Did DC get rid of their message boards to stop criticism?

[Jim Kelly]

Okay, I'll play along. Yes, the Internet is unquestionably a more scarier place than it was 20 years ago when I discovered it. However, that wasn't my point. My point was I'd rather not put up with BS about something that, compared to the really important things to debate about, is on the trivial side. When I was a new teen back in the late '70s, I would have felt differently, of course, but I'll be 50 next week and the idea of getting into a heated discussion about this superhero or that superhero film seems just foolish to me.


As I have said before, I love this hobby, but it isn't the upcoming 2016 presidential election to me. Others may disagree, of course.

My comment was less about that and more about the wingeing over the technical limitations and long load times and that kind of thing which seems to be something a few have complained about here (in addition to the social aspects of the boards). As someone even older, it sounds a lot like "when I was your age, I had to walk uphill to school both ways--in the snow, in bare feet."

Since I can very easily channel my cranky old man these days, my filter is very sensitive to that kind of thing. Folks who may be in their 30s or 40s may be sounding so patronizing to younger ears when they start complaining about their problems when they was their age and computers were so slow, gall darn it.

Time to chill out Dad--there are much worse things to worry about. Like your kids facing the doom of the whole planet on account of stupid things that were done in the past by your generation.

[JBatmanFan05]

Yea, it was absolutely to shut down criticism of the Nu52. And of course you still see attempts everywhere to shut down negative opinions by fans and creators.

[Jim Kelly]

Yea, it was absolutely to shut down criticism of the Nu52. And of course you still attempts everywhere to shut down negative opinions by fans and creators.

I don't know, I quit the board a year before it was shut down. So I don't know how things were by the time it was shut down. The reason I quit was because of the new 52, in an indirect way. I was hot as fish grease about that--plus the forums were being moved around and the DCMB changed for the new allignment. I wanted to keep posting about the comics I liked from the past--which is mostly what I had been doing in the previous five years--and some posters said you can't do that here. I said that I thought I should be able to post about the old DC but, I asked, were they saying I can't do that once the new 52 starts? And they said you can't post about the old DC, you have to get on board with the new 52 if you want to post here.

And this was coming from some posters that I respected. A lot of new posters had come onto the boards with the changes in the forum--so maybe their attitude was understandable. But to hear this from old posters irked me. And I decided if they didn't want me there, then I wasn't going to stay there, if that's how they truly felt. So I posted on those boards on the one or two fourms that I liked up until the new 52 started and I stopped immediately at that point.

I felt that at the time I left, the DCMBs were pretty much all about cheer leading for the new 52. Since I wasn't there after that, I don't know if it changed. But I never believed the reason for killing the board was to silence fans. For that to be true, there would have to be some intelligence at DC running the show who knew what they were doing. I love DC for most of its history, but it's rarely been a place where one hand knew what the other was doing. I think the death of the DCMBs was simply another instance of the organized chaos that is ever present at National Periodical Publications.

[Sacred Knight]

Yea, it was absolutely to shut down criticism of the Nu52. And of course you still see attempts everywhere to shut down negative opinions by fans and creators.

I'm overly paranoid Rob Lowe, and I have cable.

Seriously though, it is a ridiculous assertion. The place was a haven of negativity for years. If they wanted to shut out negative criticism over then-current projects, the boards would have been shut down years before they actually were. And people can and do complain just as easily through Facebook, the social media format that replaced the board.

[The Darknight Detective]

My comment was less about that and more about the wingeing over the technical limitations and long load times and that kind of thing which seems to be something a few have complained about here (in addition to the social aspects of the boards). As someone even older, it sounds a lot like "when I was your age, I had to walk uphill to school both ways--in the snow, in bare feet."

Since I can very easily channel my cranky old man these days, my filter is very sensitive to that kind of thing. Folks who may be in their 30s or 40s may be sounding so patronizing to younger ears when they start complaining about their problems when they was their age and computers were so slow, gall darn it.

Time to chill out Dad--there are much worse things to worry about. Like your kids facing the doom of the whole planet on account of stupid things that were done in the past by your generation.

No disagreement, Jim. Every generation thinks he had it the hardest. Yes, it did take a long time to load a page back then, but since everybody experienced the same thing, it wasn't a big deal. At least it wasn't to me. It was such an amazing technological breakthrough for me to be fazed negatively by it.

[Crazy Diamond]

Used to post on there a bit in high school. Not surprised they got shut down though. At first I posted on the YJ forum and what I remember were posters constantly complaining that YJ sucked because it wasn't the 80s Titans. They were fun to mock and laugh at. Then there were the random fans who would have conniptions and complain because of the Justice League cartoon. The most ridiculous thread I remember was when someone did a versus thread between Hal Jordan and Jesus on the GL forum. That went on for pages before the mods finally stepped in. There were a few cool posters and I wouldn't have gotten into Image more or known of indie Black comic creators if it wasn't for some of the posters on that forum but between the bigots, the company shills, and the nostalgists I don't really miss the DCMB at all.