Clean Slate Request - Page 2

To quote the film my Wife is currently watching,   "We bad boys for life."

 

And seriously my man you don't need a second chance cos you aint used the first one up.

I didn't even know that Devin had such bad feelings about CHUD nowadays.  From what I remember reading in his last "Advocate,", it seemed like there were no problems.  Apparently, I've been living under a rock.

 

As far as the clean slate thing goes, there's no reason for one.  I love the site and visit daily.

 

The main page is still as packed with opinionated folks (more than 2 or 3) sharing their views on film, as well as the funny and informative stuff that's always been a part of what makes this site great. It's a transitional period and I get that some people are still in rose-tinted specs mode, but I don't think nearly as many people would be crying about what's past if they actually read everything that's on the site right now instead of just going "I miss x or y" and throwing their toys out of the pram.

 

How? I don't see the problem with the much better looking, better laid-out, and content-packed main page at all.

 

By the way, regarding the earlier notion about "losing the best members"... I fail to see what's so great about someone who stops reading a suped-up site and boards because it's different. That's not a loss to me. That's the opposite of a loss. I'd rather not wade through page after page of comments from fickle, disloyal types who'll only up and leave for, as I can see it, no good reason anyway.

I'm judging this thread as I type, to be honest.

 

I think the forums will pick up as we get closer to the summer film season, and that's when we need to rope them in Nick. Bribe them. Show them a good time ...

No clean slate required here... This site has always entertained me and, now that I actually have a chance to contribute, I'm going to be sticking around for a while.

 

You need to stop paying attention to the badmouthing from Devin & his crew. Look at it this way: If I have a falling out with a friend of mine, chances are he's going to get together with his people and talk shit about me. It's natural. It's what we do. But I have no reason to stick my head in the room to hear what they're saying.

 

You finally redesigned the site and eventually all the problems will be ironed out. The video podcast is great and you still have great writers on the site and in the blogs.

 

I really hope you're smiling more than frowning, Nick.

 

And the main page is not confusing, but you should move the grill back to the top. It brought immediate attention to the main articles. The thumbnails at the top are too vague.

 

I say this as a long time lurker who's rarely made a meaningful contribution. 

 

I don't think a twitter screen grab or a vyou link is a fair summation of the Devin and CHUD relationship and seems kind of antithetical to the idea of moving on with a clean slate. 

 

Nick, if you want a community that's about film discussion, and not about wacky personalities and web drama, then an example really has to be set and it's something that has to start with you. A lot of people probably didn't know (or more likely: didn't care) of your ire over the Sam Strange thing or whatever the situation is between you and Slater until you underlined it and made it a part of the CHUD narrative. Devin said some rough shit about you on the web and it stings. That's rough. We all get that. But you also called him a virus and seem quite partial to the concept of rewriting history to the point where Devin's net contribution to CHUD over the many years was nothing but entirely poisonous, and that's simply not true. 

 

I rarely post here because I instead enjoyed the reading of the discussions and the views of intelligent people on subjects of media, film and literature.

 

I believe that's what any person (be it a new reader or a long time board member) wants from the website; an interesting discourse. Blogs and threads (and posts upon posts) about people who don't even work or post here anymore only confuses a potentially new audience and/or agitates people who don't already care for it. 

 

If you need to vent or say something off the cuff or whatever, take it off site. Put it on Guy.com or your twitter or setup a private message board somehwere. Separate it from content. 

 

And while on the seemingly controversial subject of the site's content:

 

In my opinion; the recent focus on video blogs, podcasts, stupid shit of the week, wackly lists, calls of attention to upcoming or incomplete projects or whatever isn't the best way to grow an audience. It's reliant on personalities and gags and long term knowledge of such that's buffered by cursory discussions of entertainment, when I think a lot of people would agree it should be the other way around. 

 

Articles and content shouldn't be void of personality (I love Houx's stuff, for example) but too much leads to blank noise with no clear focus like the failed Skeleton IV experiment. 

 

Simplify. 

 

What's the best way CHUD can continue along side this nonsense drama? The answer is easy. It doesn't need to. Man up and operate outside of it. 

 

The new site design is vexing people and didn't go over as well as intended, how does one fix it? Be accepting of people's problems and flush the site with interesting, insightful content that has a clear editorial focus. Your audience will suffer tech/design problems if there's a solid reason too.

 

Everything else is just stupid web drama bullshit that you and your audience don't need. 

