What happened to SciFi?

cantankerous

There was a time when the dublin university science fiction society was one of the greatest societies in our fine college. In effect they offered a common room for members to socialise, view motion pictures, read science fiction novels/graphic novels and play video games all in the superb location of front square.

I can clearly remember a time when the scifi room was always open and full of nerds (we're in tcd, we're all nerds ), a hive of activity, always open, always welcoming. It was well worth the membership fee. Once in my dark past (after consuming too many 2 euro drinks at a class get together) I found myself nursing an almighty hangover. I knew I would not be able to survive a lecture so I went up to the scifi room hoping i could collapse on their couch and watch some sort of film or tv show. When i got there i was expecting to see one or two nerds playing a video game, but at 11.30am the room was full of people, coming and going between lectures (indeed i even ran into an aquaintance of mine who i got talking too). I stayed there for a few hours untill i had improved. Glad of the lifeline I had been offered.

Fast forward to today and the society is a disgrace. At the start of the year I found myself with 4 hours to kill so i went up to the scifi room with a friend (remembering how useful it was the year before). We found a room with about 8 other people, but no sooner had we sat down we were told "right everybody leave, I've got a lecture" and we were all ejected from the room. As the year progressed it got even worse. The room is almost never open. I often see people going up to the room, checking the door and then having to leave due to the room being closed. Seeing groups of people waiting outside the room is also a regular occurance.
I'm not exactly sure what the cause of this was, but an inside source tells me that the commitee has been infiltrated by hacks, some (notice how i said some not all) of the commitee members are more interested in what their position means for their cv and perhaps gaining a position in the su/csc than doing their duty to keep scifi great.

Whatever the reason is, it's irrelevant. Scifi is a shadow of the society it once was. Excuse the unparlimentary language but they need to cop the **** on and get their act together :mad:.

shay_562

cantankerous wrote: »

There was a time when the dublin university science fiction society was one of the greatest societies in our fine college. In effect they offered a common room for members to socialise, view motion pictures, read science fiction novels/graphic novels and play video games all in the superb location of front square.

I can clearly remember a time when the scifi room was always open and full of nerds (we're in tcd, we're all nerds ), a hive of activity, always open, always welcoming. It was well worth the membership fee. Once in my dark past (after consuming too many 2 euro drinks at a class get together) I found myself nursing an almighty hangover. I knew I would not be able to survive a lecture so I went up to the scifi room hoping i could collapse on their couch and watch some sort of film or tv show. When i got there i was expecting to see one or two nerds playing a video game, but at 11.30am the room was full of people, coming and going between lectures (indeed i even ran into an aquaintance of mine who i got talking too). I stayed there for a few hours untill i had improved. Glad of the lifeline I had been offered.

Fast forward to today and the society is a disgrace. At the start of the year I found myself with 4 hours to kill so i went up to the scifi room with a friend (remembering how useful it was the year before). We found a room with about 8 other people, but no sooner had we sat down we were told "right everybody leave, I've got a lecture" and we were all ejected from the room. As the year progressed it got even worse. The room is almost never open. I often see people going up to the room, checking the door and then having to leave due to the room being closed. Seeing groups of people waiting outside the room is also a regular occurance.
I'm not exactly sure what the cause of this was, but an inside source tells me that the commitee has been infiltrated by hacks, some (notice how i said some not all) of the commitee members are more interested in what their position means for their cv and perhaps gaining a position in the su/csc than doing their duty to keep scifi great.

Whatever the reason is, it's irrelevant. Scifi is a shadow of the society it once was. Excuse the unparlimentary language but they need to cop the **** on and get their act together :mad:.

Yes, how shameful of those students to actually go to lectures instead of sitting in House 6 all day to cater to your whims at any time you please. Man, I never thought I'd see someone called a 'hack' for going to class instead of devoting their entire life to a society. Excuse the unparliamentary language, but you need to cop the **** on and stop whining over every little thing not being exactly as you'd like it to be.

phlegms

I just joined up for the free t-shirt in fresher's week tbh..

Dante

phlegms wrote: »

I just joined up for the free t-shirt in fresher's week tbh..

