POLL: 259'S NEW NAME

[Van]

Under the recent IC circumstances, I move that we change the name of the board from 'Public High School 259', to 'Ground 259'.

Reasons I feel we should do this:

• The high school no longer exists.
  
• The site's plot now encompasses a much larger area than just the school.
  
• The name 'Public High School' deters new members from the older generation, who have been out of high school, and possible even college, for many years. Even though the board is no longer centered around a high school, the name itself might dissuade potential new members from joining.
  
• The name 'Ground 259' is symbolic, derived from Ground Zero, the monumental site where the WTC were struck down on 9/11. The parallels between the fall of the WTC and the fall of PHS 259 are tragically numerous, and the symbolism will give our site's plot a whole new depth of meaning.
  
• A dramatic name change is appropriate for the current 259 renaissance.
  
• It sounds cool.

Anyone second the motion?

Poll ends Tuesday, April 3rd.

[Leta]

I second this ^_^

[Your Mom~]

On one hand, this board has been PHS 259 since 2006 when it was created. That's six years of ups and downs, and I've been there for most of them. Also, the site is still phs259.proboards.com, so even if we change the "Name" it's still PHS 259. Also-also, isn't the aim of this new insane plot twist to get everyone to rally together and rebuild PHS 259/Long Beach/The World? If we're rebuilding it there's no reason to change it.

On the other hand, with the school destroyed, this board is no longer Xin. In fact, I don't think it's been Xin for quite some time. But I'm not sure how much weight that carries in completely changing the board.


I came back to PHS 259. I've been on this board for the majority of six years, and even staffed it for quite a long time. A plot device shouldn't dictate something that's been around for so long, it's lived through other crazy plots (though I'll admit this one's the craziest yet). I say no.

[Your Mom~]

It was still PHS 259 when an earthquake leveled the entire city. I guess the major argument besides nostalgia would be the fact that the site name itself doesn't actually change, so it's nigh impossible to actually change it change it. *shrug*

["Unfettered"]

I agree with your statement for all of your reasons, Ally. You'd have best cause to verify as well if I was amongst one of the most conservative of the staff throughout the years. If I was asked this two years ago, I would have disagreed. If I was asked this last year, I probably still would have disagreed.

The name of Public High School #259 is a sacred thing. It's a thing that has survived because of its members, because of the community, and things of the such. I hear what you're saying when yes, if this was going to be "ground 259" in the end, maybe the url would have been better off just being "259" or something. However, none of us foresaw this as all the allusions to the lead-up into this have been evident, but still vague. The first inclusion of the map. The first conversation of gang territories. The, at the time, dismissed talk about control of land.

You and I had a long talk about this, and I won't believe or say that you're wrong.

With the death of Public High School #552, we became the go-to RP board in the XIN universe. As it were, we were the only known Xin RP proboard on the internet. Another board popped up at the time that made Leon concerned that we had stayed the same for much too long and encouraged him towards change, and therein Fate. At the time... I had my disagreements. I could see his want to innovate, but my thoughts leaned on the fact that 259 is filled, rich with culture all of its own. Our boards are thick with history from threads from the past seven years, the annals of time a testament to the amount of growth we experienced during our time here as well as how much the site changed ourselves here too.

Playfully or seriously, I had a conversation with Kia years ago that perhaps when we were old and had families and children of our own that we would send our children here to RP on this site, to create a new generation of writers and RPers of sorts. I don't know if she still remembers, but the thought was warming, up to the point of her retirement.

This site has faced several deletions. One for all the mature and vulgar threads we had, which resulted in an unfortunate purge of a combination funny but also seriously dreadful threads. On one or two occasions we have had to deal with hackers threatening the site itself. We have had two to three occasions where people abandoned this site because they wanted to follow their own ideas, their own RPs. You and I were the cause of PHS #42, with you at the helm, but the usurpers are what ruined 42 forever. Since then, a part of RPing has died for me and I've become bitter.

The time I've spent here, though, with how this site helps alleviate people, allowing them to channel their creative thought so long as they possess the strength to justify it, has been something of a staying power for me here. The RPers and the memories, not the site itself, have been my remaining reasons for staying here, though in a way, 259 has just become so ingrained in my life that even if it were to be deleted, the people themselves would recreate it, with the story so thick, old, and rich as it is.

