Has FB And Twitter Taken Most AZB Members?

[Nostroke]

I've used my name and town openly for 10 years here and have NO regrets or trouble from doing so. And, anyone who has read my stuff knows, I post some extremely controversial stuff on npr, for sure...stuff that could literally get me hanged someday. But when I meet pool players in real life, no one has ever approached me to cause me trouble because of my postings. I think it is because I post as honestly as I can and that is my protection.

I think posting one's name give more cred to one's posts. I consider putting my name at the bottom of every one of my post as my signature, saying that I, not someone else, posted this and that I stand behind it.

Also, anyone who really wants to find out your identity can do it now without your help. Privacy is dead, so why not be totally upfront and take the high road and gain some credibility? imho



Jeff Livingston

As i said most of my friends that did it now regret it. Being able to find ones name is not something everyone can do- especially the cretins who I believe would be the potential problems.

It is also an entirely different thing for someone to be able to find out who you are and plastering your name on every post. Would you leave your front door open every day when you went to work?. I mean anyone who wants to really get in can do so even with a locked door.

Im glad you are happy with your decision and personally i don't find you or anyone else who posts his name any more credible because of that. The content of the posts is what speaks to me.

PS- Be wrong once

 

[chefjeff]

As i said most of my friends that did it now regret it. Being able to find ones name is not something everyone can do- especially the cretins who I believe would be the potential problems.

It is also an entirely different thing for someone to be able to find out who you are and plastering your name on every post. Would you leave your front door open every day when you went to work?. I mean anyone who wants to really get in can do so even with a locked door.

Im glad you are happy with your decision and personally i don't find you or anyone else who posts his name any more credible because of that. The content of the posts is what speaks to me.

PS- Be wrong once

Leaving my front door open has no purpose, but my posts do.

Jeff Livingston

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

I don't do Fakebook, or Twitter, I do not get the point of either. My Looser Nephew spends his life on FAKEBOOK. The World thinks he is 10 feet tall, and a great father & provider.

He is short, very fat, works part time at Wally World, and his 68 y/o mommie help support his family.

 

[sfleinen]

It's a personal choice, really. You go where you get the best experience. For some, that's pure AZBilliards, because they can remain anonymous. For others, it's Facebook and Twitter because of the self-administration and moderation abilities (e.g. you are fully in control over who can see and respond to your stuff).

I've worked in I.T. since the 1980s -- during the Internet boom -- and I've seen technologies come and go, blossom or die on the vine, fads or to-become founding technologies, etc.

I've used all these technologies (because I have to) and some I just don't spend much time on. For me, Facebook and AZB are my "go-to" technologies. I don't use my Twitter account much at all, because it's too invasive / interruptive. I want to go to my personal-use technology when I want to; I don't want my personal-use technology constantly interrupting me, because I get enough of that crap just as a matter of course in my job.

I treat AZB as a morning newspaper of sorts. I sit down with it over a cup of coffee. I peruse, read, enjoy, and post on occasion (not nearly as much as I used to). And here's the key -- I don't take it too seriously. Those that are whining here because somehow the dynamics changed for them, take it w-a-y too seriously. If you take forum life seriously, you ARE going to get hurt, and often.

One can still be a contributor to a forum -- and benefit those that can use your information -- without being vulnerable to all the dark personas and identities here. I strive everyday to do just that -- be appreciated by those that are here for good purposes, and not be vulnerable to trolls or other mal-intentioned people.

-Sean

 

[JAM]

It's a personal choice, really. You go where you get the best experience. For some, that's pure AZBilliards, because they can remain anonymous. For others, it's Facebook and Twitter because of the self-administration and moderation abilities (e.g. you are fully in control over who can see and respond to your stuff).

I've worked in I.T. since the 1980s -- during the Internet boom -- and I've seen technologies come and go, blossom or die on the vine, fads or to-become founding technologies, etc.

I've used all these technologies (because I have to) and some I just don't spend much time on. For me, Facebook and AZB are my "go-to" technologies. I don't use my Twitter account much at all, because it's too invasive / interruptive. I want to go to my personal-use technology when I want to; I don't want my personal-use technology constantly interrupting me, because I get enough of that crap just as a matter of course in my job.

I treat AZB as a morning newspaper of sorts. I sit down with it over a cup of coffee. I peruse, read, enjoy, and post on occasion (not nearly as much as I used to). And here's the key -- I don't take it too seriously. Those that are whining here because somehow the dynamics changed for them, take it w-a-y too seriously. If you take forum life seriously, you ARE going to get hurt, and often.

One can still be a contributor to a forum -- and benefit those that can use your information -- without being vulnerable to all the dark personas and identities here. I strive everyday to do just that -- be appreciated by those that are here for good purposes, and not be vulnerable to trolls or other mal-intentioned people.

