about the people who may want to read something INTELLIGENT, or who may not want to read 10 pages of "you're so cute" "let's do it" "my sister will, she's a whore", and they can only find 10 threads out of 30 on the front page that are WORTH looking at, then when they click the seemingly WORTHY threads, they find out that THOSE threads have been filled with the same mindless garbage, chatting, and arguing as the others...It hardly seems worth it to come here AT ALL

5) People who create at LEAST 1 new thread EVERY DAY to discuss their contrived PERSECUTION, that they claim they want to 'stop discussing' at the same time that they are mentioning the exact same thing in EVERY thread that they post in...Get a fucking life, and knock it the hell off already...



Here's something to consider:

If a straight man walks into bar, not realizing that it's a gay bar, but soon seeing that it is upon entering, he will turn around, walk out and find another bar...No big deal...

He will NOT walk up to random gay men and tell them how much straight sex he has, or try to 'fit' in with them as if he has nowhere else on earth to go and just has to make the best of it at a place where he does not belong, has no interest, and makes himself disliked and his presence unwanted...And if he DID, he would be seen as the pathetic, mental incompetant that he must surely be, and asked to leave...

THEN if he persists in BEGGING the patrons of the gay bar to like him, accept him, and communicate with him, when they have already told him to stay the hell away from them and NOT speak to them, the patrons of the bar may decide to go somewhere else if he persists in hanging around for no perceivable reason other than to be bashed, then bitch and complain about being bashed...At which the regulars of the bar, who do NOT want to leave, will become angry and develop a deep-seated animosity toward the person who has caused them to be unable to hang out with the friends that they used to hang out with...They will resent the fact that their favorite place to hang out with their friends has been fucked up, and the atmosphere has become hostile and stupid...and they will wonder why the asshole doesn't just LEAVE, and go somewhere else

[bloodrayne]

A random, "Hey how have you been?" in a thread here and there, or some joke about the topic, or even a bit OFF topic, but pertaining to it in some way (occasionally), really isn't a big deal...But, PAGE AFTER PAGE...POST AFTER POST...that's just ridiculous...Consider the people who click on a thread to read about its TOPIC, then can only find one or 2 posts about that topic on each of 20 pages

For those of you who say, "If you don't like it, don't read it"...Fine, I have no problem with that...BUT, if I don't want to read about tits, I don't expect to find that in a "What's The Best Hotel To Stay In While Traveling?' Thread...Oooh, or better yet, a "Hotel Horror Stories" thread...About the WORST places you've stayed, and/or something weird that may have happened at a hotel you stayed in

Also, to those same people...NO ONE wants to read twenty threads about GARBAGE (Getting Drunk, fighting, puking, shitting, and fucking, etcetera) at ANY forum...That's why we can't get any decent new members to stick around here...They can't find anything worthwhile to do here...




If I've left anything out, and/or if anyone is still confused about this...I'll answer as many questions as I can...And I'm sure that many of our other forum members can help to answer your questions, too

[_____V_____]

Originally Posted by zwoti

majority of threads nowadays are turning into arguments or silly conversations between certain members. arguments are ended, but the dribble just sweeps throughout the forum. in the past, i tolerated this nonsense as long as it was kept to 1 thread in general.

things will change, if people don't like it....they can leave.

All of you totally missed the point he made. Z doesnt know any of you all (and I m sure he doesnt care to know either) so me and you are equal to him. Its the forum he's in-charge of, which has to be reverted back to some semblance of being a General forum of Horror.com.

1st Question) - Horror.com General Forum. (Talk About Anything Here)

Many times it has been pointed out that its a General Forum, and it says "Talk about Anything". But quite frankly, nobody has noticed the first part of that line ^. Its Horror.com. A forum which is a part of Horror.com should have very less postings and lesser people coming to the General Section, and only in those times when the topics of horror are exhausted, to have a change of thoughts...and freshen up the minds.

Go and visit any other movie-related forum (I have). And you will see, the top part of the entire forum is devoted to movie-related topics. There is an off-topic forum, but it is frequented the least. Then also, every time a new thread is posted, it has a larger number of views and least number of replies. Just visit any other forum and you ll know what I m talking about.

In HDC, the situation is the opposite. Views are much lesser in comparison to other forums, and the number of replies are huge. Just make a thread and its bound to hit up 60-70 replies in no-time. In other movie-related forums, one thread takes almost a year (if not more) to hit up that many replies, especially in the General or Off-topic sections.

If you like talking, more so talking to a certain few (friends? maybe), then there's the PM option to be used. Ask em for their email addy, or their Messenger (MSN, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ all have excellent services for that) and yap away all day and night to them. An entire thread made devoted to conversation instead of discussing on a particular topic makes the purpose of making a thread totally pointless. Thats the main difference between conversation and discussion.