He may have a point, Nick. Just try to keep things simple.

 

Clear intelligent editorials and analysis on various aspects of filmmaking is all you need to attract serious film fans (The people we look for in CHUD).

 

Agreed, the front page still needs some tweaking. 

Others above say "Simplify." I'll add "Prioritize."

• Too much repetition of the same information (I don't need three different links on one page to an article I have no intention of clicking to).

• The "Latest" Feed ought to be twice as long as the others. It's annoying to have to hunt for articles like Damon's box office recaps a day after they were posted.

• An entire quadrant I never click on (Video Games) that is updated far less often than the others, yet still commands the same amount of screen space. 

• The Grill: well, it does look better up top but I still don't think I should have to scroll down the page to see any proper headlines. Again, it's redundant information, especially so near the square pics. I'd get rid of those first, maybe distribute them throughout the page so it's not just a wall of text down below.

• Regarding former writers, maybe you could monetize the site's archives so only paid subscribers could access their past contributions to CHUD.

As I suspected when I changed careers a few years back, I'm now too busy to be an active member of the boards.

 

Nevertheless, as long as there's a CHUD, I'll be around.

You're missed terribly for what it's worth sir.

Quote:

 

That hit the nail on the head.
 

 

Christ, this back-and-forth sniping is depressing.

 
Calling for a clean slate is fine Nick, but then you go off and post that tweet.  I don’t want to hear about your latest spat with whomever.  If you’ve been disappointed/angry with someone keep it to yourself, otherwise you’re just feeding the worst members of the community.  The poisonous, sycophantic, cheer leading element that fall under the banner of “cult of Nick”; who do you absolutely no favours in terms of honest opinion.
 
The front page has been improved, but it’s nowhere near as good as it should be.
Both ZaneParry and Finnias make excellent points here, although I do feel that the humour is part and parcel of the appeal and I can see where too much could be off putting to new readers.  
 
Chud is by far and away my favourite movie website, with analysis and discussion that dwarf any other.  These little niggles are so frustrating in that it seems to be holding Chud back from crossing over into the much larger audience it deserves.

CHUD is still my home on the interwebs.  I've been busy as of late, but I still come to the site daily to catch stuff. 

I haven't posted in almost two years after not doing a chewer review I said I would. I wasn't a great poster so I doubt anyone noticed but the embarrassment that I thought would occur if the folks on this board read what I wrote made me feel like an idiot and I stopped posting. Since Devin left I've been wanting to start again. The new site, the new writers, and more Nick have sort of revamped this place for me. Inexperience, or dumb, isn't the destroyer of conversation some made it out to be. Now, I realize it isn't anyone's duty to take me or some other new person by the hand, but, aside from general grumpiness, what reason was there to get upset over people that weren't as smart as you? I feel like a lot of that is gone and it makes me want to take part again.

 

Much of my time is spent on this site that Nick provides us and I still feel bad that I wasn't able to bring myself to contribute to it.* All the crap recently about the previous attendees and them not being here is sad and weird and, sometimes, awful funny, but it takes away from the people that are here, contributing every day. It's crazy to me that Nick catches so much crap for what he does considering how much entertainment he brings.

 

Everything needs a clean slate once in a while and this redesign should be it for Chud. Hopefully everyone can capitalize on it, I know I certainly want to.

 

 

*Yeah, I'm really not a great writer so I think I did you all a favor.

Just another voice saying "No clean slate needed." I'm still adjusting to the new site design, but it's still my favorite place on the Web. I ain't going anywhere - here's to Nick & Co. sticking around for a long, long time.

 

(And without meaning to detract from any regular CHUD writers, let me just add that Renn's kicking ass and taking names. His writing keeps getting better and better.)

 

(And I love the List of Dumb!)

I'd like to write a longer response to this and will at some point, but for now:

 

-As always, focus on the positive and just making the site better and better. I agree in a way with some of the sentiment about focusing more (if you're going to focus on one area), I don't know, "smart" film discussion content (I did cringe as I typed that, btw, just pressed for a good adjective). Stuff like Damon's writing is what always brought me here.

-Having said the above, I also love the List of Dumb and some of the other humor around here. Just don't let the balance tip too far.

-The redesign was probably always going to flummox some people and the simple fact that most people "hate change" and are uncomfortable having to learn new navigation is mostly, I'd guess, to blame for any dwindling attendance. It'll come around though. It surely didn't help that the whole Devin fiasco also happened roughly in the same time-frame. Had that consistent and familiar voice stayed on the site through this transition it wouldn't have been as "rough" on the readers and it would've made the transition to the new site smoother. But... you play the hand you're dealt and all that.

