Seriously, Let's Talk

[Talon87]

In the (more or less) two weeks I've spent time away from UPN, I didn't think it would change my outlook on the forum. But after coming back last night, I have to say, I'm really not that enthused about returning to "the same old, same old." It seems, in hindsight, like a big fucking waste of time where I've spent a lot of time ...

a) arguing with people for no fucking reason other than to let off steam, and that's not cool
b) talking about things that nobody else is interested in except me and maybe one other person
c) replying to basically anything that moves

I guess all of those desires have been kind of zapped just by breaking the circuit for the last two weeks, and I have no desire to "restart the engine." I'd rather just let it stay dead and find a better way to spend my time at UPN.

It's also occurred to me that nobody treats UPN as their "homebase forum" anymore. Doppel posts at 4chan; I post all over the place and while I consider this place "home" I guess I really don't have an Internet home anymore; dami and Blastoise go off to who knows where and come back here every once in a while for some politics, economics, or what have you; and the little kids in Fizzy Bubbles all seem to be prominent BMG and SPPf community members while only posting here for the Fizzy Bubbles side of things.

I would like to change that; otherwise, I think I'd just rather leave. Because I've realized that I'm wasting too much time in my life posting and waiting to read posts here that really haven't amounted to much of anything except chitter-chatter for the past 3 years. I don't mind staying on, but only if we as a community can come together and start discussing stuff -- real stuff.

To that effect, I'll try and get the ball rolling.

[enchantress]

Originally Posted by Xuande

It's also occurred to me that nobody treats UPN as their "homebase forum" anymore.... [/other stuff]... and the little kids in Fizzy Bubbles all seem to be prominent BMG and SPPf community members while only posting here for the Fizzy Bubbles side of things.

*cough* I've never hidden the fact that I prefer UPN over SPPF and BMG. I have nothing against Serebii Admin, or even the board itself, they just have too many idiots over there which is why I've never really been able to "click" with the board as a whole. BMG has improved lately, and while I don't dislike the board, UPN has and always will be my favourite of the three. I started off here, and have always put UPN first. I don't see that changing any time in the near future. Can't say I disagree with the last part of that quoted statement though :/

[Talon87]

I guess I should clarify, I am trying to get the ball rolling by posting about issues I care about but think that others do, too, and certainly have opinions on that they can voice. If the threads prove to be duds, then that'll be my signal I guess to just stop coming to UPN except maybe once every few months. If the threads prove to be popular with our current userbase, then I'll try to keep posting similar discussions, and perhaps eventually we can start building a "3rd generation" of UPN.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Xuande

It's also occurred to me that nobody treats UPN as their "homebase forum" anymore. Doppel posts at 4chan; I post all over the place and while I consider this place "home" I guess I really don't have an Internet home anymore; dami and Blastoise go off to who knows where and come back here every once in a while for some politics, economics, or what have you; and the little kids in Fizzy Bubbles all seem to be prominent BMG and SPPf community members while only posting here for the Fizzy Bubbles side of things.

I still treat UPN as my default forum, even with duties at AP or abroad. I haven't posted on Yotsuba in ages it seems, I've been too busy trying to survive this quarter - it's like trying to scale Mount Vesuvius during an eruption. Once I get past this quarter, it'll be smooth sailing for the next year until I graduate, so I'll have more time to post.

I haven't been posting recently because I am quite literally swamped with work, and there's no interesting anime or manga to read at the moment - the only shows I'm continuing to watch are Geass and Soul Eater, which are weekly events that occur at the same time. So I'd only be here on Sunday, and I'll have to delay this Sunday's meeting to prepare for my Monday exam.

Originally Posted by Xuande

I would like to change that; otherwise, I think I'd just rather leave. Because I've realized that I'm wasting too much time in my life posting and waiting to read posts here that really haven't amounted to much of anything except chitter-chatter for the past 3 years. I don't mind staying on, but only if we as a community can come together and start discussing stuff -- real stuff.

Sure, though I'm not sure what you mean by "real stuff". I should note that in comparison to other forums (BMG, AP) UPN still ranks as the best forum I go to, as most of the people here are intelligent/educated/mature enough to have civil discussion and not talk about the most banal things or spam just to get some kind of cheap laughs.

I mean, let me read off to you the topics in AP's General forum right now, Talon -

1. What are you listening to right now.
2. Post Your pics, part deux.
3. What pisses you off 3.
4. Youtube Accounts.
5. Can you do the robot?

Bloody horrible stuff! Even Yotsuba when I went there hasn't had fresh material in a while, it's the same old same old trolling. So I stopped going...moot really killed the place with /a/day.

Originally Posted by enchantress

BMG has improved lately, and while I don't dislike the board, UPN has and always will be my favourite of the three.

I've been undergoing some nostalgia for Pokemon, so I went back to BMG and discovered my Pacman score had been toppled for nearly a year, so I've been warming up to best it (I got 10K on my second game but my score didn't transfer over...) and I started talking about One Piece to an audience who (seemed) to be interested in discussing it. That wasn't the case - the topic I entered was just an excuse to bash 4Kids and put pressure on people to buy the English R1s, opposing arguments are not welcome here dear troll!

