Minus Some Animosity, These Days?

[Overlord]

I see some good explanations and brief discussion of this trend up above me, so I guess I don't have overmuch to say with all of that having been said.

 

Personally, I don't think BZP can support as many flamewars as before and still remain a nice place (and yes, I realize it doesn't). Like it or not, BIONICLE is fading out for now, and the community here is shrinking - I know, I've been gone plenty myself. I'll be honest: I participated in heated topics back on the old forum, and I think they can add something to the forum, sometimes. With a smaller community and the site trying to streamline, though, we can't afford any leftover bitterness here, especially when the arguments would be over nothing nearly as large.

 

I welcome arguments, myself, and I argue plenty with my friends.

But that doesn't always work, and I'm a little glad there's so many fewer flamewar-type discussions here now... even if it so rarely affects me.

 

 

 

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[LewaLew]

Take away the fuel, and the fire goes out.

 

Granted, I've generally felt that BZPower was quite efficient in the firefighting department in my time here, but now that BIONICLE has gone into stasis, emotions run a little cooler. Hero Factory has become either accepted or those who can't stand it have skipped town, which takes away the other catalyst for flaming.

 

Of course, the blogs have trouble with real-world issues, often in the political sphere, or straddling the line between political and apolitical. It's not supposed to be allowed, but given that sometimes the subjects' status as political is itself debated, the arguments go on. Add that to the fact that sometimes even the staff members (yours' truly included more than most) get in the firefight, and it causes even more trouble.

 

But as far as the site's true focus, flaming has definitely gone down, and that's a fact for which the membership should be commended.

[Shadow Kurahk]

Let's not fail to acknowledge that the internet as a whole has undergone some cultural shifts in the past five years or so...these just happened to coincide with the end of BIONICLE.

 

There are a lot more ways for fans of something to get together than just through forums, particularly Facebook, where we have a BZPower group.

 

So besides less users joining and everybody getting more mature, I think we are 'taking our business elsewhere.' At least, I am--and it's not a matter of liking this site or not. It's just that some other ways of getting your news and interacting with fans integrate well with things I do in my daily life, like social networking.

 

-SK

Edited July 26, 2013 by Shadow Kurahk

[Toa Turing]

here's my theory: Bionicle was primarily aimed at younger kids. When Bionicle was still around, it was more likely that kids in the 8-12 year range would join Bzpower because they had just learned about Bionicle. Now however, 3 years after Bionicle's end, the general population of BZPower is more likely to be people who were in or above that age range when Bionicle was around, and are older now, thus the overall maturity of BZPower is more likely to be higher.

[Just A Dot]

We went from like thousands of members online at a time to like 60. An exaggeration, I know, but my point is a lot of people were mysteriously taken out by the staff of BZPower lost interest in the massive downtime. Basically, BZPower went down right around the time BIONICLE went down, the people couldn't talk about it, and interest was lost.

[SarracenianKaijin]

I am still stuck wondering whatever happened to Dark709's comics.

[Linsanity]

It's because of the cruel, unwavering first of discipline enforced by the moderators that has forced all members into fearful submission. And also because hardly anyone goes on here anymore. Partially because of the first reason.

It's not the staff's fault. It's the rules and regulations, which are somewhat harsh in my opinion. The staff are only here to enforce the rules, which, more often than not, rubs people the wrong way. There are times when the staff can be a bit inconsistent in doing their jobs, and unfair, particularly in debates where they might agree with someone who is clearly attacking you and being immature instead of actually debating. Considering my case, I used to always participate in HF/Bionicle debates and a certain group of scumbag comic-makers would always be flaming incessantly towards me, yet a certain forum assistant blamed me for initiating the argument. Another time, I got my proto lowered for doing absolutely nothing. That's part of the reason why I'm less active and I've never participated in another debate since then. But the main reason is not the staff or the rules, it's because people like me are more interested in other things besides a dead toyline. Edited July 24, 2013 by Vino