Hi everyone!

If you're new here, please make a post to introduce yourself and share a few things about yourself.

Thanks for joining and hope to see you around. 🤘

I'm not new but I feel like saying hello, so... hello! Looking forward to see more people hanging around this awesome place

19 hours ago, worm said:

I'm not new but I feel like saying hello, so... hello! Looking forward to see more people hanging around this awesome place

Congrats on post #100! 🙌

Heyy I am new and I just want to say hi.ive never really been on a forum before but I just need somewhere to yap yk.Its nice to meet y'all 

1 minute ago, broooo said:

Heyy I am new and I just want to say hi.ive never really been on a forum before but I just need somewhere to yap yk.Its nice to meet y'all 

Hey @broooo! Welcome to the board and I’m glad you decided to join!

Yap away, my friend! There are dedicated forums for categories like sports, gaming, tech, and entertainment, as well as an off topic forum for everything else. 

If you have any questions about anything, please let me know. Hope to see you around the board!

Hi my names Vincent Haines im 32 live in a small crappy town called Jersey Shore PA no theres no beach lol and I enjoy technology and learning anything to do with technology and if I can ever find myself a computer or a game system I enjoy Playing games as well Hello everryone 

3 minutes ago, Fh2Nw4VeH420 said:

Hi my names Vincent Haines im 32 live in a small crappy town called Jersey Shore PA no theres no beach lol and I enjoy technology and learning anything to do with technology and if I can ever find myself a computer or a game system I enjoy Playing games as well Hello everryone 

Thanks for joining. I’m also from Pennsylvania (near Scranton), but moved to NC last year. There’s no going back 😆. 

Looking forward to talking tech and gaming!

New this time around, had an account, like, 17 years ago.

I used to run a small-time uk wrestling promotion called LWL and after my recent cancer diagnosis got nostalgic for the old days. Found a load of cd roms in a box and started a group on Facebook, etc. So ive been trawling the net for old pics, results, ect.

According to google there is loads of that stuff on here, but the links always take me to a page that says I don't have permission to access the threads they are in.

The people i know on here (DC and Paul/Darkstar) dont seem to have logged in for years so if anyone can help with or advise with my crusade I'd really appreciate it 👍

Many thanks

Matt

1 hour ago, MJStark said:

New this time around, had an account, like, 17 years ago.

I used to run a small-time uk wrestling promotion called LWL and after my recent cancer diagnosis got nostalgic for the old days. Found a load of cd roms in a box and started a group on Facebook, etc. So ive been trawling the net for old pics, results, ect.

According to google there is loads of that stuff on here, but the links always take me to a page that says I don't have permission to access the threads they are in.

The people i know on here (DC and Paul/Darkstar) dont seem to have logged in for years so if anyone can help with or advise with my crusade I'd really appreciate it

Many thanks

Matt

Hey Matt, I’m so sorry to hear that, but glad you popped in to say hi.

If you want to send me a private message with some of the links, I’ll take a look. I was able to preserve most content, but there was some stuff that got lost during the upgrades. I’ll see if there’s anything I can do.

Do you know @ViciousPrism or @dsrchris ? They were probably the most recent TWO guys to stop by.

Nice to see more people coming in, new and old. Welcome!

I’m sorry to hear about your diagnosis @MJStark , sending you my best wishes

Hey there 👋. I’m new here, and even with the few things I’ve seen so far, I have a feeling I’m going to like this site! I’m a Canadian, who loves reading, learning, adventure, and more! Happy to be here!

3 hours ago, binbang12 said:

Hey there . I’m new here, and even with the few things I’ve seen so far, I have a feeling I’m going to like this site! I’m a Canadian, who loves reading, learning, adventure, and more! Happy to be here!

Thanks for joining, and that’s great to hear! Feel free to start a topic in one of the forums if you’d like to get a conversation going on anything.

Welcome to the board and I hope to see you around!

49 minutes ago, Mike said:

Thanks for joining, and that’s great to hear! Feel free to start a topic in one of the forums if you’d like to get a conversation going on anything.

Welcome to the board and I hope to see you around!

Will do! Thanks for the warm welcome 🙏

Hello, Nova here.

