Brooklynian is Boring!

iamahmadrabah · May 2016

Once upon a time this was a very entertaining and informative website. What happened? Where did everyone go? New bars, burritos, franklin ave, buildings, blah, blah, blah. Lets find something new. Time for some brain storming.

iamahmadrabah · May 2016

Download this app you will thank me OldNYC – {SPAM LINK REMOVED -moderator}

whynot_31 · May 2016

A combination of things "happened":

1. Many people now prefer local Facebook groups

http://www.brooklynian.com/discussion/46589/local-prospect-heights-crown-heights-and-prospect-lefferts-gardens-facebook-groups

2. Many people no longer jabber away on the internet at all, because the technology is no longer as exciting as it once was.

3. Many people no longer post about the areas this site has historically focused on (Prospect Heights and Crown Heights), because when the twenty-first burrito shop opens up, it isn't as exciting as the first. ....nor is it as exciting when you are 44 years old, as opposed to 24.

4. Many of the people who felt anomie as a result of their demographics pricing out other demographics have now, themselves, been priced out.

5. When Brooklynian first started, very few news outlets covered CH and PH, so it was one of the only sources of quasi news re: crime and other happenings. Now there are lots of underpaid 20 something reporters who live the neighborhood, and they often do a better job than a crowd sourced site. ...many people prefer to just read, as opposed to contribute.

crownheightster · May 2016

I also think that Brooklynian's long downtime got people out of the habit of daily posting...

whynot_31 · May 2016

Yes, for about 6 months, we had lots of technical difficulties. Let's call that #6.

7. Avatars are no longer as important as they once were. Part of Brooklynian's initial attraction was that one could write an opinion about a business or person, and the reader would not know who you were.

Now, people have figured out that: a. Such opinions don't cause change. b. Such opinions are unlikely to result in bad things happening to you, because the neighborhood is much less violent than it was.

So, many people either post on Yelp or don't bother posting their rant at all.

dac545 · May 2016

I still like Brooklynian...

whynot_31 · May 2016

I might keep posting on it until a T Rowe Price opens on Utica. By then, I may have to create fake avatars so it doesn't look like I am jabbering with myself.

dmiami2 · May 2016

dac545 said:

I still like Brooklynian...

Ditto

whynot_31 · May 2016

The medium's strong point is that it allows one to follow a story over time, and that it is hyper-local.

I prefer that over DNA/Gothamist/Facebook formats, because stories and news don't happen in a moment.

...they evolve.

Brooklyneya · May 2016

@iamahmadrabah why don't you start a poll for what you can open in your vacant spot on Franklin and Union and you'll get an active discussion going?

Seriously though. In the meantime, why don't you use it for something temporary, even non profit? Like an indoor market of sorts like Artists and Fleas, but more local. Or a donation based community center with various events (music, poetry readings, etc.). Or a combination of both of those. It makes me sad that it's such a huge space collecting dust.

iamahmadrabah · May 2016

It makes me sad too. I think I just might consider that idea. I will need a army of volunteers....

whynot_31 · May 2016

If the market were not so saturated, I would consider making it a co-working space.

yesbrooklyn · May 2016

I would volunteer for something like that. Just saying

Brooklyneya · May 2016

I would volunteer as well.

brickstoner · May 2016

iamahmadrabah said:

Once upon a time this was a very entertaining and informative website. What happened? Where did everyone go? New bars, burritos, franklin ave, buildings, blah, blah, blah. Lets find something new. Time for some brain storming.

You'd appreciate it a lot more if you didn't have it at all.

I live in Bed Stuy / Bushwick and I'm stuck reading god-awful rags like the Gothamist. I have try to avoid seeing a photo of a Game of Thrones spoiler, as well as hate-reading their misinformation pieces on cops, gentrification, and associated topics, as well as their complaining about the L train (which is all that matters to the interns who work there), in order to get some semblance of local news.

"What were all those helicopters last night for hours??" I ask myself, as I look at places like dnainfo (which is my main local news source at this point).

For you folks who live in the areas concerned by this blog, PLG and CH, keep the dream alive by doing your own posting. That's what crowd sourcing is, whynot does as much as he can already with photos and reporting!

(I just wish there were more members in my neck of the woods or I wouldn't be as worried about boring people with posts about them).

booklaw · May 2016

Please bore us...we can take it! Seriously, I'd love to know more about your neighborhood. Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about Crown Heights.

goldemi1 · May 2016

Indeed there's a lot more (other) interesting stuff and dialogue than can be shared. I like what's written about now, but I live off Franklin. This is a community, and thus takes us to make it interesting.

Things I like to read about:

- renovations people are doing, with pictures, and who they're using (I could always use good leads to handymen, electricians, lighting techs, etc)

- History of the buildings in the area

- Events

- Bike rides, bike routes, bike stuff

But one more article about gentrification and I'll puke.

whynot_31 · May 2016

What's really pathetic about the Crown Heights gentrification articles is that they all say the same thing: "The area is being changed as a result of young, educated, wealthy, primarily white people PRICING OUT older, less educated, less wealthy, primarily black people.

