Nolite te marmotas de carborundorum

The Black Marmot message board is open to all comers. We talk about movie things and story things -- things mammalian and evil. We share jokes, we name names -- we point fingers. We talk about the worst things first, offend often, and laugh even more. Sometimes we talk to ourselves, for in marmot veritas. All you need to join the madness is a free ezboard account, a sense of humor, and a love for storytelling. Creative genius always helps, too. (By the way, it means "don't let the marmots grind you down" -- sort of).

The following excerpts from the board will get you started with the right frame of mind:

"This board has served for over a year as a private forum for the Marmot bunch to toss around and develop project ideas, ramble about various interests in film and filmmaking, keep one another motivated, and, often, to give each other a healthy amount of shit. Now, with our website up, our first short film streamable and making the submission rounds, and numerous projects in the works, the message board is opening itself to whomever wants to haunt it.

"There's a lot here -- some of the ideas have been back-burnered, some, from time to time, flirt with resurrection, many date back to the earliest days when all we had was a camera, a mic, a Mexican, and a handful of hours to play and dream. Everything from these earlier formative days ("earlier" because all is formative) remains as both a voyeuristic curiosity in Marmot history and, hopefully, the grab-bag beginnings of the tutorials we plan to include on both the board and the main Marmot website. More than anything, the private board was extremely and fondly useful and we just couldn't bear to let it go and start new.

"So, with these young discussions of a handful of diligent Marmots, we welcome new Marmot friends into the community as we step things up a little.

"Welcome, and happy posting!"

--RB (9/7/04)

"Unlike many message boards, I don't really see the need for the Marmot to have a huge list of guidelines. The only thing that really offends us, I think it's safe to say, is taking offense to things. I say this just because I can see someone stumbling here and reading something where we give Jesse hell for being Mexican, or he calls one of our sexualities into graphic question, and proceed to attack us as racists or homophobes or whatever. Honestly, I feel like a tool for even considering such a preface as possibly necessary, but just wanted to have a statement up front.

"That said, the only real rule (besides don't rip off ideas) is just to be nice to each other. Say whatever you want however you want (the profanity filter is, happily, off), but let's keep everything friendly. Many of the Marmots have secret moderator status, and will not hesitate to revise any questionable posts to a filthier re-direction of the comments back upon the poster. Just ask ThreeOranges--his first posts, though non-offensive and innocent, were hit with a large amount of squid-juice when we gave Squidooyo admin power one day. Thankfully, he stuck around, but can surely attest to the unforgiving whims of our little "edit" option."

--RB (9/9/04)