Goo's IMDb tribute boards: everyone is welcome...

Sorry for starting this again. Need to better clarify what it is in case it encourages more to click through. Now my core goals post is up, I can do that.

I have now provided my core goals for the tribute and why it differs from the alternatives, mainly IMDb v2.0 (and yes, I have the classic emoticons):

http://s15.zetaboards.com/IMDb_tribute_Gooey/

Predicting the future: I can't do that. The motive for this forum is to provide an alternate philosophy to IMDb v2.0. I can't predict which philosophy is the right philosophy. All I know is that the choice should be there in case one falters or is not everything it promised to be and I will spell out what that philosophy is. Originally, I saw sense when people argued that these clones were just diluting the audience. But I am concerned about the transparency of the alternatives and their founders, and there is no law that states you need to pick one and just stick with it anyway. My own tribute is doing something the others aren't: providing a board to discuss alternates. I do not need my site to be a success, I need one of the sites to be a success and welcome the competition and will redirect people to the competition. It'd be nice if they were networked.

If my board fails, then so be it. At the very least, I hope to inspire other imitators to allow a forum to discuss the range of IMDb alternates post-IMDb and the very likely need for a Hookup forum for people who were ill or away during the 2 week period to give them a chance to establish permanent bonds.

This is not just another IMDb clone for the sake of it, I promise it will differ in several key ways:

1) This place is primarily a tribute, not a version to be altered and changed freely in any substantial way. And as such, no forum that was available when the IMDb boards meet their demise shall ever be removed, no matter if there are 0 posts or not or whether it even still makes sense. This is fundamentally not a democratic system of majority over minority. It isn't about what the majority call for. It's about being a preservation of the IMDb boards as they were. IMDb didn't remove the forums for a very long time. The system had balance. Some may think certain forums are superfluous, but that is you projecting what you want upon others. This is for everyone's benefit, we all lost a forum or more that we enjoy. It is not democratic, but it is also not authoritarian. It is a kind of message board museum.

There is another angle to this. Several sites have presented you with a recreation of the IMDb boards. At least one of these sites (IMDb v2.0) is entertaining the possibility of removing superfluous boards down the track. It is my belief that you should get what you were promised in the original presentation, what caused you to sign up to the forums in the first place. No surprises. You have my promise that it will remain forever as a core concept. No amount of pressure will change that. At the moment you don't even need to be a member of my tribute forums, but in lack of a better choice of words: you get what you sign up for. It is utterly inflexible.

Whether there could be additions to this 'museum of forums' without violating this idea of it being a tribute, I am not sure. At the moment, I have included a parody group of jocular Post-Apocalypse IMDb boards at the very bottom. I have also included one sub-forum to reflect that one board had at least two distinct generations of users. If someone argues that a classic forum was removed, maybe I can resurrect that as a broader historical tribute. I am not aware of any such forums.

2) I am not the most respected member, but at least I am not hiding behind a sock account. I have certain fringe beliefs. I expect to be attacked on them. I did not need to make myself transparent, I could have pretended to be a saint and duped you all (like certain other message board candidates). I hope this honesty is taken into account when I say this: although I will express my right to a point of view just as I did on the original forums, my role as an administrator will never be used to leverage my claims. I intend to use two accounts, and the administrator account will never court controversy. Neither will there ever be an addition of a conspiracy themed forum to reflect my activism. IMDb did not officially sanction controversial viewpoints in this way, neither will I. This would contradict with the core principal of this board being a tribute. The administration of these boards transcends putting an individual stamp on things. If I want to be an activist on a founders level, I may do that in another project entirely: just not this one. And if it is linked, it will never be linked to the forum code or my administrators account.

It might actually help to use two distinct account names so that they cannot be mistaken. At the moment, my admin account is Gooey and my user account is Gooeey (posting only under Gooey initially). Posting my opinions and claims under Gooeey, the line could be drawn officially with the administrator of the forum and elevated. I do not wish this, but it would also be wrong to hide behind a much more distinguishable sock account. Even if I made it clear knowledge that I was using a sock to distinguish my personal opinions from the administration of the boards, it would seem like I was sanctioning the behaviour of using socks which is a violation of this second principal. There is also a possibility that if you attack me for my point of view, you may be elevating my claims not the other way around. You are free to do so, just don't blame me if it backfires.

I was reluctant to be the administrator. I am a very highly stressed person with anxiety disorders and don't know if I can deal with the overload. I tried encouraging another to take the role, but they weren't willing. I am open to the possibility of transferring administration (the password to the account) to another if they can satisfy me they meet the conditions for being the right candidate. I have even started an 'applications' forum and should understand and respect the core goals to which they should abide. Anyone can start up their own IMDb homage with their own goals and I would prefer they do so, and in truth they can probably find a better host (I recommend try looking for one which may have a nested view mode). The more variety, the better and I will happily link them or they can do themselves on my forum. But if they don't want the hours of work including the repetition, especially with the insertion of IMDb's 100 or so emoticons, and they agree with the core goals I am considering giving what is done over to the right volunteer if I can be persuaded they are as they portray themselves to be which will obviously be easier to verify while the IMDb boards are still active.

3) Policing these boards beyond or even to the extent of what IMDb done is not fair. The reporting and removal of forums seemed to be on autopilot. This allowed an individual to report and get posts they do not like banned, often without anything that could be legitimately deemed as offensive in it ('cat' threads). The correct way to moderate the forums is to use the ignore button. Regrettably, this board system does not have the best ignore feature (it does not remove evidence that the member has posted, just the body of their post), but it does have it. I recommend you make use of it. IMDb done an appalling job at moderating their boards, and they had a budget. When it comes to the legitimate trolls, you have IP and account bans. IP bans can easily be circumvented with little to no effort. This does not help against the determined troll. The next step up from an IP ban is an ISP or regional ISP ban, which potentially bans innocent people. Even if this forum had the full range of bans (I haven't checked yet, it is not a chief concern of mine obviously), the true trolls are determined and just something you're going to have to live with. At the best, a trolls life can be made a little more difficult. In contrast to some others, I promise limited interference. It may not be what you want to hear, but it is just the reality of the internet. I am being honest. Don't be surprised that the others turn out to be the same despite their promises, or give you the illusion of doing something by deleting innocent threads and questions of their neutrality come into play.

The for profit IMDb (with the risk of it appearing Amazon was sanctioning the trolling behaviour) couldn't stop it, what makes you think a volunteer with strictly limited time on his hands can? I can only hope to make life a little more difficult for these people but even that I make no promises for. We'll see, but ignoring is truly the best method. You're not going to get better, except if the trolls decide to migrate to greener pastures. People need to face the reality that there is little else you can do. And if you attempt, you may end up only hurting innocent people and their right to post about their interests, hobbies and beliefs to pass time.

In practice, I never use the report feature even for people who are relentlessly mean to me. As an administrator, I don't intend to change that. I would like to stay away from the admin account as much as possible so the power doesn't get to my head in case there is any risk of that happening (you can never know for sure). My internet life isn't an easy one. I sympathise. I get ganged up on a lot. But I just endure it. I don't want to be seen as the coward who cheats his way out of a situation. And worse, I don't want people to pretend to like me because they think I have my finger on a button. I might not like it that these people are hounding me and making my time unpleasant. I may get angry and upset. I may not be able to respond to them with a counter (or don't care to) and if I do counter it may be in the mold of glue vs rubber. But even though they may get to me, they will not win. Don't be hounded into submission. Just ignore them and carry on.

Cover up: http://www.geocities.ws/rotafan/video.html (in short: 7:23 and 18:43)