Urban Jacksonville

Three local forums emerge this weekend

06/03/07 • Posted in: News by Joey Marchy

The abrupt and unexplained disappearance of the MetJax.com forum left a hole in the Jacksonville forum community. It also left people with a lot of time to start their own forums. This weekend three new forums came to my attention:

jaxoutloud.com/forum
metrojacksonville.com/forum
thefirstcoast.com

The First Coast was the only forum smart enough to sponsor Urban Jacksonville this week so lets talk about them first. Founded by Austin Cassidy, The First Coast, is an companion forum the JaxDaily blog. I think this forum has a relatively good chance of success since it’s focused on Jacksonville as a whole and less on development. Forum stats: 11 Posts in 7 Topics by 6 Members.

The Metro Jacksonville forum was started by the guys over at Metro Jacksonville as a replacement to the MetJax.com forum. Look for this forum to be the most active of the three. It has name recognition and an established user base. Forum stats: 146 Posts in 52 Topics by 29 Members.

The Jax Out Loud forum was started by another former member of the MetJax.com forum, Diane Melendez. My details on this forum are a little sketchy because I heard about it second hand. It seems like Jax Out Loud and MetroJacksonville are going to battle it out for users and content. You can only post things in two places for so long before you have to decide who you’re going to stick with. Forum stats: 70 posts by 12 Members.

I thought you guys might want some tips on building online communities: Building an Online Community: Just Add Water

1. Make sure you really want to do this
2. Have both a compelling idea and compelling content
3. Seed content sets the stage
4. Create some basic guidelines and be as fair as possible
5. Have a place to talk about the site, somewhere on the site
6. Spread the work out as much as possible
7. Deal with troublemakers as quickly and nicely as possible
8. Highlight the good, recognize the work of others

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 3:24 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

adam (not Beaugh)

Does anyone know where i can get a natural, at-home remedy for acne?
davernginzks

I've recently joined and wanted to introduce myself :)
Travis

Well gosh, if it's against the law to be stupid and wrong, (interactive joke, complete at own risk)!
stephen dare

(through the tubes) lol.

btw, ted stevens, the alaskan senator who first claimed the internet was just a series of tubes is under indictment finally.
stephen dare

and it looks like the majority of the activity has gravitated back over to the METJAX board
skink

i heard all kind of things go through the tubes...
Travis

The internet is serious business.
Austin Cassidy

"Perhaps they both hope to cultivate a community of partisans who support and enrich their respective ideologies?"

Not really. It's just a forum.

You make it sound like we're raising some sort of an army.
The Lurker

While anoncreep has a rather inellegant way of expressing himself, he makes a valid point. Diane was involved in a mythic meltdown over there and the suspension of the MetJax Forum could not have come at a better time. If not she surely would have been banned or at the very least put in time out.

Her reward for her little tantrum is that her new forum is anything but interesting and has culled few from the old board.

We can all be thankful that MetJax is back.
Adam Beaugh

that's it, creepy! throw those barbs out there. i especially like the homophobic dig you worked in as an aside!
JohnC

Google Reader is about the best option I've found for new users to RSS readers. You can usually just 'add' the web address (URL) for the site you normally visit, and it automatically checks for the feed necessary to include it in 'your feed'.

No downloads and totally browser friendly with both IE and FF.
Anonymous Creepy

forgive me - i was all fired up...

Want to talk about creepy??? Letâ€™s talk about your role in a metjax.com poster's attempt to completely destroy a poster?

Thenâ€¦letâ€™s talk about your poisonous PMs.

First, you attempt to get an integral member of metjax.com banned. Through your craplousy lies.
Anonymous Creepy

Hey Diane Melendez...

Want to talk about creepy??? Let's talk about your role in her attempt to completely destroy a poster?

Then...let's talk about your poisonous PMs.

First, you attempt to get an integral of metjax.com banned. Through your craplousy lies.

Then, lets talk about the PMs to recruit people to your new site (you might want to start PMing Joey now to get this removed ASAP!!!)...

Hey Guys,

A new home for us at Jaxoutloud.com (gay sounding URL by the way) ,It may not have all the bells and whistles but it is a start. Took me two days to get this going (omg...are you kidding??). I have started a new forum for us until (if and when) MetJax is up and running. I hope you will all jump in and start posting. Tell everyone you know, we have a new home. I am going to try and get help so that we can have avtars and all of that, but hey, I got us up and running.

We will need better smileys and such, but it will all come in time. Just a note (for some reason you can not access the forum using Mozilla Firefox. Microsoft explore works great. JIMMY, CALL ME.
I need your help with some stuff. Okay my friends. Lets do it.

Your online buddy,
Diane Melendez

Want to fish for new members? Check out the T-U boards...they seem a little more your intelligence and style. Didn't you come from there anyway???

Sincerely,
Your best friend over at metjax.
Adam Beaugh

COME ON! 37 comments and not a single cat fight? i'm very disappointed.
skink

Let us not forget that proprietors of "jaxoutloud" and "thefirstcoast" both have strong political ideas/ambitions.

