UPSB v3

Board Comments / A Public Service Announcement for UPSB

  1. Xero
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 14:18:58

    Video -> Full View • Download



    To whom this may concern,

    Lately there has been a change of UPSB, and not for the better.
    In my opinion, our strength as a community is poor.
    We concern ourselves more on modifying pens than actually spinning them, and bettering ourselves and the community.
    World competitions are lost because we rely on the same spinners every year because they're our "pros".
    This ideology needs to come to a halt before UPSB crumbles.

    These following points are of the utmost importance, and need to be stopped as ASAP:

    • Firstly, depending on "pros" to win tournaments
    • Modifying/collecting more than spinning
    • Flaming, and posts like:
      QUOTE (Anonymous)
      • FUCK YOU ___ you just a douche fucker who fucks men so go fuck your boy friend you fuck fucking son of a fucking bitch hows that for fucking swearing you fucking cunt ass mother fucker!
      • i agree WTF a kids TEAM your all just thirteen yr old faggots who need to quit shitting yourselfs your all faggots who need to fuck off and quit being little bitches oh and that thing about his bitch is pathetic. what a fucken noob trying to impress his bitch what a fucken dike ass cum sucking dick taking mother fucker!
    • Editing your names to be AnonymousメANツ - it's not cool; Genesis members don't do it, and very few spinners on other boards do it
    • Creating random teams just because you like a show or some other menial reason
    • Competing in the Shoutbox to be the highest shouter
    • Begging for help in the Shoutbox when many answers are just a Searchbar away
    • Creating posts that should be PMs – examples:
      QUOTE (Anonymous)
      • will you pm me on how you made that s777 mx? It looks more accurate than the one in the tutorial
      • Is there a tutorial on that? Mind linking it/PMing it to me :>



    Now if you enjoy modifying pens, go ahead – do not however try to market it. If the community wishes to hear more on your modification, go ahead and make a tutorial and what not. Don’t ask if anyone wants a tutorial.

    I am NOT saying that we cannot have fun on UPSB.
    I'm just saying that we need to check our priorities.

  2. XternalメDGN
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 14:31:00

    QUOTE (Xero @ Feb 24 2009, 10:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    [*]Editing your names to be AnonymousメANツ - it's not cool; Genesis members don't do it, and very few spinners on other boards do it

    I'm guilty of this i admit>.>
    dont know why, seemed like a good idea at that time so i changed it to メDGN. but i dont want to spam up the request board in case i really need to change my name at another time and so ive stuck with this

  3. Zombo
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 14:52:37

    hey good post, but there are some stuff I don't agree with:

    first of all you say

    "Lately there has been a change of UPSB, and not for the better."

    How recently are we talking about, because seriously not much has changed since UPSBv3 opened. It's more or less the same. to be honest there isn't much change from late UPSBv2, UCPSB, and UPSBv3. It's always been like that.

    Let's not forget that UPSB carries 2 primary functions, whereas most boards only carry one:

    1. A main community for spinners without their own community
    2. A nexus for other communities to enter in contact

    This #2, we're the only board that does it. This means some areas of our forum is used by people not actually part of the community. This explains why the trading section is crowded. It also explains why there are so many foreign videos, because many foreigners actually come and share their work.

    We're the only board which is regularly read by people all over the world. People look up information on UPSB and will gather it and translate this information in their own board. It's very important that we serve this purpose because this is what brings communities together. So this is not an issue for me at all.

    Also, why would a low number of fundamental posts be a bad thing? if anything it's a good thing, I hated weeding through the multiple fundamental threads in UPSB2... it means we now have solid resources for many tricks, and that eliminates a lot of the posts needed. it's not a bad thing at all.

    Now for the other stuff, do the real people put their focus at the right place? Not really. But that's not something hardly new. Look at UCPSB and the size of its spammer's bin. Look at its size of the pen mods section compared its trick section. It's the same. This is not a new problem.

    QUOTE
    Firstly, depending on "pros" to win tournaments


    Hmm, each community has its pros and those are the guys that go to the big tournaments, so I don't know what you're talking about. We had 4 spots which is average I guess.

    QUOTE
    Modifying/collecting more than spinning


    True, like I said not a new problem.

    QUOTE
    Flaming, and posts like:


    If it's in the Spammer's Bin, I couldn't care less. The main focus of this board and of the moderating staff has always been pen spinning. Off-topic and other non-ps related sections are very very low in priority. If people take the OT and SB more seriously than the main pen spinning sections, then it's their problem. You're free to use UPSB as you like.

    QUOTE
    Editing your names to be AnonymousメANツ - it's not cool; Genesis members don't do it, and very few spinners on other boards do it


    Seems like a very small issue to me.

    QUOTE
    Creating random teams just because you like a show or some other menial reason


    That's only one person, seems like you're overgeneralizing.

    QUOTE
    Competing in the Shoutbox to be the highest shouter


    Kinda stupid, but if people like the shoutbox more than the real board, that's their problem.

    QUOTE
    Begging for help in the Shoutbox when many answers are just a Searchbar away


    I actually prefer them to beg in shoutbox than to spam the main boards.

    QUOTE
    Creating posts that should be PMs – examples:


    Very specific issue, not really the core problem.

    I definitely don't agree on the new problem or the "UPSB is not what used to be" kind of stuff, it's just an illusion. Either you changed and realized you don't belong anymore, or something did change but it only applies to you, and not to the general atmosphere of the boards.

    How do I know that? Because some old people from UPSB2 left because "UCPSB is worse than UPSB2", and then some people left UPSB3 because "UPSB3 is worse than UCPSB". In reality, they're all more or less the same, it's the person leaving that has changed. It's like a cycle of good periods and bad periods. Once everybody go through this bad period, they'll forget it ever happened. It happens at least once a year.

    The other thing I find funny, but you didn't mention, is the bandwagon problem. I really hate it when things roll into a snowball, whether good or bad. For example, the latest "oh things are going bad" stuff has been caused by one dude quitting, and I don't even agree with his reasoning. So please don't hype stuff too much, keep your head levelled.

    Finally, you can't force people to practice and work hard, or to stop modding. That's their choice and there's nothing wrong with that. If you like pen spinning and want to become better, you're just gonna do it and practice. You shouldn't need people to tell you to do that.

    People should stop focusing on the negatives and start bringing positivity on the boards. Don't point out what's wrong, instead promote the things that are right.

    PS: the JEB collabs are posted by a single dude that likes JEB, so what, JEB is notorious for making a crazy number of collabs. Why does that matter?

    IMO the only two real oustanding issues are that 1) people focus too much on pen modding 2) people focus too much on non-PS related stuff. But those are not new issues.

  4. Xero
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 15:17:04


    QUOTE
    "Lately there has been a change of UPSB, and not for the better."

    Mostly in reference to name editing and creating menial teams.

    QUOTE
    It also explains why there are so many foreign videos, because many foreigners actually come and share their work.

    Jamie Enns was the one that posted many of those JEB videos, not JEB members.


    QUOTE
    Hmm, each community has its pros and those are the guys that go to the big tournaments, so I don't know what you're talking about. We had 4 spots which is average I guess.

    It's just that we DEPEND on them. Only Charlie was the one that changed it up as of late. If our spinners don't strive to be their best, what happens when our "pros" move on?



    QUOTE
    Seems like a very small issue to me. (name editing)

    Since name changing has changed to a moderator/administrator responsibility, it takes time away from them to be used elsewhere. Whether or not this is a serious issue is one thing, but it is still a time consuming and pointless thing in my opinion. A banner in a signature should suffice.


