I mean I guess we'll see, but there's really no shortage of the sort of joke that's on the TiB Twitter account, and you're going to get tired of telling them to the same people that are already on here in the first place. Gotta give people a reason to follow, you know?
This. Trying to come up with just one funny tweet a day can become mind numbing. The 140 character limit can be an absolute bitch and it's best to be less because of the short attention span of users. And the crowd is incredibly fickle. I write something I think is hilarious and get no response, then I write something half retarded and it blows up. There's no way to guess what the response is going to be. And then you see some famous person tweet "weird" and it gets 10K favorites and 5.3k retweets, it gets a little disheartening (True story.) If you want to grow the account, PM me and I'll give you some tips. But trust me, it is going to be a bit of work (In the case of my account, I lose around 40-75 followers a day, every day.)
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." ~Wayne Gretzky I'm sorry, but what have you done for us lately?
I don't care if nobody does nothing around here, personally... "you get what you pay for" runs both ways. I'm investing $20 a month and a bit of time while drinking to keep this place running, without ads... so as long as people aren't being Sack-ish, I couldn't give a shit. If you want my advice, don't waste time bitching about it... that ain't helping the cause and it gets you nowhere.
That's fair! And you can ignore my advice, if you like. But having used Twitter both professionally and personally, I disagree with the way you're going about it, and I want to see the TiB account be as completely awesome as possible. I promise you it's absolutely no skin off of my nose if this Twitter account doesn't work, I was just providing my take based on what I know. Edited to add: Toytoy is completely accurate about people liking the most random stuff, you're best off not analyzing why certain tweets blow up. I have spent like 15 minutes perfectly crafting a one-liner and had it go nowhere, then I tweet about how I like juice (I do) and come back to 25 notifications.
More than anything, I'm looking to find more of what our core is. As has been mentioned elsewhere, we have some very smart people with an incredibly wide range of perspective, and I find that interesting as fuck. Too many sites or forums or what have you are all monster circle-jerks that buy into the hive-mind, and personally, I'd much rather foster and build an environment that is open to learning new shit from people that you'd normally dismiss or tell to "fuck off" in some knee-jerk reaction. Not too long ago I listened to an Alton Brown podcast where he had Bill Shatner on, and Shatner had a really, really fucking interesting point of view about how he approaches things in his maturity. To (badly) paraphrase, he basically says there's really no such thing as right and wrong, only different perspectives and context, and he's intentionally going out of his way to try and understand those that are different than his own. He may not agree with them, but he can sure listen and try and understand those other points of view. And he finds himself wiser as a result. He said it has hugely changed his quality of and outlook on life, but it's hard... because just about everything in life seems to demand you take sides, and you have to fight that urge. I think there's something to that. Sure, you're going to get the occasional crackpot that has some crackpot ideas about vaccinations or chemtrails or some other bullshit they buy in to because they're just too stupid to know they're stupid, but otherwise, there's a lot to learn. One of my favourite lines is from the movie Bottle Shock... it's basically, "don't be a dick, because it limits you". That resonated with me.
Nothing special, or planned... I guess you could say it's called "maturity". The older I get the more I realize you are, for the most part, in control of your life. You can make the decision to surround yourself with idiots, or you can surround yourself with smart people. I make a point of doing the latter. I'd rather be alone than tolerate idiots for the sake of not being alone. In my personal life, I've cut out a fair number of my "friends", because they were more acquaintances than anything, and the ROI just wasn't there. Most people freak out over that, and see the number of friends you have as being some sort of competition. I'm exactly the opposite. You've probably seen me talk about signal:noise, and I follow that in real life as well as online. Those are my only "designs" on this place... find more interesting people to talk about shit with, while occasionally crossing the line into the socially offensive... because most people are way too far up their own asses and take shit way too seriously.
If you ask me, our core is humour. Not just cracking wise, but how many message boards out there has over a hundred thousand posts where virtually every single one has a smart, funny punchline? I love the "be funny or die" mentality of this place. It isn't easy to come up with something witty and fresh and yet people do it on here again, and again, and again. People may come and go on here and the 70,000 plus member "glory days" of the RMMB may be behind us, but how many sites out there that you can think of has such a high percentage of members that are as funny, smart and who look at subjects at multiple angles like this place? Hell, this is probably the only message board I've seen where a member goes as far as to say "You were right and I was wrong. Sorry." In this world of the pig-headed internet opinion that goes a long way in my book.
It seems to me that the humour/wit you refer to is an indication of intelligence and confidence, and the ability to trade barbs shows you're socially acclimatized and have a thick skin. To me that is the core of what makes this place what it is, and those traits naturally lead to knowledgeable and smart discussion.
Therefore, it seems like the easy answer to "how do you get fresh meat?" is "we're ahead of the times, so just wait." But trends catch up. And people and stories, especially those in the main stream media, evolve. Now, there's so much content out there, that people can pick and choose. As Netty Pot is fond of saying, it's a matter of signal:noise. So I'll do my part by continuing to update the TiB twitter, and when that point hits where everything else catches up to us, we'll be ready. At least that's what I hope. That's what I'm prepared for. Because that's where we're going.
Yes. And to honour his legacy, I vote we finish writing his incomplete sitcom The Lone Ranger Is A Fag.
For those of you who prefer Facebook I have also created https://www.facebook.com/TheIdiotBoard It is sitting empty at the moment since I just created it, but content to come.
Here is a quick draft for a TiB profile image for twitter. It is super basic. But it has the advantage of being the first one submitted.
Every possible variation of these jokes has probably been done to death, but it's trending…. #RejectedCandyHearts
#BrianWilliamsMisremembers I can't think of anything clever, but this hashtag is going around. Basically, make Brian Williams take credit for a major historical event.
Not sure if this will immediately result in any "fresh meat," but at least the TiB twitter account is getting some attention! Horse before the cart, people. Keep the suggestions on trending topics coming. Apparently that is working quite well. (Also stuff like this. I need more suggestions for that kinda crap people eat up by the buffet full.)