I'm annoyed that people older than I am call me a troll for disagreeing with them or because I chose to oppose the majority view, so I currently have a slightly tained opinion of BMG, though I'm considering donating to keep it alive if I get a job this summer.

[Lunar Delta]

If you want to talk seriously, you should give me a call sometime...

[deoxys]

I'm willing to talk about anything, but I usually don't have much to talk about; I'm a pretty boring guy, nothing exciting ever happens. This is my last week of high school, I'm legal in two weeks, I graduate in three weeks, and I'm visiting Patches in four weeks.

That's my life.

I'm boring. And dull. The end.

That's why I usually wait for other people to start topics so you can give us something discuss, but I can never really think of anything anymore. I think no matter how many times I've tried leaving, and no matter how many times I've wanted to leave, and no matter how many times the forum seems to die, I keep coming back no matter what, simply because UPN is where I grew up. I used to be OBSESSED with this site. I'd want to get home every day from school just to see what was posted on UPN and FB (hell, sometimes I couldn't wait, and I'd get on the computers at school with kids gathering around me). Then I started to outgrow FB and left. And I want to experience it again, so I tried coming back twice now, but I can't do it. I just can't bring myself to enjoying it like I used to, as much as I wish I could.

tl;dr: I can't leave UPN because UPN has become a part of me while I was growing up.

Sure, it was originally BMGf, back when I was like 8 and 9 (I've been following BMG since it was a freaking GEOCITIES site; I was one of the very first BMGers!), but then one day the site up and disappeared, so I gave up on forums. I was also a Universal Pokemon Network nerd, so I frequently visited that site as well, until it too died.

Then I searched for UPN one summer day in 2003 when I was bored, and look where it brought me.

That's why I can't leave. That and look what has happened? I mean, if it weren't for UPN, I would never have met the person I'd truly fall in love with. What are the odds of that? You can say what you want, criticizing or otherwise, but quite honestly you don't have any idea how serious the relationship between Patches and I has gotten.

Back on topic, yeah, I still come here about once every two days, just to look around even. But as of lately there hasn't been much happening. I think with Talon's two week leave it just goes to show that in all honesty, he keeps the forum alive (lets face it, the forums been pretty damn dead since he's been gone...)

No matter what though, UPN is my home and always will be.

[Talon87]

Well, I can believe it -- insofar as I envisioned me, Blaise, and Rebecca living a Bohemian lifestyle in a 2-person apartment the other day when I imagined what I'm going to do with myself this coming year. Then I remembered, "She's in Minnesota, I'm in Indiana, and he's in Georgia. It's not going to happen."

Sometimes I think that's a real problem I have -- always shooting down dreams and crazy ideas because I over-rationalize them instead of just indulging in the insanity and seeing where it takes me. Some might call it "caution," but I've begun to wonder if it's more like "suffocation." I dunno. Some days I consider purchasing a one-way plane ticket to NYC and begging Loki to get his family to come pick me up.

Loki: w, have fun with the hobos, Talon.
Talon: ;_;

I mean, you read about this shit in books all the time -- memoirs, too, not fictional narratives. *siiiiiiiiiiiiigh* Oh well.

And you say you're boring. Apparently not -- you're the one who got the girl!

[deoxys]

I do...but that doesn't mean I'm not boring as hell u.u

I know, I've thought of that too. My dreams have gone crazy as well, I actually once had an idea that we could all travel to Japan on a two week vacation or something and meet at the Tokyo airport and go around as a group and hang out.

No way in hell that'd work...

Remember how we almost met Talon? How cool would that have been? And you know it's so odd to know that I'm only like a 3 hour drive from you...

[Talon87]

You know what's odder? If you're at ACen this year, I may be too (for the first time ever) and then we really could arrange to meet.

Reasons not to attend ACen:
1- not in the mood (if I do poorly in school)
2- expense
3- sharing a room with 1 friend and 5 of his friends, i.e. fat smelly strangers
4- being surrounded by so many weeaboos when all I want to do is just hang out with my friends who have been begging me to come for years now (since the one in '05)

So I doubt it will happen. But it could happen!

[Lindz]

bleh I'm admittedly shallow and my interests are few and far between. So alot of your "real stuff" to talk about doesn't interest me. And even if it did thats not why I come online. Briefly escaping serious business stuff ta poke about and discuss funner thing is really what I use the 'net for. So I'm useless as always.

[Talon87]

What is "fun" to discuss to you?

[The Morg]

I agree with Namek's post.

When most of us are looking for some serious intellectual discussion, a Pokemon board doesn't exactly come to mind. Even though we all seem to come here to chat with the cool smart people we've met over the years, it's still just a Pokemon board and I think there's no chance of starting some "third generation" and turning it into something else. Not that you can't have some good intellectual discussion here, it's just that looking for it on a Pokemon board of all things is kind of odd.