    QUOTE
    That's only one person, seems like you're overgeneralizing. (team issue)

    Alpha Team, Yogurt Revolution, Abyss Factor, Korean Style Revolution, Zero To Hero, Blank, antiboing.gif, Catharsis, bwahaha, and teams made by Bammer09 seem either pointless or repetative. They have either no obvious goal, or the same goal: to be better at pen spinning


    QUOTE
    I actually prefer them to beg in shoutbox than to spam the main boards.

    But why not search?


    QUOTE
    Very specific issue, not really the core problem. (PM posts)

    It's still an issue that I have seen recently more than anything


    QUOTE
    The other thing I find funny, but you didn't mention, is the bandwagon problem. I really it when things roll into a snowball, whether good or bad. For example, the latest "oh things are going bad" stuff has been caused by one dude quitting, and I don't even agree with his reasoning. So please don't hype stuff too much, keep your head levelled.
    It seemed that the bandwagon thing has always been an issue. Sangara's leave has nothing to do with this. I don't care if people drop like flies.

    QUOTE
    Finally, you can't force people to practice and work hard, or to stop modding. That's their choice and there's nothing wrong with that. If you like pen spinning and want to become better, you're just gonna do it and practice. You shouldn't need people to tell you to do that.

    Unfortunately, that's all too true.

    QUOTE
    People should stop focusing on the negatives and start bringing positivity on the boards. Don't point out what's wrong, instead promote the things that are right.
    But there are so many negatives. bangHead.gif

    Well, this is just my opinion. I have talked with other members about these issues and many agree. However, whether or not they will change is yet to be seen.

  5. Zombo
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 15:39:15

    QUOTE (Xero @ Feb 24 2009, 10:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Mostly in reference to name editing and creating menial teams.


    lol that's super misleading, seems like you imply the whole post is about new issues.

    "Jamie Enns was the one that posted many of those JEB videos, not JEB members."

    exactly, so one guy likes JEB, and we know JEB likes to make a ton of collab (some people even say it's bad for them to make too many collabs), so what? Who cares? If he didn't post the collabs, we wouldn't know about those videos. How does that help?

    QUOTE
    It's just that we DEPEND on them. Only Charlie was the one that changed it up as of late. If our spinners don't strive to be their best, what happens when our "pros" move on?


    every community depends on their pros. Look at what happened to JEB at this WT09. Pros are models you look up to to inspire new spinners. the only difference is the number of pros they have. a pro is someone who's good at pen spinning. you make it sound like charlie is not a pro at all, which is not true.

    QUOTE
    Since name changing has changed to a moderator/administrator responsibility, it takes time away from them to be used elsewhere. Whether or not this is a serious issue is one thing, but it is still a time consuming and pointless thing in my opinion. A banner in a signature should suffice.


    yes, it does need to be pointed out, but it's far from being the outstanding issue. we're already looking into solving the name change issue in general (for ppl who change names for stupid reasons). and AFAIK , the "team tag" name stuff has already stopped because ppl realized it's stupid, so I wouldn't consider it an active issue anymore.

    QUOTE
    Alpha Team, Yogurt Revolution, Abyss Factor, Korean Style Revolution, Zero To Hero, Blank, antiboing.gif, Catharsis, bwahaha, and teams made by Bammer09 seem either pointless or repetative. They have either no obvious goal, or the same goal: to be better at pen spinning


    there's already a topic on this and the consensus was that the teams feature doesn't literally means only teams can use it. A team, for the purpose of the feature, is simply a collection of ppl sharing an interest. Therefore you groups, which are made to regroup ppl with same interest (i.e. chinese spinners, australians, etc.), and then you have teams. Now teams can be either casual or competitive, and there's no rule that say the team must be serious and why should there be? It's not like you can see their forum anyway, why would it even bother you? At most, you're going to see one more entry in the teams listing, which is a bit annoying to naviguate but that's a limitation of the software. Judging teams is a pretentious exercice IMO.

    QUOTE
    But why not search?


    Right, so tell them to search when they ask on the shoutbox then. If you started getting offended because ppl ask questions in teh shoutbox you need to relax. We already tell people to ask simple questions in the shoutbox so they don't clutter the main board, we can't have a double standard here.

    QUOTE
    It's still an issue that I have seen recently more than anything


    Not really, there often happen times where people start going off-topic and discussing a private issue in the past, when those two should have been pming. It's easy sometimes to get absorbed in the discussion and forget it doesn't matter for others.

    QUOTE
    It seemed that the bandwagon thing has always been an issue. Sangara's leave has nothing to do with this. I don't care if people drop like flies.


    Just by saying flies you're already in the bandwagon, there's no dropping like flies right now.

    QUOTE
    Unfortunately, that's all too true.


    Exactly, so worry about yourself first. Start some project, get people involved. Others will follow. There's very little point in complaining.

    QUOTE
    But there are so many negatives. bangHead.gif


    To me there's only 2 outstanding negatives, and a lot of little issues. If we work on the 2 outstanding negatives, the others will sort themselves out or mods will take care of them. So don't worry about everything, just the big picture.

    QUOTE
    Well, this is just my opinion. I have talked with other members about these issues and many agree. However, whether or not they will change is yet to be seen.


    Of course, people will agree, everybody wants this place to become better, including me. But how many have the guts to step up and doing something good? Not many. People will follow suit instead.

    Seems to me like you didn't deeply consider all the issues before you present them, so that you can get a bigger reaction. I think that's fine, because often you need to exagerate to make people react instead of worrying about the correctness of the details. I'm just pointing out some justifications for certain observations.

  6. Mats
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 16:00:37

    Edit: Sorry, this post looks like a bit of a wall of text! It's not as bad as it looks!1

    This is a great post Xero!

    It's something I too noticed over time. If you look way back to 4-5 years ago, UPSB was probably the best board in terms of skill level, however, as time has passed, other boards have gotten bigger and better while new boards have been very fast to improve. UPSB seems to have been left standing still. Now I don't think the problem is with 'UPSB'. UPSB is a great resource and if one were to want to learn spinning very fast, the wiki is an excellent resource and searching through topics one finds great help on tricks. If you are stuck or struggling or want a video, then good feedback will be given.

    The problem it seems is with the attitude of many people on here who spin to get better. Now some people come on this board purely for the community. I see nothing wrong with this as these people (generally) do no harm and in fact can make UPSB a more welcoming and friendly place. Others on this board spin with the aim of getting significantly better and really do make some damn serious progress (Erirornal, Chautran and others). However, it does seem that many people at first will improve quickly or at least reasonably quickly, but lose interest and reduce practice. I don't think that anything you put in your post was a reason for this. If and when we find out why people are reducing practice or not increasing practice as their skills improve, then changes could be made to encourage them, however, since we don't know why, then nothing can be done right now.

    My thought was always that if pen spinning had major competitions, then the skill level would improve. I believe that if UPSB had a yearly tournament, with high prize money (let's say a $2500 prize pool) that would go to the top finishers (say top 10) plus other prizes for 'best newcomer' or 'most improved' or 'best combo of the competition' and so forth, that people would be encouraged to improve more. I am a great believer that competition fuels achievement. After all, if we were to take the olympics away, would we see such high levels of achievement in all sports concerned? However, since no-one here can put up the money for such a competition, no company will be interested in funding such a competition and since no-one seems to care about competition for 'respect' or something like this, then no of this is going to happen.

    Short of this, I think if UPSB were to make a very very good collab, this could cause the level of skill to go up as it could inspire pen spinners. A collab that people worked towards for months, the very best, with a great edit. No rubbish, no long drawn out credits, nothing mad on the effects, just combo after combo, full of creativity, variety and most importantly, combos of great technical merit. However, I cannot think of a recent example of this happening... Nor do I think it will.

