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| Activity on the forum, e-drama and all that bollocks | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 28 2013, 01:23 AM (2,129 Views) | |
| browland1 | Jul 28 2013, 01:23 AM Post #1 |
 
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Today was an interesting day on PGRF, but unfortunately not entirely for the right reasons. I'll be the first to admit that the dynamic of the forum has changed in recent months, and activity has dropped on most fronts. However, rather than be overly dramatic and decree the forum as a dying entity, I'd like to venture a few possible reasons why. 1. People move on. I've been active on this forum since 2009 and I've seen many great posters come and go. People move onto other interests, people get busy and interacting on a forum is no longer a priority. That's happened a lot lately, and I'm one of the active users who hasn't been as active...though that's completely due to RL concerns rather than any disliking for the forum. 2. The rise of podcasting, which has resulted in cliques forming and attention being diverted from the main sections of the forum. All Gen Gamers is a prime example of this, since many users only visit (or know of) their forum. It's happened a bit with Rad Rascals as well, which partly inspired us to forum our own forum. Well...that and the NSFW content  3. News in the gaming world has stagnated. Yes, we have a new generation of consoles on the horizon, but until they launch, there isn't much to discuss. How many "Xbox One vs. PS4" threads do we need? Plus, the summer is the dry season for game releases, so I can't think of much to get excited about. 4. This might be a controversial opinion, but there hasn't been much of a push from the more established members to spur on meaningful discussion. I count myself among those responsible. Maybe more of a push to get people talking is what we need and it really rests with us to solve the problem. I remember the days when I we could have long and vibrant discussions in the "off topic" section, or engage in a healthy debate about which RPG series is best or which pair of knickers Laura Croft looks best it. I'm rambling, but you get my point. So in short, the forum isn't dead, it's just in a downswing. It's happened many times since it's inception and it always picks up. As a moderator, one thing I will say is that e-drama and bickering, especially when it descends into personal attacks, has no place on this forum. We are gamers, we have the same interest and we should be playing for the same team. We may not always agree with each other, but civil debate and mutual respect go hand-in-hand. Do expect people to respect your opinions if you're unwilling to give the same in return. I'm not pointing the finger at anyone in particular, just giving a blanket statement that I hope everyone will take to heart. Topics that descend into flaming will be locked, and people stirring up trouble will be banned. Trolling and petty in-fighting belongs on 4Chan, not here. That being said, let's hit the "Reset" button and try to bring this forum back to life. To kickstart this, here is a picture of a cat playing video games. I hope you enjoy it.  Edited by browland1, Jul 28 2013, 01:24 AM.
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| CronoLink9 | Jul 28 2013, 01:35 AM Post #2 |
Keeper of Time
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Hear, hear! It does kind of sadden me to see the forum downswing like this, but you're right. Instead of being down in the dumps, Edited by CronoLink9, Jul 28 2013, 01:36 AM.
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Gamertag/PSN Name: CronoLink91 3DS Friend Code: 2766-8640-8214 Nintendo Network Name: CronoLink9 SPACE DANDY IS A DANDY GUY IN THE SPACE. 
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| LMG Gaming | Jul 28 2013, 02:55 AM Post #3 |
Still Alive an' Kicking
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Na, cats suck. You guys are idiots. |
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| BotzaBrand | Jul 28 2013, 04:55 AM Post #4 |
Level 5
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http://youtu.be/NPN5d0aCbLw |
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| MidiPour | Jul 28 2013, 05:18 AM Post #5 |
Power of Sardines
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Rest assured Ben, I'm trying to re-organize the chatroom and establish a mod (or two) since none existed prior. I'm that will at least tone down the drama inside and outside the chat. Unfortunately, no one had moderating powers prior besides in the Mibbit chat, so alot of NSFW content slipped in. But alas, here's to improving the overall conversation, cheers and feline powar! 
