is ILM shrinking?

jtm's second post = hostile in tone above all to his first post?

Thank you.

Ah, so that was your personal mission from the start?

Anyway, from the perspective of someone who posted for a while and now doesn't really intend on posting after this (so don't worry!)...

My guess is, for every 20 funny, interesting and kind people in the ilx universe, there's one or two who live to complain or be pedantic, or just plain bastard-ish. I understand these people need an outlet for their writing and have just as much right to post as anyone else, but I just wish they'd take it elsewhere.

It's sad, but it just takes a tiny amount of people to ruin it for everyone else.

nicole: the way to do it is to post all the nice shit under your good name and then make up a retarded poor-spelling fake name for posting all the bastard-ish (or 'bitch-ish') stuff. it's not for me, but i've heard some people like to do it that way.

"Energy" on the Internet ("Energy": excitement, "vibe", coming- together of talents) pools and dissipates quite quickly. This is the secret reason doing stuff on the web is called 'surfing', really: you ride the wave, you regroup, you wait for the next. In this it's little different from anything else [culturally]. The things to be saving are e- mail addresses, not so much what's being written (though I wish I'd saved all the crap I've talked over the years online, that said).

This is another way of saying that in a lot of senses I agree with Ethan.

Microcosm of the problem with ILM currently - seen in Bad Brains/Black Flag thread.

1. Dave Q says controv. thing about BB/BF vs Beatles/Stones

2. Poster I'm not familiar with takes issue, gives polite and well- argued response.

3. Jimmy Mod says a-ha, gives polite and well-argued response to response. So far so good but.

4. Poster of #2 says hey I'm sorry for ever speaking.

There is something about arguing about music which seems to inspire a lot of defensiveness, insecurity, taking-it-personally, dogmatism etc. (not that I'm saying this guy is guilty of all of these things or any of them on any basis other than this). But it drags a forum down eventually.

I am old and I know everything good ends in the end: sometimes sooner than anyone expected. I don't even begin to believe "everything has been discussed," mind you... My question wd be, if you can't plan to keep it alive, how d'you plan making use of the ruins? Of course my own house is a dusty monument to the supposedly ephemeral of five decades.

I reckon the quality (yeah, subjective) of the threads is directly proportional to the quantity. Good questions seem to inspire lots of similarly interesting ones - maybe this is obvious - the more you get in total, the more good ones, but I reckon the ratio of good ones is higher when the site is busy.

There seem to be quite a few posters who have intense periods of high activity, have some interesting things to say and then disappear. Maybe if ILM somehow changed format periodically or had more variety (different ways of participation) it would keep these folks involved. Probably though, they're just restless types who exhaust their interest in things continually and move on.

Some other random thoughts :

1. Reviving old threads is good. 2. Where's the google ILM search thingy link ? I can't find it in the archive.

I'll be around until the bitter end, whenever that is. ILM is still a fine thing indeed.

Seriously though I've only been posting here for a week or so and I think its great. I reckon you guys have just been here so long its not as interesting for you. As regards the cliqueyness, I'm hardly surprised, thats everywhere on the internet. It's certainly not as bad here as other places either.

1. Ask interesting questions.

2. Answer questions interestingly.

I think the weekend and one-a-day rules have served their purposes, too.

I am jealous of this.

x0x0

Problem: easier said than done.

Way to kill a message board: make it full of people complaining about how things aren't what they used to be, round 'ere.

Not that I know. However, something that is somewhat irritating (to me, as a newbie) is someone asking a question and getting a reply of "we've already covered this here." Now, yes, I'm sure it's annoying for people to tread the same ground over and over again, but... eh, lost the thread. Maybe it's good to revisit old topics providing people have new, interesting and exciting things to say.

Y'know.

Ah, yes, penny drops *clink!*. I'll be off, then.

The solution is also, um, to make the ILE search Graham set up more prominent.

I don't know if ILM is dropping slightly, but I'm not really concerned - the fun-quotient has been fairly constant since its humble beginnings, in my opinion. I wish there was a bit more left of its original function as a talk-back adjunct to NYLPM/FT, but I guess that would require the contributors to write more articles (casts nervous/guilty looks sideways).

"If you think Madonna is better than Janet, you must have a moustache"

Hahahahahahahaha!!!!

Is my favourite bit. Its like Ethan talking about the limited lifespan of ILE and ILM, and somehow three years on some things are exactly the same.