Keeping Bond And Beyond alive

[Insert Mod comment about thread derailment complete with patronising and/or hypocritical undertones here]

;)

Yeah sorry I haven't been posting - but I've had school, and other things in my life. I'll try to check in more - and rewatch the films because that should help. In the meantime ...

Maybe have a debate - as a trial have 6 posters be split into two teams. Give a topic and then argue Aff or Neg. This would force some members with a set opinion to change it to suit their team. This can go on for 48 hours or something and then its a free-for-all.

Impromptu debate is fun - and would make everyone think outside the box and could be a little fun.

But yeah ... thats all I got.

That's not a bad idea, Fae.

I agree, that's a very good idea Fae.

Maybe we can select some kind of hot topic each week and make it a regular weekly debate thing?

How about a book club or a weekly film viewing too? I agree with wee Fae, we need more structure.

Lazenby. wrote:

[Insert Mod comment about thread derailment complete with patronising and/or hypocritical undertones here]

;)

And where could we have seen such comments before?


Fae, welcome back to you and your cute little avatar

Fae wrote:

Maybe have a debate - as a trial have 6 posters be split into two teams. Give a topic and then argue Aff or Neg. This would force some members with a set opinion to change it to suit their team. This can go on for 48 hours or something and then its a free-for-all.

We should do this. Firstly we'd need to agree on the choice of a hotly-debated topic which a good dozen or so of us can chime in on from either side of the fence.

Bond related? David Arnold, GoldenEye, You Only Live Twice, Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, the current direction/tone of the series, Moonraker, A View To A Kill, The Man With The Golden Gun, Licence To Kill, Quantum Of Solace.... all of these are subjects which seem to split fans down the middle a fair bit.

Non-Bond related? I dunno, I suppose we could argue for or against the death penalty, 3D cinema, digital cinema, vigilante cinema, censorship, whether God exists or not, to smoke or not to smoke, whether drugs should be legalised, assisted suicide.....

Any takers for any of that lot? Or hopefully someone can come up with something better? Then we could set up two sides to argue the toss over it, like Fae suggested.

Maybe change it every two weeks - for example start with Bond, and then move onto topical.

Keeps things fresh. And I think having sides initally would be good as it would force people to think putside their own perspective which is good. But then after say 48 hours drop the sides, and start a free-for-all so everyone can chime in.

On Sharky's idea - Book Blub would have to run for a month to give time to read the book etc. I think to keep discussion passage analysis etc would be a good idea - I can bring some ideas from my Litereature class on how we study texts.

On a weekly film viewing - that could be fun but once again balance it between Bond and non-Bond to keep things fresh.

In a time with little Bond news we need to alternate - esp as we are a Beyond forum as well as Bond.

I like the debate idea.

Especially if we can drop f-bombs on our opponents.

First one to mention the Nazis loses! ;)

But please do not have us debate David Arnold. God knows we dont need to do that again.

colly wrote:

But please do not have us debate David Arnold. God knows we dont need to do that again.

Agreed, Brosnan and QOS too. We should try something a little different, maybe Guy Hamilton's contribution to the Bond series. Something like that.

I've set up a section for this debate idea underneath "Enquiries" to give this idea a bit of prominence on the front page, hopefully get it up and running. I can move/merge the section later if needs be.

All we need now is everyone to agree on an opening debate topic, then someone can open the debate thread in the "Weekly" section. Feel free to open book clubs, screenings and any other weekly or monthly ideas in that section too, the more things to get people talking the better.

I honestly think our main issue is membership. We need to gather another mass of members to put a little more life back into this place. I don't care if they're Daniel Craig lovers or haters, so long as they can generate interesting and fresh discussions, don't type in CAPS LOCK, and don't use over 5 smileys per post.

If we can get the juices flowing in this place again, then perhaps Ambler and our other MIA members would show back up.

The Mi6 discussions are going to have to be ditched, as well. That place is dead. We can still joke about the wristwatches who made us laugh over there, but other than that, there's really no need to discuss that hole anymore. Frankly, we're in better shape than they are, and we should keep it that way.

Regarding ranks, I didn't think it really mattered, but if it's going to make new members happy, then perhaps we should implement a system.

I can set up a new ranking system straight away if anyone has a good idea for one.