-Sean

Depends on who *you* are, Sean. If pool was your livelihood, you might take AzBilliards a little more seriously. It's not all fun and games to some folks.

 

[sfleinen]

Depends on who *you* are, Sean. If pool was your livelihood, you might take AzBilliards a little more seriously. It's not all fun and games to some folks.

That's fair, Jennie, and I respect that. But again, there are scores of published columnists out there who get attacked every day because of their content (or even because of who they are), and they don't take it seriously. Or, they're able to take the points the attackers are trying to say, without taking offense at the method the attackers use. In other words, separating the wheat from the chaff.

Every day, we all get better at doing that, because this -- like everything -- is life experience. Sometimes you don't react properly the first couple of times (I know I didn't!). But then as time goes on -- if you keep the big picture in mind -- you learn how to deal with these situations.

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins. And as I get older, looking back on how I dealt with situations (hindsight being 20/20 and all), there are many, many times where I wish I'd dealt with certain situations in a much different (and mature) way. That's just me.

Believe me, I post in (and've taken crap from) I.T.-related forums and such -- which *IS* my livelihood, remember -- and I apply these same principles. I don't take it so seriously. Those attacking you do, and that's where you must rise above them -- be more mature and all.

-Sean

 

[JAM]

Really?

That's fair, Jennie, and I respect that. But again, there are scores of published columnists out there who get attacked every day because of their content (or even because of who they are), and they don't take it seriously. Or, they're able to take the points the attackers are trying to say, without taking offense at the method the attackers use. In other words, separating the wheat from the chaff.

Every day, we all get better at doing that, because this -- like everything -- is life experience. Sometimes you don't react properly the first couple of times (I know I didn't!). But then as time goes on -- if you keep the big picture in mind -- you learn how to deal with these situations.

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins. And as I get older, looking back on how I dealt with situations (hindsight being 20/20 and all), there are many, many times where I wish I'd dealt with certain situations in a much different (and mature) way. That's just me.

Believe me, I post in (and've taken crap from) I.T.-related forums and such -- which *IS* my livelihood, remember -- and I apply these same principles. I don't take it so seriously. Those attacking you do, and that's where you must rise above them -- be more mature and all.

-Sean

To compare the fourth estate to a professional pool player as it pertains to an industry forum is not a good analogy, but you are, of course, entitled to your thoughts.

 

[ridewiththewind]

Because on FB, if you get trolled, you can block and then delete the trolls...you don't have to put up with it, as you do here. It's no fun to have someone pop in to take pot shots at you every time you make a post or start a thread. You have a choice on FB as to who you interact with, and when.

 

[sfleinen]

To compare the fourth estate to a professional pool player as it pertains to an industry forum is not a good analogy, but you are, of course, entitled to your thoughts.

That was only the first analogy, Jennie. There was a second in my post which is a lot more apropos to the pool player one -- i.e. my involvement in certain I.T. forums and applying the same principles. It speaks directly to the livelihood thing, which I think is your point with the pool player one? Correct me if I'm wrong.

-Sean

 

[JAM]

Because on FB, if you get trolled, you can block and then delete the trolls...you don't have to put up with it, as you do here. It's no fun to have someone pop in to take pot shots at you every time you make a post or start a thread. You have a choice on FB as to who you interact with, and when.

You got that right. :grin-square:

 

[JAM]

That was only the first analogy, Jennie. There was a second in my post which is a lot more apropos to the pool player one -- i.e. my involvement in certain I.T. forums and applying the same principles. It speaks directly to the livelihood thing, which I think is your point with the pool player one? Correct me if I'm wrong.

-Sean

I don't have time to debate with you today, Sean. Got bigger fish to fry.

The pool world is a fractured industry, quite a small world, so to speak, and those pros who devoted their entire life to pool, to see them ripped apart on this forum the way Grady was, as an example -- may he rest in peace -- it's just hard for me to read. I don't care for that type of colloquy. When you devote your entire life to something and have other people wipe their feet on you, ridicule you, and rip you apart, as if you're a POS, you may feel differently someday down the road.

 

[sfleinen]

Jennie:

BTW, I didn't mean the "thumbs down" icon in my post. Don't know how that got there, but perhaps a remnant of hot-keying around the AZB post form, it got checked somehow.

I edited that out of my post. Sorry about that.

-Sean

 

[Sloppy Pockets]

The difference is that on say facebook or twitter you are generally only having a conversation with your buddies--the people that you specifically chose to list as "friends". The benefit is that you are only dealing with those you choose to. The negative is that you are missing out on everybody else who often have tons of good information and input.

Shane, Archer, Hohmann and many other top pros have reached their limit of 5000 FB friends. I doubt any of them personally know or have even met but a small fraction of this number. I have well over 100 pool playing FB friends, almost all of them pros in the field, yet I've only met a few dozen of them in real life. I put in a friend request and they accepted. Mostly this was done so I can follow my favorite players, who rarely (if ever) post on AZB.

