Memes, harassment for criticising them and a public apology

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Fine, I’ll admit one of my worst-kept secrets. I do not understand, nor like the forum’s recent gravitation to silly internet memes.

I thought the follow-up to the Boxxy video criticism was completely unneccesary, and the response to those who objected to the implementation of Boxxy avatars and changes to the word filter heavy-handed, undeserved and unreasonable.

I also find the “good job” topic utterly rediculous. I wouldn’t have as much to remark on it had it been posted in the general section, but it was first created in the feedback sub-forum, arguably the one part of GBFans that should be kept serious at all times.

I also wish to criticise the handling I’ve received from certain members in regards to my criticism, chiefly of the two above topics. I know these are big things to a lot of the forum populace at the moment, God only knows why, but I think they’re setting a horrible example of what passes for entertainment these days, not to mention a poor example to new users. GBFans got along fine without this mediocre brand of comedy for years, so why’ve they exploded in popularity? I especially dislike how popular they are when a serious topic about the franchise barely pulls in one full page of comments, yet a meme topic bloats to three or more pages in the space of a few days to a week.

I also want to call out the harassment I’ve received because of the criticism I’ve given those topics. Some people I expect it from, because it’s become synonymous with their behaviour, Adam, to his credit, actually hasn’t really done anything significant as of this writing. However, considering people like Enchanted Uni, Patrick Creel and Bestler have been booted after being branded “trolls”, it would then be in the best interests of certain elements of the forum administration to not perform acts of trolling in order to score points against me whenever I’ve left criticism of a meme topic (Ie, taking my avatar and pasting it into an image branding the avatar-owner an “idiot”, furthering the boxxy invasion of the site to spite me and the others who complained about it etc.).

The examples with the two topics I mentioned best exemplify not only when the site goes beyond the good-natured ribbing which it’s become known for to proper cyber-harassment, but also exemplifies the “clique” mentality that a number of people have remarked and complained about. It’s very much like High School, show that you’re not in on the “popular” trend, and you end up becoming a social pariah. I posted that photograph of me for use in the Halloween Costume contest, I did not expect for it to be used against me for additional cheap shots.

I’m sorry that my criticism of the PKE Surge video has seems to have led to some genuinely hurt feelings, in hindsight I know I should’ve made more distinction between attacking the video, rather than those who participated in it. Ron, Austin, Dan, Jairus, I know I didn’t say this in public so I will, I’m sorry that by criticising the video you guys made at PKE surge, I ended up attacking you by proxy.

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you’re just the most uptight boring person to ever walk the earth, thats what you should apologize for.

quit back seat moderating and grow a fucking sense of humor. i havent “done anything” since you stopped being a mod because i didnt “do anything” heavy enough to moderate outside of YOUR biased views on me. these memes and goofy posts are fun for eveyone, and they shouldnt be faulted by you because you live in a world where boring and lame is status quo.

so, after you report my post or give me an over wordy response i’ll skim over do me a favor and start with

“im sorry im the most uptight boring person to ever walk the earth.”

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Ben, all I can say, in the most non-threatening and non-judgemental way, is just lighten up man. It’s just the internet and it’s not that serious. You’re always entitled to an opinion but when an opinion is unpopular is is going to draw criticism.

I don’t necessarily think that you owed anyone an apology but it was definitely a nice gesture. You got some points for that in my book anyway.

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I agree on the stupidity of the “good job” thread. I just don’t get it, so I ignored it and it’s already starting to go away. :whatever:

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Of course it is stupid, but it wasn’t hurting anyone. Each thread topic is a sound-proof room, and when you are not interested in being in the room with the group singing “This is the Song That Never Ends”, then you don’t enter the room. Breaching that sound-proof barrier and telling everyone to shut up just makes you look like a jerk.

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Ben, try to do what I do:

When you see one of those dumb threads starting, don’t read it.

When you were a Mod, I could understand–I don’t Mod too many boards anymore, but yeah, it is your job to try to read everything.

But when you’re not a Mod, you can ignore threads you find stupid with no guilt.

Think of it as the silver lining of not being a Mod anymore.

:slight_smile:

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Here’s a new meme

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My personal feeling is the General Discussion forum is a place exactly FOR those silly threads. It’s a large part of why I come to this site so often.

Honestly, how much discussion can still really take place on a 25 year old movie? It gets tiresome.

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i would venture to say the tiresome part of it is that a very large portion of its fan base easily forgets its a COMEDY. which is something ben has yet to come to terms with. a communitybased from a comedy will not survive with his vision.

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Its nice you’ve apologised Kingpin if you feel it may have stemmed from something seen as a personal attack on your behalf.

But just take it all with a pinch of salt, even 4chan states its all works of fiction not to be taken serious, meme’s are meant to be light hearted humour and/or satire

quoted for truth, on a forum dedicated to a comedy, to expect serious discussion is…Madness?

awaits meme relating to madness

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My impression of you can’t be all just down to my bias, given how often you’ve been given a suspension here.