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| EuropeanGamer | Jul 28 2013, 05:56 AM Post #6 |
Level 5
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Whilst i can say that i can agree with you on some of the point's you have stated , i respectfully disagree with this one. I think its inaccurate to call it a downswing when the activity of this forum clearly illustrates a dead forum. From what i have seen the forum has been in a constant downswing since the start of 2012 and it hasn't looked like picking up since. The discussion's in general are pretty poor in comparison to debates in 2009-2011 and honestly unless we suddenly get a influx of new members who's posting qualities are similiar to the likes of old members such as bediger and dizzydial the forum will continue to stagnate. Edited by EuropeanGamer, Jul 28 2013, 05:56 AM.
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| muragaru553 | Jul 28 2013, 06:55 AM Post #7 |
(ノ^^)八(^^ )ノ
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1. Yeah, forums always go through their ebbs and flows. It's just how things are. 2. I would think that there being so many podcasts that there would be an influx of members and discussions. I honestly feel that there doesn't seem to be much interest in that. It seems like a lot of people's interests do not overlap, which makes it hard to really to carry conversations sometimes. It also is difficult when there are members giving curt responses all the time. Trying to be humorous is one thing, but to do it all the time with a majority of one's responses is more annoying and not funny. 3. Gaming news is one thing, but should that really be such a big deal? We have a ton of people interested in retro stuff. Why should gaming news be so lauded? I agree with the summer slump for being on the forums and what not. I don't blame people. If they have the free time go spend it enjoying out and about:D 4. I am definitely in this group. It feels like anything I had put up no one really cared for, so I simply stopped. It's not a big deal, but if I am not engaging in conversations with somebody over something interesting, I'm not going to dawdle on the forum. The last few days I have had more free time, so I have started to reply to more topics and stuff in hopes of bringing more interest in the forum. Also, I think a huge reason there is an even larger drop off than usual is the lack of people like Pete and co. on the forums. They seem to pop in for a post or two in the AGG, but the other sections rarely get much attention. I understand being busy and having things they need/want to do; I don't fault them for that. However, this kinda gets promoted (or at least did) as a way to connect to those guys outside of the confines of Youtube. When people realize that that isn't as much of the case, they generally don't seem to stick around, especially if what they read ends up being brusque responses. I think people should generate discussions for fun and not drop snide comments all the time, but that's how I feel. |
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My 3DS Friend code: 2148 - 8833 - 4520 Ao no Kiseki  Nayuta no Kiseki (July 26th)  Power on Podcast: (Youtube/Latest Episode) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esaWXwEXSb4 血の海に沈むがいい！ (Archive) https://ia601402.us.archive.org/0/items/PowerOnPodcastPortableEpisode21/Power%20on%20Podcast%20Portable%20Episode%2021.mp3Contra III vs. Gunstar Heroes | |
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| Kharnivore2099 | Jul 28 2013, 07:25 AM Post #8 |
Retroverdose
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Great post Ben, i agree on most fronts. My activity has dropped a little bit recently, but is mainly due to me not able to give decent contributions to a certain topic or that my topics aren't in most other members interests. I'm still on here most days looking through posts and spending a wonderful amount of time trashing Spam. I think if people are going to declare the forum as dying then maybe they should be making an effort to counteracts it, rather than just stating it as dead. It can be difficult if the topic doesn't gather much attention, but if it's worth a minor discussion then it's still worth a post. There are a few cliques on here, but i don't think that is a bad thing. Each have thier own sense of humour and have thier own ways of talking about things, sometimes posts get taken the wrong way or a point is missed but i have rarely seen a negative post directed at anyone of late, though there are a few exceptions. If you feel you are being singled out though, feel free to contact myself or another Mod or report the post. It's good to get another view on a situation, we don't like fights or bad blood so we will do our best to help out. |
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| MidiPour | Jul 28 2013, 07:36 AM Post #9 |
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Power of Sardines
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@European Gamer, I agree, the quantity and quality of posts have fell off since. It has become more of an obligation to make threads to promote activity by a small few than the natural flow of threads we saw in the first few years. I guess the difference is Facebook/Twitter have become acceptable avenues for socializing, so it kind of took away the desire to have a forum supplement Youtube. |
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| LMG Gaming | Jul 28 2013, 06:19 PM Post #10 |
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Still Alive an' Kicking
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Yeah, I think you are right with this one. I was bought to this forum by the All Gen Gamers, as were many others. For a year or two, the hosts were very active within the community and almost everyone on here listened to the AGG podcast, inspiring lots of discussion about games, consoles, news and memes from the podcast. AGG has been going on for so long now that many people have stopped listening to it as a person's interest in something often wanes. The AGG section of the forum used to be bustling with people creating threads and them posting on them and now it is not. Kind of like Detroit. |
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| crazykrafft | Jul 28 2013, 06:29 PM Post #11 |
The moral is: You're a total BITCH!
