Re: Television Without Pity

The Dude Fri Mar 28, 2014 3:35 am

Red Wolf wrote:QueenSix it was Fox1013. How I remember that I don't know.

So, can we mention this as a place for TWOP refugees? I don't know how much traffic is wanted vs the cost of running it.

Maybe just selectively invite your friends from over there.

It was nice that you could start up discussions about shows that had been off the air for years, like Dallas or Buck Rogers. The MST3K group was the last thing I participated in there.

Tabby Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:05 am

Someone in the goodbye thread mentioned us, so we may get some refugees. It looks like a lot of people are migrating to the new Sars/Wing/Glark project, previously.tv.

BrightEyes Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:09 am

BrightEyes Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:10 am

Raksha wrote:
ulkis wrote:
I'm going back and reading "classic" recaps (I can't believe they won't be archived!!), and I admit it, I'm laughing my ass off. I joined TWOP in 2000 as a way to obsess abut Roswell (Michael and Maria forever, obv)

BrightEyes, do you remember the Roswell Survivor Game? And the musical thread? Oh man, good times.

Oh man, the Roswell Survivor Game! SO freaking funny, even after all these years!

Memories,
Like the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were...

From Jessica's (Hi, Jessica) recap of the Dawson's Creek Very Special Mugging Episode:

Joey sneers and suggests that Mr. Mugger get himself a J.O.B. Funny, coming from Ms. I Won't Take Out So Much As A Student Loan. Mr. Mugger insists that he has a job. "You could say I'm in sales." Blah blah blah setting up a parallel to Joey's bad dad-cakes, he's a drug dealer. And some of his clients go to Worthington! "You should stop by some time. We could catch up," Joey remarks snidely, then starts to go. "You know, call me crazy, but I like you, Joey!" Mr. Mugger calls after her, and she TURNS AROUND TO LISTEN TO HIM COMPLIMENT HER. Seriously, my mouth has never hung open this far. The mugger likes Joey (presumably, because she has It), and she'd like to hear more! I hope he shoots her. "Except for that little kung fu kick out there, you've made this experience a very pleasant one. Lot of people, they would have pissed their pants by now. But you? You've held it together. You've kept your sense of humor. You know what? I won't hold that violent little outburst of yours against you," Mr. Mugger speechifies. Because even muggers fall in love with Little Joey Potter. Because she's poised. And smart. And pretty. And not incontinent. She's pleasant, even while being violated. Because you know what? Girls should never be unpleasant. Girls should never scream, or practice self-defense or even any kind of self-awareness, or make muggers and potential rapists feel bad about themselves. No! No! We should all be like Joey Potter and be polite -- yet charmingly sassy! -- to anyone who wants to wrong us. We should also make the crazy gun-toting criminals really work for their cash. They won't kill us, because they'll LIKE US. I sure am real glad I learned that tonight, because that's the opposite of everything that I've ever been taught by self-defense professionals and the police. Kiss my ass, Dawson's Creek. I can stomach the non-gay gay characters, and the spinectomys and the wussifaction of Jen and all the subtle sexism, even, but this is beyond the pale. Dawson's Creek owes every single person who watched this episode a copy of The Gift of Fear. And an hour of their lives. And a written apology. And some candy.

Amazing.

And then he starts to sing. Yes, you read that correctly. "Every time /You are near," he rasps. Joey looks thoughtful. And then JOINS IN. "Close to you," she sings. Oh my God, they're singing "Close To You." Am I high right now? "Just like me / They long to be / Close to you," the Mugger and the Muggee sing in sweet harmony. A single tear rolls down Joey's face. And THEN MR. MUGGER FLATLINES. Yes. He DIES. While they're singing. While they're singing "CLOSE TO YOU." Joey's eyes well as the crash cart team runs in. She just sits on her ass while they do their thing.
So finally Joey walks outside and runs into Harmony and Sammy. She shakes her head. Harmony heaves a sigh and starts to bawl. Sammy makes a sad baby face. Joey kneels next to her. "Did my daddy do something to you?" Sammy asks. "No! He did something nice for me," Joey lies, and then tells Sammy that Mr. Mugger saved her from getting smashed by a car. "Did you hear that, Mama?" Sammy marble-mouths. "Daddy's a hero!" Oh, holy crap. Daddy's a hero? Shoot me right now. I mean it. Drag me out back and put me out of my misery.

truecrystal Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:22 am

Ah, the banner ad wars. Equal parts brilliance, hilarity, and WTF? I still have my MBTV personalized hockey jersey with my screen name.