    Perhaps Xero, if the issue is so important to you, then you should set an example yourself. If you were to catch up with the skills of those such aforementioned pen spinners on UPSB, perhaps you could be someone new and exciting for others to look up to?

    [1] Probably anyway.

  7. Eso
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 16:04:23

    It seems to me that it's nothing but nit-picking being done here. Like Zombo said, it's the individual that's changed, not the overall atmosphere of the board. The only reason why so many of you think there's so many problems is because you all focus too much on those negative things. I think most of the ones that agree with you are also the same people that spend a large amount of time on ShoutBox anyways. It's no wonder you guys seem to pick up on these "problems," not to mention gather and discuss how much every one of you don't like it.

    The core problem isn't that there's idiocy running amok around here, and thus making UPSB "crumble" slowly. UPSB ISN'T crumbling, and the only problem I see is that there's lazy people around here. It's normal. The pro spinners are the ones that aren't so lazy and decide to dedicate their time practicing and not so much on socializing, modding, etc.

    I've seen this many times before. It's happened on UCPSB and also on here before today. There's always been someone exclaiming "omg, UCPSB/UPSB is dying!" but it never has. In fact, the numbers has only been increasing.


    As for the pros, while it may be true that our numbers of world-class spinners are a lot less than other boards, that does NOT mean that the overall skill of the board is low. I've seen MANY up-and-coming spinners here that have so much potential. Even within the last few months, I've seen radical improvement from each of them, and I think it's promising. I personally think spinners such as Raem, Charlie, J.E., Sadistic, Mystic, テoh!, Baaron, Kenes, and more all have great skill and immense potential and should not be taken lightly.

    Like I said earlier, the other issues such as names and teams are, at best, trivial and only seems to be nit-picking.

  8. Zombo
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 16:24:18

    QUOTE (Mats @ Feb 24 2009, 11:00 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    It's something I too noticed over time. If you look way back to 4-5 years ago, UPSB was probably the best board in terms of skill level


    lol no kidding, 4-5 years there was only UPSB and PDS and the smaller communities were just starting out... so obviously all the best spinners were either korean or on UPSB. I think your time scope is a bit too large compared to what most people here refer and know about anyway.

    QUOTE
    The problem it seems is with the attitude of many people on here who spin to get better. Now some people come on this board purely for the community. I see nothing wrong with this as these people (generally) do no harm and in fact can make UPSB a more welcoming and friendly place.


    That's exactly right, there are many people addicted to UPSB because of the social aspect. But those people have not done anything wrong, they're just using UPSB for another purpose, maybe not intended, but it does not matter.

    QUOTE
    Others on this board spin with the aim of getting significantly better and really do make some damn serious progress (Erirornal, Chautran and others). However, it does seem that many people at first will improve quickly or at least reasonably quickly, but lose interest and reduce practice. I don't think that anything you put in your post was a reason for this. If and when we find out why people are reducing practice or not increasing practice as their skills improve, then changes could be made to encourage them, however, since we don't know why, then nothing can be done right now.


    Well I think what applies for most people is that they get this "rush" when you first learn something new and you try and learn everything really quickly. I know this because this is what happened to me when I first joined Pentix. But once you go through that period, things slow down quite a bit for you. So if you don't have the confidence or the motivation to go on, it's going to be very hard for you to be at the top, and I think not many people have this kind of strong personality in general. And maybe some of it is actually enforced by where you live (Korea, China, Japan are very competitive countries to live in).

    QUOTE
    My thought was always that if pen spinning had major competitions, then the skill level would improve. I believe that if UPSB had a yearly tournament, with high prize money (let's say a $2500 prize pool) that would go to the top finishers (say top 10) plus other prizes for 'best newcomer' or 'most improved' or 'best combo of the competition' and so forth, that people would be encouraged to improve more. I am a great believer that competition fuels achievement.


    We're not there yet. First, we don't have that kind of money (we'll get there once we start rolling merchandise). Second, the judging scheme will have to be extremely solid to make this work. I don't think we've found the perfect judging scheme yet that can fairly judge a tournament with high importance (e.g. big prize).

    QUOTE
    Short of this, I think if UPSB were to make a very very good collab, this could cause the level of skill to go up as it could inspire pen spinners. A collab that people worked towards for months, the very best, with a great edit. No rubbish, no long drawn out credits, nothing mad on the effects, just combo after combo, full of creativity, variety and most importantly, combos of great technical merit. However, I cannot think of a recent example of this happening... Nor do I think it will.


    We're already talking about doing this after the WT09.

    People should spend less time criticizing what members are doing wrong in the shoutbox and/or the spammer's bin and take that time to focus on their own pen spinning instead.

  9. iMatt
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 22:12:21

    Alright. *cracks knuckles*

    I do undertand Xero's points, but I do as well understand this is not a secluded issue, same kind of things are happening all over the internet.

    As much as this is a forum and reference web-site to help better the act of Pen-spinning, this has turned more into a social community. There are continuous amounts of socialization happening that has little to none to do with the idea of pen-spinning in the first place. Now, Zombo touched on that this isn't really much of an issue in the grand scheme of things. I honestly think it is, they're not using the board for it's intended purpose and bringing in all sorts of random issues that. These issues don't help the board and they tend to draw in quite the social crowd. One example, AOD1 vs. Scott Shaupis, it's nothing more than a bickering battle and ego. This kind of thing honestly gives off the impression of that in order to be a staple in the community one must prove he has a bigger digital C**K than other rather than Ladder. Now that's only one example of things; I understand this doesn't apply to the whole board but nonetheless it's the kind of event which triggers such reactions such as Xero's.

    The other aspect of the changing atmosphere is just the progression of the internet itself. Everybody acts as if they are 9-years-old on the playground in a "come-back fight." Everywhere people flame each other because it makes them feel superior to others, that's how things are currently, not a whole lot a person can do about that. How that applies here is how people conduct themselves in gaining attention. The atmosphere of UPSB attention getting is, "I have to either; become well-known, create something innovative, gain a vast knowledge, and be better than somebody else." That being said, there's nothing wrong with that mindset, but what IS wrong is how the members of the board go about doing that. Things like pen-modifications, trick creation, video editing, trading, organizing, and informative posting are all a part of this quest to gain recognition. Which brings me to the core issue of everything, people are too eager. Instead of researching and practicing about things, spinners lately have been jumping to conclusions without much thought, comments, or feedback to gain recognition quickly. Gaining attention is fine if it comes naturally with progress, but things like Xero had mentioned such as the implied intent to push for attention is a problem here that seems to re-occur.

    Examples:
    ----------------------

    Posting in the shoutbox: [youtube-link] COMMENTS PLZ!!

    Show Off Your Pens Thread:

    Hey guys, this is my new self-mod, **[obviously just a bictory variation], I thought this was awesome so tutorial coming soon!!!

    Advanced trick thread:

    I came up with a new trick (just an odd index around or something of sorts). I made this, So I want this trick named after me.
    -----------------------

    Those are generalized, yes, but it is this sort of thing which causes majority of the frustrations. I think there needs to be be a bit more moderating done to correct and inform set user of their actions. Even a broader range of justifications for warnings.

    On top of that I think an even more refined search function wouldn't hurt.

    Those are just a few ideas to help with core-board issues.

    Regarding the Teams situation and lack of actual UPSB pen-spinning collabs, the reason behind this (personally) I think it's because of low incentives as Mats mentioned. People aren't motivated anymore, no reason to be.

