Welcome!

[rischka]

welcome!! xD

[wba]

Welcome!

[Lencho of the Apes]

Howdy, BN. (Alban only if you orefer it...) Nice to see you.

[flip]

welcome to scfz!

[rischka]

hello i banned some more inactive accounts. if you're new here, make a post!!

i wasn't going to delete you alban

[rischka]

i deleted 27 inactive accounts yesterday and there are already several more. i wonder if this is related to the ips that curtis banned

[cinesmith]

What sort of controls/rules are there to purging dormant accounts? Are there many that never made a single post?
It seems odd to make the effort to make an account but never use it. Then again, I wonder how many dead accounts there are on LBX let alone FB and in those cases I suspect they never take anything down as they market their vast number of members versus any actual regular contributors.

[rischka]

yes there are many i think of them as sleeping trolls

edit: 22 more since yesterday

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Can we set up an 'I am not a robot' thing for the signup? Might help.

[therouxxx]

My understanding is the Inactive accounts are users who did not activate their account (there's an activation link in the Welcome email). So there shouldn't be spam risk from them since they can't login until they click that. Maybe let them accumulate and see if anything bad happens.

[rischka]

ok i'll do that. it just seems weird

[rischka]

no new ones today!!

[rischka]

deleted a LOT of russian spam and a bunch more new inactive users

if you want to be a member here please activate your account

[rischka]

removed russian bot

[cooljpeg]

Howdy!

I'm cooljpeg, or jpeg, OR Jake, whichever y'all like most -- I've lurked for a while here and there based on some folks' LBs and decided to go ahead and hop on and join some discussions!

I've never been able to pin down any particular interests of mine, but I swoon over anything... uh, unclassifiable? I love feeling lost and bewildered, with enough reality to anchor my eyes & brain & soul into some kind of mystery alchemical confection. I'm a film projectionist and theater worker by trade and am currently away from home studying film preservation, so "I brake for celluloid!" but I'm indebted to digitalia all the same -- it's all kino to me! My LB is here: https://letterboxd.com/cooljpeg/

Happy to be here with y'all, and Happy New Year! :+}

p.s. What's this I hear about a Discord? The links I've found are expired -- I'd love to join if that's still a thing!

[rischka]

hi cooljpg - thx for making a post! there is still a discord but i'm no longer involved so i can't invite you

happy new year

[Lencho of the Apes]

Him CJP!

[RogerTheMovieManiac]

Hi Jake! I followed your LB.

[flip]

welcome jpeg! interesting to hear about your background, and also followed your lb

[pabs]

Hi Jake, welcome. I just saw your front page on letterboxd and I laughed when I saw Boom in your faves. Not because it's not a good film, but coz it's a crazy film and I liked it too. I'd fallen into a rabbithole one day and when i was in it i came upon a john waters youtube clip of his favourite films, and he highly recommended Boom because it was totally nuts. You're the first person I've come across who has Boom as a favourite.

Have a good time here.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

Hey Jake,
I think we know each other irl! Via the Little Theatre. Welcome.

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Your point that " i've felt that star ratings often muddle fruitful, personal engagement with art, turning capsules/reviews/write-ups into expository defenses for the rating rather than personal, subjective, constructive expressions that exist alongside the work" resonates with me and why I avoid star ratings, even if it means I have to find my own system for remembering where I'd rank a movie.

I feel like this happens even if it doesn't impact the review's content. As a reader, you go looking for an explanation of the rating rather than reading the review on its own terms. Without the rating, by contrast, you have an added motivation to keep reading—to find out what the person thought of it.

[cooljpeg]

Shucks! Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! :+}

pabs, I never knew that! Makes total sense why that'd be a fav of his, genuinely one of the most intoxicating flicks out there. I really need to watch some more Losey! Any recs?

Monsieur Arkadin, holy smokes!! Small world! I'm sure we have met then! Although I can't say I remember exactly who you are based on this lol. Looks like we've brushed shoulders at the Dryden as well, would love to catch ya at another movie soon and put a face to the name!

Evelyn Library P.I., I'm so glad you feel the same way! I keep making exasperated attempts at using star ratings, but I'm gradually realizing I am not cut out for it, at least unless it utterly strikes me out of the blue. During those attempts, I find myself watching movies with stars in my eyes (not the kind you want), and not only that, but the stars of other movies by comparison... and it seriously freaks me out and hurls me straight out of the theater. That being said, I highly respect those who developed a meaningful rubric and have the discipline and wherewithal for using ratings that don't distract from the overall expression at the wheel, but I just don't have it in me. We are few but mighty!

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Evelyn Library P.I., I'm so glad you feel the same way! I keep making exasperated attempts at using star ratings, but I'm gradually realizing I am not cut out for it, at least unless it utterly strikes me out of the blue. During those attempts, I find myself watching movies with stars in my eyes (not the kind you want), and not only that, but the stars of other movies by comparison... and it seriously freaks me out and hurls me straight out of the theater. That being said, I highly respect those who developed a meaningful rubric and have the discipline and wherewithal for using ratings that don't distract from the overall expression at the wheel, but I just don't have it in me. We are few but mighty!

I recently got a digital copy of Dennis Peary's Guide for the Film Fanatic, which I love and highly recommend to folks! There's a very very interesting discussion at the start about why he doesn't do star ratings, which offered a rationale I hadn't considered before but which, I think, I basically agree with. He writes:

"I worry that rating systems have the adverse effect of discouraging people from seeing certain movies that should be equally recognized. It's only natural to choose a movie that has a three-star rating over one that has just two stars, but in many cases the two-star movie is more interesting—indeed it may have a cult made up of devoted fans who appreciate things that a particular reviewer overlooked. I may attack a film, but that doesn't mean I don't want you to see it. This book is meant to encourage readers to see movies, not discourage them."

That's borne out in the reviews. He'll pan a movie in a review and call it terrible, but it's still listed under the heading 'Must See Films', as are all the movies in the book. There's something so invigorating about that!!!! I love it, and agree. I encourage everyone to see movies that are interesting—and sometimes a movie is interesting for being awful (not in a so-bad-it's good way but in a so-bad-it's-bad, yet informatively bad, way)

[rischka]

i banned someone that looked like AI posting bizarre topics