Sammy Sofa

It's worth watching/listening; I was trying to summarize it, but it just keeps escalating as to how dumb it all is.

We also find out that Tyrese Gibson has a Benihana in his backyard called "Gibsihana."

15 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

My point is that this thinking is why there aren't independent message boards anymore. I don't need to make a ton of money from this one site; I take a lot of pride in maintaining a legacy community. But at the end of the day, that wick burns out. I've dealt with a half-dozen forum owners firsthand over this very subject; there probably aren't many more experts on this feeling than myself. I literally took over a Mets forum a month ago because out of the entire userbase, not one person was interested in maintaining it or even lifting a finger to support its continued existence. But many complained about the fact that ads will be on the new site.

"Why Is Everything So Sh!tty Now, Complains Man Who Contributes Nothing" is such a real headline I deal with on a near-daily basis.

All I said is that if it gets ****** enough I'll bounce. There's nothing to be gained by sticking around a place I don't enjoy coming to.

The reality is this place is holdover from ye olden internet times where, yes, users could expect to have access to a message board or forum where they didn't have do much of anything beyond signing up.

And yeah, it sucks that that's not a very common thing these days, but the answer to keeping that around isn't charging people for access, or adding a bunch of features that stray way away from that. That's not preserving that; that's making it a whole different thing! And hey, more power to you if that's what you want to do and if it can work out, but trying to sell it as "trying to maintain a legacy community" is, quite frankly, a crock of horsefeathers, as is acting like any longtime members who wouldn't like that are just a bunch of whiny ingrates.

Just recognize it for what it is and don't try to dress it up as something altruistic, or to try and guilt people with some "woe is me, I bought a message board" spiel. Again, if the money is an insurmountable issue, then sell it or shut it down. Don't actively make it worse (IMO) or into something different and pretend like you didn't have any other choice.

6 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

And we all wonder why there are no independent message boards left, and Reddit rules the internet, selling your data to whomever they please, mistreating their moderators, and generally being abusive dicks in the name of shareholders.

If your rebuttal is that someone else has to do the lifting for "the love of the game", your logic is beyond flawed, it's broken. It's the very definition of entitlement; expecting others to spend time and capital to provide an experience for your enjoyment.

There used to be multiple independent forums for every MLB team. Now fewer than half of MLB teams have an independent forum. Wonder why.

I mean, you're right that something is broken, and it's that nothing can last without inevitable enshittifaction in for the sake of maximizing moneymaking.

It's really simple: message boards are just a really basic thing where people want to talk to/at each other at a less frantic pace than a chat room, and the reality is that if they're left at that and just that basic thing, they're never going to make much money, if at all.

Making money off of them inherently requires turning/growing them into something beyond a basic message board. It requires ads, a bunch of additional features, articles, "pivots to video," social media, etc., etc.. So you basically have to turn it into something that doesn't appeal to most of the original user base, likely driving them away in the end, and you're trying to play catch up with the myriad of other time sucks out there that already more appealing to begin with. It's a lose-lose proposition.

Like, some things just don't make money. This place will likely never make money in anything even remotely resembling its current or previous forms. That's just how it is. If that doesn't work for you, you should either sell it or fold it, instead of trying to turn it into something it's not.

Right, nobody wants to pay for a message board.

Pretty much the only realistic option to run one at cost AND to not turn into a subscription/ad/slop service is to either have the personal finances to do it for the love of the game, or sell it to someone or a group who can/want to do that. Anything else sucks, and just makes coming here an unpleasant experience (IMO).

11 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

But the reality is that ads pay the bills, and it's likely we're going to have to start paywalling in part because of ad blockers. That's where ad blockers ultimately take the internet; back to a world where every piece of worthwhile content needs to be paid for to access.

The crowd noise after strike 3 was amazing.

Like, the US team could have just gone out there and had a good time, like all the other actually enjoyable teams, but instead they approached the whole thing with this overly serious, troop-humping nonsense that made it 10000000000000000% better when they lost.

Yeah, of course these guys are going to hate being the runner-up. But in the run-up to being the runner-up they acted like miserable horsefeatherss who were too good to be there in the first place.

*THEY* are the ones who made it "political" throughout the whole damn tournament:

Also: who is upset? I think it's great these dumb dildos lost, especially to Venezuela, and them being a bunch of brats about it makes it even better.

I Will Never Forgive Trae Young For Surpassing Kobe Bryant's Career High For Assists In A Game Eight Times | Defector

15 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Its like you're inferring that I believe this simply because I referenced the skepticism around it. I truly dont care.

Uh, no, it was just me posting a fun listen about a goofy thing. 

Like, I didn't even reply to you.