    JEB has constant tournaments, battles, even a few LIVE events. That may be region specific, but that's the kind of thing needed to bring the best in competition. Funding makes this very difficult, and we're very lucky to have xshadowfire running our server and paying fees. As Zombo said, until we start putting out some merchandise or some other means of fund-raising it's hard to have prizes. I think things such as a simple pen mod as a prize would suffice. Heck, even a "achievement/trophy" system would be cool. A points system, gaining rep by winning events with a display under the icon of how many points achieved. To me, that alone is enough motivation for people. Those are just my two cents on the matter though.

  10. Zombo
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 22:47:04

    QUOTE (iMatt @ Feb 24 2009, 05:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    As much as this is a forum and reference web-site to help better the act of Pen-spinning, this has turned more into a social community. There are continuous amounts of socialization happening that has little to none to do with the idea of pen-spinning in the first place. Now, Zombo touched on that this isn't really much of an issue in the grand scheme of things. I honestly think it is, they're not using the board for it's intended purpose and bringing in all sorts of random issues that.


    The golden rule of spammer's bin is "Whatever goes on in the bin, stays in the bin". Most people who are regular SB users seem to grasp that concept, which means there shouldn't be a problem at all because pen spinning sections are isolated from other sections.

    QUOTE
    These issues don't help the board and they tend to draw in quite the social crowd. One example, AOD1 vs. Scott Shaupis, it's nothing more than a bickering battle and ego. This kind of thing honestly gives off the impression of that in order to be a staple in the community one must prove he has a bigger digital C**K than other rather than Ladder. Now that's only one example of things; I understand this doesn't apply to the whole board but nonetheless it's the kind of event which triggers such reactions such as Xero's.


    In that specific issue, I was reluctant in letting stay there but then I was still expecting a good battle, so...

    QUOTE
    Which brings me to the core issue of everything, people are too eager. Instead of researching and practicing about things, spinners lately have been jumping to conclusions without much thought, comments, or feedback to gain recognition quickly. Gaining attention is fine if it comes naturally with progress, but things like Xero had mentioned such as the implied intent to push for attention is a problem here that seems to re-occur.


    This reaches the initial rush i was describing. When you start a new hobby, you'll get very eager to learn new stuff and get going. I think this is normal, it was like that for me too. Fortunately, this is a temporary condition. Once the person settles in, s/he knows what to do and not to do. However, we get new members all the time, so it feels like there's always someone doing this. In theory, if those people respect the rules of the boards, there's nothing wrong in posting a video of a "new" trick or writing down a "new" tutorial. People should be more lenient and explain them to gain a bit more experience first because I'm sure most people get over that phase. Yes, it is tiresome, but it's a natural process. Back on UPSB2, the tiresome thing used to always read the same questions about the fundamentals. Now it's evolved to "new" tricks and "new" tutorials. I consider that an improvement. We're already trying our best to make it as painless as possible for people who don't want to see those kind of stuff. We have the "what am I doing" sticky and the "pending approval" section. You can ignore that thread and that section completely and you should be safe from those problems. If someone posted in the wrong section/thread, then that's just like any other infraction and just report it.

    The only place where it's truly problematic is on the shoutbox. Unfortunately, supervising the shoutbox is very difficult because you'd have to pay attention all the time. So I'm not sure what to do about the shoutbox yet. You can always use my thread about reporting shouts and of course, the Ignore member feature.

    QUOTE
    On top of that I think an even more refined search function wouldn't hurt.


    Search was already improved a while ago to be smarter in its results.

    QUOTE
    JEB has constant tournaments, battles, even a few LIVE events. That may be region specific, but that's the kind of thing needed to bring the best in competition. Funding makes this very difficult, and we're very lucky to have xshadowfire running our server and paying fees. As Zombo said, until we start putting out some merchandise or some other means of fund-raising it's hard to have prizes. I think things such as a simple pen mod as a prize would suffice. Heck, even a "achievement/trophy" system would be cool. A points system, gaining rep by winning events with a display under the icon of how many points achieved. To me, that alone is enough motivation for people. Those are just my two cents on the matter though.


    I think tournaments are like the ECS are really cool tournaments for encouraging newcomers to improve, and I support those. Trophy system is not a bad idea I'd have to see if it's possible. Of course, there's always the ladder.

  11. Awesome
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 23:03:26

    I'd like to see ladder a lot more active personally, since most people haven't had lots of battles the standings aren't exactly accurate, but if everyone had like 16 battles, everyone would have a pretty good idea where they stood, and would most likely get some motivation from that. I am not innocent myself of this though, I only had like 3 ladder battles, but thats beside the point.

    and really I don't see the problem with "new" mods or "new" tricks, its when those get flamed that trains spinners to not make new ideas or concepts when they do acquire enough experience to actually make something useful. (of course they aren't going to make as much stuff with experience from what Zombo said, but bashing attempts doesn't help)

  12. Xero
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 23:19:43

    QUOTE (Zombo)
    every community depends on their pros. Look at what happened to JEB at this WT09. Pros are models you look up to to inspire new spinners. the only difference is the number of pros they have. a pro is someone who's good at pen spinning. you make it sound like charlie is not a pro at all, which is not true.


    Exactly; JEB changed it up. We should have more pros, but people want to spend time collecting pens instead of spinning. This isn’t called the Universal Pen Collectors Board for a reason. And I never said that Charlie wasn’t pro. I was trying to say we need more people like him.

    QUOTE (Mats)
    However, since no-one here can put up the money for such a competition, no company will be interested in funding such a competition and since no-one seems to care about competition for 'respect' or something like this, then no of this is going to happen.


    Well the “battle orgy” that took place recently is great, and things like the ECS tournament are great too. More internal tournaments/competitions certainly up the excitement and create healthy chances for more competition.

    QUOTE (Mats)
    Short of this, I think if UPSB were to make a very very good collab, this could cause the level of skill to go up as it could inspire pen spinners. A collab that people worked towards for months, the very best, with a great edit. No rubbish, no long drawn out credits, nothing mad on the effects, just combo after combo, full of creativity, variety and most importantly, combos of great technical merit. However, I cannot think of a recent example of this happening... Nor do I think it will.


    A UPSB collab would be great. However, it would need to involve many upper level spinners – something UPSB lacks, more or less. And great editing would be need to done as well. Projects like JEB 4th and JEB’s Asian Cup Final video show an amazing amount of video and audio editing skill.

    QUOTE (Mats)
    Perhaps Xero, if the issue is so important to you, then you should set an example yourself. If you were to catch up with the skills of those such aforementioned pen spinners on UPSB, perhaps you could be someone new and exciting for others to look up to?


    Well of course I deal with these issues how I feel fit. I report posts when I feel they deserve it and of course, I practice daily. My skill has been rapidly increasing – not as fast as I may want it to go, but it is.

    QUOTE (Eso)
    The core problem isn't that there's idiocy running amok around here, and thus making UPSB "crumble" slowly. UPSB ISN'T crumbling, and the only problem I see is that there's lazy people around here. It's normal. The pro spinners are the ones that aren't so lazy and decide to dedicate their time practicing and not so much on socializing, modding, etc.

    I've seen this many times before. It's happened on UCPSB and also on here before today. There's always been someone exclaiming "omg, UCPSB/UPSB is dying!" but it never has. In fact, the numbers has only been increasing.

    Well, I never mentioned there being any idiocy. Again, I AM complaining on points that I feel need to be addressed. I think that UPSB should be more towards community activities instead of towards pen collecting fiends. Furthermore, I’m not saying it’s dying

    QUOTE (iMatt)
    JEB has constant tournaments, battles, even a few LIVE events. That may be region specific, but that's the kind of thing needed to bring the best in competition. Funding makes this very difficult, and we're very lucky to have xshadowfire running our server and paying fees. As Zombo said, until we start putting out some merchandise or some other means of fund-raising it's hard to have prizes. I think things such as a simple pen mod as a prize would suffice. Heck, even a "achievement/trophy" system would be cool. A points system, gaining rep by winning events with a display under the icon of how many points achieved. To me, that alone is enough motivation for people. Those are just my two cents on the matter though.


