The Life and Death of a Discussion Group

The Nigglybits Yahoo discussion group was once a fun place for boardgamers to hang out, have light hearted gaming discussions, make fun of the all sorts of people and things related to the gaming world, etc. In short, you could relax and shoot the breeze. It was advertised as a “virtual pub” by those who posted there. You could “pull up a bar stool” and talk to your friends. No topic was off limits and several interesting items were brought up, but a majority of the threads were still boardgame related. Unfortunately, those days are over. The Pub is still there, but it’s more like rundown bar that no one frequents anymore than the friendly neighborhood pub it once was.

I think that there are several reasons why this happened. The Pub had grown over the past couple years and as such the traffic on the group had grown as well, almost too much in my own opinion. The signal to noise ratio was dropping with more non-boardgame related talk and insane quick polls (for example, “What type of underwear do the pub dwellers wear?”). Since nothing was “off topic” for the Pub, calls to return to more game talk were usually shouted down. In fact it had gotten so bad people would apologize when posting something game related. However, I believe the downfall really started when Nick Danger, the creator, owner, “bartender” and heart and soul of the Pub left this past summer. Feeling burned out and needing to simplify his online life, Nick slipped out in the middle of the night, turning over the keys to Mark “Fluff Daddy” Jackson. A month or so later Mark left as well and then the fabric really started to unravel.

Nick started the Pub after getting kicked out of the SpielFrieks Yahoo group back in May 2001. Kicked out may be too strong, more like he was asked to take his funny remarks and “quick polls” elsewhere since SpielFrieks was for “serious discussion” of boardgames. I was one of the early pub dwellers, joining the group a couple of days after it was created. It quickly became my favorite discussion group and for the next couple years, the first one I would catch up on each day. There was a ban on “emoticons” and Pub dwellers were trained to take insults as a joke or friendly jest, just as if everyone were friends sitting around a bar having fun. SpielFrieks (or the “lounge”, in Niggly speak) became the place for rules questions, news, play reports, and cannon fodder for Nick’s sharp wit while the Pub was the place to have fun. I must admit I was more of a reader of the discussions than a contributor. I wish I could have contributed more than just a few posts here and there, but work and other things usually got in the way.

These days, the Pub has grown very quiet, almost completely dead. Looking at the number of posts for the last six months or so, you see a disturbing trend. After peaking in April of this year with 1891 posts, the number of posts each month has dropped off. They have fallen drastically the last few months with only 503 in October, 357 in November and only 60 so far December. It’s not quite dead yet, but it’s like a zombie, slowly stumbling forward looking for a brain.

This fall I started to realize that the Pub just wasn’t fun anymore. Around the first of November I decided drop e-mail delivery of Nigglybits posts to see if I would miss it. To be honest, I really haven’t. I have peeked into the Pub’s windows a couple of times via the web interface to see if anything has been going on. It seemed just boring as before I left it. It’s pretty obvious in hindsight that Nick was the spark that made the Pub the fun place that is was. No one was able to pick up his bar rag when he left.

So Nick, here’s to you, a virtual root beer toast and a thanks for all of the fun in the past. Nigglybits may continue in name, but the spirit is gone. It was fun while it lasted, but it’s time to move on.

Posted by Ed Rozmiarek at December 15, 2004 1:54 PM