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Post by bookworm Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:07 pm

The best way to learn about The Town of Odyssey message board is probably to go check it out for yourself, but if you have questions about it you can ask them here and I will do my best to answer them for you. Smile
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Post by T.S. (myself) Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:07 pm

First, a question about the ToO: How many story arcs have there been so far?

Then, a question for you: How did you find out about the ToO?

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Post by bookworm Mon Feb 11, 2013 3:17 pm

T.S. (myself) wrote:How many story arcs have there been so far?
That is a great question, but also one that is difficult to answer. You see, there is not a set criteria that determines what makes an incident qualify as a Story Arc as opposed to simply a sequence of events. So a hard number will vary by person, depending on their interpretation.

What I can give you is the number of officially endorsed Arcs. These are ones that the ToO leadership either planned and executed themselves, or at the least had formally supported. There have been 8 of those so far: The Town of Bennet, The Odyssey Bank Robbery, Regisville, The Great Town Hall Takeover, The Top Scientist Incident, Catsville, The Shadow Paws, and The Week of Craziness.
However even this number is subject to interpretation because the Regisville Story Arc was so drawn out and massively complex that some may divide it into two or three separate Arcs because it did have some distinct lead-up storylines.

So the best answer to your question at this time is that there have been at least 8. I know for certain there is at least one lesser known Arc that has been almost forgotten because it was not ‘official’ so I personally would put the number at 9. And that’s counting everything surrounding Regisville as one. I really think it should be counted as at least two because the lead-up, though definitely a part of the overall Regisville Arc, had a very separate series of events, but for now I’ll just leave it as one so people don’t get confused.

It is one of my running projects to compile a guide to each ToO Story Arc, and if that ever gets finished it will be much clearer to see everything involved in Regisville and understand where and why separations can be made. It will also bring back to public awareness any forgotten Arcs. At that time a more agreed upon numbering system could be implemented.



T.S. (myself) wrote:Then, a question for you: How did you find out about the ToO?
This thread is more for questions about specifics on the site rather than personal things, so to keep it organized I split the answers to this question to this thread. Smile
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Post by T.S. (myself) Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:31 pm

Thank you very much for the answer. That was very helpful.

Why do you think the ToO has lasted as long as it has?

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Post by bookworm Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:52 pm

T.S. (myself) wrote:Why do you think the ToO has lasted as long as it has?
There’s obviously not a right or wrong answer to this as it’s just personal speculation, but I believe it’s definitely because of the atmosphere among the members.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the relationships of the members on the ToO is unlike anything I have seen anywhere else on the internet. It’s so much more than just posting back and forth with impersonal usernames, there are real true friendships formed. And what makes it amazing is that a lot of the time it’s done while keeping the anonymity of the internet intact.
I mean, it’s easy to develop a relationship with someone if you start sharing personal information. But that doesn’t happen on the ToO, for the most part. (And it shouldn’t; a majority of the members are young.) But even though we don’t know each other’s personal details, we have come to know each other personally.
So I definitely think the driving force behind the ToO is the relationships. In the old days there was the core group of members. They all knew each other very well and it caused an atmosphere of genuine friendship around the board. That was one of the things that drew me in when I first found it. Just by reading through the posts it was clear there was more to the exchanges than what I saw on other message boards. I wanted to become a part of that. Over time members have come and gone, but the atmosphere has stayed the same. There are new faces now, but the same genuine love and care for each other.

That’s more of a philosophical answer to your question. A practical answer to why the ToO has lasted is that members have made it last. A message board only lasts as long as people use it. Although we have lost a significant number of members from the early days over time, enough have remained to keep the board going. New members are always joining too, so when they add to the remaining members it creates enough activity to keep the board alive and well.
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Post by T.S. (myself) Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:40 pm

Thank you for such an in depth answer, bookworm.

What has been the toughest time in the ToO to go through, in your experience?

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Post by bookworm Tue Mar 12, 2013 5:22 pm

T.S. (myself) wrote:What has been the toughest time in the ToO to go through, in your experience?
That would certainly have been the untimely passing of StrongNChrist. It really shook people. It was an extremely sad event, yet good managed to come out of it. It caused several members to renew their commitment to God. And it displayed a perfect example of the closeness of the relationships that I mentioned before. There was an hour of silence on the message board and prayer meeting in the Chatroom during her funeral. The ToO was such an important part of her life it was actually mentioned at the funeral, and several of the members pooled money to send some flowers, as well as donate to a charity in her honor.
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Post by T.S. (myself) Tue Mar 19, 2013 12:59 pm

Thank you. I have read about her often.

