A Few Problems with the site

[Heiseigodzilla425]

[tbeasley]

I'm a relatively new member but I'd be bummed to see the place go, I find the home video section really helpful.

If it does happen however I wonder how difficult it would be for the few of us to create and upkeep a new kaiju/tokusatsu centric forum.

[The Gene Lantern]

Board removal is off the table for the moment; you guys have made me re-think that.

Hopefully James is free in the next few weeks to look at this.

[klen7]

[lhb412]

^ Most appropriate gif usage!

Great to here it!

And to the many non-registered lurkers (there's always a dozen or so at any given time) howsabout registering?

[Baltan II]

I dunno, I suspect many lurkers aren't here on a regular basis (Google search results or something) or are simply logged-out members. I know every so often I get hit by being forced to sign back in.

Regardless, this thread got scary for a bit before it went back on track! As dying as the conversations get, particularly in my fave toys section, I'm thrilled that the board shutdown talk isn't proceeding further. I truly value this community and the information and discussion it offers, while I'd shudder at being forced to replace it. Won't lie though, the place could use a shot in the arm but if the past few movies aren't doing it I'm not sure what will. Facebook in particular is a horrible replacement and I don't understand the appeal among the toy guys.

[Henry88]

i can still remember the old WDF rpg that this place had those where some of happiest day's of my life, it was so much fun.

but it is good that MZ's number is not up yet.

[Benjamin Haines]

I'm glad that this board will go on. Long live the Club Tokyo / Monster Zero / SciFi Japan forums!

[jellydonut25]

[Baltan II]

That's such a boring, insular way of going about communicating with other fans, bleh. I value having close friends that share an interest but I use forums (and Twitter) to reach out beyond that circle to a wider group. It's no wonder that my brief time in the toy group on Facebook was so boring and disjointed, all the better discussion was probably happening among the goons privately while the rest was a bunch of disjointed and uninteresting shouting into a void.

[jellydonut25]

It doesn't have to be insular though. You can interact with people in threads and then make 'em a friend and start talking...

...it's less insular than MZ these days.

Sorry guys, I like this place and all but....there's like 8 of us here.

Not advocating for anything, just pointing out facts.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ That kind of private discussion on Facebook is insular by design, though. People join private groups and then segment themselves off within those groups and then most of the conversations are confined to private message inboxes.


Not everyone who visits MZ posts every day or very much at all but that doesn't mean people don't still browse the forums whenever they have the time even if they don't log in. The overall board activity is about the same now as it has been for about a decade. It goes through spikes and lulls and right now it's in a lull. Activity always spikes whenever there's something new to talk about while most of the other board sections have just had a few active topics here and there whenever folks get into them. Ten years ago the activity spiked around the Classic Media DVDs and the Godzilla: Unleashed vidyagame, then a few years later it was the announcement that Legendary got the rights to Godzilla, then four years later it was the release of Legendary's Godzilla and all of the new BRD/DVD releases riding that wave. In between all of that there were varying spikes in activity around new toys and collectibles, the Gamera releases from Shout! Factory and Mill Creek, Godzilla from Criterion, and Destroy All Monsters and Megalon from Media Blasters.


Right now the Godzilla anime movies aren't drawing nearly as much buzz as a new live-action release but we just had a big stretch of spiked activity with the release of Shin Godzilla, the long-awaited DVD/BRD debut of The Return of Godzilla, and the release of Kong: Skull Island. Things are sure to pick up again when Criterion unveils whatever they're cooking up and especially when Legendary's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong are finally upon us. Longtime users who may not be posting today will be able to log back in after however many years and discuss the new Godzilla release with everyone else, and anyone can start a new topic or reengage an old one from the board's 15+ years of archived discussion. That's something that an old-fashioned public forum like this one offers that the big social media sites just aren't matching. The biggest difference between the MZ of 10 years ago and the MZ of today is just that a lot of the folks who posted the most on MZ 10 years ago have since taken their kaiju discussion to Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit and other sites, but the MZ community is still here for everybody who wants it.

[lhb412]

^ Seems to me the Godzilla anime movies have generated more excitement among folks outside your traditional Godzilla fans... which might be a good thing overall.

I'm glad you mentioned the upcoming Criterion release(s) in your post. Honestly, I am just as excited about that as I am new movies!

[jellydonut25]

I guess we'll see...but I don't feel like there's been a REAL flurry of activity since the time around 2014 and Shin...and even that was ultimately WAY less than what there was 15 years ago.

[Benjamin Haines]

Yeah, I don't think anything will ever match the level of activity around here during the end of the Millennium Series in the early 2000s. All of the perpetuated hype around Godzilla's 50th anniversary and the making and release of Final Wars can't ever be replicated. It was a different time. The level of activity did drop off pretty rapidly after that and the MZ of 2008 really wasn't all that different from the MZ of today, save for the fact that some of the users who were most active a decade ago have mostly stopped posting here.

Not that there's anything wrong with users not being as active as others. According to my profile I've averaged just 0.95 posts per day since I joined in 2004!

[jellydonut25]

Back to the original topic for a moment: anyone else feel like the errors are becoming more prevalent? Used to just be here and there for me. Now I'll get multiples in a row, and it's a guarantee to happen nearly any time I do anything.
It's becoming untenable, honestly.

[klen7]

it hasnt been as bad for me today, only seen it once this afternoon

[Psycho Soldier]

It was almost unbearable last night, but the frequency of errors has dropped off somewhat since then. The fluctuations can be pretty intense.

[TerranigmaFreak]

Yeah, got a lot of internal server errors the past 2 days.

[Benjamin Haines]

So is it just me or have the "500 internal server errors" just stopped altogether for months now? *knock on wood*


Thanks to whoever fixed it if somebody did fix it.

[lhb412]

I noticed that, too.

... thanks a bunch!

[klen7]

Yes! Thank you!

[H-Man]

[lhb412]

Yup. Couldn't use the site for a little while yesterday because of it.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

They're back for me as well.