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20:38 / 29.04.02

sleazenation made a very good point in saying that there are no current threads concerning gaming, let alone a whole cluster making a forum necessary. maybe someone should start some just to see how it works out. if there's a minimal response, then "nay" on that particular forum. if there's a good response, "yay." remember: bigger doesn't always mean better.

20:49 / 29.04.02

I was only kidding. I think a gaming/sports forum is a good idea.

21:45 / 29.04.02

I also raise a hand for the gaming conglomerate...would also help moderate if need be. I'd be glad to post topics there...just put one in the switchboard for politics sake. It might also get my friend Rugal back in here to post more things...

21:53 / 29.04.02

I'd help moderate too if need be. I'm all for a gaming forum. As I said before, it'd fit perfectly in the spectacle.

23:49 / 29.04.02

I think Saveloy hit on something - a research forum. A place for permenant threads culled from the other forums -- ie. The Tarot Index, the Barbalith FAQ, resources (link lists - for writers, hot topics, art, what have you) the 'lith Blog thread, the photos thread, etc. etc. In other words, a database of everything Barbelith.

What do you think?

And my own two bits, what about a SEX forum?

-wink- -wink-

01:10 / 30.04.02

only if it's fully interactive. --scratch-scratch--

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:03 / 30.04.02

Actaully, "The Ointment", an area for those who are incapable of holding a conversation without a) commenting frequently on how smooth and shell-like their ears are or b) attempting to cram their veiny bangstick into the aforementioned aural aperture can gather sounds like a fine idea.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

10:38 / 30.04.02

Hmm. I mean, we could have a sex forum. There are enough people here with non-mainstream sexual preferences that it might work. The 'violent sex' thread in the Conversation has thrown up a few things which suggest people might like a place to talk more seriously. On the other hand it would have to be a totally safe space and people might want to be able to post as someone other than their usual suit.

If it turned into a conquests-discussion, I'm not sure it would be worthwhile. But if it was somewhere you could say 'I really like xyz during sex, am I mad?"/"How do I tell my partner?"/"Is it dangerous?"/"Where can I buy the necessary insurance/equipment?" that would be cool.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:01 / 30.04.02

Hmmm...sex threads at present tend to divide between the Head Shop and the Conversation. I think the Head Shop sex threads are usually appropriate to the Head Shop, so a "Sexual Practise" kind of area could work - a bit less lighthearted than the Conversation, more about the practicalities of, say, SM than the theoretical implications of same...

12:11 / 30.04.02

I'd like to cast a vote for a Health forum. Questions about various health issue invariably end up in Conversation, where they're sometimes taken less seriously than they ought to be. The sex/sexuality stuff could also go in that forum (The "Health & Sexuality" forum?).

I'd also love to cast a vote for the gaming forum. I never know where to talk about RPG's without the ridicule that the Conversation can bring.

Zoom.

12:15 / 30.04.02

Nightguards idea is perfect.

'Tha Database'

12:23 / 30.04.02

'The Body'

12:47 / 30.04.02

Do we really need a sex forum? We already have the Headshop for serious discussions and the conversation for the usual wankery. Granted it would allow a means to direct such topics to another area, but it would also encourage more foolishness and be a general problem to administrate. I think its more troubel that its worth, and wouldn't add anything usefull here other than a place for Knodge to hang out in.

The idea of a health based forum is interesting, though limited. Expand it to include life extension, pharmacology, and transhuminist issues and I think we'll have something more in the spirit of Barbelith.

pointless and uncalled for

13:24 / 30.04.02

The TV/Film/Theatre could be expanded and subdivided to cover a broader range of entertainment with the exclusion of music and books which are deserving of their own forums.

This sort of move could lead to the greater discussion of not just the facets, such as programs or particular films, but also the deeper elements of the topic.

15:34 / 30.04.02

Do we *really* need a sex forum? We already have the Headshop for serious discussions and the conversation for the usual wankery. Granted it would allow a means to direct such topics to another area, but it would also encourage more foolishness and be a general problem to administrate. – cusm

Completely and utterly seconded. Talk about asking for trouble...

