Legion World Forums LEGION WORLD Science Police Headquarters Legionworld - a Blight on Legion Fanism?

Which means now the right side does too...need booze...

"Blight? Me? I'm not that badly drawn!"

I gotta echo the comments made by several of the other posters here.

I've relatively new on this site, but I love it. Sure, it CAN seem clique-ish, but any established community of close-knit folks is bound to seem that way to the new kid for a while. Compared to other sites and boards I've been on, this is by far the friendliest. I lurked here for just two days before posting for the first time, so I probably didn't get all the in-jokes and background filler I might have if I'd lurked for a couple of weeks or more. Still, when I did post I was completely embraced as if I'd been here for years. Thanks for that.

As for the number of "silly" topics around here,
that's just a side of message boards everywhere that's bound to crop up. If anything, it shows just how passionate people can be about even the most trivial of topics -- another great aspect of the "open community" feel of boards like this one.
I, for one, am of the view that if such topics seem trivial or offensive, then I simply don't read them! That being said, I have checked a nmuber of these posts, if only for the humor.

That's another great thing about the folks here -- we take the Legion mythos seriously, but not so seriously that we can't laugh at it or ourselves on occasion.

And, of course, there's the chance to interact, directly or otherwise, with creators like Barry Kitson et al. Barry's willingness to jump right in and discuss/banter/speculate along with us is refreshing in this era of "plagiarism fear" wherein most writers/creators deliberately choose to avoid exposing themselves to ideas from others which might find there way into that creator's work (and thus, potentially, set them up for a lawsuit). I'm not saying they're not justified in insulating themselves, from the legal standpoint. I just think that a number of writers have, unfortunately, taken to cutting themselves off so completely from the vast community of fans out there out of sheer fear or terror that something bad might happen. So when folks like Barry just seem to GET the connection between fans and creators, it really makes me glad there are sites like this one.

Anyway, just my 2 percent of a dollar.

As always -- "Long Live the Legion! Long live LEGION WORLD!"

Well said Knightsfyre!

Those denigrating comments from CK on Legion-List were obviously a fairly tasteless glass of whine, made from sour grapes, but they did have one value: They made us appreciate anew just what we all have over here. And how much of a community has been created.

I've never seen an online group that's more willing, as many have said, to bend over backwards to break the inevitable in-group tendencies and actually welcome newcomers, iconoclasts, and (like me) wordy curmudgeons!

Few venues have their members trying to keep matters open to alternate views, as this one does, even if a group consensus has been reached. Nobody's put down for challenging the "conventional wisdom" on a topic.

My only demurral about this thread is that Scott quoted CK's put-down in the thread title without using quote marks around it. Whether LW.net is a "blight" is really not worth considering, as it obviously is no such thing. What his comment says about him and that list -- that's what would have been highlighted by using quote marks.

I also gave up on Legion-List, after a long stretch of waiting for some substance and more civil tongues. Johanna Carlson made intelligent comments, but she and many others indulged in too much sniping over the long run. Some of the same participants are better behaved on the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh, strangely enough.

(Not all Yahoo! Groups are fading away, though many have lagged in traffic and interest -- especially those sharing art -- since the message-attachment file archives were ended by Yahoo! 15 months ago. Including my own Group about winged-humanoid art, though we're working around that.)

As I've said before in similar issue-threads, when I first started last December, it was a bit intimidating that so many of you have known each other so long; I wondered if anyone new like me would ever truly fit in.

Other fellow newbies (IBby was also new last December) were an encouragement, and while I still sometimes feel anyone who doesn't remember the old-old-old DC boards is missing half a conversation, I again point out several things:

1. Any longstanding group of friends will naturally share a bond, and if that bond is something good, it will appeal to others. No one complains that they don't fit into groups that they have absolutely no interest in.

2. Any such group that people would actually want to belong to takes an effort on the part of new people to participate. You can't get to know the swimmers if you're not even willing to dip a toe in the water.

3. If a group has a solid identity that predates a new member, said person cannot expect that identity to reboot anound his/her wishes. Any group that does so becomes too unpredictable and wishy-washy for to be an appealing group, and probably has a high turnover rate.

4. People already in the group cannot be expected to become something they're not, just to be "acceptable" to others. It comes off asa group of phonies - rightfully so. Those forced to feign will lose interest and enthusiasm, and no one will except anyone else at face value.

5. Groups change and evolve, as its membership changes, and existing members both adjust to new members, and (hopefully) continue to grow as people. In a group of peers, no one will be or can be in control of this. It will happen naturally, and this, too, will inspire some to join and others to leave.

To sum up: We is who we is. If you fit in, great. If not, nothing's stopping you from shopping around for -or starting- another group.

Wahoooooo!!! I'm part of a clique, I'm part of a clique! My mom'll be so proud!

Seriously, this is the best Legion website on the Internet, bar none! And we have no one to thank but ourselves...
(and especially and for all their hard work!)

I agree completely with what Grey said. And see, if the very fact that Grey and I can exist on the same board, behave civilly and even agree on things from time to time isn't evidence of the inclusivity of these boards then I don't know what it. The idea that you might get shot down if you have opposing views is just rubbish. You might get shot down for *how* you express those views, but that doesn't preclude debate either. Hell, look at the threads about the Us election. Very heated debate, very diverse views and standpoints but still, for the most part, it didn't denegrate into a flame war which it so easily could have done. The same is true for pretty much every topic, be it Legion, sex, religion or the weather.

