Introduction Forum: Closed

[Lord Ravenclaw]

Hello DLPers,

After long consideration by the staff, we have decided to permanently close the Introductions forum.

Initially conceived as a way to promote a sense of well-being and community, this forum's use has diverged greatly since the first years of DLP's life.

Now the forum has turned into a way to 'filter' users, a hopeless endeavor that begets trolling and misrepresentation of users through a single post, hinging on the first few replied for users to bandwagon off of, ensuring popularity or excessive insults. This fosters bad feelings by all and really is not used as intended.

Thus, we've closed the forum. Posts are still archived, but no new posts will be accepted. Users will be given a chance to be judged on the content and quality of their contributions to the DLP community and not upon a trivial first post.

The DLP Staff

[Xiph0]

It served it's initial purpose well, when we were still a much smaller community, but we've grown out of it. Salud.

[Dr. Strange Lulz]

End of an era.

It had to happen sometime.

I expected it to happen via a massive flame battle though. Instead of burning out it just seemed to fade away.

Cheers old friend.

[Innomine]

Wow, I really didn't expect to see that. However the logic behind it is sound, though slightly sad to see it go.

[T3t]

A good idea, really. Most of the introductions were either useless or failed tropes anyways.

[silverlasso]

Solid reasoning.
But I am sad. Haiku in
Intros is no more.

[Styx0444]

Intro thread haiku
Is perhaps long gone. Morn not:
Haiku versatile.

[Damask]

Aw, fuck. A thousand times fuck. Just when I was considering posting my long overdue introduction... And to think I believed it was actually a good idea to wait until the haiku fad passed.

Agreed with Ellisande; while it is probably a smart move in what forum administration is concerned, the lulz will be greatly missed.

...Well, first post. Hello, DLP. Nice place you got there.

[Antivash]

Mark my words, yo. Nothing good will come of this. Nothing!

[13thadaption]

In that case I'm really glad I (finally) posted my intro when I did. Can't say I'm not sad to see it go, but I trust the staff and their reasons.

R.I.P to the
intro thread; The lulz are gone
but not forgotten.

[All-Powerful-Oz]

But the trolling.

[Mercenary]

An End to an Era.

[Torak]

Aww

We had such awesome intro's though

[enembee]

Couldn't even let it go out in style? After all the entertainment it gave us?

For shame.

[Don E. Delivery]

I definitely would have posted my Introduction the last day of the archive if I would have known about it. And there would have been much lulz and haiku to be had.

/me mopes

[Silens Cursor]

I dunno... to me, this doesn't really seem like the best of ideas.

Yeah, I know DLP is going to keep growing, but if anything, the Introduction forum at least provided an outlet for old lurkers and new arrivals to start. As it is, I can see a lot more threads getting seriously derailed in the future because new arrivals feel they have something to say, regardless of how asinine it might be... or if they even post at all.

And yes, there was trolling and idiocy in the Introductions (I'm certainly guilty of it - I wouldn't have gotten a thread in the Hall of Shame without my behaving like a drunken jackass), but to some extent, I wasn't under the impression it was that harmful or damaging. Sure it was silly and there was some ribbing and mockery, but isn't that an essential part of the DLP experience? If you can't take it, you don't belong here - or at least that was what I always thought. And if anything, one really can't deny that it did an impressive job of keeping some of the idiots away from DLP.

Maybe it's just me, but closing the Introductions subforum seems to be a step in the wrong direction, suggesting to casual or new viewers that DLP is not willing to accept new applicants - which will ultimately lead to the slow decline of the site, if we think about this long-term.

I know the admins have thought and discussed this long and hard... I just think it might turn out to be a bad idea, that's all. But I trust you know what you're doing.

[Xiph0]

I dunno... to me, this doesn't really seem like the best of ideas.

No one asked you.

[Antivash]

Originally Posted by Xiph0

No one asked you.

Granted, I know I never turned up when I was alerted cause I'm a douche too broke to pay attention. He summed up my thoughts fairly well. Looking at it as an outside perspective, I can certainly see both sides of this.

On the one hand, yeah, Intro's turned into a filter for running off "Undesirables." And its unrealistic to think we can catch every single instance, every single time fast enough that no one is gonna see it and bandwagon it or antiwagon it.

On the other hand, this just makes that very same policing extraordinarily difficult. Because, lets be honest, this is going to change nothing at all, with the sole exception being that its now going to be everywhere, instead of conveniently in one place.

But like I say, that's just my opinion and certainly not foolproof. This was still better than the alternatives, though. Sending all posts to be moderated before they get approved, banning at the slightest hint of genuine attempts at bashing and flaming vs doing it in obvious humor...

I'll take this over the other options though because I'm a lazy cunt.

[Speakers]

I think you're missing the point here Silens.

All the intros were getting repetitive with newcomers trying to "fit" in. Also every intro was becoming either a "welcome" or a "gtfo" with the rest of dlp following suit with whatever the senior "respectable" members of dlp posted.

Without an intro post, newcomes will actually be able to voice their opinions and "then" get flamed to death rather than what they thought dlp liked to hear. Sure we got the occasional fool that didn't read the stickies or so but do we really wait out for them to give us the lulz? Moreover, dlp was going softer on newbies in other sub-forums just because all of the flaming was already done in the intro section.

I agree however, that it will lead to a slight decline in activity but not for the reasons you listed. It will be more because most people post here for the social aspect more than anything, and removing a part of the forum where they can list their favorite bands,etc and be "accepted" into this community will deprive them of that satisfaction. In fact, lots of people post in the intro forums, start posting elsewhere but slowly die out for that very reason.

[Grinning Lizard]

the end
of an era
intro forums are closed
cinquain shits all over haiku
po'try.