What Will TrekBBS Be Like When We're Old?

[1001001]

For some reason this struck me yesterday. I'm 44 years old, and have been posting here for over 8 years.

Will I still be posting here when I'm 50? 60? 70?

Will the internet have changed so much that what we do now will look quaint, like sending morse code messages to each other? Will we be in a virtual environment, sitting around in our rocking chairs as the kids from iTunes and LimeWire run across our lawns and play their music too loud?

What will we talk about? Will Trek continue and evolve, always bringing in new blood? Will the franchise eventually die out and this place become a pitiful place full of nostalgic old nerds talking about the "good old days"?

Will we share stories of our grandchildren and wonder why our Social Security checks are late? Will we have a "What Medication Did You Take Today?" thread? A "What's Your Next Operation?" discussion? Recipes for easily digested meals? A Nap Check-In forum?

The internet exploded in our lifetime, so we'll be some of the first to age on it. What will we do? Will you still be here?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Look at the Internet today versus 10 years ago. While the technology has advanced, the underlying concepts haven't changed at all. We're still on IPv4 for God's sake!

Sites have gotten more interactive, and there's more bandwidth now so we can have streaming, high-definition video, but most of what people do online still consists of:

1. Search for something via search engine.
2. Click link.
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!

Virtual environment stuff sounds cool, but that's been "just around the corner" for what, almost 20 years?

I hope we continue to get Trek movies, but good ones. It's 20 years after TNG, and right now a lot of people don't think it has aged well. Give it another 20, and the pendulum should swing the other way, and we'll be telling the next generation that today's Trek has nothing on Picard and crew.

I'll start a thread called "I found hair growing in the strangest place," and I'll bitch about the default font size on websites being way too small. I'll need a 60" screen to blow the text up big enough for me to read.

In TNZ, we'll bitch about entitled young people and piss on them for wanting jobs, because dammit, we're old! We've paid our dues and we want our entitlements. Fuck those kids wanting for something for nothing!

Finally, there will be a herpes forum, and Kestra will moderate it.

 

[Deckerd]

If the TrekBBS is still around in 20 years it won't have many young people.

 

[QCzar]

I agree with Mister Maxwell. I do believe that audio and video posts will become more acceptable and frequent as time goes on. I believe the way we interface with the net overall will evolve, but that the essential purpose for a sight like this is perennial and thus won't change much. Think about it. The concept of this board transcends any kind of technology we could come up with within the next 30 to 60 years. There will still be the various fora and still be a desire to maintain a certain anonymity and these things will ensure that TrekBBS will still be recognizable decades from now.

And there's no reason to believe that it won't last that long. Mark Twain hasn't written a book in a while, yet there are fan organizations that have been around since shortly after his death even today that continue to pull in new members. We're not talking about something relatively obscure like Farscape or Airwolf. This is Star Trek and its place in the popular imagination will likely endure long after we're all dead. After all, we're still reading Huckleberry Finn.

 

[1001001]

And there's no reason to believe that it won't last that long. Mark Twain hasn't written a book in a while, yet there are fan organizations that have been around since shortly after his death even today that continue to pull in new members. We're not talking about something relatively obscure like Farscape or Airwolf.

And in 15 years when they remake Airwolf starring that kid from Two and a Half Men, we'll bitch "He's no Jan Michael Vincent!"

 

[Starbreaker]

In 50 years, I'll be here talking about how Star Trek 2009 was cool in my time even though the technology is so outdated it's not even funny.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Blue Warp Nacelles? will still be going strong.

And MODMAN will still run this shit.

 

[RAMA]

Look at the Internet today versus 10 years ago. While the technology has advanced, the underlying concepts haven't changed at all. We're still on IPv4 for God's sake!

Sites have gotten more interactive, and there's more bandwidth now so we can have streaming, high-definition video, but most of what people do online still consists of:

1. Search for something via search engine.
2. Click link.
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!

Virtual environment stuff sounds cool, but that's been "just around the corner" for what, almost 20 years?

I hope we continue to get Trek movies, but good ones. It's 20 years after TNG, and right now a lot of people don't think it has aged well. Give it another 20, and the pendulum should swing the other way, and we'll be telling the next generation that today's Trek has nothing on Picard and crew.

I'll start a thread called "I found hair growing in the strangest place," and I'll bitch about the default font size on websites being way too small. I'll need a 60" screen to blow the text up big enough for me to read.

In TNZ, we'll bitch about entitled young people and piss on them for wanting jobs, because dammit, we're old! We've paid our dues and we want our entitlements. Fuck those kids wanting for something for nothing!

Finally, there will be a herpes forum, and Kestra will moderate it.

This may be true but I remember barely being able to get from site to site on IE 1.5, 2, 3 and dial up. Browsing is light years easier than it was in 1995 when I first started using my own pc.

RAMA

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Look at the Internet today versus 10 years ago. While the technology has advanced, the underlying concepts haven't changed at all. We're still on IPv4 for God's sake!

Sites have gotten more interactive, and there's more bandwidth now so we can have streaming, high-definition video, but most of what people do online still consists of:

1. Search for something via search engine.
2. Click link.
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!

Virtual environment stuff sounds cool, but that's been "just around the corner" for what, almost 20 years?

I hope we continue to get Trek movies, but good ones. It's 20 years after TNG, and right now a lot of people don't think it has aged well. Give it another 20, and the pendulum should swing the other way, and we'll be telling the next generation that today's Trek has nothing on Picard and crew.