15:58 / 30.04.02

RE: Game forum....how about we just expand "Film/TV/Theatre" to "Entertainment," and set up a few tentative threads to see what kind of audience actually participates...It may be that a whole Forum isn't necessary to house it. If the response is big [and if the reactions in this thread are any queue, it's likely to be a few eager participants and a smattering of guerilla-mockery by the high?-minded] then a Forum is the next step. I get the feeling that most posters are gun-shy about fessing up to certain entertainment proclivities...*cough* roleplaying...so the likelihood that it'll fly is fairly slim.

Goodness Gracious Meme

17:30 / 30.04.02

Hmm, with reservations, I kinda like Grant's idea of a 'physical living'-slant forum.

Wary of it ending up being Iron John chest-beating. However, a space for conversations about say, aspects of sexual practices, physical practices, whether these are things like sports, dance, things to do with the construction and modification of the body, food, health and 'alternative' therapies, medical discssions, a home for 'what's tai chi like?' thread.

Goodness Gracious Meme

17:31 / 30.04.02

oops, meant to finish with
'home for.... could throw up some interesting mixes of backgrounds approaching this kind of thing.'

18:21 / 30.04.02

I'd like to add my vote to the research forum, and suggest that we have sex (as it were) in the physical forum, if one were to be made up. Personally think it's a bad idea though.

One forum I'd like to suggest; I never really know where to put threads on either radio or stand-up comedy - so I generally don't do them that often.

How about a 'Spoken word' forum for these?

18:22 / 30.04.02

To clarify the above: I think talking about fucking on the board is a bad idea, not the physical forum...

18:23 / 30.04.02

I have to say I'm not sure a gaming area would be particularly good for the board - the Spectacle isn't really supposed to be just about chatting aimlessly about stuff - it's also for debating issues around stuff. you know? Criticism isn't fanboy stuff... Etc. There's a real danger in a gaming forum being more about swapping cheats and pointing to downloads than any more generally useful discussion about the games in question (when I say generally useful discussion, I mean discussion interesting to people who aren't specifically interested in the playing of an individual game)...

pointless and uncalled for

18:50 / 30.04.02

This was why I suggested it be a subsection of another forum. I'm probably being niave in hoping that it wouldn't degenerate into the link and cheat section. Although there would be a real danger that it would become as exclusionary as the Magick forum. Not to say that the Magick forum excludes non-magick users, more that it lacks the more open accessibility of other forums, if you see what I mean.

19:23 / 30.04.02

I can see where a games forum could possibly degenerate into the whole "Gives me cheets for dudez", but I would think the people here would be a bit more intelligent than that.

I still think a physical discussion forum would be a good idea. It could have topics on sex, martial arts, exercise regimes, and so on.

19:50 / 30.04.02

I was thinking games more in terms of RPGs, and by that I mean the sorts people do live with eachother, not Final Fantasy or Evercrack. Though I can see how that could devolve. I guess I'd just like to see a good place to pick apart the latest Exaulted suppliment or whatever. I tend to take RPGs more seriously as expression, somewhere between comics and magick. Though granted, I see it more from the industry perspective, as most of the gamers I know are writers or developers. Maybe it is better served in either the Conversation or in specific threads about gaming when it comes up. *shrug*

I do like The Body idea: health, drugs, fitness, sex, etc. There's potential there, I think.

22:29 / 30.04.02

A Divination Forum...we can cover all bases there with the Tarot, I-ching,Runes,etc...

gentleman loser

23:56 / 30.04.02

I suggested a gaming forum many moons ago and was shot to pieces for my trouble. I still think it could be viable as long as it made clear up front that it wouldn't be a "cheats/I'm more 'leet than you" thing.

I've got tons of gaming stuff in my head; computer, board, RPG and otherwise. I've never bothered posting it because I didn't know where to go with it. The Conversation has degenerated into a annoying (to me) and in-jokey thing long ago and I figured if I posted there it would just get ignored anyway.

Given the usual high quality of posters on BU, we could have one of the handful of intelligent gaming forums on the web. Imagine it!

