What the hell was it like, then? The counter at the bottom of the Home page says that there were once over 700 people online at once.
Which of you were here around that time, and what was the constant influx of visitors and new meat like?
Was there a trend in ideology and political sway?
And most importantly, what the FUCK caused a spike in activity like that?
I mean, I think I might have been lurking without a profile maybe a year or two after that time, and it was only a little more active than it is now.
The 782 people online (in one given 15-minute period, there were a lot more then that throughout the day), was when RAW was the front page article of Wikipedia.
Around 2008/2009 the forums were really active, the forum had been still buzzing on the honeymoon period after the last set of admins moved on after a particularly bad run. The Black Iron Prison project acted as sort of a tent pole, with a diverse range of personalities all working it, and it snowballing off into other ideas and so on, even apart from the highbrow discussion there was a lot of fun stuff going on.
There was a mix of political, philosophical, humourous, and analytical, not trends per say, if anything so many different personalities, so many different arguments, but it was all good.
We've had other projects since then that acted as a similar glue but these last few years have been really quiet. Partly I feel because of the changing nature of the medium (forum software is getting declining use compared to aggregates, social media, etc.).
Part of it may be cultural, a lot of discordianism really fit with the feelings and what was going on in the world, and part of it may be a lot of people grew up and have busy lives.
In 2008 I was single, worked in a supermarket and had loads of time to do stuff on the site, nowadays I'm lucky if I manage to get a weekend to relax let alone work on side stuff. I'm maintaining the server but not really doing anything creative with the systems, though I try to update the blog every few months whenever I see anything interesting in going on in the discordian community as a whole.
I'm still looking to encourage anyone who's interested in discordianism, and when I see people working on cool shit I want to see if I can help them, but I'm not really sure what I can do other then offer resources here, and push content and projects that have been created so they reach a wider audience.
Quote from: Faust on March 20, 2016, 11:09:33 PM
The 782 people online (in one given 15-minute period, there were a lot more then that throughout the day), was when RAW was the front page article of Wikipedia.
Around 2008/2009 the forums were really active, the forum had been still buzzing on the honeymoon period after the last set of admins moved on after a particularly bad run. The Black Iron Prison project acted as sort of a tent pole, with a diverse range of personalities all working it, and it snowballing off into other ideas and so on, even apart from the highbrow discussion there was a lot of fun stuff going on.
There was a mix of political, philosophical, humourous, and analytical, not trends per say, if anything so many different personalities, so many different arguments, but it was all good.
We've had other projects since then that acted as a similar glue but these last few years have been really quiet. Partly I feel because of the changing nature of the medium (forum software is getting declining use compared to aggregates, social media, etc.).
Part of it may be cultural, a lot of discordianism really fit with the feelings and what was going on in the world, and part of it may be a lot of people grew up and have busy lives.
In 2008 I was single, worked in a supermarket and had loads of time to do stuff on the site, nowadays I'm lucky if I manage to get a weekend to relax let alone work on side stuff. I'm maintaining the server but not really doing anything creative with the systems, though I try to update the blog every few months whenever I see anything interesting in going on in the discordian community as a whole.
I'm still looking to encourage anyone who's interested in discordianism, and when I see people working on cool shit I want to see if I can help them, but I'm not really sure what I can do other then offer resources here, and push content and projects that have been created so they reach a wider audience.
Oh, that's awesome. I wouldn't have even thought that would cause such a huge spike.
Also, the admins thing interests me.
And yes, I think Social Media has by far dominated the communication scene in regards to debates on pretty much anything. But I find it IMPOSSIBLE to have some of the conversations I have here, on Facebook. For that, I appreciate your dedication to keeping this all alive, regardless of how quiet it gets.
And I get you on the being busy thing. I am pretty much never at the apartment I pay 500 a month to share, and sleep in a different bed every night (Bounces between two beds). I couldn't imagine even getting time to play video games for an hour, assuming I could sleep at my apartment every day for a week. The fact that you are able to put the time and effort into this that you do, is amazing.
Seriously, thank you. I'm quite sure we all appreciate it.
I appreciate the sentiments, but I do fuck all barred keeping the lights on, and fixing the odd thing here and there.