-I'm sure it's difficult but try to develop a thicker skin and brush off the things that bother you. Most of the time that's impossible, I'm sure. But most of us flock to these kind of sites to read about film and to read film criticism that's more in tune that the (mostly) fucking garbage that gets published in print or at the bigger outlets. Most of us, however, don't get off on reading about inside baseball in the world of online film criticism. Not saying that you're guilty of talking about that too much, mind. Just saying: don't let the gossipy twats who are into that shit get your goat. Because their interest is in something else entirely, and personally speaking, it's a pretty fucking twatty pursuit driven by a lot of people with overinflated egos.

 

Not naming names (and I'm talking in general beyond the former writer here, not singling him out), but a lot of the online voices I got into initially have slowly taken that sad left turn up their own assholes and are gradually more and more interested in their ego and position in the online criticism world as opposed to the witty and insightful writing that got them where they are in the first place.

I'm not very active on the boards, but I've been reading CHUD a long time.  It's the only website on film I visit every day.  I enjoy the redesign.  However, in the interests of making this place as awesome as possible, I suggest the team look at this:

 

http://gawker.com/#!5753733/welcome-to-the-new-gawker

 

It's a great way to display information.  I know we're wedded here to the green and black color scheme, but I think that the presentation of posts and news on the new Gawker layout is great.

My eye isn't drawn to anything - nothing that screams "this is the latest news!" ... There's just lines and lines of similarly-sized links (a few of which are repeated) that people have to read to figure out what's going on. I never even go to the front page - I usually get to the site through the forum - but if I were a reader I'd be confused.

 

I see. Maybe it's just my personal taste then, 'cos I dig the magazine style layout, the uniformity in some respects.

 

And my axe!

 

Nick, CHUD is original, authentic, unpretentious and great, filled with interesting, funny, knowledgeable and wildly divergent personalities, and you are the world's best at what you do.   

Nick, you really have done some great things with Chud. It's still one of the best places for film news and discussion. I've been reading the site for close to ten years now. While humor is great it is often very subjective and can be far more hit or miss depending on who reads it. As for the stuff with Devin, I'm with the others ins saying it's time to move on. He was a very good writer but a major asshole otherwise. One of the reasons it took me so long to finally join the boards was his trollish attitude to anyone who disagreed with him. The site seems to be in a transition phase but it's best days are still ahead.

 

Thank you for doing all of this Nick.

I've been a long-time lurker and only recently created a profile and made a feeble attempt at adding my two-cents every now and then. 

 

I don't really have much to say about the ongoing feud and such, except to say that it was a little shocking to watch it all play out on the forums as quickly and harshly as it did.  I'm sure there were interchanges that we weren't privy to, but I will say that my respect for both Devin and Nick were damaged on the short term.  I'm a bit old-school and southern, so I like my drama to be hidden behind closed doors.  Haha

 

That said, CHUD is a great movie site.  I typically visit throughout the day to keep up with all the goings-on.  I was already forgetting all the drama that had happened.  A fresh start sounds like a great idea.  It kinda sucks that asking for one seems to have resurrected the debate, though.  : /

 

And while we're talking about the home page, I don't find it completely unnavigable.  But I typically skim the page for a second and then click on the LATEST heading to catch up with everything that's been posted since my last visit (since I pretty much read everything that's posted.)

No!

Nick and Chud's slate have always been spic and span way back since I started visiting here in the early 2000's. With the changes to the staff and the site, nothing has changed as far as I'm concerned.

 

Renn, Elizabeth Rappe, Alex R., J. Miller, always bring the goods. Damon was always great from his box office columns but now with "From Damon's Desk" and interviews like that awsome Deakins piece featured this week, the content from all is better and better. Not to mention great pieces from Iain S. and the rock that is the supersmart gentelman (TM Steve Murphy) that is Nick N. Great Blogs from many people, especially the outstanding Andrea Roth. The boards and it's many great contributors (Tati, Stelios, Nooj, Diva, Justin Clark, just to name a few) are always filled with great discussion.

 

Chud is tops of all sites and drinks all their milshakes.

 

CHUD is my favorite film site, and internet bickering is the lamest shit ever. Live and be well, everybody.

Double post! Disregard