Magic Cafe?

[William Draven]

To be honest, the Magic Cafe is a hit and miss kind of site. In my opinion there are WAY to many boards to navigate through. It seems that if you could blow your nose and find a selected card the Cafe's got a board dedicated to just that. However, as pointed out there are a lot of big names in magic who remain fairly active on the cafe, and their insight can be gold. The Cafe can be a very rough place to hang out. People can get mean, brutal, and down right nasty there. There also seems to be less forum moderation, but I could be wrong with that. On the flip side, there are a lot of magic related ideas that get tossed around that board, so it certainly is worth lurking at the very least.

 

[Elite Prestidigitation]

One I time I made a thread to try to educate the old school magicians of "what is up" and they closed it.They need to accept the new generation of magicians and rid themselves of the magician clichés. Every time I call them out they throw a hissy fit like they know better than me.

You know what OP I will send you a username and password so they can ban you for disagreeing with them.

 

[JButterfield]

Elite, it's because they do know better than you.

If you disagree, you're wrong.

 

[tokyoUW]

Elite is nothing but a troll. Stop feeding them and they eventually go away.

 

[ChrisWiens]

Generally I find the quality of the threads in the cafe very high. Constructive discussions on a relatively high level.
I really like the special guest of honor forum. A great idea and it´s so much fun to ask your personal hero a question or read through it.
That´s the good.

The bad:
1. It´s, as William already mentioned, way too cluttered. Too much sub-forums. Who needs one million of them ?
2. They´ve blocked too many email hosts. That makes it difficult to register.
3. The forum and the moderators are in no way objective. You´re not allowed to critize some magicians or their work in any way.
The slightest constructive critique gets you banned or you´ll be offended by the allmighty fanboy faction. No matter how civilized and polite you´re, you´re always, always the 'a**hole' in the end.
Some magicians have a special status there. Partisanship at its best!

 

[Elite Prestidigitation]

3. The forum and the moderators are in no way objective. You´re not allowed to critize some magicians or their work in any way.
The slightest constructive critique gets you banned or you´ll be offended by the allmighty fanboy faction. No matter how civilized and polite you´re, you´re always, always the 'a**hole' in the end.
Some magicians have a special status there. Partisanship at its best!

That is essentially what I said except you didn't get censored by some mod guy. By the way, I don't allow failure. Thanks for messing up my post.

 

[UnknownMagician93]

Eliete- No one HAS to accept anything. Again, if you think that they are still over there dressing up in suits and pulling rabbits out of hats you are sorely mistaken. They have made a transition into a world of close up, more casual performances, but just because they dont do a billion "UbER VIZUALLLL" color changes and make youtube their life doesnt mean they havent made the transition.

The difference between you and them is this:

They transition to a "new" form of magic, but retained all of their knowledge about patter, performance, making routines, not focusing on the hardest/newest stuff, etc.

You transition into "new" magic and think that youtube is the shiz and that if you can do the latest D&D move you're the best there ever was.

Open your eyes kid, you got a long way to go.

 

[Sir FansAlot]

Eliete- No one HAS to accept anything. Again, if you think that they are still over there dressing up in suits and pulling rabbits out of hats you are sorely mistaken. They have made a transition into a world of close up, more casual performances, but just because they dont do a billion "UbER VIZUALLLL" color changes and make youtube their life doesnt mean they havent made the transition.

The difference between you and them is this:

They transition to a "new" form of magic, but retained all of their knowledge about patter, performance, making routines, not focusing on the hardest/newest stuff, etc.

You transition into "new" magic and think that youtube is the shiz and that if you can do the latest D&D move you're the best there ever was.

Open your eyes kid, you got a long way to go.

I completely agree. The thing is that they all know the new way of thinking (the older advanced guys pobably know the most) and they've tried it before. The reason they stick with their "old" stuff is because they know it works better on the crowds they perform for.

To elite, you don't think that the older names in magic have ever experimented with new ideas???

Mostly out of curiosity, what did you teach them to open their eyes (besides to watch Chris Angel and imagine you can fly from building-to-building).

 

[AndrewJ]

Just about every message board is going to fill with inflated egos who insist that their way is best and all others must adhere to it.

We're all different, with different talents and goals. That should be encouraged. Without progress we would all still be doing cups & balls. Without the classics we would have no foundation to make progress on. It seems to be some dark secret that it's okay to enjoy both.

I posted a review of the TAOM conference a couple of weeks ago, honestly, to push that point. Hundreds upon hundreds of people were there out of love for magic. The cutting edge close-up guys laughed and joked and sold goods and shared good times with and right next to the classic guys. With that kind of love for all things magic flying around, it was almost impossible not to come out of with more knowledge of and excitement for magic than when we went in.

It was beautiful, and will probably remain one of my greatest memories of magic for the rest of my life.

I wish the message board crowds could be a little more like that.

 

[Steerpike]

90% of the Cafe's population is a bunch of backstabbing cretins, wannabes, and armchair pros. The old guard that are there generally aren't reliable. The ones who are active either get flooded with so many wannabes that it's near impossible to get comprehensive advice from them, are plugging their products, or were never full-time pros and can't help you go pro either. Some of them are out of touch with how the market has changed since they haven't had to go prospecting in a decade.

