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Zan-beef
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Reg. Date: Mar 2002
Location: Laputa
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Reply 15 of 43 (Originally posted on: 12-19-09 02:01:32 PM)
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Quoted from awkward jimmy:
Quoted from X:
You were banned by Rich, not I.
I'm sure you had nothing to do with it at all. 
I didn't. Rich does whatever he wishes, he bans and unbans as he pleases. That's his prerogative, and I respect it now more than ever.
If anything, your comments are more entertaining, and in some rare cases insightful, regarding how you think INTL works. I can only hope that we're a little more transparent and open to addressing these concerns than you make it seem.
I'm interested in what riles you up about INTL. Every post you've made lately on the topic has been outright obvious (inactivity, sure) or clearly wrong (my increasing involvement? petty drama? instant backlash towards newcomers?). Some of those conclusions are not congruent to one another; how can the site have instant backlash towards newcomers when it's so inactive that the only newcomers we have are bots? Other conclusions are inaccurate; I've made only a little more than a dozen or so more posts than you have in the last four months. If anything, you should be criticizing me for promoting inactivity by being inactive.
No matter how you criticize INTL, though, it almost always comes back to 'facts' that might have been relevant years ago, but don't seem all that relevant anymore:
The staff are not organized enough, nor active enough, to do any of the harm you think they do; banning users all the time at will, ruling with an iron fist, or being complete and utter bastards. That *might* have been true years ago when there was more to moderate and INTL was more of an investment in a person's life, but that's not true that much anymore. Most mods, and users in general, if they are not content they are apathetic.
The rules are not adhered to with strictness anymore. With the exception of a few forums and a few trolls, rules aren't enforced strongly because the ethos of the forum is not to enforce them so strictly. The users now are the same ones that have been here for the last few years or longer - they know which rules that are there for a definitive reason (illegality) and the ones that are arbitrary and not harmful to what INTLers see as defining INTL. This may not be great, but what is the other option? Ban the only users INTL has or will ever have, and come down with that iron fist you criticize INTL for constantly? Or should it just let it all be, so long as it's not disruptive to what INTLers see as their community?
Your other major ire, on petty drama and the seemingly 'hipster' development of INTL seems irrelevant now. We don't get drama as much anymore, nor do we seem to retain the hipsters you blame us for. Most of those you've claimed are 'hipsters' are long gone or have slowed their posting to once or twice a month. Users have posted pictures, in a thread that's lucky to get four pictures a month and hasn't had a post in the last month. In the last year, we had one petty drama that was even comparable to the ones that used to occur at INTL back in 2004 and 2005. But by all means, if you disagree, name some that have happened recently.
The major fault of INTL goes back to inactivity, which no one here has the ability to change on their own, and most users seem to have just accepted it. We don't get newcomers because we are inactive, and we have nothing to offer but ourselves. Quite frankly, it seems many INTLers are content with the people we have now and have had. The problem is that people don't want to post, don't visit because they are bored with the lack of interesting topics and the saturation of the community, have moved on with their lives entirely or to other more exciting pastures online and offline, or they just don't agree with the direction INTL has gone in. I've already had one or two come out and state that they are sick and tired with what INTL has become - without blaming just one person - and that it should just be closed entirely. Others simply wish they had the time and conviction to post as they did when they were younger and/or less busy, but they don't. The thing is people still come here. Less people, less posts, less threads, but there's still those who see something worthwhile in going to INTL, whether it is the community, or the shared environment of friends, or a place to 'comfortably' talk about their lives, or for whatever reason.
I don't find a scapegoat, or will seek out blame for it. I don't give a shit for the blame game. It happens; it's how forums evolve. You, jimmy, seek out blame for it all. You can criticize me, or the community, or any other user, but it adds nothing knowing that it's not imperative to know what or who to blame. I'm more interested in knowing what's the problem, whether I can fix it without going overboard, and how you would do things if you could do things. That's constructive and relevant and important.
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