Non-turtle talkin' users

[Gunpowder]

Originally Posted by Cure

Not just cynical, but overly sensitive, as well. People flip over the smallest things. No ribbing like there was back then because people need their self esteems coddled. Like imagine if we jokingly called someone a pedophile now like we did to Doom? Chaos.

That's the thing though, man. Not everyone takes stuff like that as a joke, and since this is the internet, people are gonna take that more seriously than they should, because they don't have the context clues to tell them it's all just good-humored. You say it wasn't like that 10 years or so ago, but as long as I've been around, calling someone a pedophile - even jokingly - has never been taken lightly or considered okay. If you're already affiliated with someone and know them well enough for them to interpret it the way you intend, that's one thing. But for anyone other than that group of people, straight-up calling someone a pedo and expecting them to be like, "Haha, this guyyy! " is just not realistic. Look dude, I'm not tryin' bash to bash you or be a smartass or anything; I'm just clarifying. People who don't know you well enough WILL be offended if you say the right thing(s).

In any case, in response to the OP, I used to post exclusively to the TMNT forums; then eventually it was half-and-half between that and the General Discussion; and lately, it's been about 90% General Discussion for me. I do love talkin' Turtles, I do. Lately, though, I haven't really been interested in any of the topics TMNT-related - but, of course, that's only temporary. As for those who literally never post in the Turtles sections...not totally sure why that is. They have their reasons, I'm sure, but I think it's largely just a simple case of some people liking TMNT, but not having anything to say about it. I'm like that with a few things, too, so I can't judge. But as for my reasoning, it's mostly due to my group of friends on here largely sticking to the "Everything Else" section (which Powder addressed).

[Cure]

Uh-huh. Point proven.

[Gunpowder]

Originally Posted by Cure

Uh-huh. Point proven.

Whatever you say, man.

[Peanut]

You're totally missing the context to any of that stuff, guy. It's not like everyone was bombing around the forum name-calling for fun and expecting everyone to get the joke. Nobody went up to someone totally randomly and called them a pedo.

And yeah...you totally did prove his point. Your post is a perfect example of the Internet and the world in general. Latch on to something, generally without any understanding or context, take it seriously, over-analysis it and then take it upon yourself to reprimand someone.

[Gunpowder]

Originally Posted by Peanut

You're totally missing the context to any of that stuff, guy. It's not like everyone was bombing around the forum name-calling for fun and expecting everyone to get the joke. Nobody went up to someone totally randomly and called them a pedo.

I get that. But you're right, I don't know what led up to any of that in context, so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut at this point. I'm just replying based on what I've read on here, because that's what Cure made it sound like. People are oversensitive a lot of the time, though, for sure.

[Peanut]

Nah, it's cool. Again, you're taking things way too seriously. I promise you that nobody is mad or offended here.

But, yeah. Perfect example here of how things were vs how they are now. Not just in terms of the Drome, but in general. You always have to be afraid of offending someone and it's way more likely for someone to be offended over complete nonsense.

[Gunpowder]

Originally Posted by Peanut

Nah, it's cool. Again, you're taking things way too seriously. I promise you that nobody is mad or offended here.

But, yeah. Perfect example here of how things were vs how they are now. Not just in terms of the Drome, but in general. You always have to be afraid of offending someone and it's way more likely for someone to be offended over complete nonsense.

In my case, that's because I've dealt with a LOT of people who are emotionally fragile, so I have to watch my bluntness a lot of the time. But I totally understand where you're comin' from. Personally, I think some of the oversensitivity nowadays is justified, but in other instances, not so much.

[snake]

Originally Posted by Gunpowder

In my case, that's because I've dealt with a LOT of people who are emotionally fragile, so I have to watch my bluntness a lot of the time. But I totally understand where you're comin' from. Personally, I think some of the oversensitivity nowadays is justified, but in other instances, not so much.

I'm pretty sure everyone was tight back then, so you could call anyone anything and it would just get brushed off as a joke. Like cubed said, most people need to grow a thicker skin.

[Cure]

Get outta here snake, you pedophile! You 13 year old pedophile!