The previous admins thing was just before I came on the scene, Roger or ECH would be able to explain it better, I arrived in the aftermath of that when the forum had this awful key west pina collada theme, and about 1 post a week.
Quote from: Faust on March 20, 2016, 11:53:14 PM
I appreciate the sentiments, but I do fuck all barred keeping the lights on, and fixing the odd thing here and there.
The previous admins thing was just before I came on the scene, Roger or ECH would be able to explain it better, I arrived in the aftermath of that when the forum had this awful key west pina collada theme, and about 1 post a week.
Even for a site based on Discord, a Key West Pina Collada theme is pretty disturbing.
:ffs:
2008 was a weird year in general. Obama happened, and Anonymous, and there was a whole lot of this feeling of stretching after a long nap in an uncomfortable cave.
Quote from: Q. G. Pennyworth on March 21, 2016, 12:13:43 AM
2008 was a weird year in general. Obama happened, and Anonymous, and there was a whole lot of this feeling of stretching after a long nap in an uncomfortable cave.
And then we were in an even bigger cave.
I oozed my way onto the forums in 2007, and by 2008 I was a full-blown PD.com Asshole Fuckface (as we were known by other Discordian forums, back when they existed).
I remember being a lot weirder and thinking about weird stuff a lot more in those days.
I basically transitioned from adolescence into psuedo-adulthood on PD.com. The damage can never be fully undone.
I am horrified that I have been working in the same corporate megastructure as long as I have been here on PD.com.
Quote from: LMNO on March 21, 2016, 02:15:23 AM
I am horrified that I have been working in the same corporate megastructure as long as I have been here on PD.com.
This is exactly why I change jobs whenever the mood takes me.
2008 was in fact the high point of PD, IMO. Not the only good time, but the high point. Some great writing, great music, and lots of horrible lore.
It really started to fall apart in October of 2009, at least for me. It's still here, and it still has good stuff on it occasionally, but stand-alone forums as a whole all more or less died off that year.
This was a weird party to show up late to, that's for sure.
Quote from: Q. G. Pennyworth on March 21, 2016, 03:09:06 AM
This was a weird party to show up late to, that's for sure.
It was always a weird party.
It was a good party because it was so weird.
I think a lot of us were in transitional places in our lives, and many of the former members transitioned out of using forums altogether. I had a lot of free time and money when I was first on the forum, and I think a lot of people had lots of free time so there was a lot of conversation, trolling, argument, drama, etc.
It was indeed the glory days of the board, and it was also happening just past the height of web forum use; all the really big forums I was on started to decline shortly thereafter.
In total disregard, I allow myself this literary transgression, because I'll feel both, n/either, n/and/or damned iff I don't.
QuoteAhab soon calculated what his latitude must be at that precise instant. Then falling into a moment's revery, he again looked up towards the sun and murmured to himself: "Thou sea-mark! thou high and mighty Pilot! thou tellest me truly where I am—but canst thou cast the least hint where I shall be? Or canst thou tell where some other thing besides me is this moment living? Where is Moby Dick? This instant thou must be eyeing him. These eyes of mine look into the very eye that is even now beholding him; aye, and into the eye that is even now equally beholding the objects on the unknown, thither side of thee, thou sun!"
Quote from: LuciferX on March 22, 2016, 10:43:27 PM
In total disregard, I allow myself this literary transgression, because I'll feel both, n/either, n/and/or damned iff I don't.
QuoteAhab soon calculated what his latitude must be at that precise instant. Then falling into a moment's revery, he again looked up towards the sun and murmured to himself: "Thou sea-mark! thou high and mighty Pilot! thou tellest me truly where I am—but canst thou cast the least hint where I shall be? Or canst thou tell where some other thing besides me is this moment living? Where is Moby Dick? This instant thou must be eyeing him. These eyes of mine look into the very eye that is even now beholding him; aye, and into the eye that is even now equally beholding the objects on the unknown, thither side of thee, thou sun!"
:tldr:
Yeah, I assumed the general drop after that was due to the death of forums. I wish I coulda been here during the forum's prime. At the same time, I feel like all the fat's been cut off, if you know what I mean.
