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our complements to the message board, and regards to captain dunsel.

Don't know why this interest in ending the message board, but this is a community. Facebook doesn't cover all the things that are covered here and all the ideas and opinions are only found on this venue.Keep the board, the world will be a sadder place without it.

There are still a LOT of messageboards out there. They can work if they are better integrated with the main site. A tiny 2 inch picture of Shatner halfway down the main page in the left margin is hardly well-integrated.

It has been discussed.

I think the "thread" the board is hanging on is made of pretty sturdy material.

can we give that annoying option to post a messageboard posting on Facebook. if it costs money to do that let me apologize for asking in advance.
does anyone want to admit to missing the joke in the subject box? "hangs by a thread"? get it? message thread?
come on. fess up.

Understand:  I was one of the first to vote no and snark at Garen for his (or whoever handles the official account on Facebook's) hilarious attempt at spin ("well, the vote's running 8-1 against the board being obsolete, but only a few people have voted in one day, so that must mean people don't care about the board!").  When I saw "anachronistic", I don't mean it as an insult, but in fact as something quite different from "obsolete".

I'm just trying to figure out the forces at work here:  As much as there are still some boards left, a lot of them have shut down or become ghost towns as people migrate to the more convenient Facebook and Disqus-powered comment threads, which allow site owners to more directly shape the content of their site (whether by design or as a useful-to-them side effect), and Garen's been trying to push us toward the front page for years.

I think the results of the poll are pretty much going to kill any idea of forcing the issue pretty quickly, but I do sort of wonder if the community might be better off Facebook-friending and Twitter-following each other and interacting in a more decentralized way year-round.  I like message boards and have since they were BBSes, but that I see certain people here but not elsewhere (and vice versa) sometimes makes this seem as much clique as community, if you know what I mean.

Plus, I do wonder how much of the explosive growth of Fantastic Fest in Austin compared to other North American genre festivals is due to them really getting how modern internet communities work.  I mean, they're still around and huge while the Boston Fantastic Film Festival which started the same year but just failed to thrive.  Or, heck, look at the amazing growth of All Things Horror Presents at the Somerville while Garen's "Terrorthon" is pretty much dead.

As much as I like the message board and think it's important, I really can see why the festival would want to move discussion of it out into the greater online world versus what is effectively a private club.  I'd love for both to exist, but don't begrudge Garen wanting to move into the 21st century if at all possible.

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(Puts body armor on)

Every festival's regulars think it's more special than it actually is, and there are a lot that you can put alongside the 'thon.  I mean, the community around Fantastic Fest is huge, and it's not just Austinites or former Austinites; it's people who got drawn in because love of the event spilled out of its specific community and into the virtual one.  The absolutely insane Japanese film Mutant Girls Squad exists because of people getting drunk at the New York Asian Film Festival.

Fact is, most genre film festivals are pretty far from the staid way that film festival in general are often assumed to go down.  The 'Thon is a pretty fantastic one, but the attitude that it's incredibly unique with almost no room for improvement is kind of frustrating.