Oregon This is not very encouraging...

very few people post on here. Very few people really want to take the time out of their day to post and try to get together as star wars fans. Not to mention how very little activity we have can drive people away from our board. Remember, this is YOUR board. YOUmake this board. Just because we have a CR and a handful of members does not make us a board. We need activity. I know I sound like a real S.O.B. right now, but if you won't constantly contribute to your board and post every day, then what is the purpose of this board?

Very few have entire states on one board. There should be no excuse for this. We should be very active, with many members. Tell me what can I do to get you guys moving again. I do have something in mind but I want to use it as a last resort. I don't wish to use it because it is very strict.

We need conversations of all types anything you read or hear about Star Wars or just about Oregon, then post it hear. It can be anything, as long as it is clean. (You know the rules) Something needs to be done here. You really don't want my idea to happen, because I don't want it to happen either. So please start being more active post everyday I am asking for 5 posts a day for every person. that's all I am asking for. With those posts we will be able to talk more and get things done and be able to communicate better to have meetings. So I await your guys response.

 

I fully agree. We must all try to post more to stay a community. But I don't think "force" will work. It will just drive people away more. The board activity has always had ups and downs.....we are just in a down time. It is also hard because not much new has happened with Star Wars since the last movie. I hope the boards will start being more active with the forthcoming TV shows.

PS, Colt, I've noticed that prior to this post, you hadn't posted since February 5th. We need an active CR as much as we need active members.

 

While I attend to agree that more activity on the boards is needed, and posting is good to keep topics alive, comments for drastic change aren't needed. And because we do have a CR and a few members DOES make us a board.

What is encourgaing is all the new Star Wars stuff coming out this year. New Books, Video game, figures, comics, Full length animated Clone Wars movie, Clone Wars cartoon, etc. So that is alot to be excited about and hopefully will generate more interest and topics on our board.

I have fliers to hand out for the Portland Comicbook show, we have picked up many members from that, plus I had a table at the show 4 years ago to promote the OFF so that is something to think about. There are a number of ways we could promote the OFF if we got together for a meeting to discuss such things, but we can't seem to that... not encouraging when we can't agree on dates/times for simple get togethers, but somehow the costuming groups (CCG/Kashyyyk Base/Dark Side Troopers) that a few of us OFF'rs belong to do get together and maybe we could somehow set aside some time when we do to discuss OFF stuff...encouraging.

Or better yet, invite OFF'rs to these 501st CCG/Rebel Legion Kashyyyk Base, DST events. We should create a post just for posting when such 501st/Rebel Legion/DST events take place??

Just my 2 creds worth of input. No reason to jump ship when it isn't burning or even endanger of, just an observation.

-Eric
AKA ANH Han Solo

 

Colt, you got to remember this is just a Star Wars forum. At the end of the day there are many more important things than Star Wars and some people can't make it a priority to post things online or make it out to the events. Posting here is a hobby, it's a leisure activity. I personally go to school fifteen hours a week and go to work forty hours a week, and when I have free time there are other things I'd like to do sometimes. I'm sure most everyone here is in a similar boat. Not to try and start a fight, but posts like this never tend to go well, in my experience, and I'm sure others will agree. As the CR it's your job to try and motivate everyone to post and show up to the events, I'd I think a more encouraging route would work better.

 

Absolutely. Ultimatums never achieved much. It only spurs more animosity. Like my peers have mentioned already, this is just a fan group. There is life outside of it. A lot of us have families to look after - Eric has that little boy who needs extra attention. Some of us have a lot of work/school commitments. There are those who have limited access to the internet. How best is their limited time served? Do they come here or do they access other resources that are of a pressing need? See where I am going?

I think we all can agree that this is OUR board and its success (and failure) is what we make of it. You want to encourage participation. I get that. Perhaps one thing that could happen is to set up a schedule for activities and take charge of the planning. We have seen the dismal failures when we open up planning like a democratic debate - just like in the Galactic Senate: its all talk and nothing gets done. So be like Palpatine, take charge and lead. But don't be a dictator about it. We may have to hunt you down! ;-)

- Bill

 

Well if this is a hobby, how can it work with very few posts? I do understand that star wars itself is slow. But I myself have put forth many ideas that we can do, and no one has really helped put in more ideas or helped with the current ideas. If we want this community to be active then we need to all do our part. I for one have tried.

Crash, that is true that I have not posted since then. But with very few conversations or just explaining your daily life, it comes to the point where you just read and not post. or you don't even come here. We all need to participate. We need conversations that strt fires in the star wars universe. Like on Tuesday the next Legacy of the force book comes out, and no one has really mentioned it.

Just because the movies or shows stop does not mean the star wars world stops. There are books, games, insiders. Crash, you said you got a subcribtion for christmas. Why not share your thoughts of what you have read with everyone here as well as everyone else? With star wars it is ALWAYS changing, just because the movies stop does not mean star wars itself stops.

 

I don't think Star Wars is slow at all, where are you guys living??? This is the most exciting time since the beginning of the prequel journey, we are just entering a new era. New TV shows, two in fact, a new movie this August in theaters, which should have everyone as stoked as I am! And the video game front looks great, Force Unleashed is going to be completely awesome, maybe the best looking Star Wars game yet.

Heck I post here when I can but the lack of activity slows my posting, too. I don't live in Oregon anymore but I still feel somewhat involved here because I was CR once, I went to the first few meetings, I'd like to see Oregon have a strong Fan Force. I swear there are enough fans.

