Did JKR do the right thing closing the forum

no, and i dont get why he killed off almost half of his community

Ooo, good subject.

I think yes. It won't be apparent now, because emotions are high and there just doesn't seem to be a lot of reason, but in the end I think it will have been a good thing. Firstly because we'll all remember that day, and more importantly because it will allow me room to focus on other things for a bit and then make all sorts of awesome new stuff down the road.

I'm glad this place exists to pick up some of the community, though. I'd miss it if it were totally gone.

Eh. I was kinda sad when I took Cubetoons out of my bookmarks, after 4 years of clicking on it. But in the end, its only a forum. Life goes on, I'll (Hopefully) grow up, and have a life where I won't even remember Cubetoons. Its just a thing I did.

Can't say. But at the very least, it made for an extremely interesting social study.

the results of the experiment weren't surprising at all. take away something dearly from the public, later followed by hullabaloo.

To be honest, JKR has givin legit reasons on why he took it away.

At least everything will be kept when he launches the new forum, so there isn't much to worry about.

Jordo wrote:

To be honest, JKR has givin legit reasons on why he took it away.

At least everything will be kept when he launches the new forum, so there isn't much to worry about.

Really? I don't remember my question as to why the forums were closing EVER really being answered. I may sound bitter, but I still can't figure it out. What JKR built on the Fred Forums was special, and it really isn't easy to find communities like this anywhere. The fact that we moved to a temp forum by ourselves during the crash proved how tight-knit we were, even if most of us wouldn't admit that.

Someone would have to come up with an incredible explanation to convince me that closing the Fred Forums was the right move. Now I realize it was ultimately JKR's decision, and people do what people do, but I'm not sure how easy it will be for me to come to terms with it.

I'm still a bit confused, but from what JKR said I think it was more of an issue of keeping the forum in check, and he was having problems with wanting to maintain it while trying to pursue his time-consuming dreams. In the end, he figured that closing the forum was a reasonable solution, and now that the "temp" forum (is it still temp?) is here and being run by Wraith he feels much more relaxed on the matter.

FlyingGiraffe wrote:

I'm still a bit confused, but from what JKR said I think it was more of an issue of keeping the forum in check, and he was having problems with wanting to maintain it while trying to pursue his time-consuming dreams. In the end, he figured that closing the forum was a reasonable solution, and now that the "temp" forum (is it still temp?) is here and being run by Wraith he feels much more relaxed on the matter.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty concisely. The forums were designed to be run by four Admins. The other three admins left. One by one they simply stopped doing anything with the boards. It became a ridiculous weight on me to try and manage a forum designed for four all by myself. I appreciate the Mods like crazy, but they simply couldn't be invested in the same way I was. You saw them also leave, one by one, and they had to be replaced. I couldn't keep that up anymore alone. It was becoming too stressful and time consuming, especially with me being in school again.

The forums as they were were designed for a particular "ultimate goal" in mind, and that goal was to become bigger than IGN. When we started the Cubetoons website, the others assured me that was a good plan, and they would collaborate with me to achieve something big. If they hadn't, Cubetoons.com would have never EXISTED. I had FtM, and I didn't have time for another site alone. When they left, those plans tossed aside (which I don't blame them for, they had other things in their lives to attend to), it was overwhelming for me. It's why I left at months at a time from the forums. I was having physical anxiety clicking on the link to go back, because I knew I was the one who had to go in and truly look at everything being said, taking out what wasn't acceptable. Every thread! It was too much. Way, way too much. And with certain members pushing the limits of what they knew they could get away with every day, I finally gave up.

See, while it was fun for the people there, it was in fact TERRIBLE for the people on the outside. There was no room for growth. Somewhere along the way the members who would greet new people with a smile and "Welcome to the boards" left, and the ones that remained most active would respond with comments like "You better not be an alt account" or "I give you a week." It's true, I was the one watching over the big picture, I saw it again and again. That's not what I want for a forum I create, and I couldn't be on 24/7 in order to be that welcoming figure. Not to mention if a guest wondered into the Day Chat or GB from never having been there, they would have thought it was insane and never even signed up. It was too out of hand. Simply too big for its own good.

Think of it this way. It was like if you had an Olympic event, say figure skating. But instead of what works for the sport, you had everyone run their routines in fifteen separate arenas at random times and you had ONE judge. If you had one judge and only ONE arena, that might work. It would be a lot of work for that one judge, but it could be done technically. Having so many boards and threads in those boards doesn't work when there's just one person taking command. It's too much, and the boards were meant for more than one person as Admin.

I could have just dashed most of the boards and said "relaunch!" but I've done that sort of thing before with mixed results. The problem would be that there were still the same people pushing out the new folks, and trying to hold on to the "glory days" of the forum whenever they thought that was. A few people weren't letting go of that, and they were the ones who were there most. Inside jokes are great, but not when it's ALL YOU DO. There was no balance, and no order. And with me being so busy as of late trying to essentially START OVER with my art, as I've discovered I've hidden how much I really suck at this for a loooooong time, it was too much for me. And for one of the only times in my life, I decided I had to take care of myself so that later I might be better at taking care of everyone else, which is how I normally spend my time. It sucked, and I didn't want to do it, but I had to. I had to for the betterment of whatever is to come in the next few years. I'm learning now more than ever that sometimes those sacrifices have to be made so that you can improve yourself. Sometimes you have to eat the broccoli so you can have the cheesecake afterward. (Though I admit I rather like broccoli sometimes.)