[Peanut]

Wait, is snake really 13? Can you rap, snake? Can you be the new Lil' G?

[snake]

Originally Posted by Cure

Get outta here snake, you pedophile! You 13 year old pedophile!

Hey! **** you buddy! $&@&&&&@@&&@!&?&?&&($&!




DARN YOU!

[Cure]

But Lil G couldn't even rap!

[snake]

Originally Posted by Peanut

Wait, is snake really 13? Can you rap, snake? Can you be the new Lil' G?

I can only try.

Spoiler:

I've read some of his posts before. Was he 8 or so when he joined? He seems so hip.

[Cure]

Yeah, he was super young. Even at that age, he was another one who was able to take a joke.

[Powder]

I remember him, he was a character. But yeah, to be fair, he could take a ribbing. I'm not quite the veteran that others in this thread are but even I can say I miss the "old days" as when I first joined, people gave one another a lot of sh*t but it was in good fun. Now you have to walk on eggshells, but that's commentary on the state of the world/internet in general, it's not exclusive to this board, as someone else said. I can't say for sure as I wasn't a part of the core groups here but in hindsight it seems to me like I came in towards the end of the good 'ol days for certain people, as some of the "key" members faded out within a year or so of my membership. I remember thinking certain cliques were cool or whatever & wanted to fit in or whatever.

[pennydreadful]

Originally Posted by Peanut

It has definitely changed. When I first joined the forums in their original incarnation there was literally 5 of us active and we all ended up becoming mods. I believe Machias and I are the only ones from that group who are still around anymore. At the time the franchise was dead, though, so it's kind of to be expected. It was me scanning VHS covers and people talking about the old cartoon. TMNT 2K3 brought in the first real influx of members and it was fantastic. A lot of people stuck around and made names for themselves and the community grew to a respectable size, both in and outside of the TMNT community. At some point there were kind of too many young egos and some big misunderstandings led to the forums being shut down. The backup forums was run by Anarky and a totally different mod team, but that place was also really fun. When Krang brought the proper forums back online, these ones, it kept rolling, but by that point I think a lot of the crew that made the Drome what it was were starting to get a little older and people drift. Nothing lasts forever.

I find now that the franchise is more popular than it ever was during the "big" years of the forum, we get a lot more members that are here specifically to talk about TMNT and nothing else, so the GD has kind of become, like I said before, a series of threads full of the same people talking to each other. It seems like the bleed over from TMNT forum-goer to full fledged Dromer happens far less than it used to. It's also important to remember that way back then the GD was literally a single section and not a grouping of sub-sections, so every discussion was lumped into one big section, which caused glorious chaos, but meant that people who wouldn't generally even click into a section about toys or video games or whatever would see all that stuff anyways, so there was more crossover.

This is from the perspective of someone who stopped actually talking about the franchise in like 2004, though, so I pretty much only see the GD. The TMNT sections seem like they're pretty bumping these days, but I don't know for sure.

Wow - so the forums were actually shut down at one point?! I guess y'all have seen stuff that make The Great Movie Wars in the TMNT section seem pretty trivial by comparison.

Do you think that there's kind of a pulling away from and returning to the forums, as adult life takes members away for a while? Or once someone's gone, they rarely return?

On the subject of good-natured ribbing amongst 'drome members... do you think that maybe there used to be more of that because there were more members who had history with each other and there was a level of rapport between members that doesn't exist now? Or is it more that times (and the world) have changed?

It sounds like the forums were smaller and more tightly knit, as Machias says... yet it seems like there were still some really heavy-duty fights between members as well (going by the board shutdown)? So are the relationships on the forums today not as close but also not as volatile, compared to dynamics in the past? If yes, why do you think that is? Is it because the group has grown larger? Or is it that there's less history amongst the current crop of posters? The fact that back then, there weren't a lot of options for fans of the franchise to congregate, whereas now there are other options? Or something else altogether? Is it just that the way people talk to one another online has altered from what it was 10 or 15 years ago?

I feel like a kid asking the grown-ups for storytime, but it's really interesting, and it's the kind of thing you can't learn about the forums just by reading through old threads. What do you think has kept the forums going for this long? Do you think it's the community here, or the franchise, or both? Or neither?

