I wouldnt want the front room to close but perhaps we can save it by posting topics from VIP in FR but to access it users need VIP. This allows new users to see what else is availabe for the price of VIP membership.
I would be sad to see the front room go. And that would likely be the end of interacting with SirLapDanceALot and flagooner.
But on the other hand, I can’t come up with a good reason why it would be in your interest for it to remain open.
Well, aside from possibly the threads where posters may ask why a review got rejected. But if the email says which members rejected a review specifically (I don’t remember if they do) then maybe that’s not an argument either.
I actually like the two boards. I"m spending most of my time on the VIP board. I have only posted Topics on the VIP board since the split. But I don't mind the little people have their own place. And if there is not a Front Room, then more of the trolls will try to get into the VIP.
I would like to see it become harder to get into the VIP board though.
My idea for front Room posting by anyone, but by giving a glimpse into whst Vip offers people are motivated to either pay or do reviews. This I think keeps both boards viable and gives incentive to move on and try to get into VIP
I found this site because of a discussion topic in a google search result. Not sure now much new traffic the front room generates. That’s the only defense I can come up with.
I do agree with what seems to be the common sentiment of wanting to keep the front room. I do like to having two discussion rooms. I was good in the vip until a couple posters started posting all kinds of nonsense. they are no longer here and I had them on ignore anyway, so no biggie for me.
I would agree with what 25 said earlier. The bar may be too low for entry to the vip.
If non VIP can see into VIP but not actually open the threads that might be good. They could see the title and preview as well as how many comments there are.
I like the 2 boards. I comment mostly in VIP but read both boards regularly. The front room has some BS and troll'ish discussion topics and some BS and troll'ish responses posted to legit topics, but I manage that with the ignore feature, and there's plenty of good contributors and posters (both VIP and not) that post in front room and make it worth the read. The VIP board is a bit dead as to new discussion topics being posted daily, but it's good quality in terms of both discussion topics and posts. Nice that there's few trolls in VIP. My concern is that if you dump the front room entirely, then what'd be left of the discussion board (VIP only) would continue to be kinda dead and we would lose the input of the good non-VIP contributors and posters altogether. Yes I suppose that could cause the non-VIP members to do what it takes to migrate to VIP (submit reviews or buy VIP) to make posts in VIP but the potential long term dead-ness of the VIP if front room is eliminated is the downside.
Assuming we are not going to see moderation any time in the near future, I am concerned with what will happen if the trolls have no easy place to go. I also believe that having a starter room is not a bad thing for those who need a little motivation to move up to VIP.
On the broader topic of 2% of traffic vs. 98% of your headaches, I would tender that having a discussion board keeps a number of active contributors more engaged with the site, which in turn motivates them to keep writing reviews and approving those written by others. I know that this is the case with me. I am just throwing this out there in the event that this is some prelude to consideration of a full discussion board shutdown.
From a business perspective... none, except for the the search engine juice that it might provide.
From a community perspective... some. There's some value in having a common room where anyone can post regardless of their VIP status. But if you're looking for something quantifiable, I've got nothing.
I think that the issue for most people right now is the ease of troll contamination from the Front Room to VIP. If that can be addressed, then I think we can keep the two rooms.
DC so no evolution or innovation is good for you. I think the FR + VIP preview would work. Explain why not. Other boards do this in other arenas including a classic car forum I frequented when I had one.
DC you and I are newbies on the board and this is literally the only tempest I have seen. If founder wants to change it let him. His sandbox. If you want yours, make it. Your claim that everyone calls on him seems a bit overkill for one tpoic which had gotten out of hand desoite your protests. Ge can and will do what he wants. His asking is above and beyond so let him decide. I believe you have made your point.
I agree with Rickyboy Dugan, all degenerates need a place to hang out otherwise they will occupy other places. Some really shitty extras clubs exist around the country so the police don’t have to deal with too much prostitution out on the streets. It’s easier to contain the dirty underbelly when you know it doesn’t spill out into the public.
The vast majority of people who find this site want to be as anonymous as possible. No one will come on here and write personal experiences dealing with clubs and people they see regularly just to join a discussion group. Likewise most won't pay and divulge personal info to be a member of the group.
Maybe the owner of this site is delusional but in today's world, dancers work different clubs and a site like this has absolutely nothing to offer us. We can manage ourselves on IG or FB.
The most that comes out of this site are the creeps begging for P4P cos they found us in the dancer directory. If that's the direction this site wants to go HELLO FOSTA!!!! LMFAO
All I'm seeing here is a small minority of the site's users, a few grumpy horny sad old men wanting this to be their private little echo chamber where they discuss P4P at everyone else's expense.
The front room offers anyone coming here a safe place to voice themselves.
Yes there is a troll problem on this site and they're all repeatedly listed in the "5 most active members thread"
I think the Front Room should remain open. It is somewhere for new people to join discussions. The trolls are annoying but this is no different than the old discussion board.
I don’t know how much work it is to keep an unmoderated discussion board open, but it’s not my call, I personally like the idea of two boards, and i think keeping them open is better for us as a group, but it’s your business founder, and a business needs to constantly evolve and adapt to conditions of the marketplace, with that being said I’d urge caution, not to throw out the baby with the bath water.
I still think moderation is necessary on a single, public message board. I can't think of any popular websites that don't moderate their boards; even 4chan has moderation. The front room is overrun with trolls and some are even starting to write reviews. I'm betting that some of the long time members even have aliases for the purposes of trolling.
Founder, I don't know exactly what you want from this site, but as it is now, it's not really attractive to new users including dancers.
DC9428 said "RickDugan is correct. I would have written one review and left if there was no discussion board."
Okay... but that's just you. If you cruise through the daily reviews you will see that there's a significant number of guys who have posted dozens of reviews of many clubs but almost never use the discussion forum. They interact mostly with other users in their area via review comments.
There uses to be Top 30 lists on this site, and the Top 30 list of reviewers was (by my memory) dominated by guys who rarely visited the discussion board. If I have that wrong, please correct me.
But it would be great if they did join the discussions, because many of them know what they are talking about when it comes to strip clubs. But why would they? If you have to wade through a thick, soupy trough of troll wars, post flooding battles, etc., then why even try to contribute to the discussions?
Final point... and please take this in the spirit of constructive criticism. If you're wondering why some people react badly to your posts, it might be because you immediately start scolding and foot-stamping if people don't immediately agree with your opinions.
I mean... this isn't a gentle site by default. I get that. But when you launch right into "Why are you guys too stupid to not agree with everything I'm saying?", you're not exactly setting yourself up to win over anyone.
People here have many opinions and the ability to express them. Founder is apparently taking in all of them and will make decisions. It's his sandbox.
I agree with those who say that the Front Room gives the trolls, nonreviewers and cheapskates a place to play and stay out of the VIP room. I don't know what the cost and effort are to maintain the FR, though. Founder, could you enlighten us a bit? That way, we won't be talking out of our asses.