Haha, me too, but I get a disgraceful amount of abuse from the lads whenever I wear it....I still wear it the odd time to piss them off.

luigii

People in Sci Fi do have to pass their courses, you know. Leaving the room closed during the day is not nice, but sometimes it has to be done

Boston

Harden the fuk up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EY7lYRneHc

Fo Real

OP I know it's an inconvenience but if the sci-fi room was left open all day things would get robbed. There are expensive TVs, games consoles etc inside that must be protected from vandals and thieves. Remember what happened when a couple of drunk freshers got into the TrinityFM room at the start of the year?

Besides, from what I know sci-fi is one of the more active societies in college. If you want to complain about hacks let's talk about the classical society, gender equality society or the alternative music society (to name but a few). They don't do anything and exist solely to stroke the egos of their committee members (who are usually their only members). It sickens me that they are given grants by the CSC. A society should have to have a minimum quota of 200 members and hold an event at least once a fortnight. And don't get me started on the afro-carribean, chinese, jewish, muslim or russian societies. It seems the college bends over to every whim made by an ethnic minority. Serioulsy: how many Jews or blacks are actually in TCD?

We are constantly being told how much debt the college is in and that fees will have to be brought back etc. If you really want to save money, scrap these circle-jerk clubs. I'd go as far to say make the hacks pay back the grants that they squandered.

cantankerous

I would have thought trinity students would have understood the situation without me having to elaborate further. Obviously i was wrong.

The reason the room is never open is not because of commitee members having lectures. I repeat, the reason the room is never open is NOT because of commitee members having lectures.
I don't even see how anyone could be such an idiot as to think i was calling the scifi member in question a hack for attending his lectures (which is what college is all about). The poor guy was doing his bit for the society, but must be almost alone in doing his duties. Hence when he had to leave for a lecture there was no-one left to take over.

I'm not aware of the intricacies of the situation, all i know is that for the last few years the room has been almost always open and this year it is almost never open. I only joined this year under the impression that it would be the same as previous years, as I'm sure many repeat members also did.

There must be some reason why scifi is **** this year and was mega awesome last year. I posted this thread to find out why. Surely there is something different about this year, and also something they can do to rectify the situation.

The only explaination offered to me was the one i stated about some of the comitee members not being enthusiatic about their positions and not putting in the time and effort expected of them from the members (if they think it's too much i'm sure there are plenty of members up for the job).

If there is another explaination, please tell me.

phlegms

Its a cover up!
Don't let the feds get you down Cantankerous! Spread the word! SPREAD THE WORD!

Meeja Ireland

cantankerous wrote: »

If there is another explaination, please tell me.

Forgive me if I offer the incredibly obvious explanation: that so many members of a given society would rather bitch about the committee than give up their time to improve things. Have you approached the committee and volunteered to help out by, for example, opening the room one day a week?

It seems to me that you care enough to complain, but not enough to help. That's not particularly inspiring.

cantankerous

Meeja Ireland wrote: »

Forgive me if I offer the incredibly obvious explanation: that so many members of a given society would rather bitch about the committee than give up their time to improve things. Have you approached the committee and volunteered to help out by, for example, opening the room one day a week?

It seems to me that you care enough to complain, but not enough to help. That's not particularly inspiring.

I am not an active member, in fact i only avail of their room/film showings once or twice a year. They do not know me at all and thus would not trust me enough to mind the room and this could be my last year in tcd .

PurpleFistMixer

Seems odd for a large society like Sci Fi to have this. DUCSS has a society room that's open whenever a committee member is around, which, despite it being a significantly smaller society with presumably a significantly smaller committee, is pretty much all the time.

Sounds like they just need to appoint more people to have room-opening privileges.

Mark200

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

Seems odd for a large society like Sci Fi to have this. DUCSS has a society room that's open whenever a committee member is around, which, despite it being a significantly smaller society with presumably a significantly smaller committee, is pretty much all the time.

Sounds like they just need to appoint more people to have room-opening privileges.

First sensible response.

EGaffney

Sunrise, sunset.

