Hmm, I agree with what you're saying to a certain point, but surely nothing WILL change until he gets back and clarifies the situation re what the board is about?
OK, let's establish a few basics here - which we're perfectly capable of doing without the need to disinter Dem for the time being.
And before we start, let me make it quite clear that I'm not trying to 'pull rank' or any such nonsense. I'm just an old Slime Beast. However, I've been knocking around here long enough to know my Vault history and to have witnessed changes as they've occurred.
Ade, Franklin and others have already talked a bit about this. We should listen to them - trust me, they know what they're talking about.
And please, please let's try and get past this idea of 'old vs. new' (and particularly this absurd 'pre-1979' thing - where did that come from?). That's really not what this is about at all.
This board began as 'British Horror Anthology Hell'. It was set up specifically to discuss precisely that topic.
Being a nascent Vault, that lasted about 5 minutes.
A few more people joined, myself included, and we quickly found we had other interests in common.
British horror films (especially of the '60s & '70s), Horror books (still mostly British) that weren't anthologies; the Hamlyn nasties, the NEL horrors - especially books like Guy N Smith's
Night of the Crabs, that kind of stuff.
And other stuff too, not even related to horror necessarily.
I'd first met Franklin on a board devoted to the work (predominantly, but not exclusively, Westerns) of British paperback writers like Terry Harknett, Laurence James, Ken Bulmer and others, so talk inevitably turned to them at some point.
Before you know it we're talking about skinheads, hells angels, sexy spies, slavers... anyone who's not sure what I'm talking about, just have a look at Justin's
Paperback Fanatic site, or the excellent
Trash Fiction website. All that stuff.
And so Vault grew to accomodate these other diverse areas but ALWAYS with respect to the board's original vision - or mission if you like - of documenting and promoting discussion of vintage (for want of a better word) British horror books.
Right. Now we'd never really talked about contemporary horror much - we might have mentioned it in passing (and, importantly,
in context), remarked on changing trends and how it just didn't seem the same anymore. Basically, we just weren't that interested.
But as more people joined and did express an interest in newer stuff, so Vault expanded once again to accomodate that.
BUT that doesn't mean that Vault is now a forum for people to
just discuss their new book, or even their friends' new books or whatever the BFS might be up to.
Anyone still in any doubt as to what Vault is 'about' need only take the time to look back through some of the old posts here. I do sympathise with those who feel they've been misled or 'ambushed' but everything you need to know about Vault is right here in these pages and always has been. Years of work have gone into building Vault into what it is. A lot of people have put a lot of time and effort into it - some of them are still here, others have come and gone. They've all made a contribution. If you think you can add to Vault in some way, you'll always be welcome.
