Is a forum merger worth considering to guarantee our future?

General Y Y wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

General Y Y wrote:

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

- Why not set-up our own blog rather than leeching off someone else? I could see Harms, trev, Wade, Brown, Sykes and others putting out great articles. Use some of our members' industry connections to score interviews with directors, DPs, title designers, composers, screenwriters, producers, authors, actors etc. We could also bring back the weekly debates but not just limit them to Bond (although that's what brought most of us here, we could probably write each other's answers and not be far off the mark. I swear, if I see another debate on David bleedin' Arnold I'm going mental) - we could post the question along with two or three best answers (chosen by the OP) as a blog entry.

If this were to occur I would certainly be down to contribute. There are plenty of great articles to write without stretching into Bondologist "How the Third Act Structure of COLD Fall Allegorize Late 1870s Belgian Economics" territory.

Amusing point there, but I see no sign of that blog-promoting guy here any more. Perhaps he just got fed up?

There's a good reason for that.

I banned him.

Oh! I hadn't expected that. May I ask why or is it a secret?

It was a case of giving the people what they want. The amount of complaints the staff received (particularly coming from long-standing members), his spamming and his omnipresence led to that decision. There's also a number of puppet accounts he created after he was banned, which he used to either troll us or browse the boards opinion-harvesting for his blog.

Largo's Shark wrote:

General Y Y wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

General Y Y wrote:

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

- Why not set-up our own blog rather than leeching off someone else? I could see Harms, trev, Wade, Brown, Sykes and others putting out great articles. Use some of our members' industry connections to score interviews with directors, DPs, title designers, composers, screenwriters, producers, authors, actors etc. We could also bring back the weekly debates but not just limit them to Bond (although that's what brought most of us here, we could probably write each other's answers and not be far off the mark. I swear, if I see another debate on David bleedin' Arnold I'm going mental) - we could post the question along with two or three best answers (chosen by the OP) as a blog entry.

If this were to occur I would certainly be down to contribute. There are plenty of great articles to write without stretching into Bondologist "How the Third Act Structure of COLD Fall Allegorize Late 1870s Belgian Economics" territory.

Amusing point there, but I see no sign of that blog-promoting guy here any more. Perhaps he just got fed up?

There's a good reason for that.

I banned him.

Oh! I hadn't expected that. May I ask why or is it a secret?

It was a case of giving the people what they want. The amount of complaints the staff received (particularly coming from long-standing members), his spamming and his omnipresence led to that decision. There's also a number of puppet accounts he created after he was banned, which he used to either troll us or browse the boards opinion-harvesting for his blog.

OK, thanks. Sounds like we're better off without then.

This is all too little too late.

The forum has 30 active members. (The other 300 are just waiting for someone to turn off the lights.) Of those 30, maybe 10 have made posts here in the last week.

Exactly what can BaB offer any of the other boards?

Erica Ambler wrote:

This is all too little too late.

That's true. I think many of us have offered plenty of ways of improving this place over the years. A lot of those posts were ignored or thrown on a to-do list.

Our best bet would be to find another half-dead forum and ask if they'd like to move over here. I doubt The James Bond International Fan Club, AJB, or 007 Magazine would be open to merging, as they've been online longer than we have.

So, we either stick around here and keep posting, like a hobby, or we all pack up and start somewhere else. That second option seems to be a common theme with online discussion boards.


I've reserved the URL for Bond And Beyond on Tumblr, if anyone wants to start it up. Unfortunately, I can't commit to keeping a social networking site going, but I'd be happy to submit any Bond-related writing or media.

I've nothing to suggest unfortunately. Same damn thing all the time.

Oh I'll stay, to the bitter end

Erica Ambler wrote:

This is all too little too late.

The forum has 30 active members. (The other 300 are just waiting for someone to turn off the lights.) Of those 30, maybe 10 have made posts here in the last week.

Exactly what can BaB offer any of the other boards?

Photos of tattooed ladies breast-feeding in our avatars is one thing other Bond sites don't seem to have. It's always a start.

Wasn't the whole point of this place to be kinda small? Quality over quantity and shit.

General Y Y wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Exactly what can BaB offer any of the other boards?

Photos of tattooed ladies breast-feeding in our avatars is one thing other Bond sites don't seem to have. It's always a start.

Avatar nicked from today's Grauniad. It accompanied a piece on good mothering.

Erica Ambler wrote:

General Y Y wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Exactly what can BaB offer any of the other boards?

Photos of tattooed ladies breast-feeding in our avatars is one thing other Bond sites don't seem to have. It's always a start.