Introduction, short form, relevant - born in ‘90 grew up with the era of forums and first used the internet around ‘95 or ‘96 at a basic level, and about 2000-01 built my first custom rig, and grew up with the era of internet/gaming/forums which seemed to peak around the time of half life source and Garry’s mod becoming huge. Aside from computers/gaming/internet, I’m primarily in life a musician and artist in spirit, I enjoy composing and freeform playing on the piano/keys, all the way to rocking out pink floyd to zeppelin to Motley Crue, and all that good stuff between. A scientist in the mind, as I’ve always been open to ideas and accepting hard truths that shake up my own realities. as long as there is reason that resonates me somehow— Since I don’t see too many opportunities in the near future to really sit down and type, I feel this would be a great spot to introduce myself long form as well, and to do that, I think I’ll just speak what’s on my mind as I join a new forum here. If long reads aren’t your thing, that’s cool, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, all you other folks on here! And a thank you to those who setup/maintain/run this website. First impression, not so bad =)

I believe that ignorance is simply build up and a coating of muck that builds up on the pipes of a powerful classical church style organ. the pipes will resonate and produce tones, but after so much build up they dull and lose their harmonics and unique overtones that made the sound unique, and ultimately deadens entirely. This “muck” is all too much the dirt and slime of negativity, fear, anxiety, self-doubt, and the subconscious desire to feel included despite the sensitivities of the modern person — we’re more on display than we’ve ever been in history, the veil of privacy as a right rather than an unspoken rule of respect speaks only for the mind of the undecided ill-intentioned, and misguided soul, in my opinion, as we lean toward a singularity with tech and AI being integrated into our homes and daily lives, such that at a point, it’s evident that privacy as a form of anti-tool used by bad actors to direct fear, anxiety, and hatred into smaller and smaller groups, only increases the pressure within that system and in the end, drives the spiritually ill represented as a grain of gunpowder into a small pipe bomb thousands like them — individually, a spark would be a quick zip and it’d be over with. Collectively in a small space, ignition proves deadly to even those at fair distance. With those thoughts in mind, I feel that the resurgence of the notion of a free community platform with reasonable but firm rules gives me hope - I feel that maybe with enough misinformation out there, good ol’ forums are a spot where instead of rushed screaming matches and oversimplification and belittling with meta-humor and “better than thou” sentiments being even further shrouded in meta-humor like a fractal of negativity, the slower pace of the forum declined in popularity because for even all the negative parts of the fast paced new format social media, the part that counts is that people participate, reply, and even if only negative feedback, it is feedback nonetheless. I think that AI will be profoundly useful in handling and essentially acting as pseudo or faux- therapists — carefully deployed to temporarily befriend and help “trolls” or “bad people on the net” shape themselves for the better — using the positivity of friendship bonding to unlock the feelings that are sealed in so many people and drive them to the negativity they demonstrate, to demonstrate why positive values are worth the time and energy — and to be honest, the thought reminds me of how I could be better at physically taking care of myself, thinking of energy, and how I should be eating better.. but that’s another topic.

I believe that during that time, where there was still a sense of security in anonymity online, where even the idea of “I know your IP address” was FRIGHTENING! Almost forbidden internally was the thought of using one’s real name, location, or any personal ID of any sort. It was exactly what humans needed — a neutral zone to “be yourself” and not “be who others want you to be” , with reality being a fine tuned balance of the both, for everyone has specific interests that won’t always carry with the bell curve of public (I mean to say, not with “the commoner/the average person/ etc” feeling, but the term to accurately describe “the average person” when used as an anchor in discussion, as it is already or should be understood that it is an ambiguous and relative term used subjectively to describe how one feels about the majority of people as a sort of inversely proportional group toward an idea “most people would agree” and “most people would find this to be” are phrases that we don’t need to nitpick too hard, as it’s a literary tool to save some space on paper, rather than the drawn out process of conducting a double-blind non-biased ….etc. I hope my sentiment is understood on that.

Being able to “speak without thinking” leads to greater insight to oneself and to others, and through those very mistakes come the building blocks of higher thought, or compassion, toward almost every aspect of life - as in, almost every forum, no matter how specific the ultimate topic — they all share a “common/off topic” section which by far is the most popular section of the website.

