They're out to get us!!

[American Eagle]

Aww, snap, I was under the impression that Christians could have fun.

AE, my strong-hearted knight in shining armor

*gushes*

I'm just pointing out fun isn't acceptable until it is fully explained and dissected.

Likewise. Even ‘fun’ points need to turn into a legal battle.

Fixed.

The purpose of the The Soda Shop's list is to be fun and create a little competition. You guys act like this is serious. Don't take offense. I say that the Chicago Bears are a horrible football team, their color scheme is awful and their fans are lamer than us Detroit Lions fans. Guys, pretend to be Top for a moment and have a little fun in your lives.

[Jesus' Princess]

at that point a lot of the users seemed really... fake.

What do you mean by fake?

[DanP740]

I can still blast unreasonable reasons out of the proverbial water.

[Tea Ess]

I would like to repeat my previous question. What is the purpose of your list? To me, it only appears to serve one purpose: to build your forum up by tearing ours down.

And really, as a Christian message board, that's not representing Christ very well, is it? Have your members thought about that at all?

I'm just pointing out the inapplicability of some of their statements.

Likewise. Even ‘fake’ points need real supporting reasoning.

Do they? If you want real, applicable, clear reasons, then I'll go back and return with some.

However, I find all the confusion surrounding the 'point' of the thread amusing. The overriding reason for creating thread was that you would notice it, pounce on the list, and retaliate. So far, you all have helped enormously in fulfilling the thread. Thank you. We're winning.

Aww, snap, I was under the impression that Christians could have fun.

AE, my strong-hearted knight in shining armor

*gushes*

I'm just pointing out fun isn't acceptable until it is fully explained and dissected.

Likewise. Even ‘fun’ points need to turn into a legal battle.

Fixed.

The purpose of the The Soda Shop's list is to be fun and create a little competition. You guys act like this is serious. Don't take offense. I say that the Chicago Bears are a horrible football team, their color scheme is awful and their fans are lamer than us Detroit Lions fans. Guys, pretend to be Top for a moment and have a little fun in your lives.

Thank you very much AE. You have helped make this clearer for everyone.

If we need more material, do you know how many ToOites have accounts that have never been used? Joy is the only ToOite who uses their account regularly. Snubs and Christian do occasionally.

You do realize that’s material for making our case and not yours, right?
If they signed up with you and then never became active, that means they choose to be active here instead. That doesn’t necessarily mean our site is better than yours, but it does mean that yours is not better than ours. (Because otherwise they would have taken their activity there.)

This following statement is not necessarily true; it is the message that is clearly communicated to me. With no posts and no attempt to study and contribute to our thriving society, many ToOites have no interest in expanding their horizons and giving us a chance, the phrase I have seen often here. When one creates an account and abandons it, it doesn't mean that the board is inferior, it means that the abandon-acounties are unwilling to give the board a try. Although this may not work in our favor, it works against you. If one is measuring two scores and takes points away from one side, it creates a larger gap between the scores. I consider this a reason for our side.

Even if, for some reason, a negative point for the opposing side doesn't count, the negative of the reason would still apply, that Soda Shoppers tend to use their accounts and give something new a try.

7. Many of the posters really, really, really care about AIO.

Just because we don’t exclusively discuss AIO doesn’t mean we don’t care about it.

Sure it doesn't. But it does mean that you don't care about AiO as much as we do in this regard.

It absolutely does not. The number of posts on a subject has nothing to do with indicating the level of care about said subject.

And, incidentally, the Soda Shop has half as many AIO posts as non-AIO posts. Okay, by your logic, you don't care about AIO either. [/quote]

This is an extremely larger ratio than your board, however, not even including the factions and the posts deleted in the great purging.

We don't limit the topics. However, we still have a higher percentage of AiO posts, even though the topics are not limited.

I didn’t say you did, I said it’s not a bad thing that we don’t, which is what you implied.

I certainly did not mean to imply that. How exactly is your caring about conversation a retaliation against our point then?

This doesn’t make sense. Your claim was that we don’t have close personal relationships with each other, but then say you meant as a whole and not as individuals? You can’t have a personal relationship with something as a whole, you have it with people, thus making it ‘personal’. And size has nothing to do with it, it’s up to each individual who they want to let in on their personal lives (as it should be on the internet), they can choose to become close to a handful of people, or a great number of people, whatever they’re comfortable with. And after doing so, those people will know when something is going on.
So all you’re really saying is that everyone on your board has let everyone else into their lives, which is not something that makes one site or the other better, it’s all just about personal comfort and preference.