Closing the front room would either cause the trolls to leave TUSCL, or just infiltrate the VIP. The only viable option IMO is to develop a method where you become aware of the trolls and extinguish them as you did Icey Loo.
I’ve said it in other threads. I like the board split because my biggest dislike of the board is the hassle of the trolls. I could get by with just the ignore feature (another good add) but I like the board split. At least give it 90 days or so to see how it works and if the trolls have the energy to keep writing reviews to maintain VIP privileges.
@dc - I’m probably not the only one reading your posts about “if we only had VIP I wouldn’t be here” and thinking FUCK YES
DC9428 said "Because there is a lot more at stake when threads like this get made than my personal opinions."
We all like to spend time here, and it could be argued that many of us spend too much time here. That said, it's an internet message board about titty bars. We're not trying to sort out peace in the Middle East. You might benefit from a little less hand-wringing.
"If these guys are writing reviews and not participating then that's the choice they've made. I don't see them as likely to start joining in soon."
But perhaps it's a choice that they've made based on what they see in the forum(s), or some early attempt at participating that turned into a clusterfuck.
People can make new choices if they are provided with a less contentious, less inside-baseball environment.
Part of the reason why numerous new users get accused of being trolls and driven away is because trolling here is not an occasional disruption, but more like a central feature. That's sort of fucked up...
CMI: I think you are exactly right. I wrote reviews for over 2-1/2 years before ever posting a comment to the discussion board for the very reasons you state above. Below is what I said in the first couple of lines of my one and only article a couple of years ago, although I did go ahead and jump into the discussions shortly thereafter: “I have been lurking on the discussion board for some time. I don’t know if I’ll ever post there because of all the nonsense that goes on.”
I tend to agree with 25, "I personally like the idea of two boards, and i think keeping them open is better for us as a group, but it’s your business...".
Perhaps an unrealistic idea, but maybe you could use some help? How you would select a helper, no idea. I doubt I could out of those here. A few people come to mind, but I don't think I could even pick THE one.
I think you could leave both, but make VIP readable to all, but only members who have done reviews or paid for access are able to post. Same with the dancer room but only dancers can ever post, it would be interesting to be able to see what they talk about. I guess you could do that at stripperweb but that place is awful.
I'm fine with 2 boards. I disagree with leaving VIP readable to non VIP members, it defeats the purpose of VIP and allows lurkers to glean intel which is all that lurkers usually want, that's why they're lurkers.
Founder, I really don’t have an opinion on whether you should close the front room or keep it open. I don’t know what generates the most traffic or makes you the most money. In fact, I don’t know if maximizing traffic and money is you’re biggest motivation in having this site if pursuing those things results in too many headaches that disrupt whatever else is important to you in life. There may be others here who better know your motivations or how to maximize a profit on an internet site. But anything I would say about that would be half baked, at best.
The one perspective I would offer that doesn’t answer you directly but is, at least, tangentially related is this. I grew up without anything remotely resembling an internet discussion board as a way of interacting with other people. Telephone calls were the most impersonal method of communication. Interaction with strangers was mostly face to face and pretty much any interaction was with someone I accepted as a real person.
So I’m slow to adjust to a place where all of that may or may not be turned on it’s head. It’s not how I was wired into dealing with people as I was growing up. On an internet discussion board, I’m interacting with personas, as they choose to present themselves. And I am also choosing how to present myself. The true motivations of any given person with a keyboard and internet access are unknown.
But I haven’t found, in my experience, that conversations with anonymous folks from wherever follow the same rules as traditional interaction. Maybe that’s because people don’t participate for the same reasons when they may have that same discussion in a classroom or at lunch with friends. Yet, I am wired to at least initially regard people as real and sincere and interact as if I either know them or at least have a better sense of when someone is joking around, just looking for a reaction, sarcastic, highly agitated, drunk, well meaning, has a strong background in what they are saying and so forth.
So I think whatever discussion rooms you may decide to have will always be like herding cats. The cats don’t agree to be herded and they are quicker than the herders. Yet I, for one, am slow to adjust to that reality on a site like this or any internet discussion site.
I think discussion boards will always have an awkward and dysfunctional feel to them, or at least have great potential for that. Some folks might get that and be drawn to it. Others may not like that or feel uncomfortable with it. Whether it’s worth it to you to continue to run a site with a discussion forum or whether there are ways to run it in a manner that works better for you are questions I can’t answer.
1. I've always thought that tuscl is well-positioned to own most SC discussion. It may be the case that the forum is not driving revenue or reviews currently, but given what a mess it is, that's not surprising. A solid forum should drag in eyeballs, and with them reviews or VIP memberships. I dig tuscl, I want founder to be successful (however he defines it), I still think a high signal-to-noise forum should be driving that -- the way forums have been revenue makers for so many other review sites.
2. I've been on the interwebs since Al Gore invented it, starting with the very first discussion group, alt.sex.strip-clubs. Since then I've been on countless SC forums. With 100% certainty, I can say that there have been plenty of SC discussion forums with high signal-to-noise ratio (though every single on that achieved that did it with mechanisms that have been ruled out here). Still, the view that some people have that we just have to live with a troll-filled shitstorm of a forum and there's no way to address it is nearly delusional and completely out of touch with reality.
3. I don't have an opinion on whether or not we should get rid of the front room, although if we do, we should make the VIP room read-only for everyone -- every eyeball that makes it here, should be able to see the quality discussion going on here, as motivation to submit a review or buy a VIP. In addition, if we keep the front room, perhaps consider changing how rooms are represented on the top line. Change the name of the VIP Room to the High Quality Discussion Room, increase its font size, change its color to gold, make it readable by non-VIPs, and put it first on the menu line. Change the name of the Front Room to Anything Goes Room, let people who find their way there, participate there if they want. Right now, a new person to the site would be motivated to go into the front room -- do you really want iceyloco and trapbaby welcoming them?
^ Subraman--there isn't much in your comments I haven't stated myself in various post over the last couple of months and for the most part I agree but I will point out a couple of different points of view.
Perhaps the two posters you referenced provide motivation for people not to want to only be on the front room page. BF Skinner had some good insight into what negative reinforcement can do. Knowing there is a VIP Room and understanding the value it represents as opposed to being a regular member works as well.
Secondly reviews---and I was going to make a comment on this until I saw founders post(s) and thought it could wait. I formed my opinion on reviews a long, long time ago. To me they hold a lot less value than some of you seem to place on them.. There are too many variables, too much interaction on a human level that makes the review by itself about as valuable as the tip of an iceberg.
Then there is the culture of the site. When I first came here I had been to about six clubs after a long hiatus of not going to any --talking years. and started out with 1 review to see how it would be received as well as a few on the board comments about a second place. It took about 30 seconds before I started getting feedback via DM's about what I shouldn't say. I didn't take offense but I realized the real value of a review is to a large extent what shouldn't be included in them. So I tell people ask me offline and I'm happy to share. Same approach I took in the past with TER, JAG and TBD ( all three as far as I know dead at this point but all at one time were THE board to go to for information)
The dancers make a place and they come and go, move around, change names, hair color, gain weight, become jaded, you might remind them of their weird uncle Ernie.......your cologne might be the same as the last guy that stiffed them their VIP tip........
