[civilian_number_two]

In all fairness, the majority of threads on that site include numbers of detractors. I found threads in Ep III predictions entirely devoted to the question "Can Lucas save the series?" So the prevailing myth that it's all gushers and the usual "get a life" arguments isn't 100% accurate.

That said, the first couple of replies to my post ignored the great writing, the disclaimers and the self-effacing humour, and went right into non-sequiters like "you were disappointed because your expectations were too high." Sigh. Like I need to be psychoanalyzed by a total starnger who's known me for less than 1000 words.

That is not really a typical thread, but most of the folks posting in it are the wost of the forum in general.

I don't kknow what you did to get banned Jordan, since looking around I saw all manner of criticism. Did you say you used language? I'm reckless here; I figure fuck it, Chef's cooler than Jesus, shit mon. But I was pretty careful over there.

[Jordan]

I was banned from the offical starwars forums. www.starwars.com.

[Chefelf]

I figure fuck it, Chef's cooler than Jesus, shit mon. But I was pretty careful over there.

Wow, that's high praise. If I'd said the same thing about myself they'd be printing out pages and pages from chefelf.com's archives and burning them in big piles down south.

Please alert them that NightLIFE is NOT me! I'm nowhere on that forum because they won't let me sign up and no one involved in forum administration will answer my emails! I don't know what to do. I'd love to join in the discussion but my validation email never came through and they won't send me a password reminder either.

Damn.

And to address what Jordan has said, theforce.net seems much more accepting than starwars.com. A much better community in my opinion.

[Heccubus]

I figure fuck it, Chef's cooler than Jesus, shit mon. But I was pretty careful over there.

Whoa, watch it now...that kind of talk ruined the Beatles...

[Heccubus]

ALSO:
Don't sign up just to cause trouble over there. They're already upset with Chefelf, and if he has reason to defend himself and his views, he has every right to. What he doesn't need, however, are a bunch of people going over there thumbing their noses on his behalf. Do you really think you're helping anything by doing that? Let them go on with their little bitch session, and it will eventually fade from their minds once they get it over with.

[civilian_number_two]

Hecc, I know where your heart is, and God bless you, but I think cease and desist letters ought to come from Chef.

Anyway, my first impulse was to sign up just to prove that Chef has been banned. And if you read my posts very carefully, you will see I didn't go over there to pick any fights. I did what I do, and frankly with a little more care than I think they were ready to acknowledge, given that the majority of what I said in those posts was ignored, and the best anyone could do was to make some ham-handed crack about how I was a grown-up complaining about failed expectations.

I resisted the urge to point out to the folks there that Chef wanted to visit and discuss and defend his point of view, since I thought that might get him even more banned. I decided it's possible Chef needs to reset his junk mail filter or something. If he has been pre-emptively banned, that's enough reason for me never to post there again. The lamest thing, I think, would be for him to have to sign up with a name other than Chefelf, just to "sneak" in.

Anyway, I feel like I've done there all that I can do: I pointed out that Chef is a real person, that it's hypocritical to say behind a man's back that he has no right to say things about another man behind his back, and that Chef's comments come from a place of fandom, not from the get-a-life place everyone else starts from. I also mentioned that from Chef's list I had a sense of who he is, even though he's a total stranger. I think comments of that nature are lost on frothing fanboys, but I say they mean a lot to someone interested in the nature of dialogue. Beyond that, I think there's no helping those guys, like you say.

I looked in the TPM forums for a similar thread about TPM reasons, but there's a lot of stuff there and if it's there it's old and I missed it.

-civ (cooler than Jesus, Odin and Gandalf all put together!)

edited to replace a word, but I added a sentence while I still can!

This post has been edited by civilian_number_two: 22 August 2004 - 11:38 PM

[Jordan]

Please alert them that NightLIFE is NOT me! I'm nowhere on that forum because they won't let me sign up and no one involved in forum administration will answer my emails!

I already did that.

[Chefelf]

Everyone is creating an intelligent discussion over at TFN. Of course, I am still not hearing back from them as far s why they won't let me sign up. I created another user name, however, I just don't feel right posting as something other than "chefelf". It's like missing a part of my soul... or something.

[Sagacity]

I didn't mean to start up another basher vs. gusher war. I posted about that thread because anything representing a desenting opinion of AOTC is quite rare. The bashers have been run off that board. (The ROTS board is even less friendly, if that's possible.) It is kind of strange that the thread has been open this long. But I'm familiar with one of the forum's mods, so he might less inclined to stamp out something like this too quickly, since he posts in the longest running bashers' thread on the boards. (Go figure. )

I feel kinda bad about all this.

This post has been edited by Sagacity: 23 August 2004 - 09:44 AM

[Chefelf]

Don't feel bad about any of it. I'm glad you brought it to our attention.

As for the bashers vs. gushers thing, I can understand their viewpoint. I'm sure it's very annoying for the mods to see that debate come up time and time again. On other technical forums I moderate we try to keep that sort of discussion to a minimum as it generally ends in flaming.

However, if the discussion is to be a critical analysis of my critical anlysis then I'm all for that. If anyone wants to tear apart my reasons I think that's healthy and I want to see what people have to say.

I think that largely civilian_number_two has had the best arguments on that thread. That's not just because I agree with him, but because I feel his responses have been well thought out and quite well put.

[Just your average movie goer]

I always love Civilian's posts. They're always intelligent and always worth reading. He doesn't post anything meaningless... ever.

[civilian_number_two]

Hooray for me! Yay!

Blahmbabago!

[Just your average movie goer]

Oh no... it's gone to his head.

[Paladin]

Those people are the most screwed bunch I've ever seen. I joined StarWars.com way, way back in 1997/98 (I think) but I never posted in the forums because I didn't even know what a forum was back then. All I did was check out the bios on the actors/characters and voted on the polls.

Frankly, listing to people bitching and flaming about other people is not for me. One of the things which confuse me is that the fact that moderators don't do much about it. Much like Game Masters on some free-form RPG websites that harrassed me and drove me to losing my temper and start doing things I normally don't do.

[Paladin]

Deleted, redunant

This post has been edited by Paladin: 23 August 2004 - 10:30 AM