That “section” eventually became capitalized on and became major social media. Without the traffic/time spent by members on the off topic boards, there is little incentive to revisit a website, as after a binge into the dopamine of social media (which is just one facet of it, don’t get me wrong - I’m all for every platform for what it can be best used for!), coming back to a relatively slow paced board of serious discussion becomes all too difficult because sometimes, it can take a week before a decent reply can be had. Smaller groups had less potential for quick answers to specific questions. This is understandable. Larger groups are harder to control when chaos breaks out. This is understandable. I have also been working on/developing a cohesive model for a medium to integrate reality and the virtual world, and I’ve come close to what I’d feel is a good balance, and in time perhaps seek help in developing, but that’s another topic.

I’ll try and remember to come by when I have time, so I might not be active often, but I believe in the slower pace of forums and how I can make a post, come back in a week for a good replies / info. I don’t always need every answer lightning fast, and the specific (relative) “slow” pace of forums gave a sense of ease in reading and replying, rather than the pressure of hurrying to reply before a post gets shoved down. Since I don’t think I’ll have the time to be very active, I may as well take the time here to put my thoughts about forums, the internet socially, and such down, as that might serve as insight to who I am, as an introduction, for that would be a bit more telling of who I am, rather than what I do.

There’s use in stream of consciousness style websites for better or worse, for example.. an absolute shitshow yet a catalyst in the online boom was 4chan and its “stream of consciousness” where so much of the content was based on the fact that only recently replied to posts will get bumped, or survive effectively. Many posts were meta jokes on the platform itself, such as trying to achieve results in a “game” determined by the last number of the post, which was like a dice roll of sorts. I mean to say, there was an open platform and people figured out how to have fun with it, with other people. This is the basis of the modern “social media”. Fast paced, short form, limited character count which encourages more short form images. For Pete’s sake, the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” is one to ponder, indeed. Anyway, that’s why I joined, to see if I’d organically feel like posting or replying or reading, rather than any pressure to. I’ve started my own small forum as well based on phpBB recently as a relic to have fun with, but maybe there’s something to the “revival” feel we are seeing as we approach the end of the first quarter of the 21st century. Indeed, it is only the first quarter of the millennium, which ought to be rewritten as the year 0. Screw AD/BC. I postulate that in 2000 years likely they’d place year 0 around our 2000, for it is the closest nice round thousand to when we exploded in tech and everything hops off from there. Like the point in which a function begins to resonate past its intended scale, and breaks a simulation, the whole environment had to change to adapt to a larger and higher frequency pendulum of information. Indeed this sort of thought, that information, users on the internet, and amount of throughput be it constructive (detailed personal accounts of dealing with specific issues with a particular year of a vehicle help people forever— that kind of stuff needs to be preserved) or neutral (memes and sayings, little quips about this or that, things to get us through the day, think like the small format of old cartoons in the newspaper. a few panels gets a point across, a half-truth half-joke, to relate a giggle and keep going. sometimes those would even end up clipped out and pinned to our walls, or fridges, just because they sort of stuck out and had more meaning. Which brings me…

To the negative. Which to me, is easily defeated not with perfect moderation, but with more resources to strengthen and empower those who feel a push back or pressure of sorts to utilize the platform in this way or that way, or limited in ways, or any negative sort of “block” that impedes them from growth they seek. In the end, those with social anxiety found solace in online communities. There was no need as in “reality” to reply quickly or be judged for “taking too long to say anything”, no “cat got your tongue?” sort of thing. It gave a reassurance that it’s okay to take your time to reply, or form thoughts, or even just the option to walk away quietly without judgement. Those are all things almost impossible in a real world setting, where body language still reigns king of communication, regardless of how smart one actually is. Simply speaking slowly rather than quickly is judge able and a valid argument against somebody in a real time situation such as court, of course. If someone is taking so long to think about something, that raises a valid point! However, this(or Internet forums, as “they used to be”) is/are not court, and quite the opposite. It’s encouraged to go a little off the rails to push boundaries, and then to learn from that and move on. Failure is not failure, online, it is more understood as an attempt in the grand desire to connect and communicate, especially for those who struggle with such.