Was there ever or is there still an IRC channel for this place? I could have sworn I remember seeing one a number of years ago. I think I went to join it and it was totally empty except one dude who mocked me after one statement and I left.
www.principiadiscordia.com/irc
I dont like to think about it in terms of "at the forums prime", the pace is quiet, but its fertile, as I said before stuff like BIP caught peoples attention, it wouldnt take much and you could see a lot going on again.
It's funny, in 2008, everybody was going "This place was better in 2006".
I'm in that IRC channel pretty much every week day from 9-5. It's a cool spot. Burns built this awesome bot which turns our chats into awful comics. You can also play word-jumble duck hunt. Come in and type !duck to see what I mean.
(http://40.media.tumblr.com/20cdb93f391c81ae158eed8b65a99308/tumblr_o4lt34KVvn1sah5nto1_1280.jpg)
Anyway, back in 08, this forum had caught the "let's re-invent discordia" bug in a big way. And that's a hot topic - volatile, contentious, wild. There was a feeling that we were doing something together, building something together, becoming something together.
I don't know if Discordia changed or the Internet changed, probably both..
As for the Internet - the medium seems to move us towards more dense and fast communication, which lends itself to the "disco" crowd of Discordians. The Legion of Dynamic Discord. Often little more than surface level dickery, seems like more of a spin-out from #chan culture than anything else.
As for Discordia... have you read Illuminatus? One of the things that strikes me about it, reading it now, is that a lot of the topics its bringing up have been explored and evolved since the 1970s. Same with Zen Without Zen Masters.. there's like 1/3rd of that book which is about Free Love... which all feels a little weird now in the AIDS / Tinder era. No longer revolutionary. The traditional sex values and conservative sex culture that Camden was pushing against.. faded away.
Anyway, a lot of Discordian topics seem like that to me these days. The Pastafarians and satantists are doing a better job satirizing religion (http://thesatanictemple.com/campaigns/religious-literature-for-schools/), for example. Absurdism starts to feel old, the endless procession of novelty starts to get worn out. The Internet doesn't surprise us like it used to. What's Discordianism got for us? What's left? What could it be? How do people wake up themselves and their neighbors? What's outside of the trance I'm in right now? These questions electrified me, and our collective interest in them kept me coming back.
heh, if you think the sexual revolution is complete try having a sexuality that is outside the norm.
Quote from: Cramulus on March 29, 2016, 04:23:23 PM
What's Discordianism got for us? What's left?
Quite a bit, really. As Faust pointed out upthread, things are really slow right now, but there's still some good stuff happening.
Quote from: Pergamos on March 29, 2016, 09:35:53 PM
heh, if you think the sexual revolution is complete try having a sexuality that is outside the norm.
not saying it's complete - I'm saying that how we talked about it in the late 70s might not be as powerful anymore.
On a similar note, in
Illuminatus, one of the big plot points is about breaking down the societal barriers between the races and accepting interracial relationships as okay. Today in 2016, racism sure isn't over, but the idea of a white guy dating a black girl isn't as revolutionary today as it was in '77. So if we were pitching it at a 2016 audience, maybe we'd say it differently.
The broader question is - is there anything that Discordia can give us that we can't get from another source that maybe said it better? That's the lifeblood of Discordia - not continuing the revolution that Mal and Omar lived through, but figuring out what we all need Today in 2016.
Quote from: Cramulus on March 29, 2016, 09:47:41 PM
Quote from: Pergamos on March 29, 2016, 09:35:53 PM
heh, if you think the sexual revolution is complete try having a sexuality that is outside the norm.
not saying it's complete - I'm saying that how we talked about it in the late 70s might not be as powerful anymore.
On a similar note, in Illuminatus, one of the big plot points is about breaking down the societal barriers between the races and accepting interracial relationships as okay. Today in 2016, racism sure isn't over, but the idea of a white guy dating a black girl isn't as revolutionary today as it was in '77. So if we were pitching it at a 2016 audience, maybe we'd say it differently.
