Do you Miss The (old) Lounge?

It's been a few months since The Lounge was devolved to Metropol, but what do you think? Are you happy with "loungeless" TV Forum? Do you think Metropol 24/7 is working?


Personally I really miss TV Forum's Lounge. It had a great sense of community and had a nice cosy atmosphere.

I've never quite felt as comfprtable in Metropol's clone of a lounge - it seems to be the ******* son of our "anything else" forum. And notice I say "our" forum - it really did feel like it was ours (obviously Asa owned the deeds to it), but to me, Metropol just doesn't feel like somewhere I belong.

How could such a small minority be allowed to change things (for the worse IMHO) for the good of the majority?

Bring back TV Forum's Lounge!

EDIT: and mods - please don't close this thread and argue it's in the wrong place. I believe healthy debate is a good thing...

I do use Metropol's lounge but it does have a few inherant weaknesses. There are far too many clone users there racking up hundreds of posts on nothing, and the big issue for me is that many TVFers do not go there or do not go there regularly. I have asked questions in the computer forum which I know would have received a better response had that forum been hosted here.

It's OK, and it is on the up, but it just doesn't have the same atmosphere.

The problem of course is that the current owner of Metropol has quite obviously worked hard on the design, and bought hosting for the site. It's not fair for him to go through that and then for Asa to re-open the TV Forum Lounge and everyone to ditch Metropol.

I will always believe that a better solution than the one taken should have been found than ditching the Lounge and replacing it with another associated yet entirely separate entity. The most drastic action I would have taken would have been to spin it off - keep it as part of TV Forum but with independent management. But I still think turning it into a closed group of trusted members (that doesn't mean small - there are only a handful who lack the maturity to be in the lounge) was the best way to go.

The amount of abusive and nonsense posts have gone down in the main forums, so NO i do not miss the lounge, and have not participated in the Metropol replacement.

I flirted with it for a wee while...but decided it was crap and got banned.
Mleh..

Indeed, there are hardly more than a handful of users online at the same time. It does feel extremely quiet at the best of times and the tumbleweed can be often seen rolling. The withdrawal of the lounge in my opinion, was not a good thing because it sort of took away the sense of community on here - for people to chat about issues that were not related to television.

Sure it would have cut down work for the moderators here, but then again it shifts the problem over to someone else, and as with the recent Keef Whyte saga that unfolded on Metropol, there was no-one to ban this arse for at least 24 hours, as the owner and moderator were away on holiday (apparently), and Keef was free to post crap as much crap as he wished in nearly every topic.

One reason I think many of the questions in the Computer Clinic have not recieved the same level of response is because Dr Sigmund Mohhamed left to persue another identity, before that he answered and sucessfully solved a lot of the problems that have gone before. He's now back so maybe things will pick up there.



My chance to wow you with some graphics
http://www.metropol247.co.uk/images/stats.jpg



I realise thats a bit of a problem where threads are slow to progress and people visit in dribs and drabs.



In theory the sense of community need not be lost, Metropopl is open to the same users as TV Forum is, if only those users participate there still should be a sense of community as the majority of Metropol members are not strangers to TVF.



Sorry, but I have better things to be doing with my time than waiting 5 mins while my own site crashes my browser repeatedly. Most people smile in moderation.



The holiday was a methaphorical one, taken after a series of complaints about too much moderation so the decision was taken to 'take a step back' for a weekend and see how things went, it was then that somone took advantage of this under the name of Keef White.
Most of the time myself or Re-it-er-ate are usually at hand to help.

Despite my obvious bias I'd ask you to give it a try if you haven't already, and thanks to those who have stuck by it so far. I can't believe it's only been 3 months open, feels a lot longer. See how it progress by the next 3 months.

By clone users, I assume you are refering to me, Queen O, Jim Bowen and perhaps a few others. Well, Chris, it is ironically us "clone" users that are using the forum for what it was created for. We write silly things, we try to provoke debate and generally try to have a bit of fun... If you think that a few multiple users is a bad thing, then stay here my friend. The multiple alldritts and wonder carcasses were what made the lounge memorable. This so-called sense of community that is often spoken of when discussing the old lounge is very much an urban myth, to be honest.



But again, Keef Whyte caused a series of amusing threads and arguments... sure having whole forum littered with stupid one-line replies was a pain, but it got people joining in and having a banter and made the place interesting.

If you don't like trolls, multiple users and imposters, stay here, stay in digispy, but metropol is slowly gaining more and more members and more interesting discussion, if a few people have multiple usernames for a laugh, to make the world that little bit more interesting then that is fine by me... if you two would rather have serious dicussion with no trolls or aguments, fine, join the rob francis forum.

Are you complimenting yourself again?

Don't be such an arse - twas James Martin. I'm sure of it.

Metropol is fabulous, and Martin deserves all our thanks for the work and money he has spent on developing it.

If it has shown me one thing it is that Martin would have been an entirely suitable mod for TVF had he won the election earlier this year. He is a tolerant, humoured leader of the forum, and Metropol has developed so much character so quckly.

The multiple username issue isn't so much of an issue because Martin and Re-it don't make it one. It's boring farts like craig who seem to think it's a problem - as Dr Siggy said, they give the place character and provoke debate.

I found the Keef Whyte thing hilarious - who in their right mind would spend the best part of a weekend posting 300+ one-line sentences?

The Lounge should stay as is.

I've been here since almost the beginning and I've seen it happen over and over and over again. Do you blame me for being bored with it? Any oldies here who don't, aren't in their right mind either. What is it with people and pretending to be someone else? It's become the TV Forum cliché. It doesn't say a lot about the forum and its members - some people are downright deranged, even James Martin is normal compared to some people on here.

As for the whole thing giving the "place character and provoking debate" - that's just downright sad. Normal people can give a place character and provoke debate - we don't need socially deprived ******* registering under other usernames and posting 300 times per minute.

At the risk of dragging some of the wonderful bitching from MTPL into this now emotionally-cleansed, "pure" forum, you're talking out of your ass, CraigF.

I think we can agree on the whole James Martin issue, but you've got no idea that what makes a community is the oddballs, the ones with character, the ones who provoke, etc. It's how societies are formed. If you're so bored with the new Lounge, then go - you won't be missed.

And for someone who would clearly think himself to be in the normal category, I can't remember anything about you prior to this discussion. You're boring and dull, you add no life, you've nothing to give.