• Published:June 1st, 2008
• Comments:2 Comments
• Category:Message Boards

The Fountain Pen Network is, as you’d imagine, a place where enthusiasts who love that most easily splattered of writing implement go to discuss all sorts of things. Among the subects currently being broached on the message boards, we have a discussion on different versions of the Dupont Orpheo pen, an ongoing attempt to create a chronology for fountain pens, and enough brand-specific chatter to make the most zealous of collectors happy. It’s an intelligent, well-moderated community that lets people talk about something that most of us never give a second thought to, a model of what internet discussion can be.

Or it was, right up until the Chatter forum was shut down. The administrators wrote:

The Chatter forum is temporarily closed.

Hopefully it will only remain so for the weekend at the most as we are currently in the process of determining how to proceed with the operation of said forum, given how the growing number of members, and therefore the (albeit small but) growing number of problematic members are putting a strain on our resources. If it takes a bit longer to resolve this, we hope that you can appreciate the collective effort required to deal with such matters.

We would like to highlight that this does not mean that members are to post Chatter-type threads in the other forums on FPN and we would appreciate that everyone understand and remember this. Action would unfortunately have to be taken if this request is not respected.

A bit harshly-worded, particularly in that last sentence, but not an unreasonable position for the administrators to take. This, of course, leads to a dramatic conflict those who use the site as a social hub versus those who just want to talk about goddamn pens already:

well olga, ernestine and the beautiful angelina and me are
appalled,
astounded,
amused,
awashed in guinness,
and totally kneffuled.

chatter, chatter, chatter no chatter wow–i am in withdrawal. [LONG STRING OF EMOTICONS]

I get the feeling that Olga, Ernestine, and Angelina are this person’s cats.

This one is awesome because I immediately heard Dr. Frasier Crane deliver it in my head:

If that is what the future holds then I will be departing the boards.

I agree. And I say this as one who has enjoyed the discussions of good books, classical music, coffee roasting, and single malt scotch that have frequently appeared in chatter. What I have not enjoyed are the recurring debates on such controversial issues as gun control, Obama, the inheritance tax, the Patriot Act, etc. Such discussions have served to alienate fellow fountain pen collectors from one another. It just isn’t worth it. I know nothing about the bandwidth shortage, but, it seems to me that, if we have scarce bandwidth available, it should be allocated primarily to fountain pen topics, because that is the reason for our existence.

“Bandwidth shortage.” Heh.  Heh heh heh.  Like there’s going to be riots in the streets soon.

This guy, I have the feeling he doesn’t get out often:

When I was a teen and young man in Kansas City, one of my favorite places to spend an afternoon was the Nelson Art Gallery. A big old place full of suits of armor, Egyptian sculpture, French Impressionists, modern artists. There was a small room above the main entrance looking out over the grounds that had nothing to do with art whatsoever. It was a little snack bar where you could get a cold sandwich, a fresh pastry and coffee or tea. It was there that I remember relaxing and taking a break from all the art. I think of that room with fond memories even today, decades later. It isn’t there now. In it’s place, they roofed over a courtyard and put in an expensive restaurant.

Chatter was like that place here, for me. It had become a nice place to take a break from all the more serious stuff about pens. I know there were topics discussed that were distressing, but I didn’t read those for the most part. The outcome was predictable and I know it is pointless to try to change someone’s mind when they have strong opinions.. so I didn’t bother. It was interesting to see others opinions and hear different points of view and I will miss it if it does not come back. I doubt I will come here as often and I know for certain I won’t spend as much time here if it goes. It will be like taking recess out of school

I don’t even mean that in the dickish way. I feel sort of sad for this guy because it’s obvious he’s smart and just has nowhere else to go…

…oh, fuck it, it’s the internet. There’s always someplace else to go.

This guy cracked me up with his nose-thumbing at the Chatter forums:

View New Posts is useful now.

Love it.

Watch out! Somebody reminds you that you don’t own the entire internet!

It’s up to the FPN mods to decide whether Chatter should be like a genteel club or a corner at Hyde Park. It’s their (virtual) living room, they get to make the rules. If S, R,and P are ‘actively discouraged’ then those who don’t like topical restrictions can either find another board that permits those discussions or they can start their own with their own rules.

I strongly disagree with this comment. It is our living room, the admins run it but they do not own the site ( to the best of my knowledge). We as the posting public support the ongoing life of the site and should be involved in the evolution of the site.

Yes, the “posting public” should be trusted. This sort of reasoning is why we’ve had 8 years of George Fucking W Bush, people.

The first sentence here is a delightful bit of grammatical freestyling:

Our living room? Who is our? I only ask because you make it sound like I might be part of the our whose living room this is and I am certainly not!

I don’t know who owns the site, but I know that I do not.

Furthermore, mere posting does not equal support! You stipulate that someone owns the site, by that someone is the person who pays the bills, not the person or persons who make the minimal contribution of posting.

There are twenty three pages of this (and, as is typical circa Election Season 2008, Ron Paul is dragged in, blinking and wondering who the fuck decided to wake him up from his sweet, sweet dreams of a free market economy) before it’s announced that the Chatter Forum has returned and things go back to normal. Members lived, members stayed, the FPN Universe was never the same.