In 2005-06, the popular, in-vogue society was... Card Soc, which was catching the cusp of the poker wave to be sure but which also enjoyed the excellent leadership of Niall the Auditor (who later went on to be Ents Officer). In a few years, Card Soc withered.

In 2004-05, Sci Fi was a group of enthusiasts for gaming, cult films and science fiction/fantasy, who were able to operate an open-room policy exactly because of their obscurity. In the next two years, it broke 600 members, then the 1000 mark, rapidly during Freshers' Week alone. The old people decried the end of the Sci Fi versus DURNS rivalry as the former society rose far above the latter. As Sci Fi became bigger, it attracted the attention of more professionally-minded people. As it became bigger, it attracted a far bigger audience than friends of the committee.

And as it became bigger, it started to have run-ins with CSC about issues like its public showings of DVDs in possible violation of the initial copyright notices, and its valuable supply of portable capital that was at risk of theft. When this happens, societies have to take responsible steps to conform with the rules that CSC sets out. If they have lots of "oh exploitable" steal-able items, it's likely that they have a limited number of keys.

Things change. We can't expect a society to attract consistently committed people each year. It's not fair to use minced expletives about people who are going through college just because they offered to do a job in a society that they were presumably the best to do, or that nobody else volunteered for. Cycles happen and it's rare that a society stays predominant for a long run.

Boston

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

Seems odd for a large society like Sci Fi to have this. DUCSS has a society room that's open whenever a committee member is around, which, despite it being a significantly smaller society with presumably a significantly smaller committee, is pretty much all the time.

Sounds like they just need to appoint more people to have room-opening privileges.

But you need the key code even to get into the building for ducss

Agent Smith

EGaffney wrote: »

Sunrise, sunset.
In 2004-05, Sci Fi was a group of enthusiasts for gaming, cult films and science fiction/fantasy, who were able to operate an open-room policy exactly because of their obscurity. In the next two years, it broke 600 members, then the 1000 mark, rapidly during Freshers' Week alone. The old people decried the end of the Sci Fi versus DURNS rivalry as the former society rose far above the latter. As Sci Fi became bigger, it attracted the attention of more professionally-minded people. As it became bigger, it attracted a far bigger audience than friends of the committee.

What helped SFSOC's number was people like Ross mulcahy ( a member here irronicly). The year Ross was Auditor,We (the committee) had a sort of rota for keeping the room open during the week, There was often times that i was doing sign language transcripitions on the small telly while people sat watching a film or tv.

I cant speak of the sfsoc committee now, But we had a Large enough committee that we could have a rota. Another great "coup" was the halloween ball of that year. where the sfsoc ball was 25% the price of the SU one and greatly outsold the SU board.

What Made SFSOC's Number so high that week was Ross's Idea of going out to halls the weekend before freshers week and Showing people what SFSOC was really about. Movies, Games, Nights out. no members were signed up, but come mondays of freshers week, Almost everyone signed up.

Other things we did was have "Girl friendly" nights, such as the sex in the city night in the GMB one night

(I had the pleasure to go count all the members of SFSOC that year and Randomly pointed out one committee meeting that we had 40% female membership.)

Are the SFSOC still at the top of house 6? I was lucky enough to have key privlages in the CSC to open the room, but i can imagine how pissed people must have been to climb to the top of House 6 and find it closed.

Must say, some great colleges nights out started or finished there. I think we had about 8 boardsies in the room one night.

Good times

Chardee MacDennis

cantankerous wrote: »

I am not an active member, in fact i only avail of their room/film showings once or twice a year. They do not know me at all and thus would not trust me enough to mind the room and this could be my last year in tcd .

it doesnt take much to get on the committee, show up once a week for meetings, give a dig out when needed. you can then get a key between 10-6 from the csc below and by being on the committee you get all the free booze you can drink (unless things have changed a lot since my day).

as said by AS it takes a large effort from a committee (of which we had about 16) to keep that place going all day...

Steve Higginson

cantankerous wrote: »

There must be some reason why scifi is **** this year and was mega awesome last year. I posted this thread to find out why. Surely there is something different about this year, and also something they can do to rectify the situation.

