A new 50-post suggestion

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I can remove the scrambler pretty quickly.

I think we could do with some new Titles and I can directly change that but technically that should only be The MGT account that can.

Well, a few members have suggested not fucking with the post count scrambler.   A title for 50 posts or less is probably the answer...And there's no hurry, this can wait on ECH.

It's not like we're drowning in noobs.   

Yeah, I wasn't going to say but if you check this and go to the bottom of the page

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?action=stats

Were at an all time low new members including the Hotel California days.

Membership drive?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I can remove the scrambler pretty quickly.

I think we could do with some new Titles and I can directly change that but technically that should only be The MGT account that can.

Well, a few members have suggested not fucking with the post count scrambler.   A title for 50 posts or less is probably the answer...And there's no hurry, this can wait on ECH.

It's not like we're drowning in noobs.   

Yeah, I wasn't going to say but if you check this and go to the bottom of the page

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?action=stats

Were at an all time low new members including the Hotel California days.

Membership drive?

I started doing a little evangalizin' over the last couple of weeks.

Problem is that even our established members spend their computer time on Facebook, rarely bothering to post anywhere else. 

So two of the people I directed this way said "It looks like it was cool 4 years ago, but it's dead now".

[Trivial]

What was going on 4 years ago that it was so busy?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

What was going on 4 years ago that it was so busy?

Psycho letters, writing, etc.

But that wasn't what made it busy.  What made it busy was chatter.  The much-maligned "fluff".

But Facebook simply works better for that.  So 90% of the users fucked off to Zuckerburg full time.  The ones who still come around can't be arsed to even say "hello".  No chatter/fluff, no board.  It's really that simple.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think that one of the elements that causes so much drama on Facebook is that a lot of people want to vent online, but they don't seem to realize that everybody can see their venting.

I prefer to vent here, because it isn't obviously connected to my real name, a limited audience has access to it, and if for some reason I need to have something deleted or hidden I can just ask. I can say whatever random shit I want without worrying about some colleague thinking I'm unprofessional.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I think that one of the elements that causes so much drama on Facebook is that a lot of people want to vent online, but they don't seem to realize that everybody can see their venting.

I prefer to vent here, because it isn't obviously connected to my real name, a limited audience has access to it, and if for some reason I need to have something deleted or hidden I can just ask. I can say whatever random shit I want without worrying about some colleague thinking I'm unprofessional.

All I'm saying is, if everyone who breezes through here every day said at least one thing - anything - you'd wind up with conversations again.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

If more people took that shit to private forums it would cut waaaaay back on the drama and unintended consequences in their lives.

I mean, if Justine Sacco had posted her incredibly unfunny racist joke on a webfurum under a pseudonym, she'd probably still have a job today.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think that one of the elements that causes so much drama on Facebook is that a lot of people want to vent online, but they don't seem to realize that everybody can see their venting.

I prefer to vent here, because it isn't obviously connected to my real name, a limited audience has access to it, and if for some reason I need to have something deleted or hidden I can just ask. I can say whatever random shit I want without worrying about some colleague thinking I'm unprofessional.

All I'm saying is, if everyone who breezes through here every day said at least one thing - anything - you'd wind up with conversations again.

Yeah, I know. Maybe we need to start some of those accursed fluff threads. Three-word story. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I think that one of the elements that causes so much drama on Facebook is that a lot of people want to vent online, but they don't seem to realize that everybody can see their venting.

I prefer to vent here, because it isn't obviously connected to my real name, a limited audience has access to it, and if for some reason I need to have something deleted or hidden I can just ask. I can say whatever random shit I want without worrying about some colleague thinking I'm unprofessional.

All I'm saying is, if everyone who breezes through here every day said at least one thing - anything - you'd wind up with conversations again.

Yeah, I know. Maybe we need to start some of those accursed fluff threads. Three-word story. 

I think we're using a different definition of "fluff" here. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think that one of the elements that causes so much drama on Facebook is that a lot of people want to vent online, but they don't seem to realize that everybody can see their venting.

I prefer to vent here, because it isn't obviously connected to my real name, a limited audience has access to it, and if for some reason I need to have something deleted or hidden I can just ask. I can say whatever random shit I want without worrying about some colleague thinking I'm unprofessional.

All I'm saying is, if everyone who breezes through here every day said at least one thing - anything - you'd wind up with conversations again.

Yeah, I know. Maybe we need to start some of those accursed fluff threads. Three-word story. 

I think we're using a different definition of "fluff" here. 

Probably. But we HAVE a fluff thread.

The forum that was my "home" forum before I came here used to have something insane like 30,000 users, and there would regularly be over a thousand people on at a time. It's dead now. Pretty sure it's due to Facebook more than anything.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Weirdly, I haven't been on that forum in like six months, and the reason is because every time I was on, somebody wanted something from me.

[Faust]

Yeah, Basically forum content still holds the niece of detailed discussion, review or long interaction with others. It's suited to it. It does it well where social media actively cuts it down. Twitter unfairly gets a bad rap for it because of it's 140 character limit, but the really bad one is still facebook, it actively down ranks content over a paragraph so it is displayed to less people. It replaces it with the Continue Reading button which people skim over.

For general shooting the shit and community, Social media can't be beat. For instance photographs. When you post any image on Facebook it organises them, dates them and places them in a structure that you can easily go back and look at. Forum Technology is a lot more monolithic.

It's not all the technologies fault, PD forums have a reputation for being toxic, it puts off a lot of people. But SMF and forum technology IS falling behind.

I've been looking around at alternatives. Vbullitin seems to be trying a multifaceted approach though not especially well, they also recently got hacked pretty badly. There are some interesting ones, burning boards and the like.

But the only one that really seems to work well in the modern stage is the wordpress.

There are a lot of other variables that are changing the way we interact, but the technology is one that I can directly address and it's something I've been thinking about a lot.

I have recently relit the /blog (Mainly stealing it for a place to put comic book reviews). It works well for cross posting content elsewhere, the presentation is somehow more polished than to linking to a forum thread.

I've been actively seeking out discordian projects and offering them support from here. And in the space of a couple of months we've had good results.

Dimo's BIP common walls is up and had good reactions from the places we cross posted it.

The offer is there for everyone, if you have a Discordian project and want to get the word out say it. Everyone can Have a page a PD.com

Even Enrico. Especially Enrico.

[Salty]

There is this strange thing about FB. It reaches in our lives, takes our info, removes a lot of privacy if used improperly. It doesnt belong to the people that use it, and yet people feel their FB is very much their own.private territory.

The funny part is that on a forum, you get more say, if the environment suits you. Comminities shift. FB lumbers on.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It's not all the technologies fault, PD forums have a reputation for being toxic, it puts off a lot of people.

Which is hilarious.

Try The Cellar or Giraffe sometime.  You want fucking toxic?

Or, hell, any pagan board in the world.

[Faust]

There is this strange thing about FB. It reaches in our lives, takes our info, removes a lot of privacy if used improperly. It doesnt belong to the people that use it, and yet people feel their FB is very much their own.private territory.

The funny part is that on a forum, you get more say, if the environment suits you. Comminities shift. FB lumbers on.

Here's the really nasty one: People are metering what they post a lot more carefully because of facebook. It suddenly pulled in the 4chan'rs the co-workers and our aunts and uncles and made everything you say available to all of them, if you can't please them all then often people refrain from posting what came into mind: Which directly leads to feelings of isolation.