All alone in this vast wilderness

Rule discussion, feature requests, what have you.
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by mrsl »

.
I really don't mean to be flip but I should think with the freezing cold and so many of us being forced to stay inside that this site would be hopping with discussions, but I feel rather lonely out here. Where has everyone gone? Have they started up another new site without telling everyone? Some of these threads have not been touched in months it seems like. Has everyone gone back to the TCM site? Finally, I really hope not, but have so many people hit the "ignore" button on me? If that's the case, just tell me and I'll erase this site from my computer, even though I will feel terrible about it.
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
User avatar
Rita Hayworth
Posts: 10068
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 4:01 pm

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by Rita Hayworth »

I was thinking of the same thing ... I haven't seen much of Jack Favell, Cinemaven, Miss Goddess, and others too. I just wondering the same thing and I just kind of sad that this forum hasn't been much activity in the past.

I know exactly what you are thinking here.
User avatar
Masha
Posts: 2004
Joined: January 16th, 2015, 10:22 am

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by Masha »

I am concerned of: JackFavell. I find no presence of her here or in TCM forum since early December. I do hope that all is well with her.

I am sorry to say that I feel limited in posting. The only thread to which I feel that I can make substantial contribution is: Domestic Feline.

I believe this is because I do not have access to: Svengoolie and I do not have interest in or knowledge of: Giallo which are most active threads. The movies which I know well and in which I have great interest are not well known here and few have interest in them. It is situation here and in TCM forum that movies which are most popular for discussion are ones which I do not know well or are not to my taste.

I had thought to begin thread here of: Atypical Movies to mirror thread which I began in TCM forum but I fear that most here participate also on TCM forum and so it would be boring repetition.

I enjoy reading many threads but I feel often that I can not able to constructively contribute because others have far more knowledge and understanding and passion for particular movies or stars than I have.
Avatar: Vera Vasilyevna Kholodnaya
User avatar
movieman1957
Administrator
Posts: 5522
Joined: April 15th, 2007, 3:50 pm
Location: MD

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by movieman1957 »

We have all been concerned.

I can give you a little information. JackFavell is well, as of a few weeks ago. Personal responsibilities and a nagging computer problem have kept her away. MissGoddess has undertaken a move that has kept her limited posting though she has shown up at TCM occasionally.

Others seem to have taken up residency on the SSO Facebook page. There people are having fun with the upcoming TCM festival and share more about the edges of their film interests. Not so much a deep discussion of any film itself.

I don't know what the answer is to having people come back. Maybe we could survey the others there and see what we are missing.

On the other hand we have been at this 8 years next month. That is quite a long time for a site such as ours. It is a credit to Moira and Lynn and the late Mr. Parker for having the vision to start and maintain as long as they have. Maybe it mirrors the ebb and flow of life.

There are times when I get in a mood and listen to my Beatles and Moody Blues and Dan Fogelberg. After a time I put on Beethoven and Brahms and Tchaikovsky to the exclusion of other forms of music. Maybe everyone is off listening to Beethoven while we are here with our Pop music. (Or the other way 'round.)

To everything there is a season.....
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
User avatar
Professional Tourist
Posts: 1671
Joined: March 1st, 2009, 7:12 pm
Location: NYC

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by Professional Tourist »

I agree with you, mrsl. I noticed the downturn of activity here much longer ago, and posted about it sometime last summer, at which time someone replied that it must be summertime activities keeping people offline. But activity did not pick up come autumn, and dropped off more in winter, as you've noticed. Between Facebook and blogging, I think the established members have been finding other outlets. Even some of the moderators don't post much any longer. I do miss some of the old-timers, especially the ones who would comment on Joe's photos in the Candids thread with personal recollections. Ah well. I suppose the thing to do would be to attract new members, but younger people may not be so interested in message boards, if they prefer forums such as Facebook and Twitter.
Mr. Arkadin
Posts: 2645
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 3:00 pm

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

It's very simple--the popularity of Facebook has destroyed many forums like this. Other sites where I am a member are suffering the same fate. There are also plenty of movie groups on FB that cater to individual genres & decades, so some are simply moving there. I do try to come back & post something occasionally, but it's a bit difficult when there is no one to have a conversation with.
User avatar
Lzcutter
Administrator
Posts: 3149
Joined: April 12th, 2007, 6:50 pm
Location: Lake Balboa and the City of Angels!
Contact:

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by Lzcutter »

I share everyone's concerns and hope that by putting our heads together perhaps we can find a way to widen our audience. I don't post much at TCM anymore and when I do check in, it is still the same handful of posters making the same posts as it was when I was more active there. Up until just recently, I had a job where I was commuting 60 miles a day and that curbed a great deal of my online activity. Now, with a much better job and a shorter commute, I am trying to get back into that.

