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Post by Falconer on Jul 3, 2018 21:35:23 GMT -6
Hello! I’ve just sort of thrown this board together. I figured I would open it up and solicit input before it got too codified. It’s fun to let casual posting commence, and let the board layout and settings and rules evolve on the fly, a bit. Please don’t judge the banner. It’s temporary!
Here’s my pitch. In the 90s, the Star Wars universe was coherent. It was well thought out. It was rich in detail, but not dauntingly sprawling. It had a certain feel. It was all about Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and Wedge Antilles — their adventures, or else adventures like theirs. It was NOT… well, do we really have to get into it?
So, this is a place where we can talk specifically about Star Wars as it stood in the 90s; including pretty much anything from before The Phantom Menace and Vector Prime came out in 1999 (yes, I know that’s part of the 90s, but I think it makes a lot of sense to draw the line just before rather than just after them—but feel free to argue the point!). It’s not about hating anything that came later; let’s just say it’s off-topic. And while off-topics are probably going to be allowed to some degree, I really want this to be “the place where they love Bantam and WEG” and not “the place where they hate XYZ”.
One caveat: I’m not entirely sure how to put this, but, let’s just say I’m convinced you either love or you hate The Last Jedi. If you’re uncomfortable with anti-TLJ sentiment, this place is probably not for you. I’m sorry, but I feel I have to make a call about whether TLJ-venting is allowed, and I’d rather be upfront with you about my intent to allow it.
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Post by Vile on Jul 4, 2018 7:31:52 GMT -6
In many ways I see the Thrawn trilogy as the pinnacle of my personal Star Wars universe. I’m not entirely sure how to put this, but, let’s just say I’m convinced you either love or you hate The Last Jedi.Meh, TLJ was okay.  |
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Post by Falconer on Jul 4, 2018 7:47:43 GMT -6
In many ways I see the Thrawn trilogy as the pinnacle of my personal Star Wars universe. I’m kind of there with you. I’ve been re-listening to the OT radio dramas, which are great, but the whole time part of me is like, “I can’t wait for things to really get going… I can’t wait for The Thrawn Trilogy!” Meh, TLJ was okay. Meh is right! |
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Yora
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Post by Yora on Jul 4, 2018 10:42:54 GMT -6
There's no Star Wars like 90s Star Wars. I admit that the Jedi Knight games and the comic series Knights of the Old Republic are really quite great and in the classic spirit, and that the game Knights of the Old Republic did a lot to make the ancient era a fully fleshed out setting. But other than that, I can't really name anything that was a good addition to the Expanded Universe.
Disney Star Wars completely failed to evoke any of the distinctive style that Classic 80's and 90's Star Wars have and that make it so great. I don't want to have anything to do with it, and this year I finally had the conviction to cancel an invitation to see the last movie. Nothing beats the classics and there's more than enough from 1977 to 1998 to last for several lifetimes.
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Post by Falconer on Jul 8, 2018 20:11:40 GMT -6
Any ideas for member ranks? For now I copied my setup from Old School Trek (because it’s way better than the default Proboards setup, and at least passably thematic), but obviously it should be something befitting Star Wars. |
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Post by Whill on Jul 8, 2018 21:34:30 GMT -6
So, this is a place where we can talk specifically about Star Wars as it stood in the 90s; including pretty much anything from before The Phantom Menace and Vector Prime came out in 1999 (yes, I know that’s part of the 90s, but I think it makes a lot of sense to draw the line just before rather than just after them—but feel free to argue the point!). This is a good idea for a forum. I think it makes a lot of sense to draw the line at 1998. Pre-1999 completely includes WEG Star Wars. Except for the Special Edition changes to the classic films, 1977-98 is a very large common denominator in the Star Wars fanbase. Before the dark times, lol. Vector Prime was when I stopped reading post-RotJ novels because you just can't kill Chewie, man! In the 90s, the Star Wars universe was coherent. It was well thought out. It was rich in detail, but not dauntingly sprawling. It had a certain feel. It was all about Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and Wedge Antilles — their adventures, or else adventures like theirs. It was NOT… well, do we really have to get into