From just two years ago the first five dancers I ever met outside the club have all left the clubs in the Northeast Ohio area and are in Vegas, Detroit, or LA and that doesn't include my ex that I reference once in while because I met her before she became a dancer although I understand she is also back in Vegas. So in addition to being based on human interaction they also have a short shelf life.
For the most part I give people the benefit of the doubt before I classify them as a troll but once I do I ignore them from there on out but most people on here tend to feed the trolls instead of starve them.
-->"Perhaps the two posters you referenced provide motivation for people not to want to only be on the front room page. BF Skinner had some good insight into what negative reinforcement can do. Knowing there is a VIP Room and understanding the value it represents as opposed to being a regular member works as well. "
Interesting point! But to know the value it represents, they have to be able to see into the VIP Room in the first place, right? Does the VIP Room run better knowing (most of) the trolls can't see in, or would it run better if non-VIPs could see the discussion and would be motivated to join? Interesting question.
-->"Then there is the culture of the site. When I first came here I had been to about six clubs after a long hiatus of not going to any --talking years. and started out with 1 review to see how it would be received as well as a few on the board comments about a second place. It took about 30 seconds before I started getting feedback via DM's about what I shouldn't say. I didn't take offense but I realized the real value of a review is to a large extent what shouldn't be included in them. So I tell people ask me offline and I'm happy to share. Same approach I took in the past with TER, JAG and TBD ( all three as far as I know dead at this point but all at one time were THE board to go to for information) "
Agree that backchannel communication is always the most valuable aspect of a review site. It was a culture shock to me how review-oriented the tuscl culture is. But, I also think the reviews are one of the things that draw eyeballs -- and though you don't get the super inside "Porsche will let you lick the back of her knee for $40" type stuff in the review, still valuable to get a feel for the club. But then, as you point out, you can DM review writers directly
How you regard arguments / debate in your everyday life is entirely your business.
What I'm saying is that if you want the points you make to carry a little more weight and move needles, so to speak, then perhaps you should examine and adjust your approach accordingly.
I like the front room being there, but I do wish there was a option to vote off certain posts in the VIP room. For example, if 5 patrons vote of a VIP topic due to trolling/more appropriate for the front room, then the post would get removed. The front room can still be whatever topics without vote for removal. I think DC was on point with his post from a couple days ago.
I think the function of front room as a great way to get non-vips to initially visit/interact with the site. VIP is the selling point was they get tired of the trolls
-->"I think the function of front room as a great way to get non-vips to initially visit/interact with the site"
But is it really a "great way"? How many first-timers look in on the front room, and depending on how active the trolls are that month, run away screaming?
Although I do wonder to what extent the front room is like a honeypot -- as long as it's there, most trolls are content to stay there, rather than spending their energy getting into here. I think tuscl does have a unique problem that I've never seen before: a troll whose life is so defined by trolling this forum, that he or she paid for AT LEAST two of their troll personas to get into the VIP. As I've mentioned before, studies of internet trolls a build a borderline-pitiful picture of what trolls are like in real life -- truly miserable, sadistic, and unable to make connections in real life. They really are terrible, lonely people, but I've never seen one that's quite at the level of tuscl's, they all eventually go away, and they're not buying memberships for multiple personas.
An intelligent person is capable of debating or even arguing ideas without being butthurt and resorting to personal attacks and whining for censorship lol
Just cos a member may have unpopular ideas according to a small but vocal group, that doesn't mean they "pay to troll" They have as much a right as anyone else to be VIP and they shouldn't be forced to be afraid of voicing their views cos a few fucktards get butt hurt when they do.
The biggest trolls on here are Nicespice, Juice, 25, Sirlapdancealot, Meat72.
> Still, the view that some people have that we just have to live with a troll-filled shitstorm of a forum and there's no way to address it is nearly delusional and completely out of touch with reality.
Any time someone brings up the topic of how to clean up the board there are a few very vocal members who try to shut that down right away. They have a few talking points that they shoehorn into the conversation, and get really defensive when challenged.
Trolling TUSCL is their lifeblood and they freak out when anyone threatens their supply.
I think a fundamental difference on views is what is censorship on a board. I personally feel that trolling is boring for the most part and few do it well so they annoy me but I just put them on ignore and move on. I believe that the creation of two boards should allow, and was designed for, the VIP to be a more "serious" less trolled section. If you wanted to exchange information/debate/etc it could happen without the crapstorm of trolling. I don't think it is censorship to want to limit essentially unwanted shit in a conversation. I also find the accusations of misogyny, judgement of P4P to be amusing. Look at the site and it is almost impossible for there not to be misogyny and discussion of P4P and to attack those aspects is ridiculous. We SHOULD, as adults, be able to have a place where there aren't personal attacks and BS ad infinitum which is what the VIP was originally aimed at in my opinion. Keep it as it is, let people put trolls on ignore as well as those whose opinions they don't care for and move on. I don't believe this is censorship and those that cry it are wrong imo.
It’s not the trolls themselves that bother me, it’s the amount of time I spend scrolling past their “contributions” that irritates me.
That’s why I use ignore so liberally. It almost completely eliminates any need to even notice them. The only time I see them anymore is when they are the last poster on a topic, and even then I don’t actually see them when I click into the topic.
The only thing I could see that would “fix” that last problem would be to change the sort to last comment a user doesn’t have ignored, rather than just last comment.
But this way is acceptable, since it’s way better than it used to be.
If TUSCL were a house, the front room would be the front yard. Without a fence there’s nothing stopping the neighborhood dogs from shitting all over the lawn. Then your friends come over for dinner and step in shit on their way to the front door and decide to go Taco Bell instead.
Nothing can be done about the dog shit though because that would be authoritarian.
DC you have given me all sorts of unsolicited advice. To the point that I put you on ignore for about a month because I was sick of you telling everyone how they should act..... you are no better than what you are describing, basically if we do not agree with you then there is something wrong with us. Just a fucked up way to live, I prefer to live and let live.
Secondly I think it is just a genetic defect or maybe a generational thing... You were talking about your friend that you argue with all the time then both of you forget about it by the next day.... I would start avoiding you after a couple days or I would beat your ass till you realized I don't like to argue..... not everybody has to do things your way, you are such an authoritarian
w.r.t. a discussion board in general, I think it's beneficial to both TUSCLers and TUSCL.
I sorta came across TUSCL a couple of times prior to joining when I'd do a SC-related Google search from time to time (actually about a year prior to joining TUSCL) - I really didn't pay that much attention to TUSCL in those few instances b/c for one I was not as big a PL at the time - also, I tried reading some reviews and it required VIP to read them - I didn't really look into what VIP meant and just assumed it meant paying to read the reviews which I was not interested in since one is used to getting info on the web for free.