Great players usually have great egos. They love the strokes and support they get from their admirers, and FB provides that in spades. If they get a bunch of shit from somebody, they can just "fire" them. Even a minor infraction against your own personal rules allows you to unfriend that person. Try that on AZB.

Also, after reading many of the comments on pro FB pages I've realized that they are mostly from a small group of personal or professional acquaintances. I don't usually even "like" their comments, never mind add my own. It just seems out of place, whereas on AZB I feel I have a right to say anything to anybody who bothers to post. So, I think FB has - by default - built-in mechanisms to express yourself without fear of public ridicule. If you chose to engage, however, there is always that option as well. Best of both worlds, which is probably why the site enjoys such tremendous popularity.

 

[JAM]

Jennie:

BTW, I didn't mean the "thumbs down" icon in my post. Don't know how that got there, but perhaps a remnant of hot-keying around the AZB post form, it got checked somehow.

I edited that out of my post. Sorry about that.

-Sean

You must be attracted to that red color from time to time for some reason. :kiss:

 

[sfleinen]

You must be attracted to that red color from time to time for some reason. :kiss:

Very funny.

"I didn't deserve that." "Yes, you did."

-Sean <-- ok, ok, that TCOM line is cliche.

 

[Poolplaya9]

Because it's like this... only better.

I don't agree with that as a blanket statement. It really depends on what you are after and what is important to you. If you are more after just socializing with people, then facebook might be better for some people. If you are after education and information, they aren't even in the same universe. AzB is better.

 

[logical]

I come and go on various gun, pool, motorcycle, car and other forums. It is simply a matter of what is going on in my life. If I'm looking for or just bought a new bike, I might be on a Harley forum daily for months and then none at all for years. I know to some it is different, but my level of obsession comes and goes with pool. The only point here is people come and go for many reasons.

I have zero interest in Facebook or twitter, and only reluctantly deal with LinkedIn due to my job. I'm sorry to let all of you down...but frankly your lives and what you think about belly button lint are tedious. Just because you have technology where you can tell all your friends that you are really liking your cheeseburger and wanted to share a picture of it....doesn't mean you should. And again, sorry but that YouTube link you sent me did not lead me to something "awesome", "amazing", "hilarious", or that I absolutely had to see. It was just OK and I only say that because I stopped it after 15 seconds so that I wouldn't feel compelled to tell you what an idiotic waste of my time it was.

I'm not antisocial or even grumpy in general.....I just see how these things take over peoples lives and find it moderately sad and very strange. If you are at a live concert....be at a live concert.....don't watch it through your iPhone screen while you record it so you can send the clip to people who aren't there. You're missing the show.

So, no. For me....Facebook and Twitter are not the reason.

 

[JMW]

People talk about their league teams, experiences, bad deals, ask questions. Try and think back at when you first joined. Maybe the BS has always been here. It may be that over a period of several years, you just have seen and heard it all by now and it is getting somewhat repetitive.

I agree with this.

 

[JoeyA]

Let's take Shane for example. Here's a young man completely on top of the US Pool World. He's completely computer literate, smart phone etc. He is a member here at AZ so he obviously knows about the site.

He almost never posts here.

He quite often posts on Face Book.

I wonder why?

Kevin

The reason is quite simple as most of you already know. On FB if your "friends" misbehave, you can un-friend them, delete their message or block them.

JoeyA

 

[Poolplaya9]

To answer the original question: No, not really.

These are the months when we reached the next milestone posts:

1 million jan 2008
2 million sep 2009 (20 months)
3 million mai 2011 (23 months)
4 million feb 2013 (21 months)

This is post number 4715141 so we are on track for around 20 months to get to 5 million.

So it has stayed pretty constant over the last 6 years.

gr. Dave

Something just occurred to me. Your figures seems to reflect the overall post count across all forum sections and that they have remained fairly stable with neither an increase or a decrease. When I made my posts, I was thinking in terms of the main forum, not the whole forum as a whole. And I'm wondering if Johnnyt was thinking in terms of the main forum also when he started the thread. I still think it seems like the posts in the main forum have gone down from several years ago. Of course there are many things that can make something feel or seem a certain way even though it isn't true.

We do have some other forum sections that we did not have many years ago. That alone would account for some loss of posts in the main forum as they are now going into other sections of the forum. But even taking this into consideration it doesn't seem to fully account for what "seems" to be the drop in main forum posts.

I wonder if the posts in the main forum have actually gone down, but posts in other forums like the wanted/for sale and the NPR forums among others have gone up enough to offset it and result in the total post count for the whole forum staying stable even though there are now less posts in main?

Or maybe the number of threads in the main forum has dropped, even though the total number of posts in main has stayed the same, and less threads is why is "feels" like there is less posts? Do you happen to have any statistics on the number of posts or number of threads in the main forum only over the years?