I actually never stopped lurking in a few threads and still read the VD recaps. The forums are also my go-to place when I see a years-old movie or finally catch up on a tv show. I joined in the late 90's after I'd just gotten married and I was desperate to find someone to talk Buffy with besides my mother. My husband worked third shift and I can remember him coming home from work quite a few Saturday mornings (ok-and a few weekdays too, my job was pretty lax then) after his shift to find me still up after being up all night on the forums and on AIM chatting with people from the forums, sometimes about the forums. TWoP is the reason why I'm no longer allowed to watch Big Brother because I literally watched BB After Dark for 48 hours straight -- when they were sleeping in the house, I was reading/posting on the live feeds. And it was the BB TWoP forums that led me down that path. Well, that and blixie. Miraculously, I am still married (15 years later!!) and blix is still a partner in crap tv crime. Temptation Island was BRILLIANT and NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THAT BUT US!!

Seriously, I met my best friends in the world there and even though most of the forums turned into cesspools of insanity, for that I will ALWAYS remember it fondly.

And while I'd love to see more traffic here, I love this place and don't want to see it overrun with nut jobs.

Shalamar Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:48 am

So, can we mention this as a place for TWOP refugees?

Yup! They've got a general thread about the closing, and one of the mods (Pembleton, I think) said that we can post links to other sites.

**blixie** Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:49 am

OMG The BB live feeds in S2 were a special, special time, as was Angel S3 or was it 4, when did I stop giving a crap? Hee.

I think I'm one of the few die hards who still participates in the forums, in a very limited way, mostly as a Spoiler source. For a long time TWoP was unrivaled as it sort of amassed all the "avid viewers" in one place, and they combined their powers to report Wildfeeds ect. But spoilers now are pretty much locked the hell down and only reported via legit media it became less and less important to check in, but in the slower threads things are less crazy.

Oh btw, Gillian if you are interested in a Soap forum check out Soap Sluts it's VERY GH focused (after being very OLTL/Todd and Blair focused during it's brief heartbreaking Prospect Park HULA run last year), but everybody pretty much talks every show (including some Brit stuff), hence the name Soap Sluts.

big chicken Fri Mar 28, 2014 11:15 am

laddical wrote:I was Harrison Fjord over there.

YOU'RE HARRISON FJORD?!!! I always loved that screen name.

I used to check in with TWoP daily until the site was infected with a virus and I fell out of the habit.

Tabby Fri Mar 28, 2014 11:47 am

I'm going to miss the Olympics sub-forums, they became part of my Olympics viewing obsession.

laddical, I remember Harrison Fjord! We must have posted in the same threads sometimes. I was/am TraceyBee. The system tells me I've been a member there since October 2002, but I know I read the recaps long before that. I remember Survivor Season 1, with recapper Joanna and the scuttling crabs. And Miss Alli's recap of Colin and his broken ox was one of the funniest things ever.

Pop'n'Fresh Fri Mar 28, 2014 12:10 pm

Snarryfan wrote:I will always remember the banner ad wars, the Queer as Folk forums, where bstewart lectured us all, and Tsaugotha the Toad God who was in love with Clay Aiken.

Tsathy!! How could I forget him. I loved him. I especially loved how he used to sign his posts, "Love, Tsathy."

.

mrinsouciance Fri Mar 28, 2014 12:14 pm

Shalamar wrote:
So, can we mention this as a place for TWOP refugees?

Yup! They've got a general thread about the closing, and one of the mods (Pembleton, I think) said that we can post links to other sites.

That ought to liven up the food tv shows threads around here. I still can't believe people actually get that invested in Food Network programs (Semi-Homemade aside).

Tsathy is probably still my all-time favorite phenomenon around here. I didn't realize he'd been in TWoP, also.

nazlan Fri Mar 28, 2014 12:32 pm

Pop'n'Fresh wrote:
Snarryfan wrote:I will always remember the banner ad wars, the Queer as Folk forums, where bstewart lectured us all, and Tsaugotha the Toad God who was in love with Clay Aiken.

Tsathy!! How could I forget him. I loved him. I especially loved how he used to sign his posts, "Love, Tsathy."

.

And the EEEEEEEEE! Man, Shack's recaps of American Idol for the first couple of seasons were brilliant. Shame it broke him.

Instant Monkeys Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:01 pm

I had forgotten all about Colin and his Bullshitty Broken Ox of Intensity.

As I just maudlin-ly detailed in the AI thread, I think I'm going to miss TWoP way more than I realized. For any show that I randomly get into, no matter how niche or un-mainstream, TWoP can be relied upon to have a basement thread about it and at least some posters. I always get some inside info and some useful/interesting context. I don't know where I'll go for that now.

Djb's Roswell recaps were some of my early favorites, as well as his ANTM recaps. Potes's are also fantastic. I don't even know if she's doing it anymore because I've fallen off my ANTM-recap-reading. I used to spend a lot of time in the ANTM forums as well. After All-Stars when whatshername was supposed to win and then suddenly didn't (see how important it was, I remember every detail) I was refreshing that shit like every five minutes waiting for more scoop.

And obviously Jessica's XF recaps are like, part of the tapestry of my brain now.

Gallifrey Girl Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:09 pm

I organized a banner ad buy for one of the forums, back when that was going on. I sent Glark our idea, and he took it and made it 1000% better.

