Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[AlohaDawg]

That's interesting analysis from inside of Onstad's head. But I'll refrain from exercising the portion of my brain devoted to Conspiracy Theories and just assume you aren't Onstad.. :twisted:

If indeed there were such specific parameters to the board at dumbrella, well, I never saw them posted and the mod never let me know. Working in the public means dealing with the public. The Tecnogeeks, the hipsters, the crazies, the predators, everyone. I agree with you that maybe his skin was not thick enough to make painless the reality. I would posit further that no one can be objective about something as important to his life and professional well being as Achewood is to him, and therefore he should NOT have moderated that board. Posting from time to time, contributing art, drawing whatever - that may have served him better than participating fully enough to feel the flames and suffer the foolishness of the general population.

And that is how I feel. The end.

[Nabubrush]

In light of the thing earlier this year where Onstad's message board went crazy and several people were just posting bullshit and he had to put the hammer down, I'd say that maybe doomglobe is on to something.Onstad seemed sort of picky about what was posted in the forum (although it would come and go). I think he is just very particular about things that have the names Onstad or Achewood on them, and he couldn't police the forum and put out the humor at the same time.

[richie_dagger]

onstad writes a hella nice comic

in my opinion it's 10000x better than rstevens. just because rstevens has AIM chats and shit like that to get more shirt sales doesn't mean onstad doesn't listen to his viewers.

he has a fan mail section people

90% of the old threads were similar to: "dear onstad. i would like to see more transformers in your comics." "dear onstad, could you make lyle a little taller." "dear onstad, im a big fuck*ng retard".

the ratio of retarded loser fans to NOT retarded loser fans was like 10:1.

why would you put up with such stupid questions and a handfull of decent people?

[doomglobe]

to prove a point.

[monkey punch]

(before you start reading, look for my first post in the "New Strip Based on A Letter to Ray?" thread at http://www.dumbrella.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=17, to which the Friday, Aug 1 strip responds)

I feel personally responsible for Onstad's decision to close his messageboard, and, while it was somewhat undeserved for all of you to suffer partly as a result of my bitterness, I can't say I'm sorry for having insulted Our Lord Cartoonist until he cried.  Though achewood may grace our lives with the fleeting instants of glee that momentarily offset our incurable sporty sadness, and though it may come to us like the wind (without our asking or paying), its piercing hilarity comes from an awful place.  I won't say I'm not glad to have curdled it.

however

When Onstad decided to close the Achewood allusion thread I had spent 11 hours writing (which is now no longer even existent, god dammit), I somehow couldn't help but to dislike him.  the abuse he suffered from me was just karma for being indefatiguably, insufferably hostile toward his most dedicated readers, but I apologize to everyone for ruining what so many of you so harmlessly enjoyed.

Cantankerous, venomous-tongued jerks like me and onstad probably should avoid the messageboard medium, given that it seems to promote for us the angriest sort of sociopathy.

that seems a fitting note on which to end this post.  Besides, this three-month-late term paper on Augustine's philosophy of language simply won't stand to wait any longer (does anyone else see how utterly perfect it is for me to be finishing a paper on the father of modern christian guilt only moments after posting a red-faced apology?).

Good luck with your new community.

[monkey punch]

egomaniacal though it may be for me to claim sole responsibility for the condemning of achewood's official 'board, I still feel it was largely my doing (I also feel a little bit proud of getting so deep under 'stad's skin; I desperately needed revenge.  he closed my thread and mooned us with Liebot in a rerun!  like I said, it's the angriest sort of sociopathy).  I promise to stop flooding.

[jough]

Hi Monkey Punch,

I happen to know that the reason the board closed had pretty much nothing to do with you.  Not that you didn't contribute to the hostility.

And now rstevens has taken down the board completely.  I guess he couldn't figure out how to stop us from posting polls.

Anyway, now the archives are all gone, too.

It's a shame.

Well, Mr. Onstad now has no control whatsoever about what people say about him and in which threads.

I don't know about JDL, but I don't really plan on ever deleting any *relevant* threads EVER.  If something's in the wrong forum we may move it, and if something gets off-topic or hostile we may tell you people to "take it outside" and lock the thread, but to delete something it would have to pretty much be illegal.  An illegal ghost bike.

[jay-ell]

I'm with Jough. We've got space for general conversation, so I spent some time vigilantly splitting threads (splitting hairs?) and moving non-Achewood threads to their proper locations on Friday night.  But, I'm trying to keep closings to a minimum and I'm avoiding deletions altogether.  As long as we all behave like adults, this shouldn't be a problem.  

