What Do YOU Want Bond & Beyond to Be?

M wrote:

The political/heated topics will in future operate on a "don't go in there if you can't handle differing/controversial opinions" basis, and will remain that way from now on.

I think a subscription service would be the best way forward. That is, send a PM to M if you want to access these debates. Otherwise, they'll be hidden to regular members.

Largo's Shark wrote:

M wrote:

The political/heated topics will in future operate on a "don't go in there if you can't handle differing/controversial opinions" basis, and will remain that way from now on.

I think a subscription service would be the best way forward. That is, send a PM to M if you want to access these debates. Otherwise, they'll be hidden to regular members.

I was going to suggest a ban on all political threads. The internet can't support political conversation. But what you would suggest could be an acceptable compromise.

I'd also suggest that the same "subscription only" model should be applied to the Bottoms Up Club, which is quite skeevy and has always been an aspect of this community with which I'm very uncomfortable.

Harmsway wrote:

The internet can't support political conversation..

Well, the political threads were never much of a conversation. Maybe some of the earlier debates might count (like the deal penalty one I linked to), but for the last year or so they've been a one-sided rantspace. A place for Gravity a few other others to get things off their chest.

It's not my cup of tea, but I guess for some it's a catharsis after a day's work.

Harmsway wrote:

I'd also suggest that the same "subscription only" model should be applied to the Bottoms Up Club, which is quite skeevy and has always been an aspect of this community with which I'm very uncomfortable.

Yeah, I've long wanted a few members from Arts & Faith to give this place a try. Not having that on show might help things.

Largo's Shark wrote:

I think a subscription service would be the best way forward. That is, send a PM to M if you want to access these debates. Otherwise, they'll be hidden to regular members.

This is just fine...include the Bottoms Up club too.

M wrote:

If possible, you (or anyone else) can reassure GS, TW, PK etc that there will be no more censure on their comments. I'll also accept SILHOUETTE MAN back on the condition he restrains himself around Ambler.

The political/heated topics will in future operate on a "don't go in there if you can't handle differing/controversial opinions" basis, and will remain that way from now on. Please feel free to quote me on that in trying to get members back here.

I sent him a pm after noticing he logged on...thanks for the response.

Good, thanks Mrs Sects.

And I agree about restricting access to the Bottoms Up club. Any members wanting their access denied to that area right now, just let me know. In the meantime, I'll delay applying mass restrictions for a few days pending the opinions of other members.

I suggest only giving mods and members who've already posted in The Bottom's Up Club access to it.

- Erica Ambler
- Ravenstone
- Santa
- Salomé
- Mrs Aural Sects
- Fae
- Fairbairn-Sykes
- Lazenby.
- Blunt Instrument
- CJB
- GeneralGogol
- Gravity's Silhouette
- Louis Armstrong
- Perligau Khan
- tiffanywint
- Moore
- AMC Hornet
- Jack Wade
- Vesper
- Toppers
- saint mark
- Prisoner Monkeys

If I've left anyone out, please add you to this list.

Tubes wrote:

I want B&B to stop being so insecure about it's identity and popularity.

Seriously, we don't need topics talking about promotion and forum direction. It's a fucking message board. We don't need to take over the internet in order to survive.

Ditto. We're people brought together by one mutual interest, but that shouldn't mean that's all we talk about. Or even that we have to have sensible conversations every day. Otherwise we're back to the days of 2,000 word essays on the existential angst and inner emotional journey of Casey Rybeck rather than simply blowing shit up with Seagal.

Plus I'd hate for new members to sign up and find half a dozen threads mourning the death of the board already. Going to scare off the new blood.

As for political threads - or Political threads perhaps - what's the discussion? Like religion, we're not going to convert anyone, and really, we're not looking to, so all that will happen is a degeneration into shit slinging and ad hominem attacks that - again - just make us look stupid.

Quote :

I suggest only giving mods and members who've already posted in The Bottom's Up Club access to it.

I'm not a fan of exclusion. What if new members come along who want to get bawdy and get the Carry On humour? Surely people know that if they're not going to like what's in there, then no-one's got a gun to their head forcing them to look?

Ravenstone wrote:

I'm not a fan of exclusion. What if new members come along who want to get bawdy and get the Carry On humour?

What M can do is advertise both the political threads and the Bottoms Up Club in Enquiries, Announcements & Suggestions - letting new recruits know that if they want controversial political discussion and/or Carry On/Viz-style humour, all they have to do is send him a message.

Rape, murder!
It's just a shot away

So, we are proposing to take a message board that prides itself on fast and loose conversation and hide the racy parts that make it different.

In doing such, we are no better than KTBEU's secret moderators fun club.


"Conversation for all or no conversation at all!"

Tubes wrote:

So, we are proposing to take a message board that prides itself on fast and loose conversation and hide the racy parts that make it different.

