Problems on the forums

[Krang]

Originally Posted by Anarky

General Discussion: Nothing. Practically dead because the core users have either left or just lost interest in it. A couple of nostalgic people still hang around, wondering what on earth happened to this place.

You're right that it is not as active as it used to be, but again, you're making it sound far worse than it is. Although some sections are used less often than others, there are still many active threads and many active members who post in them.

The problem here is that we have a lot of people who visit the GD sections regularly, but not as much posting as we should have. In my opinion, the main reason for that is that people aren't starting enough new threads. Sure it's much easier to sit back and complain about the existing threads (or lack of activity in them), but that accomplishes nothing unless people start new threads about things they find interesting in order to help get some conversations going.

RPG Section: A place where all the clowns get to live out their absurd fantasies of self-insertion. Sure, the forum is mostly dead because nobody feels like being the one TMNT among seventy fancharacters that all have Mary Sue traits.

I rarely if ever visit the RPG section, so I'll have to ask this question to people who do: Is it really all that much worse than it used to be (or than RPGs in other fandoms)? If so, I think there are more productive ways of making things better, such as starting new RPGs that forbid fan characters or something along those lines.

Fan Works: Fan works seem to mostly be "Draw April wearing this dress. It is my fetish." these days. It is not a place where you draw Leo vs. Shredder and everyone marvels at you for having drawn Shredder so nicely. Would Shredder be wearing a thong, then yes, it would be awesome. And if you don't have fetish-April, you have fanfictions that are harebrained to the point where you want to hurt the nearest living being.

I see your point about some threads, but I think you're overexaggerating the situation again. About the fan art, why not PM the problematic members and ask them to stop disrupting the section? For the fanfics, I don't read those so I'm not sure which ones you're referring to, but I'm sure you could offer some constructive criticism if you want to make things better.

The solution to this? A first idea would be to just tell the people that they're behaving like complete tools, that they're being so stupid, it hurts. Granted, the internet is a place where stupidity is apparently a sign of some weird degree of quality, but seriously... April as Velma? So just telling the people that they should maybe hold a bit back on inserting themselves into the TMNT everywhere and maybe should not pester us with their fetishes, would probably help this a lot.

How would insulting people help any? If people are insulted, they aren't going to say, "Oh, you're right, how stupid of me, I'll do better from now on," they're going to either fight back or stop posting, both of which would cause far worse problems than what we have now.

Look, I love this place like the next guy, I've been here forever and I will probably never leave. Fact is, I love this place, whether I like it or not. And before I see this place being completely overrun by fancharacters and absurd sexual fantasies, I will at least try to fix it. And this is me starting.

Although I think you're a little misguided, I appreciate the fact that you're trying to help. For each of your points, I have offered suggestions that I hope you (and others) will consider.

Originally Posted by Anarky

but these days, all we hear is Fancharacter this and Trombone that. Everywhere.

Besides the one whose thread you had an issue with, who else is putting their fan characters in inappropriate sections of the forums?

Originally Posted by Hannah

I officially became disconnected from this board when I was told we can't make fun of furries.

Who said that? You can make fun of them all you want as long as you don't personally attack anyone on the forums.

Originally Posted by KROW

Just because one or two members ruffle the feathers doesn't mean the whole forum's going to hell.

Originally Posted by Jon

I have to agree with what you quoted from Krang to start this thread with. You're being too high-strung about things.

Thank you, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so.

[gobo]

I spent the time to read all of this... I've really hit rock-bottom.

[Magdolin]

Okay. I can agree that people use a lot of Fan Characters. So maybe we can at least get to a limt of four. Or whatever.



And Krang is right. Insulting people is not going to help. And maybe we can holdourselves back on the FC's. I admit, sometimes they do get a little out of hand.


Oh! and I just have one comment. I ALWAYS make sure my characters are not Mary-sue's.

[Spitfire]

I personally stopped posting as much because I got tired of the fandom. There's only so many times I can read "LOLZ FF is sucks" or "Mikey be immature RAWR". It gets old really fast. Older members already drilled those points into the ground and the newer ones just go further. The fandom almost made me hate turtles for awhile. Everyone would rather bitch about everything then give it a chance. If you don't like the first 30 seconds of an episode that doesn't mean the whole thing is terrible.

I'm also sick of the constant nit picking and over analyzing. "The turtles aren't sad enough that Splinter is missing." Is that all people want to see? The turtles crying and cutting themselves. I know they're teenagers but they don't have to be stereotypes. Then the awesome discussions about rap music because the horrid rap intro didn't win the contest and that's a problem for some people. The intro makes a series I mean you totally can't skip it or anything.