The broader question is - is there anything that Discordia can give us that we can't get from another source that maybe said it better? That's the lifeblood of Discordia - not continuing the revolution that Mal and Omar lived through, but figuring out what we all need Today in 2016.
Interestingly enough, the problems we faced in 2002 are still there, and the predictions we made in 2003 have more or less come true.
There's plenty of things for Discordians to do, but true to form, we're too busy to do any of them. Which has always been the case, speaking as a movement or religion. We didn't do the sexual revolution. We didn't have much to do with civil rights. When the chips are down, Discordians are either distracted by something shiny or fighting among ourselves. This has been the case since the very beginning, the day after the bowling alley thing.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xyiwSxc80YI/T090nfw0_dI/AAAAAAAAAZw/ri2ns-Db3EMGjiV3fbmFrZI45Q5NpFINw/w500-h300-no/Tombstone.JPG)
And to think, some people thought this was a joke.
Quote from: Cramulus on March 29, 2016, 09:47:41 PM
Quote from: Pergamos on March 29, 2016, 09:35:53 PM
heh, if you think the sexual revolution is complete try having a sexuality that is outside the norm.
not saying it's complete - I'm saying that how we talked about it in the late 70s might not be as powerful anymore.
On a similar note, in Illuminatus, one of the big plot points is about breaking down the societal barriers between the races and accepting interracial relationships as okay. Today in 2016, racism sure isn't over, but the idea of a white guy dating a black girl isn't as revolutionary today as it was in '77. So if we were pitching it at a 2016 audience, maybe we'd say it differently.
The broader question is - is there anything that Discordia can give us that we can't get from another source that maybe said it better? That's the lifeblood of Discordia - not continuing the revolution that Mal and Omar lived through, but figuring out what we all need Today in 2016.
What we need today is a revolution that addresses the problem at it's root. The sex thing was/is a perfect vehicle, what with how it encodes the union of difference with transcendental bliss. A bit crude, yes, yet wonderfully effective in part because of that "elevation" of the flesh. The problem remains, however, in the domain of mind. So, ideally, what we still need to focus on is a revolution that can turn people's thinking away from that which causes it to suffer. Beyond simple de/distraction from sick patterns of thought, we may also need to formulate a solution: A solution that engages people to actively participate in changing how they think, as though their immortal soul depended on it, because it does just that, actually.
*Like we need to come up with a new word for soul, also, or hijack the word entirely as it seems to have lost some of it's levity, barring inquiry of any purchase.
Quote from: Cramulus on March 29, 2016, 04:23:23 PM
It's funny, in 2008, everybody was going "This place was better in 2006".
I quite liked 2007
[Swirls snifter of posts around in glass] Ahhhhh... A good year
Quote from: LuciferX on March 29, 2016, 10:42:58 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on March 29, 2016, 09:47:41 PM
Quote from: Pergamos on March 29, 2016, 09:35:53 PM
heh, if you think the sexual revolution is complete try having a sexuality that is outside the norm.
not saying it's complete - I'm saying that how we talked about it in the late 70s might not be as powerful anymore.
[...]
The broader question is - is there anything that Discordia can give us that we can't get from another source that maybe said it better? That's the lifeblood of Discordia - not continuing the revolution that Mal and Omar lived through, but figuring out what we all need Today in 2016.
[...]
*Like we need to come up with a new word for soul, also, or hijack the word entirely as it seems to have lost some of it's levity, barring inquiry of any purchase.
What with the whole love connection, at first glance, I might follow in the tradition of Ibn 'Arabi and use the word
heart instead of soul. And, heart also works with the whole pseudo- nostalgic tone of this thread.
[abducted by a howling pack of camels that vanishes into the moonlit desert night]
Discordia has morphed a lot, for me. When I first found it, it was about absurdity. Then, later, it was about thinking outside the box. At some point it became about thinking outside the herd, and in a sense it was very much a way for me to hang on to a counterculture identity while being a wife, mother, and homeowner. After that it became about critical thinking, and then about taking perspectives, assuming multiple viewpoints. I'm not sure what it is for me now, although I do know that a significant component of it is a reminder that I am wrong, you are wrong, we are all wrong. Not about all of everything, but about all of some things and about some of all things. And I don't know it, because we can't see the things we are wrong about until we cease to be wrong by realizing that we're wrong.
