Sorry to double post (if this were TWoP, I could edit my previous post–O, bitter irony!), but since you asked for advice, I thought I’d give some. They definitely expect you to read every single post before you reply, even for the threads that are twenty pages long. So if you do post something, even if you haven’t read every previous message, don’t admit that. I’ve seen people get warned for saying, “I haven’t read the whole thread yet, but I just wanted to say…”
The theory being, I guess, that it’s disrespectful to the other posters if you don’t read what they have to say before adding your own input. Which makes some sense, but is problematical when some of the threads begin to approach a couple hundred posts.
I like TWoP quite a bit, mostly for the recaps. As has been said before, the threads in the message boards get tiresome to wade through. Plus, much as I like some shows, I feel kind of weird about dissecting and critiqueing the actions of every character in every episode or pointing out all the little mistakes. I don’t take my TV that seriously, so the boards aren’t really for me.
I’ve seen people be banned for having signed their posts, and just because the admins didn’t like them. Which is their right.
But it’s the intellectual snobbery of the place-it is VERY cliquish-that turns me off now. They don’t have anything on the good ol’ SDMB!!!
Of course, I used to post there when it was affiliated with ChickClick-and that’s how I found SAAN, so I am grateful for that.
I read it sometimes but I really don’t like it. Very cliquish, too many cute nicknames for every character of every show without any variation (hardly anyone refers to characters by their actual names, which simply breeds confusion)…three pages on how to abbreviate character names…and they’re all too self-important for their own good.
The episode of the West Wing that made fun of the Internet message board that Josh posted on was a thinly veiled attack on TWP, and it was right on, IMO.
I have been a lurker at TWoP for almost a year. I subscribe to a few of the recaps, but I find the message boards to be very catty. I tend to stop reading when a show is in hiatus because the boards tend to get focussed on bickering at each other for their feelings about the charactors or each other. I do enjoy reading the threads about the episodes right after they air, but it is difficult to keep up so I only check in for a day or so after it airs.
At least that is the way it seems for the shows that I check in with.
I’ve read TWoP since it was just Sars at www.dawsonswrap.com a few years ago. I know the entire freaking storyline of “Dawson’s Creek” because of that site, Mighty Big TV (which it became) and the eventual, current TWoP. I only read DC and ER, though.
I have been lurking on the Fametracker boards for over two years; I have less than 100 posts.
Yep, and very often I think it gets even worse. I’ve written the thing in my head for some time now, but it fluctuates between a careful study of fandom and its views on source material/creators, incoherent ranting, and something in-between. Sadly, it’s the incoherent ranting that I’m best at.
Back to the OP though, what I noticed about TWoP was what a lot of people were mentioning - that we’d gona past recapping for recapping and were now just trying out out-snark people. And I too got tired of all the stupid in-jokes in the recaps and the silly cutesy nicknames for characters. Someone whould do a parody site where the recap TWoP.
In the New York Times article they mention a precursor to this as being the x-files newsgroup, which the creators were known to lurk on. What they don’t mention is how this fact made the place nearly intolerable, as it was very much a “look at me!” contest and not any kind of serious discussion of the show. As pretty much the only person on there willing to say out loud that the show was going downhill, it wasn’t quite the party they make it out to be.
That’s what bugs me, too. I get the recaps for some shows, and I used to post when it was Mighty Big TV, and I do still occasionally post, but rarely.
The damn nicknames just drive me batty. They spend pages coming up with nicknames for every character on the show…why can’t you just call them by their name?
The MB for 24 is the worst of the boards that I read. It’s almost like an unwritten rule that you can’t call anyone by their character’s name. This season’s nickname seems to be “Poor Man’s Well-Known Movie Star.”
For example, Kate, the sister of the girl getting married is called “Poor Man’s Cate Blanchett” which is then abbreviated to PMCB. They kept calling Paula “Darlene” because she was played by Sara Gilbert, better known for playing Darlene Connor on “Roseanne.”
It’s very confusing, espcially if they refer to an actor by a role you’re not familiar with.
It makes me stop and think, “Now, what does that mean? And who are they refering to? Who’s Darlene? Do they mean the girl playing Paula?”
And God forbid you ask, “Who’s PMCB? What does ‘PMCB’ mean?”
You just get a snotty reply.
That’s what bugs me, too. I get the recaps for some shows, and I used to post when it was Mighty Big TV, and I do still occasionally post, but rarely.
The damn nicknames just drive me batty. They spend pages coming up with nicknames for every character on the show…why can’t you just call them by their name?
The MB for 24 is the worst of the boards that I read. It’s almost like an unwritten rule that you can’t call anyone by their character’s name. This season’s nickname seems to be “Poor Man’s Well-Known Movie Star.”
For example, Kate, the sister of the girl getting married is called “Poor Man’s Cate Blanchett” which is then abbreviated to PMCB. They kept calling Paula “Darlene” because she was played by Sara Gilbert, better known for playing Darlene Connor on “Roseanne.”
It’s very confusing, espcially if they refer to an actor by a role you’re not familiar with.
It makes me stop and think, “Now, what does that mean? And who are they refering to? Who’s Darlene? Do they mean the girl playing Paula?”
And God forbid you ask, “Who’s PMCB? What does ‘PMCB’ mean?”
You just get a snotty reply.
as a non US resident reading the recaps for shows i enjoy watching but wont see for sometimes more than a year is a god send. it can keep you up to date , and i understand TVWP has a big overseases readership.
i read the boards but mostly i stick firmly to the spoiler topic treads, with occasional trips to the buffy deep bitterness thread and its counterpart on other show boards.
i dont care if spike has great cheek bones or if random posters think lana and clark make a cute couple or what you thought about the latest ep, but i do care about whats coming next.
sure i could read 18 different boards to find these spoilers first hand but its easier to go to one site which covers all 4 of my guilty tv pleasures.
i dont find television without pity any more cliquish than here to be honest. its the nature of any message board.
Another former poster here, back in the good old days when it was called Mighty Big TV and no section ran over two or three pages. I know actors and writers/producers who go to the site, but I doubt many network execs are willing to wade through twenty posts about the sexy look Lex gave Clark in the last Smallville just for some quality feedback (unless, of course, that’s their kind of thing).
I went there a lot more often when I was working at my internship (what does that tell you about how boring my job was?). I also had cable at the time. Now that I’m back at school, and when I do have time to watch TV, I’m limited to the networks, it just doesn’t have the appeal.
I go there sometimes, but as many of the people here mentioned, the nicknames and such get pretty annoying.
Also, there seems to be cults of HotPeopleWorshippers that really piss me off. On the Buffy boards, it’s the cult of Spike, people who watch the show solely for the Spike factor. If an brilliant episode is put forth, with very little Spike, they will complain, and that will be all they say about the show. I like Spike, but I want to talk about the whole darn show, not just him.
24 is pretty bad, too, with the Kult of Keifer. The man is attractive, I guess, but can we please talk about the more important parts of the show?
The fact that these people have so much say on these boards makes the idea of producers looking in rather terrifying. No wonder Spike has been around so much…
I don’t even lurk there anymore. Things just got really, really vicious with the Buffy fans. (In their FAQ the mods have said that Spike went to get the chip out (contradicted by the writers, producers, and creators of the show, as well as by the show itself) and anybody who disagrees with what the mods say gets banned. I’m rather horrified by that type of enviroment…
