# Alternative Bristol - The Big 3



## munkeeunit (Oct 16, 2005)

~~~Forwarded Message~~~



ALTERNATIVE BRISTOL - THE BIG 3
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As the years go by more and more people are getting online. Up until now a number of internet groups and forums for Bristol have come and gone, or withered on the vine. Out of this electronic melting pot three groups - a newswire and two forums - are now emerging as the big alternative players. 

In their own different ways Bristol Indymedia, Bristol Community Forum, and the Bristol Social Forum share some remarkable similarities and underlying goals. All are free at the point of use, all strive to root themselves in their communities as their main engine of growth, and all are emerging as the key online alternatives to the highly corporate, uniform, and often censored Bristol mainstream.

They are all publicised together below. 

Please visit them, contribute to them, and give them your support.


1.) Bristol Community Forum
2.) Bristol Indymedia 
3.) Bristol Social Forum


1.)  WELCOME TO THE BRISTOL COMMUNITY FORUM!
Please Visit: http://www.bristolforum.co.uk
“Whether you're looking for a place to chat, play games, meet people, or send texts, then Bristol Forum is for you! 
You can chat about almost anything here, and you can also look at our members reviews on Bristols nightlife, restaurants, games, films and much more! You can even find some ideas on places to go if you’re bored! Better still, write your own review and tell us what you think!
Our forum is very friendly, and whatever you like, you are sure to find a topic which will suit you. You can even keep us up-to-date if you want by writing your own Blog. 
And that is only part of this forum! We've got a games arcade featuring over 45 top games of every genre. Fancy sending your mate a text? Do it here! Want to sell your old pc? Do it here! Just want to chat? Do it here!
There are hundreds of reasons why you should join this forum. Its fun, friendly, and free! Boredom will be a thing of the past once you join!
So JOIN TODAY!  Remember, its fun, friendly and FREE!”


2.)  BRISTOL INDYMEDIA... READ IT, WRITE IT, YOUR SITE, YOUR NEWS…
Please Visit: http://www.bristol.indymedia.org/
“Bristol Indymedia carries the banner of 'Read It, Write It, Your Site, Your News...’ which means exactly what it says on the tin. The 'Submit An Article' button takes you to our article submission form. All you need to do is fill in the form. As if by magic your article should then appear on our newswire within minutes of you submitting your article.
If you've never tried your hand at writing articles, it's not as difficult or as daunting as it seems. Some articles only need to be a few sentences. Or, for those of you who already have experience at writing articles elsewhere, or at other times in your life, it would be great to see your articles posted up on Bristol Indymedia too.
Your article may even be turned into a front page feature and put into the middle column with a picture. As Bristol Indymedia is intended as a regional news resource, anything which isn’t directly relevant to Bristol or the South West may be hidden, but only if your article is outside of, or breaks guidelines, will it be moved to our hidden section.”


3.) THE BRISTOL SOCIAL FORUM - ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE!
Please Visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bristolsocialforum
The Bristol Social Forum e-group will soon be upgraded to a better on-line platform where groups across Bristol will be able to more actively share files. To join the existing e-group, please send a blank email to the address below and wait for the confirmation message:
Email: bristolsocialforum-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
“On Sat 30th April 2005 Bristol activists from diverse political backgrounds organised to launch the Bristol Social Forum. Inspired by the World and European Social Forums, and bonded by the belief in people over profit, local social forums now exist across the UK and around the world. The Bristol Social Forum aims to be a place where people can communicate, learn from each other and form active campaigns around local issues, in the belief that getting together is vital for effective campaigning.
The first World Social Forum, held in Porto Alegre in 2001, proclaimed that ‘Another World is Possible’. The World Social is 'an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and inter-linking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a society centred on the human person'." 


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ALTERNATIVE BRISTOL - THE BIG 3
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## inks (Oct 17, 2005)

Same spam you've posted up on Bristol Indymedia, Bristol Community Forum and no doubt have emailed me too.