I agree with MrArk that FB has corralled more and more of the traffic not just here but on other sites as well. I have seen that same phenom with my own Classic Las Vegas blog site. After months of wilting traffic stats, it is suddenly seen an up tick in traffic again and I have no idea why.

Our Guest Author/Film Historian series is one of the gems of this site. We have a number of authors we want to reach out to following the upcoming TCM Film Festival (we hope to meet a few of them there and give them the personal pitch). Also, Mrs.Osborne (Alexa) has some suggestions for authors to reach out to as well and after the Festival we plan to follow up with her on those ideas as well.

It's hard to believe that we will be celebrating eight years as a community next month. Over the last few months, we have taken steps to move the site to a more stable hosting site and with Lomm's help, we have been able to freshen up the site. We created this site as a way to share our love of films and television in a friendly and as drama free as we can make it and we are still committed to that.

We value this community and all who post here. We are all in this together so please feel free to share any ideas or suggestions either via this thread or via PM!!
Lynn in Lake Balboa

"Film is history. With every foot of film lost, we lose a link to our culture, to the world around us, to each other and to ourselves."

"For me, John Wayne has only become more impressive over time." Marty Scorsese

Avatar-Warner Bros Water Tower
User avatar
Lomm
Administrator
Posts: 719
Joined: September 5th, 2013, 9:14 am

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by Lomm »

For what it's worth, I don't go to the TCM site (don't even have an account there) and would welcome any discussion here that happens to be mirrored over there. It seems like most of the activity here lately is the Candids thread, a little TV talk, and Erik's Rita thread. I wish I knew how to stir up some more discussion. Maybe theme weeks or something, where for instance we could pick a decade of Oscar winners and talk about them? Dunno.
RedRiver
Posts: 4200
Joined: July 28th, 2011, 9:42 am

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by RedRiver »

Rest assured, no one is on IGNORE. I guess people are busy. Changing directions. I, myself, am a Facebook Fiend! Most of my online energy goes there. Mostly, it's as Mr. Arkadin stated. It's hard to have a discussion when you're the only one there!
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by mrsl »

.
Thanks for all of your comments, let me add:

1. First and foremost, Masha where are you that your movies are so different from ours? Is it a language barrier perhaps, or simply that the movies you are familiar with have not been mentioned? Please answer so we can determine how to help you to continue posting, I, for one, have enjoyed what you have posted in the past.

2. Regarding Facebook, I have never seen the SSO group. The general facebook site which I belong to bores me to tears. I love babies and photos of them but sometimes people get a little carried away with them. Also, if I want to see a recipe, I will look it up on the Food site. I like seeing photos of people who attended certain events and/or sports games, as well as proud parents showing photos of their graduates, first communions, etc but I have a hard time working on my own timeline. I graduated from H.S. years before many members were even born, and my former H.S. is no longer in existence so since I am retired, housebound, walk with a cane, and generally older than Methusela sometimes, I feel, "who cares".

3. This is one of the best laid out sites available for movies and television (which I feel could have a thread all it's own), and I believe many folks have gone away because although we love our particular movies that we have seen over and over again, eventually we come to the conclusion that enough is enough. I have collected my own DVD of many of my favorites, so I can watch them whenever I wish to. Also, as I've said before, just because a movie is old, does not mean it is a classic, and except for the Oscar/March programming a lot of old stale movies are shown to fill in time. e.g. I like Maizie a lot, but one or two at a time is sufficient, whereas from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. would be a little much.

4. Now, after all of that, the only idea I came up with was that each of us list our 5 (only 5) very favorite films, then I would be happy to coordinate them and whittle down to the 5 most popular then choose which one we want to discuss. However, these lists would have to omit The Searchers, The Best Years of Our Lives, and any others that we have already had deep discussions on.

Any other ideas would be quite helpful, and appreciated.