Eventually I looked at TUSCL again b/c I had a trip coming in early-2012 to Dallas where I had previously lived - I was gonna be there a few days and although I new the Dallas scene fairly-well from my time living there, I wanted to do a little roadtrip to Houston and check out the SC scene there since I'd never SC there - thus joined TUSCL just so I could read up on Houston clubs.
At the time I wasn't interested in writing reviews nor being on TUSCL after I got some Houston info - and being that I don't travel much I didn't think I needed TUSCL going-forward - anyway after joining TUSCL I decided to pay for the lifetime membership since it was only $79 at the time and I figured maybe I would need some club info in the future at some point - once I got my membership and went to look for Houston reviews, I saw there were a ton of clubs and it looked like a lot of work to figure out which clubs were any good.
Thus I came on the discussion board and asked for Houston advice - I had no desire of being on a strip-club discussion-board thinking it was probably full of lowlifes and degenerates - but I quickly took a liking to the discussion-board b/c it was the first time I interacted w/ others that also enjoyed SCing as much as I did.
Anyway - if it wasn't for the discussion board, I think it'd be unlikely I would have gotten involved w/ TUSCL and unlikely I would have written any reviews - and unlikely I would have known about other cool clubs outside my area that I have enjoyed very-much like Follies ATL, Inner Room Cocoa Beach, some UHM black-dives in NJ, etc - and I'd say most of the good-knowledge I've gotten about SCing has been thru the discussion-board and learning from others' posts and their experiences.
I think having a discussion-board makes for a better TUSCL b/c it's a better way to share experiences and PL-expertise and IMO encourages contribution such as writing reviews - and the vets on the discussion-board help to set the proper tone and make TUSCL better overall.
I don't mind I can put you back on ignore, I was just unsure if you realized what a dick you are and that you are guilty of exactly what you are accusing others of. You sometimes seem like a reasonable logical person and at other times like an authoritarian asshole. Are you on medication?
w.r.t. the front-room vs VIP discussion-boards - I would say anything that restricts access or makes it harder in terms of a discussion board is probably a bad-thing IMO - making it harder for the trolls will also likely make it harder for non-troll newbies - having to have VIP in order to be on "the good" discussion board will probably turn away as many non-troll-newbies as trolls (if not more).
The Front Room for the most-part has gone to shit - obviously everyone would rather be on "the good"/VIP discussion board, and so would the trolls, o/w they have no one to troll except themselves and obviously that's not "troll-productive".
I would prefer for the discussion board to be open to all mainly to make it easier for non-troll newbies to participate - and there being a VIP discussion-board obviously is not keeping the trolls out and I imagine it will just get worse.
Besides moderation which is a PITA to do, I think one just has to work around the trolls - using the Ignore function and not feeding them is the best next-thing to active-moderation - in lieu of moderation then it's up to the TUSCLers to make the board viable - i.e.:
+ stop complaining about the trolls and feeding them by getting into non-productive arguments with them back-and-forth for months on end
+ when a newbie comes on the board - we need to treat them a bit better rather than make fun of them for posting some dumb RIL shit (I need to be better at this myself) - and also stop insulting every new dancer that comes on here thinking she's trolling us w/o any evidence - e.g. many thought Juice could not be real and was just some troll persona but he's real (as mind-blowing at that is :)) - point is no way to consistently tell who's a troll and who's not often times newbs are ran-off
Anyway - I'd prefer an open discussion board w/o hoops to jump thru - perhaps having a disclaimer at the top of the discussion board to give newbies a heads-up as to what they should expect - i.e. something like:
"... We;come to the discussion board - this board is for strip club enthusiasts to share info and stories and comment about strip clubs - this board is unmoderated thus there will be some pranksters but don't let that dissuade you from participating as there are many good contributors with very good info to share ..."
Or something like that - may be a bit too-much hand-holding but better to try and get the point across to newbies so they are not turned-off as much while trying to figure out how TUSCL/discussion-board works.
As far as not being able to handle an argument without committing felony battery, LOL I can handle the argument, I just do not enjoy it and if you came around and argued with me everyday i would first ask you politely to stop stirring shit up, then I would tell you to stop stirring shit up, then I would try to avoid seeing you at all, and finally if after all that you tracked me down to argue then yes I would beat your fucking ass black and blue, call the cops myself and file harrassment charges
Being able to have a disagreement and then letting it go is good, but that’s not what you do. You turn it into an argument and keep going like a broken record until the other person gives up. That’s not enlightened. It’s just annoying.
I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to keep you on ignore. Your posts frequently have a word to value ratio that’s all out of whack. I often times just skip right past them.
Being right is not necessarily always the best-medicine w.r.t human-relations - often times one has to let the other person express their view and accept that is how they feel and not try to force them to be "right"
For Google and SEO. If you close it, your traffic will mostly disappear. You can close it and just lock old discussions but eventually traffic will disappear.
They may be 2% of your traffic but I would gather that they are the majority of your organic landing page traffic. When splitting the boards, I don't think anyone suggested making any private. The splitting of the boards was supposed to help establish rules so that rule breakers can be properly banned. Also, who cares if anyone can read posts, just keep trolls from taking over certain boards.
I don't get how any of this could be a headache, I would code up a few scripts to automate most of the BS whether you have 1 board or 50.
DC.... in relationships sometimes no matter how right you are, you can still be wrong..... let that sink in.
As far as how you deal with arguments, you prefer to beat people down with your words, even setting up people sho disagree to debate formally so that the hateful people can be beaten and shamed publicly. That is just as much of a bully as the guy that beats you physically. The only difference is the healing takes longer when you beat someone with words.
@DC at the risk of creating a pile on which isn’t my intention, you always take the stupid side when you’re posting here, not sure if you do it intentionally or not, but this much I’ll tell you, I have many friends whom I see often, we are friends because of shared interests not because we disagree about things. If all you have in common is that you like to argue, you really don’t have many friends. That’s a sad thought, because having many friends is one of the hallmarks of happy people.
^ From everything he has stated DC is the poster child for someone who should compose his thoughts, get up and walk away from the PC, read them again a minute or two later and then decide if he should hit the send button.
When I did moderate a discussion board a few years ago it was the advice I tried to give people when they felt they were misunderstood. Some took it, some do not.
I don't read the front room. I log in to see reviews and VIP comments. You need to do what makes this easiest for you to administer. I don't think losing the front room would have any material impact on your growth. TUSCL seemed to be doing well before the excessive trolling.
With regard to DC9428. I think he/she needs to realize he/she is participating in a forum with a lot of people with similar viewpoints on SC life, discussing their opinions and viewpoints. He/she walks in with his/her beliefs which are contrary to the general consensus, and doesn't realize that he/she is being the loud obnoxious person in the room. It doesn't mean that he/she is wrong, it just means he/she is being the loud obnoxious person in the room.
the front room works only if the topics in VIP are exclusive and different. in the past few days I've seen cross posting to both rooms. and some of the topics are like 'what's your favorite color lingerie', or 'what dogs are good for breeding'.
front room topics can be whatever, but VIP room topics need to be about STRIP CLUBS, SA, TER, etc. specifically things that the poster would not want searchable on the internet- (i.e seeking arrangement, OTC, TER, and ROBs) if i want opinions about football, etc, i can look in the front room. if i want to know if a club got raided, or if someone has a new LDK routine, then VIP section.
joewebber... I mostly agree with you. That said, I don't mind some off-topic threads in VIP. Regardless of whether or not you and I like it, I suspect that it will happen anyway.