I know that you joined later than some, but how do you feel the ToO has changed since you joined?

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Post by bookworm Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:48 pm

T.S. (myself) wrote:I know that you joined later than some, but how do you feel the ToO has changed since you joined?
That is a great question. Though actually I joined long before the majority of our currently active members.
There have definitely been changes, but I couldn’t highlight anything specific that changed, because I actually wasn’t present for it. A little while after I joined, a combination of computer issues and real life occurrences forced me to take a several year hiatus from the board. When I finally returned I fit right back into place and have been constantly active ever since.

I have to say, this is something that I can’t really put into words. I know because I’ve tried before. Things have changed, yet they haven’t. For someone like me who had witnessed both ends, the Old Times and the current ones, there is a noticeably distinct difference. Probably even more apparent to me actually because of my hiatus, in that I did not witness the change, whatever it was, I have only the before and after. There is a different feel to the place, without a doubt, but it’s still the same at its core. I really can’t explain it.

The essence of the board has remained unchanged. As I mentioned previously, the nature of the relationships is what I think the ToO is all about. And that has remained consistent. The old members then and new members now were and are always remarkably closely linked for a message board. Yet there is something different about it. Unfortunately it’s not something I can put my finger on or describe. If you were there for it, you just feel it.

I think more important than what changed is what didn’t change. As I said, I was away for many years, but when I returned I fit right in again. There wasn’t a readjustment period, everything was comfortable and as I remembered. Which really surprised me actually, because almost everyone around was new. I had never interacted with them, they had never interacted with me, but you couldn’t tell.

So to answer your question in the most general of terms, because it’s apparently the best I can do, the people have changed since I joined, but the atmosphere hasn’t.

And once again, I went the philosophical route in my answer. A more concrete one would be that the actual board changed. During my hiatus, it was upgraded from phpBB2 to phpBB3.
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Post by T.S. (myself) Fri Mar 21, 2014 11:03 am

The one year anniversary of your last post just passed, and so I decided to ask an additional question, although I have no idea if or when you will see it.

Do you tend to notice a core group of ToO members, that grows and changes as time goes on? Or, do you think of the ToO members more of as a collective group, without the distinction of having a group of "old members?"

Also, which board style do you think is most representative of the ToO?

I've enjoyed reading through these answers, bookworm. Comparing the philosophical and physical sections of your posts has also been interesting.

Edit (as of April 4th): I could contact you through the ToO, but it would be more interesting to wait and see if you will check this again. Hopefully you do not mind this choice.

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Post by bookworm Tue Aug 26, 2014 3:29 pm

T.S. (myself) wrote:Do you tend to notice a core group of ToO members, that grows and changes as time goes on? Or, do you think of the ToO members more of as a collective group, without the distinction of having a group of "old members?"
I definitely see the ToO membership as a collective. There is certainly a core group that remains constant as the other members around it come and go, but I don’t see that as a distinct group in the midst of a changing one, that’s just how forums work. People come and go around other people who stay, but they all make up the singular entity of the forum community. Especially on this particular forum, where we have what I’ve already discussed as a unique relationship between the members, it definitely just all melds together into one group. If you pick out specific usernames you could divide it into the ones who have stayed around and the ones who have come in later on, but there’s no reason to. Everyone on the ToO is The ToO.


T.S. (myself) wrote:which board style do you think is most representative of the ToO?
The newToO style is without question what says ‘this is the ToO’ to me. It’s the only one I’ve ever used and is what I hold as the ‘true’ representation of the site. It’s the default style, the one everyone is introduced to the forum with. How can that not be considered the essential representation? Once you join and begin feeling things out you can change the style if you want, but newToO is still the first experience you had and so is the inherent image you have when thinking about what the fundamental ToO is.
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Post by T.S. (myself) Fri Sep 12, 2014 11:32 pm

Wow, I can't believe you replied. Shocked I've been checking on and off about every month.

That's an interesting perspective, especially for you having been around for so long.

I always either use newToO or Odyssian. Unfortunately, Odyssian doesn't allow posting in certain areas, so I generally just use newToO.

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Post by T.S. (myself) Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:03 pm

How do you feel about the Town of Odyssey's current level of activity? I've only been observing it since 2012, so my perspective may be skewed, but it seems like activity on the ToO has been decreasing consistently for years now.

When this was brought up last year, I was willing to dismiss it as part of a cycle, but after another quiet year, it seems plausible that it's slowly dying. I doubt that the ToO is going anywhere for a while, but there's hardly anything new to read whenever I log on.

Do you think the activity level is a problem, and if so, should anything be done to correct it?

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