The "racy parts that make it different" have been a liability, like or not. Having them hidden by default would be a reasonable compromise between keeping them out in the open or purging them from existence.

You're not going to have to write a 2000 word essay to view them, FFS. Just one simple PM.

Even with News & Politics and The Bottoms Up Club out of sight, there's plenty enough to separate this forum from MI6Community, CommanderBond.net or Absolutely James Bond. Our motley crew of members with unorthodox views on Bond, a sense of humour and who look out for each other form the heart and soul of this place.

I always laughed at the humor in the The Bottom's Up Club, so whats the point of taking it away? I can't read any posts now......

Subscribe!

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

M wrote:

The political/heated topics will in future operate on a "don't go in there if you can't handle differing/controversial opinions" basis, and will remain that way from now on.

I think a subscription service would be the best way forward. That is, send a PM to M if you want to access these debates. Otherwise, they'll be hidden to regular members.

I was going to suggest a ban on all political threads. The internet can't support political conversation. But what you would suggest could be an acceptable compromise.

I'd also suggest that the same "subscription only" model should be applied to the Bottoms Up Club, which is quite skeevy and has always been an aspect of this community with which I'm very uncomfortable.

What are we children?

I know a while back I got frustrated with one of the debate threads which was why I eventually just stepped back and have been away for a bit (+ work and uni and I lead a busy life). However for that one time I did post there has been countless times when I haven't knowing that me stating my opinion will just end in me feeling frustrated so I tend to avoid it.

It's about making the choice that is best for you - and I think we are all capable of doing that when it comes to discussing politics/heated topics.

Exactly. We don't need protecting.

It's less about protection than just an acknowledgment that political chatter trends to get heated and create grudges, which inevitably spill into other threads and affect the tone of conversation elsewhere in the forum.

Just a quick couple of comments for whatever they are worth (may not be worth anything; I'll let you decide). I don't intend to be back long, nor will I be participating in other threads. Only this one.

I thought the comments of someone who used to be a regular poster, then went away for 6 weeks, then came back, only to leave again, may be of some value when they try and decide what the tone/theme/tenor/personality of BOND AND BEYOND should be. Frankly, I don't even recognize this place anymore. It looks, and feels, as if it has totally changed since 2011, and not for the better.

I was asked by a few people to consider coming back and posting again. I was all up for it until I actually came back and saw some of the changes. Maybe you have to have been away for 6 weeks (granted, not a very long time) and then come back to have noticed the changes, but they're there. I guess it's like the "boiling frog" theory.

But all this talk about subscriptions and hiding threads and shutting down potentially offensive or contentious threads and protecting people from themselves......I mean, WTF happened here? When I started coming here two years ago you could get a thread shut down if it wasn't offensive enough and was found to be boring, and now we're shutting them down for being too provocative?

So, anyway, I come back and see I'm no longer a moderator. Ummm, okay. Fair enough. I did leave. But then that means I don't have access to the "protected threads", and I'm not really cool with being in a forum where I'm an adult, but I'm treated like a child; where I've got threads that are being blocked from me like porno magazines wrapped in brown paper or hidden behind the counter at the gas station.

If that weren't bad enough, I then look into one of the threads and see that "American Politics and News 3.0" is locked. ***LOCKED***? Dios Mio! Has anyone taken a step back and seen...fully seen what this place has become?

And lets just call "balls and strikes" here and put it all out on the table. I find it embarrassing, really, that Largo's Shark is a moderator again. I won't dredge up the past and go through a litany of past grievances...but if I had been a moderator, then been removed and/or stepped down, then came back as a moderator the very last thing I would ever think of doing is locking down an entire thread (American Politics and News) that has proven to be one of the most popular threads in the history of the site simply because I didn't agree with the sentiments being expressed in it or because I felt people seemed affected negatively by it for having just read it (isn't that an individuals choice?). It doesn't get any more heavy-handed than having a moderator shut down a thread where the free-flow and exchanges of ideas is being conducted, but threads about pubic shaving, titties, cocks, pussies, and one-night stands are deemed somehow....less divisive.

At this point, I'm basically the Chinese businessman in AVTAK who says: "No thank you. I want no part of it." And just like him, I expect to "drop out".

I'm not mad. I'm not bitter. I fully believe in, and support, M's right to run his site the way he feels it should be run. I am not entitled to post here. I post here only at the permission of M, and that permission can be revoked at any time. I'm cool with that.

But I just don't see any place for myself here. I'm a little sad in having to say that. I thank those that emailed me asking about returning, but after having returned briefly, I've already had second and third thoughts and must say it's unlikely I will be posting anything else beyond this thread, and beyond the next day or two. I'm interested to see how this discussion plays itself out.

I also found, after a day or two, that I *CAN* live without posting at BOND AND BEYOND, and the longer you go without doing it, the easier it is to get used to it. I'd encourage others around here to take the long-view approach to this site...step back and look and see if this site really resembles what it used to when it really started rocking and rolling back in March/April of 2011. It doesn't feel the same to me. But that's me.