I'll start a thread called "I found hair growing in the strangest place," and I'll bitch about the default font size on websites being way too small. I'll need a 60" screen to blow the text up big enough for me to read.

In TNZ, we'll bitch about entitled young people and piss on them for wanting jobs, because dammit, we're old! We've paid our dues and we want our entitlements. Fuck those kids wanting for something for nothing!

Finally, there will be a herpes forum, and Kestra will moderate it.

This may be true but I remember barely being able to get from site to site on IE 1.5, 2, 3 and dial up. Browsing is light years easier than it was in 1995 when I first started using my own pc.

RAMA

I agree that it's much easier, but the underlying concepts haven't changed at all. You still type in a domain name, click a bookmark, or click a link, and browse more or less static pages.

 

[Kestra]

I think people will be posting pics of their grandkids and all, definitely. People may come and go but will come back to the board when there's a major life event they want to share, or when they find themselves with more time on their hands. People will post pictures of projects they've started after retirement, etc.

Finally, there will be a herpes forum, and Kestra will moderate it.

Certain things are inevitable.

 

[KimMH]

as people age the single male/single female ratio changes to far fewer males than females. Patience - such a virtue - the meetup/hookups fora will by far be the most active!

 

[Franklin]

Well, I suppose if things stay true to form, then 20 years from now we'll be debating the same old stuff whatever new technology we're using to do it with:
-- Arguments will break out over whether or not the Enterprise in STXX was really 8000 feet long or not.
-- Rumors will persist that Shatner has a cameo in STXXI, but the 99 year-old actor will insist that he still doesn't do cameos.
-- Indeed, fans will debate which leaked unshot scenes written for Shatner's Kirk in STXII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, and XX would've been the best.
-- Fans will turn on Quinto in 2018 when he says, "I'm not Spock."
-- Several of the oldest fans among us will have heart attacks and die when STXXI is nominated for "Best Picture" by the Academy. Others will die when it wins. Some of those remaining will say the original classic TMP was better.
-- Heated arguments will break out over whether the Khan in TWOK, STXIV, or STXVIII was more villainous. We purists will stick with TWOK.
-- We will all look back with wonder at how Keenser became one of the most beloved characters in Trek history.
-- Sombreros will still figure prominently somewhere on the boards.

 

[RAMA]

Look at the Internet today versus 10 years ago. While the technology has advanced, the underlying concepts haven't changed at all. We're still on IPv4 for God's sake!

Sites have gotten more interactive, and there's more bandwidth now so we can have streaming, high-definition video, but most of what people do online still consists of:

1. Search for something via search engine.
2. Click link.
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!

Virtual environment stuff sounds cool, but that's been "just around the corner" for what, almost 20 years?

I hope we continue to get Trek movies, but good ones. It's 20 years after TNG, and right now a lot of people don't think it has aged well. Give it another 20, and the pendulum should swing the other way, and we'll be telling the next generation that today's Trek has nothing on Picard and crew.

I'll start a thread called "I found hair growing in the strangest place," and I'll bitch about the default font size on websites being way too small. I'll need a 60" screen to blow the text up big enough for me to read.

In TNZ, we'll bitch about entitled young people and piss on them for wanting jobs, because dammit, we're old! We've paid our dues and we want our entitlements. Fuck those kids wanting for something for nothing!

Finally, there will be a herpes forum, and Kestra will moderate it.

This may be true but I remember barely being able to get from site to site on IE 1.5, 2, 3 and dial up. Browsing is light years easier than it was in 1995 when I first started using my own pc.

RAMA

I agree that it's much easier, but the underlying concepts haven't changed at all. You still type in a domain name, click a bookmark, or click a link, and browse more or less static pages.

I know what you mean though...I recall some MIT Media Lab projects that were looking into non-linear browsing results, and this:

http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~flavia/research.html#city_of_news

 

[ITL]

One day we'll be posting such delights as: "Someone called me a Silver Surfer today and asked if I wanted help with my email. Smug bastard. I've been on more InterWebs than they've had hot dinners! Bloody kids think they invented computers...."

Yes, some of us are like that now. I'm just saying that there will be much, much more of it. Mainly posted in the Virtual 3D RobotPorn section of TNZ that's due in....ooh, five years or so.

 

[1001001]

-- We will all look back with wonder at how Keenser became one of the most beloved characters in Trek history.

We'll also be bitching about the next re-boot.

"No way I'm going to see that piece of shit movie! No one can replace Pine as Captain Kirk! Pine IS Kirk!!"

But by then they'll just be broadcasting movies straight through our brain implants, and I won't remember most of Star Trek anyway, so it will be great for me.

 

[Snaploud]

I predict holographic pictures of a much older Jewel Staite.

 

[1001001]

"You know, TrekBBS turned into a hard core porn site so gradually I didn't even notice...."

 

[Starbreaker]

-- We will all look back with wonder at how Keenser became one of the most beloved characters in Trek history.

We'll also be bitching about the next re-boot.

"No way I'm going to see that piece of shit movie! No one can replace Pine as Captain Kirk! Pine IS Kirk!!"

But by then they'll just be broadcasting movies straight through our brain implants, and I won't remember most of Star Trek anyway, so it will be great for me.

And they'll ruin JJ Abrams's vision!

 

[Diddle]

"No way I'm going to see that piece of shit movie! No one can replace Pine as Captain Kirk! Pine IS Kirk!!"

The sad thing is that there's already people who believe Pine IS Kirk.

 

[Finn]

Trekker4747 complains about the nurse at the living assisted facility not giving him a sponge bath.