Well, first of all, I realized that this wasn't a point made by me, which explains why I was having such a hard time remembering what I was thinking when I made it. I believe what CT was trying to convey was that we could get to know everyone. Do you know everyone? No. While you may have excellent individual relationships, you don't have as close of a society as we do.

This tells me that you have not spent much time over at our board. Five minutes with the right members and you would get it.

No, I’m saying whether you can flirt or not doesn’t make one better or not. Neither of the sites are intended for flirting, so the argument is irrelevant.

My apologies for misunderstanding. It still tells me that you haven't spent any time over by us then, or at least, you haven't studied it like I have here.

7. Many of the posters really, really, really care about AIO.

Just because we don’t exclusively discuss AIO doesn’t mean we don’t care about it.

Sure it doesn't. But it does mean that you don't care about AiO as much as we do in this regard.

It absolutely does not. The number of posts on a subject has nothing to do with indicating the level of care about said subject.

Our words are typically where our heart is. If we talk about AiO more, we generally care about it enough to converse with fellow listeners, debate with them, and overall enjoy it with others. We have over a hundred pages of posts about Emily. Granted, they have to do with the Emily clubs, but all of them surround a controversial character.

Even if your dancing smiley worked in your favor, would it really 'seal the case' for you?

The case of whether or not I use this site? Of course not. But the same goes for you. Whether the smiley ‘works’ for you or not, it doesn’t ‘seal the case’ for whether the site is better or worse.

No, it doesn't 'seal the case' for us either. Why did you even use the phrase 'seals the case'?However, we (speaking for those I have talked with) generally find that we can converse without it perfectly, and even gain more clarity and sincerity without it, furthering dicussion and serious consideration.

14. This site is updated.

What does that even mean?

It means that we had a recent update.

I repeat, what does that even mean?

What exactly are you looking for? Our site was updated. Loosely interpreted, it means that we just had an update, making our board even better than it was. Your board is not as recently updated, meaning that it has not had the opportunity for improvement like we had.

Thank you for your post Bookworm, even though I anticipated it from the start.

I’m sure you did.

[/quote]

You are not an unpredictable person.

[Woody]

Look, just because you have a greater percentage of AIO posts doesn't mean you have a greater amount of AIO posts. Nor does it mean that you care about AIO more, only that you don't care as much about other things.

[~JCGJ~]

Look, just because you have a greater percentage of AIO posts doesn't mean you have a greater amount of AIO posts. Nor does it mean that you care about AIO more, only that you don't care as much about other things.

SS is just too young to realize that everything does not have to be AiO related.

[Knight Fisher]

I say that the Chicago Bears are a horrible football team,

That's just a statement of fact tonight. >_>

[Joy]

This doesn’t make sense. Your claim was that we don’t have close personal relationships with each other, but then say you meant as a whole and not as individuals? You can’t have a personal relationship with something as a whole, you have it with people, thus making it ‘personal’. And size has nothing to do with it, it’s up to each individual who they want to let in on their personal lives (as it should be on the internet), they can choose to become close to a handful of people, or a great number of people, whatever they’re comfortable with. And after doing so, those people will know when something is going on.
So all you’re really saying is that everyone on your board has let everyone else into their lives, which is not something that makes one site or the other better, it’s all just about personal comfort and preference.

Well, first of all, I realized that this wasn't a point made by me, which explains why I was having such a hard time remembering what I was thinking when I made it. I believe what CT was trying to convey was that we could get to know everyone. Do you know everyone? No. While you may have excellent individual relationships, you don't have as close of a society as we do.

T.S., do you know everyone on a personal level?
If someone could help me out by compiling a list of our active users, and their active users, I'm pretty sure ours would be smaller.
The board is new, people haven't lost interest yet, haven't gotten too busy for it yet. However that has happened here. And no, that is not a point in which you can say that your board is better. If a board is around for 7 years, people are bound to lose interest.
Back to the point. I could say something about each member. I know some members better than others. But I know them all, at least the more active ones.

[Aaron Wiley]

Reason #19,098 - The Soda Shop has a significantly higher stock of ice cream in it's fridges than the entire ToO combined,

Unrelated to the war though, please don't take this all too seriously, this was not intended to hurt anyone on a personal level. The only goal was a little friendly competition. We don't dislike the users here, some of us dislike the layout of the site itself, but I'm positive you guys are a great group of individuals.

