Stepping Out of Character: Rock Is Dead (or Some Thoughts on the Forum vs Discord)

[JimSlade]

In part to see if I can stir some chatter on the forum for once and in part to be a wiseacre, I was typing up these thoughts on Discord, when I sincerely thought this may be better expressed here, where I feel a little more disconnected.

I used to moderate a passionate music blog with a large readership and high, passionate degree of engagement. It was amazing. It felt like the perfect vehicle to do our thing. Then Facebook and other quick-hit texting/chat platforms came around and blogs and forums went out of fashion. Hell, even good-old email typed on a qwerty keyboard is seen as a dying Boomer practice. I miss all that stuff.

Things change. Communication platforms change. Because of my blogging experience, I probably have some idea of how the old heads who date back to the most vital times of the BBA forum must feel, but I hope it's not some all-or-nothing choice we need to make.

I am not the most active forum participant. I read a good deal and especially appreciate the statistical analyses. Even in real life, I'm not an analytical/metrics fan, but I marvel at people who can articulate the game through those means.i love playing the game, so anything I can learn is golden.

I love the poetry, or what I call the time travel, of the game, from real baseball to Strat-o-Matic to OOTP. I'm only a few seasons into my BBA career, so I'm still trying to imagine who my guys are. Just because I don't write enough TNs doesn't mean I don't care about my players and what I project is going on. I hope to keep expanding my experience of the league.

In terms of my real-life baseball development, I'm like my 11-year-old self in Brewster. You know what I mean? I am at the point here in this league where I'm still puzzled by the infield fly rule and don't really know what makes Steve Carlton's slider different from Dick Ruthven's curveball. (Phillies starters from my youth.) I can't quite articulate why I prefer Ted Simmons to Johnny Bench. Give me a few more seasons and I should be more articulate about our league.

Sorry, I'm doing some unnecessary time traveling.

I wish I didn't have to feel like I should be motivated by PPT. I'm not. don't pay much attention to what I could be buying with my PPT. And I don't do the PPT for skills conversion thing because I think it's cheating, like what my gamer son called mods. I call them gamer steroids. [Ducking.]

I guess my underlying point is, Don't assume that participation is going down the tubes because we don't we don't all participate the way more people here used to. I would like to feel more engaged, but the forum doesn't not yet seem to be the place where I can engage the way I want to. I hope I simply get better at engaging, in whatever way. You - we - have a good thing going here. At the risk of sounding like Sting in the middle of 6-hour tantric sex, you can't squeeze a puddle of water.

[Jwalk100]

You lost me at Ted Simmons over Johnny Bench. Heretic!

[BaseClogger]

This wasn’t musicbanter.com by any chance was it?

[JimSlade]

You lost me at Ted Simmons over Johnny Bench. Heretic!

Don't get me wrong: Bench was way better. I simply Liles Simmons better because I thought he was cooler:a switch-hitting catcher, a doubles machine, a bit of a hippie...

[JimSlade]

This wasn’t musicbanter.com by any chance was it?

No, it was Rock Town Hall. We have left the site up, even though it pretty much dried up after Facebook and Twitter started taking hold. We had a bried revival that broke out during the darkest days of COVID.

If you want to lose 6 minutes and 30 seconds of ypu life, here's our sizzles reel, from when my partner in crime and I thought we might be able to monetize our labor of love. (We didn't.)

[Dington]

Well said. I don’t think PP have that large of an effect of the game, but it’s fun. You can create nicknames or pay for stadium upgrades. Using it for cash is helpful for struggling teams. But creating content just for PP probably won’t yield great content. The good content is usually done for the love of the game and would be done whether or not it was rewarded.

[RT60]

This post should get extra PP even though you likely won't use them!