Why does this forum layout have to be so primitive?

Wouldn't it be great if the layout could be just slightly more modern and easy to use? It takes ages to go through an entire thread here. There are tons of places that offer a user-friendly forum for practically no charge.

Yeah, grey backgrounds are so 'last year'

Re: or better yet, start your own Morrissey site

I'd create a Morrissey ezboard, but I probably wouldn't know how to make it look nice (I'm sure it ain't E-Z enough for me!) and I'm not popular enough to get people to post there.

But someone could create one of those pretty quickly, without designed a whole web site. Maybe you could even get it linked on this site???

Re: or better yet, start your own Morrissey site

> I'd create a Morrissey ezboard, but I probably wouldn't know how to make
> it look nice (I'm sure it ain't E-Z enough for me!) and I'm not popular
> enough to get people to post there.

> But someone could create one of those pretty quickly, without designed a
> whole web site. Maybe you could even get it linked on this site???
I'm sure anyone could but if you look at all the crap David T has to put up with, who would want to? If people complaining about avatars or smilie faces isn't bad enough, he also has to deal with people threatening to sepeona him because of death threats in the chatroom, and threats of legal action where he has to hire legal representation. People are so ungrateful.

Re: or better yet, start your own Morrissey site

> I'm sure anyone could but if you look at all the crap David T has to put
> up with, who would want to? If people complaining about avatars or smilie
> faces isn't bad enough, he also has to deal with people threatening to
> sepeona him because of death threats in the chatroom, and threats of legal
> action where he has to hire legal representation. People are so
> ungrateful.

If done right, an ezboard style message board could be a lot better than this one. The format of this board means that threads can only last for one day.

Someone had the idea a few weeks ago to have a third message board here which is only about Morrissey content and is moderated to keep people on topic. I didn't like that idea.

But thinking about it now...an ezboard done right could make everyone happy, because ezboards allow for several sub-forums within one forum. You could have a general area that is unmoderated (or just leave this one). And then people who would like to moderate sub-forums could request to run one themself, and choose their moderators (who hopefully would just try and get interesting topics started rather than censor people). The moderator thing could be a disastor, but hey, if someone doesn't like the way a moderator runs his/her sub-forum, there would be other sub-forums where that moderator would have no power.

The advantage would be a more organized forum with threads that would be around for a long time, and various sub-forums that would enable people to find threads on the topics they wanna discuss more easily, and also allow at the same time for there to be the anarchy that is this board for those who want that (I'd like both).

Creating an entirely new web site seems silly. This site is great and has lots of traffic. But this message board is just all f***ed up. Like the other person said, there are several other message board formats that are free or very inexpensive, so why not make a message board that would encourage more discussions and less...um...death threats and stupidity?

Re: Morrissey solo msg board format

> I'd create a Morrissey ezboard, but I probably wouldn't know how to make
> it look nice (I'm sure it ain't E-Z enough for me!) and I'm not popular
> enough to get people to post there.

> But someone could create one of those pretty quickly, without designed a
> whole web site. Maybe you could even get it linked on this site???

I like the old fashioned feel of this place though.. It's very Morrissey-esque wouldn't you agree. Unique, quaint and slightly out of step. Then again, I don't hang out anywhere else (except in the shower) so wouldn't have anything to compare it against. The meassge boards not what hangs out in the shower!

Doh, I'm off again down Innuendo Street... and I started off with a semi serious point and it went all limp.

Ruffian

In with the old, out with the new

Yep, and think of the "older folk" on here who are only just getting to grips with computers and the way the existing message board works.

If this board becomes too upmarket and fancy, it will confuse certain veterans on here. They don't like change, you know.

Has anyone got any Werther's?

> I like the old fashioned feel of this place though.. It's very
> Morrissey-esque wouldn't you agree. Unique, quaint and slightly out of
> step. Then again, I don't hang out anywhere else (except in the shower) so
> wouldn't have anything to compare it against. The meassge boards not what
> hangs out in the shower!

> Doh, I'm off again down Innuendo Street... and I started off with a semi
> serious point and it went all limp.

> Ruffian

Re: Morrissey solo msg board format

> I like the old fashioned feel of this place though.. It's very
> Morrissey-esque wouldn't you agree. Unique, quaint and slightly out of
> step. Then again, I don't hang out anywhere else (except in the shower) so
> wouldn't have anything to compare it against. The meassge boards not what
> hangs out in the shower!

> Doh, I'm off again down Innuendo Street... and I started off with a semi
> serious point and it went all limp.

> Ruffian

Of course it went all limp Ruff. That's where Bluenose told me you got the nickname "Mr. Floppy" from

> Wouldn't it be great if the layout could be just slightly more modern and
> easy to use? It takes ages to go through an entire thread here. There are
> tons of places that offer a user-friendly forum for practically no charge.

David T did implement a more modern version and everyone grumbled. So he put this one back.

We don't like change here. We all still think it's 1985.

LMC x

Re: or better yet, start your own Morrissey site

> If done right, an ezboard style message board could be a lot better than
> this one. The format of this board means that threads can only last for
> one day.

> Someone had the idea a few weeks ago to have a third message board here
> which is only about Morrissey content and is moderated to keep people on
> topic. I didn't like that idea.

> But thinking about it now...an ezboard done right could make everyone
> happy, because ezboards allow for several sub-forums within one forum. You
> could have a general area that is unmoderated (or just leave this one).
> And then people who would like to moderate sub-forums could request to run
> one themself, and choose their moderators (who hopefully would just try
> and get interesting topics started rather than censor people). The
> moderator thing could be a disastor, but hey, if someone doesn't like the
> way a moderator runs his/her sub-forum, there would be other sub-forums
> where that moderator would have no power.