What I meant by "fake" in my original post was this: during my time on a ToO, it seemed to be thriving. There were tons of users active every day, and I had a hard time posting enough anywhere to be noticed at all. The real problem was that very few people anded up getting to know me well enough to be honest when I'd ask for opinions on things, or understand jokes I made.

This debate specifically about how our sites treat new users, I think I can vouch pretty good for. You all may know your active users pretty well, but what about the newbies that just started posting yesterday? Or maybe the people who have only been posting a week, but haven't had time to post more than a dozen or so posts? Are you getting to know the new people?

Like I said though, we're not at all "morally against" the ToO, some of us just prefer our site to yours, and there's nothing wrong with that. The SS was created as a counter to boards like the ToO, not because we have anything (really) against this kind of board, we just wanted to create something different. As jacob put it in his welcome message "We understand that there are larger scale message boards in the AIO online community to allow for fans to discuss anything and everything from Adventures in Odyssey to prunes (and we recommend them!). The Soda Shop Message Boards have been provided mainly to discuss Adventures in Odyssey". We just wanted a place to talk about Odyssey, (and also, the comments on the OdysseyScoop website were getting pretty hefty, and Jacob didn't feel like having to moderate that many comments daily).

Although the members here may still have quite a bit of discussion on other things, our main goal is still to discuss and hash out our love and passion for the world's #1 audio drama - Adventures in Odyssey.

*ehem* Anywho...

I say all of that to say this- The SS is simply better.

*Tosses a stink bomb into the room and rons for cover*

TAKE THAT YOU HORRIBLE LITTLE MISCREANTS!

[Joy]

Many new users simply post a few posts, than disappear. Really, it's hard to integrate someone into society if they aren't really into the message board anyways. Many of your members post a lot when they first start. Many people are probably confused, and maybe feel out of place with all the close friendships with people.

TAKE COVER!!!!!
*runs around screaming*

I remember upon seeing the topic on the SS and thinking "THIS IS WAR!" Literally. I was/AM pretty riled up about that YOU think YOU are better than US! How dare you, you-you snobs!

[bookworm]

Even ‘fun’ points need to turn into a legal battle.

Fixed.

You can’t fix something that wasn’t broken. I said exactly what I meant, your misquote of my statement is not accurate at all. They made points, I responded to the points. This isn’t a battle, legal or otherwise, it’s called a discussion. If you read T.S.’s posts, that was what he wanted, so I’m confused why you’re attempting to fault me for it.

Even ‘fake’ points need real supporting reasoning.

Do they?

Yes they do. We learned that in my Critical Thinking class. Even if you’re not being completely serious in the arguments you’re trying to make, the reasoning still has to be sound or there is no point, because there is no basis.

When one creates an account and abandons it, it doesn't mean that the board is inferior, it means that the abandon-acounties are unwilling to give the board a try.

I thought that was what I said. Let me try again.
If someone has an account here they use regularly, and creates an account there that they don’t use, it doesn’t necessarily mean that site is worse, but if stating one or the other it does mean the original site is better, because they keep their focus there. That is, they only desire to invest their time in one site, either out of necessity or simply by preference, and they choose to go with this one.
Understand what I mean?

How exactly is your caring about conversation a retaliation against our point then?

Because your point was (the way it read, whether you meant it this way or not I don’t know) that our site is inferior because we discuss more than exclusively AIO topics, which is obvious ridiculous. AIO discussion has its place here. as does discussion for anything else. That’s why it’s called a message board.

I believe what CT was trying to convey was that we could get to know everyone. Do you know everyone? No. While you may have excellent individual relationships, you don't have as close of a society as we do.

Again, this doesn’t have basis to it. You’re absolutely correct, I do not intimately know every single person on here. By choice. I don’t make a habit of divulging personal information on the internet.
I understand what you’re trying to say; that because you have fewer numbers getting to know everyone, should you desire to, would be mathematically easier, but that’s still not an argument for whether a site is better or worse because if you really want to know someone you get to know them, however many there are. It just may take longer if there are more people is all.

Even if your dancing smiley worked in your favor, would it really 'seal the case' for you?

The case of whether or not I use this site? Of course not. But the same goes for you. Whether the smiley ‘works’ for you or not, it doesn’t ‘seal the case’ for whether the site is better or worse.

No, it doesn't 'seal the case' for us either. Why did you even use the phrase 'seals the case'?

Because you did.

14. This site is updated.

What does that even mean?

It means that we had a recent update.

I repeat, what does that even mean?