Now, I'm going over to check out the face book group, although I dislike the latest version of Face book intensely, because it confuses me quite a bit.
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
User avatar
Masha
Posts: 2004
Joined: January 16th, 2015, 10:22 am

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by Masha »

mrsl wrote: First and foremost, Masha where are you that your movies are so different from ours? Is it a language barrier perhaps, or simply that the movies you are familiar with have not been mentioned?
I am sorry to say that I do not know simple answer to that.
I believed that all knew of my background because of my endless repetition of it. :)

Highlights:

I have lived now in United States for seven years and have become naturalized citizen and have married.

I was born and lived until coming to U.S.A. in Odesa, Ukraine.

My uncle would often babysit me when my mother worked. His method of babysitting was to place my highchair next to his projector while he showed movies. These movies were from many eras and many countries. I later became helper doing fetch-and-carry and cleaning before and after showings.

My father was concierge at hotel for foreign visitors. There was in hotel small movie theatre which showed movies continuously for convenience of guests. These movies were from many countries to accommodate guests. I would go there after school and watch movies while waiting for my father to finish work and take me home.

Odesa has been from very early times a very cosmopolitan city and has much foreign traffic and so government considered it a showcase city. There was because of this at all times in legitimate theatres many foreign movies which were not approved to be shown in most places as well as "our" movies.

It is by these things that I came to appreciate movies with no concern for their country of origin. American movies are such an important part of my movie-watching life that I learned to speak and understand English in school so that I might better enjoy American movies but they remain a small subset of all that I have watched and enjoyed.

I believe that it is natural consequence that I have affinity for movies made in SARs because they represent culture in which I was raised but I find deep enjoyment in movies from many countries.

I believe I am limited in discussing movies here and on TCM site because:

-Most movies which I love deeply are not known to others here and they have no access to those movies. Mosfilm has posted many movies in their YouTube channel but not all have subtitles in English and watching movies on YouTube is fairly mediocre experience. I remember posting a thread re: availability of Mosfilm movies and I believe that one person only replied. I find it sad that so few know of Mosfilm because it is older than MGM and made thousands and thousands of excellent movies.

-I am not one to analyze movies. It is by this that I can not wax elegant concerning bodies of work or how one movie influenced later movies or various camera techniques. I like movies which I like and I do not like movies which are not to my taste and I care little why a movie stands in one category and not the other.

-It was rare for me to make note of stars or directors with thought to seek out their other movies because I watched as many movies as were available and had no way to find movies which were not readily available. It is by this that I like many movies which I know I will never again be able to watch because I have no starting point for searching for them. An example of this is that I loved very much some movies with one Swedish actor but they are lost to me as I do not know the name of the star nor do I remember the titles. Every search I attempt returns only Ingmar Bergman movies. I like Ingmar Bergman movies very much but I have little to say of them which has not been said many times by others. It would be pitiful for me to say: "There is a wonderful Swedish movie of approx. the same year and I recommend it highly but I can not tell you the title of it or the star or the director because I do not know them."

-Vast majority of popular American movies are not to my taste. I see most popular melondramas as simply people whining about little things of no consequence. I see most popular Westerns as not realistic and overly simplistic. And etc. My love for American movies is mostly for quirky little things which hold no interest for most people.

-Most foreign movies known by Americans were chosen to be shown here because they have strong cross-cultural elements. Most foreign movies which I love are those set deeply within their own culture and have little to say to or to attract people of other cultures.

TL;DR: Most movie which I would love to discuss are not known here and I have little to say about movies which are known well here.

It is obvious that this is not failing of this site or its members. It is that I am odd fish which marginally only fits into ponds such as this.

Masha
Avatar: Vera Vasilyevna Kholodnaya
Mr. Arkadin
Posts: 2645
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 3:00 pm

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

mrsl wrote: Regarding Facebook, I have never seen the SSO group. The general facebook site which I belong to bores me to tears. I love babies and photos of them but sometimes people get a little carried away with them. Also, if I want to see a recipe, I will look it up on the Food site. I like seeing photos of people who attended certain events and/or sports games, as well as proud parents showing photos of their graduates, first communions, etc but I have a hard time working on my own timeline. I graduated from H.S. years before many members were even born, and my former H.S. is no longer in existence so since I am retired, housebound, walk with a cane, and generally older than Methusela sometimes, I feel, "who cares".

