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

[Jim Kelly]

The best of comic book characters have dwelt in sewers, so I guess I'm not in bad company when I admit to having dwelt on the DC Message Boards for more than ten years. Although I realize admitting this here will immediately mean I'm considered persona non grata from now on and I'll have to give up my CBR veteran's pay (which is worth less than a Baldie or a No-Prize).

During the time I was on the DCMBs--in its multiple forms and fora--I was never banned. I might have had the odd post taken down. I rarely got into fights with anyone. There were a few odd posters who took a dislike to me for reasons I could never understand. But I never once used bad language there (and I try to keep that standard here and elsewhere). I showered every day. I met many great posters--a few who have passed away--and I learned a whole heck of a lot about comics from people who were way way way smarter than me. I learned respect for other people and their beliefs. I improved my writing skills and learned a few things about the weird ways of the internet.

I would not be the man you see before you now (well use your imagination) if not for those years spent on the DCMB. I can't say it was the best use of my time. I could have been building sewers in third world countries. But I have nothing but a lot of love for all my fellow sewer dwelling friends and foes from the old DCMBs.

[FIFTY-TWO (52)]

I remember the old DCMBs. The Wonder Woman forum was the absolute worst place to be! The amount wailing and gnashing of teeth on that board, I'm sure contributed to the ultimate dissolution of the entire apparatus.

Okay, I'm overstating things, but the Wonder Woman message board was infamous for picking pages-long fights with current creators on the title, particularly Phil Jimenez and Gail Simone.
It was just awful!

[d.w washburn]

That forum had little to no moderation at the time I was lurking there toward the end of it's existence and because of that things had gotten out of control IMHO. You could indeed say ANYTHING you wanted to there but some of what I saw there was blatant trolling and/or flaming of various posters that frankly someone in charge needed to put to an end. It was indeed a cesspool and because of that honestly I don't really care if they also wanted to somehow silence detractors of the N52. Something had to be done and if no one had the balls to actually moderate it then it was better to just close it.

Saddest thing was that it was some of (if not all of) the Mods that were the worst Trolls on the site. I remember that they all had alt accounts and would let their chosen few get away with anything.

[BrotherMeh]

They were also technologically outdated and poorly maintained.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

This is basically it. I was there back in those days, and it was a huge mess with a lot of insane threads and arguments. It had zero to do with the N52, there were plenty of moderated sites doing it better for free and other media outlets (Twitter and Facebook) that they could use.

[trooper_thorn]

I actually miss it quite a bit sometimes.

While I do think there should have been more policing of spammers (it's a bit much when the same person posts 10+ times in a row) I miss boards where there was genuine criticism and diversity of views, people who loved the new characters interacted with people who loathed them as opposed to just hiding them from sight.

Whether it was done specifically to prevent criticism of the New 52 is not something I can really comment on.

[JackDaw]

I actually miss it quite a bit sometimes.

While I do think there should have been more policing of spammers (it's a bit much when the same person posts 10+ times in a row) I miss boards where there was genuine criticism and diversity of views, people who loved the new characters interacted with people who loathed them as opposed to just hiding them from sight.

Whether it was done specifically to prevent criticism of the New 52 is not something I can really comment on.

I also miss them.

My guess is that DC chose to shut them down because it seemed bizarre to pump DC money into a site where the company received constant criticism. It would only take one key decision maker to say something like "Why pay to maintain a site that makes us look bad? We need to use the money elsewhere".

DC were probably in a "no win" situation... running the boards in a way that removed that criticism (e.g. banning a fair few posters) would probably have made DC look an intolerant bunch: on surface this board can effectively "police" anti-DC comments (certainly in relation to individual characters) than the old DC site ever did.

[Flash Gordon]

God, those boards were weird. Towards the end they would barely even load for me and posters would just be outright ridiculous trolls.

I miss them and those early internet days though. Nostalgia, man.

[Master X]

Hmm...my opinions on it are mixed. You could put basically what you liked and the place was brimming with zillions of in-depth topics. I have problems with most forums, though, even this forum. One of my biggest hates of this forum (though I genuinely have no idea IF this still happens) is missing/deleted posts, where your post is moderated (usually something innocent misconstrued, or someone else puts hostile post in the topic...then they delete the topic <_<) and you're given no warning, no indication it's been deleted. It's as if your post NVER existed. I used to make huge posts with loads of info and such, and the amount of times I'd search my post history and google trying to find posts that had been "vanished" made me question my sanity as to whether I'd posted or not, is ridiculous. I actually left here for months and months, then came back after the site's reboot.

[Slaughter]

Facebook rules when it comes to things like that, I guess.

(Though I don't normally go on Facebook myself.)

Yeah, if you hate your own privacy and want your relatives to see everything you do.

Me, I hate social media stuff, so forums for the win!

[LP22]

They got rid of them to stop Superboy Prime once and for all:

888175-bitch2.jpg

Poor prime I Wonder if he's in this forum as well.

[HsssH]

As far as I know Marvel doesn't have official forums either anymore?

As for the motive, those forums were always negative, it doesn't make much sense to pay money for negative content that is shown in your official site. Its not about silencing anyone since we have lots of forums, fansites and blogs that continue to bash DC (or other companies), it's just business, why pay for something that isn't productive in any way? It would have happened eventually without new52 too, reboot just gave more focus on cleaning up.

[MajorHoy]

Facebook rules when it comes to things like that, I guess.

(Though I don't normally go on Facebook myself.)

Yeah, if you hate your own privacy and want your relatives to see everything you do.

Me, I hate social media stuff, so forums for the win!

So, who says you have to be "you" on Facebook?

Back when I set up my account, I put it in my cat's name with a fictitious address . . . besides, I have no idea if my relatives even use Facebook. Hell, I haven't seen or talked to any of them besides my immediate family in over ten years.

[JLH]

I was there too. The one thing I miss about it was the size of the community. Here it is pretty much the same people all the time.

I miss the size of the community, too. There's nothing like it these days. I had some bad experiences with extremely rude people and recall taking a "sabbatical" more than once to get away from it but my memories of the DC message boards are overall positive. I guess I did have loading problems as has been previously mentioned but I loved the structure.

[Tony]

A long time ago the DC archives board had the most accumulated comic knowledge I have ever seen, but that fractured the first time they redid the boards. Getting rid of them was a loss that even the MMMB does not even fill, but I don't miss much else. You had to deal with a lot of crazy on that board. In fact the archive board was the only place I remember to be civil.

[HsssH]

So, who says you have to be "you" on Facebook?

Back when I set up my account, I put it in my cat's name with a fictitious address . . . besides, I have no idea if my relatives even use Facebook. Hell, I haven't seen or talked to any of them besides my immediate family in over ten years.

It doesn't have to be you, but some people are. And there are lots of them while on forums you had pretty much only writers who tried to engage with fans? Everyone else was anonymous.