    Agreed. Live events would certainly draw not only a crowd and gain pen spinning acknowledgement, it would also drive up a lot of the competition. However, we would, at the very least, need a set of judges and an area to host/film the event. That alone may prove difficult, but certainly exciting. I know that I would love to have one for a NYC gathering.


    -------------------------------------------------

    I mean, once again, I’m just portraying that these are my own opinions. However many people agree with me can go ahead and do so. I feel that many of these issues, at the very least the two that Zombo highlighted, should be addressed.

  13. Zombo
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 23:33:24

    QUOTE (Xero @ Feb 24 2009, 06:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Exactly; JEB changed it up. We should have more pros, but people want to spend time collecting pens instead of spinning. This isn’t called the Universal Pen Collectors Board for a reason. And I never said that Charlie wasn’t pro. I was trying to say we need more people like him.


    What I meant is that JEB didn't put their pros in the WT09 and they're failing miserably, therefore JEB is also depending on their pros in big tournaments, just like anybody else. That's normal.

    QUOTE
    Well the “battle orgy” that took place recently is great, and things like the ECS tournament are great too. More internal tournaments/competitions certainly up the excitement and create healthy chances for more competition.


    I'm looking at FPSB's tournament section: they're up to their 4th beginner's tournament (we already have that in the form of ECS), their second "team tournament" and also a "double" tournament. All those tournaments were organized by regular members. There's no reason why we can't do that here. It doesn't take the staff to organize these stuff. I want to let people be proactive and organize their own projects, not wait around the mods.


    QUOTE
    A UPSB collab would be great. However, it would need to involve many upper level spinners – something UPSB lacks, more or less. And great editing would be need to done as well. Projects like JEB 4th and JEB’s Asian Cup Final video show an amazing amount of video and audio editing skill.


    We'll see about that. The fundamental problem of a UPSB collab, which no other boards have, is that many members are members of UPSB but also other communities, therefore should the UPSB collab be a shocase of exclusive UPSB members or just anybody that's on UPSB. This issue is discussed in the UPSB Collab topic.

    QUOTE
    Agreed. Live events would certainly draw not only a crowd and gain pen spinning acknowledgement, it would also drive up a lot of the competition. However, we would, at the very least, need a set of judges and an area to host/film the event. That alone may prove difficult, but certainly exciting. I know that I would love to have one for a NYC gathering.


    This is another difficulty that UPSB has that other communities don't have to consider. We're all over the map, it's more difficult for us to organize live events since it cannot gather everybody. We pretty much cannot do a live tournament like GPC.

    QUOTE
    I mean, once again, I’m just portraying that these are my own opinions. However many people agree with me can go ahead and do so. I feel that many of these issues, at the very least the two that Zombo highlighted, should be addressed.


    The two issues are very difficult to solve instantly. It will a long time to do it, it starts with everybody being proactive, working hard on their spinning, and starting new projects. If everybody do this, I guarantee things will go better.

  14. iMatt
    Date: Tue, Feb 24 2009 23:51:07

    Alright, perhaps this is a WAY TOO FAR OUT CONCEPT for the moment, but hear me out for the minute.

    I love UPSB keep in mind.

    Wouldn't it just make more sense think about narrowing down to another board?

    I think USA and Canada have gotten a decent amount of spinners to branch off.

    UPSB is meant for all spinners to meet in one place which is rather convenient, but this whole idea of who is qualified or under what board would be solved.

    Yes, there are probably a boat load of problems with that, but that would eliminate who "is" a true member of UPSB or another board.

    Same goes for teams and what not, this would solve a good number of problems that Xero and we've all been discussing.

    Flame away smile.gif

  15. Awesome
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 01:12:24

    I was actually thinking the same thing as iMatt a while back...

  16. Mats
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 01:14:48

    QUOTE
    I'm looking at FPSB's tournament section: they're up to their 4th beginner's tournament (we already have that in the form of ECS), their second "team tournament" and also a "double" tournament. All those tournaments were organized by regular members. There's no reason why we can't do that here. It doesn't take the staff to organize these stuff. I want to let people be proactive and organize their own projects, not wait around the mods.


    In my experience, people do not take competition organised by non-mods very seriously, or at least, not for very long...

    @iMatt's comment:

    Did you ever see what happened with Eurapen? That was basically a branch off for Europe...

  17. Sadistic
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 01:34:18

    weow i only made it past xero's second post....so much text in this thread....

    oh, and SPSL is JEB lolz.....

  18. Awesome
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 01:39:01

    QUOTE (Mats @ Feb 24 2009, 08:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    In my experience, people do not take competition organised by non-mods very seriously, or at least, not for very long...

    @iMatt's comment:

    Did you ever see what happened with Eurapen? That was basically a branch off for Europe...


    But Europe has other issues, like non of the countries share a native tongue, and lots of spinners english skills might not be perfect, so there was probably a bit of a language barrier, as well it covered lots of cultures. Canada and USA are very similar, and boards like FPSB and GPC worked out, when it had one language, one culture etc.

    I think it could work

  19. luke
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 01:49:19

    i think someone posted up a united states pen spinning board a while ago, but everyone thought it was useless..\


    edit: http://www.upsb.info/forum/index.php?showt...amp;hl=US+board here

  20. Zombo
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 04:09:30

    QUOTE (Mats @ Feb 24 2009, 08:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    In my experience, people do not take competition organised by non-mods very seriously, or at least, not for very long...

    @iMatt's comment:

    Did you ever see what happened with Eurapen? That was basically a branch off for Europe...


    it works on FPSB, obvioously the guy running the tournament must have some reputation.

    QUOTE
    Wouldn't it just make more sense think about narrowing down to another board?

    I think USA and Canada have gotten a decent amount of spinners to branch off.


    not for now IMO,

    when only canadians and americans don't have a board, it might be worthwhile imo, otherwise you're just breaking the commnity.

    edit: sorry what I meant by "exclusively UPSB members or not" is not an issue of deciding whether a member is a true UPSb member or not; usually this is pretty obvious. It's a question of whther you want to produce the absolute best collab possible (which will probably involve not "true" UPSB members) or sacrifice skill level to make it more "authentic"

  21. Drift
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 04:28:02

    QUOTE (Xero @ Feb 24 2009, 11:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Alpha Team, Yogurt Revolution, Abyss Factor, Korean Style Revolution, Zero To Hero, Blank, antiboing.gif, Catharsis, bwahaha, and teams made by Bammer09 seem either pointless or repetative. They have either no obvious goal, or the same goal: to be better at pen spinning


    I come on the behalf of team Abyss Factor.

    Abyss Factor, similar to the WCS, ECS, Diamond Bar Spinner, and Aus Clan teams, is a team dedicated to a certain location, in this case, Arkansas, US.

    I assume you only put recently made teams on there because you feel the leaders of these teams just want to make a team for fun.
    Team Blank and Catharsis aim for the same goal as Encore, ASF, HoT (which I assume you did not include because your friends are in this team), and Genesis.

    The Kogarasumaru and Retro's Flying Circus teams are just as pointless as the teams Bammer09 created.

    Team Phantasy Star Online is almost exactly alike, if not similar, to Team Divine Fist in terms of dedication to a game.

    I can continue if you still don't understand what's wrong with your list and can understand you made it in a short amount of time without deep thought.

  22. Zombo
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 04:46:55

    ...and that's why I said it's pretentious/arrogant to judge others' teams facepalm.gif

    we already went over this in the teams topic.