Tom, I think there's already a fair amount of "fanboy" stuff on the Spectacle anyway.

I rarely read the Comics board because it's not something I have a lot of interest in, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be there for those that are interested in it. It seems that there is significant amount of interest in a gaming forum. Why not give it a shot on a trial basis?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

04:12 / 01.05.02

I guess one idea might be for all those in favour of a particular forum to go to the most appropriate existing forum and start a thread or two on their pet subject. The threads could be linked from here, and maybe the topic starter could PM ppl that might be interested, to drum up input.

05:26 / 01.05.02

I've spoken out against the gaming forum idea in the past (apologies for shooting gl to pieces), and I share the concerns voiced by To, Haus, &c. But... gaming threads haveshown up, albeit infrequently, in almost every forum on the board. The RPG ones in coversation notwithstanding, each has had its merits and its "133+ 5ki112!" posts.

Perhaps the idea just needs better PR and a logo? Video games have more than 2 decades of solid history, and a growing literature (note that Haus hirself has quoted From Barbie to Mortal combat), anda market share promising to outstrip the cinema. MMORPG's, franchise titles, and cross-marketing are rather important to the present state of the spectacle.

Of course the possibility of salivating anticipatory threads and "game reccomendation" threads exists; but is this any different from stuff like "New Sci-fi," "Song Pimpin'," or "recently read?"

I can't make a compelling case for including tabletop RPGs or Wargames, but Magic and Pokemon are genuine cultural phenomena... and there was an AD&D movie. Not to mention that one about the Hobbits.

Maybe if there were a way to include sport, chatrooms/mailing lists, and the Web in general, we'd have something? You know, something like:

Play:
From blacktop to tabletop to desktop!
Exploring the costs of free time,
recovering community, understanding obsession,
and rewriting the rules - Who's playing Whom?

Oh, and folks've been clamoring for something like the proposed Research forum for awhile now. And it might be possible to make a Sex forum safe simply by instituting a no-tolerance policy for trolling. Unfortunately that still allows that one mistake to be made before membereship gets revoked. (Could also include general health discussions, which might benefit from the same environment?)

We're The Great Old Ones Now

06:41 / 01.05.02

Anonymity, though...I went through a whole world of health grief recently, and I wouldn't necessarily have wanted to discuss it as 'me'. A bit too bizarre, it all was.

Ierne...if you'd said 'who wants a sex forum?' you might have persuaded me. But if you're saying that a sex/sexual health forum should be avoided because it's going to be too much trouble, I can't agree. If there's a need or a desire for such a forum, I think it'd be a shame if we backed off because it looked like a difficult thing to create without risking some juvenile behaviour.

06:51 / 01.05.02

My only plea is to keep lists to a minimum...

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:22 / 01.05.02

OK...having thought about this:

A gaming forum might work, but I think might have the same problem as a sex forum - that a lot fo noise would quite possibly be generated that was not justified by the signal - in effect, we'd just have segmentation of the conversation. Gentleman Loser is right - I did incite start a discussion on From Barbie to Mortal Kombat and gender in video games, and it didn't reach the level of "I like to fuck the ho until my health goes up to 125, then kill her to get my money back", but then it was in the Head Shop. Whether a dedicated gaming forum would be an invitation to chickenheads I don't know. Possibly more likely it would be more like the "Film/TV/Theatre" area - a combination of some attempts at "intellectual" (cheers, Rage)discussion, a fair amount of "What did you play last night/what's your favourite game", and some incomprehensibly overenthusiastic shouting matches. Might be useful, might not. In general, won't be.

A Spoken Word forum I think would be little-used, but I can certainly see the logic of having one. Possibly make it Spoken Word and Performance, which means it could cover radio, stand-up, one-person shows, poetry readings, performance pieces that sit comfortably neither in Art nor Theatre....the idea has merit.

Health - I'd probably see a doctor, but a "the Body" area, with anonymity, might be interesting, at the very least in a grand guignol way.

