The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Are there fliers this year? Is there a digital version we could put up here for us out-of-towners to drool over?

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

So I take it there aren't any fliers this year? What with the extra month to plan, I'm a little surprised...

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

The website is the flyer. The flyer is beginning to feel somewhat out of date.

I love the fliers. Whomever puts those together, kudos! I'm a graphic designer and I think theyre great...I always look forward to seeing them.

You can't put a stack of a web site by the register in a store. Using only a web site relies on word of mouth or chance to get new people in. I saw a flier before my first marathon. I wasn't looking for a sci-fi marathon at the time.

It seems like we go through this every year about the fliers, possibly every year with Will. I think it was just last year there was a very intense thread where someone argued very passionately AGAINST fliers-period and kept saying they served no use because we have the internet. I still think that's a crazy position to take. The internet is a great tool to search for something either specific or general, but I doubt very seriously that people who have never been to a 24 hour movie marathon are googling "24 hour movie marathon, columbus, drexel, science-fiction" or any combination of that in March and just stumble upon the marathons. Maybe a couple, but I doubt it. The best advertising is word of mouth, but failing that it's stumbling upon fliers. Just like trailers are the best promotion tool for movies but a poster goes a long way too. And the fliers have consistently been graphically interesting over the 20+ years of marathon history. A lot of people over the years have gone into their favorite comic book stores, record stores, thrift stores, etc... and found a flier only find themselves standing in line one Saturday morning to watch movies for 24 hours with hundreds of strangers. The fliers work, and they're great to look at, and a lot of us have collected them over the years. So love the internet all you want, and if you see a flier, no one is making you pick it up. But maybe if you hand a friend a cool looking flier he'll be more apt to attend than if he looks at the message board and see all the die hards, beg and moan and plead and complain and geek out like we all do. 20 years from now he may find that flier and remember how much fun he had, but I doubt he'll find or even want to find this website archived somewhere.

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

An intense thread, you say? Like this one?

Last year's intense thread.

Since we are in the second decade of the 21st century majority of cell phones can browse the web. Majority of my posts is on my Blackberry. Heck if any of you have a smartphone or a feature phone it is real easy to look at this page.

So yes the website is better than a flyer.

I don't think anyone argues against a website being overall more useful than a flyer - and if we had to choose one or the other, then having the website is a no-brainer.

But it doesn't have to be an either-or situation, now does it?

Once again, same as last year, NOT THE POINT WE ARE MAKING. This webpage is easy to look at, but this webpage is also not lying on the counter in a comic book store.

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

Oh! PLEASE DO NOT GO DOWN THIS ROAD AGAIN. I remember that inane thread. Don't make me boycott this thread as well?! I am running out of threads to constantly check on this website. I have already boycotted one due to the overuse of political views. I would really hate to have to boycott this one due to re-visiting stupid arguments. JUST LET IT GO!! (and a sarcastic "thanks" to Joe for providing the link to the idiocy)
Okay, no paper fliers this year. Fine. Move on. Tell your friends, families, acrch-enemies, anyone! Send out the web address to everyone on your email list. Make your own flier and post it around town. How about a contest for the most creative paper flier?

Marathonoid88, all due respect, but you don't have to read all the threads. You don't have to reply to all the threads. Hell, you're free to judge everyone engaged in semi-ridiculous circular argument in any thread. That's why there are tons of discussion threads going on here: there are folks who will gravitate towards some, and folks who will gravitate towards others (wait, did somebody say GRAVITY?) In the history of this board, there have been threads that have annoyed me; when they do, I usually just move on to another thread.

The only reason that I posted that link to last year's (ahem) intense thread was in the hopes that everyone would revisit it and possibly not have to go down that road again. But when you have a forum like this that's populated by many strong and diverse opinions (a good thing!), its bound to have strong discussions and debates...including about fliers, which in many ways have been as ingrained a part of the Columbus Marathons as Bruce's trailers...or Ro-Man winning yet another damn costume contest. And yes, when relevant, politics and philosophy can enter into those discussions. I brought up Dante's Homecoming in the other thread to illustrate how some of the great genre directors of our time have used films as social commentary. My favorite horror film of all time is Dawn of the Dead, which is intentionally loaded to the gills with satirical jabs at consumer culture.