So maybe Discordia, to me, is now about surviving paradox.
One way or the other, I am pretty sure it's whatever I need it to be.
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on March 31, 2016, 03:36:34 AM
One way or the other, I am pretty sure it's whatever I need it to be.
:potd:
Quote from: Cramulus on March 29, 2016, 04:23:23 PM
It's funny, in 2008, everybody was going "This place was better in 2006".
I'm in that IRC channel pretty much every week day from 9-5. It's a cool spot. Burns built this awesome bot which turns our chats into awful comics. You can also play word-jumble duck hunt. Come in and type !duck to see what I mean.
(http://40.media.tumblr.com/20cdb93f391c81ae158eed8b65a99308/tumblr_o4lt34KVvn1sah5nto1_1280.jpg)
Anyway, back in 08, this forum had caught the "let's re-invent discordia" bug in a big way. And that's a hot topic - volatile, contentious, wild. There was a feeling that we were doing something together, building something together, becoming something together.
I don't know if Discordia changed or the Internet changed, probably both..
As for the Internet - the medium seems to move us towards more dense and fast communication, which lends itself to the "disco" crowd of Discordians. The Legion of Dynamic Discord. Often little more than surface level dickery, seems like more of a spin-out from #chan culture than anything else.
As for Discordia... have you read Illuminatus? One of the things that strikes me about it, reading it now, is that a lot of the topics its bringing up have been explored and evolved since the 1970s. Same with Zen Without Zen Masters.. there's like 1/3rd of that book which is about Free Love... which all feels a little weird now in the AIDS / Tinder era. No longer revolutionary. The traditional sex values and conservative sex culture that Camden was pushing against.. faded away.
Anyway, a lot of Discordian topics seem like that to me these days. The Pastafarians and satantists are doing a better job satirizing religion (http://thesatanictemple.com/campaigns/religious-literature-for-schools/), for example. Absurdism starts to feel old, the endless procession of novelty starts to get worn out. The Internet doesn't surprise us like it used to. What's Discordianism got for us? What's left? What could it be? How do people wake up themselves and their neighbors? What's outside of the trance I'm in right now? These questions electrified me, and our collective interest in them kept me coming back.
Somebody surprised me with the bot after Faust posted the link to the IRC channel. It was great :lulz:
And yeah, to not be anti-establishment or progressive nowadays is socially reprehensible, depending on where you express yourself.
This place has always been a reminder that sanity and order still exists alongside the chaos. It has always reminded me that it is possible to live through stressful times in life and still be socially or mentally productive. It reminds me that I'm not lost in my worst times, and that I am totally lost in my best times. Discordianism has always been something that cured my worst ills in life. I mean, bugged eyes and prolapsed anus are some major side-effects. But that's way better than considering voting for Trump.
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on March 31, 2016, 03:36:34 AM
Discordia has morphed a lot, for me. When I first found it, it was about absurdity. Then, later, it was about thinking outside the box. At some point it became about thinking outside the herd, and in a sense it was very much a way for me to hang on to a counterculture identity while being a wife, mother, and homeowner. After that it became about critical thinking, and then about taking perspectives, assuming multiple viewpoints. I'm not sure what it is for me now, although I do know that a significant component of it is a reminder that I am wrong, you are wrong, we are all wrong. Not about all of everything, but about all of some things and about some of all things. And I don't know it, because we can't see the things we are wrong about until we cease to be wrong by realizing that we're wrong.
So maybe Discordia, to me, is now about surviving paradox.
One way or the other, I am pretty sure it's whatever I need it to be.
I believe this clearly demonstrates Discordianism to be a religion, as this is often how it is
best used. It's just a healthier religion than all the others, as long as you ignore the carbs. Discord is high in carbs.
And what I mean by that is, not that you eat the menu and live by The Book™, but that this is how healthy people in general use religion. Religion tends to be what people need it to be at different points in their lives, when used in the most healthy way. Unhealthy people use it in a way that... Well... Let's just say that Discordia wasn't the first religion to worship word-salad.