Things you hate to see in an sffworld thread

[Starfish Prime]

I agree with wolfbane, though this is contrary to the threads topic, I would love to see threads that analyze the works/find hidden meanings/understand what the author was trying to say rather than simply recommending books and saying they are "good", maybe these come up in the author forums, but I rarely go there because the discussion with the least bias/most frequently updated is in the main fantasy forum. I like the lotr forums because they go through the book and analyze the details and inclusions-why things are the way they are (because tolkien revised endlessly over everything he wrote)- but I guess not every piece of literature has equal depth. Still, I would love to see some in depth analysis of modern fantasy literature.

I think many of us miss the actual thought that goes into a lot of novels. Of course there are some that are merely intended to be fun reads but a lot of novels have points included that need analysis to be appreciated, so I'd love to see more discussion on that, though hypocritically I've not done this which I would wager is because no recent fantasy has interested me enough to analyze, sadly, and those that I can see have depth beyond the story are written by egomaniacs like terry goodkind, and to be honest I cant stand him or his philosophy in his books. Bakker is similar but to a lesser extent, he doesnt come off as a complete fool like goodkind, but I still do not fully agree with what he suggests or the way he says it. But, I would still like to see analysis of his works in full detail. Ok i'm drunk so I should stop ranting, and yes it is 1pm here... that's how boring this city is.

 

[Ironhill]

Long long long posts that are quoted in their entirety just to give a three word reply. Why not just use:

I agree with wolfbane...

More threads about how great KJ Parker is filled with spoilers.

 

[Phyllis]

Or I could just stay in, or get out, at exactly the same extent which currently serves me very well. Even if it is not to the degree you apparently think I should. And continue to feel free to air my opinions and thoughts when asked such as this thread did, in the exact manner I already did. And if that two second thought and five minute typed post style is so lacking and prompts one to point how how wrong I am for daring to do so? Well tell you what. I'll change my living will so that if I ever fall into a persistent vegetative state and Bill Frist isn't available to view the video, I name you the person who does my thinking and expressing of those thoughts for me. Phyllis is it? Until then, I think I'll go with what works for me. Whether it works for you or not. But feel free to continue to disparage people for not thinking and reacting as you feel they should. "This is the internet" after all. Plus you do a bang up job of providing examples for several of the points I find annoying. The Dogmatic Church of How Others Should Think the Way I Think They Should. What time is Sunday service by the way?



Wait till you get a load of what I just typed! Oh the myriad of pitfalls one faces when one tries to identify what I find funny and what I don't. Let alone when I am apparently not get out enough. You and Phyllis have so very, very much to talk about. Start with me and how I don't measure up to your standards in posting my opinion on this very matter.

I tried to read your bull, but I got bored. Refer to my 'getting out more' post.

 

[KatG]

Okay, I'm going to have to start removing posts if people don't quit getting personal. I don't want to since this is a venting thread, but if you force me to put on my intrusive stormtrooper hat because you won't allow the conversation to move forward, I will do it. Last warning.

Phyllis, I had to edit your post. I know it may seem dumb but after endless discussion, we established the policy that there were two words you couldn't use on the forums -- one with the S and one with the F. And John, if you respond, I'll delete it. You had your say, she had her say; you're both done. Goes for you too Ironhill.

Wolfbane and Starfish have a decent point. I'd rather talk about the story than just rating it. But sometimes people like a book without knowing why they like it. If we can get a mix, that will be great.

 

[molybdenum]

Wolfbane and Starfish have a decent point. I'd rather talk about the story than just rating it. But sometimes people like a book without knowing why they like it. If we can get a mix, that will be great.

If I like a book and am not sure why I like it, I usually want to have a discussion with other people on why they liked it so maybe I could find out. For instance, after I finished Name of the Wind (Great book by the way, I'd recommend it), I wasn't exactly sure why. So I went through the main thread for the book, and it was just a bunch of stuff on release dates, etc. without actually getting into the nuances of the book, as well as the positives and the negatives with it. I ended up getting some criticism for nominating it for the book club, but I really did want to actually discuss the book, rather than a thread of useless points and some reviews (which are great, but don't actually bring about discussion, most of the time.)