My point in the last section about negativity is that, my opinion, any adversity toward forums because of “lack of moderation” carries some truth, however it gives the impression that people can’t make decisions on their own and fosters an “us vs them” mentality of user vs authority, something that didn’t really exist in the early forums. I remember being young and joining a forum, being accepted as new and treated as such. It was almost a playful “hazing” to be a “noob” as it were back then, to be “green” so to say. This is true in real life as well, new comers to anything are often given some sort of “test” to see if they can handle the ups and the downs and see that between those ups and downs is a solid and concrete path forward. Moderation is to prevent negative/positive feedback loops that steer a productive topic in a forum into a side-argument that would be better sub divided into a subtopic, if that makes sense. Indeed, that sparked an idea in my head. Instead of the cut-and-dry “post deletion” or “hidden post” style, why not have moderators simply be the referees of an argument, and if needed, move the discussion to a subtopic to keep it “public” as it were, but separate as not to steer a topic because it became personal rather than impersonal, and should thus be fractured off into its own subtopic based on the root of their argument. Have the rest of the members decide if they’d like to comment on this argument/debate, but not to involve themselves (have those comments invisible to the people involved in the ‘argument’ fracture while it lasts) and in the end, the job of the moderator would be to bring closure to such arguments and then perhaps (optional) give a sort of impartial judgement and (optional) have an anonymous poll to decide an informal “winner” of said debate, if applicable. If it’s just a derailment of immature bullying or put-downs, just pure negativity, preserve it in a separate locked topic and stuff it in a library of “examples of when things went wrong” or something like that. Even non-productive content can be curated as an example of that “what not to do” and can be later examined again.

The internet in terms of free form and open discussion, or socialization, or a medium of communication is a sort of special social gauge in that it can measure a relative impatience or impulsiveness to quickly retort rather than the patience and courage to stay ground and feel no need to reply, and conversely as well, for those who find it tough to interject, it gives opportunity in that one cannot be “talked over” in text format. Every last character typed is still readable and clear, it is not obscured by anything “louder” when in this format. A reader and non-participant can make their own calls based on their own pace of reading.

Reliance on moderation to ensure quality speaks of the helplessness one may feel when “cornered” and needing a “god figure” to “delete” the “bad” . Speaks of, does not define. I remember even some long ago forums, a serious seriously off the chain member would still even receive a week ban, and return again, accepted once again into the community that didn’t “throw them out”, but rather respectfully said “we think you need a little air buddy", I rarely saw the worst “trolls” stay immature, rather than the opposite - they’d come back and either apologize, or just quietly continue on as they were before, but with something learned. Some later became the moderators of the forums they once were ostracized in, and became damn good - they knew the system and what it was good for.

Moderators are just that - to moderate, not to police or interfere until necessary “hey guys, if you’re gonna fight, take it outside and come back when you’re settled, alright?”, this allows the completion of whatever energy the arguees needed to get out rather than stifling it and leaving them to fester in other ways. Everyone needs an outlet, we all have bad days. Better to lash out on a forum, have it allowed to happen, and then the community embracing the idea that it isn’t a permanent state of the character of said member, but just a human moment of overreaction of overstimulation, or just a bad day. A down to the ups, so to say. In preserving even the uglier moments, it gives the opportunity to reflect and grow, and even years later down the line give a chuckle at oneself “wow I can’t believe I used to be like that!” and serves as a memory book to grow from, and for others to gain insight from, rather than the removal and sanitation that causes a cyclical and boring website.

'

My point,

Emotionally driven discussion can be rude to the pace and vibe of a good topic, but should then be fractioned or partitioned into a sub topic specific to those involved. Like “cage matching” the problem rather than just ignoring the validity of both parties who clearly spend enough time and energy doing what they do to merit some form of respect, even to the worst folks out there, it speaks of the pain they have inside which perhaps once all let out in a non-physical environment such as on the webform, finally the “troll” has no more negative energy, and might seek the light they originally saw upon joining a particular forum, or whatever it was that drew them in the first place. I believe in the inherent good nature of all living beings, so you may call me biased in that direction if you please, reader, however, I invite you to challenge the notion that everybody has had a day, or an hour, a week, or a minute where they just want to “blow up” and let all that energy out, and that letting it out in the form of the amount of energy it takes to type, think, type more, keep thinking, focusing, and a very mental slow release of that energy can prove fruitful to developing a smarter person. Trial and error is only useful when the results are intact!

I’m thankful my bad days are easily sorted with my instruments, and my forgiving neighbors who don’t mind how loud I crank my amplifier up and rock out, as long as I don’t do fireworks (veterans). Bless their hearts…

Which reminds me, as I type, “AC/DC” rhymes and sort of makes me think that even rock music has declined into a cycle. People don’t even know what exactly rock music is, because it’s so undefined…

But you know what, that whole idea there, that’s another topic.

