Cybership Abuzz - The Story

The Abuzz story is very, very sad.

I am beginning to doubt that it can be corrected -- but I am known as a guy who will stick with a dead horse hoping to get a few more miles out of him.

I still post in Abuzz -- and I still have good friends over there.

I think much of what has been said about the site here in this thread is...alas...true.

Big dough is needed to revive it -- and I don't see big dough coming its way.

When I began on Abuzz 3 years ago, it was an excellent site. THe posters were the brightest of the bright and the software was totally up to snuff.

Even with imposters, ABuzz was the best site of it's kind. Then the "natives" got restless and those participants who want their political views broadcast, started to take over. The ones most at fault, in this respect, seem to be the liberals.

No..Abuzz will never return to it's glory years of 4-5 years past.

The really good Abuzzers left at least 1.5 years ago and will never, ever return. Why should they?

Frank:

Big dough isn't needed by Abuzz. Civility is needed.

New Haven- It is a sad commentary on human nature, but unfortunately, every community, even a virtual one, needs a police department!

Hi Joanne, thanks for the welcome

I know that Abuzz became a nightmare for some folks. I witnessed a lot of it & was disgusted and helpless to do anything except make things worse.

Some people don't realize how important Abuzz was for some folks. They think it's just another website where big boys play & the meek are expected to roll with the punches, or leave. What can you say to that?

Thankfully we have A2K.

I do not consider myself a liberal -- and I most assuredly am not a conservative.

From my perspective, the conservatives have been much, much more at fault in the deterioration occurring at Abuzz.



You also wrote:

Money is not needed, civility is.

Well, the money could be used to upgrade -- which in turn could be the best way of dealing with the lack of civility.

As a cyber community A2K is more or less Abuzz as it used to be when I joind it over two years ago. I caught the tail end of that original community. The current Abuzz does serve purpose however. Not all of the attackers are deluded nuts, although they are absolutists in their thinking. Debating with them introduces you to new points of view, and sharpens your argument. It requires you to think through and document your position and that is not a bad thing. Even extremists have a point of view and that should be exposed and engaged and Abuzz seems to be the place where that is happening. If the nastiness, such as the multiple identities, obscene language and the spaming, could be cleared away and contols put in place to prevent it's return, it would make an interesting, although rough and tumble, left/right debating forum. But the creative lighthearted Abuzz I orginally knew is gone, and I doubt it will return. There are too many bad memories.

You're right. New York Times Digital (which runs Abuzz, along with the Times' other online ventures) made millions of dollars last year. "... New York Times Digital, our Internet and business information division, moved from an operating loss of $7.3 million in 2001 to an operating profit of $8.3 million in 2002. That is an increase of almost $16 million." See: http://www.nytco.com/investors-presentations-20030303a.html , a few paragraphs below the vertical bar chart.

This kind of news used to make me angry (e. g. how could they make us believe they were hurting for $$ when they weren't?), but now I just don't care any more.

I think Abuzz was hurting for money, in that the NYTDigital decided it wasn't a good allocation of resources, and cut it off. I don't think much or any of the NYTD largesse came FROM Abuzz.

But yeah, I know what you mean.

Acquiunk, interesting take on the situation. That's probably why I still visit & occasionally post.

BTW, I posted this "story" on Abuzz too... interesting how the tone of the responses differ from here.

The NYTimes may have made big $$, but not because of Abuzz.

Frank:

Relative to your comments about "liberals", I hold firm to my stand. However, I will not debate the issue further.

Just one thing, please do not call this site the "child of Abuzz".

This site swears it has different parents and has the DNA tests to prove it.

LOL, Craven. Is the Noah's Ark analogy ok?

'Tis a wise site that knows its own father.......heeheeee....ooops....

Hey - if Noah's Ark is ok as an analogy - (baiting with weighted breath here to hear....) then, this leads us to speculation about which animals various of us are - and paired with whom - I guess Jes would have to be Mrs Noah - and the other moderators the kids - I guess we "guides as was" are the kids born on the wrong side of the blanket?

I am, I believe, the girl Bunny. I believe Danon 5 might be my partner.... heeeheheeheheeh

I hope the unicorn is parthenogenetic....

I like the idea of using sci-fi metaphors to describe the rise and fall of Abuzz. I see a "Blade Runner" scenario, where it's always dark and drizzly, and there are a lot scary people around. Replicants, too. Hard to tell who the real people are, but you know there aren't many of them...

As for who's more at fault, the right or the left, I won't go there. I think it's more about levels of sanity.

Craven

Nicely said!

I still visit abuzz. Its a train wreck. If it were not for about 4 MEGA_POSTERS, there would be less than 20 threads a day. However these posters are seriously deranged individuals who have lots of time to chase and post links with some brief commentary that tries to skewer the other side of the aisle. I think the nutjobs are evenly split between the ultra righties and lefties.

Phoenix had it correct, by reducing the attention to the software and trusting that everyone would be civil and adult , abuzz made a serious miscalculation

I (mostly kiddingly)
carp about how A2k has so many "hall monitors' and has a too cutesy aspect. SInce Ive spent some time on this line i can say, you do a good and , mostly invisible, job of keeping the crap from piling up. with that in mind, most people respond as civilized people rather than medicated loonies.
however, lets lose these marginal quotes. They visually break up the thought track of a thread. its an ad trick that is not lost on this ol illustrator.you could just as well use pink stationery for us to post upon.

also , another good thing A2K has used, is the ability to go in and edit a post in context, whereas abuzz allowed one to pen a passionate response and once it got 'submitted" you were cooked, even if you had second thoughts

LOL dlowan, I guess that makes me the Violet

D'artagnan, I was thinking about Blade Runner too. Great movie

Farmerman, what do you mean about the marginal quotes?