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Agree with this 100%, the only member of the AGG group that post stuff on a regular basis is Metal Jesus. It would do a lot of good if the other members would start posting more often. |
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| KingJames88 | Jul 28 2013, 07:08 PM Post #12 |
Ds Games!
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With my internet problems as of late, my activity has dropped a lot, but I've been trying to post when I get the chance. Most of the topics I create are in the 3ds section, which has been a little slow in news, or people have beaten me to it, because of the aforementioned internet problems. I did try to bring back a couple of off topic threads like the vacations threat and comic book thread, but they seem to fall right back to the bottom. Even with video games news being dead, I figured plenty of people here like vacations and comic books but neither got much of a response if any. I think the new topics in general have been a bit weaker to those created in the past, and often lead more to lists and polls rather than discussions. Not always a bad thing, but too many competitions and polls and lists doesn't really lend to generating activity on a forum with any deep discussion that will keep people around. |
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| eSkilliam | Jul 28 2013, 08:40 PM Post #13 |
Gamer. Graphic Designer. Geek.
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I've been barely on for the past year and a half because my life has been taking me in other directions, but I noticed the severe "clique"-ing of small groups before I cut back my activity. It happened when everyone decided that they needed to have their own clone of the AGG podcast. A few were good and original, but most of them just copied what AGG did. (I never claimed that AGG was the first to do what they did) Anyway, I fussed a bit about it at that point but since my life was taking me mostly away from the forums, I just kind of dropped it. I don't know what is going on now, so I can't speak past the origin of the clique-ish behaviour. |
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eSkilliam on Steam - eSkilliam on Wii U - CetiAlphaVI on PS4 eSkilliamgaming on Youtube - eSkilliam on Twitch - eSkilliam on Twitter | |
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| lol_pc | Jul 28 2013, 08:46 PM Post #14 |
\m/ (>_<) \m/
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I've seen this type of stagnation happen on a gaming forum before, I was very active on a forum that was created right before the current generation of consoles, it was a mecca of interesting topics and discussions, after 3-4 years it fell apart and has now been completely taken down. You can start to see this development on PGRF, creative topics are becoming scarce and most posts have been reduced to nothing more than a few lines (I too am guilty of this). This is a common problem on an internet forum, when a forum stagnates it spreads to everyone, people get less creative and the spirit of community lessens. I think what the forum needs is a revival, and I think the only people who can initiate this revival are the people with a large enough audience. PGRF was brought to life through YouTube, and I think that would be a good place to go back and advertise for the forum. |
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| muragaru553 | Jul 28 2013, 09:29 PM Post #15 |
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(ノ^^)八(^^ )ノ
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I agree that forums stagnating leads to its members going through the same. It happens. Plus, it probably is one of the few ways to make the forums more lively is for the larger audiences to see someone promote the forum, but we as a forum should also take the reins and make the forum a place to be. Maybe, Pete should downsize the amount of different sections. That might help a bit. @eSkilliam I see your point about that being the time when cliques started to emerge and really splinter everyone. It's no big deal that's life. As someone who makes a podcast that isn't at all like AGG, it doesn't really seem to matter much to people and falls back to what lol_pc was saying about stagnation. Try to make a podcast/thread/whatever to promote a discussion on games and you get nothing. Bringing in new blood is one thing, but if the members that are already here aren't that interested in talking about games why does that responsibility fall on new members? |
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My 3DS Friend code: 2148 - 8833 - 4520 Ao no Kiseki Nayuta no Kiseki (July 26th) Power on Podcast: (Youtube/Latest Episode) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esaWXwEXSb4 血の海に沈むがいい！ (Archive) https://ia601402.us.archive.org/0/items/PowerOnPodcastPortableEpisode21/Power%20on%20Podcast%20Portable%20Episode%2021.mp3Contra III vs. Gunstar Heroes | |