Far from being the 'big 3' these sites are all moribund and unused.

Bristol Community Forum gets a post every few days.  And that post isn't interesting.

Bristol Indymedia has cleaned up it's act recently but still isn't getting any news, it's mostly there to advertise gigs.

Bristol Social Forum?  That seems to have ground to a halt completely.

Meanwhile Choke, VoodooJunkie, 2Bristol, Hijack, The Talkboard and Red Square are all busy, busy independent sites pumping out Bristol news, info, music and events.


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## munkeeunit (Oct 17, 2005)

What, so you've given a load of music forums (nice as they are) in response to publicity about community forums and newswires. You're stupidly comparing apples and pears in a lame excuse for trolling.

As for 2Bristol, well, for all the forums you and your weird mates troll claiming that only 4 people use them, yours is the only forum in Bristol which only 4 people use. It's just a poor, pale, plagiarised copy of This Is Bristol. 

Anyway, I've been told not to talk to Trolls, so I won't any further.


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## J77 (Oct 17, 2005)

FAQ said:
			
		

> 2. No advertising of any kind. We are not interested in hearing about your company/website/product/new song/gig/glowing rave underpants. This is a non-profit, community discussion forum, not a free advertising resource and offenders will be given a spanked botty. Adverts for commercial gigs/events/parties are not allowed unless cleared beforehand by the admin team (PM with your request). Persistent spammers will be banned and reported to their ISPs - or worse. Signature files/avatars are disabled and putting in links to your own website with every post isn't permitted either: we want to hear your opinions, not see the same link with every post!


The OP is spam tho'

How many hits/threads/posts do the so-called 'big 3' get compared with U75's Bristol forum?


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## munkeeunit (Oct 17, 2005)

J77 said:
			
		

> The OP is spam tho'
> 
> How many hits/threads/posts do the so-called 'big 3' get compared with U75's Bristol forum?



Hi J77. I was focusing on specific Bristol forums this time. I've given Urban75 and other Bristol/South West/National forums the same publicity in the past and will do again in the future.


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## J77 (Oct 17, 2005)

munkeeunit said:
			
		

> Hi J77. I was focusing on specific Bristol forums this time. I've given Urban75 and other Bristol/South West/National forums the same publicity in the past and will do again in the future.


See where you're coming from - as it's all about awareness and local issues I guess the mods leave this type of linkage alone


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## munkeeunit (Oct 17, 2005)

J77 said:
			
		

> See where you're coming from - as it's all about awareness and local issues I guess the mods leave this type of linkage alone



Thanks. 

I should have been more clear that I'm not just publicising these 3, and that Urban 75 (and others) will get another good round of publicity a little later. There's about 60 or so regional e-groups, for starters, which I think would be happy to know about all you lovely Bristol / South West Urbanites (if they don't already).


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## inks (Oct 17, 2005)

_What, so you've given a load of music forums (nice as they are) in response to publicity about community forums and newswires. You're stupidly comparing apples and pears in a lame excuse for trolling._

I'm no troll.

The music forums that I listed are all big, bustling and cover more than music.  They really are community based websites for Bristol.  The community is focused around music, but every online community needs a focus.  They get about a hundred times the action of the sites that you posted up here.

That's why they don't need to advertise here, while you do.

Bristol Community Forum has no community focus, no-one uses it and last time I looked they were saying they were ready to give up on the project.  You may as well have cited St Pauls Unlimited as one of the 'big 3'.

Meanwhile the BIM newswire is mostly leftie listings.  The nearest it's come to news in the last couple of months has been a recycled article that was discussed on Urban75 a month ago: 
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=130781&highlight=shaylor

http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=24322

And was also covered by the Evening Post...

Don't get me wrong, BIM has cleaned it's act up recently and I wish it well but it needs to get a focus on news and start reporting stuff, otherwise it doesn't seem to have a reason to exist.