Regards.
GS

When I first joined this site, the primary reason for having registered was because of the people it attracted. Shark, Tubes, F-S, Khan, Tux, ect. I joined because I knew that with these folks around there would be plenty of interesting and fun discussions. So to me, leaving because of a politics thread getting locked is unfortunate. I might have had something more to say in that thread but I don't care, because there's plenty elsewhere to discuss and post about Bond and other movies, which should be a lot more fun whereas politics is more exhausting and has a tendancy of bringing out the worst. If you get more out of politics, all the power to you. I just think its too bad some would hold more importance to that than having more fun discussions with people you like to chat wit on Bond and other fun topics like boobs.

The internet is fun, at least it's meant to be. Why would anyone find fun in picking arguments and shit slinging? Anyone like that should just go to their nearest pub and pick a fight with the biggest bad arse they can find, and leave the rest of us in peace.

So as long as we're all adults, and we're not being insulting, or rude, or racist, or obviously offensive - then let's go for it. We're all adults, aren't we? We were brought up with at least a rudimentary understanding of how to interact with other people. As long as we remember that, we should be fine

Sure, some people may have the social graces of a syphilitic warthog, but that's what Mods are for. Not for wearing black and white and listening to Ska, but to stomp up and down on those who can't control themselves in polite society.

So - fine - let's go for it.

But while we're talking about it - what exactly are the threads that have threatened the board? Is it pictures of tits? Cus porn is what the internet was created for, and - trust me - I subscribe places with rather more risqué pictures than anything here. If they can get away with it, why can't we?

I think our youngest member, Fae, is officially a grown-up now. So anything goes.





In summary, long live the tits.

Control wrote:

In summary, long live the tits.

May gravity never prevail! :bounce: :bounce:

We've lost Harms.

Sent me a PM about half an hour ago on how he's out of sync with the community, and can't see the tide turning.

Ravenstone wrote:

So as long as we're all adults, and we're not being insulting, or rude, or racist, or obviously offensive - then let's go for it. We're all adults, aren't we? We were brought up with at least a rudimentary understanding of how to interact with other people. As long as we remember that, we should be fine

But what about if you think you're not being rude? What about if you think you aren't being "racist"? What about if you're doing all you can to avoid those cliches, yet some people insist on saying that you are? If good people can't agree on what is rude, racist, or offensive, then someone has to step aside. Someone has to go. There is no middle ground here.

And I don't have the right to exist in a world, or a forum, where I am free from being offended by someone else. There are a lot of things in life that offend me, but I accept it as part of an unspoken agreement with other members of society that acceptance is necessary in order to function...to get along..and to move forward.

What I think we have here are a few members who believe they deserve to post, live, breathe, and exist in an offense-free forum, devoid of any controversy or debate whatsoever. What's the point of having an OFF-TOPIC section if certain off-topic topics are....off-limits?

As long as people are free to brandish the label of "racist" at whomever they don't agree with in order to shut down threads and conversation, then this place is ironically no better than the forums many of us left to come here.

And, strangely enough, I think B&B had found its own identity 2 years ago. I'm not sure why there seems to be this need for self-analyzing and hand-wringing about what B&B should be. It already was something. It WAS great.

But I think it's also been heavily influenced with people who aren't comfortable with freedom of expression...and have begun patronizing the board and treating people like children. I can't be part of that. I just can't. And I wouldn't expect anyone else to accept it either if they felt like they were being talked down to or minimized.

But probably above all else, the reason why I won't be back is because I don't think the underlying issues have truly been dealt with. All it will take is one "insensitive" post from me and M will be getting the whinging emails all over again, and then he'll issue a blanket statement urging people to get along and avoid controversy if at all possible, and we'll all be back where started: something of a Mexican screw-off (so to speak). So, like I said 6 weeks ago, I'm bowing out. I'm taking myself out so that the rest of the board can move on as one.

And, lastly, I'm nothing great. I'm nothing special. I'm expendable. I appreciate that a few people tried to bring me back, but I don't see any possible way of sticking around. So, this is truly the end. If anyone wants to keep in touch, please contact me at gravitys_Silhouette@yahoo.com (so I don't have to log into B&B anymore)

Okay, I'm really going now. This isn't one of those Barbara Streisand farewell/goodbye tours. This is for reals, y'all.

My time has come. You must continue your journey without me.

Control wrote:

I think our youngest member, Fae, is officially a grown-up now. So anything goes.





In summary, long live the tits.

I'm older than Fields if memory serves.

Fae wrote:

Control wrote:

I think our youngest member, Fae, is officially a grown-up now. So anything goes.





In summary, long live the tits.

I'm older than Fields if memory serves.

blimey

Why is that hard to believe?

I am completely mature. /sarcasm