board use numbers

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Dominic
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board use numbers

Post by Dominic »

After less than a week of being open, this board has 41 topics, and well over 500 posts.

Keep in mind, we have less than 20 members, with several of them only being added in the last few days. And, this board was not openly announced for about 24 hours after its founding.

This is great. JT, O86, Max, myself and a few others actually wondered if the group would stay/get back together after so long an absence. it is good to see we were worried about nothing.

Feel free to tell anyone who has not made it over yet about this place. We plan to do another mailing, but the other mods and I want to sort a few things first.

Dom
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onslaught86
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Re: board use numbers

Post by onslaught86 »

I'm glad, really am. This is almost an interesting experiment in community sociology, the way we've meshed back together as if no time has passed at all. There's a thesis in this!
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Re: board use numbers

Post by Dominic »

The problem is that we do not have a control group. And, and have not sent out the mass "come on back" email.

But, yeah, when I hear people bash the impersonal nature of the internet, I think of places like this and want to bitch slap the ignorant.


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Re: board use numbers

Post by CrossRook »

Though that might really be because we have known each other on the intarwebs for such a long time. And that there's so few of us in this group.
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Dominic
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Re: board use numbers

Post by Dominic »

The arguement as I usually hear it is that you cannot know anyone else on the internet.

For example, how do you know that I am Dom, ne'er do well educator and TF fan, instead of a 40+ year old housewife looking to pick up teenaged boys?

In all seriousness, I had somebody tell me that MySpace was to be feared because many of the people on there are fake, and some people put up pictures of their children. At the time, a friend had a picture of her infant daughter up. The kid was in a pumpkin costume, and was looking cute as a button. I showed him the picture, and he was visibly upset. He refused to look at it.

He then went on to tell me that other people sought to trap other. He told me that many of the girls on MS are in fact men, and some of those men are FBI agents looking trap men who seek to have sexual relations with teen-aged girls.

Or, others were looking to scam people out of money.

I told him that I was confident I could avoid such difficulties.

His response still amazes me. "Yeah, but you are smart though!"

First off, I do not see avoiding Nigerian Banking scams and pedophile stings as any sign of great intellect. (Unless you accidently click the wrong links here and there, the internet is generally safe to browse.) Secondly, even if I was an utterly retarded, I could still avoid pedophile stings by not looking to have sex with under-aged girls. Sounds pretty simple to me. (I did not bother to point that out to him.)

Other people just say that the anonymity of the 'net brings out the worst, or at least less honest, sides of people. They think that geography and civic ties should be the dominant factors in people's interactions. (it is okay to email people, but only if you know them in real time.) They do not see the 'net as a tool for communications and commerce, but as a dark and frightening wilderness.

I actually like to use our trade from a year or so back as an example of how the internet should work. We have never met in person. But, I sent you a box of TFs, and you sent me a box of TFs. We sent TFs in good faith, and we were both happy. It behooved us both to be honest, as that not only helped out reputation as traders and fans, but it opened up new trade vectors.

I have met people who would be amazed that I dare moderate on a forum that *anybody* can join or read. (OMG, somebody might be reading this page without signing in. They can see what we are writing.)

That said, I am glad to see the bwtf crew is mostly staying intact. If nothing else, it is good to know I was not the only one who missed the old boards.

Dom
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Onslaught Six
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Re: board use numbers

Post by Onslaught Six »

I say that the real way you can tell if someone is real is directly related to how much you theoretically know about the person.

For example, over the last few years, you guys have learned my age (19), general location (PA), a good deal of my toy and music likings, that I occasionally have girlfriends, that I go to college now, and that I am allegedly male (Jury's still out on that one). Some of you may know more, like 86, who I'm guessing probably does, eheh.

Now, considering the amount of time and effort put into constructing this online persona of mine, you have to sit and think--would a person really be willing to sit here and *lie* like that for five or six 'years,' just to go through the effort of...what? Attempting to have sex with any of you, or something? That's nuts.

Of course, there's pedophiles and Nigerian scams out there--but, like Dom said, you don't have to be a genius to avoid that...do you? I'd like to have more faith in humanity than that, but every day I start to wonder...
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: board use numbers

Post by Gomess »

I really don't differentiate between you guys and my "real life" friends, to be honest. I'm sure I've been out for a drink or show or whatever and almost asked someone there something regarding Dom, or an (o/O)nslaught, or BWprowl, or Scourge, etc, as if all my friends are friends, and then checkitty-checked myself.

Yeah, it actually surprises me when I realise that most of you guys DON'T hang out with my real life friends when I'm not around. What are you doing?? You can tell how much physical appearance matters to me. Ah, that's the age we're in I guess. Fascinating.

Soooo, pub later?
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Dominic
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Re: board use numbers

Post by Dominic »

Over at Blashphemous Babble, there was this one guy, Shinajaru who posted under 3 different and seperate names. He claimed there were roommates all living at the same IP. All 3 had different styles and personalities. (Teen-aged boy, ~20 year old girl and 20+ year old girl.)

He faked the death of one of them, and would up getting banned.

Of course, that is rare that somebody would put that much time and effort into an online prank.

In my case, you know were I live and some other random details, such as my general health. I openly use this alias to confound potential employers who search for me online. But, I am basically me.
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Onslaught Six
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Re: board use numbers

Post by Onslaught Six »

Gomess wrote:I really don't differentiate between you guys and my "real life" friends, to be honest. I'm sure I've been out for a drink or show or whatever and almost asked someone there something regarding Dom, or an (o/O)nslaught, or BWprowl, or Scourge, etc, as if all my friends are friends, and then checkitty-checked myself.

Yeah, it actually surprises me when I realise that most of you guys DON'T hang out with my real life friends when I'm not around. What are you doing?? You can tell how much physical appearance matters to me. Ah, that's the age we're in I guess. Fascinating.

Soooo, pub later?
This is very much true. I fully maintain that 86 is my best friend in the Entire World--literally so. And it makes sense, since there's the band now and all. Speaking of! Finally got the stuff back to start pumping crap out again, hooray.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Gomess
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Re: board use numbers

Post by Gomess »

@Dom
Did the truth come to light when you all demanded he post a picture of the three of them together, and he a) claimed one of them had died, and the other was too busy mourning, or b) took a picture of himself in three different costumes and then pasted them together in Paint?

@O6
What are you guys called? I seem to remember a lot of names being thrown around years back, though they might have been song titles.

Um... yeah, I've been posting 'here' for years. Like, six of them? Yikes.
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