The cubicle crowd

[The King of Awesome]

Originally Posted by Anxious Nerd

If friendships are being maintained outside of the forums instead, then it makes it very difficult for new people to become involved with them. Even when people continue to post on the forums, it's still with a background of having established relationships. It seems that only by meeting in real life is there a way to break into that. There are people that turn up to April 15 that have very little involvement on the forums any more.

Some people are on the live chat during a show, so there's a window there to try to talk to people.

How is any of this necessarily a problem? I do lots of things outside the forums, and while I would invite everyone except Cretaceous Bob to a gig, I am not obligated to let anyone who shares an interest in KaTG become a part of my social life.

I'm coming at this as someone who did have a strong presence in a different online community for years. I don't know the numbers, but it was more based around the web community (there wasn't a podcast to listen to, so lurking was nothing more than reading threads) and I think it was a larger crowd that grew over time.

The best way I can think of to explain it is that online communities are a unique kind of culture. It takes time to "get it" for yourself, and it takes even longer to really understand that everyone "gets it" differently and to different levels of involvement. Some people only show up to live events. Some only post in forums (and possibly listen to the show). Some are only on chat. Some only listen to the show. And we all vary our level of involvement over time.

In retrospect I'm not quite sure if that was a cohesive response or a jumping off point that went nowhere. Oh well. I'll give you a refund if you aren't satisfied.

[The King of Awesome]

Originally Posted by dEadERest

totally something a keyboardist would say to an arrogant lead guitarist, this is what breaks up bands and shatters lives and is ruining the forums experience for people like junk and it sickens me.

What is this about the keyboardist stuff now?

I don't know enough about Bob to know if his guitar skills are worth acknowledging. I was talking to him based on the way he has treated me, not any kind of music-based rivalry.

[amyuilani]

Originally Posted by dEadERest

is it bad i only skimmed this?

Your choice.

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

the new guests are great but very different from the old school type of guests who were personal friends of K & C and shared deeply ersonal details about themselves on air. I dont enecessarily miss those, but im quite surprised at how for example, mark normand lying is made as a topic, cause i remember, for example, the whole series of troubles with Spooky and his drama or Max, or even Mcnally.

The closest to that was the horrib le fallout with Myka and that one played very differently from then too. something happened and most of what happened was left off air, i think. Rightfully so, i guess but i'm still surpised at how different the audience reaction was.

In the past when something like that ahppened or the slampokes thing happened, there would be different opinions clashing, discussions and different reactions. Now there was an immediate one, then after that, everything silenced. theres a whole new audience here that has no idea of the show's history, doesnt care about it and buys everything said on the show with no attempt at any form of discussion.

If they say Myka is bad, it's dogma that she is. no reaction allowed.

And that goes with people too. slampokes got cast out in a blink. other people become demi gods here and youre supposed to like them without question.

theres a whole new forced unnatural air in the community that i have been feeling lately. the firendships are maintained elsewhere, and where i used to LOVe to come here and interact with others, now it feels like a chore that id o more out of habit than anything else. and i aint the only one.

I completely agree with this. As of this post, there are 1398 shows available to download (not counting the live shows). Many new fans (within the last 2 years or so) will not go back to listen to the first 800. Luckily I joined in around the 300's so I've listened to the majority of them, and have gone back to select older shows (not all of them). The show has evolved, and as such, the fanbase has. These forums were once a place to congregate over a shared interest of something new and growing. Now the show is well established and has a presence in its field. That kind of recognition will not draw the same audience. It's like people who only followed Will Ferrell after "Anchorman" but didn't bother to go back and see any of his "Saturday Night Live" work.

I don't listen to the shows right away; in fact, it's usually a week before I can listen. I think I am still on "All That Glitters." Therefore, I don't participate in the show threads. By the time I have an opinion on the show, it's done and no one is talking about it anymore. So maybe the crowds have moved from talking shite to show talk. Perhaps that's another thing - we want something to talk about, and we're not interested in having conversations that devolve into name-calling and trolling. A lot of the forums posts have gone that way, and that's too immature for a lot of people to hang around for.

[william]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

I meant by join date.

You're probably the oldest regular poster as I no longer do.

Remember you from - I think it was - the first live show.

