Holy-o-fuck

[Wrecker]

This is fkn stupid, this forum is dead and a pile of the people I saw on the regular on F/A were here and they're not posting anymore in either. This is the end? I like Phoenixed better than F/A, but the bottom line is there has to be a place, or maybe not for those we all recognize, I don't know. Is everybody gone? Where are all the people? No more good stories?

So what now?

[Vae]

The solution to the community here, as it has always been, is just to create your own activity.
You can't force people to talk. The only thing you can do is bring up topics in hope of piquing their interest enough to comment.

[TrishaCat]

It is my goal to be the last person posting here and on FAF, so fear not! Your friendly neighborhood Chili will be here to the end! 

As for others, most people are on Discord these days. I recommend adding people on Discord if you wanna keep up with them.

[Zaraphayx]

22 hours ago, Wrecker said:

This is fkn stupid, this forum is dead and a pile of the people I saw on the regular on F/A were here and they're not posting anymore in either. This is the end? I like Phoenixed better than F/A, but the bottom line is there has to be a place, or maybe not for those we all recognize, I don't know. Is everybody gone? Where are all the people? No more good stories?

So what now?

F O R U M S  A R E  A  D E A D  M E D I U M

I keep saying this and people keep arguing and I keep being right.

Aligns perfectly with the rest of my life.

[Silo]

It's already far too late for anything meaningful to happen.

*I'm also not tempted to post on a forum where I know nobody is going to respond (or where I'll get some retarded,  snarky post)

Sure, I can just post memes until they shut up,  but that's not an actual discussion.

What are we talking about again?

Edit: I was bored

 

[TrishaCat]

On 3/11/2019 at 12:16 AM, Zaraphayx said:

F O R U M S  A R E  A  D E A D  M E D I U M

You're not wrong, its just that forums are the far superior medium and allowing them to die will only cause the internet to further destroy itself

[Zaraphayx]

23 minutes ago, Battlechili said:

You're not wrong, its just that forums are the far superior medium and allowing them to die will only cause the internet to further destroy itself

The internet isn't 'destroying itself'.

It's being terraformed into cable television that you interact with.

The only thing that forums are superior for is comedy threads and dunking on people which isn't what most of the "I miss forums" people are sad about. They're sad that they're the digital equivalent of old people who pay for groceries with checks.

[TrishaCat]

13 minutes ago, Zaraphayx said:

The only thing that forums are superior for is comedy threads and dunking on people which isn't what most of the "I miss forums" people are sad about. They're sad that they're the digital equivalent of old people who pay for groceries with checks.

I just wanna have a place that doesn't have a 240 character limit that lets people discuss topics that don't magically vanish down a feed over time due to age and/or other people talking.

Discord and Twitter suck

Twitter actively discourages discussion, instead encouraging people to dunk on each other or post shitty reaction images or one word replies or block/mute anyone you don't like. In turn this has the effect of making people stop knowing how to engage with each other as humans, thus damaging one's communication ability. It also encourages young people and older people to engage in the same communities and that's really bad. Tired of running into 15 year olds yelling at adults.

Discord encourages shitty inclusive communities of likeminded people whilst forcing topics to constantly change, thus resembling more of a casual conversation than any ongoing discussion.
TL;DR: Old woman yells at cloud

[Zaraphayx]

10 minutes ago, Battlechili said:

I just wanna have a place that doesn't have a 240 character limit that lets people discuss topics that don't magically vanish down a feed over time due to age and/or other people talking.

Imageboards.

Quote

Discord and Twitter suck

Most of the people who used this website disagree with you.

Quote

Twitter actively discourages discussion, instead encouraging people to dunk on each other or post shitty reaction images or one word replies or block/mute anyone you don't like. In turn this has the effect of making people stop knowing how to engage with each other as humans, thus damaging one's communication ability. It also encourages young people and older people to engage in the same communities and that's really bad. Tired of running into 15 year olds yelling at adults.

