What was SFN like before...

I joined a year ago and have listened to the HSS since around 96. I know there are tons of topics some might consider negative i.e. anti-Beth, Robin, Hampton Howie, listen, yeah no, hypocrisy, Artie silence and the list goes on. All these things are true and the show really does suck now. My question is, was SFN flooded with this many negative threads years ago or was it more about how great the show was? What was it like at the end of krock/early sirius years? It really is sad how bad the show is now. And for those of you who say don't listen if it sucks, I guess I still listen because I hope someday it will be like old.

I lurked for a year before i signed up. So, for the 4 years I have been here it has been the same.

I forgot what your question was.

Negativity has always been the norm on any Stern forum I've been a part of.

Truth?

It's better here now than it was four or five years ago. The mods seem more tolerant of people poking fun at Stern Show personalities.

It is a plus that Joey Boots is no longer here as well. As a mod, he had a highly itchy trigger finger, and either TO'd or deaded a lot of good people

That's crazy...in my eyes, the show started to lack around the middle of 2008.....I guess asshat Chriza has somewhat of a valid point when he says people here find anything to bitch about...and man does it suck to give him ANY credit!

Same shit, different forums.

Stop bitching about Chriza, hater!

I joined SFN soon before Artie joined the cast, and there were a lot of threads bitching about Artie taking over for Jackie and some people would rally for him. There was a significant number of threads that would ask for certain clips or full shows back then, too... I miss that the most, because it made people remember some great things from the show or things they haven't heard before.

I'm busy pickling it.

SFN used to be more tightly moderated in regards to fan-ness, and frankly i miss that. there's a lot of "good people" that wouldn't last here bcuz they hated the Show, and frankly i miss that enforcement. if ur not or "no longer" a fan, u don't belong here. Mutt sez this to this day (he always has).

IMO, people were mad at Artie back in the day, but I think that the majority of the people thought the show was entertaining. They were always posts about how it was better in the 90's, but the fans weren't indifferent yet

File Sharing Forum..........enough said.

sfn would have at least twice the traffic if the file sharing forum was still around.

Actually, SFN is probably (I say probably as a way to protect my mult) indicative of the internet in genera.l It probably was a place where people with common interests (i.e. The Howard Stern Show) posted and shared their thoughts. I'm sure there were the occasional douche-bags (because they've existed throughout history), but for the most part the positive probably outweighed the negative. The internet was a great place.....than probably somewhere around the time generation Xer's and Yer's ceded control to this current generation of coddled mammas boys, the internet became a cesspool of anger. For some reason, the cushier your life is, the angrier you are at EVERYTHING. You cannot find any topic discussed on any website that doesn't end with someone whining about some shit or participating in the general douche-baggary that permeates every corner of today's internet.

It was a bit better in the old days.
The mods cracked down more but there wasn't a great deal of negativity. I think that had more to do with the show being better (although the Jackie vs. Artie debate has been going forever).
I did like SFN better before the split creating the lounge. If the show was average, there was always a Larry Horse Fucker "Fuck this" thread or Lobosco claiming Bing Crosby killed his grandpa or some silliness.

I mostly Lurk here but back when sirius started mods were more strict. There were thousands of posts on Howard taking Fridays off. I think the listening thread was about 4X more popular then it is now. So about same business as usual.

was the board offline during 9/11? doesnt seem to be any threads..

http://www.sternfannetwork.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=214&order=desc&page=1370

yes but you can be a fan w/o being a sheep there is a very big difference. Howard has taught us how to sniff out bullshit and hypocrisy like fucking yoda

wait a second...didnt you leave like twice for some stupid reason or another? You miss that?

To me, the SFN attitued has really changed and it's directly related to Howard's attitude change towards The Show that started around the second half of '06 (post Viacom lawsuit).


Contrasting examples that come to mind:

- the membership would self-censor (without MOD intervention) regarding bootlegging/downloading of The Show. The majority wanted SIRIUS to succeed and the early enthusiasm was quite evident. (Sharing of full shows was strictly on the DL.) Members would accuse others (as an insult) of stealing The Show and hence, undermining it's success. It was almost a sin and a stigma. Now, members openly boast about canceling and stealing The Show.

- The file-sharing forum was fun, rich with variety and constantly updated

- Enthusiastic threads praising The Show were fairly common

- virtually no Beth-bashing (her profile was very low then)

- Howard was rarely criticized back then, since he still went past 5 hours on a regular basis (7 hour show one time) and Fridays off had yet to happen. His enthusiasm then was contagious. His work ethic then was beyond question or debate. The first thread about Howard's semi-retirement on SFN was a big deal with many hundreds of posts. (I forgot the OP's name)

- the only general and consistent division I perceived when I first joined was between Artie fans and Jackie fans (and of course, new SIRIUS members vs old-school SFN'rs)

- Robin bashing was a soft murmur at most and normally was non-existent (I don't remember a single c-word reference back then)

- The morning listening threads were consistently >90% positive and anyone that bitched and complained was repeatedly pelted with GTFO

- General Chat (pre Lounge/Show forums) was a mostly friendly, 'organic', ball-busting mixture of Show-posters and non-show posters and MULTS were mostly for fun and were obvious. (Zero PESTS)

- The show-related threads were NOT repetitive, constant re-hashes of tired subjects (Artie-vs-Jackie topics excluded)

- there were often questions and discussions about the new HTV (complaints about content and updating basically hasn't changed)

- there were lots of VIPs posting then compared to now (Jessica was posting almost daily, often for many hours) and TIME OUT was typically for those that messed with them

- there were only a handful of unfunny asshole regulars that I recall. Now, it seems like a regular way to get attention

- Bob was beloved back then

- the idea of Doc Sante having an account here was unthinkable back then

- getting banned was a big deal in that it was normally not a first-response to problematic posters.

- words like 'haters' and 'sheep' never appeared in '06 that I can recall

- Joey was mostly respected in a good way when I joined

- SFN get-togethers in RL were a big deal



The metaphor that comes to mind is that of a large group of fans attending the first concert of their favorite comedian that has returned after a break in touring, only to find that after the first, funny opening moments, he begins to lose the audience and the crowd slowly degenerates into a restless, rowdy group that shout, argue amongst themselves and eventually become unmanageable.

That was beautiful.