I wouldn't agree that UPN has been a complete waste of time, though. There have to be some instances where posts on UPN have enriched or contributed to your life somehow. Such as when ajnrules translated that Vii infomercial, or when Mcsweeney got you to play MJ, or if you've ever posted looking for advice and didn't get trolled. Small things, maybe, but they are there. UPN isn't all bad.

And if I ever move to NYC, you're welcome to come along.

[Hanatori2]

I lurk around many boards and post in a few others, but UPN has more or less been my "main" board for quite a while - it's about the only place where I feel comfortable posting. I only go to SPPf for the PASBL, which I've lost interest in over the past year. So now it's really just for the Time Out forums. As for BMGf, I used to post over there quite often a few years ago, but now I only go there to post my art.

I'm not a particularly interesting person - I excel in school, I draw, I spend too much time online, and that's me in a nutshell. I'm not very opinionated, as embarrassing as it is to admit it, and I rarely have anything interesting to contribute to a discussion, which is why you'll almost never see me posting in any serious discussions. As for my interests, I get the feeling that nobody would share them, and that it'd feel like I'm talking to a wall, for lack of a better way to put it. And though I have plenty of ideas in my head that I wouldn't really mind posting here, I always find myself shooting them down because I'm afraid of failing spectacularly and/or looking like an idiot.

[Kasumi Violet]

This is the only forum I belong to these days. Normally I just read blogs.

-KV

[Lunar Delta]

Originally Posted by Talon

Well, I can believe it -- insofar as I envisioned me, Blaise, and Rebecca living a Bohemian lifestyle in a 2-person apartment the other day when I imagined what I'm going to do with myself this coming year.

Man, that sounds truly awesome. Certainly more awesome than rotting in this house all day.

[SulcataIxlude]

Hai Talon sorry if my posts have contributed to your 'burnt out' feelings with this board. Myself my life is rather average (until I moved to Indonesia where it became uber pwnage), and usually I don't contribute much to convos or debate against folks, because I am lazy to respond to stuff like that on the net (although I am a forum surfing addict.) About talking about stuff you might only have interest in and nobody else seems to harbor any: welcome to SI's world both on the net and irl. :P Just find forums where folks have same hobbies as you and go from there.

*Takes off clothes, and rolls around in Durian sauce.*

If all else fails, just do something spontanious, it can really help eradicate those boring almost helpless moments in your online life!

Love from,

SI: UPN pornstar, Lord of Annoyance and QQ, and master at doing WTF things since 2003.

[Kasumi Violet]

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek

Man, that sounds truly awesome. Certainly more awesome than rotting in this house all day.

I just don't see that turning out as well as either of you two envision it.

- KV

[Muyotwo]

Originally Posted by deoxys

That's why I can't leave. That and look what has happened? I mean, if it weren't for UPN, I would never have met the person I'd truly fall in love with. What are the odds of that?

It's more likely than you think :x

UPN was my first forum, so will always be home to me. You guys are awesome. Even Talon.

[Lady Kuno]

I've been posting on another forum for a few years now. However this is still the board I like the most, and the biggest reason I don't post more is because it's so empty or nothing where I can contribute. As for my interests I'm always reading up on the Anon vs CoS stuff, and also playing FFXI alot. The only anime I really watch these days is One Piece, as I don't like most of those these days. Also anything gender-bending related is a guarenteed way to get my attention.

[Blastoise]

Originally Posted by Holy Emperor

Also anything gender-bending related is a guarenteed way to get my attention.

Is...is there something we should know?

[Patches]

I don't really come here often enough to contribute anything really, but I have noticed that when I do come here no matter how spread apart the time from one visit to the other is, there is usually still always the same topics. So I'm glad this discussion was brought up. I think it's people like me who help with causing lack of discussion. I have rarely ever posted anything in the Misc, and its been that way since I came in 2003. I've done a lot of reading but no posting, which is more of what this site needs.

I still don't come here often enough to make much of a difference but when I find myself reading a random thread, instead of keeping my opinions in my head I'm going to actually post a reply every once in a while. The thing with the people who just read is that they all must have an opinion or an interest in the topic to keep reading it to begin with. I know I always have.

As for the conversation thing, I think we should have a combination of topics where some are intellectual and others are more laid back, but not so laid back that you are just spamming the place with annoyances. >.>;;

I really think what this place needs is for more of the members to begin opening up and sharing their ideas and opinions..

Eh.. My interests are pretty simple. Video games and sleep pretty much sum me up. I'm a caffeine addict too.. I'm also an internet nerd, I spend hours at a time online. Like right now, I should be in bed because I have to get up in like 3 1/2 hours. But no, I'm on UPN instead of sleeping. xP .. I pretty much do all that and talk to deo from the second I wake up until I go to sleep.. Pretty uninteresting but eh, I have no complaints.

[Lady Kuno]

Originally Posted by Blastoise

Is...is there something we should know?

Clearly you need to lurk moar. You must have missed the posts Talon would make about that and our discussions.

[Muyotwo]

*cold waters Kuno*

[Lady Kuno]

I should have seen that coming a mile away.

In other news I havn't watched Ranma in years.

[Kasumi Violet]

I'm thinking we need a book club. Anyone else up?

- KV