All of these things are true of forums.

I made a game out of responding to multi-paragraph posts full of pseudo-philosophy with "shut up nerd" or dog pictures. I don't think this damages communication ability; I am an above-average communicator.

Sidewalk Surfboard used to rage the fuck out at people on this platform all the time; George uses this platform and he has more social intelligence and maturity than some of the adults in here that are on the wrong side of their 30's.

Quote

Discord encourages shitty inclusive communities of likeminded people whilst forcing topics to constantly change, thus resembling more of a casual conversation than any ongoing discussion.

I had a conversation in a Discord chat last week that kept me awake 4 hours longer than I wanted and it stayed mostly on topic. The problem is not the platform it's the people. Get better friends.
 

Quote

TL;DR: Old woman yells at cloud

Change is the constant.

[MuttButt]

don't panic, I'm still here kinda :0

[Socketosis]

On 3/12/2019 at 3:59 PM, Zaraphayx said:

Most of the people who used this website disagree with you.

Twitter is the worst.

[Vae]

Twitter does what it's supposed to, which is shortform, fast-consumption social media.
Ain't for everyone, but I'm not gonna bitch too much about it.

EDIT: And as much as I like forum format, and old art galleries and shit like that,
this is not a surprising evolution.
There's so much shit demanding your attention now. My fucking browser links bar for stuff I want to access regularly and quickly has like 24 things on it, alone.

When you gotta divide your time and attention up like that, it's no surprise people want to do everything as quickly and efficiently as possible. Only got so much patience and so many hours in a day. Not even counting the time you want or need to devote to your life off of the internet.

[Zaraphayx]

42 minutes ago, Vae said:

Twitter does what it's supposed to, which is shortform, fast-consumption social media.
Ain't for everyone, but I'm not gonna bitch too much about it.

EDIT: And as much as I like forum format, and old art galleries and shit like that,
this is not a surprising evolution.
There's so much shit demanding your attention now. My fucking browser links bar for stuff I want to access regularly and quickly has like 24 things on it, alone.

When you gotta divide your time and attention up like that, it's no surprise people want to do everything as quickly and efficiently as possible. Only got so much patience and so many hours in a day. Not even counting the time you want or need to devote to your life off of the internet.

You missed the most important part though.

Which is that twitter is where everyone else is.

So it's the best platform to become popular on.

This is all most furries care about.

[Vitaly]

I promised to come here more often, but forgot about it again, I'm sorry

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

I'm big gay and only come around occasionally

 

[Rouge Artist]

*One password reset later* 

Hey there! I'm finally back on!

Yeah RL kind of hit me hard and sort of knocked me away from this place! Funny how those kind of things tend to happen, don't they?  

But anyways, I've found my way back and I'll try to come back more often. No guarantees that I'll be as active as I once was since I've found myself a part of a youtube gaming group as well as a Brony youtube group. yeah not sure how exactly i got roped into that lot, but hey I get along with them pretty well and have been doing more in that group lately. Kinda been picking up on video editing lately since I've been getting into game lets plays.  ^^" 

[Zerig]

yeah everyone moved to twitter and discord and many of them turned into cunts

very not cool

[Zaraphayx]

Cunt tf is on my flist ngl

 

[Pangolin]

My opinion is that forums are the vegetables of the online discussion and everyone needs a place to think deeply and discuss topics, but they are all in love with fast food like discord and twitter that don't leave much room for deep thinking. Those places are often just locations where people will reduce their points to the bare minimum and throw out much of the nuance that a topic needs to really be judged fairly.

Image boards don't fill this need unless they are moderated, curated and have user accounts. Otherwise how will you build relationships and friendships with people if you are just one more person in a sea of people? A lot of the anonymity of the internet is the freedom to say pretty much anything (as long as it complies with the forum rules), but if its just an anonymous user then no party has any real incentive to stick around.