Avatar nicked from today's Grauniad. It accompanied a piece on good mothering.

You are joking me! I know a lot of women with chest tattoos. Keep them at arms length, myself. :D 

Jack Wade wrote:

Wasn't the whole point of this place to be kinda small? Quality over quantity and shit.

Yep, that's why I've been surprised by all the posts about how to "fix" it.

Moore wrote:

Jack Wade wrote:

Wasn't the whole point of this place to be kinda small? Quality over quantity and shit.

Yep, that's why I've been surprised by all the posts about how to "fix" it.

A minimum critical mass is required as I pointed out more than two years ago. This place has fallen below that.

https://bondandbeyond.forumotion.com/t133-making-a-commitment-critical-mass

Erica Ambler wrote:

Moore wrote:

Jack Wade wrote:

Wasn't the whole point of this place to be kinda small? Quality over quantity and shit.

Yep, that's why I've been surprised by all the posts about how to "fix" it.

A minimum critical mass is required as I pointed out more than two years ago. This place has fallen below that.

Hasn't it always done in that in the summer?

It has. It's summer and, again, there is not much Bond news going on at the moment. By the end of the year we'll have a new Bond novel to discuss. And with Bond 24 most likely going to beginning filming (if they follow the usual schedule) January/early 2015 you can expect rumors and stories to begin in full force come the start of 2014.

My thought is if change is wanted, you need to get a panel/group together of 3-5 people who will make decisions. Sorry, but a new look and design will do nothing at all to bring in new people.

Have a person or group discuss it and come up with ideas. For the rest of 2013, we should do this and that and try to raise our membership to 400 members. Should we start a blog, etc.? And try to meet all of those goals to get the forums running. Have a weekly discussion/debate contest every week in a separate forum. It could switch topics... maybe one week it is discuss the merits of a particular soundtrack of the films...or a particular passage in a Fleming novel...one person a week...the person who thinks a commenter made the best response/rebuttal can pass the baton to them and continue it. The pieces can be posted on a blog for others to read, etc.

In the past 6 or so months I've seen hundreds of ideas posted on here by tons of users, but not a single one, not one has been acted on besides changing the look of the forum. The sad thing is it is only a new look, not a solution. If your house is falling down, slapping a new coat of paint on the walls isn't going to fix it.

If people think this site is in desperate need of change, then make the change... just stop talking about it and DO IT. Or just let it go. One of the two. We can't keep going on with topic after topic after topic about the problems. My thought is try a ton of things, a lot of them might not work at all, but I'd rather fail and actually give it an effort. It seems thread after thread we talk about tons of ideas, but none are ever acted on. Why waste the time and effort discussing it when we know nothing will ever happen.

Never thought the layout change was made just to bring in new people. I always saw it as something needed to better reflect the point of this forum while at the same time get away from a layout that had gotten old after SF's release. Seemed appropriate.

I agree with you, that's how I felt too, but I've seen a few people, including M, who said they were disappointed that the change of layout did not bring in any new members.

Moore wrote:

It has. It's summer and, again, there is not much Bond news going on at the moment. By the end of the year we'll have a new Bond novel to discuss. And with Bond 24 most likely going to beginning filming (if they follow the usual schedule) January/early 2015 you can expect rumors and stories to begin in full force come the start of 2014.

My thought is if change is wanted, you need to get a panel/group together of 3-5 people who will make decisions. Sorry, but a new look and design will do nothing at all to bring in new people.

Have a person or group discuss it and come up with ideas. For the rest of 2013, we should do this and that and try to raise our membership to 400 members. Should we start a blog, etc.?  And try to meet all of those goals to get the forums running. Have a weekly discussion/debate contest every week in a separate forum. It could switch topics... maybe one week it is discuss the merits of a particular soundtrack of the films...or a particular passage in a Fleming novel...one person a week...the person who thinks a commenter made the best response/rebuttal can pass the baton to them and continue it. The pieces can be posted on a blog for others to read, etc.

In the past 6 or so months I've seen hundreds of ideas posted on here by tons of users, but not a single one, not one has been acted on besides changing the look of the forum. The sad thing is it is only a new look, not a solution. If your house is falling down, slapping a new coat of paint on the walls isn't going to fix it.

If people think this site is in desperate need of change, then make the change... just stop talking about it and DO IT. Or just let it go. One of the two. We can't keep going on with topic after topic after topic about the problems.  My thought is try a ton of things, a lot of them might not work at all, but I'd rather fail and actually give it an effort. It seems thread after thread we talk about tons of ideas, but none are ever acted on. Why waste the time and effort discussing it when we know nothing will ever happen.

