Thank you for the compliment! I learned English when I was 10 by reading a bunch of English books, but believe it or not I did it because I wanted to understand what the things in my Pokémon games meant.
Dammit. I didn't want to do that. I went and complimented someone. That will hurt my rep. What is this world coming to?
It is lazy. There is no reason to say U and UR instead of "you" and "your"; especially on a forum meant to encourage communication. If it were texts of private messaging it would be a different matter.
I do agree with you there, because when I'm texting with my friends (in English) I have the worst grammar and spelling, but here I try to keep my language as neat and accurate as possible, because there are so many non-natives here. Like you said, this board is all about communication and we should all aim to be as accurate as we possible can be to ensure that other members can actually understand what we are talking about.
It is lazy. There is no reason to say U and UR instead of "you" and "your"; especially on a forum meant to encourage communication. If it were texts of private messaging it would be a different matter.
I did recently say "thru" instead of through and I made myself mad at my slothful spelling habits.
But it's also, at least for me, a respect thing by speaking and using proper English. It seems almost disrespectful to this forum and others not to.
Is it like Finnish?
It costs a lot of money, time and effort to keep this place running. Especially being (if I am not mistaken) the longest running Buffy community on the internet. I think respecting the forum-mates and the admin enough to speak and type proper and complete sentences is the least that we, as members of the community, can do. And of course there are rules in place which say this should be done as well.
I think a lot of people don't realise that running this website costs quite a lot of money. I feel like this is a problem on the internet in general, because people assume everything is free...and take it for granted, but sometimes don't take the time to appreciate it for what it is. I mean I feel privileged to be able to chat with people about Buffy from all across the world!
No, we are not.
What about swear words that people use in their usernames? I now wonder which ones are considered offensive, because people use 'bitch' a lot around here.
I think there are certain words which, though being swear words, are acceptable. Certainly words used in the show, as in Out For A Walk B----. However there are some which are not acceptable and go beyond the PG13 rating of the board.
Were the shipwars that bad then? I remember seeing people go crazy in the Glee fandom and threatening each other with terrible things.
They caused numerous people to leave the forum. They were bad. The forum changed a lot as a result of them I think.
Changed in what way? Was the forum more active back then? I think it is very active today? I'm going to take a look at the Sunnydale cemetery to check out if I notice any change!
It was very active. Many more members. Enough to fill four houses, as today we've only got two. We lost two of the houses and added a bunch more rules, but I can't really say how it changed, it just feels intrinsically different; not better, not worse, just different. It feels less friendly and less welcoming than it did. Even though members were going at one another sometimes it still felt comforting because of the houses. You could spend weeks just staying and talking in your house. But that was also the problem, as it led to less people posting in the actual forum. Now, things feel in some ways... sterile. I am not sure if that makes much sense or not. Everything just seems less genuine, at least to me.
Interesting. It is nice to hear from someone who has spent several years here! I have been here for about two years already, but my experience does not compare to yours, obviously.
I don't know. I doubt it. I have discussed this previously with Buffy Summers and I think people's online activity changed and that people in general aren't as interested in going onto forums and they prefer other forms of social media. She disagrees with that, but... I don't know. I can't imagine it ever going back to the way it was. Times change. I don't think the admin and staff would necessarily want to go back to that.
Well, duh. I wouldn't propose a deal where I would get the worse part. I just figured since you were like Soulless Cordy now and all evil you'd want to change.