it? I tend to agree on 90s Star Wars, except that Dark Empire is completely at odds with the venerated Thrawn Trilogy. In Zahn's contract for writing the novels, he was given a some criteria, like it had to be set 3-5 years after RotJ and that Lucasfilm had veto power on anything they didn't want, such as Obi-Wan being cloned. Dark Empire was originally set soon after RotJ. After Zahn's contract was finalized, Lucasfilm asked Zahn to refer to Dark Empire in his novel and he flat out refused because it contradicted his view of the post-RotJ Star Wars universe (and I feel he was right to reject that). Lucasfilm wanted to build an Expanded Universe on Dark Empire and the Zahn novels, so they moved Dark Empire to take place after the Thrawn Trilogy and had a prologue written for the comic that explained how after Thrawn almost defeated the new Republic the chaotic Imperial Remnant had somehow successfully taken Coruscant to lead into the comic's opening of the Republic invading an Imperial-held Coruscant. The EU was born out of this irreconcilable contradiction. By the way I met Timothy Zahn and talked to him one-on-one for a while. He's a super nice guy. It's not about hating anything that came later; let’s just say it’s off-topic. And while off-topics are probably going to be allowed to some degree, I really want this to be “the place where they love Bantam and WEG” and not “the place where they hate XYZ”. One caveat: I’m not entirely sure how to put this, but, let’s just say I’m convinced you either love or you hate The Last Jedi.I feel a sense of relief in reading TLJ is off-topic here. TLJ is my least favorite film and I definitely do not love it. I'm sure I don't need to convince anyone here of that. But I also do not hate the film. Must it be so binary? While I agree there definitely are a lot of people on both extremes, there is a very wide range of reactions between love and hate. I'm used to my word being taken at face value. I'm not entirely sure how to convince anyone I don't love or hate the film other than me just stating that. Meh, TLJ was okay. Meh is right! "Meh" and "okay" are in the middle, between love and hate. No? If you’re uncomfortable with anti-TLJ sentiment, this place is probably not for you. I’m sorry, but I feel I have to make a call about whether TLJ-venting is allowed, and I’d rather be upfront with you about my intent to allow it. It's very responsible to announce that anti-TLJ sentiment is acceptable here. I've recently had to deal with people being upset with me for allowing so much anti-film sentiment on my website. But I am confused about even mentioning TLJ on a forum that specifically talks about 90s Star Wars. Do you mean that even though it is off topic, just in case it comes up, it is allowed? |
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Post by Falconer on Jul 8, 2018 22:53:13 GMT -6
Welcome!
More or less, yeah. I’m somewhat feeling my way, here, but I appreciate you keeping me honest.
The way I see it, there are “forbidden topics,” and there are “off-topics”.
For example, at Knights & Knaves Alehouse, where OD&D and AD&D are the “on-topics,” other editions of D&D are “forbidden” (simply so we’re not constantly rehashing what we dislike about them or whether they maybe aren’t so bad), but things like RuneQuest, or soccer, or Star Wars, are “off-topics” which are totally tolerated.
So, I would incline toward making the Prequel movies “forbidden,” simply because “not-the-Prequels” basically defines the board’s topic boundaries. In other words, we’re talking about stuff from before the Prequels came out—that’s the unifying factor of this board. This also means we’re not constantly “hating” on the Prequels—there’s just no need, and why even antagonize Prequel fans? People have made up their minds long ago, and there’s nothing really to work through. Prequel fans are welcome, as long as they’re willing to compartmentalize a bit.
Whereas the Disney movies are “off-topics.” They’re not the focus of the board, so let’s not go crazy with making threads about them, but they can be discussed. They’re coming out now, they’re new, and we’re working through how they fit with our headcanons and how they are regarded, given “our” common frame of reference.
Again, a lot of this is flow-of-consciousness (partially by design—I don’t want to have it all figured out; I want everyone to have a say), so, my singling-out of TLJ-venting (as I called it) being specifically allowed here was certainly in response to the current climate of TLJ being still the most talked-about thing. Some boards have a culture of ridiculing TLJ-venting, and some boards have a culture where it’s not even allowed. So I’m just making a call on that, if that makes sense. This is a place where you can TLJ-vent and nobody will call you names.
Feel free to pick this apart! I’m sure we’ll come up with plenty of asterisks!
