The death of an internet forum

[quote author="caycifish"]
[quote author="steppingup"]Ok, I'm lost here and don't know where to put to put this, but how in the world can I, after only 5 posts, already have negative karma? I didn't say anything controversial and if this is truly karma the fact that I used my first exalt on Winex should give me some good karma! [/quote]

I just saw that and wondered the same thing. I thought "what did she say to upset someone?"
[/quote]

I think the karma thing invites abuse and bad feelings. If a few posts can get smites that fast, how are newbies going to feel?
 
[quote author="steppingup"]
[quote author="graphrix"].[/quote]

raises hand: :-[any interest in gardening related contributions?
While white on rice already does something like this, but recipes centered on what's in season in our own yards could be fun. [/quote]

That would be great!! I'd love to get some ideas for stuff that us Renters could grow in Pots and Tubs on our Balconies and Patios!! Like how do you grow fresh Parsley? I make a great Parsley Sauce!!
 
[quote author="steppingup"]Ok, I'm lost here and don't know where to put to put this, but how in the world can I, after only 5 posts, already have negative karma? I didn't say anything controversial and if this is truly karma the fact that I used my first exalt on Winex should give me some good karma! [/quote]

I don't understand it either. Unless I missed a controversial post where you advocated kicking puppies, or criticized BK?

Or maybe I'm just bitter about my very first karma point being taken away by a smiter after like 20 minutes. I was initially intrigued, but now I really dislike the smite button.

FWIW, I exalted you for your post above about the IHB being hard on newbies...I agree.
 
So to recap: We have cayci and bltserv on tech support, graph and a few others openly commiting to writing some blog posts, software costs covered, and increasing support for both a broader focus and a more autonomous control and moderation of forum content.

There really isn't anything more for me to add. At this point, I'm just waiting to see what SoCal78 is willing to do.
 
[quote author="peteruk"]
[quote author="steppingup"]

raises hand: :-[any interest in gardening related contributions?
While white on rice already does something like this, but recipes centered on what's in season in our own yards could be fun. [/quote]

That would be great!! I'd love to get some ideas for stuff that us Renters could grow in Pots and Tubs on our Balconies and Patios!! Like how do you grow fresh Parsley? I make a great Parsley Sauce!![/quote]

Over the summer we planted a few herbs, parsley among them, and after months of neglect all have died off. All, that is, except for the parsley. From my experience, it's low maintenance, as long as you can keep the critters off.
 
hosting.com is local and I think they have good rates.

I would mirror a lot of the topics in the old board they seemed to work well.

If you limit it to Irvine only you may create such a small pool of people to pull from it may eventually lead to the death of the forum.

Have Irvine specific and then OC etc. JMHO.
 
[quote author="a"]
[quote author="caycifish"]

I just saw that and wondered the same thing. I thought "what did she say to upset someone?"
[/quote]

I think the karma thing invites abuse and bad feelings. If a few posts can get smites that fast, how are newbies going to feel?[/quote]

Exactly. It invites abuse, hurt feelings, and passive aggressiveness (my pet peeve). I'd only appreciate the smites if there was a way to see who is smiting whom.

I also hate the word smite and all of its tenses.
 
[quote author="Blueberry East"]
[quote author="novaseline"]

What if the newbies are morons? The idiot doing the Fullerton summer vacation rentals in that gated community comes to mind. Even if they weren't trolling it was the single dumbest idea I saw all year.

Maybe there's a nice way to tell somebody they are an idiot and I should learn that skill.

Or what about Jhammonds who was going out of his way to spam and troll the politics forum strictly for his own entertainment value?

Or Newport Skipper or Janet? What do you do with people who are just crazy?

I'm bringing this up now so we can figure out what the SOP is when it happens again (and it will). Zovall never wanted to show guts and nip it in the bud. Can any of us say either he or the community was better served by his inaction?[/quote]

What's wrong with Fullerton vacation rentals? Maybe it turns out to be a good idea. [/quote]

Did you read the thread? I'm not going to link it because I don't want to drive traffic over there, but by your comments I'm assuming not. I spent several hours writing a detailed response why it was a bad idea, with a couple of cash flow assumptions. If you disagreed with what I wrote, why hold your tongue? I'm a big boy and I can take it ? and I make lots of mistakes. If you think I made one, please speak up ? but be prepared to use facts and show cites why. "Maybe it turns out" isn't gonna cut it.


The market does not always follow IHB predictions. Let's not forget the Shadow Inventory debacle back in summer where it was predicted that in 4 weeks the markets would go down. The ones not believing in it were considered morons.
Click to expand...

You mean Skippy the Liar claiming there were "hundreds" of condos you could buy today and rent cash flow positive, and all of the cites he gave were short sales that wouldn't fetch his claimed rents unless somebody was willing to pay a 50% premium over what the guy next door was playing? You're right - that was a failure of Zovall to reign in the trolls who were baiting. Thank you for pointing it out.

Facts are facts. Shadow Inventory is real. I am currently 'shopping' in Central California. There are 145 homes for sale in the zip code I'm interested in - and over six hundred unique properties that are either REO and not on the market (about 175), scheduled for auction (about 220), or have NODs (another 220 or so). I can't speak for Orange County because I quit looking about four months ago when I decided I wanted to move. Everything in the county trades at a discount to rents and there's a pile of supply coming to market that will be "must move". At least here, it's going to get nothing but worse.