Also, I fully understand the trepidation that new members approach the forums sometimes. When you have people here such as myself, Lash, Beagz and so on who have known eac other even if only through the web) for going on four or five years then there's bound to be a certain sense of being left out a bit. *But* (and it's a very important but) you only have to look at the number of welcome thread we have, or the newer members who are now an important part of the group to understand that it's not an elite, it's not an exclusive group. We have people who only post occasionally but I would hope they feel just as welcome posting as those who spend the best part of their waking life here.

In fact the only place that I would see as being intimidating to new members might be the LMBP related stories in Bits. Even then the only reason for that would be the fact that there's so much history to those stories that it might be hard to jump in and get caught up sometimes. All *that* being said though, there are new members posting in those stories a hell of a lot and ones that only joined recently who tell as much of the story as the members who have been here since day one. Plus we have Cobie's history thread and the intro to LW thread as well which are great ways for people to get cuaght up and maybe understand where we (historically are coming from).

Exclusive, clique or blight? Nah, not in my book. There are definately groups of people who click more than others, there are groups of friends and in-jokes and on-going discussions but none of that means that someone new can't join in. which, when it comes down to it, is probably why I like it so much here.

Has anyone from here replied to Alias Lad at Legion List?

I do feel like someone should defend LegionWorld there...

I'm not really interested in doing so. I don't want to validate CK by responding. We stoked his ego enough here by first allowing him to bait us for so long and second by banning him. I don't think he was upset by the banning but rather pleased with himself.

Plus, there's a lot of people on Legion List that probably don't need to get dragged into the whole mess. By bringing up this board there in the first place CK's probably piqued a few of their members intrest in at least lurking around here. I hope anyone dropping in feels welcome to register and jump in.

I didn't even know CK was gone? Anyone want to give me the Cliffs Notes on what happened? Is it worth the time?

Some of us here have been posting since the DC boards five years ago. I've never been the most active poster, but I really appreciate the conversations and the ability to have someone to talk to that's at least as dorky about comics as me. Does that make us a clique of dorks? Even if I choose to not post messages concerning Tinya's sartorial choices...

There is now a thread specifically not about Phantom Girl's bell bottoms (but for some reason people keep talking about them)

BUT we've also branched out to include discussions of panty-lines, BGZTL fashion, Tinya's personality, Perez's warped vision of Tinya Wazzo, AND sailors

(funny enough, we don't mention CK at all)

Well said.

Let's not let jealousy ruin a good thing here. That's all it really is - trying to drag down something out of CK's reach.

Considering _everyone_ gets a welcome thread which encourages posting, I should think so. But cliques are inevitable. The longer you've known each other, the closer you are. That's just life. Sometimes I feel left out because I don't "get" a lot of the older in-jokes, but I've never felt that was personal. I just go ahead and post on whatever topics interest me.

There was apparently one that was directed right at me that I only saw post-edit. I got the feeling it was quite nasty.

I don't get it... I've only been a member for a month or so & have been treated like I belong from day 1.

Long live LegionWorld!!!

hey wait, everybody!

maybe we should take this warning to heart, and act like other online places --- WrItE iN aNnOyInG sTyLeZ, mock professionals & newbies alike with snide attitudes, and talk incessantly about video games and female anatomy (i swear, i ran across an Image messageboard devoted to She-Dragon's -ahem - privates ... i didn't even know there WAS a She-Dragon and i definitely felt out of place)

so who wants to start?

[whistling to the ghost town listserv, rec.arts. place]

um, i can't figure out video games past Mortal Kombat 2 on Nintendo and I like that Praying Mantis' bite the heads off their mates when they're done with the sex

does that count as unblighted conversation?

You know Andy S, as a newbie yourself, your opinion doesn't count

dOOd, i JuST BouGHT aN xbOx!!! iTS aWeSoMe!!!!!! i BeT THoSe LooSeR WRiTeRS DoNT HaVe oNe!!!!!!! aND THe BaBeS iN THe GaMeS aRe So HoT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(knocks head to stop channeling other message boards)

Before I joined LW I have started to visit regularly and read the many post. And, from what a read of CK i bet that he´s reading all of these. If that the case I thank you CK for inspiring the topic of NOT talking about PG bellbottons (hope you enjoy it!)

Besides, i think that not for nothing so many new people, like me, join LW every day.

Its true.

Not to mention, just visiting the DC board... all I read was a bunch of @$$-holes making snide comments to each other. At least when we make snide comments to each other, we're doing it with love.

I used to post occasionally on the DCMB, but quit when I started seeing more juvenile threads than insightful ones.

Personally, I miss the lettercols, even those that were slanted toward the positive and away from constructive criticism.

A lot of comics pros - Beau Smith is the first name that comes to mind - graduated from the lettercols. Roy Thomas too, if memory serves.

And does anyone else fondly remember The Mad Maple?

That said, I'm glad I found LegionWorld, and Geoff Johns' and Dan Jolley's sites.

I feel like I'm among fellow comics fans who are knowledgeable about the books and just want to discuss ideas and share feedback with other fans.

Long Live The Legion!

- Mike