And thats the main reason why threads degenerate into arguments and bickering. Because the conversational part of the thread is not taken elsewhere, but posted in a common thread for all to see. Others tend to join in, and we have a verbal fight on our hands (or verbal diarrhoea, like Despare aptly named it).

You like talking to someone, add them to your messenger. Or email them all you want. No need to flood the discussion boards with threads about such stuff. There are plenty of chat-rooms available on the Internet too, use them. But spare the "Make new thread" button which was meant to start a discussion, not chats or informal conversations.

I hope this drives some sense into some people, and they dont flare up or start bashing this post of mine. I hope you all realise where you are going wrong, and why the moderators of the forum delete replies or close threads or issue warnings.

Very aptly put, Z. I commend you on the difficult job you have been doing day-in and day-out with the best that you can. Applause from me.

[_____V_____]

Excellent, BR. Make this a sticky, please, for all new people who join in, to read. And close it, before there are some BS replies given to it.


***Applause***

[bloodrayne]

Originally Posted by _____V_____

Excellent, BR. Make this a sticky, please, for all new people who join in, to read. And close it, before there are some BS replies given to it.


***Applause***

Thank you, I appreciate that...But, I would honestly like to address the "BS replies'' and make sure that anyone who has any further questions about this, can have them answered to help to clear up any confusion, and hopefully end all of the arguing and bitching about it

Personally, I'm getting sick of hearing "We can talk about ANYTHING here" as an excuse to fuck up everyone's threads, or the entire forum with bullshit threads of their own

[_____V_____]

I know how that goes...the whole forum has degenerated into the worst that HDC was ever at.

Not that we did not have any fights or arguments before, or problems with stupid, BS posts, but in the past 8-9 months, its gone totally downhill. So down that I dont think this place can ever come back up, and be a respected website for the horror-lovers out there.

[bloodrayne]

Originally Posted by _____V_____

I know how that goes...the whole forum has degenerated into the worst that HDC was ever at.

Not that we did not have any fights or arguments before, or problems with stupid, BS posts, but in the past 8-9 months, its gone totally downhill. So down that I dont think this place can ever come back up, and be a respected website for the horror-lovers out there.

I know what you mean...But, without an IP ban, we have to tolerate more than we should...Yes, I am aware that we can ban the same people over and over again...But, that causes MORE of an uproar, more threads about persecution, more animosity between members...Just more bullshit overall...Once we can get rid of them FOR GOOD (IP ban), those issues will be resolved

[AsylumSeeker]

Blood I appreciate everything you wrote about and sympathize with you wholeheartedly. The last board I was on where I had to mod had degenerated into exactly what you have going on here, but on a far worse scale (I may have missed alot of it here). There doesn't seem to be any way around it other than placing a charge on the service.

As a completely new person who has no sides in any issue and has made a point of staying out of it, I will point out that Blood has more of a point than many of you wish to believe. There are people here who have been very nice to me personally then I read the threads they have started or their posts and am absolutely amazed it could be the same person. I've watched people follow others from thread to thread harassing in an oh so nice manner. When someone who walks in off of the street and doesn't know any of the background or established personality conflicts can read a thread and realize that a post that says "I really respect that opinion" is meant to agitate a fight, people are not being as subtle as they like to think they are.

One of the prime weapons seems to be try to annoy people with polite responses interspersed with cursing, name calling, and basically acting like a kindergartner. After 10 posts of calling someone else an idiot in public, there's a gee I was drunk post then a bunch of following from thread to thread making complimentary remarks that are ignored followed by martyrdom. It's one of the reasons I was asking the age of people on here. I was literally stunned to find out that these are grown adults.

This site has some exceptionally knowledgeable people about all different kinds of horror. Most of them seem to be genuinely nice people on top of that. There are, of course, exceptions to both of them. I'm not posting this because I believe anyone cares what I think or that, frankly, it's any of my business. I'm just amused watching people swear that they are being targeted by people with old grudges and just being picked on no matter what they say when it's crystal clear, even to someone not in the know, that they are A. trying to stir trouble and B. they are just acting like a bit of an ass.

On the other side, there are people who just can't leave it alone. Someone posts something about a movie (completely on topic, not aggressive) and a poster will just have to make some remark about how stupid the other poster is known to be and how no one is going to take their opinion seriously anyway which just stirs it up worse than before. Completely ignoring them would make them go away faster.

It makes a lot more sense to just enjoy the site and your friends on here, quit making a big deal about why Betty Sue won't talk to you, and just do your own thing. Ignore Betty Sue. Trust me, you'll be a happier person for it. Just don't pretend that you really want Betty Sue to be your friend. You're just trying to provoke a response that will cover your errors so that when you get called on the carpet you can say "well, look what they said!". The same ploy is used by big brothers the world over. Ignore the ones that don't like you, embrace the ones that do, and remember that no one is bound by any kind of membership agreement to like you, speak to you, or even acknowledge that you suck air on this planet.