My point is having ratings and what not are great, and threads on what books you like, and what your reading now, and recommendations, but on a fantasy forum I'd like to discuss the books that I've read. The book club is great, but most of the time it's people telling you what to read, so you can discuss it, when you've already got your own list of this. The biggest thing I'd like to see is more book analysis threads.

 

[Randy M.]

Kat G coming after me wild-eyed, with an ink-drenched sickle, yelling, "The publishers are the good guys! The GOOD GUYS, you fool!"


Randy M.
(It's happened, I tell you! It's happened!)

 

[Hobbit]

That happens to non-staff as well, eh?

Some very interesting and useful responses made, not to mention amusing. Like all these things, whatever we do (even if it is nothing) will have a 50/50 response (or thereabouts) with half saying great, the other half baying for blood. But it is something we like to do every now and then and we're always interested in what people think.

Good job we have Kat with her sickle, eh?

Mark / hobbit

 

[Ironhill]

Kat my post wasn't aimed at anyone in particular. I only quoted the guy above me because it was the only other post on the page long enough, following up my gripe against long posts. Let me share my favourite F word with you: Forgivness.

 

[KatG]

You have my eternal forgiveness, but you still have to listen to the warnings. Or complain to another moderator if you think I'm swinging my sickle too widely. Or complain to me, as I usually listen. But one of the things I hate in the threads is when the discussion is going well and then some people start sniping at each other, and I don't mean good natured joshing between people who regularly argue, and all of a sudden we have a mini-flame war. This thread is tricky, because people are venting and we're letting them, and nobody vents quite like John, just lets spread that forgiveness around and try not to get riled up. I promise not to make you sing peace songs, though.

Kat G coming after me wild-eyed, with an ink-drenched sickle, yelling, "The publishers are the good guys! The GOOD GUYS, you fool!"


Randy M.
(It's happened, I tell you! It's happened!)

What are you talking about? Publishers aren't good guys at all. They're frequently incompetent, out-dated and they don't support authors properly. Plus getting accounting information out of them is like draining tea from a slug. You just get irked because I won't let you claim they act like the characters on Entourage.

 

[Apathy]

What do I hate about sffworld?

Well, not much. Its a site where people who like books come and put forth their opinions. But a lot of the time people get confused as to what is opinion and what is fact and decide that their pride is on the line when someone disses their favorite book. That's one.


The second is that there are not many adventure-some posters. If I listed all the posts for boestselling books it would probably cover 50% of the posts on this site or more. I basically come here to get an idea of what book I should try next, and seeing the same book/author recommended over and over again wastes my time.

The reviewers for the site do a better job of covering a lot of less-known books, so looking through those is often more enlightening than reading recommendations/what-are-you-reading-now.

 

[Rob B]

I just wanted to bump this thread to let all of you know that we are going to be overhauling the forums a bit in the next week or so, based off of the suggestions here and our thoughts about where we want the forum to go. Many of you who spoke up about the consolidation of the forums echo thoughts we've been thinking for a while and echo things we've been hearing for a while.

Something along these lines:

Fantasy + Horror + Author Forums [Tolkien, Martin, etc] into one Fantasy/Horror Forum

and

TV/Film + Comics + Games = Other Media Forum

PLUS

A NEW Interactive, less off putting Recommendation Thread

 

[Randy M.]

I just wanted to bump this thread to let all of you know that we are going to be overhauling the forums a bit in the next week or so, based off of the suggestions here and our thoughts about where we want the forum to go. Many of you who spoke up about the consolidation of the forums echo thoughts we've been thinking for a while and echo things we've been hearing for a while.

Something along these lines:

Fantasy + Horror + Author Forums into one Fantasy/Horror Forum

and

TV/Film + Comics + Games = Other Media Forum

PLUS

A NEW Interactive, less off putting Recommendation Thread

I like that. One of my problems is that I like books/stories that straddle genres, and many of them straddle fantasy and horror (Arthur Machen's The Three Impostors, Jonathan Carroll's The Land of Laughs among others, Sarah Monette's The Bone Key, and on and on.) Deciding which group to discuss/review a book in has occasionally needed a coin toss.

Also, making the recommendation thread a bit more inviting and less cumbersome might reduce the number of requests for book titles. (Although, I often wonder if total success in that wouldn't dry up 75% of conversation on the forum.) The thread needs a good dose of sensible cataloging and cross-indexing ... and, no, I'd would not want to be the one tackling that project.