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| browland1 | Jul 28 2013, 10:54 PM Post #16 |
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This goes back to one of my main points. Keeping discussion flowing requires participation from all sides, but the existing members really set the tone that the newcomers will follow. If someone joins the forum and there is lots to talk about, chances are they will stick around and become contributory members. If they come and the forum is DOA, they are unlikely to stick around. I'm also aware that it's a catch-22, since people who do try to contribute meaningful content are often met with dead silence, or the topic quickly gets buried by a poll or "guess this..." thread. Other times, a good thread gets overwhelmed by people posting pictures and memes that completely derail the discussion, making it hard for those outside the conversation to pitch in. Again, I plead guilty to participating in this. Having said all that, I still believe in this forum and the community that has grown around it. I've made some good friends, angered a few trolls and hopefully contributed in a positive way. Since life is settling down and the never ending saga of me moving is coming to an end, I will be more active on here. Edited by browland1, Jul 28 2013, 10:54 PM.
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| AndsyRR | Jul 29 2013, 08:27 AM Post #17 |
 
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Fight moar. Post less. 
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| Nathan | Jul 29 2013, 01:04 PM Post #18 |
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I've been in and out of here constantly, used to be a mod here. Then a lot of things happened was completely gone for a year, now only on occasionally, now college is about to be starting, so it will probably be less, the "drama" I just ignore, but it is obviously notable. It's amusing tho.
Edited by Nathan, Jul 29 2013, 11:10 PM.
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 ..  My Xat Chat My Facebook My Last.fm
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| hooflung128 | Jul 29 2013, 03:05 PM Post #19 |
Level 7
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I don't really understand the eDrama because this forum's layout and sub forums is built from the ground up to support multiple communities. It is kind of 'its thing.' As for activity I think this is not just a problem here but on many small community forums where you don't have 50 thousand people interacting, but less than a hundred. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and youtube have fragmented communities and at the same time brought more together. There are a lot of people here who interact with each other outside of this forum and there are a lot of people who consume content from each other. Until we automate a lot of these different sources we'll have to dig deeper to find out which water cooler we're hanging out in. |
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| 605506 | Jul 29 2013, 03:53 PM Post #20 |
Level 4
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the first time I commented here in awhile Out of all of your points you displayed, I believe your 4th point is the biggest. I still love and have the passion for gaming just as much as I did when I first joined the forum. I still check the forums often and I want to comment and get into the discussions but these past year or so, I haven't been commenting as often because some of the discussions and topics here are getting kind of stale and unoriginal. I keep seeing the same old cliched threads that I've already commented on like "opinions on whatever" or "favorite whatever" "such vs such debate", etc. These are all of the topics I've seen before and nothing is interesting if its the same. I would love to see some more creative topics and such. Again, part of it is because there is nothing really interesting going on in the gaming world and the hype around the next gen consoles are not really getting any buzz from gamers. Yeah there are other topics like pop-culture, movies, sports, music, food, random topics on the off-topic section. But at the same time, this is primarily a gaming forum. Another point I would like to add is that its not neccesarily the forum's fault but the internet culture in general is very different from what it was since the early 06-07 days of youtube. Since more of the population is using the internet in this day in age, the youtube gaming community in comparison to the increasing billions of internet users is getting smaller and less "community-oriented" nowadays. There are numerous gaming groups and other groups than the youtube community now and its harder to get noticed. Anyways thats my 2 cents on this topic. Hopefully this is down period won't result in a dead forum. I've been a part of two previous youtube gaming forums that are now dead before pgrf and this current one has lasted the longest by far despite this long down period. |