Totally agree on the duplicate postings to both boards. That has been almost entirely the fault of two profiles, one of which is no longer VIP. So, less of an issue now.
@DC That’s exactly what I’m talking about you have no idea how solid or stable my friendships are, I have friends that I have been close with for more years than you have been on this earth, your lack of life experience is what you keep displaying, a smart man with a history of successful relationships, would use better judgment than you are showing.
This is my last word on this subject you can debate ad naseum as long as you like
>Its not good to only have friends that disagree with you on everything, but I think its good to have a voice in a group that challenges the general consensus.<
Not true at all, and having a voice in the group challenging the general consensus is fine, but to be taken seriously that voice needs to be part of the group, which means that most of the time that voice isn’t just disagreeing for the sake of being disagreeable, otherwise that voice is SJG generally being a nuisance. Contrary to what you believe the general consensus isn’t often wrong.
Papi, I'm going to have to disagree with the notion that we should just go back to how it was before. It sucked donkey ass and I don't see how it gets much better if we dump VIPs back into Gen Pop. Sure we will have some trolling here too, but we all know that the board was being clogged up mostly by a small number of people who maintained a lot of accounts. That type of trolling it is much tougher to do here because you have to keep each account in VIP status on an ongoing basis in order to do so consistently.
This place has to grow up a bit in order to attract a broader range of people and signs over the door won't cut it. Sure a few hard core enthusiasts will post regardless, but nobody else is going to bother, just like they never have before. I view these changes as the first step in the evolution of this board to something much better.
^ it's a good-point - my concern is locking out newbs b/c they don't have VIP and have them sorta jump thru hoops to be able to post - I think it it will make it harder for the discussion board to grow
I myself didn't want to jump thru the VIP hoops when I first looked at TUSCL - the ease of posting on the discussion board in real-time is basically how I became a regular TUSCLer.
I assume most that look at TUSCL for the first-time will be interested in the reviews - thus I guess they'll get VIP in order to look at the reviews then have access to the discussion board by proxy - but many newbs seem to participate on the discussion board prior to having VIP.
It was mentioned to have read-only access to the VIP board - at first I didn't see what use that would be - but I guess it can let non-VIPers see what the board is about and perhaps be motivated to join - so perhaps having non-VIP read-only access is a good compromise b/w possibly keeping the trolls out but also somewhat giving some access to non-troll newbies.
I favor keeping Front Room open, if only to give non- VIP newbs a place to post prior to obtaining VIP status. I recall being able to post prior to submitting my first review. I'd already been to several recent clubs, but felt unsure how to grade. So in my very first thread, I presented 2-3 scenarios with different levels of club plushness, dancer attractiveness, and "fun" levels to get an idea on how people grade things. I got some good replies, which provided useful reference frame for my initial (and subsequent) reviews. Absent that option, I might have submitted some reviews anyway, but wouldn't have felt the same confidence in my grades.
At the end of the day, it's your site. If you feel that the pain (higher maintenance) is not worth the gain (potential additional membership) it's your call.
25 says "Contrary to what you believe the general consensus isn’t often wrong." and claims that constant disagreement is a nuisance... Thus he just wants the discussions to be an echo chamber for his views.
Is the general consensus always really right?????
Say you have a site about strip clubs and the site's discussion area becomes dominated by a clique of older not so happy mostly married men who gloat about paying prostitutes and the discussion topics start center around where to find hookers, how much hookers charge, where to find hookers, etc.
So someone comes on to the site and tries to get it back on point and talks about their experiences with clubs and dancers and those experiences have nothing to do with illegal prostitution.
So the tricks decide that not discussing their illegal activities is a "nuisance" and act like their "consensus" that the site is actually about prostitution is correct.
Now I'm not sure what planet they live on but on Earth that makes them degenerates kinda and no their "consensus" is not correct. In fact its not a real consensus, they're just a small but very vocal clique who troll anyone who disagrees with their crimes and cheating and weird shit being the norm.
The front room should remain open and as is because its the best way to let people be active on the site. On a site like this, people who want to be active will for the most part want to protect their anonymity and will view writing reviews or paying for VIP as giving up a part of that anonymity.
I like the dual discussjon boards. The VIP is good for (mostly) serious discussions among experienced clubbers while the front room offers a place for new clubbers to delve into the hobby deeper. I think helping new clubbers explore what's available in the hobby will grow TUSCL in the long run.
Personally I found TUSCL because of a search engine result that pointed me to a discussion topic here and it seems like a lot of others did as well.
On the other hand, if it is too much trouble because of all of the trolls and nonsense then I would rather see it go than to see @founder lose interest in continuing to maintain and improve TUSCL as a whole.
A technical question. If the VIP was read-only for all members, does that make it searchable by search engines? Whether it is important to not be searchable is a separate issue.
Another thing I may add about the discussion board is, it is nice to talk to others and tead comments from others about this hobby as well as other things. I have learned a lot here.
I also like the fact it is unmodersted and you can say shit and get reactions and watch reactions others get. I feel like i have learned a lot about people in general here.
I like being able to post on the site when I am taking an extra long break from strip clubs. I favor keeping the front room open. You could implement a 5 day ban if somone posts the exact same lines several times eating up posting space and annoying everyone. If that is possible or easy to do automatically. I'm not sure how easy anything is with computer codes.
This is my first comment on the board since September. I may participate more if the the VIP room stays separate from the front room. Or at least if the discussions made by VIP members can be made only for VIP members If there is just one board. I've looked over the front room a little over the last couple weeks and there are not many discussions of interest. Every discussion in VIP I've seen before this one seemed appropriate and interesting.
I have a lot of people on ignore but it still seems as though the discussions in the front room are not centered on what this site is supposed to be about. If you go to one board give VIP members the option to make their discussions only available to VIP members. If they want to make it available to all they can do that as well.
I don't want to make the VIP available to be read by standard members. They can submit reviews and treat the site like it was intended to be, as a community for people who like strip clubs.
@founder - Sorry to hear you are frustrated with the discussion forum situation. Is there anything we can do as regular forum participants that would help? Are there any guidelines for what you want to go on in the front room vs vip?
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This happened a couple days ago anyway here so fuck it I guess.
But on the other hand, I can’t come up with a good reason why it would be in your interest for it to remain open.
Well, aside from possibly the threads where posters may ask why a review got rejected. But if the email says which members rejected a review specifically (I don’t remember if they do) then maybe that’s not an argument either.
I would like to see it become harder to get into the VIP board though.
I would agree with what 25 said earlier. The bar may be too low for entry to the vip.
I comment mostly in VIP but read both boards regularly.