With the creation of PHS #1033, we have filtered a lot of the old, bad blood and are recreating with remnants of the golden past and a wonderful new generation of RPers in the present. It has inspired me thus. We must take advantage of this momentum and appeal to a larger mainstay of fresher blood, in preparation for the future of our RP. It is only right that the url stays "PHS259.proboards.com" because of how much tribute and homage we should pay to the part of the site that has made so much of what is present possible for us. Many are thankfully willing to adapt and are actually enjoying this new change of pace... and as you and I are far away from the times of high school, in different stages of our life, and with the different peoples we want to draw to ourselves, I think it is fine.

This is a plot twist that will take years, without a doubt. All we need change is the banner, never the url, and the banner can be changed back very easily. What's important is that blessed RPers such as yourself are here. That the talented new blood is taught well and blossoms here, because they enjoy it here with us. The name, while symbolic, isn't what is important.

It is what it is beyond the name.

It is all of us.

[Van]

That was glorious.

[Van]

...But really, as Mikey said, the name is only a minor detail. Changing the name doesn't change the history of the past seven years; that will be around forever. It doesn't change the nature of the site; the change in the nature of the site is what prompted the new name. And no matter what precedes it, whether it's 'Public High School' or 'Ground' or anything else, the most important factor is that it's 259, and will always be 259, and nothing can change that. 259 is the symbol for us. It's not the school, or the city, or anything else. The school is gone but we're still here. The city is ruined but we're still here. Hell, I'd be happy if we just dropped any prefix whatsoever and simply named the site '259'. But for reasons I've stated above, I think 'Ground 259' would be rather fitting, at least for the current context.

And yes, the link won't change, but the link is an even more minor detail. Maybe a random point, but if anyone else remembers PHS 42, the link wasn't 'phs42.proboards.com', it was 'phsispwn.proboards.com' which... was really sort of random, but it was still a great site for awhile. I wouldn't want to change 259's link anyhow. That would just confuse people :I

Lastly, one mustn't forget one of the most important facts of life... things don't stay the same. Society, culture, technology, and beloved internet roleplay sites all have to evolve at some point. It's only natural. 259 has evolved a great deal over the years, though nothing has been quite as pivotal as the current plot. I say embrace it. Change is good. Change defeats stagnation.

Adding onto that, I have reasons for wanting to do this that have nothing to do with the plot, or symbolism, or yadayadayada. I am constantly on the lookout for new members. Our site has relied on its own members to spread the good word of 259, and bring in generation upon generation of new roleplayers. This site has been around for a relatively long time, as far as roleplay sites often go, and because of that most of us who pretty much live here are getting older. Quite frankly, we're growing up. I think most of us are probably getting a little old for the whole 'high school' thing. And if you're not, that's fine. Kudos to you for staying young forever. But what I'm concerned about is the lack of new members. Mostly every person I've talked to about this 'great, wonderful roleplay site' that they should totally join, has given me a weird look as soon as I mention the name.

'What does PHS stand for?'
"Uhh... Public High School."
'Oh I hate high school.'
'That sounds lame.'
'But I'm in college'
...The list goes on and on. While our site isn't necessarily ABOUT the high school anymore, it's kind of hard to explain that to potential new members who are only going to hear you out for a few minutes, and if they're not totally impressed, they're not going to bother. This is dangerous. If we want our site to stay alive for many generations to come, we have to keep dragging outsiders in, and that becomes increasingly difficult as we all age and the roleplay itself stays 'forever young'.

I think a name change would break down that first barrier between new members of our current generation and the site. Ground 259 throws no 'ew, high school' vibes to anyone over the age of, let's say... 14. I was 14 when I joined and even I was a little turned off by the whole 'high school' thing.

Now, I'm not trying to say that the site's history AS a high school is lame. It's not. You all were in high school once, and those were the glory days of PHS 259, most likely. But now most of us aren't. And the high school is completely gone. We've moved on to bigger and better things. It's rather exciting.

[Delilah A. Black]

I jacked my friends Android just to comment. I voted yes. While I do agree with Ally, I also think that changing the name is a symbolic gesture that shows that we move on and adapt.

[Stu Pott]

I'm all for a name change. This place could use some sort of jump start. There's a lot of negativity connotations to the name PHS 259 to a lot of people.

[Marcus Prasad]

While I do Agree to a name change, I have to admit that Ground 259 is alittle on the bland side.........

I mean dont get me wrong, I understand the symbolism.

What about something Punchy? Like 259: Rebirth or
259: Warzone.

Or mabey even drop the 259.
If and when the school gets rebuilt, I have a sneaky suspicion the name of it is gonna be changed in memorium to the fight for Long Beach anyway.