Jeff Freeman

Back in March of ‘06, I wrote a snarky post titled “Forums are Bad” in which I accused official game forums of being antiquated, and of assaulting fan-site health and well-being.

In December of ‘06, I posted an update and clarification, and events had transpired which caught-up my much-earlier post as though it were relevant.

Apparently those two posts are still the most popular things on this blog, despite not having been here for a couple months now.

So… I have reposted the more recent one, here, old as it is.

Forums Are Misunderstood

Little the content of the previous “Forums are Bad” post actually supported that position.

I know… few writers use words in such a way as they mean something other than what they say, or even nothing. It’s confusing, I’m sure. Sorry ’bout that: That’s just my “brilliant” - as they say - style at work.

Or you might say, “idiotic style”… Could be either one. Since you can’t tell what I’m really saying, you have no way of knowing.

I’m not reposting ‘Forums Are Bad’, because the above was intended to be a clarification of it, and so says the same thing as it was meant to say.

But here’s a link to Rich Bryant’s rant, which actually does say what you think “Forums Are Bad” would have.

I do want to point-out how dated the ‘Forums Are Misunderstood’ post is by now.

More up to date words have appeared on the internet since then, mostly used in the more traditional manner where a word’s definition maps to its usage.

Most recently (as of… now!) , these:

• MMORPG reports on the AGDC Panel Discussion: Community 101
• The Escapist presents ‘So You Want Read An Article About Making A Fansite’
• Gamasutra describes the AGDC Panel Discussion: “Users Are Like Fiddles: Play ‘em”
  • And “Aether”, lead fiddler at Flying Lab’s Pirate Research Facility, clarified the above in his post, “Christ, don’t tell them that!”

I may have gotten the titles wrong on those last two, but nevertheless, I do recommend you read the above sort of recent discussions on community management by community managers, rather than an ancient clarification of an even older snarky post from a guy whose qualifications on the topic probably don’t even match your own.

Not that I didn’t have it all 100% correct despite what anyone else thinks, but you know… just giving some unbiased advice here.

I can do that even when you’d think bias would be inescapable, because I’m just that awesome (though, again, I don’t recommend you take my word for that).

Besides, Shawn Ketcherside has it right, so keep this in mind no matter where the tubes take you:

No One. Knows. Anything.

Maybe. I don’t know, of course.

(Also: Damn! Can those pro writers punctuate or what? I have a tough time throwing even a single stop-dot into a paragraph of text, but check that out. He’s like a ninja with those things.)