stevedperkins
08-22-2003, 10:50 AM
I've been following the old VGR forums for awhile now, and just signed up for this today. As I browse around, there are two big things that stand out and frustrate me.
(1) No dedicated "System Wars" forum
The "System Wars" forum on VGR was more than just a discussion forum, it was it's own distinct ENTITY with a culture all its own. Now it looks to be fragmenting... the people there are arguing over which "new forum" to carry the party to, or whether to take it to some separate site altogether.
Look, I know that one of the "new forums" has the words "system wars" tucked inside the fine print description. I'm sorry, but that is simply NOT acceptable. System Wars has its own distinct culture, it makes our days a little more entertaining and is the chief reason many of us come here at all... lumping us in with another group is outright bulls***. We don't want them, and I assure you that they won't want us. Stop the insanity and create a dedicated "System War" forum now, or else just don't pull the plug on the old one.
(2) The asinine graphics
All right, I imagine that this one could be a little more contraversial. However, I personally am simply NOT going to come here as much as I have been if I've got to muck my way through all these avatars and attachments and other crap. The VGR forums were just nice, clean, readable text... whereas this new site looks like every crappy GeoCities page in history rose up at once for a collective group vomit onto my monitor.
I can well imagine that tons of kiddies will be entertained to no end by the ability to "express themselves" through mucking up their posts with gawdy graphics and avatars. However, that kind of thing is really only entertaining to the person doing it... not the people reading it later. Maybe there's a significant group of posters who disagree, but I imagine there's a large enough group of us who would prefer to have the option of turning it off. Let people post all the junk they want, and let them view it and others' junk if they wish... but provide an OPTION to view the forums with all that junk turned off, so that your monitor isn't 5% text and 95% graphics and unnecessary space.
To be honest, I'm having a hard time deciding which of these gripes is the more annoying for me. However, either one of them ALONE would be enough to seriously sour me on this new system (remind me again WHY this change is even necessary?!?). I don't want to search Usenet and web-based boards for a new hangout. I'd also rather not go through the effort of setting up a Yahoo or MSN group and trying to pull the "System Wars" regulars there for a new home. However, both of those options are looking more attractive than this.
(1) No dedicated "System Wars" forum
The "System Wars" forum on VGR was more than just a discussion forum, it was it's own distinct ENTITY with a culture all its own. Now it looks to be fragmenting... the people there are arguing over which "new forum" to carry the party to, or whether to take it to some separate site altogether.
Look, I know that one of the "new forums" has the words "system wars" tucked inside the fine print description. I'm sorry, but that is simply NOT acceptable. System Wars has its own distinct culture, it makes our days a little more entertaining and is the chief reason many of us come here at all... lumping us in with another group is outright bulls***. We don't want them, and I assure you that they won't want us. Stop the insanity and create a dedicated "System War" forum now, or else just don't pull the plug on the old one.
(2) The asinine graphics
All right, I imagine that this one could be a little more contraversial. However, I personally am simply NOT going to come here as much as I have been if I've got to muck my way through all these avatars and attachments and other crap. The VGR forums were just nice, clean, readable text... whereas this new site looks like every crappy GeoCities page in history rose up at once for a collective group vomit onto my monitor.
I can well imagine that tons of kiddies will be entertained to no end by the ability to "express themselves" through mucking up their posts with gawdy graphics and avatars. However, that kind of thing is really only entertaining to the person doing it... not the people reading it later. Maybe there's a significant group of posters who disagree, but I imagine there's a large enough group of us who would prefer to have the option of turning it off. Let people post all the junk they want, and let them view it and others' junk if they wish... but provide an OPTION to view the forums with all that junk turned off, so that your monitor isn't 5% text and 95% graphics and unnecessary space.
To be honest, I'm having a hard time deciding which of these gripes is the more annoying for me. However, either one of them ALONE would be enough to seriously sour me on this new system (remind me again WHY this change is even necessary?!?). I don't want to search Usenet and web-based boards for a new hangout. I'd also rather not go through the effort of setting up a Yahoo or MSN group and trying to pull the "System Wars" regulars there for a new home. However, both of those options are looking more attractive than this.