What exactly are you looking for?

I’m looking for what you mean! ‘Updated’ means nothing here, it can apply to anything. Our site is updated countless times daily if you’re talking about the content.

Thank you for your post Bookworm, even though I anticipated it from the start.

I’m sure you did.

You are not an unpredictable person.

I don’t try to be.

[~JCGJ~]

Back to the point. I could say something about each member. I know some members better than others. But I know them all, at least the more active ones.

I'd like to see that... I would enjoy reading what you think of each active member on here...

[bookworm]

There were tons of users active every day, and I had a hard time posting enough anywhere to be noticed at all. The real problem was that very few people anded up getting to know me well enough to be honest when I'd ask for opinions on things, or understand jokes I made.

I would say that depends on your definition of ‘know’ here. I do not know most of the members here as people, but I don’t have to to know them as online friends that I enjoy conversing with.

You all may know your active users pretty well, but what about the newbies that just started posting yesterday? Or maybe the people who have only been posting a week, but haven't had time to post more than a dozen or so posts? Are you getting to know the new people?

Again, it depends on what you mean by that. Are we immediately sending them messages asking personal details about themselves as people? I don’t think so. And that’s not a bad thing. I would be rather frightened if that happened to me when I joined a message board.
The communication gap here seems to be a differing ideology of how member relationship should develop. You guys seem to be saying (correct me if I’m misunderstanding you) that getting to know people means finding out about their real lives and knowing them as actual people.
We, or at least I, believe what’s more important (and safer) is being content to know them as anonymous usernames, but that doesn’t mean it has to be impersonal. I don’t have to know intimate details about the people here to know what their personalities and interests are and to have great interaction with them. That is how we go about developing our friendships, so with your example of the people who haven’t posted much yet no, we don’t know them, but that’s because our version of knowing them comes from their posts.

[Rosy]

The Soda Shop was my first Odyssey Board, and even though I like it here, and on CC, I still prefer the SS. That's just my personal opinion, and I haven't been here very long, so that might change. But I don't think arguing about it will do any good.

[Tea Ess]

Even ‘fake’ points need real supporting reasoning.

Do they?

Yes they do. We learned that in my Critical Thinking class. Even if you’re not being completely serious in the arguments you’re trying to make, the reasoning still has to be sound or there is no point, because there is no basis.

When one creates an account and abandons it, it doesn't mean that the board is inferior, it means that the abandon-acounties are unwilling to give the board a try.

I thought that was what I said. Let me try again.
If someone has an account here they use regularly, and creates an account there that they don’t use, it doesn’t necessarily mean that site is worse, but if stating one or the other it does mean the original site is better, because they keep their focus there. That is, they only desire to invest their time in one site, either out of necessity or simply by preference, and they choose to go with this one.
Understand what I mean?

Yes, I do. I just wrote up a long reply and then realized what you were getting at. The user is not truly making a choice, merely floating along because the original board is adequate for their needs. I didn't explain myself earlier. We cannot possibly compare the two boards if the users are uninformed of one of the boards. However, we can take it to an individual level instead. Most Soda Shoppers are very much so dedicated to their board, just like everyone here is dedicated to the ToO. However, we know more of your board then you know of ours. We are generally more willing to give this a try then you are of us. Just a thought.

How exactly is your caring about conversation a retaliation against our point then?

Because your point was (the way it read, whether you meant it this way or not I don’t know) that our site is inferior because we discuss more than exclusively AIO topics, which is obvious ridiculous. AIO discussion has its place here. as does discussion for anything else. That’s why it’s called a message board.

I'll be right back to this...

I believe what CT was trying to convey was that we could get to know everyone. Do you know everyone? No. While you may have excellent individual relationships, you don't have as close of a society as we do.

Again, this doesn’t have basis to it. You’re absolutely correct, I do not intimately know every single person on here. By choice. I don’t make a habit of divulging personal information on the internet.
I understand what you’re trying to say; that because you have fewer numbers getting to know everyone, should you desire to, would be mathematically easier, but that’s still not an argument for whether a site is better or worse because if you really want to know someone you get to know them, however many there are. It just may take longer if there are more people is all.

I would disagree that it is not an argument. It is an aspect of our board that both works for and against us, as do most things. 'It taking longer' could be seen as a disadvantage of this site.

Our small size both enables us to know all of each other personally, and even drives us to do so. Our small size is beginning to change, but we still retain the best aspects of our now-growing smallness.