The front room has some BS and troll'ish discussion topics and some BS and troll'ish responses posted to legit topics, but I manage that with the ignore feature, and there's plenty of good contributors and posters (both VIP and not) that post in front room and make it worth the read.
The VIP board is a bit dead as to new discussion topics being posted daily, but it's good quality in terms of both discussion topics and posts. Nice that there's few trolls in VIP. My concern is that if you dump the front room entirely, then what'd be left of the discussion board (VIP only) would continue to be kinda dead and we would lose the input of the good non-VIP contributors and posters altogether. Yes I suppose that could cause the non-VIP members to do what it takes to migrate to VIP (submit reviews or buy VIP) to make posts in VIP but the potential long term dead-ness of the VIP if front room is eliminated is the downside.
The front room could stay open with severe time restrictions on how often you can post. VIP status would remove the restrictions.
On the broader topic of 2% of traffic vs. 98% of your headaches, I would tender that having a discussion board keeps a number of active contributors more engaged with the site, which in turn motivates them to keep writing reviews and approving those written by others. I know that this is the case with me. I am just throwing this out there in the event that this is some prelude to consideration of a full discussion board shutdown.
From a community perspective... some. There's some value in having a common room where anyone can post regardless of their VIP status. But if you're looking for something quantifiable, I've got nothing.
I think that the issue for most people right now is the ease of troll contamination from the Front Room to VIP. If that can be addressed, then I think we can keep the two rooms.
Maybe the owner of this site is delusional but in today's world, dancers work different clubs and a site like this has absolutely nothing to offer us. We can manage ourselves on IG or FB.
The most that comes out of this site are the creeps begging for P4P cos they found us in the dancer directory. If that's the direction this site wants to go HELLO FOSTA!!!! LMFAO
All I'm seeing here is a small minority of the site's users, a few grumpy horny sad old men wanting this to be their private little echo chamber where they discuss P4P at everyone else's expense.
The front room offers anyone coming here a safe place to voice themselves.
Yes there is a troll problem on this site and they're all repeatedly listed in the "5 most active members thread"
If your going for the lets make this place more legit then get ride of it... Its pointless
The VIP is the hotspot
Founder, I don't know exactly what you want from this site, but as it is now, it's not really attractive to new users including dancers.
I would be even sadder if the discussions went away altogether. This place is one of my more pleasant diversions during the day.
If I may ask, what comprises the headaches you’ve experienced with the discussions?
Okay... but that's just you. If you cruise through the daily reviews you will see that there's a significant number of guys who have posted dozens of reviews of many clubs but almost never use the discussion forum. They interact mostly with other users in their area via review comments.
There uses to be Top 30 lists on this site, and the Top 30 list of reviewers was (by my memory) dominated by guys who rarely visited the discussion board. If I have that wrong, please correct me.
But it would be great if they did join the discussions, because many of them know what they are talking about when it comes to strip clubs. But why would they? If you have to wade through a thick, soupy trough of troll wars, post flooding battles, etc., then why even try to contribute to the discussions?
Final point... and please take this in the spirit of constructive criticism. If you're wondering why some people react badly to your posts, it might be because you immediately start scolding and foot-stamping if people don't immediately agree with your opinions.
I mean... this isn't a gentle site by default. I get that. But when you launch right into "Why are you guys too stupid to not agree with everything I'm saying?", you're not exactly setting yourself up to win over anyone.
People here have many opinions and the ability to express them. Founder is apparently taking in all of them and will make decisions. It's his sandbox.
@dc - I’m probably not the only one reading your posts about “if we only had VIP I wouldn’t be here” and thinking FUCK YES
We all like to spend time here, and it could be argued that many of us spend too much time here. That said, it's an internet message board about titty bars. We're not trying to sort out peace in the Middle East. You might benefit from a little less hand-wringing.
"If these guys are writing reviews and not participating then that's the choice they've made. I don't see them as likely to start joining in soon."
But perhaps it's a choice that they've made based on what they see in the forum(s), or some early attempt at participating that turned into a clusterfuck.
People can make new choices if they are provided with a less contentious, less inside-baseball environment.
Part of the reason why numerous new users get accused of being trolls and driven away is because trolling here is not an occasional disruption, but more like a central feature. That's sort of fucked up...
“I have been lurking on the discussion board for some time. I don’t know if I’ll ever post there because of all the nonsense that goes on.”
I tend to agree with 25, "I personally like the idea of two boards, and i think keeping them open is better for us as a group, but it’s your business...".
Perhaps an unrealistic idea, but maybe you could use some help? How you would select a helper, no idea. I doubt I could out of those here. A few people come to mind, but I don't think I could even pick THE one.
The one perspective I would offer that doesn’t answer you directly but is, at least, tangentially related is this. I grew up without anything remotely resembling an internet discussion board as a way of interacting with other people. Telephone calls were the most impersonal method of communication. Interaction with strangers was mostly face to face and pretty much any interaction was with someone I accepted as a real person.
So I’m slow to adjust to a place where all of that may or may not be turned on it’s head. It’s not how I was wired into dealing with people as I was growing up. On an internet discussion board, I’m interacting with personas, as they choose to present themselves. And I am also choosing how to present myself. The true motivations of any given person with a keyboard and internet access are unknown.
But I haven’t found, in my experience, that conversations with anonymous folks from wherever follow the same rules as traditional interaction. Maybe that’s because people don’t participate for the same reasons when they may have that same discussion in a classroom or at lunch with friends. Yet, I am wired to at least initially regard people as real and sincere and interact as if I either know them or at least have a better sense of when someone is joking around, just looking for a reaction, sarcastic, highly agitated, drunk, well meaning, has a strong background in what they are saying and so forth.
So I think whatever discussion rooms you may decide to have will always be like herding cats. The cats don’t agree to be herded and they are quicker than the herders. Yet I, for one, am slow to adjust to that reality on a site like this or any internet discussion site.
I think discussion boards will always have an awkward and dysfunctional feel to them, or at least have great potential for that. Some folks might get that and be drawn to it. Others may not like that or feel uncomfortable with it. Whether it’s worth it to you to continue to run a site with a discussion forum or whether there are ways to run it in a manner that works better for you are questions I can’t answer.
1. I've always thought that tuscl is well-positioned to own most SC discussion. It may be the case that the forum is not driving revenue or reviews currently, but given what a mess it is, that's not surprising. A solid forum should drag in eyeballs, and with them reviews or VIP memberships. I dig tuscl, I want founder to be successful (however he defines it), I still think a high signal-to-noise forum should be driving that -- the way forums have been revenue makers for so many other review sites.
2. I've been on the interwebs since Al Gore invented it, starting with the very first discussion group, alt.sex.strip-clubs. Since then I've been on countless SC forums. With 100% certainty, I can say that there have been plenty of SC discussion forums with high signal-to-noise ratio (though every single on that achieved that did it with mechanisms that have been ruled out here). Still, the view that some people have that we just have to live with a troll-filled shitstorm of a forum and there's no way to address it is nearly delusional and completely out of touch with reality.
