Has anyone ever quit an online forum?

[XemaSab]

I've been doing some soul searching lately about my participation on a forum, and I'm wondering if it's time to walk away.

I've spent hours on that site, and I'm within knocking distance of 2000 posts. I think I'm a good member, and other people seem to appreciate what I have to say.

This is going to sound petty, but they keep merging my new threads into existing threads, plus I volunteered to be a moderator and they didn't even send me a message saying "thanks." This forum has an entire 200 active members on it.

The thread merging thing pisses me off, like I'm too stupid to know when to post in an existing thread and when to start a new thread.

So at what point do you say "fuck it" and not post there any more? :(

[rrneck]

1. If it ain't fun, don't do it. Sounds like time for a break.

If you don't miss it, you just won't go back.

[riderinthestorm]

2. I have. Beliefnet. I was a major player and walked away. It's important to have another site.

Filling that gap is crucial. Good luck.

[XemaSab]

4. Why did you walk away?

:shrug:

[riderinthestorm]

7. I watched a poster "out" another poster onlne. Full ID with their addres, phone number, occupation

everything. It was done as a bullying technique and I objected. When I complained that Beliefnet should have deleted that post (with that kind of explicit ID), they declined to intervene.

I doubt DU would be much different. And I've since become smarter about "outing" myself with incriminating details but I believe that if a discussion forum won't stop that kind of blatant bullying with that kind of RL information, it's time to walk away.

[XemaSab]

9. I hear ya

That sounds really shitty.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Wait -- are you contemplating walking away or saying "fuck it?"

It matters because each involves its own exit strategy.
For the former, just remove all links and tell yourself it's not worth it. For the latter, a Walt Starr is in order. :P

[XemaSab]

5. I must admit the blaze of glory sounds awesome

:D

[Lasher]

6. I've quit forums.

No goodbyes, I just faded away.

[dimbear]

10. That is the way to do it. The big dramatic FU is just kinda pathetic.

Of course, not as pathetic as then showing up again the next day. Anyway, fact of life, the posters make the site but they're completely expendable. Mushrooms.

[freshwest]

25. That's what I did, at a place I'd posted 10K times. I told those who I PM'd who didn't want me to go

Even though they knew the reasons, to not bring it up either.

I'd been posting since before the Selection of Shrub in 2000. But I was just gone because I would no longer expose myself to what those forums had become.

That's when I came to DU. No regrets, wish I'd come here sooner.

Some days I wonder why I'm here , but other days it seems more than worth the time I put in to be here.

[Iggo]

8. Yep.

[Bake]

11. Eff it. I'm outta here.

See? It does happen.

:hi:

Bake










Not really. I keep trying to quit, but they keep pulling me back in.

[bigwillq]

12. You shouldn't take an on-line forum too seriously.

If it's not worth your time any longer, then walk away.

[era veteran]

13. I have had them quit me.

I am blocked from posting on kentucky.com now. That is website for local paper, Lexington Herald/Leader

I was tombstones on DU for a day or so once. I was reinstated but I never really found out why.
That really sucked in that their was a feeling of helpless that you wonder just WTF did I do? No real redress in the cyber world.
I was sort of told that it was a mistake. I wonder if that has happened to anyone else?

[progressoid]

14. I think there is an advice forum for that.

;)

[gratuitous]

15. I quit a movie review site

I was highly involved for many years, but after a while, it just wasn't fun anymore. The same old arguments with the same old nitwits. The site migrated once, so I went on to register my handle there just as a precaution against being impostered, but otherwise, it's in my rearview mirror and faded from memory.

Here? Same old arguments with a whole new crop of nitwits. Whee!

[Rob H.]

16. Never quit, but been banned from one

Got kicked off a discussion site related to (but not officially affiliated with) a major guitar manufacturer because I posted something supportive of another poster's recommendation to go see Fahrenheit 911 back when Bush was still president. The hard and fast rule of the site was supposedly "No politics" but I constantly saw threads even mildly critical of the right wing get deleted almost immediately, while threads bashing Democrats (including one in which someone posted that he believed Bill Clinton should be stood against a wall and shot) were locked but left visible for everyone to read.

Just as well that I got banned--the owner is a colossal douchebag who continually begs for money despite the site's design (and software, apparently) being stuck back in 1998. (Seriously, the look and feel of the site is the same as it was 10+ years ago and even simple things like adding pictures to your posts is impossible. Weak.)

[Incitatus]

17. It sounds like a mod there has an issue with you and is merging your threads just to piss you off.

Maybe a mod or owner took something you said personally and is being passive aggressive.

[XemaSab]

19. That's totally the impression that I got

Life's too short for passive-aggressive admins.

[MilesColtrane]

18. I quit Smirking Chimp after I got tombstoned for a post.

For some reason, some moderator there thought I was a CT troll.

I complained about it and was reinstated (without an apology), but the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth.

By that time, I had found this place anyway and never went back.

[charlie and algernon]

20. I still lurk, but I've long stopped posting at Television Without Pity

It seemed like every time I posted anything, I was getting yelled at by a mod or a board nanny for not following all the right proceedures. I got a couple warnings even for starting a new thread when God forbid there was a similar thread posted a year ago! The regulations just became too much. But even reading the forums now, if an episode thread has 16 pages, you only need to read the first couple pages before you just get a repeat of the same thoughts over and over again.

[XemaSab]

26. Ironically, this board is a spinoff by people who got pissed at the TWOP mods

:P

[HughBeaumont]

21. I left Lords of Pain (wrestling forum).

I was a regular until

a) the political forum became moderated by two Southern Ohio 'Baggerati (who would get away with insulting Democratic posters regularly)

b) many of their regulars were worse-than-Yahoo in assholiness.

Then I found this place. The End.

[frogmarch]

22. I have faded away from several

that no longer interested me. I don't recall ever suddenly quitting any, though.

[ileus]

23. I've stopped posting at 15-30.

I currently post at 5 or 10 pretty much every day, and I'm a member of another 10 or so that I post at once in a blue moon.

[BiggJawn]

24. Yeah, this one.

I walked away from DU about 2005 or so and just recently came back.