The Irvine market has been overpriced relative to rents since at least 2002 and it still is. I have no idea if it will correct today, tomorrow, next week, or never - but it is coming down almost everywhere else than Irvine, and eventually it'll get them too.
 
Being completely outside of OC.... I got hooked on "the blog which can't be named" first because of the funny comments about the terrible real estate listings. I don't really recall what first took me to the forums, but I stay because it's been such a wonderful source of information about real estate in general, and economics, and a mix of other information. I've learned all about the differences in types of rice, agricultural economics, how financial derivatives developed, what makes good design, places to go, restaurants to visit.... the list goes on.

BTW.... I think a lot of people take the "smite" and "exault" thingies way too seriously...
 
As an addendum:

SoCal and I have had lengthy conversations via PM where I expressed my displeasure at Skippy and his lack of verifiable data to back up his position. Believe it or not, I wanted him to be right! But I wanted him to not cherry pick his data points to prove it.

So "maybe" you can get a short sale to close on those Tustin condos and "maybe" you can find somebody who will pay 50% over current rates and "maybe" the neighborhood will get better because "maybe" all the new residents will want to owner occupy these crappy condos. Maybe. But probably not.
 
[quote author="novaseline"]As an addendum:

SoCal and I have had lengthy conversations via PM where I expressed my displeasure at Skippy and his lack of verifiable data to back up his position. Believe it or not, I wanted him to be right! But I wanted him to not cherry pick his data points to prove it.

So "maybe" you can get a short sale to close on those Tustin condos and "maybe" you can find somebody who will pay 50% over current rates and "maybe" the neighborhood will get better because "maybe" all the new residents will want to owner occupy these crappy condos. Maybe. But probably not.
[/quote]

That was a fun thread. I recall the neighborhood was some hood in Tustin that basically was A WAR ZONE. Skippy was great entertainment. Almost a Troll. But he knew his stuff when it came to being a mortgage broker.

I hope RoLar makes it over. Always fun to have the young Realtor to bait and entice a little. Like offering a little kid a beer after all he drinks is Kool Aid all day. Him and Skippy were one heck of a tag team for a few days. Thats what the old board was about. Great discussions that really had all opinions about a rental property like that. We had Google Street views that showed how bad that neighborhood looked.

Those threads really created good traffic and contribution/content.
 
[quote author="steppingup"]but I remember early on thinking you all at that time were really a bunch of egotistical jerks. and then I saw posts by Eval and I was hooked. [/quote]

Wow... That was a very nice thing to say. <!-- s:) -->:)<!-- s:) -->

And it's not that I don't believe you, but I am curious which ill informed blather it was.
 
[quote author="evalseraphim"]
[quote author="steppingup"]but I remember early on thinking you all at that time were really a bunch of egotistical jerks. and then I saw posts by Eval and I was hooked. [/quote]

Wow... That was a very nice thing to say. <!-- s:) -->:)<!-- s:) -->

It's been so long that I can't recall any specifics other than I have this recollection of a woman who debated so strongly with solid arguments and citing of facts that I just thought "when I grow up, I want to be just like her."

And then I stumbled on your wine and food recommendations/criticisms/suggestions and realized that Eval is truly genius. I really missed a lot of members who left or went into hibernation, but I felt your absence the most. It was truly a "something died here" period. I'm in St Martin as I post this and there ads for Wall E with your EEEVA pic/avatar and whether it sounds weird or not , I can hear Wall E calling out "eeva" and know somewhat of what he felt.

And it's not that I don't believe you, but I am curious which ill informed blather it was.[/quote]
 
[quote author="USCTrojanCPA"]Looks like Zovall and IR cleaned up the forums a bit before they locked it out.[/quote]

Without active links and traffic the old forum will be dead and gone as far is the internet is concerned within a few months.

All they did was put a little lipstick on a dead pig. If they were really smart. We all would have coughed up a few bucks each and bought the database to transfer over here.

Kind of like petting a dead puppy. Its just going to lay there and stink worse if you dont get rid of it. And whats worse is they killed the puppy. It didn't die of natural causes. They killed it because somebody else might be getting more love from it.
 
[quote author="bltserv"]
[quote author="USCTrojanCPA"]Looks like Zovall and IR cleaned up the forums a bit before they locked it out.[/quote]

Without active links and traffic the old forum will be dead and gone as far is the internet is concerned within a few months.

All they did was put a little lipstick on a dead pig. If they were really smart. We all would have coughed up a few bucks each and bought the database to transfer over here.

Kind of like petting a dead puppy. Its just going to lay there and stink worse if you dont get rid of it. And whats worse is they killed the puppy. It didn't die of natural causes. They killed it because somebody else might be getting more love from it.
[/quote]
I like the dead puppy analogy BLT. haha <!-- s:D -->:D<!-- s:D --> I even told Zovall and IR I was ready to pay to become a forum sponsor but they didn't seem to be very receptive of that. Other forums that I'm on (car forums) have good success with using targeted advertising links along with having paid sponsors on the site. As you mentioned, Zovall and IR are good at what they do but they sure aren't very good business men. IHB could have been a nice little piggy back for them if they would have come up with a good business model.
 
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