Overall, it's a lot of circlejerking insipidity. Dissent, criticism, and skepticism of the status quo are not welcome. I say leave the slavering jackals to eat themselves alive. I made it a point specifically to do the right kind of networking and make the kind of contacts that guarantee I don't need the Cafe and their bull****.

 

[UnknownMagician93]

^ again I think you are somewhat skewed in your view of the cafe. Its apparent that you do have some knowledge of the place, but there is a multitude of educated and worthwhile people over there. You just have to know who to go to.
To me the Cafe is a better resource as a personal messaging site, rather than a forum. I go over there to talk to certain people in private.

 

[Craig Browning]

You left out a couple of important points here Steerpike;

The cafe is loaded with a right-wing "religious" sense of prejudice and those that refuse to play by their rules will be quickly dumped and ultimately, banned for life. The irony being that the majority of Bizarrists & Mentalists that actually know their stuff, represent the bulk of those kicked off the forum, in that we tend to not play by the rules and call a spade a spade. And understand that most of the "big names" on that forum are there for one reason only; to sell product! They set time aside that allows all the wannabes to rub elbows with them on line so you will think them super swell human beings and thus, you're willing to throw money at them. I know of at least two who've deliberately pushed the edge of things just to see what they could get away with that others couldn't, their celebrity protecting them (if you look closely at the nose of the site's owner, you'll see lots of brown crusty looking stuff because of how far he pushes his nose up the hindside of such personalities).

There is no such thing as "freedom of speech" on the Cafe and because there are 101 different "members of management" each working form his/her own rule book, it's very easy to get get banned or given "demerits" based on personality clashes and related politics.

There is one other unfortunate truth when it comes to the Cafe environment -- its viral!

Take a look around at the sites you patronize right now and enjoy and watch how they slowly start to turn green over the next couple of years; they get cliquish, top heavy with management as well as the "home town hero" type of issues in which you have a couple of noted members that become "stars' or, as one of my older VISIONS columns calls them "E-Leberites" (forum celebrities). Some of them even getting their own sub-forums to discuss their own products as well as ill-due clout (as in "not earned" influence).

So think long and hard about why you come to any forum and what you want to get from it. More Importantly, think about what you can give to it in order to prevent it from becoming another Magic Cafe.

 

[Justin.Morris]

...
The bottom line is, I think there's lots of useful information there. But pick and choose what you take from it and how involved you want to get - use the resource wisely....

Much agreed. The same should be said about any magic forum.

And you need to be somewhat respectful and professional there. Then you won't get banned. Some people have a lot of trouble understanding what that means. And of course some people get away with murder over there. But there is still so much to learn there.

You just have to use your brains.

jm

 

[Steerpike]

^ again I think you are somewhat skewed in your view of the cafe. Its apparent that you do have some knowledge of the place, but there is a multitude of educated and worthwhile people over there. You just have to know who to go to.

My time at the Cafe was short, hostile, and unpleasant. I was vying for space with the greatest concentration of wannabes, has-beens, and never-wases I've ever seen in my life. **** that place with a knife.

To me the Cafe is a better resource as a personal messaging site, rather than a forum. I go over there to talk to certain people in private.

That means the Cafe has failed at its alleged purpose. We already have something that does that much better. It's called email.

If the Cafe were a real place, it's signature green color would also be the color of the thick, oily film covering every surface. I would not go in there without a hazmat suit and a supersoaker filled with bleach.

You just have to use your brains.

I did. That's why I left, smartass. I did everything you said, but because my opinions were not popular the jackals that inhabit the Cafe decided to make my time there miserable. There are times and places where it's wiser to shut up, but in a place that's supposedly designed to facilitate discussion, I should not have to walk on eggshells nor should I be attacked for saying something that challenges the status quo.

Your advice of how to survive at the cafe ultimately amounts to, "Keep your head down, shut up, and kiss as much ass as possible." Pardon me for stealing someone else's joke, but as the frustrated Chinese zookeeper said to the last male panda on earth: **** that!

 

[saborfang17]

Guys, way to get off-topic... What was this thread about, getting an email and password to access the biggest fanboy forum in the universe?

 

[Justin.Morris]

...
I did. That's why I left, smartass. ...

Sure.




.

 

[Elite Prestidigitation]

Guys, way to get off-topic... What was this thread about, getting an email and password to access the biggest fanboy forum in the universe?

I already relinquished an account to the OP..he has yet to post and tell you guys about my generosity... which wants to make me take it back...

 

[magic_man101]

sorry bout that elite i thought i edited the question but elite was very generous and relinquished an account to me and im very thankful for that

 

[KeoSilver]

*Cough cough* T11 *cough* mini magic cafe. *cough, throws a menthol in his snout* The soothing, murr. Who wants a cappuccino?

 

[UnknownMagician93]

Steerpike, I dont know if you think your a hard ass or something, but insulting everyone and making "witty" little jokes and comparisons doesnt make anyone respect you, nor does it gain you any credibility. You talk so much about how you supposedly know everything and apparently have all the solutions to everything magic, but yet have no evidence of this so-called expertise. It's time for you to put up or shut up.