Does that explain it? If not, I'd be happy to write another novel.

dOpple wrote:

no, and i dont get why he killed off almost half of his community

This

Paperboy wrote:

dOpple wrote:

no, and i dont get why he killed off almost half of his community

This

Even after all I wrote there?

Geez...

no one probably read it cause its too long

I read it, and it kinda clears it all up for me. A year ago I would still be mad, but I get where you're coming from.

Although I feel like the whole "certain members pushing the limits" and "was too out of hand" could be attributed to one member.

Gman wrote:

I read it, and it kinda clears it all up for me. A year ago I would still be mad, but I get where you're coming from.

Although I feel like the whole "certain members pushing the limits" and "was too out of hand" could be attributed to one member.

It could be attributed to one member throughout the history of the forum, maybe. It wasn't one person. One member always seemed to be the one who poked my last nerve when I wasn't looking, and then when I'd yell they'd apologize before waiting until I looked away and poking me again. I think the first was Mr. Tetris, so many moons ago. That was the beginning of the end.

JKR, I can kind of see where your coming from. But one thing still remains a mystery for me.

When I joined, I made no welcome thread. That's true for most of the truly active members, with some exceptions. So, the members that will stick around, the ones that we all know and love, are the ones who didn't make welcome threads. The ones who weren't scared off by Day Chat.

Most of the people who joined and were scared off by our community, pretty much weren't going to stay anyway. If we change ourselves for every new member, are we really anything special? I feel like communities that last are ones that certain people are drawn to, the type of people that make places like this last.

Quote :

Most of the people who joined and were scared off by our community

isnt that the case with almost every forum? Especially ones were everyone seems to know each other. new members feel like theyre missing out and will never fit in so they just go. happens alot

I remember I never made a welcome thread, but it was a while before I even looked at the Day Chat. Dunno why.

Dizzy wrote:

JKR, I can kind of see where your coming from. But one thing still remains a mystery for me.

When I joined, I made no welcome thread. That's true for most of the truly active members, with some exceptions. So, the members that will stick around, the ones that we all know and love, are the ones who didn't make welcome threads. The ones who weren't scared off by Day Chat.

Most of the people who joined and were scared off by our community, pretty much weren't going to stay anyway. If we change ourselves for every new member, are we really anything special? I feel like communities that last are ones that certain people are drawn to, the type of people that make places like this last.

Again, I don't want to run a place where people are going to be unfriendly and unwelcoming. It doesn't matter if you made a welcome thread or not. If, as you said, certain people are drawn to the community and the community is such that it is unfriendly and unwelcoming, I don't want a forum like that.

It certainly isn't everyone, but it was plenty of people. The ones who were welcoming mostly all left.

Yeh, I posted solely in the gaming boards, and then once I found Day Chat and had a few lulz with the big members... That was me hooked.

-JKR- wrote:

Dizzy wrote:

JKR, I can kind of see where your coming from. But one thing still remains a mystery for me.

When I joined, I made no welcome thread. That's true for most of the truly active members, with some exceptions. So, the members that will stick around, the ones that we all know and love, are the ones who didn't make welcome threads. The ones who weren't scared off by Day Chat.

Most of the people who joined and were scared off by our community, pretty much weren't going to stay anyway. If we change ourselves for every new member, are we really anything special? I feel like communities that last are ones that certain people are drawn to, the type of people that make places like this last.

Again, I don't want to run a place where people are going to be unfriendly and unwelcoming. It doesn't matter if you made a welcome thread or not. If, as you said, certain people are drawn to the community and the community is such that it is unfriendly and unwelcoming, I don't want a forum like that.

It certainly isn't everyone, but it was plenty of people. The ones who were welcoming mostly all left.

You misunderstand what I'm trying to say.

I would hardly say that we were unfriendly and unwelcoming, more of that were weren't welcoming. More neutral than against anyone joining. But really, 95% of the people who sign up and make a welcome thread don't stick. The people that were going to become respected contributing members to our community were the ones that could weather the storms, so to speak.

I suppose to me unwelcoming = not welcoming. There's little middle ground there to me.

Either way, I think that a person who needs to be welcomed and everything, a person that can't stand being told what they are doing is wrong, someone who can't adapt to us isn't a member that's gonna stick around for a long time and participate.

Dizzy wrote:

Either way, I think that a person who needs to be welcomed and everything, a person that can't stand being told what they are doing is wrong, someone who can't adapt to us isn't a member that's gonna stick around for a long time and participate.

I've never joined (maintained an account, I mean) a forum that I've not been welcomed to. Which means other folks like me might not fall into your criteria.