_As for 2Bristol, well, for all the forums you and your weird mates troll claiming that only 4 people use them, yours is the only forum in Bristol which only 4 people use. It's just a poor, pale, plagiarised copy of This Is Bristol._

You've been reading the place intensively, I think.  Who is the fourth person though?  Your comparision to This Is Bristol is interesting - I generally lead on that site.  It's surprising how many articles on the Evening Post and BBC Bristol sites are just reprinted press releases.  I get the same press releases so some articles look similar.


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## Zaskar (Oct 18, 2005)

Munkee you really are a creep and a spammer.  As ever anyone who takes issue with you gets called a troll, (actually most people here do that).  As Inks says the sites you list are nearly dead, '2bristol' is growing and inks's determination to keep it clean and uncensored (unlike bim) will see it fourish I am sure.

It would be interesting to know what the hits/ unique visitors of the big 3 are?

My little site gets around 1500 unique visits / 40,000 hits / 10,000 pages a month.... Is that enough to get me into the big three ?

My stats: http://zaskarfilms.com/plesk-stat/webstat/


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## inks (Oct 18, 2005)

What's good is that there is a diverse range of independent community / forum / news sites for Bristol.

With a million people in Bristol and the surrounding area there's more than enough users out there for everyone.

From the corporate Bristol Community Forum (commercial adverts, RSS news feed from the BBC, runs on Invision software) to the mad politically-correct anarchists of BIM there's something for everyone.

Even our local football hooligans have their own community forum where they can chat over old battles with the Cardiff Soul Crew: http://ghsmoddy.proboards42.com/index.cgi


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## Callie (Oct 18, 2005)

whats the best 'non-alternative' Bristol website? iyswim?


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## inks (Oct 18, 2005)

Lol!  I just googled on IYSWIM thinking "IYSWIM?  That's a Bristol site I've not heard of before".

I don't think there's a 'best'.

2Bristol.com (my own site, I hope no-one minds) is intended to be a family / work safe news and community site for Bristol.  It's growing at it's own pace.

Bristol Community Forum doesn't look especially alternative.

Of the 'mainstream media' there isn't really one particular site but the BBC and Evening Post sites might be what you're after.  Probably not though, they're not very flexible.


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## Callie (Oct 18, 2005)

I was just wondering, you all seem shit hot on these alternative sites, I just wondered what there was in terms of a general Bristol site - what the city has to offer for everyone - young, old, families, tourists. There must be one? does venue have a website?   I know thats not what most people here are interested in but they must exist?


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## Callie (Oct 18, 2005)

inks said:
			
		

> Of the 'mainstream media' there isn't really one particular site but the BBC and Evening Post sites might be what you're after.  Probably not though, they're not very flexible.




Im not really looking for myself but the thread is 'alternative bristol', i guessed it must be compared to an non-alternative bristol? If You See What I Mean ?


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## inks (Oct 18, 2005)

Well, there's the Evening Post's beehive site although it's not something I've really explored myself:

http://beehive.thisisbristol.com/

There's the BBC site.

Also digital bristol:

http://www.digitalbristol.org/

Although it's not that great and doesn't seem to have a community around it.


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## inks (Oct 18, 2005)

I'm not sure that 'alternative' means a great deal when it is used to include a site like the Bristol Community Forum which is very corporate / commercial in outlook.

'Independent' might be a better way to describe sites.


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## WasGeri (Oct 19, 2005)

Zaskar said:
			
		

> Munkee you really are a creep and a spammer.



At least he doesn't send people sneaky PMs accusing them of committing criminal acts they have nothing to do with.


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## Isambard (Oct 20, 2005)

<public service mode>




			
				Zaskar said:
			
		

> determination to keep it clean and uncensored (unlike bim)






			
				Inks said:
			
		

> the mad politically-correct anarchists of BIM



I refer you both to the sticky at the top of this forum from MrsMagpie.

</public service mode>


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