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In a hypothetical situation in which Barbelith ceases to exist, where would we go?

All Acting Regiment

16:41 / 09.01.08

So, supposing Barbelith were to fail once and for all - which, as far as I can gather, is not actually that likely, but possible where before it was not - what other places could we go?

Do any hosting companies allow you to build a board of your own? What about BB boards? Should we all move across to a different but good board?

16:47 / 09.01.08

Should we all move across to a different but good board?

Definitely not - if "we" all did that, it could hardly remain a good board for much longer.

17:55 / 09.01.08

Exactly.

Tuna Ghost will work for dope

20:23 / 09.01.08

I'd finally get around to exploring the pacific northwest. Of the internet.

I'm not sure what I'd do. Barbelith was the first message board I ever joined and remains the only message board I've ever been interested in for more than a month. I suppose I could shop around, but ahhhh it don't matter.

Wristwatch Nuke

09:59 / 10.01.08

If nothing else presented itself we could "stealth" the Facebook group and use that.

I'm talking bare minimum here. Until we found somewhere else.

02:32 / 11.01.08

Surely there are other Grant Morrison fansites around.

*

04:37 / 11.01.08

USENET! UUUUUUUSENEEEEEEET!

Ahem.

10:11 / 11.01.08

But seriously guys, why aren't we setting up another board, on generic BB software, that preserves the bits of Barbelith we like and transplant ourselves there?

Old dear. Gin. Problems
(prev. Alex's Grandma)

10:20 / 11.01.08

What happened to Rage's board, out of interest?

A Haus of Minions
(prev. Jenna Elfman's Hollywood Haus)

11:43 / 11.01.08

Well, Lurid, Gypsy Lantern is doing pretty much exactly that for the Magic people. Maybe something like the Tearoom of Despair could be set up for comic books. Other projects could certainly happen - liferaft projects, basically. One concern, I think, is that you'd lose a lot of people in the transition.

Probably the other issue is that if you are on Barbelith, and there is no immediate trolling, the functionality issues are not all that great - it's getting people on that has been difficult. So, there's a large amount of inertia about moving off. In a sense, the damage has already been done there.

Semiotic Robotic

13:28 / 11.01.08

Another hurdle might be that of ownership. Setting up a free BB using any one of many fine pieces of open source BB software (which we began discussing in this thread) still requires a person to establish a hosting account, purchase a hosting package, register a domain, etc., etc. Doing so would concentrate ownership in the hands of one person (or small collective) and could perhaps generate the same kinds of trouble we're currently experiencing. We might experiment, of course, with new models of ownership, systems of generating revenue, and so forth. I think the experiment would be well worth the effort.

14:43 / 11.01.08

Setting up a free BB using any one of many fine pieces of open source BB software (which we began discussing in this thread) still requires a person to establish a hosting account, purchase a hosting package, register a domain, etc., etc.

Not necessarily:

http://www.proboards.com/index.html
http://ipbfree.com/home/
http://www.phpbbweb.com/

Semiotic Robotic

16:13 / 11.01.08

Very interesting. Thanks.

All Acting Regiment

16:35 / 11.01.08

Definitely not - if "we" all did that, it could hardly remain a good board for much longer.

Well, it depends. As long as our only concept of 'we'ness was that we had a shared history on Barbelith, and we went to the new board to fit in, get along and not 'colonise', I can see the joining of a big board being as profitable as the starting of a new one, perhaps? I mean, we'd have to not form little gangs.

17:29 / 11.01.08

One concern, I think, is that you'd lose a lot of people in the transition.

Bug, or feature?

17:38 / 11.01.08

OH!

All Acting Regiment

16:39 / 13.01.08

Eh?

Quantum
(prev. Quantum - terribly nonplussed)

11:06 / 14.01.08

Well, one joy of barbelith liferafts is that they'll all have the basic functionality sufficient to punt someone to the sharks.

Our Lady in Her Haus
(prev. Our Lady Drinks Your Milkshake)

15:43 / 14.01.08

Grandma's ... Worm What happened to Rage's board, out of interest?

It lasted about 8 days. There was only her, me, Ganesh (I think) and one of those litle arseholes that didn't have the stamina to be a real nuisance here. I guess she realised that boards didn't develop communities by magickz and gave up.