Very well said, but what is the point of getting another 100 members if only 2 of them post regularly, much as Erica Ambler says above. Decision-making is in the lap of the mods and admin. It's time for them to deliver - no more foreplay. Take us to Janus.

I think having our own blog is a good idea. Much better than just sticking this forum to an already existing one. We've got smart cookies here who know their way around the written word, so let's do it. As for a forum merger, well if there's a crew from another forum who want to sign up here, that's fine. Wouldn't be keen on reversing that scenario though.

And I agree with Moore's above point that the execution of change needs to be streamlined.These navel-gazing threads are killing the joint.

CJB wrote:

I think having our own blog is a good idea. Much better than just sticking this forum to an already existing one. We've got smart cookies here who know their way around the written word, so let's do it. As for a forum merger, well if there's a crew from another forum who want to sign up here, that's fine. Wouldn't be keen on reversing that scenario though.

And I agree with Moore's above point that the execution of change needs to be streamlined.These navel-gazing threads are killing the joint.

For a blog though we would need our own particular niche to set us apart from all of the rest as there are so many of these around nowadays. We need to stand out from the crowd.

Honestly, if this place is going to take off, I think we need our own domain and a premium layout. No major Internet forums, with thousands of members, have operated through a free site.

Plus, while Forumotion seems pretty steady, I don't think free sites are that reliable; one hiccup, missed bill, or copyright dispute could get their site shut down, and we'd all be fucked over. That's what happened to IPBFree Boards.

We should figure out what we want here and then take action. Do we want a small hobby site with our own community or do we want a site where we can gather a lot of members and have varied discussions?

Control wrote:

Honestly, if this place is going to take off, I think we need our own domain and a premium layout. No major Internet forums, with thousands of members, have operated through a free site.

Plus, while Forumotion seems pretty steady, I don't think free sites are that reliable; one hiccup, missed bill, or copyright dispute could get their site shut down, and we'd all be fucked over. That's what happened to IPBFree Boards.

We should figure out what we want here and then take action. Do we want a small hobby site with our own community or do we want a site where we can gather a lot of members and have varied discussions?

Only the mods and admin can make this decision for us, though. And it is decision time.

General Y Y wrote:

Control wrote:

Honestly, if this place is going to take off, I think we need our own domain and a premium layout. No major Internet forums, with thousands of members, have operated through a free site.

Plus, while Forumotion seems pretty steady, I don't think free sites are that reliable; one hiccup, missed bill, or copyright dispute could get their site shut down, and we'd all be fucked over. That's what happened to IPBFree Boards.

We should figure out what we want here and then take action. Do we want a small hobby site with our own community or do we want a site where we can gather a lot of members and have varied discussions?

Only the mods and admin can make this decision for us, though. And it is decision time.

Us mods are powerless when it comes to changing this forum's layout or domain name. All we can do is offer suggestions to our admin - M.

One of M's peculiarities is that he seeks a consensus about everything yet retains absolute power.

Largo's Shark wrote:

General Y Y wrote:

Control wrote:

Honestly, if this place is going to take off, I think we need our own domain and a premium layout. No major Internet forums, with thousands of members, have operated through a free site.

Plus, while Forumotion seems pretty steady, I don't think free sites are that reliable; one hiccup, missed bill, or copyright dispute could get their site shut down, and we'd all be fucked over. That's what happened to IPBFree Boards.

We should figure out what we want here and then take action. Do we want a small hobby site with our own community or do we want a site where we can gather a lot of members and have varied discussions?

Only the mods and admin can make this decision for us, though. And it is decision time.

Us mods are powerless when it comes to changing this forum's layout or domain name. All we can do is offer suggestions to our admin - M.

Sorry. I thought you had more influence than that.

General Y Y wrote:

Control wrote:

Honestly, if this place is going to take off, I think we need our own domain and a premium layout. No major Internet forums, with thousands of members, have operated through a free site.

Plus, while Forumotion seems pretty steady, I don't think free sites are that reliable; one hiccup, missed bill, or copyright dispute could get their site shut down, and we'd all be fucked over. That's what happened to IPBFree Boards.

We should figure out what we want here and then take action. Do we want a small hobby site with our own community or do we want a site where we can gather a lot of members and have varied discussions?

Only the mods and admin can make this decision for us, though. And it is decision time.

It's been decision time all year long.

Groundhog Day...if you will.