Perhaps they both hope to cultivate a community of partisans who support and enrich their respective ideologies?

If cultivating a dynamic netroots community is part of the plan I expect that the liberals would enjoy the advantage. The netroots influence nationwide skews pretty heavily left. (cuz facts tend to have a liberal bias :p)
Although I dont expect that the disparity would be as pronouced in Jacksonville.

Would that make Metjax the centrist site?
stephen dare

Nick, didnt mean to sound like i thought you were being a smartass.

But why dont we all?

this is a pretty great cross section of the blogging community.
nick

I didn't mean to come off smarmy. However, having too many places to check is a good thing. Like Jimmy suggests, use an RSS feed if you're looking for an easy way to keep track of things from multiple sources. As Josh noted, it would take an insane editorial staff and a lot of time to compile everything that was happening at any given time in the Jacksonville area. The only sites that come close to listing multiple, varied events w/ no exclusivity are shitty ad-driven sites like Eventful. Ideally, Folio would step up their web presence a bit and start listing weekly events. The listing data's already there. It probably wouldn't be that difficult to set up.
Jane Dough

It's more than clear that "anonymous" is someone that has a very bitter taste in their mouth...perhaps a troll, perhaps not. At any rate...it's nice to have a range of forum boards to pick and post. Open your mind, there's a big world out there!
Jimmy

Well... people could use RSS to keep up with all the blogs and forums in one spot -- namely their RSS reader. I'll try to figure out how to implement RSS on jaxoutloud.com. There are lots of tech tools out there to help people stay in the know...
joshtank

Byron, this is a good idea for some people. But having no specificity - instead of attracting everyone to look at events - will probably render people uninterested. Some sort of regulating force or organizational method would be required, and it would be a full time job.

"Wouldnâ€™t it also be cool to be able to go to one place?"

Convenient, maybe. Cool, no. The only unifying force associated with that page is that everyone who visits it like to go to, or just know about, events.

If you start a page based on "anything anyone mesages me about I'll post about." You'll have alot of crap on it at best. And if you try to list every event by searching it out yourself..I mean.. libraries, universities, stores, galleries, civic groups, churches... you'll have to use discretion at some point.
John Jacob Jinglehimerschmidt

One thing that did concern me over the weekend was the announcement I received about one of the new sites that was up and running. It came directly to my personal e-mail address, which concerned me because the only way my e-mail address could have been obtained would have been that someone had access to MetJax's database.

After some of the things that happened over the last month, that is concerning for some of us who (typically for professional reasons) do not want our identities out there.
globatron

Nick,

I have several blogs. Like everyone else.

I wasn't trying to be a smart ass. It just seems like there are too many places to check.

I don't think it would be possible for an individual to start a one source site. It would have to be some sort of authority like the Folio, or the cultural council? Otherwise no one will take it seriously.

I'm definitely a big fan of Tony and Joey's blog though. So I check those two at least.

Oh well.

It's all good.

BK
stephen dare

lol, why dont we all?
nick

"If I donâ€™t happen upon a site that has the news I would like to know before itâ€™s too late then I guess Iâ€™m just SOL or maybe just not looking hard enough?"

exactly, byron.

why don't you start the one source for all that is Jacksonville entertainment / happenings / culture / etc.?
downtownparks

I'm just happy there is a market.

For me, I know of a lot of blogs I don't check that often. In fact, many of them I only check if Joey or Tony links to a story from them. This doesn't mean I don't really appreciate what they are doing, it just means I am not their target audience. I also don't watch Fox 30, nor do I read the St Augustine Record.... These things just happen. It doesn't mean Fox 30 or the Record should shut their doors.
Tom Towkach

I didn't know we divided. Who left and why?
globatron

Hi Josh,

What if I miss something that I would have liked to go to because I didn't check that site?

I understand that it's interesting when a site has a reputation and identity, but wouldn't it also be cool to be able to go to one place?

If I don't happen upon a site that has the news I would like to know before it's too late then I guess I'm just SOL or maybe just not looking hard enough?

Just wanted to know if others are experiencing this too? Forums are great becuase there can be forums inside forums. So in that regard there really could be one forum for all I think.

Blogs are a bit different. And have their own issues.

Seems maybe we should all unite instead of all doing our own thing?
joshtank

Byron,

You mentioned this centralization idea a bit at Bizarre market and I know exactly what you mean. The largest problem I see with having 'one website for everything' is that some sort of favorability will inherently take place - what events / information gets posted on the top of the page and what gets posted at the bottom etc.

I think people also appreciate specified webspace. I don't want to sift through a site of ALL the events in Jacksonville from every bad karaoke and open mic night across this sprawl, just to find out when or where a band I like is playing. Each blog/site acts a filter from this and develops it's own group of people interested in what it has to say / events it promotes. And every other one is just a click away, so no harm done. Each site develops it's own reputation, and that's kind of important...
Tom Towkach

Forums are like churches. Whenever the congregation doesn't agree on something they forum a new one. ha
globatron

I think this is a perfect example of one of the
issues with the web. Anyone can start a blog.
Anyone can start a forum. The issue is there
doesn't seem to be one place to get the information
from when you need it.

