Posted by Smalls at syr-24-24-14-133.twcny.rr.com on December 03, 2002 at 03:09:15:
In Reply to: actually.... posted by A Rob (SHAFTR) on December 03, 2002 at 02:39:22:
: TAC was originally formed to allow columns for board members. The name was decided in a rush by Hoffman and I and it is intended to be a parody. The actual site isn't meant to be a parody.
If it's just supposed be a column space for people on the board, okay, that's cool... then why is there so much said about why this or that person's stuff is late or how this or that person isn't writing on the assigned topic, etc? If it's just a longer soapbox for cats and kittens around here... that's awesome... but all of the infighting and desperate attempts to make it seem "legit" by pushing each other around about timeliness and theme completely counteracts that.
If it's supposed to be a column space for board members, why is so much of this self-same board eaten up with posts of "so and so's column is late" "so and so's column is coming up in two nights" "blah blah... one night" "we'll be having an update in eight hours" "...in seven hours" "in six and a half"... just this friggin deluge of el Crapper's internal business strewn around here for no reason at all times? I mean, granted, right now we've got people trying to prove they're clever by finding pictures of fatter and fatter women but... I mean, at least they'll move on to finding stupider and stupider parodies of old Nintendo games tomorrow... and the lamer porn title riff on Lord of the Rings the next day... and we'll get some variety. Stupid variety but variety.
Is that because it appears that almost no-one posts on the Crapper's internal boards except the people within the project? Probably... but that's no reason to just flood THIS board with every little status change.
If it's supposed to be a simple little soapbox, what's with all the effort being put into contests and drawing in as many readers as possible, etc, etc?
There's some good honest stuff on there... but a lot of it just smacks of maddened lunges at legitimacy that leads into that "golden ticket" idiocy we had to deal with with that fellow on the last board, who assumed that since Kevin said he'd give his book a once-over, Kevin owed him a three-picture deal.
"If I do a column and if I keep it REAL professionablish and I keep it really derivative and longwinded and I just keep going at it, then Kevin's gonna read it and see what a genius I am and promote me up from what should be just a fun little soapbox but has warped into a sad attempt at forming a minor-league Poopshoot, a minor-league View Askew, just waiting to be noticed and promoted and have food and water delivered and all of my enemies slewn and maybe if we waste our energy on contests and schedules and making t-shirts and merch that only people directly involved in the project will buy instead of fostering an environment for people to express their opinions I'll be plucked out of my Blockbuster/web-monkey hell and be set on a golden pedistal if I JUST KEEP TRYING TO SEEM REALLY SINCERE AND REPETITIVE and keep overtaking the WWWBoard with constant updates as to whether a Crapper writer's chose turkey or ham for lunch, eventually somebody's going to notice and give me MY GOLDEN TICKET BECAUSE I'M SO PROFESSIONAL..."
Bleh.
Granted, as you say, the original idea was sound... and a minority of the stuff on there is interesting (mainly the stuff that DOESN'T take the place seriously)...
But the general momentum of the place just smacks of everything that's wrong with fandom on the internet... this obsession with going through the motions of jumping through bigger and bigger hoops in an attempt to grab some golden ticket that never was there, to snatch at coattails that were never there... and trying to prove all this through obsessive regimentation and the aping of other people's styles.
Or, in summary: thinks its something its not, has elements of dubious and delusional agenda and... moreover, forces me to wade through an endless torrent of meaningless updates about something that most people here don't read.
That and it's funny to make fun of.
And I've wasted way too much of my evening delinating something that's basically agreed upon by most people anyway.
Merry Christmas
Mike