I've re-opened the site to public viewing for probably just the next few days. This is because I'll be making efforts to attract potential new members to the forums. Hopefully our existing members can try to bring in some new faces too.

However, it's important that existing members still log into the forums rather than just viewing them, as no potential new members will want to register at an empty forum. Let's show potential new members just how good and regularly busy this place can be. We all want more members here, so we'll all need to chip in and help to make that happen.

Should just throw out some blanket links IMO, then simply remove any f*ckwits or people with ill-intent who stray in. It's worth it IMO to get a decent amount of new members in here. We can always lock the place up again once a new batch of members are in. As for rankings, I ain't got a clue TBH.... Maybe we could use some kind of newbie tag for low posters to maybe give them some incentive to post more, then reward higher posters (say 50 or 100+ posts) with a more special sounding rank. While I get the "all inclusive and all equal" vibe we're trying to give off, it still seeems a bit off that the likes of MP, Colly, Hilly, Sharky etc are rightfully classed as valued contributors, while someone who hasn't posted at all has the same rank.

Anyhow, we're still not doing too badly really, at least comparatively speaking. There's usually just as many (actually usually more) members logged in here at most given times than there are at MI6Book. They're filling the ranks with puppet members over there by the looks of it just to hide facts like that and give the illusion of mass popularity, perhaps more to make up ground lost to CB.n number-wise following the reboot. Quality-wise and member-wise, I think we're still way ahead. But, as stated, if everyone here can pitch in, I'm sure we can get hold of new members easily enough. Hell, if even just half of our existing members just brought in one new member each, we'd have 40-odd new members right there. It's something to aim for.

Lazenby. wrote:

Should just throw out some blanket links IMO, then simply remove any f*ckwits or people with ill-intent who stray in.

Thats pretty much it - we were all noobs ourselves back in the day and getting new people in's the only way this board's going to survive, and its that constant inflow of members that made the original abode so successful. Then as with any other board, you ban the people who arent into healthy, meaningful discussion.

Exactly. I think we're actually missing those kind of noob members here, as I think the variety is lacking as much as anything. As you said, we were all noobs ourselves once, and some of us didn't really know s*** outside of Bond films, so any noobs can always be.... how can I put it.... "groomed"....? Shove them in a thread with Sharky for a week, that'll do it. ;)

Seriously though, I think that being too (for lack of a better word) elitist (or maybe just picky) about this place will take too much of the fun and variety out of it and we'll all end up bored. Like you said, without the constant inflow, you just end up with no members, when surely even three good ones for every two bad ones is acceptable in our current position.

Give the link to anybody, and we'll see what happens.

It can't hurt. The worst that could happen is that some wristwatch joins and posts annoying shit. At that point, the mods can take care of him.

I just don't want CASINOROYALE over here. And can't promise that I'd be able to pretend to be friends with Shadowonhertwat. However, with their prominent sports and writing careers, I doubt that they could be bothered to interact with such serfs as ourselves.

Mr. Brown wrote:

I just don't want CASINOROYALE over here.

Seconded.

Call me snobbish/elitist if you will, but I like that everyone here is at least smart enough to string together coherent and readable sentences.

I think ranks are a good idea, but make them difficult to achieve. Sort of defeats the purpose to give out the title "Lord High-God Supreme Basileus Most Holy" after 100 posts.

Mr. Brown wrote:

Give the link to anybody, and we'll see what happens.

It can't hurt. The worst that could happen is that some wristwatch joins and posts annoying shit. At that point, the mods can take care of him.

I just don't want CASINOROYALE over here. And can't promise that I'd be able to pretend to be friends with Shadowonhertwat. However, with their prominent sports and writing careers, I doubt that they could be bothered to interact with such serfs as ourselves.

Brown I think you have things nicely under control. Yes I think Shadow might be busy pestering Babs and MGW to approve his scripts for the next 10 Bond films. After all he did start a petition to that effect. I'm sure they sat right up and took notice.

I noticed this dilemma there a while ago. Now its a thread topic.



Posting this link FYI only.





http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/1253/are-there-any-women-here-on-mi6s

For a moment I was expecting j7's thumbprints on that.

First time I've clicked on a MI6book link in three months.

Bahaha.