3. I don't have an opinion on whether or not we should get rid of the front room, although if we do, we should make the VIP room read-only for everyone -- every eyeball that makes it here, should be able to see the quality discussion going on here, as motivation to submit a review or buy a VIP. In addition, if we keep the front room, perhaps consider changing how rooms are represented on the top line. Change the name of the VIP Room to the High Quality Discussion Room, increase its font size, change its color to gold, make it readable by non-VIPs, and put it first on the menu line. Change the name of the Front Room to Anything Goes Room, let people who find their way there, participate there if they want. Right now, a new person to the site would be motivated to go into the front room -- do you really want iceyloco and trapbaby welcoming them?
Perhaps the two posters you referenced provide motivation for people not to want to only be on the front room page. BF Skinner had some good insight into what negative reinforcement can do. Knowing there is a VIP Room and understanding the value it represents as opposed to being a regular member works as well.
Secondly reviews---and I was going to make a comment on this until I saw founders post(s) and thought it could wait. I formed my opinion on reviews a long, long time ago. To me they hold a lot less value than some of you seem to place on them.. There are too many variables, too much interaction on a human level that makes the review by itself about as valuable as the tip of an iceberg.
Then there is the culture of the site. When I first came here I had been to about six clubs after a long hiatus of not going to any --talking years. and started out with 1 review to see how it would be received as well as a few on the board comments about a second place. It took about 30 seconds before I started getting feedback via DM's about what I shouldn't say. I didn't take offense but I realized the real value of a review is to a large extent what shouldn't be included in them. So I tell people ask me offline and I'm happy to share. Same approach I took in the past with TER, JAG and TBD ( all three as far as I know dead at this point but all at one time were THE board to go to for information)
The dancers make a place and they come and go, move around, change names, hair color, gain weight, become jaded, you might remind them of their weird uncle Ernie.......your cologne might be the same as the last guy that stiffed them their VIP tip........
From just two years ago the first five dancers I ever met outside the club have all left the clubs in the Northeast Ohio area and are in Vegas, Detroit, or LA and that doesn't include my ex that I reference once in while because I met her before she became a dancer although I understand she is also back in Vegas. So in addition to being based on human interaction they also have a short shelf life.
For the most part I give people the benefit of the doubt before I classify them as a troll but once I do I ignore them from there on out but most people on here tend to feed the trolls instead of starve them.
Interesting point! But to know the value it represents, they have to be able to see into the VIP Room in the first place, right? Does the VIP Room run better knowing (most of) the trolls can't see in, or would it run better if non-VIPs could see the discussion and would be motivated to join? Interesting question.
-->"Then there is the culture of the site. When I first came here I had been to about six clubs after a long hiatus of not going to any --talking years. and started out with 1 review to see how it would be received as well as a few on the board comments about a second place. It took about 30 seconds before I started getting feedback via DM's about what I shouldn't say. I didn't take offense but I realized the real value of a review is to a large extent what shouldn't be included in them. So I tell people ask me offline and I'm happy to share. Same approach I took in the past with TER, JAG and TBD ( all three as far as I know dead at this point but all at one time were THE board to go to for information) "
Agree that backchannel communication is always the most valuable aspect of a review site. It was a culture shock to me how review-oriented the tuscl culture is. But, I also think the reviews are one of the things that draw eyeballs -- and though you don't get the super inside "Porsche will let you lick the back of her knee for $40" type stuff in the review, still valuable to get a feel for the club. But then, as you point out, you can DM review writers directly
Reviews... individual reviews from specific profiles can be very useful. Aside from that, I scan the rest looking for trends and commonalities.
What I'm saying is that if you want the points you make to carry a little more weight and move needles, so to speak, then perhaps you should examine and adjust your approach accordingly.
Or not. That's also entirely your business.
I think the function of front room as a great way to get non-vips to initially visit/interact with the site. VIP is the selling point was they get tired of the trolls
But is it really a "great way"? How many first-timers look in on the front room, and depending on how active the trolls are that month, run away screaming?
Although I do wonder to what extent the front room is like a honeypot -- as long as it's there, most trolls are content to stay there, rather than spending their energy getting into here. I think tuscl does have a unique problem that I've never seen before: a troll whose life is so defined by trolling this forum, that he or she paid for AT LEAST two of their troll personas to get into the VIP. As I've mentioned before, studies of internet trolls a build a borderline-pitiful picture of what trolls are like in real life -- truly miserable, sadistic, and unable to make connections in real life. They really are terrible, lonely people, but I've never seen one that's quite at the level of tuscl's, they all eventually go away, and they're not buying memberships for multiple personas.
I do think if we got rid of the Front Room, then VIP should be read only, and cost of VIP should be at least two approved Reviews.
Just cos a member may have unpopular ideas according to a small but vocal group, that doesn't mean they "pay to troll" They have as much a right as anyone else to be VIP and they shouldn't be forced to be afraid of voicing their views cos a few fucktards get butt hurt when they do.
The biggest trolls on here are Nicespice, Juice, 25, Sirlapdancealot, Meat72.
Any time someone brings up the topic of how to clean up the board there are a few very vocal members who try to shut that down right away. They have a few talking points that they shoehorn into the conversation, and get really defensive when challenged.
Trolling TUSCL is their lifeblood and they freak out when anyone threatens their supply.
That’s why I use ignore so liberally. It almost completely eliminates any need to even notice them. The only time I see them anymore is when they are the last poster on a topic, and even then I don’t actually see them when I click into the topic.
The only thing I could see that would “fix” that last problem would be to change the sort to last comment a user doesn’t have ignored, rather than just last comment.
But this way is acceptable, since it’s way better than it used to be.
Nothing can be done about the dog shit though because that would be authoritarian.
Secondly I think it is just a genetic defect or maybe a generational thing... You were talking about your friend that you argue with all the time then both of you forget about it by the next day.... I would start avoiding you after a couple days or I would beat your ass till you realized I don't like to argue..... not everybody has to do things your way, you are such an authoritarian
I sorta came across TUSCL a couple of times prior to joining when I'd do a SC-related Google search from time to time (actually about a year prior to joining TUSCL) - I really didn't pay that much attention to TUSCL in those few instances b/c for one I was not as big a PL at the time - also, I tried reading some reviews and it required VIP to read them - I didn't really look into what VIP meant and just assumed it meant paying to read the reviews which I was not interested in since one is used to getting info on the web for free.
Eventually I looked at TUSCL again b/c I had a trip coming in early-2012 to Dallas where I had previously lived - I was gonna be there a few days and although I new the Dallas scene fairly-well from my time living there, I wanted to do a little roadtrip to Houston and check out the SC scene there since I'd never SC there - thus joined TUSCL just so I could read up on Houston clubs.
At the time I wasn't interested in writing reviews nor being on TUSCL after I got some Houston info - and being that I don't travel much I didn't think I needed TUSCL going-forward - anyway after joining TUSCL I decided to pay for the lifetime membership since it was only $79 at the time and I figured maybe I would need some club info in the future at some point - once I got my membership and went to look for Houston reviews, I saw there were a ton of clubs and it looked like a lot of work to figure out which clubs were any good.
