The Cellar - View Single Post - Thoughts: Invite-only Cellar

Ardax · 01-11-2002, 01:07 PM

I'm inclined to agree with Undertoad here. Making a "members-only" club that you have to get invited into has the potential of essentially making the only people who want to post the people with voices. A similar thing happened with the BBS scene on the other side of the state. Once "special" areas were set up that you had to be invited into, people started getting upset. Well, once they contained more than free warez and porn that is.

Getting into things is somewhat intimidating, as so many people are very comfortable here. At first I thought that it was almost all local peeps until I saw some of the discussion and figured out where some people were from. You just have to jump in I guess -- I hope it's working.

This seems like a very comforatble place where people more or less just chat. Everyone's welcome, and it's pretty open. That's really cool, and it's what I love about this place: There's no overriding topic that must be adhered to, no "grand vision" other than getting people together. It has a feel very reminiscent of old-school Usenet or FidoNet. I really liked that kind of feeling, and could never really find any place on it that had quite the same feel -- until I stumbled across this place. I lurked for about a day or two and realized that this is the kind of place I'd been looking for.

I don't think that the Cellar is in need of any sort of formal moderation or special status. Things seem to work very smoothly, it's not infested with trolls and other associated twits, and discussion is mostly rational and civil. The sense of community that exists here sets up a naturally high barrier of entry. The community that exists is also fairly self-policing, which helps too.

So, those are my thoughts, at any rate.

01-11-2002, 01:07 PM	#3
Ardax Irrelevant Adulterant Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 43	I'm inclined to agree with Undertoad here. Making a "members-only" club that you have to get invited into has the potential of essentially making the only people who want to post the people with voices. A similar thing happened with the BBS scene on the other side of the state. Once "special" areas were set up that you had to be invited into, people started getting upset. Well, once they contained more than free warez and porn that is. Getting into things is somewhat intimidating, as so many people are very comfortable here. At first I thought that it was almost all local peeps until I saw some of the discussion and figured out where some people were from. You just have to jump in I guess -- I hope it's working. This seems like a very comforatble place where people more or less just chat. Everyone's welcome, and it's pretty open. That's really cool, and it's what I love about this place: There's no overriding topic that must be adhered to, no "grand vision" other than getting people together. It has a feel very reminiscent of old-school Usenet or FidoNet. I really liked that kind of feeling, and could never really find any place on it that had quite the same feel -- until I stumbled across this place. I lurked for about a day or two and realized that this is the kind of place I'd been looking for. I don't think that the Cellar is in need of any sort of formal moderation or special status. Things seem to work very smoothly, it's not infested with trolls and other associated twits, and discussion is mostly rational and civil. The sense of community that exists here sets up a naturally high barrier of entry. The community that exists is also fairly self-policing, which helps too. So, those are my thoughts, at any rate.