Posted by Isis at ic010227.ithaca.edu on November 29, 2000 at 19:58:52:
What's up my fellow boardies. It's been awhile, kiss kiss, blah blah, let's get down to the point.
I scan this board and I am just plain sad. The scope of thought and topic is so limited, the need for conformity to the "rules" of the place so inadequate a replacement for the open, free exchange of ideas, and I say praise Smitty. His insight and daring is so grand that I can well understand the fears ye of small courage have expressed.
Some of you may have your doubts, you may complain that there will be endless off-topic crap flooding the board if/when this thing goes down, but come now. Take a few minutes and look at what DOES get posted here. Much of it is ostensibly on-topic, but is it worthwhile? How many times can we regurgitate the same questions, the same issues, the same nit-picky little details from the same movies, before we become stagnant? Should it be considered that a few off-topic polls from the 13 or so people that frequent the Other Board about whether or not we've taken peyote or slept with two people at once might be more interesting than questions about Kevin's preferred brand of toilet paper or opinion regarding bad 80's movies? Isn't it worth risking some nonsense in order to shake it up & bring some fresh air into a stale room?
Bring on the crap, I say...lay it all out. I want to talk politics, philosophy, religion, history, literature, media, music, art. I want three page long essays on the nature of being and I want two sentence posts on why Quake 3 or whatever it is kicks ass. I want deep debates, I want shallow online love affairs, I want it all going down on the ViewAskew. Anarchy is an underestimated option.
Personally, I miss hanging around here as frequently as I used to. I miss the passion and the cynical humor that the regulars invest into their conversations, whatever the topic may be. But there is so much going on in my life, and the world, that it becomes frustrating to maintain a community here whose primary purpose becomes regulating and indoctrinating new members into a sole topic of interest -- namely, ViewAskew -- rather than communicating with one another.
Furthermore, the boundaries between what's acceptably off-topic b/c the redfolks are interested in it and what's unacceptably off-topic have made the whole concept pretty damn worthless.
I'm pretty sure the Big Cheese has made his mind up about this already, but that's my two cents of reassurance for those who are fretful about the whole affair. If nothing else, this is bound to be fun & havoc. Relax and spread your sensory organs.
-- Isis
Smalls, are you breathing?