R.CAllen

Anyone interested in this?

Sure!

Has it been tried before?

I think we did this as a Movie of the Month thing a while back, some kind of Nightly.net Movie Club. I don't remember when that was or how long it lasted, though.

These are real neat!

I'm going to post something I didn't bother to post one of the umpteenth other times this has come up for discussion. I think it's relevant to what you're saying, Spider-Man!

---

I feel like I may (no, definitely, do) have more than most to be embarrassed^[1] about in terms of Old Stuff On Nightly Dot Net but I never and nonetheless feel that the Archives shouldn't be deleted.

Interrogating this feeling, on my own behalf, doesn't result in reasoned argument in my head why you're wrong and I'm right.

I just get a bone-deep sensation arising from within the innermost depths of my being of something or other to the extent that archives, of any sort, shouldn't be destroyed.

I can't really defend this feeling w/o grabbing for a dictionary, and I know from decades of online experience (and the occasional sitcom episode) that anyone who tries to start an argument or speech with 'Webster's Dictionary defines' has already lost.

I feel like we're all ghosts, this is our graveyard, we've all chosen to haunt this place, and now some of us want to disinter our own corpses and cremate 'em because they're afraid SPOOKY OTHER PEOPLE are going to come along and, I don't know, stage a disrespectful marionette show w/our corpses. Leave our bodies in the ground! Just put up a nice li'l gate or something! We don't have to be afraid of the SPOOKY OTHER PEOPLE (or each other) so much so that we commit sacrilege, that we deny ourselves, that we pretend we can unhappen the things which have happened!

[1] Although, certainly, less to lose if any of that stuff should come to light.

So, what do you think we'll all be doing come November or so?

• Scrimshaw! Everyone's gonna be scrimshawing all over the place all the time!

• Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas combined into one single two week long bacchanal.

• Cowering in ramshackle homemade shelters from nuclear fallout as our skin sloughs off!

You know, I thought about writing a Yoda origins fanfic set 900 years in the past, where we meet a young Yoda before he joins the Jedi Order and he's an eccentric little ruffian who pickpockets. I envisioned including a line where he's telling a story about a log to distract some people, ending with, "Had a child, that log did," inspired by the video above.

 

EDIT: Oh wait, I thought this was the parody of Empire with the seagulls.

We are getting a younger suspiciously smooth looking Yoda in some upcoming spin-off stuff, apparently.

Yoda is overrated.

Nope! I love a good Yoda in a Star Wars! Love the little orange Yoda in the new ones, love the bébé Yoda in THE MΛNDΛLORIΛN, love the one or two little Yoda(s) in R1 shooting their guns off all over the place. Gotta have my Yodes!

This seems like kind of a good suggestion! And it may be a better way of assuaging my feeeeeeelings on the matter than just posting the same thing over and over. I'll give it, or something like it, a try!

I still haven't seen Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) or Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (1991). I think I may have read some of the Evan Dorkin comic once upon a time, tho.

There's no Yoda in it, neither. Why'd they make a Star Wars and not bother to put Yoda in it? Seems like an oversight!

Hi! I know what the Archives are! I know they're stupid! I assume pretty much everyone else here @ Nightly.net understands those two salient facts as well! I still don't want the Archives to be deleted. Thank you!

I tried to do the time capsule this past year but nobody bit. And this is the year that would have been the best to see where people were in January versus December.

V. optimistic to assume even one person among all of us will still be alive come December!

I don't think and have never thought that everything that has ever been posted to Nightly was saved in the archives. I do think that everything that was saved has been saved in the Archives ... (???) ... I feel like I kind of understand how and what the Archives are.

I don't think deleting everything but a dozen threads and ones people here actively would want to continue posting in is a great solution!

I think that one of the times I spoke up about this in the past I mentioned password protecting them or hiding them or making them inaccessible to all but administrators. I understand that by talking about this again and again the best possible outcome I'm likely to receive is something like : "The Archives have been sent away to live on a farm upstate. There's lots of room for them to run around, plenty of fresh air, they're happy, they're not in pain anymore. No, you can't go and visit." I get it! Oh well!

Sorry! This question was already resolved to my satisfaction over a 2½ year period roughly ~1850 years ago. It would have been better for man to have never been created! Hope this helps!

What would you ask the universe?

I have no questions for the universe in and of itself. It's too big to offer any kind of answer in its totality. I mostly address my questions to just the little bits & pieces of it that are embodied as 'Google' or 'books' or 'people' or 'that doggie in the window'. How much is that doggie in the window? I do hope that doggie is for sale!