Randy M.

 

[algernoninc]

good idea.
where will sf and non-genre go? probably stay the same as now.
i had a similar problem deciding where to post impressions on my last read : "Eifelstein" by Michael Flynn : it's a realistic reconstruction of village life in the 14th century under attack by Plague [much similar to Doomsday Book by Connie Willis and to World Without End by Ken Follet] but with aliens and some super-modern particle physics theories.
Add to this the fact that much of the book is dedicated to conversations about religious dialectics and ethics, and you can put it in non-genre [the hard sf parts are not that dominant].

 

[Rob B]

I think we're always going to have issues with certain books fitting in more than one space. I'd look at the book spine (#1) but for the Flynn book specifically, all those elements you listed firmly put in SF.

Correct, Science Fiction will stay as is and so will Non-Genre.

 

[Mithfânion]

Glad to see the forums merged again at last, the idea of one big Fantasy and horror forum seems fine to me.

 

[Rob B]

Well, if nothing else we try to respond to what the membership wants to see here.

 

[kiaga89]

Now you don't need to leave the board to find a vibrant, chaotic example that this can be different just head to Alison Croggon section. The kids there have F.U.N, and one day when I was to tired of everything I just sat and watched them exchanging banter. I laughed myself silly and you made my day, guys! So, YAY to all Pellinories! Alison is proud of you, I am sure.

yes! Go pellinorites! we do have fun It's what reading is all about

I just wanted to say, I haven't really 'ventured' around the site that much, but I never knew how intense the conversations could get! Leaving Alison's forum, I've realized all that has been happening, and in a way, it is kinda frightening. I really have been hesistant to post outside her forum because of this wicked serious vibe I get. (if that makes any sense)

I wouldn't really consider myself to be a noob to the site, however, I think sometimes people can be way too serious about certain subjects. We read for fun, and I'm pretty sure we come on here to have fun and discuss the books we read for fun as well. With that said, perhaps my "ignorance" of the rest of the threads is "bliss" as I don't want my head snapped off by someone who disagrees with me or feels I don't know what I'm talking about

and to be a bit on topic, I hate it when people post just to add a post to their total amount. That seems to happen a lot.

:takes deep breath:

thanks for listening to the rant,

Kiaga

 

[KatG]

Well then, you were very brave to come into this thread where we are ranting, and we appreciate it. But really, we don't always snap each other's heads off around here.

 

[Fallen-Petals]

I understand that our Mods try to maintain very high standard of this board, you know kind of careful examination a topic from all point of view and appropriate use of language. And we've got some authors too, that's brilliant, who per definition write up to high standard. The trouble with that is, it seems people refrain from posting anything because this scares them.

Now you don't need to leave the board to find a vibrant, chaotic example that this can be different just head to Alison Croggon section. The kids there have F.U.N, and one day when I was to tired of everything I just sat and watched them exchanging banter. I laughed myself silly and you made my day, guys! So, YAY to all Pellinories! Alison is proud of you, I am sure.

Thanks We are proud!! But it is thanks to the hard work of the Mods

I catch myself too being way to serious, it comes with age I believe, but folks: it's books, it's fiction, I hope you read it for pleasure. No one is going to die because you say something silly. Heck, I make ass of myself all the time I post and lookie I life.

- So that's my appeal for more room to breathe and more silliness!

I like this idea, More "freedom" withing forums will invite us pellinorites to discuss other books with the rest of you. I fiind it wierd because you go from a fun, chaotic, organised, welcoming sub-thread. To a much more serious one. its unnerving! So long as people keep on topic and any new threads that people make are titled specifically then staying on topic will be easier and can allowed for fun to occur. If people have different views then fine, surely adults can be mocked good heartedly and think of a reasonable comeback in the same light hearted way.
If not then the brave Pellinorites can show you how to do it!!


Posting for the sake of posting is annoying too.

 

[KatG]

We had a bit of a glitch with making the format changes we discussed and that Rob announced. As many of you know, the server took a dive and numerous posts on September 29th disappeared into the ether, for which we apologize. However, the problem has been corrected and we will be making the changes over the coming months.