So, what you're saying is that Scifi is **** this year and filled with "commitee members more interested in what their position means for their cv and perhaps gaining a position in the su/csc than doing their duty to keep scifi great", when there is one SU hack on the committee, and she doesn't even have a huge role.

Meanwhile, you're saying that Scifi was "mega awesome" last year, when it was being run by an SU hack.

I think you've got something wrong here.

Fedule

[Full Disclosure Dept: I am on the committee (I'm the Games Librarian) and have been since the 2007-8 session. I can't speak for the society as a whole but there are a few things I can say.]

We open the room when we are able, simple as. We respect that the most valuable function of our room is as a chillout spot, and further, that it isn't nice to have to climb three flights of stairs to discover that the room's closed, but we ask in turn for you to understand that we can't just skip lectures for the sake of keeping the room open. We have 11 standing committee members and 3 GOs (and FYI, new committee members cannot borrow CSC's key until they have been on the committee for a while). Most of us are comp sci or natural science students and have a fair deal of lectures and labs to go to (I personally am our token philosophy student and believe me, I do my part in keeping the room open). In particular, we seem to have a big timing clash on Wednesdays at about 3 PM when everyone has lectures. And if we leave the room unattended, we risk being shut down completely, or, more optimistically, robbed blind.

Our auditor tells me that both Sci Fi and TFM have had multiple thefts in the last week.

As a rule, we try as best we are able to open the room between 12-6 daily, and thereafter until the last committee member leaves for the night (or until 12, when security kicks us out). We're working on establishing some sort of sign, visible from front square, that signals that we are open (without contravening CSC rules, surprisingly hard to do). Please bear with us. In the meantime, we're always around immediately after events we run in the room (movies, games, etc).


To cantankerous specifically, there's something that's bugging me:

in fact i only avail of their room/film showings once or twice a year.

...but you claim we are "never" open? How often do you come up? Despite our occasional scheduling conflicts, we're normally open several hours every day, and long into the evening.

luigii

Boston wrote: »

But you need the key code even to get into the building for ducss

Everyone and their mother knows that keycode, tbh.

Also, I disagree with the very premise of this thread. The Sci Fi room is open most of the time, and I only really find it closed if it's 9 or 10 in the morning.

EGaffney

luigii wrote: »

Everyone and their mother knows that keycode, tbh.

I don't know it, maybe you mean everyone who uses the building? That would make sense, right?

Steve Higginson

EGaffney wrote: »

I don't know it, maybe you mean everyone who uses the building? That would make sense, right?

I'm pretty sure it's CX1986

Jammyc

What happened to..not starting a thread every few days to bitch moan?

We've already got our resident one, Cantabnkerous:p

Saltandvinegar?

From the point of view of someone, who spends, being honest little time in the sci fi room, but too much time on the stairs of house 6 I can say the sci fi guys and girls spend a heck of a lot of time up there, and that god damn squeaky door is forever opening and closing!

Being involved in another society with a large commitee which requires time from each of them to supervise our society room, I understand completly where they come from on the time front! No matter how many people there are on commitee, there will always be a times when nobody is available, and what else is there to do in that situation? Leave it open? - not an option. Give more people the role of supervisers? Generally those who can actually be trused with running a society room have that role.

all credit to them I say. awesome people, awesome society

gearoidof

The activity of the society isn't bad, and I don't agree with cantankerous on that.
But I do know a lot of people who were members, but don't go anymore because SciFi do too much.
Bit of a troll topic anyway

Fedule

gearoidof wrote: »

But I do know a lot of people who were members, but don't go anymore because SciFi do too much.

...?

Chardee MacDennis

Fedule wrote: »

...?

Wide birth of interests and topics I imagine as this was a criticism aimed at us in my day!

gearoidof

ya, sorry, hangover and literacy are inversely proportional for me.

PurpleFistMixer

luigii wrote: »

Everyone and their mother knows that keycode, tbh.

