Hey Ditch, what do you think?

Thanks Ditch! 

I was actually just interested in what you thought about his comment. Seems like traffic is way down on both sites.

I read through that thread. That was fun! I enjoyed seeing a lot of the veteran members whom I knew and respected coming out of the woodwork after long absences. As a lot of people know, there was a time when CGC had the best comic book forum on the planet. It was truly a wealth of knowledge, and had the most and best informed members in the hobby. I had an absolute blast there and consider myself lucky to have been able to enjoy it.

I'm saddened by the loss of that knowledge. The transition to the new software apparently left the old threads unsearchable and broke the links within them. And even if you could locate the old threads, the PhotoBucket images which everyone used back then no longer work. This truly sucks. It's not really anyone's fault - the old software wasn't being supported and a transition was warranted, and no one could have predicted what PhotoBucket did, but it sucks nonetheless.

A lot of that thread deals with the issue of change, and how things were better in the old days. Sometimes this is simply an issue of people not liking change and being pushed out of their comfort zone when demographics or culture move to a different location. But, you know what, not all change is good, and sometimes things really WERE better in the old days. I'll give you an example below (Jeez...this is becoming a wall of text).

In the old days, the culture on the CGC forum was more of a meritocracy. The veterans didn't accept you until you proved your worth by adding some form of valuable content over time. If you came in 'guns blazing,' were disruptive or disrespectful, started redundant threads, asked questions that could have been answered if you'd bothered to read the forum, posted fake facts or misinformation, argued from opinion rather than fact, tried to hype your books, or made an ass out of yourself in various other ways...well, you probably weren't going to have a good time.

Then there was an explosion of new members starting around 2013 - most were younger, less experienced in the hobby, and very transactional. They had been driven in by blockbuster superhero movies and media coverage of the rise in comic book values. They wanted to flip books and make a quick buck. They were pretty smart too - they realized that they couldn't buy at a discount or sell at a premium unless the were known in some way. So they focused on post counts and custom titles, created new PM cliques, and flooded the forum with worthless posts and nonsense. By doing so, they short-circuited the vetting process and were able to transact like veterans, even though they'd only been around for a short time.

Unfortunately, this changed the culture. The veterans were outnumbered - many got fed up with the nonsense and left or stopped posting. When questions were asked or statements were made, many of the less experienced members just shot from the hip and posted misinformation - and no one was left to correct them and/or admonish them for not doing their homework. Worse yet, some of these guys were intentionally posting fake facts in order to hype their books. In short, the quality of the forum was diminished, and much of what was posted there could not be trusted. So, getting back to my original point, not all change is good - sometimes things WERE better in the old days.

Interestingly, as I look around that forum, most of those transactional guys are gone now. I assume most are flipping books on social media sites now to even less experienced people. Good riddance. But I still see lots of misinformation. It would be cool if the vets came back and set things straight again. But realistically, change hardly ever moves backwards to an old position - it will probably move forward to a different one.

Anyway...just my 2 cents.

CGC Comics General is a cemetery ritht now.

The original you might say 

Or try to be funny