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Post by Starbeard on Jul 10, 2018 17:38:21 GMT -6
I think you have a good working mission statement right there, Falconer. At the moment I doubt there's much need to keep matters formal—that's a task for when the board generates more activity and derails start becoming inevitable. Until then, a flow of consciousness approach should be more than satisfactory, and it would be unnatural to have a Star Wars board that refuses to acknowledge a whole major section of Star Wars. Post-prequel and Disney Star Wars are bound to come up here or there when talking about what we love, either through comparison or grievance, or whatever. For example, I used to despise the prequels when they came out, but after digging back into the very earliest history of Star Wars, I've found that I enjoy The Phantom Menace a lot more than I used to, even with the warts. In many ways I see it as a throwback to Lucas' idea of what Star Wars would be before he actually made Star Wars. So when I'm discussing pre-production era Star Wars, I'll probably throw in comments and observations about TPM, insomuch as we can talk about how it relates to the pre-Prequel era. Any ideas for member ranks? For now I copied my setup from Old School Trek (because it’s way better than the default Proboards setup, and at least passably thematic), but obviously it should be something befitting Star Wars. Well clearly, Nerf Herder has to be in there somewhere. On that note, I wonder if we could make a whole list of ranks taken solely on names that Han Solo gets called in the movies & books. |
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Post by Falconer on Jul 11, 2018 11:12:05 GMT -6
Thanks, man. Welcome!
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Yora
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Posts: 51
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Post by Yora on Jul 11, 2018 11:50:25 GMT -6
I have to say this forum is starting exceptionally strong. One week and already 18 users and 180 posts.
Impressive. Most impressive.
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Post by Falconer on Jul 11, 2018 13:11:20 GMT -6
Awesome!
Now I have two questions for your guys.
#1 - How can I (we) get the word out more about the site? It seems like advertising on forums is the way to go, because people who don’t already use forums basically don’t understand/appreciate the format. Am I wrong? I know I should put it in my sig wherever I post. I’ll get to it soon. Not that I’m in a huge hurry to grow the site, but if there are people out there who are looking for something like this, it would be nice to reach them.
#2 - What can we do to make this site more of a “shared experience”? I mean, all of us have been exposed to little pockets of pre-1999 Star Wars. Would it make sense to say, for example, “This month we’re all going to try to read Wedge’s Gamble and post about it,” or even, “This month we’re all going to try to run Tatooine Manhunt for our gaming buddies”? Of course it wouldn’t be mandatory, but at least we’d all be getting a little more deeply familiar with each other’s favorite SW lore. (We could take suggestions from everyone on what to focus on.)
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Yora
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Posts: 51
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Post by Yora on Jul 11, 2018 13:27:05 GMT -6
Search engines also put you higher up in the results to any given search term based on the number of links that are on your site and leading to other sides. Linking to here is good, but as a pure forum for a niche interest, there are very few outgoing links from this address. How to get a benefit out of this mechanism I am not quite sure. One option could perhaps be to set up collections of links to resources relevant to the original movies and the 90's EU. After all, those would be things that actually would be of interest to the people who are already here, and it also would make it worth a visit for people who are looking for such resources. Well organised lists of selected content are always much more useful than search engine results that simply show matches to a search term.
And we do already have a couple such threads in place. That's something I think worth putting more thoughts and effort into. I think we could also contribute new original resources by sharing our own reviews of various 90s Star Wars works. I have drafts for Heir to the Empire and Tales of the Jedi reviews for my own site in the work, and I was already planning on posting them here in full with a link to my page instead of just the link.
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Post by Falconer on Jul 11, 2018 13:55:13 GMT -6
Excellent thoughts!
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Post by finarvyn on Jul 11, 2018 15:07:10 GMT -6
Falconer -- I hacked your signature on OD&D Discussion and included a link to this place (in addition to the Old School Trek board which was already linked) so that every time you post you advertise for this place.  Folks could add in links to this place in their signatures on other boards. Might generate interest. On the other hand, it's important to cultivate the right crowd. There are other Star Wars boards out there, but many of them focus on all things Star Wars instead of our smaller niche. |
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Post by Falconer on Jul 24, 2018 10:03:26 GMT -6
At a conference/vacation with the family this week, so I’ll be light on posting. Keep the flame alive!
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