GONNA DO IT AGAIN!

I disagree! Not a single topic worth saving? And yet they have all been saved!

I feel like once we start deliberating over what has 'worth' or 'value' on our dumb two decades old message board the ultimate conclusion is obvious.

Thanks! 'Disturbing and sad at the same time' and 'Oops, double posted' would both make good epitaphs for me on my headstone.

So many thousands of posts have already been lost, whats the deal with a few thousand more? Maybe the on topic stuff is okay to keep, but the community posts can get gone.

 

One functionality Id love is to be able to post a picture difrectly from my phone.

I feel like there's a difference between stuff that just gets deleted because it remained unsaved and deleting stuff that was saved already. I don't think there being a lot of the former means the latter declines in value. I kind of even don't really see what one has to do with the other --- it's like you're telling me it's okay to get rid of the Archives because after all any time anyone edits one of their posts the original is also disposed of, gone forever, poof, so what's the problem?

I had a very vivid and detailed dream a few weeks back. It's rare for me to remember my dreams, what happened in them, what people said, but this is one of those exceptions. I haven't been able to get it out of my head since the morning I woke up from it.

Here's what happened :

I am in a large university auditorium. A benefit gig for the end of the world is being held. Chris Gethard is MCing. He says, "Please welcome to the stage one of the funniest people ever. Melanie <phfffmmmll>." He obscured her last name by rubbing the back of his hand against his lips when he said it.

As she comes to the stage the crowd starts chanting, "Folderol! Folderol! Folderol!". An extremely beautiful woman takes the mike. She is redheaded, freckled, and wearing an elaborate purple gown. Her shoulders are bare and the front of the dress (forgive me - I know nothing of fashion) is sort of tapered forward like ... the nib of a fountain pen? She is holding a purple office folder in her other hand.

I look down at my desk. I have a folder just like hers in front of me. I look around at everyone else and they all have folders in front of them too. I realize that to the left of me is a sort of inset space within the auditorium, like where the accompanying orchestra would be during a play, an orchestra pit. There's a choir standing there in orange robes and they are all holding their folders open. Like hymnals.

I open the folder on my desk too. It contains several sheets of old computer paper, yellowed and stained and crumpled. They're at least a decade and a half old. Written on it are what I assume to be Melanie <phfffmmmll>'s jokes. I skim read through the first page and it's the funniest material I've ever seen. I look through the other pages, quickly, and realize that not only is this woman incredibly funny but since this stuff is so old she's probably gotten even funnier in the interim. I can't wait to hear this stuff aloud and I'm excited at the possibility she might even try out some new bits tonight.

She starts to speak. She says, "Yes, I'm Melanie. Yes, I'm over thirty. Yes, I still plan on getting married. In fact, by the way you swallowed it all down, it's going to happen at the blast site." It's hilarious but I feel sad because the world is ending, we're all going to die at the blast site (???), and I get the sense that no future with this beautiful funny woman is even possible for me. I wake up.

I obviously have no control over the outcome one way or another but I gotta say what I gotta say each and every time this comes up : please don't delete the Archives.

2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968) - if an ominous obsidian rectangle appeared before ME to uplift my entire species and teach us all to make war, one upon another, I would simply refuse. I would not even touch the antelope bone at all! I would just leave the bone alone, would not use it for violence, would not throw the bone up in the air!

The Wizard of Oz (1939) - technically the movie could've been over before it ever even begun if once upon a time Queen Lurline hadn't flown across the breadth of Oz and enchanted the entire country with her faerie magic. No magic Oz, no magic tornado. BUT SHE WAS TOO DUMB. Dorothy Gale could've spent the rest of her life in Kansas but Queen Lurline wasn't smart enough to make the right decision!

Titicut Follies (1967), High School (1968), Law and Order (1969), Hospital (1970), Basic Training (1971), Juvenile Court (1973), Welfare (1975), The Store (1983), Racetrack (1985), Multi-Handicapped (1986), Deaf (1986), Adjustment and Work (1986), Blind (1987), Central Park (1989), Aspen (1991), Zoo (1993), High School II (1994), Public Housing (1997), Belfast, Maine (1999), Domestic Violence (2001), The Garden (2005), State Legislature (2007), La Danse (2009), Boxing Gym (2010), Crazy Horse (2011), At Berkeley (2013), National Gallery (2014), In Jackson Heights (2015), Ex Libris – The New York Public Library (2017), Monrovia, Indiana (2018), City Hall (2020) --- IF THEY JUST DON'T LET FREDERICK WISEMAN THROUGH THE DOOR THEY CAN ALL GO HOME EARLY

Oh! No! A memory comes to mind! I do have a favourite music video! I think it may be the only one among the few I actually own that I can remember and thus it wins that title by default! I bought it as a single on CD from Plan 9 Music in Richmond, VA for five American dollars!