  23. CaliMartinio
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 04:50:58

    I read almost every post here and I have one thing to add since this thread has become more of a "UPSB problems and solutions" thread

    People these days are making collaboration videos just because they want to edit something and post it just to grab attention for themselves rather than actually concentrating on the collab's main topic. I have a great examples of this, Outsmash's Four Team Combo Xmas Collab. This collab had absolutely nothing to do with xmas. I don't blame the spinners, I blame the editor. It is more than obvious Outsmash created this collab just to edit a penspinning video and as he said "I just wanted to use the song" (not an exact quote but similar).

    Along with this, people sign up for a collab should actually turn in a video. If you are not sure if you can make the due date, which is absolutely ridiculous for a lot of collabs, then don't sign up until you are sure. Some people even go "I probably cannot make a video in time but /in"; seriously, what is up with that? This wouldn't be a problem if only two or three out of maybe 15 spinners forgot to turn a video in. There are collabs now with almost half of the spinners not turning in a video. Ridiculous IMHO

  24. tomohiro
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 05:10:54

    QUOTE (CaliMartinio @ Feb 24 2009, 08:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    I read almost every post here and I have one thing to add since this thread has become more of a "UPSB problems and solutions" thread

    People these days are making collaboration videos just because they want to edit something and post it just to grab attention for themselves rather than actually concentrating on the collab's main topic. I have a great examples of this, Outsmash's Four Team Combo Xmas Collab. This collab had absolutely nothing to do with xmas. I don't blame the spinners, I blame the editor. It is more than obvious Outsmash created this collab just to edit a penspinning video and as he said "I just wanted to use the song" (not an exact quote but similar).

    Along with this, people sign up for a collab should actually turn in a video. If you are not sure if you can make the due date, which is absolutely ridiculous for a lot of collabs, then don't sign up until you are sure. Some people even go "I probably cannot make a video in time but /in"; seriously, what is up with that? This wouldn't be a problem if only two or three out of maybe 15 spinners forgot to turn a video in. There are collabs now with almost half of the spinners not turning in a video. Ridiculous IMHO

    they usually do that to increase post count sleep(1).gif most of the new comers on upsb just spam to get to the arcade. but i don't care since they're gonna understand the system of the board better.
    i was too lazy to read other ppl's post (really sorry bout this) but i really think this problem happens every year. even though i didn't experience the past of UCPSB or the UPSB v2 and so on, there was a situation where new ppl came in and didn't know what they were doing. Until they got used to the board they became smarter about what topic to make and what comment they want to post. I bet last year i was thought as a guy who spammed sleep(1).gif since i spammed with 2 tutorials that no one ended up making the pen mod. So seriously xero just be patient and wait for this board to grow. I mean look at last summer everyone thought UPSB was dying since no one was there. by the time school started it was back to normal. you just have to wait for the change to grow

  25. Fall
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 06:04:05

    QUOTE (CaliMartinio @ Feb 24 2009, 08:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    I read almost every post here and I have one thing to add since this thread has become more of a "UPSB problems and solutions" thread

    People these days are making collaboration videos just because they want to edit something and post it just to grab attention for themselves rather than actually concentrating on the collab's main topic. I have a great examples of this, Outsmash's Four Team Combo Xmas Collab. This collab had absolutely nothing to do with xmas. I don't blame the spinners, I blame the editor. It is more than obvious Outsmash created this collab just to edit a penspinning video and as he said "I just wanted to use the song" (not an exact quote but similar).

    Along with this, people sign up for a collab should actually turn in a video. If you are not sure if you can make the due date, which is absolutely ridiculous for a lot of collabs, then don't sign up until you are sure. Some people even go "I probably cannot make a video in time but /in"; seriously, what is up with that? This wouldn't be a problem if only two or three out of maybe 15 spinners forgot to turn a video in. There are collabs now with almost half of the spinners not turning in a video. Ridiculous IMHO

    1. It was New Years.
    2. I came up with the idea, Outsmash hopped along.
    3. It was more of a 4 team collab that happened to be around the time of New Years. I mean, ask the Frost guy or Onyx-o7. Planning for it started all the way back in late October.

  26. CaliMartinio
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 07:07:54

    QUOTE (Fall @ Feb 24 2009, 10:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    1. It was New Years.
    2. I came up with the idea, Outsmash hopped along.
    3. It was more of a 4 team collab that happened to be around the time of New Years. I mean, ask the Frost guy or Onyx-o7. Planning for it started all the way back in late October.


    1. It had nothing to do with New Years just as much as it had nothing to do with Christmas.
    2. You think he could've just added a maybe little more of a "New Years" theme?
    3. And?

    I do agree with tomohiro that all whole mess of newcomers post randomly just for their post count, as if this hasn't been obvious.

  27. Outsmash
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 07:25:35

    QUOTE (CaliMartinio @ Feb 25 2009, 10:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    People these days are making collaboration videos just because they want to edit something and post it just to grab attention for themselves rather than actually concentrating on the collab's main topic. I have a great examples of this, Outsmash's Four Team Combo Xmas Collab. This collab had absolutely nothing to do with xmas. I don't blame the spinners, I blame the editor. It is more than obvious Outsmash created this collab just to edit a penspinning video and as he said "I just wanted to use the song" (not an exact quote but similar).


    Don't fuckin talk when you dont know what happened. It was meant to be a Joint Collab between Alpha and Yogurt Revolution and as we were nearing New Years, we were 'planning' to take the theme. We invited two other teams cuz we like to stay a little 'Different' tha normal (2 teams alone).
    Yes, the collab did not have much to do with New Years but it was just an idea we were planning to take.
    What do you want us to do for New Years? The only thing that differed is the cheerful theme like mhig had already pointed out.
    It was also not my fuckin idea that it was for New Years. The leader of all the teams that participated liked it and the spinners too liked it (most).
    Did you see another New Years collab? NO. We made one, since no one else did.
    If I wanted to edit 'something', It would have turned out as a much worse collab. I spent most of my holidays working on this since it was my first time editing.

    QUOTE (CaliMartinio @ Feb 25 2009, 10:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    It is more than obvious Outsmash created this collab just to edit a penspinning video

    it is more than Obvious that you hate me, so why care?

    The Topic:
    @ The competition thing (proposed by Mats):
    This is something that can bring up the 'level' of spinners in this board as the only big competitions we have is WT, WC and Asia Cup. Each of them have their own restrictions (WT - Pros, WC - Pros, Asia Cup - Asian Pros).
    Yea, Obviously only pros can be in these but too rise the population of 'Pros', we can have 'in Board' Comeptitions.
    This would make the newcomers (who quit spinning) want to get into these tourneys since WT, WC , etc will be really far fetched achievements for them.
    This Tourneys would be closer to the UPSB population which would make them practice more to achieve it.

    Another thing in UPSB is that we always think a LOT before we do something for the board. We think much more than a LOT actually which is why things never happen here. UPSB Collab (Last time) failed due to this. This time too, by the time we decide about the transitions, editor, spinners, music, etc, for the UPSB Collab, it would be 2010.
    The UPSB Tournament which I tried to make was done because I was quite new and did not know much, We really needed tournaments for everyone to participate in.
    This can atleast be done my some Mod/Admin. It would be taken much more seriously. It does not require much planning and lets not make a "UPSB Tournament Discussion Thread". Why can't the mods just discuss this in their forum or w/e and host it. This does not have to be grand. This does not need specific spinners or only Pros. This board (v3) has been around for so long.