Now, did a few folks go a bit over the top in that other thread? Did they (perhaps unintentionally) try to steer it into a purely political debate? Yeah, and that's why I made the notes about moving that debate to the the Off Topic section. But discussions that hold no interest for some are bound to occur here. If not, this would be a mighty boring place to hang around.

ADDENDUM: I should also emphasize that our intention in creating this forum was in part to allow vigorous debate. But that debate should come with at least some respect for the opinions of others on this board. Not every disagreement we have here has to be a blood feud; we're all allowed to bust each others chops a bit in the spirit of good-natured fun.

I appreciate vigorous debate and diverse opinions and all that. Quite frankly, the only thing that would drive me away from this board is if the moderators were to suddenly decide that we can't have differing opinions and arguments.

Most of the time, if I read something stupid on the board, I choose to ignore it. It just really drives me up a wall when someone says "hey, the sky is blue" and someone else responds "no, carrots are orange."

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

The issue is that the conversations go so far off-topic that it becomes rediculous. And no one says anything to try and get it back on track. Great! Everyone has an opinion. And everyone is entitled to an opionion. But when it becomes a thread that is so far beyone what the forum was designed to discuss, it become redundant and should be moved. I have to admit that my reply to your previous post is on the verge of such a situation (for this I apologize to all). I come here to learn something new about the marathon or discuss the movies IN the marathon, or just hear what people have to say about a movie in general. Whether I agree or not. I don't disparage people from their opinions when it comes to marathon-related discussions. I actually appreciate them because I may not have viewed a movie in a certain way before. Or it makes me re-examine how I may have perceived a movie. For this, I am thankful. But when things go off on a tangent and do end up as circular arguments, it is time to just let things go.

Joe, Feel free to move the rest of this to another thread if you like or remove it entirely. It is off-topic.

If I remember right, you were the one encoraging me to not boycott the boards all-togeter. But you are right. I don't have to read every thread (which I do) and I don't have to respond to every thread (which I don't). In fact, I normally stay out of most of the discussions, except for maybe a quick show of excitement for a movie or such.

It just gets tiring when the arguments, and you can sugar coat them all you want by calling them "debates", go on and on and on and on and on to no real conclusion. And it is disheartening to go to a thread hoping for something about the marathon and end up with an argument over paper or electrons.

So, I will get down fro my soapbox now.

See everyone at the marathon.

Hey, guys, we're all in the same boat here. (Wait, did that lifeboat say "Titanic" on it? Where's my ticket again?) This really isn't meant to be busting anyone's chops or anything, just let me say a few words ...


That's our "official" blanket policy people, and while we're not fascists about it when things steer political or get a bit too rough we feel like we need to reserve the right to step in. We're not here to babysit, or to make sure people's feelings aren't hurt, we just want to see the conversation stay relevant to the events that we're all here for ... the marathons.

There are PLENTY of other places on the Tubes where you can go beat each other up over politics, Raisin Bran, boxers -vs- briefs ... whatever you like. You have our blessing. We just don't want that to be HERE.

To get back to the original topic, I just want to re-iterate (ONE MORE TIME) what Joe said in the previous thread and what's been said here ...

None of the marathons have "given up" on the concept of the flier. We love 'em, we know you guys love 'em. There are a TON of reasons why one wasn't made this year (not the least of which is that the lineup is still in flux even at this late date.)

If we get one this year (which I'm thinking is doubtful, and of dubious benefit at this point) then we'll do everything we can to get them out and to post it on the website for you. Nobody's "given up" on them, but this year has been tougher than most.

Guys, it's OK to be concerned about the lack of a flier ... we feel your pain. And Joe's merely pointing out that we've been down this rabbit hole before, last year, and that both then and now we acknowledge just how much this means to you.

But as always, let's be civil about all this. Seriously, we HATE swinging the admin-bat. Godlike powers do not become us.

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David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
"Damnati Im Ludum" (VitruvianZeke@att.net)