Thus I came on the discussion board and asked for Houston advice - I had no desire of being on a strip-club discussion-board thinking it was probably full of lowlifes and degenerates - but I quickly took a liking to the discussion-board b/c it was the first time I interacted w/ others that also enjoyed SCing as much as I did.
Anyway - if it wasn't for the discussion board, I think it'd be unlikely I would have gotten involved w/ TUSCL and unlikely I would have written any reviews - and unlikely I would have known about other cool clubs outside my area that I have enjoyed very-much like Follies ATL, Inner Room Cocoa Beach, some UHM black-dives in NJ, etc - and I'd say most of the good-knowledge I've gotten about SCing has been thru the discussion-board and learning from others' posts and their experiences.
I think having a discussion-board makes for a better TUSCL b/c it's a better way to share experiences and PL-expertise and IMO encourages contribution such as writing reviews - and the vets on the discussion-board help to set the proper tone and make TUSCL better overall.
The Front Room for the most-part has gone to shit - obviously everyone would rather be on "the good"/VIP discussion board, and so would the trolls, o/w they have no one to troll except themselves and obviously that's not "troll-productive".
I would prefer for the discussion board to be open to all mainly to make it easier for non-troll newbies to participate - and there being a VIP discussion-board obviously is not keeping the trolls out and I imagine it will just get worse.
Besides moderation which is a PITA to do, I think one just has to work around the trolls - using the Ignore function and not feeding them is the best next-thing to active-moderation - in lieu of moderation then it's up to the TUSCLers to make the board viable - i.e.:
+ stop complaining about the trolls and feeding them by getting into non-productive arguments with them back-and-forth for months on end
+ when a newbie comes on the board - we need to treat them a bit better rather than make fun of them for posting some dumb RIL shit (I need to be better at this myself) - and also stop insulting every new dancer that comes on here thinking she's trolling us w/o any evidence - e.g. many thought Juice could not be real and was just some troll persona but he's real (as mind-blowing at that is :)) - point is no way to consistently tell who's a troll and who's not often times newbs are ran-off
Anyway - I'd prefer an open discussion board w/o hoops to jump thru - perhaps having a disclaimer at the top of the discussion board to give newbies a heads-up as to what they should expect - i.e. something like:
"... We;come to the discussion board - this board is for strip club enthusiasts to share info and stories and comment about strip clubs - this board is unmoderated thus there will be some pranksters but don't let that dissuade you from participating as there are many good contributors with very good info to share ..."
Or something like that - may be a bit too-much hand-holding but better to try and get the point across to newbies so they are not turned-off as much while trying to figure out how TUSCL/discussion-board works.
I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to keep you on ignore. Your posts frequently have a word to value ratio that’s all out of whack. I often times just skip right past them.
I don't get how any of this could be a headache, I would code up a few scripts to automate most of the BS whether you have 1 board or 50.
DC.... in relationships sometimes no matter how right you are, you can still be wrong..... let that sink in.
As far as how you deal with arguments, you prefer to beat people down with your words, even setting up people sho disagree to debate formally so that the hateful people can be beaten and shamed publicly. That is just as much of a bully as the guy that beats you physically. The only difference is the healing takes longer when you beat someone with words.
That’s a sad thought, because having many friends is one of the hallmarks of happy people.
When I did moderate a discussion board a few years ago it was the advice I tried to give people when they felt they were misunderstood. Some took it, some do not.
With regard to DC9428. I think he/she needs to realize he/she is participating in a forum with a lot of people with similar viewpoints on SC life, discussing their opinions and viewpoints. He/she walks in with his/her beliefs which are contrary to the general consensus, and doesn't realize that he/she is being the loud obnoxious person in the room. It doesn't mean that he/she is wrong, it just means he/she is being the loud obnoxious person in the room.
in the past few days I've seen cross posting to both rooms. and some of the topics are like 'what's your favorite color lingerie', or 'what dogs are good for breeding'.
front room topics can be whatever, but VIP room topics need to be about STRIP CLUBS, SA, TER, etc. specifically things that the poster would not want searchable on the internet- (i.e seeking arrangement, OTC, TER, and ROBs)
if i want opinions about football, etc, i can look in the front room. if i want to know if a club got raided, or if someone has a new LDK routine, then VIP section.
Totally agree on the duplicate postings to both boards. That has been almost entirely the fault of two profiles, one of which is no longer VIP. So, less of an issue now.
>Its not good to only have friends that disagree with you on everything, but I think its good to have a voice in a group that challenges the general consensus.<
Not true at all, and having a voice in the group challenging the general consensus is fine, but to be taken seriously that voice needs to be part of the group, which means that most of the time that voice isn’t just disagreeing for the sake of being disagreeable, otherwise that voice is SJG generally being a nuisance.
Contrary to what you believe the general consensus isn’t often wrong.
This place has to grow up a bit in order to attract a broader range of people and signs over the door won't cut it. Sure a few hard core enthusiasts will post regardless, but nobody else is going to bother, just like they never have before. I view these changes as the first step in the evolution of this board to something much better.
I assume most that look at TUSCL for the first-time will be interested in the reviews - thus I guess they'll get VIP in order to look at the reviews then have access to the discussion board by proxy - but many newbs seem to participate on the discussion board prior to having VIP.
At the end of the day, it's your site. If you feel that the pain (higher maintenance) is not worth the gain (potential additional membership) it's your call.
Is the general consensus always really right?????
Say you have a site about strip clubs and the site's discussion area becomes dominated by a clique of older not so happy mostly married men who gloat about paying prostitutes and the discussion topics start center around where to find hookers, how much hookers charge, where to find hookers, etc.
So someone comes on to the site and tries to get it back on point and talks about their experiences with clubs and dancers and those experiences have nothing to do with illegal prostitution.
So the tricks decide that not discussing their illegal activities is a "nuisance" and act like their "consensus" that the site is actually about prostitution is correct.
Now I'm not sure what planet they live on but on Earth that makes them degenerates kinda and no their "consensus" is not correct. In fact its not a real consensus, they're just a small but very vocal clique who troll anyone who disagrees with their crimes and cheating and weird shit being the norm.
Personally I found TUSCL because of a search engine result that pointed me to a discussion topic here and it seems like a lot of others did as well.
On the other hand, if it is too much trouble because of all of the trolls and nonsense then I would rather see it go than to see @founder lose interest in continuing to maintain and improve TUSCL as a whole.
Whether it is important to not be searchable is a separate issue.
I also like the fact it is unmodersted and you can say shit and get reactions and watch reactions others get. I feel like i have learned a lot about people in general here.
I have a lot of people on ignore but it still seems as though the discussions in the front room are not centered on what this site is supposed to be about. If you go to one board give VIP members the option to make their discussions only available to VIP members. If they want to make it available to all they can do that as well.
My two cents.