WildWest Football Board

Hi everybody.  Some of you who frequent Ryan's board might know that I have abandoned the Wild West.  This is true.  The last week or so has been an experiment and while I don't like the board nearly as much as I used to like the WW, I like it a hell of a lot more than what the WW has become.  At first I was just going to disappear but that's never really been my style has it?  So I've come to say good-bye... tell you why I am leaving, let you know where you CAN find me now if you're interested, and swear a bit to draw Java's attention so maybe.. just maybe... he'll take action to save his board.  Also to go out with a bang.  He'll probably ban me which is a good thing, helps me form a clean break in my head.  "There's no going back" kind of thing.  I think I may need that kind of closure... I've been posting here for at least 15 years now.  Read it quick because I'm sure he's going to take it down...  10 minutes after it goes up I'm going to flag it as inappropriate myself.  

Why I'm leaving

You probably know the answer to this already but I'd rather just lay it out plain:  The board is boring now.  I don't mind angry arguments and bickering.  That's FINE.  In fact it's what makes the board great.  We don't all get along, we DO get to fight like angry bothers.  Not only that but it was a great mixing place for all the other kids on the playground.  That's really what this place was... an unsupervised playground for all the kids in the neighborhood to bicker and fight and that's fantastic.  But then some kids showed up who thought it'd be fun to just stand by the swings and shout "THIS IS STUPID YOU ARE STUPID THIS IS STUPID" in a little sing-song voice over and over and over again.  

And more joined them.  

Now that's all this place is.  Children chanting the same obnoxious thing over and over and over again.  You can try to argue with them but that's not what they're interested in doing... say what you want about San C... he is interested in arguing with you.  Not drowning you out by being the loudest, he wants to argue with you.  Sure he uses dirty tactics but he'll engage.  San C gets the difference between annoying and provoking.  You can be a HUGE ASSHOLE... as long as you are provoking then you belong here.  It's the annoying obnoxious reptetitive arguments that just aren't interesting anymore... that's what is killing this place.  

The board was always in rough shape once the recruiting well of information dried up... but the overwhelming success of the USC team kept it hopping.  Sure it drove away fans of other teams, but that was easy to ignore because there was so much juicy stuff to argue about from a USC perspective.  I don't think we realized just how bad losing those fans was until it was too late.  Suddenly there were no more opposing fans to chat with, no more recruiting information, and the USC team was declining.  Now all that was left is the single topic of whose fault it was... and thus the chanting screaming retards were allowed to take over.  You're going to attract some of those kinds of folks eventually.  See the Greater Internet Anonymity theory below.  But it falls on the board to remove them.  It's a tough thing to do here because what made this board great was the freedom of speach allowed, but freedom of speach doesn't mean that you need to let someone come into your shop, take a shit on your register, and park in the corner screaming at the top of his lungs.  Stopping that isn't censorship, it's taking care of the garbage.

On Recovery

And really Java, I think you know this.  You've taken care of problems like this in the past.  It's clear that you can't/won't monitor the board like you used to. That's fine.  You've got your own life to live and manage.  Life gets in the way eh?  Still this place is your responsibility.  Not in some big important you need to man up kind of way... in the simple truth 'the buck stops here' kind of way.  Basically it means that you get to decide what kind of place this will be.  Right now it's boring and it's dieing and it's not much fun.  It's buggy as hell, crashes, and gives all kinds of html errors when you try to post often for no reason (I am really sick of that goddamn 'The Message field is required' error).  It is your choice to make it so.  You know what level of moderation (not much but some) is needed here and by choosing not to find someone else to cover for your own inactivity you choose to let the board become what it is today.  Good old Rush said it right, "If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice"  You know how much time you can/will/want to spend here and if that is less than the amount of time needed to tend this garden then you have a few options.  1.  Let it rot as it has so far.  This means that you CHOOSE for the board to be this way.  2.  Get some help from some willing participants that you trust.  It won't take long to set up a system to protect this place from being dull and annoying but allow it to be the WILD west you intend.  3.  Just give up on the whole thing.  I propose that 1 will lead to 3 eventually anyway.

On Cursing

This is going to be fun, this is an argument I've wanted to have for a while, but kept away out of deference for Java and his rules, stupid as they are. 

So seriously you guys... what the fuck is the difference between the word 'fuck' and the word 'f*ck'?  The entire point of a word is to convey meaning... and both of these words convey exactly the same meaning.  Why is 'f*ck' any less inappropriate?  Why do we get to say Betch and Deck and Puzzy but the genuine article is verboten?  Everybody knows what is really being said...  The REAL word (Bitch, Dick, or Pussy) is implanted in the brain of the reader... the Word was spoken... it was just misspelled.  That changes absolutely nothing.  Two words that mean the same thing (even when one is made up like Betch) ARE THE SAME WORD.  Not to mention the same word can mean two very different things given context.  I'm not just talking about how Fag means a gay man, a cigarette, or a bunch of sticks... I'm talking about how the word Bitch has a very different meaning in the phrases "Bitch please"  and "You're a real son of a bitch".  In my opinion THIS is why we don't let children use these words:  They lack the ability to properly judge the context.  Swear words are just like any other word, but they are stronger.  They convey more intense meaning... and as such the writer to understand the context that is appropriate.  Kids lack this and the potential for misuse is great.  That said, even completely misusing the word there is a LOT here that is clean yet far worse for children to read than someone telling someone else to fuck off.

I'm not singling you out here Java, society is fine with us putting up billboards that say "WTF" on them... and it's something I've never understood without resorting to the cynical "People are stupid and simply don't think" response.

While we're on it, Why does Java care about swearing at all?  "Kids read the board?"  Please.  You don't really have a problem with some truly cruel insults and some really foul racism... There's a lot that goes down on this board that is far more dehumanizing and far more inappropriate for children than some guy saying "Person X is a little bitch"  Again, context is the thing.  "What the fuck" is far less inappropriate than "I'm going to fuck your mom with a razorblade"  It all comes down to meaning and intent... and some of the things said here carry with them some incredibly dark intent.  Why is that okay and saying 'fuck' in a funny light context isn't?  It's your board Java, and your rules... I'm not asking you to change them outright, I'm asking you to think about why it is you've banned these particular words.  It's clearly not because people mean terrible things by them.  You let all kinds of terrible things people mean go, and you let the words themselves go if they wear just a tiny bit of makeup.  I wonder if the only reason you kill posts with these words is because you were told once that they are bad so they must be bad.  But you can't find anything wrong with them yourselves so anything that means exactly the same thing is fine.  It's the random collection of alphanumerics that is offensive simply because it IS.  

That's just not critical thinking in my opinion.  

Where to find me
I currently live on Ryan's free board at www.uscfootball.com.  I'm trying to respect the rules there and am taking it relatively easy on my way in, but that's where you can find me if you're interested at all.  I hope that some of the posters I've enjoyed will eventually follow me there...  I have really loved chatting with some of you folks over the years.  I don't care if some of the dickheads here try to follow, because Ryan runs a tight ship (Tighter than I like to be honest) and he'll put your ass in the ground before you become a problem.   Also, feel free to email me at NYTrojan@gmail.com.  as you can imagine that's not my regular email address and I don't check it often (otherwise I wouldn't be willing to post it here for all the spambots to find) but I'll find you eventually.  Maybe we can meet at a game for a beer.  I bring the good stuff.  

Good bye green board, it's been fun.