On the Sex thread idea...it could again be useful - MC's rather desperate posting of links to consent info sites in the "Violent Sex" thread certainly suggest it could be profitable. But it *would* turn primarily into Barbelith's horny lil' chuckleheads starting or subverting thread after thread with happy tales of how much they want to diddle each other/enjoy diddling each other/are diddling each other RIGHT NOW. If everyone's ready to deal with that, cool.

pointless and uncalled for

13:11 / 01.05.02

I'm a little confused here [patiently awaits chorus of no suprise]

I would have thought that a gaming forum would be similar in nature to the magick forum, whereby gamers would be free and happy to discuss amongst themselves about one of their passions and should anyone express an interest then they would be welcome with open arms.

As I understand it, from other threads, the magick forum is rarely frequented by the non-practicing.

If you have no interest in what may be discussed in a gaming forum, then could you possibly just not attend.

I have seen a handful of gaming threads that have suffered terminal threadrot because of the heavy proliferation of lighthearted pisstaking and resulting in what may have been a productive discussion.
I would imagine if someone were to wonder into the magick forum and act in the same manner then they would received as unwelcome on the board.

So do the gamers on this board not deserve the same courtesy? Is gaming seen as a less valid/worthy pursuit?

I can understand if Tom/Cal don't want to provide a gaming forum for technical reasons, but I can't understand why non-gamers are saying - you should get no forum because you can't be trusted to use it properly. It seems as if some people are just assuming that the gamers will automatically adhere to a particularly negative stereotype.

Frankly I'm not impressed with some of the attitudes being displayed here.

I would say that there should be a gaming forum and it be created under the understanding that should the forum not be used enough, degenerate to cheat-swapping or become an unresolveable detriment to the board, then it will be removed.

13:56 / 01.05.02

Frankly, I don't see gaming as any different from the other areas of the spectacle. We've already covered everything else, this seems to be the only category left unaccounted for. I would also like to point out that Barbelith is still a membership based and not fully public board, so trolling and 7331 [h3@1$ would be far less an issue here. It seems the assumption is that this forum would draw an immediate crowd of gibbering chowderheads to join Barbelith and cause trouble. I was looking at it as something for the current membership to enjoy. Call me naive, but I thought as intelligent discussion could take place there as in the comics, TV, or music forums.

Though again, at the same time, I can see how it could devolve. I don't know if it will work, honestly. However, I for one will still state that I'm willing to give it a go and work as a moderator, with the clause that I'm willing to see it die it if it becomes more work than it should to manage. There's my vote, anyways.

I think the category writeup will have a lot to do with how well it plays out. Gathering previous ideas, here's my proposal:

From Blacktop to Tabletop to Desktop. From mock warfare to personal drama, challenge the will and simulate reality.

14:10 / 01.05.02

And it might be possible to make a Sex forum safe simply by instituting a no-tolerance policy for trolling. – [Your Name Here]

You're kidding, right? Personally, I'd love to see a no-tolerance policy, but too many people here either find trolls "interesting," "funny," or "champions of FREE SPEECH, MAAAAAAAN" to ever allow this to happen. Then there's bound to be cries of "elitism!" and "clique!" once the asshole in question actually gets booted.

...if you're saying that a sex/sexual health forum should be avoided because it's going to be too much trouble, I can't agree. If there's a need or a desire for such a forum, I think it'd be a shame if we backed off because it looked like a difficult thing to create without risking some juvenile behaviour. – Nick

Now it's quite alright if we don't agree, Nick

Seriously, however, there's a difference between need and desire. It's true that people have asked for a Sex Forum, so the desire is indeed there. But do we really need one? Like cusm said earlier, we've got the Head Shop for the theories & issues and the Conversation for more general horniness. If there was a Health Forum, that would be the place to discuss sexual health. So having a Sex Forum would be redundant, I think. Not to mention a major, major troll-magnet, which Barbelith needs right now like a hole in the head.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:41 / 01.05.02

geez,2 days away and a lighthearted idea for a forum becomes this?

I agree with potus, i see no reason why gaming would be less valid than smallville or new x-men, or why the forum would be full of more fanboy wank (were i a web head i would point to the "Did scott and Emma screw" thread)

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