Members know the code, that's all that's necessary.

redukt

Fo Real wrote: »

Besides, from what I know sci-fi is one of the more active societies in college. If you want to complain about hacks let's talk about the classical society, gender equality society or the alternative music society (to name but a few). They don't do anything and exist solely to stroke the egos of their committee members (who are usually their only members).

Here, DUAMS, the alternative music society run at least one event a week. And they're usually well attended. And it's also one of the least hack-y societies going.

Whatever about sci fi, I'd rather take the approach of complaining to them in person, because it's more fun and that way, people take you seriously.

Boston

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

Members know the code, that's all that's necessary.

Theres a code to the room and a code to the building. I'll drop by later in the week to get both, thanks.

PurpleFistMixer

Boston wrote: »

Theres a code to the room and a code to the building. I'll drop by later in the week to get both, thanks.

Thanks for telling me. I never knew there were two codes. :rolleyes: Members know the code to the building, committee members know the code to the room.

Boston

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

Thanks for telling me. I never knew there were two codes. :rolleyes: Members know the code to the building, committee members know the code to the room.

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

Members know the code, that's all that's necessary.

The code implies that there is in fact only one code. People may mistakenly believe that the code you refer to allows access both to the building and the room. I had no doubt that you where aware of the existence of both codes, however you seemed unable to communicate that detail effectively. Perhaps a little less sauce from you darling would go along way towards getting that husband or is this some ham-purple-fisted attempt at gaining my attentions? You really need to get over my previous attempts to destroy your online persona.

PurpleFistMixer

Boston wrote: »

The code implies that there is in fact only one code. People may mistakenly believe that the code you refer to allows access both to the building and the room.

There need only be one code as far as normal member are concerned. Once you know the first code, the room is either open or not.

bingbing

Stop moaning.

Tarka

Fo Real wrote: »

If you want to complain about hacks let's talk about the classical society, gender equality society or the alternative music society (to name but a few). They don't do anything and exist solely to stroke the egos of their committee members (who are usually their only members). It sickens me that they are given grants by the CSC. A society should have to have a minimum quota of 200 members and hold an event at least once a fortnight.

Pardon? We do plenty, thanks. over 350 members, weekly meetings, two gigs held in Twisted Pepper this term, two film screenings (I know they're easy to but it's still activity), 3 open mic nights which were all very well attended (2 hosted in collaboration with Litsoc) and last Tuesday we had our Chistmas party.
Care to explain on what grounds you're calling us hacks?

EGaffney

Being a hack is great. Live with it.

Fo Real

Tarka wrote: »

Pardon? We do plenty, thanks. over 350 members, weekly meetings, two gigs held in Twisted Pepper this term, two film screenings (I know they're easy to but it's still activity), 3 open mic nights which were all very well attended (2 hosted in collaboration with Litsoc) and last Tuesday we had our Chistmas party.
Care to explain on what grounds you're calling us hacks?

Yawn.

The irony that "alternative" music has beome a mainstream genre in itself seems to have passed over you.
Hurry guys, I heard there is a new obscure band on myspace that no one has heard of, that only intellectual, progressive people (like us) appreciate. You should totally check it out.

Also the Middle East sounds like a totally awesome place to visit. I dont believe all the stuff the media says about it - it's awesome, clean, 'interesting' and I'm sure the peaceful, open minded citizens love white people and will have a great time bonding on a spiritual level.

Maybe they would let you smoke pot with them and sit in a drum circle and talk about how the world doesn't understand your 'clearly superior' ways of thinking and taste in music. After all, today's music has become so commercial.

Tarka

Truth bullets make me a sad panda.
Is it that you've come to some of our meetings/events and don't like what you've seen, you don't like the committee, or you just don't like the name?

Also, I know it's been said already but Sci-Fi do well to keep the place open as much as they do. VG society.

mar-z

I love the way Fo Real's signature mentions reconsidering contributing if you cannot be mature and then posts comments as above (I know its not anywhere near the most immature thing on boards ever but still)

Tarka, I would guess he might have visited the DUAMS/DURNS forum, there is a little bit of lets talk about 'obscure' (to some people) music, etc. At least for someone more on the outside. I blame Kealy for most of it.

