Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Removing the DS9 forum, or not...

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Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :

In case you han't noticed, the DS9 forum is pretty dead, and I don't anticipate it reviving any time soon...

Should it be eliminated soon (posts would be integrated with General Discussion), or at a later date? By soon, I mean when I upgrade this place to UBB 5.39x two weeks from now.

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Avon: "You really do believe in taking risks, don't you?"
Tarrant: "Calculated risks."
Avon: "Calculated on what? Your fingers?"
-- Blake's Seven, Ultraworld

[This message has been edited by Charles Capps (edited September 07, 1999).]

Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :

Well, if it were up to me (which it isn't

), I'd make the DS9 Forum a Series V Forum. I think there's more than enough speculation even now to fuel it.

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"Alright... Who wrote 'Beavis and Butthead rule' on the back of my skull?"

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek Parody, The Critic

Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :

No way, that's far too premature. Dump the Forum, we can create a new one as and when. . .

Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :

Dump it. I've thought of this before, but ain't up to me.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside of a dog, it's to dark to read. Groucho Marx

Posted by Epoch (Member # 136) on :

And the hatchet should fall. With no series there really is nothing to discusse.

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If you need it I can build it. Just as long as there is a box of junk for me to use.

Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :

*repeats this until his mouth hurts*

I'm in favor of still keeping the two forums, just dedication one to News and Spoilers (be it Fifth Series or Voyager related) and the other to Reviews and Nitpicks of episodes as they show. General ought to be able to absorb all the rest, be it discussion of Voyager's trip home or the latest kinky antics between Pat Stewart and Wendy.

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"Well, I guess we're an Ovaltine family."
"MORE OVALTINE PLEASE!"
-American Radio Ads... *gag*... one more reason I'm glad to be above the 49th.

Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

A Spoiler - Non-spoiler split?? I don't think that's going to work.
I'm in favour of removing the DS9 forum, and leave it that way until we can add a series 5 forum.

Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :

I'm actually partial to Tom's reccomendation in this case...

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Avon: "You really do believe in taking risks, don't you?"
Tarrant: "Calculated risks."
Avon: "Calculated on what? Your fingers?"
-- Blake's Seven, Ultraworld

Posted by Golden Phoenix on :

I think it should be removed. This topic could be treated in the General Discussion Forum as the TOS and TNG series are.

But I don't think it would be a good idea to split Spoiler - Non-spoiler subjects. Those kind of Forums should be series related.

That's my 2 cents's worth...

Posted by Dax (Member # 191) on :

DS9 is my favourite series, but I still wouldn't miss the forum. The General Discussion area is adequate for a finished series.

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"Forgive me if I don't share your euphoria!" (Weyoun to Dukat, DS9 'Tears of the Prophets')
Dax's Ships of STAR TREK

Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :

If you're going to have spoiler and non-spoiler Forums, at least call them by their real names, North American and Rest Of The World Forums - because that's what they'll be. . .

Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :

It's not really as much a spoiler/nospoiler split as you think... I mean, your average Brit should be able to wade in the News/Spoilers board and read the odd thing that is pretty minor stuff and more newsy than spoilersy. I'd still like to see Spoiler warnings enforced, no matter how redundant they may be.

Reviews/Nitpicks is more of an oddball... I can't see it being too popular, but basically it would contain episode-specific threads, therefore we could see discussion of episodes both as they first air stateside and on CIC side by side without to much risk of contaminating the poor offlanders.

GD's spoiler content would lighten quite heavily. I can't see it being declared "spoiler-free", but incidents of contamination ought to be less common with a more spoilerish board in place.

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"Well, I guess we're an Ovaltine family."
"MORE OVALTINE PLEASE!"
-American Radio Ads... *gag*... one more reason I'm glad to be above the 49th.

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

I like Tom's idea. It doesn't sound like a continetal split among the posters at all. I'm sure many people would post in both, about as many that currently post in the Voyager forum.

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Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")

Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

I live in Holland, and we get the videos at the same time as the British people. One of our own Dutch TV stations is going to catch up with the Voyager tapes in just over a month.

We and some other countries are only half a year behind on the USA, and I think that still counts as the 'spoiler area'.

So if you want to make a 'spoiler forum' make it a forum with things that are brand new (including rumors) to about a year after that, and put the rest in General Discussion.

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"You don't need a gun."
"That depends on your definition of 'save sex'."

from: 'Goldeneye'

Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :

As I see it, the problem is that the overseas community on this forum is still a minority, and while steps like the above will reduce the exposure to spoilers, it's unfair (not to mention impractical) to restrict discussion of "current" (by North American standards) stuff from what essentially is our "main" Trek board, post numbers aside.

Flare has one of the more international communities among Trek boards, and our more stringent attitudes towards spoilers reflects that. But other Trek boards run what is essentially a "General Discussion" board where new stuff can be discussed, and what North American wants to discuss, say, Voyager's trip home unless you can include the latest jumps etc.

Just my two cents, of course.

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"Well, I guess we're an Ovaltine family."
"MORE OVALTINE PLEASE!"
-American Radio Ads... *gag*... one more reason I'm glad to be above the 49th.

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

You've also go the problem of what are considered 'international spoilers'. UK vids... UK Sky showings, Australia vids, and so on.