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by pennydreadful

Wow - so the forums were actually shut down at one point?! I guess y'all have seen stuff that make The Great Movie Wars in the TMNT section seem pretty trivial by comparison.

Do you think that there's kind of a pulling away from and returning to the forums, as adult life takes members away for a while? Or once someone's gone, they rarely return?

On the subject of good-natured ribbing amongst 'drome members... do you think that maybe there used to be more of that because there were more members who had history with each other and there was a level of rapport between members that doesn't exist now? Or is it more that times (and the world) have changed?

It sounds like the forums were smaller and more tightly knit, as Machias says... yet it seems like there were still some really heavy-duty fights between members as well (going by the board shutdown)? So are the relationships on the forums today not as close but also not as volatile, compared to dynamics in the past? If yes, why do you think that is? Is it because the group has grown larger? Or is it that there's less history amongst the current crop of posters? The fact that back then, there weren't a lot of options for fans of the franchise to congregate, whereas now there are other options? Or something else altogether? Is it just that the way people talk to one another online has altered from what it was 10 or 15 years ago?

I feel like a kid asking the grown-ups for storytime, but it's really interesting, and it's the kind of thing you can't learn about the forums just by reading through old threads. What do you think has kept the forums going for this long? Do you think it's the community here, or the franchise, or both? Or neither?

Well, when I say the forums were shut down, it mostly (or fully) involved Krang having to pay for it when the place simply couldn't pay for itself. I think the blow up that happened was just that proverbial straw and I honestly couldn't blame him in the least.

Funnily enough, the entire argument was pretty much a fabrication of two people who had nothing to do with any of the parties involved. It's all water under the bridge and kinda funny to look back on.

I think in terms of the joking around, or any kind of arguing or animosity, it's a few things. For one, many of the members had known each other for awhile and it was sorta brushed off more, but I also think people were just way less likely to be offended back then in general. I also think there's a lack of...history...between many of the more prominent members now, I guess? 2003-06 era Drome had a lot of members who'd known each other for years, which made it way easier. Like, you seem to post here a lot, but I don't know you and that's probably because I rarely venture outside of the VG section, so while we're both entrenched members of the community we don't really know each other. Like I said before, there were also no sub-forums in the GD back then. Everything was in one place, so you had everyone in one section discussing everything the GD offers now, which means you were bound to run into and talk to pretty much everyone at some point.

As for why the forums are still running, I think it's simply because it was founded so long ago, when there simply wasn't another forum out there to talk about TMNT, so it became entrenched in the fandom and thus became one of the premiere places to talk about it. Certainly, I think an incredibly active user base who stuck around during the down periods is one of the main reasons it has continued to exist.

[sdp]

I lurked the board for about a year before I started posting and only recently and even though I only posted when I was hyped for something TMNT related I did see the board evolve. I've only now become more of a regular poster and its mostly in GD since there's no other boards I currently like anymore. The descriptions of the drome in the past though pretty much tell the same story I've had in other forums that are now totally different and or dead. The thing is no forum stays the same forever since the users age/move on and all forums have an "it" time when it peaks in how interesting it is and you can't really re-create that no matter what. I mean this being a Ninja Turtles forum and it being an evergreen franchise that means that the drome will likely continue existing for a long time, if you google "Ninja Turtles or TMNT forum" this is the first link you get, so you'll always have TMNT discussion but the users/mood of the board will continue to change. My favorite time on the board was probably before the 2007 film was announced, the forum was much smaller and the personalities of some posters really shined more.

[Peanut]

You're right, sdp. Everything changes and this forum is no different. It's weird how fast time goes.

Now I feel all melancholy. Damn.

[Jester]

Wish i had a better memory, but yeah in my 10 years here i've seen some stuff. Looking back I almost feel like I ought to apologize to the PA Tech crew. We used to be "enemies", as much as that term holds ANY meaning online, and now i tend to agree with you all most of the time. I do wish some of the old guard would come back. We had some good times. I guess some people just "grew up".