Discords and Twitters are partially to blame for the increased polarization of the internet where various positions are taken to the equivalent of teams. My team must always be right! Your team is almost certainly wrong.

 

Discord, the site where there are a 1,000 servers each one like the last, except some may have furry porn, and you can't verify the quality of it unless you are given a special link and permissions and vetted by staff.

Twitter, the site where everyone on there is either a bot designed to force you into rage-reply state, someone arguing in bad faith, posting in bad faith, or genuinely malicious out of boredom.

 

Those sites are fine for collecting people I DONT want to talk to, and keeping them out of the places I want to be. That is their purpose from my point of view, but as someone that discovered forums in 2019-2020 let me tell you why they are so special and why they should be cherished. Even if they don't end up surviving and eventually fizzle out, a forum is an incredibly special place. Each one unique and irreplaceable. A hidden gem that search engines downplay.

A forum bursting with activity and full of people is like a coffee shop of the olden times.  The coffee shop where rational thought is conducted, explored, and enjoyed among good faith individuals who want to discuss things. Not because they want to win, or because they think of themselves as superior, but as normal human beings. I am lucky to be part of a thriving forum, which I can't name because I don't want to cross pollinate this site with the ideas from there, and because I want to try and preserve the remaining bits of culture in here as much as possible. Even if my presence already involves some form of inevitable crossing. For which I do apologize  sorry.

In a forum, you create a thread, and the pace of discussion flows as much as it can until everyone in the thread is reasonably satisfied with the final conclusion. At which point the thread begins to die and sink. Not only that, but the slow pace forces you to stop and think about the subject from a much deeper and rational perspective than would be possible on discord/twitter. Discord/twitter encourages you to think fast, post fast, and move on. Exactly the opposite of what you really want when discussing almost any topic. Forums are even better for your attention span and thought process as they force you to stop and think.

I think of a forum as a book that is in the process of writing itself and you have a role to play. Its meant to be read and digested slowly. Take the time to absorb the information and pause to reflect. The careful curation of a forum post is much more valuable from a discussion perspective than any quick tweet or message banged out instantly. I think this is partially why younger generations just don't get forums. Its not fast enough dopamine for them, but I think it provides much more dopamine long term for just a bit more effort. More effort more fish.

A forum doesn't provide the instant yet empty gratification of discords/twitter dopamine dip. Instead, its a nice meal meant to be enjoyed carefully and slowly. Savor every bite. But instead of a quick laugh you genuinely, or at least are supposed to, leave different than when you found the thread because you learned something and your point of view expanded ever so slightly.

My experience on discord is that usually some petit dictator established their fiefdom on which you are trespassing and need to quickly kiss the ring. Its full of their friends all of whom are desperate to get into the king's good graces lest they be banned. This leads to a lot of petty backstabbing, shut outs, put downs, and a steady stream of negativity. And on established and large discords you are just one of many, just an icon and a bit of text. Who is pangolin? Nobody knows. All the in-jokes are already established and nobody where is willing to reply to you because they are all already in love with each other.

If you want a community you have to fight for it. Its a forum so long as you are willing to fight for it. Make newbies feel welcome. Pull them into the fold.

 

My experience on twitter is that its full of the ideological fascists, reality ignoring, virtue signaling, and malicious dregs of society. I understand wanting to fight for your ideas and what not, but when they conflict with reality then you should stop and reconsider, but few seldom do. And I also understand wanting to keep to your ideals, but when your ideals are wrong, and you still want to keep them. Okay have fun. Twitter is more of a battleground than a place for real discussion and nobody on there seems to be willing to grow intellectually. You have to be willing to abandon your positions to grow as an individual. Otherwise why exist? They all want to ignore reality and appear awesome, friendly, and virtuous, but inside they have become rotten. Finally, the malicious users: they just want to fight and argue and somehow they get dopamine out of trying to bait you into an argument. Everyone wants to fight, but nobody wants to think.

~ Pangolin (lover of forums)

 

You can't get any of this on Twitter or Discord.