(10-05-2024, 12:54 PM)schuyler Wrote: OK. No mods necessary, but my objection was not the post itself. It's the repetition from ATS. DI appears to be a clone. Same people, more or less. Same forums, same "look and feel" (almost), same mods, same T&C. Same attitudes, same avatars. And now, the same posts? That's just kind of strange. I know: ATS has gotten very strange itself. I don't understand what has happened there, but after spending a decade there with a great many posts, I feel it would be best if it just died.
I don't find this all too shocking. I've been reading/posting around the Internet CT community for close to 25 years now, and beyond that, BBSes. I used to read newsgroups but never really got into them.
If you pay attention... there's a LOT of the same people on all the CT sites. I don't need screen names or aliases to tell... I can tell by what/how people write.
Some are serious about it. Some post for fun. Some just like to read like they're reading the enquirer. Some come to troll.
I think the newest additions are those who come to troll seemingly solely for political purposes. Not sure what they see their gain as here. I fully expect that at least roughly half the people on these sites just talk a bunch of bullshit anyways. For some reason, we've had the target placed on our backs by other online communities like Reddit and Democratic Underground as some sort of hotbed of Conservative thinking that must be exterminated, and thereby "invaded" by entities that seem to think there is some agenda on these sites. I don't see it the same way. I see a myriad of persons who, other than the aforementioned groups, who are the extremely vocal minority, are just here seeking answers.
Given, that ATS and other forums have a recent history or locking out older and/or more vocal community members, I can't say I'm all too surprised that the same community left and rejoined elsewhere.
This site seems to be the direct result of the actions (or inactions) taken by the new ownership at ATS. People got locked out and came here instead. I don't see any nefarious purpose here, just people being people and doing what people do when faced with adversity.
The conspiracy theorist in me want to say maybe the old ownership of ATS wanted to shirk the long-standing and potentially unresolvable issues at ATS, along with the extremely out of date codebase, broken features, expensive upkeep, etc etc. Who knows how true that actually is, though?
I'd say, personally, that a site with the traffic and viewership ATS at least had (even still) before the sale... it would be a fool's errand to start over in 2024. So, I'm not calling the people here, if their intention was to start over, total idiots... but maybe they felt there was no other way to cleanly move forward without the historical baggage. I don't know. I don't know any of these people personally. No idea what their reasons or motivations are... can only make an educated guess as someone who ran a bunch of BBSes back in the day and a couple of these type forums earlier on in Internet history. I have no idea if this was the intent or if its true in any way at all, its just speculation.
I only had expressed my own interest in ATS because I believe that had it been placed in my hands, I could have fixed it. For sure I could have fixed the technical problems. The social problems would be a hell of a lot more work, but I don't think they were insurmountable. If you believe what/who posted their thoughts about the old place on the old place it sounds like they just threw in the towel. That's fine. I don't fault anyone for that. It had a good run. My opinion, sometimes online venues like this need some new blood just like bars and country clubs also benefit from changing hands every once in a while. One person has their own set of ideas about things, they see them through.... once you've seen everything you can think of through, what's left? You either capitulate to letting others provide the guidance or you get out.
As I have stated before, my primary interest in the other site aside from being an official CT community establishment is the data it contains. At least before the politics that place was a goldmine for off-beat information. Definitely a loss and painful I think to all of us to watch it be sorely mismanaged and slowly die on the vine, so to speak.
(10-06-2024, 08:03 PM)CCoburn Wrote: It wouldn't be a problem if forums never went defunct, and I don't think it's strange at all. It's just the rebuilding of personas on newer platforms because the older ones are not functioning as they should. It's just a transition, like moving, and I would like to take(or reiterate) some of my older belongings in my new home. It's not a "clone". The old is dead or dying. It's becoming/evolving into something else, something newer – more like a metamorphosis.
I don't see this so much as a "clone" but an "inspiration." That said... if it were mine (and its definitely not) I would not have more-or-less copied the whole sub-forum layout, at least at the outset. Not enough traffic. Might be butchering the potential new clientele if they see a bunch of forums with no regular movement. Just my two-cents... but "not my circus, not my monkeys." That said, its done now, and I don't think I would change that now without some plan to combine existing sub-forums in a way that doesn't put people off.
