Has beens, never was, and wannabes

[JR]

Originally Posted by Timon

IMO this is Oprano's only edge, lose that and Oprano just becomes another one of the hundreds of generic webmaster boards for 'never_has_beens' and 'never_will_bees' to talk about TGP's. In other words a place with nothing interesting to read for people with real traffic, and nothing to offer to its sponsors but geocities peons with 10 clicks a day of garbage tgp traffic.

in all fairness, Netpond went from a ghost town to having a pretty active board with a whole new crowd of unknowns. but at the same time, they have never made money either. i think it could be argued that without having so many people on the payroll in the beginning, they would have never gotten it back off the ground. now that they have a lot of posters and a lot going on.. its too late.

i do think it can be done. it would take a couple years, some interesting personalities, interesting content and a lot of time and attention and care. but i don't believe it can be done by putting the site on autopilot as bishop discussed. i believe there are too many other resource sites that will always be 10 times more than the one they hope to create

i think forums are communities... not resource sites. forums have always been a place where people meet and interact and find some distraction.

the funny thing about the attitudes here is that no one has done the wise thing, shown some leadership and just said "here's what we want to do, ... please help us". i know i would have... instead all i have heard again and again is "we're making changes, if you don't like it... then fuck off" which is not only contradictory, but a pretty clear indication of where things are heading.

i think this place peaked with serge and mike because it was interesting and entertaining... and only went downhill each effort at reinventing the wheel.

i wish gonzo all the best. i really like him. i don't know bishop. but guys, you have to be real... you can't build something substantial without being deeply involved in it or else hiring passionate, interesting and respected people that will be... forums require charismatic and interesting people just as much as they require new blood.