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As in. Why do I?

So yesterday I posted two things to AFP. Both of them were, in fact, worked on. Something I don’t bother doing for usenet. I actually did some research for both, and carefully put across an argument.

Just so I could watch both of them sink without trace.

Okay, so you could describe it as attention-seeking, but when every post I make to a group (And here I don’t count the AFPanto stuff, because they weren’t contributions to a thread, but to the group as a whole, iyswim) is ignored or – possibly worse – has it’s content and reason totally snipped for a cheap dig at my spelling, I realise why I left AFP the first three times. It’s the same reason I’ll probably leave the movie some time fairly soon.

It’s the feeling of shouting into a black hole.

You can’t discuss things in AFP any more. The big things get split very quickly into “I have a strong opinion and I won’t change it. Argue with me” and “Your post didn’t meet my exacting standards for usenet, go duck off and fie”. The actual object of the post is quickly diverted into a semi-random series of three-side squabbles, and anybody *else* who tries to put forward a point is ignored.

The movie is the same. Every time an idea is put forward, It’s delegated, and something happens, so it’s reported back. Then the method, the object, and sometimes even the *existence* of the task is quibbled over and attacked until it’s not worth doing anything because of the arguments that will result from it.

Will I leave the movie project? I have not very long to think about it, really. Once the contract is signed, I actually have a legal connection to the business (quite apart from my current position as owner of the club), but I’m really not sure if risking some of the friendships I’ve made on AFP is worth the eventual goal of the movie.

I’m getting very disillusioned with the whole thing, to be honest. I’m actually writing things, and watching them sink into a steaming swamp of slowly rotting crap. Some of the things I throw are crap themselves, but the number of things within the group that I see thrown in, Objects of beauty even (And here I refer to Warwick’s recent post) both technical and artistic are being completely and totally ignored.

And that’s a shame.

So, the question remains. Do I stay, or do I become one of the many people before me, who are Of AFP, yet no longer On AFP?

And then there is #afp, which is another rant entirely.


In the last month(ish), AFP has had 27 FAQs, 353 Cascades,1001 Meta-
Messages, 4782 Messages Irrelevant to Terry and 1103 that aren’t.
35 about Games, and 207 Annotations. Oh, and 253 Fandom messages.
That’s 8338 total messages, (557 Messages untagged)

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