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| pokemonzrpg | Jul 29 2013, 09:51 PM Post #21 |
Zach Archer
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I think what we can take from this is that we should be making more threads about how we need more activity, because this has been one of the more popular threads in a long time!  But really, I agree with most of the people before me. Personally, I don't like how some of the inactive members have been disappointed in the condition of PGRF when they had basically stopped posting before it even got to this point. If more of these members would come back and actually make an effort to improve the forums, we would be just fine. Even now, we have a lot of great members on here that I love talking to and interacting with. We just need to all focus and make more constructive threads as we move forward. If we all just started to think about cool topics that could spark interest and actually provoke extensive responses (ironically like this very topic), PGRF would be sitting pretty. I myself plan on thinking of more ways to improve and support the forum in whatever little ways I can, and I hope everyone else will too. |
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| Nathan | Jul 29 2013, 10:49 PM Post #22 |
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Did you intend for the title of this make me instantly think of the sex pistols?
Edited by Nathan, Jul 29 2013, 11:11 PM.
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.. My Xat Chat My Facebook My Last.fm
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| sdcpro | Jul 29 2013, 10:53 PM Post #23 |
Level 9
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I miss the topic about couch stains. Seriously, I would come in and laugh my ass off lol Taylor brought up a great point that while modern gaming may seem uninteresting at the moment, we still have tons of past generation games we can talk about. We can't blame a lack of activity on the forum because gaming news is lame at the moment, we just have to generate discussions about different topics. I started up a Chrono Cross discussion thread since I'm halfway through the game and diggin it. I've been in and out for a bit and feeling the same as other members, but activity won't start unless someone starts it. I'm going to do my part and try to create discussion threads whether it's past, current, or future gaming whether there is news or not. We can't expect new members to come in and "make things better." If we don't feel like the topics are that great, they won't either and won't stick around. |
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| muragaru553 | Jul 29 2013, 11:16 PM Post #24 |
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(ノ^^)八(^^ )ノ
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Though I don't post it all over the forums, I think what Sushi and I, and now Greg, try to do is promote discussion about games through the podcast we do. It isn't solely about retro or RPGs, but just about games and different things in gaming. We have had topics like making our own game themed restaurants, characters we would like to share a drink with, making our own sports teams with game characters, building your own robot masters, things are made us angry in gaming, etc. Honestly, we have had very little to no response from members within the forums. We do get some comments on the videos themselves, which is great. This is why, while I agree that the members already here need to be more active, it seems like many don't care for anyone outside of their clique or the big channels. That's natural. I'm not whining or saying OMFG guys listen to my stuff. I'm simply making a point through my perspective and how others may possibly feel when approaching the forum. Why try talking with people here, if none of them seemingly want to even try to meet you half way? Not saying people should bend over backwards to greet every new member, but people should act more like a community and not only say we should. Comment on a random thread you normally pass over. Engage members you never really banter back and for with. It may have Pete's name on it, but there are so many others that are a part of this forum. Also, Chrono Cross is a fun fun game:D |
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My 3DS Friend code: 2148 - 8833 - 4520 Ao no Kiseki Nayuta no Kiseki (July 26th) Power on Podcast: (Youtube/Latest Episode) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esaWXwEXSb4 血の海に沈むがいい！ (Archive) https://ia601402.us.archive.org/0/items/PowerOnPodcastPortableEpisode21/Power%20on%20Podcast%20Portable%20Episode%2021.mp3Contra III vs. Gunstar Heroes | |
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| megasonic831 | Jul 29 2013, 11:20 PM Post #25 |
Level 1
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Bring back the couch stain topic please |
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11:48 AM Jul 13