Like many, I am no longer a regular TWoPer, but did still venture there on occasion. And with Fametracker - and the offshoots, FTOTZ (RIP), TWoP Sucks (RIP), Snarkfest (STILL GOING!) - it certainly provided many many hours of entertainment.

RiverThames Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:34 pm

big chicken wrote:
laddical wrote:I was Harrison Fjord over there.

YOU'RE HARRISON FJORD?!!! I always loved that screen name.

I used to check in with TWoP daily until the site was infected with a virus and I fell out of the habit.

I remember on one thread you referred to your wife as "Callista Fjlockhart", and I laughed for a good ten minutes over that.

I had many names on TWoP, in part to being banned more than once. Vestboy, Vestboy II (that one worked for a long while before they went "waitaminute...."), Wormwood and then finally RiverThames.

TiffanyNichelle Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:30 pm

I'm enjoying the people flocking to the Unpopular Opinions thread (one of my faves) so they can post these huge lists of UOs that they just have to get off their chests.

So if there are any meltdowns to happen on the site in the end, I think it might be there.

swsa Fri Mar 28, 2014 3:13 pm

I'm trying to remember how exactly the FT meltdown started. I feel like it wasn't even the people letting off steam, but bstewart going on the extreme defense that turned it into a free-for-all. TWOP still has until May though, so they may keep being polite awhile longer.

**blixie** Fri Mar 28, 2014 3:29 pm

FT started with Avocado posting a rational if lengthy explanation as to why she thought FT had gone astray over it's last year or so, and wasn't all that sad it was going away, and basically that unleashed everyone's similar feelings, and then bstewart talked about peeing on someones living room rug.

RiverThames Fri Mar 28, 2014 3:57 pm

blixie wrote:FT started with Avocado posting a rational if lengthy explanation as to why she thought FT had gone astray over it's last year or so, and wasn't all that sad it was going away, and basically that unleashed everyone's similar feelings, and then bstewart talked about peeing on someones living room rug.

It was pretty much true, they had been phoning in the FT articles for some time at that point.

swsa Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:02 pm

I left TWoP in a fit of (lazy) rage when I got a total bullshit warning and I just could not allow myself to hit the "Acknowledge" button to move past it. I signed in today kind of looking forward to seeing it again and marveling at how over the top and stupid it was, but all the warning notes are GONE. Also? The whole 20%, 40% or whatever system is gone, and now you get a "point" for every warning. Which means I have 3 warning points on my account with warnings from 2006-2008. This seems very unfair. If I can't hold onto your ridiculously over the top mod note for improper posting in the Project Runway thread, I don't think you should be able to keep the warning point on my record.

I feel like I have to post something now though...just for closure. Hee.

Caramel Coffee Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:03 pm

Just saw the message. RIP. Sad its going. Practically grew up with MBTV/TWOP. I was a teenager when I discovered it during my hunt for anything Buffy related. Way back when the UK used to get eps a good six months if not longer after the US. I met a lovely girl on the forums who would send me VHS tapes of the new episodes so I wouldn't be too far behind.

I still remember scouring recaps for the Rae Dawn Chong Challenge and never finding a single one.

Haven't posted there in years but I still read recaps and lurk in the basement forums. I'll miss it. It led me here.

**blixie** Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:03 pm

hey had been phoning in the FT articles for some time at that point.

I agree, but she was talking about the Forums though, not the content, and they only closed the forums, they kept posting content even after the forums were gone. I think a lot people (who decamped to FTOTZ a bit before the whole meltdown) were spun when someone posted something blantantly racist in the Movie Theater thread, and no one on the mod team seemed to notice or care? Same for the slip into Hoooor talk all over the place.

Shadowlass Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:16 pm

Wow, the closing really does make me sad, even if TWoP is a shadow of its former self. During Buffy's last years I loved the really smart, deep discussions going on in the Spike subforum, from people like nongenius, adjrun, AngelChicken, kentkhole, JMatonak, AurelioZen, TrudiRose, Nova ... and truecrystal, blixie, dionneshea, and swsa. So much great analysis, and so many intriguing theories. I'd go back and copy them if they hadn't had that forum dump years ago. And the TWoP Buffy chats were pretty awesome, even if my family thought I might have a problem.

Miss Moneypenny Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:16 pm

blixie wrote:FT started with Avocado posting a rational if lengthy explanation as to why she thought FT had gone astray over it's last year or so, and wasn't all that sad it was going away, and basically that unleashed everyone's similar feelings, and then bstewart talked about peeing on someones living room rug.

Honestly, all I remember now are the threads for Jesus Christ and Noosh's cat.

MaddyCat Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:39 pm

I remember at Fametracker's meltdown the bstewart thing. He took extreme offense to people busting on the forums and went on a rant that began with the "how dare you go to someone's house and eat their food and drink their wine and then PEE ON THEIR CARPET. How DARE you!" And on from there. I distinctly remember my eyes bugging out at that and then laughing and laughing. Wow. All the feels people had over there.

Thems the days.

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