I actually don't know what its like now (I haven't been a good member in the last year or so) but there used to be no real hacks invovled (might be different now).

I actually somewhat agree with with Fo Real that alternative not being an apt term (it beats rock nostalgia for explaining whats done though). Although I hope you appreciate the irony of saying that they are mainstream one sentence and looking at obscure bands the next (complaining in both cases).

Signature now seems to be gone which makes me look ridiculous:o

mar-z

Sorry everyone for that continuation of off topicness.

On topic, the op's attitude is ridiculous, while I'm not around house 6 much anymore it is stupid to think the room can be opened every hour of every day. It also seems from above comments that the room is open a lot of the time.

I do agree that going to the top of house 6 just to turn around again can make a person angry even though its no ones fault. If a system could be contrived to let people know if the rooms open that would be great. How about a poster of some sort that you can stick up on the noticeboard or stairwell towards the bottom of the stairs, although there's probably a regulation against doing this:rolleyes:.

Tarka

Marsie, none of that 'obscure bands we talk about' stuff is really relevant anyway. I just took/take issue with him calling us hacks and stating that we don't do anything when I and the rest of the committee put a lot of effort into keeping DUAMS a good and active society. As I'm sure do all the other societies he listed too.
Knows not of what he rants.


Anyway, yeah apologies for continued off-topicness. The defence rests.

Fedule

mar-z wrote: »

I do agree that going to the top of house 6 just to turn around again can make a person angry even though its no ones fault. If a system could be contrived to let people know if the rooms open that would be great. How about a poster of some sort that you can stick up on the noticeboard or stairwell towards the bottom of the stairs, although there's probably a regulation against doing this:rolleyes:.

Putting up posters is out - we can't use the CSC's noticeboards for anything other than posters advertising our events, and free standing posters will get reported so quickly that whoever went to put it up will be fined personally as they walk past CSC on the way back to the room. We can't put up big flashy posters in our windows either - there's a regulation for that too (some BS about the "aesthetic" of Front Square).

BUT!

We've just cleaned out some stuff from our room and can now reach our windows, and we had a brilliant idea! Now that we can reach the shutters again, someone suggested that we close the shutters when we close the room. This is an awesome idea - at night you'd see the lights on in the room anyway, and in the daytime, since the shutters are white, you can clearly see when they're open. So, yeah, this could work. We'll start next term.

gaybitch

Fo Real wrote: »

It seems the college bends over to every whim made by an ethnic minority. Serioulsy: how many Jews or blacks are actually in TCD?

If you really want to save money, scrap these circle-jerk clubs.

Are you for real? There are plenty of "Jews and blacks" in TCD - I happen to know plenty. Just because you might not associate with or open your eyes to the ethnic diversity around you in university doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Let me assure you, it does.

How does College "bend to every whim made by an ethnic minority"? What are you on about? What evidence do you have to make such a claim?

rockmongrel

Fo Real wrote: »

Yawn.

The irony that "alternative" music has beome a mainstream genre in itself seems to have passed over you.
Hurry guys, I heard there is a new obscure band on myspace that no one has heard of, that only intellectual, progressive people (like us) appreciate. You should totally check it out.

Also the Middle East sounds like a totally awesome place to visit. I dont believe all the stuff the media says about it - it's awesome, clean, 'interesting' and I'm sure the peaceful, open minded citizens love white people and will have a great time bonding on a spiritual level.

Maybe they would let you smoke pot with them and sit in a drum circle and talk about how the world doesn't understand your 'clearly superior' ways of thinking and taste in music. After all, today's music has become so commercial.

Are you living in a ****ing dream world? Thats probably some of the most presumptuous garbage I've ever read. You've obviously never met anyone in the society or attended any events hosted by DUAMS or DUAMS/LitSoc, and just have some creepy little vendetta against anything you constitute as fake. Yes the word alternative is ridiculous in a musical sense, but for christs sake, get over yourself.

As for the Sci-Fi room, almost always open when I go up, people are friendly, as the new gear they've gotten is great. All in all I think they do a splendid job.