When everyone used to read the paper we
would go there. Now we have to bounce around to
ten different sites to find out what's going on in town.
It'd be great if there was one place sponsored by
an "Official" organization. Maybe the city even?
I really think it's begun to separate rather than bring
people together.

How many blogs and how many forums do we need?
Which one should we go to?

I'd like a one stop shop for all my Jax info. Blogs,
and forums alike. Anyone else feel the same way?
Jimmy

Just as a note, the grandfather of them all, MetJax.com, is back online this morning.
Tom Towkach

Perhaps I didn't articulate well what I was communicating above. It's a forum after all...expect things to be taken out of context since you can't possibly hear the tone of my voice and where i'm putting accent...i'm just saying there's space for 3 or even more and that the mayor could link to them from his site.
Austin Cassidy

Well I sure hope it's really my name.
Tom Towkach

I dare you Austin. If that's really your name.
thelakelander

lol....
Austin Cassidy

I'm not even going to ask. :)
Tom Towkach

I agree. Jacksonville needs more then one. In fact I hope the mayor finds out and does something about it. A link of the mayors site to these sites would be grand as they all have their on market. One for political chat, one for gay chat, and one to chat about what's going on between the two. ha
stephen dare

I got corrected.
It was jax4jax on ezboard
Joey Marchy

Yes, the SPAR message board is a great and very active forum. I would definately recommend it to anyone interested in knowing whats going on in Springfield: http://sparcouncil.org/forums/

Forum stats: Our users have posted a total of 14049 articles, We have 361 registered users
stephen dare

And yes, Austin Jacksonville is definitely big enough to support several of the forum boards!

Right now, we are just mostly concerned with the transfer of the content since its really the core of our purpose.

Forum boards are awesome, and jacksonville has actually had several very influential boards over the past few years.

SPAR's website is a notable one, really plugged into its core purpose and very useful for its residents.

Before that, the indie community had a massive board that pretty much brought thousands of them together and created the friendships that define the indiekids presently reshaping downtown and main street.

It was an EZboard community called IndieJaxboard, if I remember correctly.

It spawned a hundred art shows and set the tone for that entire community.

This town would be greatly improved by people tuning out the corporate media and plugging into the real world around them by making the connections that forums and online communities make possible.
downtownparks

Yeah Anon, their registration is totally big brother. After the form asks you for your preferred user name, it asks you for your preferred PW too... How totally invasive is that... And then there is this who weird alpha numeric "validation" thing... I mean come on. like I want THAT info floating around out there!!!
Austin Cassidy

Anonymous,

What the heck are you talking about?
stephen dare

(btw, the above post is 'satire')
stephen dare

um ok, anonymous.

When we are done killing the kittens and eating their heads, we will get around to tracking you down.

(and your little dog too)

Love,
stephen.
Anonymous

After what I read on Metjax before it's plug was pulled, I wouldn't trust my registration information with anyone connected with Metrojacksonville.

They're creepy people online and off when they don't get what they want.
Austin Cassidy

Wow, it looks like everyone had practically the same idea on the same weekend. :)

Competition is good for everyone, and I'm quite certain that this city is large enough to support 2 or 3 such online communities.
thelakelander

It should be interesting to see how all of this plays out. Anyone can put up a message board on a server, but the basic keys to their success will be finding a niche, having good up-to-date content and great dedication (especially when things get slow). Taking on too much of a focus early on, can be detrimental because it spreads you out too thin, in the effort to maintain good content, which is critical in the early stages. Its better to focus on making a few things great, before taking on the whole world.

I don't know exactly whats going with the MetJax site, but at this point, it really looks like it was a good idea to start the MetroJacksonville site over a year ago. Because of that move, we have a year's supply content available, so the new MetroJacksonville forum isn't exactly starting from scratch.
stephen dare

Not just Jacksonville, anonymous.

Hopefully the new forums will be less gossipy though and more insightful.
Anonymous

Self inflated gossip queens abound in Jacksonville these days.
stephen dare

thanks for the heads up, Joey!

Metrojacksonville.com/forum is pretty much carrying our content from metjax over to the new board, but we have adjusted it to be more in line with the whole 'vibrant urban core' thing.

The living in jacksonville part of the forum is going to focus on daily life and the cool things to do as well.

Now that Ive got a lot more free time, Im hoping to have that aspect of the site really going over the next couple of weeks.

As a group, we made the mistake of having only one tech contact in charge of the old forum site, and he lived in South Carolina (a decent guy originally from here)

He is incommunicado and we pretty much lost a year and a half of content. We don't know if he will re emerge and get the site back up, which might happen, but we decided the gap was too long and voila.

After a particularly acrimonious election cycle, its kindof nice to have the chance to 'do over'.
Laura

does anyone know what happened to metjax anyway?

Three local forums emerge this weekend

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