Even if your dancing smiley worked in your favor, would it really 'seal the case' for you?

The case of whether or not I use this site? Of course not. But the same goes for you. Whether the smiley ‘works’ for you or not, it doesn’t ‘seal the case’ for whether the site is better or worse.

No, it doesn't 'seal the case' for us either. Why did you even use the phrase 'seals the case'?

Because you did.

If I ever did, you must have taken it from the Soda Shop, because you used it before I even posted here:

Yes, enough said, because that seals the case for our site right there. This is the only place I’ve ever seen the dancing smiley, and that’s very unfortunate. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve wanted to use it elsewhere because it would be perfect, but couldn’t.

After your use of the phrase, I then asked if it 'sealed the case' for you personally.

Back to the dancing smiley, as with most of the reasons and counter reasons, it is a matter of opinion and perspective. Your smiley is both an advantage and a disadvantage, though naturally, I will be focusing on the latter.

14. This site is updated.

What does that even mean?

It means that we had a recent update.

I repeat, what does that even mean?

What exactly are you looking for?

I’m looking for what you mean! ‘Updated’ means nothing here, it can apply to anything. Our site is updated countless times daily if you’re talking about the content.

Aha! Thank you for clarifying. Therein lies the problem. Sorry, I misunderstood and thought you were referring to the phrase itself. Again, this wasn't a reason made by me, so I have to expand on what I believe the person was trying to convey.

The 'update' refers to the new appearance of our board, and possibly the new moderator group that was installed; it mainly concerns our board's programming.

Thank you for your post Bookworm, even though I anticipated it from the start.

I’m sure you did.

You are not an unpredictable person.

I don’t try to be.

[/quote] I'm sure you don't

[DanP740]

To correct a few more...

23. There isn't a money stealing glitch.

It wasn't a glitch, it was an intended feature exclusively for use during the ... is there an official name for the recent arc?

[24.] It isn't as big as the ToO, and therefore easier to follow conversations.

I have yet to see a topic go too fast to follow, unless you only check every few days.

25: I'm an admin here and people don't gag when they hear it.

I don't gag at hearing you're actually admin, I just wonder why you persistently campaign term after term.

[Arkán Dreamwalker]

I mean I did an edit which should have left my $ untouched, but it reduced it by 26.74$.

[~JCGJ~]

The Soda Shop was my first Odyssey Board, and even though I like it here, and on CC, I still prefer the SS. That's just my personal opinion, and I haven't been here very long, so that might change. But I don't think arguing about it will do any good.

Hang her!

*Clears Throat..."


I mean... You're entitled to your opinion.

Kidding... I'm kidding.

[Marvin D.]

>_>

[bookworm]

The user is not truly making a choice, merely floating along because the original board is adequate for their needs.

Right. Or they are simply unable to devote time to more than one message board, and so go with the one that are already established on. That’s the case for me.

I would disagree that it is not an argument. It is an aspect of our board that both works for and against us, as do most things. 'It taking longer' could be seen as a disadvantage of this site.

It ‘could’ be, if you really want to see it that way, but it doesn’t make sense to. In the short term it may be a minor disadvantage, simply because more members necessitates more time needed to get to know them, but in the end you would end up with more people you know, and if that’s as important as you say it is then more members is actually a better thing.

Yes, enough said, because that seals the case for our site right there. This is the only place I’ve ever seen the dancing smiley, and that’s very unfortunate. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve wanted to use it elsewhere because it would be perfect, but couldn’t.

After your use of the phrase, I then asked if it 'sealed the case' for you personally.

Oh! Now I see what you mean. In the original line, I used that phrase because that’s what I meant. Not as if it seals the case for why the site is better though, and I now see where your confusion was. I only meant it seals the case for that one particular point, about the dancing smiley. Having it is indisputably better than not having it, so the point goes to us for that one.

Your smiley is both an advantage and a disadvantage, though naturally, I will be focusing on the latter.

Please inform me on how it can possibly be a disadvantage? It’s far better to have it available for when you want to use than to not have it at all one way or the other. If you don’t need a particular smiley then you simply don’t use it, but having it there just in case is always good.

The 'update' refers to the new appearance of our board, and possibly the new moderator group that was installed; it mainly concerns our board's programming.

Thank you, now it makes sense. I have to disagree with the point though. First, our site gets updated periodically. But second, ‘updates’ don’t really make much of a case for site superiority because it’s a subjective criteria. In my view, the site with less updates would be the better one, because it means things function adequately without any changes, which is a good thing.