I have yet to see a well written article on how it is affecting Crown Heights' Lubavitch ethnic/religious enclave.

http://www.brooklynian.com/discussion/comment/569206

...or really anything that can't be created by cut and pasting from prior articles like this well written one from 2013: http://narrative.ly/the-ins-and-the-outs/

As a result, most of what I jabber about continues to stem from walking my dog. He usually poops before we make it to Nostrand, so we turn around and go back home.

whynot_31 · May 2016

https://twitter.com/OurBKSocial/status/735094477254209536

mugofmead111 · May 2016

brickstoner said:

iamahmadrabah said:

Once upon a time this was a very entertaining and informative website. What happened? Where did everyone go? New bars, burritos, franklin ave, buildings, blah, blah, blah. Lets find something new. Time for some brain storming.

You'd appreciate it a lot more if you didn't have it at all.

I live in Bed Stuy / Bushwick and I'm stuck reading god-awful rags like the Gothamist. I have try to avoid seeing a photo of a Game of Thrones spoiler, as well as hate-reading their misinformation pieces on cops, gentrification, and associated topics, as well as their complaining about the L train (which is all that matters to the interns who work there), in order to get some semblance of local news.

"What were all those helicopters last night for hours??" I ask myself, as I look at places like dnainfo (which is my main local news source at this point).

For you folks who live in the areas concerned by this blog, PLG and CH, keep the dream alive by doing your own posting. That's what crowd sourcing is, whynot does as much as he can already with photos and reporting!

(I just wish there were more members in my neck of the woods or I wouldn't be as worried about boring people with posts about them).

I Like Gothamist, but I also side-eye the L train articles. With the exception of the series of articles that Nathan Tempey wrote about the de facto homeless shelter at 60 Clarkson Avenue, it seems as if this neck of the woods does not exist in Gothamist-land. (By the way, it's interesting and disappointing that a publication named "The Brooklyn Paper" doesn't even bother to cover anything outside of certain neighborhoods in the borough.)

mugofmead111 · May 2016

Okay, I have a beef with this site: the quoting function is not up to par. Facebook has a better interface.

whynot_31 · May 2016

One of the largest draw backs of the Vanilla interface is that it requires users to create their own distinct user name and password.

Larger sites allow one to log in using Google or Facebook, and that little bit of effort loses some users.

Jim67 · May 2016

I agree, I tried to connect but there seems to clicks that enjoy their privacy.

suppleknuckles · May 2016

booklaw said:

Please bore us...we can take it! Seriously, I'd love to know more about your neighborhood. Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about Crown Heights.

agreed. sick of hearing about burrito places changing hands in crown heights. i still like hearing about neighborhoods that aren't mine (i live in flatbush) but some variety would be nice. i often ride my bike to bushwick/bedstuy and wonder "What's going on here"

i try my best to post goings on in flatbush, but aside from shitty traffic and new buildings there's not much to report.

chekhovian · May 2016

mugofmead111 said:

Okay, I have a beef with this site: the quoting function is not up to par. Facebook has a better interface.

Your beef with this site is it isn't up to par with Facebook?

booklaw · May 2016

It's true, of course. We're a horse and buggy compared to Facebook's Cadillac. But then again, we neither collect nor sell anyone's personal info.

booklaw · May 2016

Maybe not a horse and buggy... Perhaps a skateboard.

whynot_31 · May 2016

I have long compared Brooklynian to my former car: A 1992 Corolla Wagon with 186k that I sold for $450 in 2003.

I ripped that buyer off.

brickstoner · May 2016

Then it's done (booklaw and supple) -- I will try to post the goings-on. :-) Some of them will be reposts of DNAInfo, some of them might be mundane postings on places that opened, some of them might be, 'Hey, I saw some zombies walking by and army helicopters shooting down at them, anyone know what's going on, I have a bitemark?' type happenings (mildly exaggerated).

Some time back whynot had some card he had printed out to make the CH and PLG people join. If someone sends me something I can print stuff out and distribute it at some coffeeshops and bars (coffeeshops and bars are generally the majority of retail around here ;-) ). The downside is we'll get 20somethings... But at least it's somethings.

I actually really like this blog (and I lived in Crown Heights). I'll stick to typing my username and password in every so often, small price to pay for whynot's continued efforts.

whynot_31 · May 2016

Vistaprint will let you design basic business cards, and print about 2000 of them for $60. One then litters them around.

However, the real return seems to be from spamming Facebook groups and other websites. They already contain people who kill time on the internet when they should be working, whereas card recipients may have work ethics and/or not be trapped in a cubicle.

Dawndew · May 2016

like

Brooklynian is Boring!

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