The thing tha tbugs me (and others) most, are unnecessary spoilers. Like that one in either DS9 or general discussion, with a thread like 'new Federation symbol?'

The thread then started with:

"In the episode 'Dogs of War' (or whatever), where Sisko was reading a pad making the Sau Paulo the new ******* was there a new Federation insignia on the padd?"

That was paraphrased, but it went something like that. Now, what bothered me wasn't the spoler stuff, it was that first, there was no spoiler warning in the thread title, and second, that there didn't even NEED to be any spoiler info in the first place. The person could have just said "In 'Dogs of War', at the point about 20 mins in where Sisko reads from a Padd, was there a new Fed insignia on it?" See? It was completly unnecessary to have the spoiler info.
And then, after I complained, someone with their brain up their arse said something like 'I don't see how this is spoiler info. The episode was shown almost a whole week ago!'

Jeez, if I could find that person, I'd scrape their skin off and stick them in a blender.

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"Why can we never meet anyone nice?"
"Why can we never meet anyone who can shoot straight?"
-Lister and the cat

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

It was a month, not a week. And keep in mind that most spoiler warnings are for upcoming episodes; it's easy to misunderstand what a "spoiler" is. Isn't Sol writing a forum FAQ for this sort of thing?

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Frank's Home Page - free pencil with every visit!

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

Never mind, it was a week; I was thinking of a different post, I guess.

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Frank's Home Page - free pencil with every visit!

Posted by HMS White Star (Member # 174) on :

a surprised HMS White Star, what there's a new new "Fed insignia", well I guess I deserve that for missing the entire final season of DS9.

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HMS White Star (your local friendly agent of Chaos:-) )

Posted by Dax (Member # 191) on :

I have to agree with PsyLiam. I live in Australia and the most recent episodes I get to see are the CIC video ones. Now, DS9 7.9 came out just this week and that contains "Penumbra" and "'Til Death...". For me, any story news beyond those is a spoiler.

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"Forgive me if I don't share your euphoria!" (Weyoun to Dukat, DS9 'Tears of the Prophets')
Dax's Ships of STAR TREK

Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

Dax is right, in the USA you have had 2 months of newer episodes, not to mention the summer vacation, and it's still a spoiler for those who watch the video's. And what about people who don't watch the videos?? They're ever further behind.....

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"You don't need a gun."
"That depends on your definition of 'save sex'."

from: 'Goldeneye'

Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :

As the erstwhile Spoiler God, I suppose I should comment. This Spoiler/Non-Spoiler separation won't work. Why? Because a lot of people here are simple North American folk, the salt of the Earth. . . Morons, as Gene Wilder said. Liam's example is the most perfect of this genre. People don't think. And worse, they don't care.

Tom's idea will lead to an effective segregation in these Forums, and hasten their decline. There will be the main Trek Forum, which will remain the main SF discussion Forum despite all attempts to broaden the scope into general SF. And there will be a minority who won't be able to go there. But of course as Tom further said, they ARE a minority, and foreigners to boot.

But please remember: many of us started here when it was a British forum. And most of the people who've been alienated and already left are the non-North Americans. Nothing has been done to encourage more of them to join up, and there's been a constant string of discouragements. One example was the time zone debate - sure, that was won by numbers, but the best argument was "I'm North American and I hate doing even simple addition or subtraction." Pleas that a timezone which appealed to the whole world would improve the Worldwide membership were ignored. No wonder Tachy's Forums do so well - they're run by someone who doesn't live between GMT -5 and -8, and who can't expect a shining new episode of Trek ever week between October and May.

My solution: Two Forums, Voyager and General. And we get tough on Spoilers - the people themselves. One week bans, something like that. Maybe then people will learn. Or better still, they'll f*** off to TrekWeb which is one massive spoiler zone and populated by like-minded assholes. They'll fit right in.

Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :

I vote for keeping the DS9 forum for a few more months and then replace it with a Series V or "News and Rumors" forum.

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*Obscure humorous pretentious Gaelic-Latin signature*
Ex Asterige Scientia

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

Hello, Dax, you fellow Australian...

I think the only two Australians so far have be moi and Daryus - who is I think at a curry eating contest *grin*

Andrew

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"All is full of love, all around you" - Bj�rk

Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :

I say terminate da DS9 forum. For what it's worth...

Like Altair we in Sweden are also late "bloomers" We're at the ep after Dark Frontier and Badda-Bing. And it is most annoying to have to pay 30$ when you yanks get it for free. C'est la vie bite me.

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And on that highly succesful burn I'm going into the polarbear-cage to get me some wallets
so I can get some beer-money. Adios! "Daaaeaehh" "Splash"

Chris Farley in SNL, bless his soul.

Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :

I think you need a coma between vie and Bite there Nimster!!

C'est la vie, bite me!!

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Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside of a dog, it's to dark to read. Groucho Marx

[This message has been edited by Kosh (edited September 14, 1999).]

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

I could go for a nice coma...

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"Recombination, then Viacom; Safeway."
--
Soul Coughing

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

Actually, a semi-colon would be more appropriate.

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Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")

Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :

Do I have to wear a tie when I post too?