And I beg to differ that there are more important things than Star Wars. I mean, come on, like what?! lol, j/k. But Star Wars has always been one of the most important things in my life. It's a huge part of my life, and has been inspirational since I became a fan. It doesn't mean that I spend all day focusing on Star Wars, but it's always there, and my activity level with it goes up and down depending on how much time I have, what's new, etc. But Star Wars takes priority over almost everything else. Certainly if it was between work and watch new Star Wars movie, that's really not any competition at all. Work is just not important compared to Star Wars. The only thing I can see more important than Star Wars is family and friends, but they can be involved in Star Wars too

 

I'm not concerned at all. Almost 2 years ago to the day I posted the official "R.I.P. Oregon Fan Force" thread.

And I Quote (2-22-2006):

---------
We are gathered here today to say our final fair wells to our beloved Oregon Fan Force. Who today was officially declared deceased following a long and painful illness. How will we ever get along without you?

We shall miss you
---------

We've had a lot of great discussions and activities since 2-22-2006, following our official death, and I suspect we will have many more discussions and activities in the future. (Dead guys have all the fun !!)

 

When the prequels came out, every time I waited in line a bunch for the movies at theaters (24 hours for ROTS), I ran into so many awesome fans in line. There are a ton of Star Wars fans in Portland, at least, I mean it's like they go into hiding but they are there. I guess maybe they just aren't as active online or at least on TFN but Portland is full of die-hard Star Wars fans...

 

We need to have these things called meetings. That usually sparks interest. We also need to start bringing in new members. We wont do that as long as people here are so uninterested.

Frankly I can't believe how unorganized of a place this is and how much of a lack of interest there is in this group. I think it would be a good thing to end the Oregon fan force and start up a Portland Fan Force. If we can't save the whole state maybe we can at the very least have a group in its biggest city.

Leave the Oregon boards up for the people who have better things to do.

 

Meetings are good to have. Butdo we really need to have boards just for Portland because it's Oregon's largest city or just because it has the most members?

What more topics should we be discussing?
Clone Wars- movie discussion, group viewing
Clone Wars- toys, etc.
The Force Unleashed- game discussion, figures, novel, etc.
Portland ComicBook Show- coming in April. Meet up then, come check out the costumers.
Costuming- There a quite a few of us who do belong to the 501st and Rebel Legion...
Lightsabers- ?? Anyone want to join a New Lightsaber club in Portland area?

Novels, Comic Books, Collecting, etc. There is a ton of stuff there.

Colt did put out a call for organizing a community effort and a OFF Fan Film, any ideas for those?
Or do we just want to just talk about Star Wars stuff and our daily lives. For some, a few minutes on these boards is all they have the time for.

 

This has been discussed in the past, but not recently. If you look at the OFF History thread, you will see that we started out as the Portland Fan Force (or PFF, ). I think it was an Administrator who thought that we would do better as an Oregon group, mainly because some of the first members were from the Salem area, as well as Portland, and it just made cense to have an Oregon Group rather than two very small city groups (Salem and Portland). But now the vast majority of the members are from the Portland area, and it would be easy to have a stand along group. But is this something we want to do? It could either make the Portland members closer and more active, or it could further weaken an already weak group.

If you look at other city/state groups, the most active groups typically have two or three VERY active members, and this makes others want to post. The few very active members organize meetings/activities and just stand back to see who attends. For many meetings only two or three people attend (the Very active members). But that's OK, because once in a while there is a good turn out. When I was CR (and had time to organize) we had some well attended meeting and some not so well attended meeting. But I liked them all, and even the not so well attended meetings were good for the group, because it helped cement relationships of the active members.

Colt, as CR you need to organize events, and just see who attends. If only two or three people show up, that is OK. That is what happens for most FanForce meetings. Jawafett mentioned the the upcoming Portland Comic Book Show. This is a great event, and Dark Side Troopers will be there (many of us are members of DST). Many of us also met for the first time at past Portland Comic Book Shows. This would be a great chance for OFF members to meet. Just show up, find the DST table, say "hi, I'm an OFF member", and we will all say "cool, what's your user name? Stay a while an hang out with us." DST and OFF have done several events together, we are like a family.

 

It doesn't make that much sense to concern yourself too much with the rest of the state if you're trying to make a strong Fan Force in a one-city state like Oregon, to be honest. Not trying to offend the smaller cities but honestly who cares? Portland has about 6 times as many people as even the second biggest city in the state, Eugene. The greater Portland area is at least 1.5 million, I think it's actually up to 2 million now. The majority of SW fans in the state will be in Portland because that's where half of the state's population resides.

In California, there are many big cities, heck I hadn't even heard of Bakersfield before I came down here and yet it has 500,000 people, bigger than any city in Oregon except for Portland. Besides that you have San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles as MAJOR megacities, plus still-large cities like San Jose and Sacramento.

Oregon is just too tiny of a state population-wise to give much concern to outlying cities. Make the meetings always take place in Portland, in a central location -- if the other members from smaller cities want to travel they can do so. It's not that far, from Salem to Portland is about an hour, Corvallis to Portland an hour and a half, and Eugene to Portland two hours. Still not horrible. I made the Corvallis to Portland drive every week during college.

 

Okay, that sounds good. The comic book convention sounds good. We should try to plan a time for all of us to be there. That way someone does not show up and go, "where is everyone?" lol

 

Dude.... it won't be hard to spot us. I'm sure we will have our backdrop and everything... but the point is there will be people in Star Wars costumes. Again, it won't be hard to spot us!


- Bill

 

This is very true...

a weakness we all have for costumes