Originally Posted By Mr X Putting this in the most common section because, well, there don't seem to be any moderators around to care anyway... Much as I like the place, LP has been a real dead-zone lately...even more than in recent months. Looking at the "LiceRat" post taking up space with nothing else to bump it down for days on end now is pretty pathetic. I still stop by now and again just to see if RT or EC had something to say, but the old stomping grounds definitely seem to be out of commission for real this time. I blame Facebook. Or else the troll infestation that has chipped away at any enjoyment factor one snivelling assault at a time. Nice going, Beau. You and your weird-assed sock puppets have officially killed the place. But no. Really, it's Facebook. The old "community" internet is a thing of the past, it seems (Sorry, you lose again Beau. Loser. Go vote for Cruz (assuming you are even literate), then crawl back into your bottle), gobbled up by "friending", cat videos, and Lady Gaga's latest tweet rant. Anywho, assuming that "Zombie LP" is on its last legs for real this time, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Doobie, Rebekah, Lee and Dave and the rest for providing a fun Disney space for so many years. RIP, old buddy. <---pushes imaginary "like" button. <--curses the lack of a damned edit feature.
Originally Posted By dagobert I would also say it is more or less dead. However, as long as Ferret, RoadTrip and some others keep posting, I will stay too. There are other forums out there, but honestly I am sick and tired of the whole Disney bashing thing. We all know that Disney isn't doing the best jobs with their parks and we might be disappointed by the management team, but on other forums the complaining reached new heights. If LP goes down, I'm done with the Disney community, because it's either everything at Disney is so bad, or like at European Disney forums it's only about characters and how fantastic everything is. LP might be a shadow of its past, but at least it was balanced. And it was always very interesting, especially Lee's comments. Although I came late to LP, it was a great community.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Although I came late to LP, it was a great community*** Funny, I don't think of you as "latecoming" in any sense. In fact, seeing your post makes me think I should have run down a list of "the good 'uns"...TDG, SD, WD, IPB, K2M...except running down the list would take forever and I'd surely leave many important folks out in the process.
Originally Posted By Mr X Ugh...FERRET! How could I have missed him. He's right there in the second post!
Originally Posted By oc_dean Well, here we are. LP's 16th anniversary. (February 2000) Just made it. Will it make it's 17?? I came along not long after it debuted. In the month of May. Hard to believe I have been posting here for SIXTEEN years!! And it's been funny seeing trouble making trolls over time, who thought they'd run me off, and outlast me ... well ... I got the last laugh. They are gone .. and guess what? I'm still here. HA-HA! Sad to see some posters I really admired have ventured off (and even got meet in person) From Lulu, to Inspector 57, Darkbeer, Arstogas. Some still here who I've met like you Mr. X. Would love to hang out for a drink again, if it were possible. So many people - gone. And really, for various reasons, I think. Not just one reason. Probably 1. Burn out. 2. Just part of one chapter in their life, off to new stuff. After 16 years of reading lots and lots of responses I know: (3.) Some just had enough with some posters who made too much trouble. I can't quite forget jonvn. Any time someone had a legit complaint against Disney ... he just couldn't help himself but to make people look or feel bad, who wanted to bring up a criticism. Even a well-reasoned one. Some (4.) jumped ship to other sites. (Mouseinfo, Mouseplanet, WDWMagic, ... YES .. and even MICECHAT.) But the dwindling goes beyond LP. It's happened with the ~beloved~ Micechat as well. I've split my time between here and MC since 2005. And I can tell you all (who don't go to MC) .... It's fallen off as well! People got tired of bulls*t over there! Their infamous reputation points system (which BTW is GONE!) They finally got the drift that was a MISTAKE! Didn't matter how many times I told various staff there. They just ignored me .. or tried to reprimand me .. because I dared to talk about it. Another issue - Dealing with some posters who are a bit too childish. Posters are mad about creating new posts .. but the amount of posters (overall) is clearly down from years past. I guess a lot has to with Facebook as well. Good analysis Mr.X. I use to think .. even around the best days of LP ... there has been PLENTY of types of formats that have a chat feature - to grab people's attention. FB seems to have taken off even more, seems. I have some 65 contacts on my page ... and I can't even follow their feeds if I tried. Which change rapidly BY THE MINUTE! I'd need to live to 200 years of age to spend the adequate time to follow the 65 friends/family on my page, and still have time to live a normal life. Then I see people with 200 friends or more (and there's plenty who do!) ... and we see where people's internet time is going. But I still come here. Even with the few members left ... because I like the simple format. It's more legible. And there's still some people who come here who I admire who I like chatting with. So even in it's diminished capacity, I still come here till the day Doobie decides to shut it all down. Which I hope he's in no hurry to do. And I'm along with you Mr. X - Beaumandy is not invited back! ;-) LOL
Originally Posted By dagobert I also hope that the forum will not get shut down soon. There is an advantage of this very small group of posters too, it's easy to catch up.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Would love to hang out for a drink again, if it were possible*** Anytime we're on the same continent, I'll be there if possible!