> The advantage would be a more organized forum with threads that would be
> around for a long time, and various sub-forums that would enable people to
> find threads on the topics they wanna discuss more easily, and also allow
> at the same time for there to be the anarchy that is this board for those
> who want that (I'd like both).

> Creating an entirely new web site seems silly. This site is great and has
> lots of traffic. But this message board is just all f***ed up. Like the
> other person said, there are several other message board formats that are
> free or very inexpensive, so why not make a message board that would
> encourage more discussions and less...um...death threats and stupidity?
Good points on the ezboard but I've been on moderated boards and they are a nightmare. But when all said and done, David has a great site, its too bad he has to deal with so much nonsense.

Re: or better yet, start your own Morrissey site

> Good points on the ezboard but I've been on moderated boards and they are
> a nightmare. But when all said and done, David has a great site, its too
> bad he has to deal with so much nonsense.

Yeah, the moderating thing is the big danger. However, I don't see why there couldn't be a general, unmoderated part. But yeah, I dunno, I do fear what would happen with any moderated sections.....

The best message board I ever participated in was Roger Ebert's forum on compuserve in the mid-1990s. God that was great. Really great people posting, including Roger Ebert. I don't know how to describe how Compuserve set up their forums, but they were the best I've ever seen, and very different than anything these days. Key to that forum was that the sysop was very hands off. Threads would last as long as people were interested, sometimes for months. You need a combination of good participants and a good format, and while there are enough good participants here, this format will always f*** it up.

Re: or better yet, start your own Morrissey site

> Yeah, the moderating thing is the big danger. However, I don't see why
> there couldn't be a general, unmoderated part. But yeah, I dunno, I do
> fear what would happen with any moderated sections.....
Moderating is the worst. I posted on an AOL board "that damn groundhog saw his shadow" and I received a TOS for it. The only good thing about AOL is if you complain and threaten to cancel it, you get a free month.
> The best message board I ever participated in was Roger Ebert's forum on
> compuserve in the mid-1990s. God that was great. Really great people
> posting, including Roger Ebert. I don't know how to describe how
> Compuserve set up their forums, but they were the best I've ever seen, and
> very different than anything these days. Key to that forum was that the
> sysop was very hands off. Threads would last as long as people were
> interested, sometimes for months. You need a combination of good
> participants and a good format, and while there are enough good
> participants here, this format will always f*** it up.
Really? The fact that Roger Ebert also participated in it probably made it great as well. People didn't get personal if they fought about movies?

Re: or better yet, start your own Morrissey site

> Yeah, the moderating thing is the big danger. However, I don't see why
> there couldn't be a general, unmoderated part. But yeah, I dunno, I do
> fear what would happen with any moderated sections.....

> The best message board I ever participated in was Roger Ebert's forum on
> compuserve in the mid-1990s. God that was great. Really great people
> posting, including Roger Ebert. I don't know how to describe how
> Compuserve set up their forums, but they were the best I've ever seen, and
> very different than anything these days. Key to that forum was that the
> sysop was very hands off. Threads would last as long as people were
> interested, sometimes for months. You need a combination of good
> participants and a good format, and while there are enough good
> participants here, this format will always f*** it up.

Can you point me to a link to these great discussions archived on compuserve, or a more recent great discussion on ezboard? I just need some examples before considering making any changes.

Hey LMC, we don't see you in these parts much these days. Where do you keep yourself?

TMF

Re: or better yet, start your own Morrissey site

> Moderating is the worst. I posted on an AOL board "that damn
> groundhog saw his shadow" and I received a TOS for it. The only good
> thing about AOL is if you complain and threaten to cancel it, you get a
> free month.
> Really? The fact that Roger Ebert also participated in it probably made it
> great as well. People didn't get personal if they fought about movies?

There was a lot of fighting, but the fighting was all over opinions on whatever the topic was, not so much personal (although this brilliant aspiring screenwriter was always flaming this successful screenwriter who wrote a lot of crap, and that was always amusing). It was mostly people trying to show off and look like the smartest one there. I was almost afraid to post there sometimes because people were so smart. There was an interesting mix of people, from bigtime industry insiders, to aspiring screenwriters, to regular joes and teenagers. And...a couple film reviewers, a columnist for a Macintosh magazine....a decorated vet who, like, testified before Congress over the Viet Nam war and was in some way involved with carrying the nuclear football at some point (and was related to Oscar winning DP John Toll). You'd just look like a retard if you posted like one, so not many people did act retarded.

That vet's name was Barry Toll, and it was pretty humbling when he stumbled upon me talking out of my ass on Viet Nam and he gave me quite a schooling. hahaha. On the other hand, I was arguing in defense of Killing Zoe to someone who was calling it unoriginal crap and pornographically violent, and f*** me...the director, Roger Avary, came to my defense! So you kinda had to watch about talking out of your ass. And everyone was under their real names on Compuserve, so that made people a little more sane.

Ebert was the nicest guy in the world. He'd reply to every single message as just a regular guy, and seemed to know a lot about every subject under the sun. I don't know if he still has a forum somewhere out there. At the time, he said he liked being able to get online feedback from his readers and interact with and debate them. It gave everyone an opportunity to sit in Siskel's shoes and have a go at him. Sometimes he'd email you and ask if he could use your post in his next Movie Answer Man column, and those would up in a book eventually! (I have a couple questions in the first edition of his Answer Man book, but I'm not telling which.) So yeah, he's a real accessible, normal, nice dude. Email him a good question about movies and they're highly likely to appear in his next Answer Man column, and perhaps a future edition of his Answer Man book.