[stubbornforgey]

Ok on a personal note here.
For starters..awesome B.R..'highly applauded' for doing this.

Admittedly..being one of the culprits who roam the threads and every now and then reply with some useless crap..why??
Its fucken annoying when a title was at the top of a page..but instead most of the thread was about 'macho cats'..or how the 'talk about anything thread' turned into pimping somebodies wife..or how heroine is good for the soul etc.
Then we get some dumbass who keeps reminding the rest of the board on how almost everybody on the board picked on him but was privately pming members and stirring the shit there :rolleyes:
I don't need to mention names..just look in here and read the replies from the certain members whose halo is shining so freakin' bright..its almost blinding.
And lets not forget our schitzo..whose hormones kicked in every so often..then cries foul later.
Btw..no offence to these ppl but untill you all admit you have a problem with fucking up almost every thread you post in..then this crap is going to continue for a very long time. :confused:
In short..stop sabotaging our board at the expense of others..who have been polite at 1st..then ended up abusing the shit out of you..then resorted to leaving.
All my sister-boo's are gone.so are all my brother bings'

There..i have said it you morons :p

[bwind22]

Well...

Personally, I don't think things here are any worse or better than they've ever been. Yeah, the general forum is filled with useless nonsense, but it has always been that way. I am guilty of starting what many probably consider to be one of the stupidest and most irrelevant threads ever on HDC (Bruce Lee vs. An Angry Chimp) and that was year's ago. Threads getting hijacked goes hand in hand with forums in general so that's nothing new either, but in a general forum where talking about anything is the order of the day, who cares? If someone wants to know about a hotel or an automobile, they don't come on horror.com to find out about it, they go to an appropriate website that deals with those things. They certainly wouldn't (or shouldn't) come to Horror.com's general forum to try to find those anwers. If they wanna know about horror movies, they come here, but the film info isn't usually in the general forum anyways. That being said, I can see a crystal clear case made for deleting hijacking posts in the actual movie forums and even reprimanding or punishing offending members, I just don't see what the big deal is in the general forum. If OMCdave wants to ask a silly question, where else is he supposed to post it?

Also, I'd just like to point out that I agree with Dominion in that there is a double standard becoming clear around here and it seems based on seniority. Whether or not Dominion was ever here as a different screen name (Something he's been accused of, but I've yet to see anyone prove) should be irrelevant because he's contributing this time around and as far as I can tell, he's not trying to provoke anyone or pick fights, yet he is CONSTANTLY being degraded and insulted by a handful of members that have been here a while simply because they suspect he might be someone that was a troll in the past. In my opinion, that should not be permitted for exactly the same reasons that Bloodrayne would like to see threads stop being hijacked. Why would anyone new want to sign up here if they see new people being treated like that and accused of things with no proof? If a new person was following someone around harrassing them or just being a general dick to them, it would not be tolerated, but when it's mostly people that have been here for years, nothing is done to stop it until they get WAY out of line (like Pinkerton did.) From where I'm sitting, that's whack. Same thing goes for OMCdave. He takes more shit than he should and there's usually no good reason behind it that I can see. I'm sure some people see alot of his threads as pointless (I usually find them entertaining though.) but the simple solution for those people would be to skip any thread they see that he started, NOT go to the thread and point out how stupid or pointless they think it is. (Point of fact though, Dave has started plenty of worthwhile threads in the appropriate film forums as well.)

But like I said, what's going on here is nothing new... Anyone remember scaryminda? Not only did she make pointless posts, but they were basically illegible too, yet she was tolerated or ignored with a grain of salt despite being one of the most annoying members I can remember ever running in to on any forum ever.

Basically, I think the heart of the issue and the real problem is this.... THERE IS NO GOOD HORROR RIGHT NOW! None newly released and none coming out soon! So what do devoted horror fans and members of a horror forum do when that happens? Talk about other shit to pass the time until someone in Hollywood decides to put out a movie worth talking about. As long as it stays in the general forum, I don't see the problem... *shrug*

What I'd love to see from the people who are constantly complaining about how "this forum is going downhill" would be for them to quit crying like little bitches and do something to improve it (like make some posts they deem worthy instead of bitching about other peoples posts.) Don't fuckin' cry about it, make it better if you don't like the current state of the forum. Like I said, it doesn't seem and better or worse than it ever did to me, but if it seems worse to you, then don't complain, do something to fix it. *shrug*

As for the chatroom, ha. Have you ever gone in HDC's chat room? I have, and guess what... It's empty. Every single time I've logged in to it, I've been the only person in there. How much chatting can you do when you're sitting there by yourself?

That's my 2 cents.