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance I still check LP daily because I'd miss you all too much to never speak again. *sniff*
Originally Posted By Dabob2 It's not as lively as it used to be, obviously, but I still enjoy coming here. It always seemed the best discussion board to me too - largely because Doobie and co. never insisted on any sort of "company line." I've met some real friends here whom I've later met in person (ecdc again just a few weeks ago), and as long as some of my favorite posters are still around and still posting, so will I.
Originally Posted By ecdc I endorse post 9. The internet changes fast and therefore so do the dynamics. Discussion boards were all the rage 10 years ago, now we have social media. But it's still a great board with some great people. I agree there's a handful of times when the lack of moderation is a problem, or at least a little frustrating, but I also certainly understand the difficulty in moderating and staying on top of it, esp. if traffic has slowed to the site. These threads pop up fairly regularly, esp. when the site is a little slow. But then something happens and there's a thread with 300 posts as people debate and go back and forth. It's just the nature of it all, I think.
Originally Posted By ni_teach I am on the site every day and always check out the message board. I don't write much because I can't think of anything new to add.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance I wish there was still Autoposts with Disney updates. I think those were helpful in getting conversations started.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan LP has always felt like my internet "home." A large percentage of my FB friends are/were LPers, and many of my best real world friends I met on LP as well. Facebook has eaten deeply into these kinds of forums, but i simply do not enjoy posting on FB as much. It is extraordinarily difficult to attempt any sort of "conversation" on Fb. I'm not sure why that is, but possibly because here, on LP< we are/were a group of people with a love for Disney parks and entertainment at the core, and everything built off of that. On FB, you have everyone from fellow Disney geeks to people from other facets of your life. I am forever grateful that LP exists, and that the boards are still here for anyone wishing to chime in. I do think the trolls played a big part unfortunately in ruining things, but there also were many, many personality conflicts as well.
Originally Posted By monorailblue I keep hoping (without much hope) that Trivia & Games will go active again. Ferret and I keep playing games with each other . . . . LP was a great thing in its prime. E-Ticket Magazine was great . . . Tales from the Laughing Place was great . . . . Things come and go, I suppose. Perhaps LP is just waiting for the Skyway to Tomorrowland chalet to finally come down . . . .
Originally Posted By monorailblue In case I forget to post at the end of next week: happy 16th LP anniversary to me, too.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost I have no idea why it has slowed down, but, my guess is because it hasn't kept up with technology. While other boards were adding features (edit, likes, etc.) LP has remained static. LP was the first board I ever signed up for. It was fun and at times it was aggravating, but, there wasn't really much competition. I have probably checked out all of the others, but, the only two that I find of interest is WDWMagic or Dis. Of the two, honest discussion is possible on WDWMagic only. Dis is a sweet side of the discussion boards, where if you don't have anything good to say, before long you are "requested" to not say anything. Too sugary for me, almost made me diabetic. The lack of interest on the owners part also hasn't helped this site. It's like they closed down the business and just forgot to shut the computer off. Good way to get some ad revenue without doing anything for it, I guess.
Originally Posted By perlster "honest discussion" is only possible on other boards when your "honest opinion" coincides with those running the board. That is at least one reason why this place is special - no Grand Poobah to smite the heretics.