Whether or not you personally care for FB, Twitter, or any of the other new tools, it has drastically changed the landscape of how we connect with each other and access media. I would definitely agree that the SSO site has much more depth than those sites and is more suited to actually discuss film. One of the biggest issues is that people are spending more time than ever on the internet, but the actual content of what they say is quite shallow. This is probably partly due to the iphone mentality where people are using the internet on the go and don't have the time to compose thoughts, or write something longer than a few lines.

So what should SSO do? Use that same media to direct people here. If you have a FB or Twitter account, it's not difficult to post links to threads here. You can also join movie groups in FB and post links in those groups. If people like what they see they will join the site. Obviously, this does not mean spamming sites, or groups. Please remember that your behavior reflects on the site itself.
RedRiver
Posts: 4200
Joined: July 28th, 2011, 9:42 am

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by RedRiver »

To complicate this even more, my dog Sugar has limited my online time. I am allowed to watch TV (with Sugar), read, do laundry if I must (though repeated trips to the basement make her uneasy), and of course, EAT! These activities are permitted and encouraged. Anything that doesn't include Sugar must be pre-approved!
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by mrsl »



I checked out the SSO Facebook group and I don't care for it at all. You wold have to sign in to each thread individually it seems to me, but I can understand how you could end up spending the better part of a day there. I still prefer this place.

Masha:

First of all, Welcome to this country, and secondly, welcome to SSO.

At one time I tuned into this site every day, but for the past year, as discussions have diminished, I am now down to about 2 visits a week, so I apologize for missing your introduction, mainly because I love to meet people from other countries.

Could the actor you noticed possibly be Kenneth Brannaugh? He is a rugged looking fellow, with sandy colored hair (usually messy), stocky build and not exactly handsome but good looking in a rough and tough kind of way. He made a Swedish series called Wallender which is played here on the PBS channel as 2 hour movies.

For a true sample of some of America's worst past history, you might want to watch To Kill a Mockingbird, a movie from the 50's starring Gregory Peck which should be easily obtained from your local library. Another that shows our awful history is Come See the Paradise starring Dennis Quaid about the plight of Japanese/Americans during World War II. And finally look up Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, it's about what George Custer did to the Indian people to cause the so-called massacre of Custer's last stand. I gave you the bad ones first so you might appreciate some of the good ones more. All Mine to Give is very sad but also indicative of the early settlers and Steel Magnolias again, is sad in some parts but funny in others, and gives a better idea of women in general. The Best Years of Our Lives gives an idea of how the American soldiers were treated when they returned as opposed to how the guys were, who returned from Vietnam and Iraq, with the exception of some jerks. There are others, but this might give you some idea of your adopted country. I'll compile a list and send it to you by private message.
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
User avatar
Masha
Posts: 2004
Joined: January 16th, 2015, 10:22 am

Re: All alone in this vast wilderness

Post by Masha »

mrsl wrote: First of all, Welcome to this country, and secondly, welcome to SSO.
I thank you for your kind words. I have been member of Silver Screen Oasis for nearly two years. A recent glitch caused me to have to re-register. All of my old posts disappeared but I was able to keep username.
mrsl wrote: Could the actor you noticed possibly be Kenneth Brannaugh? He is a rugged looking fellow, with sandy colored hair (usually messy), stocky build and not exactly handsome but good looking in a rough and tough kind of way. He made a Swedish series called Wallender which is played here on the PBS channel as 2 hour movies.
I know of Kenneth Brannaugh and I like Wallender series very much.

The Swedish actor whose name I can not remember was in movies in 1940s and 1950s. It may be that I never truly knew his name because I can not read Swedish and so credits held no meaning for me. I have no clue also what titles would be in English.
mrsl wrote: For a true sample of some of America's worst past history, you might want to watch To Kill a Mockingbird, a movie from the 50's starring Gregory Peck which should be easily obtained from your local library.
I thank you for suggestions but I have no need to see bad history of America. Knowledge of such things was part of standard education.

I believe that none of bad things which Americans did are even a shade compared to Holodomor.

Have you watched: Battleship Potemkin (1925)? I am Cossack on my father's side. They were ones firing on protesters.
Avatar: Vera Vasilyevna Kholodnaya
Post Reply