    @ The team thing:
    From another person's point of view, all these teams might look the same just with different descriptions but those who are complaining are actually not part of those teams. Do you guys even know what is going on in these forums? Are you even complaining about teams like HoT? No. Because you are in it and you probably know what's going on. At the first look, even Hot has the same impression: Becoming Better (Heroes of Tomorrow) but it's just that known spinners from UPSB are there that everyone's shutting up. Hot is not an open team which is why people make their own teams by which they could expand their team and make it better. Although I have to agree, there are few pointless teams. And th others are Groups (similar intrests, likings, etc). Groups differ.
    What more could you expect from a team? Most of them have one common idea: to make their team better (making their spinners better) as well as HoT. You may not actually see any difference but you never know.
    I apologize for taking HoT as an example. It's the first team that came to my head and I have nothing against it.

  28. PSArcher
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 08:49:45

    This is a very important issue. But no one can do anything about. I was here to learn PS. Most of us are here for the same.

    QUOTE
    Firstly, depending on "pros" to win tournaments

    All these WT are extensions to the world of PS and it is better left to people who are serious about winning them.

    QUOTE
    Modifying/collecting more than spinning

    All of us has different hobbies. Its upto the people whether they want to collect pens to show off or do spinning for show off (No offence - non - PSers think we are geek and its complete waste of time.)

    QUOTE
    Flaming

    The PSers who have flaming posts by their name must be banned.

    QUOTE
    Editing your names to be AnonymousメANツ - it's not cool; Genesis members don't do it, and very few spinners on other boards do it

    This better be stopped. It shows we are divided. We should be united : United Pen Spinners Board

    QUOTE
    Creating random teams just because you like a show or some other menial reason

    Teams help the spinners come up and hone their skills. It is like a line of communication between "Pros" and "Noobs".

    QUOTE
    Begging for help in the Shoutbox when many answers are just a Searchbar away

    I would prefer that. It is fast.

    As for the collabs, they should be done like every month. It is the best way to bring yourself to the notice of the members of the board. And it is not necessary to take up a theme as Outsmash did for his collabs. If you really are taking up a theme, there should be something related to that event.

    In a nutshell, if we really want to make UPSB a better place, we have to stop free registrations and select people on the basis of their skill, like defence forces would do, complete loyalty. But this method is way to much difficult. Sorry if i hurt someones felling but this is all what i have to say.


  29. Tim
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 09:58:35

    QUOTE (Mats @ Feb 25 2009, 09:14 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    In my experience, people do not take competition organised by non-mods very seriously, or at least, not for very long...


    lol, PS League.

    But yeah, the attitude and atmosphere has been around like this for a while, it's just on a much larger scale now.

    And if one more person announces the obvious by saying that the shoutbox is 'dead' by any means, I will kill them.

    It's just counter-productive bull---- by people who want to be 'in'. Don't think it really fits in with the thread, but it's annoying as hell and is obviously spam.

  30. Zombo
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 14:50:25

    You don't need mods to start project. We should encourage regular users to start tournaments and collabs. Don't rely on the mods.

    Obviously don't let people with no name start, but some people have reputation and are not mods, they can start projects. Or if you organize a good project, you can get better reputation, and then organize even bigger things.

  31. Outsmash
    Date: Wed, Feb 25 2009 15:18:35

    QUOTE (Zombo @ Feb 25 2009, 09:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    You don't need mods to start project. We should encourage regular users to start tournaments and collabs. Don't rely on the mods.

    Obviously don't let people with no name start, but some people have reputation and are not mods, they can start projects. Or if you organize a good project, you can get better reputation, and then organize even bigger things.


    I'm not a 'no-namer' (If you were indirectly directing at me). OK, I was.
    I already planned to start one a few weeks ago (Dont flame me sad.gif). But it was planned to take people from all boards (no specific skill). I have talked to one of the admins of a board already and he agreed.

  32. Mystic
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 02:36:22

    No offense, Outsmash... but you dont have enough of a reputation to really start anything big. Your name is known, yes, but you lack the respect of everyone on the board. You should continue with smaller projects and steadily start larger and larger ones rather than doing small ones then believing you can immediately start a huge project. No one would take you seriously.

    But back on topic, there are idiots and noobs on this board. They WILL do stupid stuff. You just have to ignore it and move along. If people are doing things as Xero had mentioned in the first post... so what? You dont have to follow them and do the same thing.

  33. Escorpio123
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:04:34

    I saw this video since you posted it and I think you have a point right there. I think you should say specificly what could be the options that we can change this. We can stop puttin Off-Topic but last time in the SB I saw somebody was saying "let's go .... this people only talk about penspinning", well duh this website is for this. So that might be one reason. Obviously if people with effort may stop posting stuff from other boards like JEB part u mentioned. With the time, this is gonna be a revolution with new people, but in the same time thats what we want, to have more ppl right? to learn about this, the world of PS, tell me if I am wrong in some parts please.

  34. midnight_xhris
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:05:43

    xero thank you for making this video it really suggests and urges upsb users to be more supportive of eachother. which i havent really seen during my short time her. thank you for posting this.
    i love being on upsb, and ihope things turn out for the better around here.

  35. FripメECツ
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:10:10

    Hmm...where are the usual people in these kinds of threads?

    So yeah...the whole negativity thing. Some people just try to find lacks in everything there is..(Yes I am one of them of course hahaha) but why? Not to bring it down. No, to get more attention on the specific problem! And more attention will eventually make somebody fix it.

    Yes... UPSB is a lot into Pen Modding. But that is the personal choice of people. I think a reason that other boards have better spinners is because those spinners have more free-time. For example: School in US ends at 3 PM for most of us... and then some people have sports. For me I had soccer til 6 everyday after school...and now.. in Germany school ends at 1 and there aren't school sports teams. Which gives you a LOT more free time. w/e you get the point.

    Spam/Flaming/Off-Topic Posts... obv. big issue. But just report posts. Most of the time mods will delete them.


    @Zumbi...yeah so wat?

  36. Zombo
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:15:27

    QUOTE (FripメECツ @ Feb 25 2009, 11:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    So yeah...the whole negativity thing. Some people just try to find lacks in everything there is..(Yes I am one of them of course hahaha) but why? Not to bring it down. No, to get more attention on the specific problem! And more attention will eventually make somebody fix it.


    lol that sounds a lot like "I know what's wrong, but I'm too lazy to fix it, so I'm just gonna complain until somebody fix it"

  37. FripメECツ
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:25:50

    QUOTE (Zombo @ Feb 25 2009, 09:15 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    lol that sounds a lot like "I know what's wrong, but I'm too lazy to fix it, so I'm just gonna complain until somebody fix it"


    So wat? tongue.gif jk

    But there are some problems that you can't fix on your own.


    ....I am not talking about collabs and tournaments..

  38. Zombo
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:31:45

    seriously there's a lot ppl can do on their own,

    doesnt take mods to organize tournaments and collabs

  39. Fall
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:33:58

    Okay... finally decided to make a real reply:

    1. I agree, OT is used way too much. Maybe we could limit the posts you make in OT to actual posts in pen spinning related sections.
    2. Way too much flaming/spamming/unecessary stuff... people have to realize that there is a report button. I mean, honestly, some people are stupid and post random crap tuts in the middle of nowhere, but kindly explaining to them is 10 times more useful than flaming the crap out of them.
    3. About the pen mods thing: this is a pen spinning board, pen modding is an aspect of pen spinning. You can't just walk around expecting to spin at Minwoo's level with a Dr. Grip, can you?
    4. Collabs: UPSB is Universal, not just serving the rest of the world. Anyone can come here and post their stuff. But we should start filtering collabs that come in, like only the best collabs from each community can be posted here. I really don't want to see something like a PDS Noob collab or something like that... (unless its PSH smile.gif)

    Last of all, I think we need to raise awareness to the new people about the "unwritten" rules of this board, like don't make a new tut unless requested by x amount of people etc.

