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people are willing to be incredibly funny without being bigots. there's very little of the lurking uncomfortable feeling when someone makes a funny feeling up Hitler joke because there just aren't lovely Internet people here for the most part. the hobby and nerds forums are unmatched. I never get the sense that a post recommending a product is being astroturfed by a company like they often are on Reddit. Annoying bitchy nerd slap fights are moderated but also stupid morons get told off without handwringing about being nice to people spreading bullshit.
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May 14, 2024 17:41
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I’ve been here (lurking, mostly) for twenty years and I can’t imagine ever leaving at this rate. I signed up when I was 16 and now I have a fuckin kid and a mortgage. My avatar is a lovely jpeg from 2004, and I kind of love that it’s still just the way it used to be. In seriousness: any topic I have ever been interested in has pretty reliably had a thread / megathread associated with it, so I don’t have to go deal with insufferable Reddit people to learn about espresso or obscure video games or bikes or whatever. I love that there isn’t a voting system or algorithm that rewards lowest common denominator bullshit. SA has also grown up in a way that’s hard to put into words. After Lowtax offed himself a bunch of derelict goons came back after several years away and clearly hadn’t changed at all, and it was interesting to see that compared to the folks who stuck around. I also really appreciate how a lot of discussion here is held in good faith. That’s really hard to come by on the modern internet.
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May 15, 2024 03:06
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Necronomicon posted:I kind of love that it’s still just the way it used to be. That's why I'm still on SA. I miss the old internet (partially because I'm getting older and partially because the modern internet is soulless and corporate). Twitter is depressing, social media sinister and Reddit chock full of advertising masquerading as posts. Nobody here is trying to go viral or generate money/clout. Posts are made for their own sake then succeed or fail based on how funny/interesting/unhinged they are. It feels like a more human setting - no algorithms, addictive design or tracking. The community is chill and it's fun to see aging nerd dads sitting happily alongside transgender anarcho-communists. I lurked in the site's heyday and came back after my life slowed down in my '30s, then finally signed up for an account after Lowtax got the boot. I still lurk rather than post but this is the best place to do so. The site is mellower than it used to be but so am I. BadFilmBestFilm has a new favorite as of 16:25 on May 15, 2024 |
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May 15, 2024 16:11
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I dunno but because of these forums, I've been able to keep my head afloat during hard times by selling floral crafts. I also wouldn't've developed my talent for the craft had it not been for this site. None of this sounds like it's because Something Awful, but it is.
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May 16, 2024 17:43
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I crave a social experience online, and despite the name, "social media" is absolute dogshit at producing something that actually feels like social discussion. Reddit probably gets the closest, but the artificial divide between "content" posts and "reply" posts, along with multi-threading of replies, makes it useless as a generator of discussion most of the time. Old-school forums always were good at this sort of thing, though, and SA is proof that they're still miles better than Facebook or whatever. As for why SA in particular: back in the day, I joined because it was the only forum out there where the posting was consistently medium-to-high effort. Forums elsewhere have always been plagued by no-content posting, unfunny gimmick posting, long chains of nested quotes, and other dumb things that dumb people post when they don't take five seconds to make sure that they're posting something worth reading. Something Awful discouraged that behavior pretty harshly by charging people $10 whenever they did it too much. We still sometimes emptyquote things and such, but much more sparingly than other forums. I think that over time, that kind of posting behavior has mostly migrated to social media, and there are probably other forums that are just as good as SA, but just with a tiny fraction of its population. We joke about this website being dead and gay, but if you look at other old forums still limping along in the 2020s, they'll have like two dozen posters and three of them are responsible for 80% of the posts, and SA is doing a lot better than that. And it also certainly helps that, over time, this place evolved into somewhere where bigotry of all kinds isn't tolerated.
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May 17, 2024 11:22
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DontMockMySmock posted:We still sometimes emptyquote things and such, but much more sparingly than other forums. True but on the other hand, a long empty quote chain is impressive and powerful!
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May 18, 2024 03:55
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Its a far better and more trustworthy source of information when discussing with the people here who actually care about XYZ topic. Its genuinely fun to talk about video games with people (or poo poo on Star Citizen) There's always enough people hanging around to prevent things being a complete echochamber Its a great way to kill some time without being bombarded by ads or watching whatever nebulous content exists on youtube(shorts) or tiktok or instagram. Most people 'round here are nice 
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May 18, 2024 04:27
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I've been on SA since 2005 and even though none of you know it coz I pretty much just lurk, you're all my best friends. A lot of things that keep me here have already been mentioned. It's well moderated, it's grown with the times and has become one of the safer, more accepting and progressive places on the internet (who knew that was possible). I can learn about *anything* here. Hobbies, politics, anything. There's someone who knows about it and has all the info to go with it. A lot of posters are quite funny and it's nice to have a place to go to look at funny pictures and enjoy some entertaining discourse. Also, the Simpsons Meme thread is probably one of the best threads I've ever read. loving genius going on in there. And finally, so many animal pics and videos I dunno what I'll do if SA ever ceases to exist. Probably just give up on the whole internet coz the rest of it loving sucks. Keep up the good work, goon friends.
