Holy stuff thank you for addressing this quote, I've been wanting to talk about this in depth since I wrote that post but I didn't really want to just dump, but now I will:
Someone--I don't know who--brought up this whole subject in a post I saw during one of my earlier sporadic logins to this forum, and I haven't really been able to get it out of my head since. This place was essentially a little self-contained Kiwi Farms (ironically, considering who would wind up hosting that site) with a key difference existing in that the vast majority of people here were literal children.
this place was always treated as some 4chan-lite ran by some dude who never learned to give any stuff.
The one and only time I got drama'd was for pointing this exact thing out. I don't stand by everything I said and did then because I was still a teenager, but my point still stands.
The thing is, about calling everyone here a 4chan wannabe:
He's completely, entirely, outright, utterly, undisputably, thoroughly,fully, purely, correct.
Old or not, it's ridiculous. I really just picked the ones that caught my eye from the title. Wouldn't want to dig through derailed threads full of stuffmemes.
Nickthesushi even corroborated my claims. This place has kind of always prided itself on being an edgy part of the internet, all the while for a product to be enjoyed primarily by children. The problem was systemic from the start, we were all just far too young to understand why it was a bad thing.
-snip-
Holy stuff, Ladios, that's a name I've not seen in a
long time. And yeah I think you and I started playing this game around the same era (you a year or so ahead of me) and I met and made so many great friends, some of whom are still very much close friends, but it doesn't excuse the kind of toxicity we all were apart of.
Remember this forum's ability to always garner a debate topic at least once a month? Like "christian vs atheist" "democrat vs republic (us centric)" or whatever else. And it was vile some of the arguments I'd participate in. I really learned how
not to act on the internet by being here.
internet forums are a dying breed
was bound to happen
I don't think forums dying as a social media (if you can even call it that) is the problem. This site still exists, many forums do and thrive within their own ecosystem. Blockland enjoyed a very brief modicum of success in the mainstream (like when djy was still making videos with it, it was a viable sandbox) and then slinking back into the niche entirely because of the toxic reputation our community had. Not just the forums, the game itself. I used to think this was because our userbase had an median age of like 12, but I think it was a little more sinister than that. It was a wild west, laissez-faire type place. When bad things happened/were said it only gained notoriety instead of being discouraged. User got banned? They'll be back with an alt. User said something inexcusable? It's okay, they were just trolling. User is an admitted child enthusiast? Not against TOS good to go continue on site and game.
The list goes on but I really do believe that this site was a little microcosm of the internet as it was in 2004 (just new enough to be engaging and user friendly attracting millions, just old enough to still be riding off the heels of the dot com bust where regulations were slim to none) except it never grew up. Badspot didn't invest in this community, and frankly I don't even know if I think it was his job to. I am now as old as he was when he made this game and if I had this sudden giant swath of literal children calling me "dadspot" I'd probably panic and bug off too.
I've been saying it for a few years now (and don't hold me to it, you know how bad I am about completing projects) but I've been itching to make a video essay on this community, the game, and its history. I mean we inadvertently created kiwifarms, there's a lot of untapped stuff to talk about that I think the internet as a whole would be interested in lol