  40. Zombo
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:38:28

    QUOTE (Fall @ Feb 25 2009, 11:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Okay... finally decided to make a real reply:

    1. I agree, OT is used way too much. Maybe we could limit the posts you make in OT to actual posts in pen spinning related sections.


    terrible idea, people will start spamming the main board to get more posts in the OT.

    QUOTE
    3. About the pen mods thing: this is a pen spinning board, pen modding is an aspect of pen spinning. You can't just walk around expecting to spin at Minwoo's level with a Dr. Grip, can you?


    its still not normal that ppl talk more about mods than tricks, when tricks are the core of pen spinning.

    QUOTE
    4. Collabs: UPSB is Universal, not just serving the rest of the world. Anyone can come here and post their stuff. But we should start filtering collabs that come in, like only the best collabs from each community can be posted here. I really don't want to see something like a PDS Noob collab or something like that... (unless its PSH smile.gif)


    too much maintenance

  41. FripメECツ
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:44:19

    QUOTE (Zombo @ Feb 25 2009, 09:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    terrible idea, people will start spamming the main board to get more posts in the OT.


    I think he formulated that wrong but meant something else..

    UPSB really needs more rule enforcement. Seriously...people flame the heck out of each other with 3456434 bad words and don't get banned. Also the board itself needs more moderation. So many posts go off-topic and end up having NOTHING to do with the thread itself. Delete those posts and warn/ban people if they keep on doing it might help..o_O

  42. Fall
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 04:47:34

    QUOTE (FripメECツ @ Feb 25 2009, 08:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    I think he formulated that wrong but meant something else..

    UPSB really needs more rule enforcement. Seriously...people flame the heck out of each other with 3456434 bad words and don't get banned. Also the board itself needs more moderation. So many posts go off-topic and end up having NOTHING to do with the thread itself. Delete those posts and warn/ban people if they keep on doing it might help..o_O

    It was 3456435 at last count... anyways...

    Raise awareness that a report button exists?

  43. Zombo
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 05:28:57

    QUOTE (FripメECツ @ Feb 25 2009, 11:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    I think he formulated that wrong but meant something else..

    UPSB really needs more rule enforcement. Seriously...people flame the heck out of each other with 3456434 bad words and don't get banned. Also the board itself needs more moderation. So many posts go off-topic and end up having NOTHING to do with the thread itself. Delete those posts and warn/ban people if they keep on doing it might help..o_O


    then use report.

  44. Mats
    Date: Thu, Feb 26 2009 10:48:54

    QUOTE (FripメECツ @ Feb 26 2009, 04:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Yes... UPSB is a lot into Pen Modding. But that is the personal choice of people. I think a reason that other boards have better spinners is because those spinners have more free-time. For example: School in US ends at 3 PM for most of us... and then some people have sports. For me I had soccer til 6 everyday after school...and now.. in Germany school ends at 1 and there aren't school sports teams. Which gives you a LOT more free time. w/e you get the point.


    That's an awful excuse!

    While in high school I was attending from 8:50am until 3:30pm everday and played 6 basketball training sessions a week (ranging from 1 hour to 3 hours) as well as more basketball outside of these sessions, yet I still found enough 'free time' to learn to play piano and to juggle enough to get them to the level at which I am doing both professionally. There is no way that you lack the time to be practicing pen spinning!

  45. 000zero0000
    Date: Wed, Apr 15 2009 04:23:50

    Whatever happens to inactive mods?

  46. Shadowserpant
    Date: Wed, Apr 15 2009 04:33:39

    Nothing.
    wait what're you asking?

  47. 000zero0000
    Date: Wed, Apr 15 2009 04:34:59

    lots of mods are inactive these days, whats gonna happen to them?

  48. JC
    Date: Wed, Apr 15 2009 04:37:54

    Nothing, they're just gonna keep their status and remain inactive until they come back on if they want to

  49. Shadowserpant
    Date: Wed, Apr 15 2009 04:40:15

    yeah there's no real reason to remove mod status

  50. Simplex【ヾ(^へ^)】
    Date: Wed, Apr 15 2009 06:16:26

    mods become mods because they help the board. if a mod goes away but comes back later to help that should be fine. upsb needs all the help it can get.

  51. XYZakiメAM
    Date: Wed, Apr 15 2009 20:15:13

    QUOTE (Xero @ Feb 24 2009, 07:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    These following points are of the utmost importance, and need to be stopped as ASAP:

    [*]Editing your names to be AnonymousメANツ - it's not cool; Genesis members don't do it, and very few spinners on other boards do it


    /opinion

    ...you talk about Genesis members like they're our role models or something...and why should we care what spinners on other boards do...are we supposed to copy them?

  52. shoeman6
    Date: Thu, Apr 16 2009 14:31:29

    I think that UPSB needs to "toughen" up.
    Stricter moderating, leaving the OT and Spammers bin as the ONLY place where any kind of lee way is acceptable.
    Aka
    One line posts which do not add to a thread should be deleted ( I've seen this happening already and it's improved many threads like SOYP)
    And Threads being DELETED rather than just closed and locked.

  53. SJ
    Date: Fri, Apr 17 2009 03:35:35

    QUOTE (shoeman6 @ Apr 16 2009, 07:31 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    And Threads being DELETED rather than just closed and locked.

    while it does take up space
    i think it should be left for reference later on
    people might search stuff and it could help them if they see the thread
    so they dont ask the same questions or what not
    although people still should use the search feature a bit more often....

  54. 000zero0000
    Date: Fri, Apr 17 2009 04:03:58

    do what teamliquid does, they have a seperate section for all closed topics

  55. shoeman6
    Date: Sat, Apr 18 2009 14:46:36

    I think the search feature could use some work as well,
    I know many times when I search for a specific thread or pen mod in the search bar
    (finding the Taiwan Pen Spinning Board's link for instance)
    It's almost impossible or hard to find what you're looking for.

  56. Zombo
    Date: Sat, Apr 18 2009 14:52:49

    ???

    I typed Taiwan and the Pen Spinning Website thread got listed...

    search can't make all the work for you, there's actually a way of searching. learning how to search is actually something you need to learn to do well in school.

    need to learn how to use modifiers like - + * "" if you do a plain search, then be prepared to take some time to go through at least the first two pages to find something. also use sort by post sometimes its better, if you give up after 1 try its your problem, not the search engine.

  57. G.lanz
    Date: Thu, Apr 23 2009 00:31:36

    I didn't know modifiers worked in the UPSB search! That's pretty useful. Could we have a post/sticky/wiki-article about how to use search modifiers, which ones work etc.?

  58. Zombo
    Date: Thu, Apr 23 2009 12:59:55

    http://www.upsb.info/forum/index.php?showtopic=19811

  59. G.lanz
    Date: Thu, Apr 23 2009 20:00:59

    Thanks! That's a big help smile.gif

  60. Metalm3
    Date: Sun, May 17 2009 05:57:44

    QUOTE (shoeman6 @ Apr 16 2009, 10:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    I think that UPSB needs to "toughen" up.
    Stricter moderating, leaving the OT and Spammers bin as the ONLY place where any kind of lee way is acceptable.
    Aka
    One line posts which do not add to a thread should be deleted ( I've seen this happening already and it's improved many threads like SOYP)
    And Threads being DELETED rather than just closed and locked.


    (on 2nd point)It's also possible to put a requirement for the number of words you need to make a post(maybe 20?). It'll greatly reduce spam posts imho. But there's a chance that it may not work as well.

    (on 3rd point)Yea, there're lots of locked/closed topics in some sections on the first page. I'd prefer them to be deleted...