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May 18, 2024 04:36
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BadFilmBestFilm posted:That's why I'm still on SA. I miss the old internet (partially because I'm getting older and partially because the modern internet is soulless and corporate). Twitter is depressing, social media sinister and Reddit chock full of advertising masquerading as posts. Nobody here is trying to go viral or generate money/clout. Posts are made for their own sake then succeed or fail based on how funny/interesting/unhinged they are. It feels like a more human setting - no algorithms, addictive design or tracking. The community is chill and it's fun to see aging nerd dads sitting happily alongside transgender anarcho-communists. you should post, its fun
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May 18, 2024 04:56
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the posts are in order
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May 18, 2024 05:10
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I have made online friends from literally all over the world and have/had real life friendships/relationships because of these dead gay forums. Most of us grew up to be intelligent, thoughtful, reasonable people and I enjoy reading their intelligent, thoughtful, reasonable thoughts. There are some truly creative writers here, just banging out the shitposts in the shitpost factory, and the posts are informative and funny. I learned how to better organize and present my thoughts when posting/replying to posts (she said, while writing in list format). The depth and breadth of knowledge on niche subjects some posters have is impressive. The mini-communities that sprung up and got moved to CCCC or live elsewhere around the board are/were really enjoyable (see previous r/t funny, informative, thoughtful content). Bigotry/isms is shut down almost immediately. And most importantly perhaps, a small and determined group of goons stopped me from doing something stupid in 2021. You know who you are 
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May 18, 2024 05:21
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mycophobia posted:the posts are in order
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May 18, 2024 05:34
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It's conceivable that I find a husband
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May 18, 2024 05:39
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One, it's a nice security blanket from my high school years. Two, as social media becomes more and more unbearable, and even message board adjacent places like Reddit become WAY more annoying. It feels good knowing I can go to the movie section and look at movie talk, and goons being jokey, but not terrible? And actually having fun conversations. Everywhere else, you get a weird Twitter bot wanting to complain about "woke" or a reddit mod getting REALLY into their secret fetish. And it's just, a much safer place for all my LGBTQ+ friends and I know a membership here is not going to fund lowtax 's cookie fund anymore, or Elon Musk's slush fund either. Plus BYOB is the best vibes on the Internet, and FYAD is all the poo poo posting you love online but constant and constantly funny. And not to mention hundreds of other things, like the Goons With Spoons board and all the creative people I see here daily, or the annual Secret Santa or the good chunk of great music, great comics, great cringe. Whatever you've kinda wanted on the Internet, is here. Even Let's Plays!
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May 18, 2024 06:55
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TelevisedInsanity posted:Whatever you've kinda wanted on the Internet, is here. Even Let's Plays! There is so much creativity and just absolute love that posters put into their stuff. Let's plays, someone who has a bunch of weird radioactive jugs, it's here. It's really fun posting or lurking with this much content. edit: Sorry for posting in here twice Rappaport has a new favorite as of 07:19 on May 18, 2024 |
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May 18, 2024 07:15
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I'm just happy that people are still posting photoshop bangers. The things people come up with at the drop of a hat never stop to blow me away. Just some random post in a random thread and then blammo you got an on point 'shop that just nails a moment in a sublime and unexpected way.
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May 18, 2024 07:50
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Spinz posted:It's conceivable that I find a husband one of the reasons i jumped from casual front page reader to the forums was your thread of weird war dioramas featuring cigarettes (?). hope you find that special someone Rappaport posted:someone who has a bunch of weird radioactive jugs, it's here I'd appreciate it if you didn't get personal, it's a condition i have and it's not even that uncommon actually
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May 18, 2024 08:58
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I don't know where else to make content or who the hell would even enjoy it besides SA
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May 18, 2024 09:45
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sa users are largely smart and funny, and there's a sense of internet community here that's unrivaled.
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May 18, 2024 11:27
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No likes, upvotes, karma. People who know very specific things and share. Since the internet turn into poo poo written by ai, the forums is one of the best source of non-bullshit information all together. Try making an web search for something specific like cactus care, and it’s just page after page of useless drivel produced by ais and ran through translation algorithms. You’re allowed to be a weirdo, but not allowed to be lovely, bigoted or creepy about it. Also tom_collins.txt
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May 18, 2024 12:21
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That Little Demon posted:I don't know where else to make content or who the hell would even enjoy it besides SA
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May 18, 2024 14:53
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Signed up for the Bruiser stories, stayed because it's the best American football community around.
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May 18, 2024 15:33
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I agree with most of the things people have already pointed out, so I won't post about those. Instead, I'll add that I really appreciate that it's accepted and understood that occasionally people splinter off to create groups that aren't on SA; Steam groups, IRC channels (and more recently Discord channels), and such. However, everyone also knows that it's not seen as an existential threat to the site - because we've either been part of them, or we know people who have, and we always come back. Also, SA not being obsessed with year-over-year constant growth is kinda nice.
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May 18, 2024 17:16
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everywhere else is worse
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May 18, 2024 19:37
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It's a forum that is active and threads stay more or less on topic without dragging in drama from unrelated corners. After being on other forums I was surprised at how often they all dissolved into ranting about repetitive subjects and all linking back to dumb poo poo on Twitter. Inevitably all threads would derail into whatever hash was popular that day. On Something Awful, there's actually an attempt to stay on topic and mods are good at re-routing conversations and probating troublemakers.
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May 18, 2024 20:52
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someone awful. posted:everywhere else is worse
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May 18, 2024 20:59
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A lot of epic things happened here back in the day and those ghosts still echo in these halls Once upon a time the internet's smartest and wittiest posted here, we invented loving MEMES We are why the internet acts the way it does Now it's like the Island of Misfit Toys, and I still appreciate the community more than anywhere else Lost fingat, post mote later
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May 18, 2024 23:15
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Southern Cassowary posted:sa users are largely smart and funny, and there's a sense of internet community here that's unrivaled.  I live in a pretty conservative place and I credit (and will be forever grateful) the forums for keeping me somewhat progressive and stop me from becoming an awful person Also the smilies
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May 18, 2024 23:53
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MakaVillian posted:Also the smilies   These things are pretty great 
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