Then, I don’t know, may 6-9 months ago, the board became overrun with posters who thought obscenities, one-word responses, TTT flaming, insults, etc., where actual discourse. Moronic behaviour, infinitely repetitive re-posting, and an astonishing lack of courtesy (the opposite of enlightened discourse) overwhelmed the board. The discussions about the top colleges and universities in the world became overrun by people who, based on their behaviour, could never have hoped to attend any of them.

And through this all, there was no adult in the room to delete these plainly idiotic posts. Hey, I support free speech. I am a card carrying ACLU contributor and member, so I am a free speech guy. But, when all of the bandwidth is occupied by those who don’t add - - only detract - - from the essence of the topics being discussed, why bother to tune in? If I want low-brow entertainment like this I can tune it to Jerry Springer.

In my view, the failure here is that of “rachmiel,” if that is the name of the person who owns or is responsible for this board. For rachmiel left us with all the jackals, and no power to purge them from the community. We have been dragged down to the lowest common denominator, and for a board that represents itself as “the most prestigious college discussion board,” that is very sad. Over the past few months, if you, as a reader, could not have deleted >50% of the posts as being patently idiotic, then you weren’t paying attention.

So, rachmiel, you have failed miserably in your oversight responsibility here and we have all paid the price. I would encourage you to make a statement on how you propose to manage this board in the future, so we can all determine whether we want to be part of that future or not.

For me, I’ll check back a few more time to see the responses to this post (I’m not optimistic), and after that I will probably delete this bookmark and sign off.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10434406)

Initially the group starts up, all these people who are genuinely interested in the topic flock in, and there's a period of vigorous and dynamic discussion.

Then after some years, the posters who made it tick originally are no longer very interested in the topic; they've already got what they came for, and are by now basically sick of talking about it. But they still hang out here from force of habit; when they log on to their computers they click in here by autopilot. So they start disrupting things, talking trash, taking pot shots at people, simply because they're bored. And on a basically unmoderated forum nobody stops them.

What's needed to keep things going are: new blood, and some way of keeping the old-timers interested and productive. The problem becomes, new blood is actually truly better served in a moderated forum. Because then they don;'t have to wade through the jaded people's BS to get actual answers to their questions. So when moderated forums have risen up, and the old timers at the old places have basically made them disfunctional, the newbies flock away to the other place. For good reason. And then all you're left with is crotchety old timers who don't care about the topic, pissing on each other. The end.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10459363)

BTW, you helped kill the college board. The law board, however, is thriving, and mostly because at least there they don't take your shit for a second.

HTH

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10435138)

The "problem" is that they dont always make PG-rated posts. Oh noes! LOL. They don't want some toolbox, boring discussion forum like collegeconfidential or whatever.

NYCFan, grow the fuck up. You are 70, use your remaining days to do something other than make passive aggressive posts about rachmiel. Handle your outing with grace and move on with what remains of your life.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10435179)

If you think that there is any serious discourse on the law board you really should check out a forum where intelligent people post comments, like the Volokh Conspiracy. It's like another universe.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10435739)

Though I have to admit your OP was funny. "This NYCFan fellow, if I'm getting the moniker correctly, offered valid support." I like how you pretended you didn't know much about the board but yet also cared enough and knew enough to comment on its problems across time. LOL, you're pretty transparent, and as pathetic as usual.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10435794)

And don't tell me the law board is any better there. All that you have on there are posters shilling for Obama, homosexuality or interracial dating (not that there is anything wrong with that one), ranting against religion or making one-line posts that are for the most part not even law related.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10436185)

His goal wasn't to help students. It was to subtly reinforce his never-ending diatribe about how Harvard is supposedly better than Yale. Even the Harvard Crimson has recognized this fact. It's a shame you can't.

2) The board didn't die when NYCFan left, the board died when he was fucking with it as a terrible moderator.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10437328)

I don't think HLS_Grad is NYCFan, but it really doesn't matter. That 70 yr old dude almost single handedly killed this board with horrible and biased moderating.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10443518)

Second off, here is a much better comment from the (much) more active side of the board, the side with people working at top law firms, attending top grad schools and colleges, and keeping alive the ideals of free expression of AutoAdmit:

http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=891862&mc=11&forum_id=2

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10435381)

Leave bothered ALONE!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10435400)

As PR transitioned to xoxo, the earnest college applicants were scared off by non-moderation; spammers, folks posting racist stuff, and trolls made the board a bit inhospitable, and all the serious folks went to CC. We make fun of CC but they were visiting PR in the past. The Law board survived because GTO and the other folks committed to it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10436456)

2. NYCFan was a pompous ass. Good riddance.

3. You are NOT for free speech. You can't pick and choose the speech you like and simultaneously advocate censorship. Hate speech is disgusting, but it's a constitutional right, you fascist.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10437099)

HTH

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#10449396)

why does a 70 year old Harvard grad troll teen chat sites anyway?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#14073390)

There were some really nice kids here and I miss them and I wish them all good things. I believe it is true that the thoughts we put out into the universe really matter. I will probably think of these kids and wish them well for the rest of my life and I hope it helps to make their journeys just a little bit sweeter <3

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#14082794)

*reaches for blubber-based lotion while pulling out the sperm whale*

*thinks about raping mama with a harpoon*

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#14095877)

all is well in my life. i am working on an art project, organizing stuff for taxes, walking, doing yoga...kids have jobs with benefits...lots to smile about :o)

your turn! mama15912@gmail

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#14147101)

mama15912@gmail.com

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=891925&forum_id=1#14136736)