[Junkenstein]

yeah but while the whole thing is understandablòe and logical, something about the classic description of the KATG fanbvase as a "tight community" where people are friendly and accepting and close as a family (as it got described in many people who tried to sum up one of the shows' unique traits), to me doesnt exist anymore.

people get new friends at the meetups but mostly cause they are attended by lots of people and most of them are looking to get new friends, which is cool but slightly different form the tribe feeling that it had even a year ago.

to be clearer: when i discovered the show, i thought i discoverted a special thing that kin da changed my life for the better. if it happened now, id say i discovered a great show thats enetertaining and top quality, but id barely notice the forums, and the "community" aspect wouldnt even occur to me. And while regularly listening, i wouldnt feel emotionally as involved as i was then. if at all. the show is still fun, and i wouldnt ever stop supporting or listening but it doesnt have that special vibe that the fanbase had anymore

maybe ive changed.

[lushrain]

The sense of community on the KATG forums that seems to be lost can be attributed to the different avenues now to communicate with people online.

When KATG started there wasn't many social networking opportunities. The forums was the place to connect with KATG fans and talk about the day to day things and discuss topics. Now that Facebook, twitter, etc are so prevalent it makes the Forums just a place for discussions about topics.

And while that is great it doesn't necessarily always foster relationships that can be matured in the forums setting. They will eventually move to the other social venues out there.

Also I think there was a good chunk of KATG people that liked the forums for the more social aspect rather than topic discussions. Once that seemed to be cut off , they moved to the other venues.

April 15 is amazing (I can only assume) but it isn't the only place to meet KATG fans. The meetups I was referencing were the more local meetups. I really think Team Drunk Ottawa, TD SoCal, and the other groups that formed really helped to keep the KATG sense of community alive. Having like minded people close to you does help a bit more, though I have many cherished KATG friends who live far away.

There are fans everywhere and meetups can happen. You just need to work at it a bit and it is possible.

[campy]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

maybe ive changed.

Guaranteed you've changed over the last 7 years the show has been on....maybe you got tired of the forum shenannigans, they are so tedious at times. I was on Rogan's forums about a month ago, his show is still fairly new...I think 18 months-2 years old, something like that. The forums there are INSANE. I am guessing a lot like KaTG was when the show was 2 years old. The show now is established and there are a multitude of places to communicate, these forums are but one.

I agree with you Junk about how some players have been vilified on the show...slampokes is a great example. I don't think how that went down was clean and pretty, to me, it was awkward and uncomfortable to listen to. It felt a bit like listening to a bullying session in high school. Anyway...that kind of nonsense isn't usually featured on the show but if you were a newer listener and you heard how both of these forum participants were treated on the show would you want to join in the conversation?

[DWarrior]

Originally Posted by campy

I agree with you Junk about how some players have been vilified on the show...slampokes is a great example. I don't think how that went down was clean and pretty, to me, it was awkward and uncomfortable to listen to. It felt a bit like listening to a bullying session in high school. Anyway...that kind of nonsense isn't usually featured on the show but if you were a newer listener and you heard how both of these forum participants were treated on the show would you want to join in the conversation?

Because she was totally nice and not a bitch then.

[campy]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

Because she was totally nice and not a bitch then.

I'm not saying she wasn't bitchy, I just found the way it played out on the show bullyish. I can see how that, out of context, might make a newbie who would want to join the online community, think twice.

or not...it's just an opinion.

[Jo_Culprit]

Originally Posted by campy

I'm not saying she wasn't bitchy, I just found the way it played out on the show bullyish. I can see how that, out of context, might make a newbie who would want to join the online community, think twice.

or not...it's just an opinion.

Slampokes would've been fine if she didn't insist on pushing it so far. After the initial back and forth with Erik a lot of people including myself thought she was in the right, but the following episode where she made that song and was really douchey about smearing and defaming Erik was too much.

My reaction to the Slampokes thing was that it was just a shame, a shame she had to push it so far and keep on digging at Erik like the audience was her personal army.


And while I'm at it the whole Myka Fox incident is fairly different from the incidents with spooky and jeremy. Myka didn't have a forums presence and wasn't a constant fixture in the katg events. People did jump on her about for what went down but overwhelmingly I think the reaction was that it was simply and shame that things transpired that way, the whole incident seemed to me like Myka's ADD got in the way of logical thought and things weren't registering. In comparison to the Spooky downfall however, I think it started simply from a critical comment spooky made that was recieved by Keith and Chemda in a way he had never fathomed when he wrote it, it was a very aspie comment and he tried to back track but got crucified and dug himself deeper because he wasn't receptive to the feelings he had hurt. I miss Spooks and Jeremy because I think they just had extreme aspie moments when their brains exploded and they couldn't deal impact of what they had said. I think I have had many moments like this is past and by chance they just haven't been anything major.