A new 50-post suggestion

[Faust]

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.

There are plenty more toxic forums out there. If anything we are one of the more pleasant ones. We tend not to mediate what people post and we're not swimming in nasty pictures despite that.

It's not my opinion of the reality here, but it IS our perceived reputation, and that needs to change.

It's just come up a lot from the different discordian groups I've come across. They have all heard we're really mean from people who came in here and got chased off. We have a bad reputation because of it, but it's pretty easy to correct, simply talking to people fixes it.
How will our public know how great we are unless we tell them?

[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.

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.

So, you take a technology which offers the very opposite of isolation and manufacture a culture which isolates itself.


JESUS.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

  That page never fails to delight me.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

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.

There are plenty more toxic forums out there. If anything we are one of the more pleasant ones. We tend not to mediate what people post and we're not swimming in nasty pictures despite that.

It's not my opinion of the reality here, but it IS our perceived reputation, and that needs to change.

It's just come up a lot from the different discordian groups I've come across. They have all heard we're really mean from people who came in here and got chased off. We have a bad reputation because of it, but it's pretty easy to correct, simply talking to people fixes it.
How will our public know how great we are unless we tell them?

Maybe I should go do a little preaching. 

[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.

So, you take a technology which offers the very opposite of isolation and manufacture a culture which isolates itself.


JESUS.

As far as I can tell, the chat works well for keeping feelings of connection alive, but every single feature other than that on facebook is designed to make people experience feelings of anxiety and self conciousness, constantly attacking peoples confidence and quantifying them them on their worth(Likes on status updates/Friend numbers/Invites).

[Reginald Ret]

So, we're all basically a raft of assholes. But in the past, we've been assholes who vaguely followed a system of checks and balances to make this board more fun for newcomers, because the bottom line is it's an internet and nobody is going to play if it isn't fun.

This system consisted of two parts:

Part 1. The 50-Post Rule, later downgraded to the 50-Post Suggestion, which was the practice of waiting until a new person had made 50 posts before Showing Them What or accusing them of being a troll, even if they were cocky, annoying, pineal, or lame.

Part 2. The Welcoming Committee, which if I recall consisted of myself, Ratatosk, and Cramulus. We in particular were tasked with being friendly and inquiring and trying to engage the noob in conversation.

Over time, however, the system has deteriorated, and in fact has at this point been cast pretty much entirely to the wayside. Internet forums are not as popular as they once were so we get fewer visitors, and persistent trolls like Poptart have made us suspicious.

The problem with that suspicion is that if you are wearing shitheel-tinted glasses, every noob is going to look like a shitheel. That affects how we perceive and interact with every new person here. Some people sail on through it, others, perhaps already a little intimidated, try too hard or make the wrong jokes, or hold their mouth funny or are wearing the wrong color sweater, and invariably someone tells them they're doin' it wrong, and things after that usually go as well as you'd expect them to go.

I don't especially like to see my bipedal friends on all fours, and the way we react to noobs has become reflexive, habitual... it isn't very bipedal of us. We're wearing shitheel-tinted glasses. I'd like to propose a new 50-Post Rule, in which we refrain from telling the noobs that they're doin' it wrong, and give them a chance to figure it out on their own. Even if you don't care for their tone. Further, it would be nice if a few of us made a point of seeking to reach out to the new person and engage them in conversation. Just like you would do at a party. Hey there, new guy... so what do you like to do?

Maybe they'll turn out to be a shitheel. Lots of people are, and basically every single one of us is a dumbass on some level or other. Maybe they'll turn out to be Poptart. But so what, really? There's plenty of time to verbally abuse them later, and the worst thing Poptart can do is "I'm Poptart, LOL!"

Sorry about reversing the threaddrift (not really) But i was thinking something similar recently. I am in. What will be/is the bat signal for 50 posts?

[Salty]

What about a image heavy campaign explaining how nice we all are.

[Reginald Ret]

What about a image heavy campaign explaining how nice we all are.

We will take it so far over the top that it will backfire. Then again, the kind of people who see a backfire and get interested are exactly the kind of weird freaks we want here.
This could work!

[Salty]

Also, I have been thinking a lot about local efforts. Flyers, stickers, qr code, whatever, designed to pull people in.

Lets face it, even when we are all being sweet as pie, the ratio of people going the distance to people who have Teh Fear is...you know.

Quantity THEN quality.

[Faust]

The only way it would work is if we were talking of exaggerated horror stories of here.

After all we are "The worst forum on the internet"

[Salty]

What about a image heavy campaign explaining how nice we all are.

We will take it so far over the top that it will backfire. Then again, the kind of people who see a backfire and get interested are exactly the kind of weird freaks we want here.
This could work!

Discordia,
we aint never been so worried about your poor feefees as we are today.

The only way it would work is if we were talking of exaggerated horror stories of here.

After all we are "The worst forum on the internet"

This can be done, I think.

[Salty]

Would it be helpful to evengelize the actual benefits of being here.

-Freedom of expression/no moderation to speak of.
-Various works put together recently
-No FB stupidity
-Privacy
-Eh, other things about this place that arent awful.

[Reginald Ret]

What about a image heavy campaign explaining how nice we all are.

We will take it so far over the top that it will backfire. Then again, the kind of people who see a backfire and get interested are exactly the kind of weird freaks we want here.
This could work!

Discordia,
we aint never been so worried about your poor feefees as we are today.

The only way it would work is if we were talking of exaggerated horror stories of here.

After all we are "The worst forum on the internet"

This can be done, I think.

I am confused, what can be done? becoming known as the worst forum in the internet? Have you tried googling that phrase? duckduckgo.com has us on 2, and google has us on 5. At least, with my cookies or however searchengies work now.

[Salty]

I mean I can make paper propaganda to the tune of the awful things that happen here.

That seems to go against certain ideas presented ITT, but the tale of the 2012 Vindaloo Server Collapse must be told,

[Reginald Ret]

I mean I can make paper propaganda to the tune of the awful things that happen here.

That seems to go against certain ideas presented ITT, but the tale of the 2012 Vindaloo Server Collapse must be told,

heehee, that sounds like it could be ... interesting. you have my enthousiastic support!