-nova

Welcome to the board, @noVa . Thanks for the intro and what a post to kick things off!

3 hours ago, noVa said:

I think I’ll just speak what’s on my mind as I join a new forum here. If long reads aren’t your thing, that’s cool, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, all you other folks on here! And a thank you to those who setup/maintain/run this website. First impression, not so bad =)

Great to meet you as well, and thanks for the kind words. Speak away!

4 hours ago, noVa said:

I feel that the resurgence of the notion of a free community platform with reasonable but firm rules gives me hope

That makes at least two of us. I hope there are a lot more out there with that belief.

4 hours ago, noVa said:

I have also been working on/developing a cohesive model for a medium to integrate reality and the virtual world, and I’ve come close to what I’d feel is a good balance, and in time perhaps seek help in developing, but that’s another topic.

Good luck when you do get around to it! I hope to strike that balance as well.

4 hours ago, noVa said:

the specific (relative) “slow” pace of forums gave a sense of ease in reading and replying, rather than the pressure of hurrying to reply…
.. Anyway, that’s why I joined, to see if I’d organically feel like posting or replying or reading, rather than any pressure to.

I feel this to my core. 🫱‍🫲

4 hours ago, noVa said:

In the end, those with social anxiety found solace in online communities…
.. It gave a reassurance that it’s okay to take your time to reply, or form thoughts, or even just the option to walk away quietly without judgement.

Yup. 💯

4 hours ago, noVa said:

My point in the last section about negativity is that, my opinion, any adversity toward forums because of “lack of moderation” carries some truth, however it gives the impression that people can’t make decisions on their own and fosters an “us vs them” mentality of user vs authority, something that didn’t really exist in the early forums. I remember being young and joining a forum, being accepted as new and treated as such. It was almost a playful “hazing” to be a “noob” as it were back then, to be “green” so to say. This is true in real life as well, new comers to anything are often given some sort of “test” to see if they can handle the ups and the downs and see that between those ups and downs is a solid and concrete path forward.

Fully agree with you on this and it’s all part of the culture that grows organically. My hope is that each community/club has their own thing that makes it unique.

4 hours ago, noVa said:

Instead of the cut-and-dry “post deletion” or “hidden post” style, why not have moderators simply be the referees of an argument, and if needed, move the discussion to a subtopic to keep it “public” as it were, but separate as not to steer a topic because it became personal rather than impersonal, and should thus be fractured off into its own subtopic based on the root of their argument….

..Moderators are just that - to moderate, not to police or interfere until necessary

Each club can have their own moderation style, but I’d highly suggest this “referee” way of thinking. We’re all here for the same reason, so let’s reset and get back on topic if possible. This is how you build a community and a culture.

4 hours ago, noVa said:

Reliance on moderation to ensure quality speaks of the helplessness one may feel when “cornered” and needing a “god figure” to “delete” the “bad” . Speaks of, does not define. I remember even some long ago forums, a serious seriously off the chain member would still even receive a week ban, and return again, accepted once again into the community that didn’t “throw them out”, but rather respectfully said “we think you need a little air buddy", I rarely saw the worst “trolls” stay immature, rather than the opposite - they’d come back and either apologize, or just quietly continue on as they were before, but with something learned. Some later became the moderators of the forums they once were ostracized in, and became damn good - they knew the system and what it was good for…

I agree as I’ve seen this firsthand, multiple times. There’s an ignore feature for those who want to use it as well.

4 hours ago, noVa said:

Which reminds me, as I type, “AC/DC” rhymes and sort of makes me think that even rock music has declined into a cycle. People don’t even know what exactly rock music is, because it’s so undefined…

But you know what, that whole idea there, that’s another topic

I look forward to reading it!

Hi everyone, my name is Achieng. I come from the beautiful city of Nairobi in Kenya. I’m a technology fanatic, currently taking computer science at university of the people. I’m a business owner, dealing in sandals from kids, lady’s to gentlemen’s. I sell a variety of stuff, the business is currently online doing deliveries and I’m manifesting a physical shop soon😊. I’m happy to share this platform with you guys and more happy to hear from a diverse community. Thank you for having me