Music videos definitely primarily came from a time and place, there's no doubt about it. Roughly the period between the creation of MTV and the creation of YouTube. However, there have been plenty of popular videos since then, if that's the criteria. And it's a better criteria, IMO. Just like in cinema, there are few movies "that had a seismic and long-lasting cultural impact."

Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Beastie Boys, Kanye, Drake, Eminem, Gangnam Style (I know, not the artist), Nicki Minaj, and, of course, "This is America" by Childish Gambino, one of the biggest music videos of all-time.

Streaming music and video has changed the discussion, and true huge videos are rare because huge artists are rare, but there are still plenty of insanely popular videos being made today.

I guess I'm not getting across what I mean. Torch's daughter loving Kpop is kind of what I'm going for here, that's the phenomenon I'm describing.

Also, I think you're thinking of this video, which isn't a parody either of the two aforementioned songs:

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of!

Matt Reeves has me on board because of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). Robert Pattinson has me on board because he already was an eerily good Bruce Wayne in Cosmopolis (2012) --- although there's a trend in place for that character where the actors play the role way better in a different film; Christian Bale layering on the manufactured authenticity in American Psycho (2000), Ben Affleck as the awkward supergenius loner in The Accountant (2016).

Haven't seen the trailer, tho. I try not to watch trailers for films I want to see!

I think Beyoncé's definitely counts as a music video made for and released to the American marketplace in this century that had a seismic and long-lasting cultural impact! I think this mostly because it was parodied on a sitcom long after it came out and I got the reference despite never having seen the original video. [Edit : Whoops! I thought the Beyoncé music video was the Lemonade one! It's not? Or is 'Flawless' part of Lemonade? Forgive me, Beyhive!] I think the 'Hot Girl Summer' maybe also counts because, again, I know what that is without even ever having heard the song (or if I've heard it I've completely lost the memory of how the song goes). But I have no way of knowing if the Lizzo counts or not (I fully admit that a lot of this stuff flies over my head! This is yet another one of those many areas where I'm probably in the wrong!) and I think it may be too early to tell re: the Cardi B one!

While Icy posted a lot of very popular videos, I would argue that there have been maybe a dozen videos since the 80s that meet that criteria, most of them by Michael Jackson or Beastie Boys.

You may be right! But I think that maybe growing up in a time when those dozen videos came out and were on MTV in constant rotation while you were an adolescent and a teenager and a young adult is what led you and others of your generations to approach this subject matter in a way where you have definitive preferences. I think for nearly anyone who wasn't an adolescent kid during the eighties/nineties having favourite music videos would kinda be like having favourite subway advertisements. (Maybe a better analogy would be ... having favourite liner notes on CD albums?)

I understand music videos were a big deal once upon a time. But I am struggling to think of a music video made for and released to the American marketplace in this century that had a seismic and long-lasting cultural impact. Maybe Eminem's Stan (feat. Dido) which appears to have altered the language of young people so now they stan this, they stan that, they have NO choice BUT to stan, etcetera etcetera? Was there anything that's had an equivalent or greater role?

I don't know. Maybe? I'll definitely check in on Wednesday. If only to get a glimpse of future President For Life Madison Cawthorn (regnāre 2033-2115) and but a brief foretaste of his political platform : 'EXTERMINATE ALL ÜNTERMENSCHEN!!!'.

I've been to New York, New Jersey, Florida, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. I'm almost certainly forgetting a few. I don't have an answer on favourite or least favourite state --- <wolverine-voice> you're on your own there, bub </wolverine-voice>.

A memory of the best gag on this subject I'd ever heard floated to my mind, unbidden, and presumably from just four or five years ago :

Almost eleven years ago!

Every time I see one of the above kind of advertisements for an algorithmically generated item where they pair information about the assumed subject together it reminds me of the line from The Princess Bride (1987), the one in the scene where Wallace Shawn and Cary Elwes are trying to figure out where the poison is in the cup, where he screams 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!' Someone should mock-up a t-shirt with that phrase in that particular style, it'd make ... well, I wouldn't buy one. But I imagine other people might?