I am encouraged by the fact that nobody has flamed Eva for the way she (?) started this topic.  Nice work, guys.  Way to keep it in check.  But let me know if you want to be yelled at and beaten into submission, for old times' sake.  

My spouse has started calling me "Stockholm."

[Schabe]

You still talk about Achewood, but it's more about each other now than it is the strip.  It's more about your reaction to Onstad than it is about Onstad himeslf.  This is not what he was looking for.

You know, it's funny, but that doesn't always happen.  I remember checking out the Exploitation Now message board right about the time that Poe was ready to end the comic, just to see what the die-hards were saying about it.  Very nearly every thread was about the comic, and entirely topical.  In fact, it seemed like the community had collectively decided to keep it that way.

On the other hand, you have a collective of miscreants like Dumbrella.  People get sucked into that world like it's the Mafia.  Mostly because, as you so astutely pointed out, it becomes a community where members know each other and start to talk to each other, rather than about the subject that brought them there.  I've always likened it to that Flying Party in Restaurant at the End of the Universe [edit: Life, the Universe, and Everything (duh!)] : the Dumbrella community is just one huge cocktail party where you spend days, months, or years, hanging out, having fun, and meeting new people.  Eventually, the host that prompted you to show up (ie - the comic), becomes only one part of the various conversations and drinking buddies you make.

But even Rich Stevens has lost a little something in fostering this huge party.  It's great for common bonds and community feelings, and probably for moving merchandise, but there have been plenty of people on the Diesel Sweeties boards who have admitted to not even reading the comic with any regularity.  They come for the party, not the strip.  And frankly, I can see where that would be a little disappointing for the artist (especially when chuffwits keep making idiotic content requests).

Lastly, you do know that a couple of readers were the whole reason Onstad even started the messageboard, right?  He didn't have any intention of having one, and was basically against the idea, but a few people knew that Rich liked his comic a lot and would host a board for it.  Basically, he got talked into something that he was remiss to do in the first place.  If you're one of the old-time readers, do you feel like the strip sucked before he had a messageboard?  No?  Then why should it suck after he's ditched the message board?

Is Onstad kind of a dick?  Maybe.  But this whole message board business is the last reason your should think so.

[PinkStainlessTail]

I've always likened it to that Flying Party in Restaurant at the End of the Universe

The complete and utter geek in me must point out that the flying party is in Life, The Universe, and Everything. I will now go kill myself.

[Schabe]

No, it is I who should be doing the killing of the self...

...for I totally couldn't remember ( ) and knew that if I put up the wrong thing, I would get a speedy ass-kicking.

Damint, I love Douglas so much too.  Damnit.

[PinkStainlessTail]

No really, it is a trivial matter and I would not want your excellent post to be lost to a silly geekout.

I generally stayed away from the other Dumbrella boards for the reasons you cite. It's fascinating when board communities get all repurposed by the members like that, but it becomes pretty tiresome if you're not "on the inside".

[revdj]

I like Achewood, and I liked the message board.  But I thought it was wrong that Onstad read his own message board.

The situation is not analagous to an author publishing a novel, and then discussing it with people via the internet.

The situation is analagous to an author writing a novel, posting it a chapter at a time, and then discussing it with people WHILE HE IS STILL WRITING IT.

We have a Heisenburg effect going on.  The discussion has to affect the writing; it just has to.  Maybe not in a predictable way, but the strip will be changed as a result of instant feedback.  This is the type of phenomenon that ruins a creative vision, that caused Happy Days to become "The Fonzie Show."  

Onstad should work on writing his strip and achieving his creative vision the best way he knows how.  We should talk amongst ourselves if we like, and talk about the strip or anything we want to.  He shouldn't listen to our opinions on what Ray should do next or why we miss Blister - it taints things.

[ferocious j]

I will always have a faint soft spot for the old message board, as it was my introduction to the Dumbrella world, but let's face it: By the time of its closing, the board had about 60 billion retarded idiots and maybe five reasonable, cool people.  I'd call that quitting time if I were Onstad.

[jough]

I'm kinda surprised that more of the idiotic retards didn't follow over to here.  

I'm glad, though.  I've been enjoying reading all y'all over the past few days a hellofalot more than I enjoyed the Dumbrella boards over the past few months.

-- Jough