14:35 / 15.01.08

All Acting Regiment - there seems to be a communication failure going on. To clarify: both brb and I are refering to our conviction that it would not be desirable to import everybody who currently is a member of Barbelith onto any existing or putative new forum/board.

18:24 / 15.01.08

unless it was to distract them

18:33 / 15.01.08

MJ-12, you're making me paranoid.

15:56 / 30.07.08

Wanted to bump this one to throw something out for discussion. The notorious Alex's Grandma once said:

Facebook [...] is going to take over from 'talky talky' interweb message boards like this one.

I am starting to suspect that ze may be to some degree correct (leaving aside the matter of whether it's to be Facebook or one of the many other Social Network Sites which takes over). Which means the answer to this thread's question is "wherever we go, it'll not be to another board but a SNS". The more macro-level possibility that boards, not just this one, might be giving way to Social Network Sites is a big extrapolative leap from but a single datum, of course, but I am currently intrigued by it.)

What do we reckon?

All Acting Regiment

18:32 / 30.07.08

I use the Facebook fora quite a bit. Many of them are bollocks, although whether they're more or less bollocks than most trad discussion boards I don't know.

My problem with them compared to this is that on FB a forum is a sub-set of a 'group', e.g., you join the group 'I like Jam' mainly to have a little notice saying 'I like Jam' on your profile, to identify as a Jam afficionado rather than to specifically discuss Jam (although you can do this) - the correlative being that you tend to get a small, patchy and short-term group using the message board which wouldn't seem to support the kind of conversations I've enjoyed here.

Also, you only get one board per group.

What else? You're usually on FB as yourself, with a picture and lots of info. This is a very bad idea if you're going to talk about Certain Topics, given that you're basically open to the world (employers will now search for you on Facebook to check you out before giving you a job, and your friends will be able to see what you've been talking about on your profile). This also would limit discussion, and not just discussion about where to buy your bombs from - a lot of online discussions rely on anonymity or masks.

Quantum
(prev. Quantum - terribly nonplussed)

14:01 / 13.08.08

Yeah, I largely agree with AAR above, especially regarding all your RL details next to everything you write. SNS sites are also very much about meeting people and, well, networking- which is not what I want from a board, I want discussion.
I don't MyFace or SpaceBook at all, I much prefer a message board.

Stoatie. Stoatie? STOATIE.

16:24 / 13.08.08

Yeah, that's all true... although the paranoia about RL details escapes me... I just lie about a lot of stuff. My actual friends will know which bits are true...

16:28 / 13.08.08

Not everyone has your skill with mendacity, though. Or your friends.
I do, of course. I have the whole set.

All Acting Regiment

17:53 / 19.08.08

Yeah, that's all true... although the paranoia about RL details escapes me...

Examples of the problem from people I know:

Supposing you had an American friend on facebook, and you were on some forum talking about how you disagreed with American foreign policy, and you said some things that, while true, were put a lot more bluntly than they would be if you were talking to your American friend - and your American friend looks on your profile, sees the link to the conversation, and decides you hate Americans and you get a weird reputation among your friends as an American-hater.

Supposing you've just started working in an office full of temps, you join the facebook network for it and you're expected to add others on facebook as friends. Without knowing much about you they see some sort of political stuff - group memberships, forum posts - which they misinterpret, and then you're whispered about as being a terrorist sympathiser, etc. Now admittedly, in this case the person was a member of some pro-Palestine groups, and the people accusing her of being a terrorist sympathiser were un-controversially wrong, that didn't stop it being a pain at work.

That sort of thing.

Stoatie. Stoatie? STOATIE.

18:39 / 19.08.08

Well, you DO have to be careful about what you say, AND the groups you join, but that's the same in any walk of life. Why people assume the internet, of all places, is going to be exempt from that general rule of life is... well, a bit weird, to be honest!

I guess I'm kind of a special case, though, apart from the making shit up thing, because I've been such a paranoid fucker for so long that I automatically assume that anyone I wouldn't want to know anything about me already knows it or can find it out anyway, so I kind of came out the other end of paranoia not giving a fuck.

The lesson is, I guess, imagine you're in a pub. Talking loudly. And you're drunk enough that you don't actually know who else may be there.