Here's an unoriginal idea

[Faust]

I was waiting for this guy to step in it but am pleasantly surprised that his response to doing so was to look at his foot and say "wow, I'm covered in shit. I should sort this out before continuing."

My god. HE WAS RIGHT!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I was waiting for this guy to step in it but am pleasantly surprised that his response to doing so was to look at his foot and say "wow, I'm covered in shit. I should sort this out before continuing."

This one bears watching.  If he figures out doorknobs, you know what to do.

[East Coast Hustle]

Hi, new guy. Thanks for acting like a biped!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hi, new guy. Thanks for acting like a biped!

Unfortunately, this information has been proven to be erroneous.

[LMNO]

Hi, new guy. Thanks for acting like a biped!

Unfortunately, this information has been proven to be erroneous.

Too true.

[von]

You guys are killing this forum and through it, Dischordianism itself.

The forum stats show that not only are you failing to attract new users, you're actively driving away old ones. I say "you" because there's clearly a core group of users who have been here from near the start, and I say you're the ones doing it because that makes you the only common denominator. It's not a question of people naturally losing interest in the cause/philosophy/religion/whatever, something like this can potentially survive indefinitely; it has no natural life-cycle. Under RAW and his mates, it grew explosively.
But it's obviously dying now. There's plenty of debate in the archives where you've argued and defended your reasons for doing what you do impeccably, I'm sure you could effectively out-reason or belittle me as you have done so many other nutcases, but it really doesn't matter how well you can justify it to others or even yourselves if it's not working.

Have you not noticed or do you just not give a shit? Answers on a postcard, please.



inb4 pointless reaction gifs and smilies

Meh, chiming in a bit late, but I'd like to take a stab at your argument anyway.

Bluntly, your premise that the community's antics are en force driving away people is non sequitur to the supporting evidence of forum stats over time. Is the community asinine to the extreme? Probably...however, regardless as to whether this is true or not, it does not follow that it is the causitive agency of the forum's user state decline between 2007 and 2014.

Rather, I believe that the cause of forum decline is potentially caused by several convergent factors that developed...conveniently around and after 2007.

Let us consider that between 2007 and 2014

>there was a major political shift in the US

Not to say that all discordians are like this, but on the whole, discordianism tends to appeal, on the first contact with the philosophy, to people who could be described as both anti-state and socially "liberal" (for whatever that term implies).
Well, in 2007, the state was socially conservative...in 2014, the state is now socially liberal (relative to 2007 anyway). The people who liked discordianism as much for its anti-state rhetoric, and it's rebellious, surface-level contrarianism, have probably moved onto other ideological movements on the basis that, as something that is socially liberal, discordianism is in line with the state.
(cf. the opinions of brother nihil -- hates the state AND discordians because discordians like blacks and gays just like that pigdog obama)

Basically, surface-level discordianism appears to the newfag as being a contrarian philosophy and attracts contrarians...who are now entrenched against discordian ideals because they are now in vogue.

>you had a vast diversification of service providers catering to similar socio-political groups as that would be co-morbid with discordianism

basically, there's more competition for users now. instead of PD, users can find outlet on various chans, reddit, tumblr, and a millieu of sites that either didn't exist in 2007, or weren't a popular and well known phenomena then.

>the rise and fall of anonymous and the popularisation of imageboards took off between 2007 and 2014

now I can go be a contrarian asshole and get free pornography while feeling like I'm an ueber-leet hacker on steroids who's known to the media as a minor actor for socio-political change....and I don't even have to provide an email address!

face it: free porn? feelings of self worth? My god, m00t has a hell of a marketing plan compared to PD.

>people have aged and changed their socio-political outlook since 2007

I don't know about you, but I was an edgy 16-17 year old when I joined PD. The stupid nonsense in the PD made sense to my marajuana-addled child mind at the time. At 22 now, with an economic breakdown, and an interstate move out of teh parent's house, and a whole hell of a lot of personal responsibility later, my views have naturally drifted out of sync with discordian ideals...and I'm sure a lot of people who signed on when they were "dumb kids" have had similar shifts in ideology in the past 5-7 years.

In short, people do naturally lose interest in ideologies as a result of personal experience.


So, yeah...in conclusion, there are a million and one individual factors that one could claim is responsible for people leaving the community. You would have to devise some way to test the hypothesis that any single one of them is true, though, before making the claim that any one of them is unequivocally the sole cause of community attrition.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Monad is a butthurt facebook discordian.  It's like arguing with a brain damaged hamster.

[von]

Monad is a butthurt facebook discordian.  It's like arguing with a brain damaged hamster.

then that makes him stupid enough for me to defeat in argument...

[rong]

I figured out what's really going on.

This forum is actually run by the NSA (which is secretly controlled by shape shifting alien lizards) and has been used to identify "troublemakers" (i.e. terrorists).

The drop in active membership is due to "troublemakers" now being in indefinite detention.

This also explains the shift in political climate.

The "core" members of this forum are actually NSA operatives - that is why they are not currently detained.

PD = Protecting Democracy

TRUST NOBODY

[Faust]

Your theory is sound but falls apart on one minor detail.

I'm not receiving any kickbacks. If I was selling you all down the river I would expect to be paid for it.

[rong]

Why would they pay you when you manage the site for free? 

[Faust]

Why would they pay you when you manage the site for free?

Your Right, I should put up a pay wall for all known government IP's

[P3nT4gR4m]

Why would they pay you when you manage the site for free?

Your Right, I should put up a pay wall for all known government IP's

An interesting experiment. If they circumvent this, technically we have them on IP theft 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Why would they pay you when you manage the site for free?

Your Right, I should put up a pay wall for all known government IP's

An interesting experiment. If they circumvent this, technically we have them on IP theft 

Silly Scotsman.  Rules are for proles.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Why would they pay you when you manage the site for free?

Your Right, I should put up a pay wall for all known government IP's

An interesting experiment. If they circumvent this, technically we have them on IP theft 

Silly Scotsman.  Rules are for prolesany mug dumb enough to obey them.

ftfy