It's not just the new series where I see this endless complaining the movie section is full of it too. Your not getting a PG-13 turtles movie get over it. The sooner people accept turtles is now and forever will be a kids property the better off you'll all be. It's insane that a bunch of adults are going to tear apart a children's movie. It wasn't made for you so shut up.

And the comic section...don't get me started. I'm guilty of complaining about Lawson's artwork or Laird being an ass but it's gone way overboard. I haven't been in there in awhile but the last time I checked that's all it was about. More drilling of the same old crap.

The toy section, oh man. Playmates are dropping the ball so every topic ends up turning into "Playmates sucks" or "Laird is a moron for choosing Playmates". That and I'm sick of seeing people's crappy customs. I don't make custom toys myself but I know what looks good and a lot of the stuff people post doesn't. Yet I see numerous people rave about them no matter how bad they are. I just don't post in those topics anymore. Even if I did no one knows how to take critique which leads me into...

The fan works section is just sad. Unless you write poorly thought out fan fictions or draw stick figures no one replies to your topics. I've noticed people on here have issues admitting when something is good. When something is terrible I see lots of posts however when someone puts up quality work people tend to ignore it. It's almost like complimenting something that's actually decent is like taking a **** the size of a large rock. Giving critique is pointless because your either ignored or get a shower of excuses.

I don't really go into the general anymore. I got sick of it after awhile because people only post about dead celebrities or bad movies. I also see topics about TV shows and garbage coming out on DVD I don't care about. There used to be more then that. At very least people used to discuss good movies, or decent ones. Just another sad reminder that all people watch is crap.

This is the longest post I've written in awhile and it's far from my nicest but Anarky brought up a good point and I felt like tossing my two cents in. I do still hover around here now and again but I haven't posted nearly as much as I used to. Part of that is me being busy lately but most of it is all the fun I used to have here is pretty much gone.

[thebrownranger]

Originally Posted by Anarky

General Discussion: Nothing. Practically dead because the core users have either left or just lost interest in it. A couple of nostalgic people still hang around, wondering what on earth happened to this place.

Yeah, I also think about the same thing. I'm quite new to these forums since I've been here only a couple of months and I remember seeing the homepage of the Technodrome years ago, while not knowing there was a message/forums board category to the site. Looking at countless threads from 2003 all the way to 2005, I'm just curious as to why so many users left or stopped posting. It seemed like there was a good number of Dromers when the 2k3 toon debuted or even before that. I really don't see myself using the forums or even being a huge turtles fan as I get much older. Did these people leave becasue the franchise started to suck, just grew out of TMNT, or just had to get on with their down-to-earth everyday lives?

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by Hannah

I officially became disconnected from this board when I was told we can't make fun of furries.

Wait... so you join a message board based on a franchise where 90% of the characters are either scalies or furries...

and you're opposed to them!?

My head hurts....

That and I'm sick of seeing people's crappy customs. I don't make custom toys myself but I know what looks good and a lot of the stuff people post doesn't. Yet I see numerous people rave about them no matter how bad they are. I just don't post in those topics anymore.

I'm curious to know what you think are good and bad customs, because, well, I'm just now getting into customs myself, but I've only seen a very small handful of really bad ones. Most are great, and the rest are about decent.

[Hannah]

Originally Posted by The S

Wait... so you join a message board based on a franchise where 90% of the characters are either scalies or furries...

and you're opposed to them!?

My head hurts....

I joined when I was, what, 11? I didn't know what furries were.

And they're the main reason I don't even visit the other sections, bleh..

[GK Punk]

Originally Posted by The S

and you're opposed to them!?

My head hurts....

I am too.

Though, I'm sure she means the people that take it to a sexual degree.

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by GK

I am too.

Though, I'm sure she means the people that take it to a sexual degree.

That is a whole 'nother bag of chips. Furries are any anthropomorphic mammal characters. Furry fans are ones that are fans of furries, whether they cosplay as them or not. Yiffers are people that derive sexual pleasure from furries in some way, shape, or form.

[Peanut]

The death of the VG section is pretty much the reason I stopped posting. Other than that, I would only rarely post in the TV & Movies section, and in EE if there was something interesting going on. All I really see anymore is a lot of people I don't know posting stuff I don't care about.

Still love the Drome, though. I've been here for nearly 7 years now. I'm not leaving anytime soon.

[Archon_Turtle]

Originally Posted by The S

That is a whole 'nother bag of chips. Furries are any anthropomorphic mammal characters. Furry fans are ones that are fans of furries, whether they cosplay as them or not. Yiffers are people that derive sexual pleasure from furries in some way, shape, or form.