Problem is I don’t want it to just end up being “another place on the internet”. GBFans has the profile these days of being the most prevailant Ghostbusters forum, I don’t want to see it get a reputation of having silly topics that end up being more active then topics in the forum that are actually what the forum’s about: Ghostbusters.

I know, and it probably wouldn’t have bothered me if it hadn’t gone on for so long… just how much fun can be gotten out of reposting the same three sentences over and over? I probably would’ve ignored it were it not in the feedback section, but whenever something new gets posted there I’m curious to know what the feedback’s about, unfortunately it wasn’t about anything.

A valid point, but it wasn’t taking place in the General Discussion, the topic’s only there now because of… uh… my raised voice. That being said, even after 25 years there’s still plenty of room for dicussion, Vince and co’s topic of reference photos of the Sony Lobby Proton Packs is proof of that, even after now we’re discovering new stuff.

I’ve never forgotten that, but you can’t compare the calibre of Ghostbusters to the mediocrity of Boxxy.

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Something else to consider… Sony and Columbia might well be keeping a wary eye on the site, and the conduct here.

If and when they DO officially greenlight GB3 (if it hasn’t been already greenlit under wraps.) They might well pull a “Paramount”, and shut down GBfans or other related fan sites, and replace them with their own, if some of the conduct here is deemed unsavory, not family freindly, or they feel it hurts the franchise’s pubilic appearance at all.

(Paramount shut down many of the fan Star Trek fan sites claiming it was for those very reasons.)

It would be a shame to see GBfans shut down just because a very small percent here were bored and used the forums as their playground.

And don’t kid yourself it couldn’t happen.. the Star Trek fan sites were HUGE, thought themselves impervious and supported by Paramount, and were gone in a week’s time when Paramount decided to reboot the trek franchise.

The larger the membership here becomes, the higher profile it becomes, and the larger the target also becomes on the site as well for official scrutiny.

I’d hate to see all the information resources here just vaporize overnight.

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Sony hates Junk packs and Sony Hates Garee.

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whatever. only because i cant exactly prove how many of my suspensions are because of you, however the biased moderation from you towards me is a very well known fact.

you mind looking up the definition of comedy sometime? i vaguely remember it having to do with things related to “fun”. which you were gifted with the ability to suck out of everything.

wheres that

“im sorry im the most uptight boring person to ever walk the earth.” apology? all i saw was a bunch of words, just like Gareee’s response to this thread.

just to clarify for those of you who think rationally, sony wont cancle a website just because they feel like it. why are so many startrek ones out there? starwars? ive already talked with Gareee of his pigenhole view of the internet, it looks like he still has it.

gbcentral is both your and gareee’s speed. nobody important from here will miss either of you.

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++1

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Its called building a community.

These types of topics bring each other closer together if they participate in them with others. The same way the CCC thumb does in pictures. The people who do it and understand it, are connected with those other people. You on the otherhand sit there with your CCC thumb on your nose, saying NO! Don’t do that! Stop! Stop Having Fun! That’s not how you have fun! Don’t!

Yeah.

Those people who choose not to join in, or choose to complain that they don’t fit in… usually don’t fit in because they can’t. I seem to recall a certain slang term of “heavy” being created by a user because he didn’t fit in with the majority of the site. Is that the majority of the sites’ fault? No. Its because that person was too socially retarded to understand how to make it work.

Learn to have some fun. Learn to go along with things. Learn how to start things that bring you closer to others. Right now you are a hard shell of a person that would rather regulate everyone and have absolutely no fun. Its not going to be our fault when you don’t fit in.

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I gotta agree with aj and the rest. If you take out the fun there is no reason to be here. I love ghostbusters but i cant talk about it costantly.

And if we get to serious then we end up like gbcentral did then the wars will start up. Then we all lose out.

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This is basically bullying people into thinking what you do.

I never found the Boxxy thing all that funny, to the point where I even posted a few times complaining that the meme-frenzy on this site was just getting out of hand. A few people dropped the site because of it; not everyone gets the meme stuff. A community does not need to have a hive mindset and it’s not someones “fault” if the don’t think you’re being funny or if they’re not in on the joke.

Kind here certainly handled his perspective on the Boxxy stuff in a less-than-perfect manner- but the solution isn’t just to tell him “Well, just laugh at shit you don’t find funny and quit being a dick.” That my-way-or-the-highway mentality is immature garbage, and is no worse than having a fit and storming out of the proverbial room. If you ask me, he should have handled the situation by rolling his eyes and letting the freedom of the boards decide if the Boxxy stuff would come or go. Heck, just writing a complaint in the site feedback would probably been sufficient.

I hardly think people who run & frequently visit a Ghostbusters message board qualify as “fitting in,” in the traditional, non-internet sense.

My apologies for coming off as antagonistic here, but seriously guys- not everyone wants these boards to become another 4Chan. :sigh:

Have your fun, but understand that not everyone gets every joke, especially if they didn’t start it.