I took a look at Topix recently and the Offbeat Forum changed it's name to the "Weird Forum".
Well, that is weird. And weirder, they opted to use "Offbeat" elsewhere, under a new format which is geared towards quirky offbeat news and requires registration to comment. What- a concept?
As I've noted here over the years, Topix has been in steady decline for several years now. It's my opinion that they let the inmates run the asylum a few years ago, letting their more active trolls into positions of power as moderators. The likes of Angelique 770, ArtGal, Billy R and their friends kept the forums on life support. I always felt they had a few main players who knew how to work the room and involve other people. That's where the Chicago regulars and the Clique came into play. People like to feel they belong to something whether it's a message board gang, church group or the Ku Klux Klan.
Mind you- the three people I mentioned above might be one actual person. It doesn't really matter. These are characters. There are real people behind these characters but, none are real people, just their character selves. Like, I'm Ferrerman and I am a bottom spanker but, I'm not a bottom spanker. I think most people can make the distinction. It's always bemused me when people wondered where so and so had "gone off to"? The answer usually was that someone forgot the password to that character or just simply got bored with them. Angelique 770 would change profiles as she went along and add others, mostly to play that game. I believe only an employee could have that luxury. Don't try that stunt at home, trolls. Better yet, do try it. I'm sure mods got nothing better to do than swap out avatars for anyone who wants one....Give it a shot!
Anyway, I don't think the folks at Topix are internet geniuses. The bigger forums were never really that popular anyway. If 1200 people were actually looking at Topix at any given time, so what? This is a nation of 310 million people and Topix is world wide. It was never a big audience. They seemed to make their money in volume with something like ten thousand(?) small local forums, all over the world. Maybe more? It adds up, I reckon.
So, the demise of a forum like the Main or (the old) Offbeat doesn't really spell disaster. They're still bigger than the Podunk, Kentucky thread. Just not better. They become just another small thread in a cesspool of small threads.
Just about every local forum is a troll fest of people fighting with each other. People can be jerks. Chat boards are a way of expressing that jerkiness. Exploiting that jerkiness, giving a voice to that jerkiness, has been the way Topix has made their living. That might be changing with their new format that seems to discourage hardcore trolling. I'm just guessing but, I think that they are limiting identities to one to a customer on the new forums. The rest of Topix is still open to jerks with dozens of avatars and proxy servers to 'hide' and create 'socks'. I imagine there will always be a market for that just like there is coffee for most of us and crystal meth for the rest.
I won't be going there. They are more than a day late and a dollar short in this new venture. And, unfortunately for them, I think they still have the same cast of characters. What's new about that?
8 comments:
Topix is desperate and hoping to reinvent itself, but after what I've witnessed I really don't give a shit. The small town forums are left to their own devices and people get hurt regularly. The so-called moderators are not what people think they are. They're trolls. Why follow them so they can fuck with people on a new forum?
Don't believe me? When ArtGal faked her death lots of people tried starting threads to talk about it on her hometown forum. Latrobe is a small forum that rarely gets more than 40 people viewing yet those threads got pulled within minutes, for a dead chick. The mods didn't intervene when she was bullshitting everyone but they sure stepped up to protect her name in her hometown forum. Out of all of Topix, one of them rushed to Latrobe and kept any mention of what she'd done out of there. Ask yourself why.
She did have a lot of pull for a dead chick!
I bet they plan to let the small town forums go on as per usual. They are the farm system for the Big Forums that may just rise again when they realize not enough people might like a structured, well-moderated forum, not run by The Troll Authority.
The ArtGal thing is the weirdest stunt I've ever seen on Topix and yes, she's over there in Latrobe posting away in gray and even letting others in her own hometown forum thing she's dead after getting that "twisted lung" and all. lol IDK why she's being protected by the mods unless, of course, she IS one.
Ferr, you're not really a bottom spanker? How disappointing.
Your reading comprehension is all misconscrewed. I am a bottom-spanker but I'm not a bottom-spanker. PAY ATTENTION!
ArtGal was never anything but a liar, just like Billy and Suique. They're all supposedly so educated and financially well off yet they spend the majority of their time on Topix. If they're working for them they sure as shit don't make much more than minimum wage and if they're not, well, they're just terrible liars as well as ugly people.
Billy runs a successful business while he posts on Topix all day and sends presents to women who aren't his wife. Makes sense. Suique was a married psychologist before she was just a working single girl looking for points. ArtGal was the biggest liar of all but it appears her bad habit bleeds over into real life. She posted about her many degrees and her ability to retire in her 30s and live off her investments. Did she think anyone would buy that bullshit? Apparently she can't even get her kids to believe half of what she says so Topix isn't her only problem. Maybe the benefits are good;) She's alive and well and gray boxing because her life is really THAT wonderful. LOL
I just recently took a little foray into the "wierd" (formerly offbeat) forum. WOW!!! My head still hurts. Until that point, I didn't know what psychotic looked like. I never thought for a moment that it could be seen in text. For those of you that are able to venture there, and return with your sanity intact, my hat goes off to you. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the vast majority of what is posted there. I thought the main forum was becoming a sespool. Boy was I ever wrong. I tried "politix" some time ago, and didn't last long there either. The end of politix for me came when, I was kicked off for calling out one of their regulars that was claiming that if the "socialist Kenyan" was re-elected, he was moving his "million" dollar company to Spain. SPAIN mind you. A country so socialist that it makes Canada look like teaparty central.
I don't think that topix is done for. Even though it has become the depths of insanity. I bet they just move forum names around until it is unrecognizable to most and their registration numbers increase a bit.
It's the "click click click" that makes the money for them.
Spain! LOL! I remember when the ACA first passed and some threatened to move to Canada....
I haven't had any interest in the Politix forum. My experience with Topix mods is that they don't need any more access to my life than they already have. A few of them are regular readers of this space though!
byline: Deer Whisperer/Luke
For me, Offbeat/Weird is "just" different than what it was. The name doesn't really matter.
It is better in these aspects:
1. Organized cannibalization of posters outside the favored group(s) is less.
2. There is more balance in social and political commentary posts, since topix doesn't have much restriction on that in an "offbeat/weird" section.
And there was prevalent correlation "back in the day".
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