S, I love ya, but I think I'd be more comfortable hanging out with you if you pretended to not know so much about the topic

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by Archon_Turtle

S, I love ya, but I think I'd be more comfortable hanging out with you if you pretended to not know so much about the topic

Who says it's pretend <.<

[Kunoichi_Haruko]

::sigh:: Frankly, I think Anarky is just cranky because no one's wished him a happy 5th anniversary (just kidding, Anarky).

Honestly though, I think this is what happens when you get older and stick around a place for long enough. You start noticing changes (that you may or may not be happy with), and longing for the glory days, which is probably why you see nothing but harsh criticisms and complaints about the t.v. show/comic/movie/toys/ etc. in every section. I'm not saying what you've noticed is wrong-- we all could do a bit better when it comes to creating and discussing topics (and it would help if some members better understood the difference between constructive criticism and outright complaint), but maybe the quality of the board has diminished slightly because the quality of the franchise has diminished slightly. I'm not saying there's a direct correlation, but maybe it plays a role in why the forums aren't what they used to be.

[gobo]

Having a mo-- a border... yeah, that's what I was saying. Having a housemate that is frequently watching crime dramas, I've learned the same distinction between furries and yiffers. And, I wish you had let me forget it, The S.

So, I guess I'm seeing a bit of Anarky's point as the boards must be on the verge when I can't find a thread better than this to follow. Right? There should be intriguing literary analysis threads updated by the hour to satiate my intellect. So it has been written... er, typed. WHATEVER!

[Jester]

I think Kunoichi_Haruko may have hit the nail oin the head. The franchise we love and come here to talk about seems to be limping along, and this in the build up to the 25th anniversary.

I know I for one am a little bummed about the state of the TMNT fandom (but I have other more important things to deal with, so it doesn't get me too down.) and I think that angst about the degradation that seems to be leading to the franchises second hibernation is causing some of this.

Also, we have some young new people who have yet to blossom into thoughtful posters. I know it took me a while. Heck, when I started I typed like this.

Originally Posted by Jester

Hey,
I'm looking for the intro from the english version of tmnt...or TMHT in the UK....if anyone has the video let me know....that's rock
Thanks,
Jester

Hey....just a quick question
What did u think of the old toon's first 5 eps...or Turtle tracks...liked it, loved it, wished shredder had de-mutated the whole lot of them??
what??

I swear I almost can't tell that's the same person. We have a lot of new blood, and they're still finding their voice.

That's all I got. There's probably other symptoms but that's my two cents.

[Ninjinister]

All furry referencing aside... I think, Anarky, that you must not spend a lot of time with the outside world (correct me if I'm wrong), because this is the way the entire world is going in general.

I actually had an absence of a year and a half from this board shortly after joining, because of an incident. I took my education, whether in school or independently, very serious when I was younger, and as a result, my normal speech was a lot more... well, let's just say, refined. I tended to use large and complicated words in place of smaller ones that would have gotten the point across equally, I used archaic terms such as "thus", "thou" and "ye", and so forth. It was just the way I spoke normally, and I do slip into these habits now and again still today. It was easy to forgo this method of language when speaking in person, but it was much tougher when typing. When I first came to The Technodrome, some members made fun of me for it. Fair enough, I can handle some gentle ribbing, and a man who cannot laugh at himself is not truly alive, I say. But there was, at one point, an AIM chat room that featured members of this site (this was back when I still used AIM on a regular basis). For whatever reason, literally the entire chatroom's occupancy turned against me. Not just teasing, but very hateful speech. Allusions to extremely bizarre sexual deviancy, homosexuality, and even mistaking me for some individual who "called Allah a false idol" were strewn about with me as the target.

But within time, I returned. I've never been one to hold a grudge, and I've become better at conditioning my parts of speech. I don't even recall who any of these antagonists were.

My point is, people are going to do things that you don't like. It's a part of life. And as I found out, complaining about it doesn't do anything.

[Hannah]

hahahahaha

[GK Punk]

Originally Posted by The S

That is a whole 'nother bag of chips. Furries are any anthropomorphic mammal characters. Furry fans are ones that are fans of furries, whether they cosplay as them or not. Yiffers are people that derive sexual pleasure from furries in some way, shape, or form.

Well, that's well and fine that there's a difference but I was just trying to explain that the views me and Hannah both share are more about one thing than the other. I don't see how being a fan of TMNT automatically = fan of all things furry, which is what your post sounded like to me.

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by GK

Well, that's well and fine that there's a difference but I was just trying to explain that the views me and Hannah both share are more about one thing than the other. I don't see how being a fan of TMNT automatically = fan of all things furry, which is what your post sounded like to me.

Not at all.

[GK Punk]

Yeah, I realized that afterwords. (As usual on the internet)