Making WOWAY Great Again: A History Of What Went Wrong

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Big Spoon
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Re: Making WOWAY Great Again: A History Of What Went Wrong

Post by Big Spoon »

anthontherun wrote:-Fan videos/Rifftrax
Man, I had so much fun with the Rifftrax we did back in the day. Would love to do another one sometime.
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Teh Dingo
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Re: Making WOWAY Great Again: A History Of What Went Wrong

Post by Teh Dingo »

Teh Dingo (then known as Spacedingo)
Yep. The forum all went to crap when I landed on Earth. :P


A big problem with the vets is we're all Al'ed out. We've had these discussions millions of times, so it's hard to get involved in discussions from people just discovering Al. And maybe that is unfair to them. They shouldn't feel discouraged by the vets, but it's hard. I've been here since 2003. When I started, my niece was in first grade. Now she's 20 :blink: I've talked about pretty much everything on this forum I have an interest in. And I'm sure all the other vets feel that way in one way or another. That's why when Al does something new, you see all the vets rush back in at once (Another thing to remember: Back when a lot of us started posting, it seemed like Al was a distant memory in music history, only putting out albums for our amusement...you kids today have no idea how good you have it. And get off my lawn!).


I don't bring that up to imply that we own Al and he should put out something new every week just so we don't get bored, but it does seem like it leads to a disconnect between us and the newer members. We can come off as intimidating and elitist, even when we're not trying. I'm not saying we should force ourselves into discussions that are popping up on this forum for the 27th time, but maybe every once in a while we should let the new kids know that we still get it. We think Al's awesome and we don't think he stopped being awesome (Otherwise we'd just leave the forum entirely).


There have been some dark chapters on this forum. But other forums I've been on (Unmodded, I might add) have had it much worse. We've seen our share of flamewars, trolls, one members....interesting collection of fanart, but nothing like other forums I've been too (Even forums much more active then WOWAY have nightly spambot attacks that clutter the main page......glad I don't have to weed those gardens in the morning). I think that's something we should be proud of (In an amazingly geeky way). And WOWAY is worth fighting for and keeping alive because of that.


Also I don't believe dingo was ever a member of the uncensored forums...

From what I remember, the height of WOWAY U was in the midst of my family's property dispute, and I was an insufferable little anus back then (Whether I still am, that's up to you). It's probably for the best I wasn't invited.
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anthontherun
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Re: Making WOWAY Great Again: A History Of What Went Wrong

Post by anthontherun »

Teh Dingo wrote:A big problem with the vets is we're all Al'ed out. We've had these discussions millions of times, so it's hard to get involved in discussions from people just discovering Al. And maybe that is unfair to them. They shouldn't feel discouraged by the vets, but it's hard. I've been here since 2003. When I started, my niece was in first grade. Now she's 20 :blink: I've talked about pretty much everything on this forum I have an interest in. And I'm sure all the other vets feel that way in one way or another.
I agree in a way, but I also think it means we have the responsibility of coming up with ideas for cool new topics and even fresh ways to talk about old ones. We had topics to talk about favorite and least favorite songs, then we created Survivor polls for each album. Then we started doing Survivor polls for songs that fit a theme. What's the next evolution in that sort of discussion?

As for cool new topics, "What if Al were a girl?" (started for this game) raised more thought-provoking points than I think anyone would have imagined when it started. Not saying it's the greatest topic of all time, but at a certain point it went from stereotypes to a pretty interesting debate about whether "Weird Allison" would have had the same impact as Al. If we think outside the box I bet there are plenty of topics that would get veteran members talking.
That's why when Al does something new, you see all the vets rush back in at once (Another thing to remember: Back when a lot of us started posting, it seemed like Al was a distant memory in music history, only putting out albums for our amusement...you kids today have no idea how good you have it. And get off my lawn!).
Remember how excited everyone was when Straight Outta Lynwood debuted in the Billboard top 10? If you'd told us that 8 years later he'd have a #1 album, I don't think anyone here would've believed you. He was just way too much of a niche artist. And no matter what anyone thinks about the golden age of WOWAY being behind us, I think we're all in agreement that the last two years have probably been the most exciting time to be an Al fan, ever.
But other forums I've been on (Unmodded, I might add) have had it much worse. We've seen our share of flamewars, trolls, one members....interesting collection of fanart, but nothing like other forums I've been too (Even forums much more active then WOWAY have nightly spambot attacks that clutter the main page......glad I don't have to weed those gardens in the morning). I think that's something we should be proud of (In an amazingly geeky way). And WOWAY is worth fighting for and keeping alive because of that.
Yeah, in a lot of ways it's worth celebrating the simple fact that WOWAY has survived all this time, because a lot of forums haven't. There was a Beatles forum I used to visit regularly, and back in the mid-2000s it was virtually impossible to keep up. There were literally hundreds of posts every single day, and probably around 200 highly active members. I just checked it now, and there were a total of two posts in the last 24 hours, and only six members visited.
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Re: Making WOWAY Great Again: A History Of What Went Wrong

Post by Muldernscully »

Interesting stuff to read. Thanks for posting this history, people!
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