|
I've been thinking lately about how this website has persisted. There's been a lot of drama, an ancient internet legend about being a garbage dump, a haven of demons or large bats, some occasional cross-thread trolling, and still this place hasn't quite died... even as it has gotten gayer. This isn't any kind of official feedback or discussion thread, but I thought it would be fun to reflect on why it's still fun to post here, if you can peel back the slimy outer later coating around the place. Let's see... I think I first got drawn in here by people being super passionate about doing things right. It can get kind of bonkers sometimes, but if there's a discussion topic about anything, be it a video game, hermit crab care, whatever you do with cars, or history factoids, there's probably a dedicated thread who are obsessed with it and can give helpful advice. I appreciate the sense of humor here. People can be sarcastic, or tease someone for being dumb, and it's not slapped down for stepping out of line with a really rigid code of conduct. Sometimes mod actions can feel kind of lovely, but there's actual people to talk crap out with, instead of an algorithm or faceless drones everything is outsourced to who slowly go insane from trauma like with Facebook or Twitter. I like that I can say something stupid or jokey, and people will riff on that, or maybe it spawns a food derail that makes me hungry. I had fun reporting a picture of bird testicles for the mods in the mod forum to admire. That's all I can think of right now. What are your favorite reasons to still read these forums?
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 04:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2024 01:32 |
|
|
first
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 09:25
|
|
|
Sally posted:first doing stuff like this
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 09:25
|
|
|
Every six months or so, someone posts a prehistoric animals thread in GBS or PYF, and they are always excellent.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 11:47
|
|
|
Nuns with Guns posted:What are your favorite reasons to still read these forums? In no particular order: PYF has a lot of weird (in a good way) stuff that I would never be exposed to otherwise, and lots of kitties. (Kitties are also elsewhere on the internet, to be fair) TVIV is generally fun, either because everyone is liking a show and theorycrafting, or because there's That One Goon who doesn't get stuff, the most infamous one being the "Stormfront can't be a nazi!" dude who kept it up until the teevee show had pictures of her sitting and laughing around with Hitler himself to underline that yes, the character Stormfront is a literal nazi and you shouldn't like her. Games has good threads, both in the main and in the subforums. Sometimes there are Dominions LPs  I will admit to reading Dungeons and Debates, too, but that place is slowly dying I think. GBS has some fun megathreads I try to keep up with, like Aliens, fans post a lot of great content.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 15:00
|
|
|
I love the way these forums host dozens of little subcommunities. Sometimes they're weird but more often it's just a little glimpse of a hobby you know nothing about and that's great. Also the only bigot-free place I've found online though I admit I don't look many other places.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 15:47
|
|
|
I enjoy threads that I don't even visit. For example, the PYF Weird Dog thread. I have no interest in viewing weird dogs, I find them distasteful. However it pleases me to know that there are weird dogs out there, and goons are diligently documenting them on the daily.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 16:49
|
|
|
I really, really appreciate when someone comes in a posts some random question, and within an hour someone who just happens to be an expert on that subject provides a thorough effort post addressing the issue. I have learned so much over the last twenty years because of those posts.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 19:56
|
|
|
Personally, I don't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 20:12
|
|
|
I read these forums because they are dumb and gay (like me)
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 20:43
|
|
|
It’s ironically the only place on the internet I can visit and people don’t immediately call me an insane person for believing SA survivors.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 23:21
|
|
|
Rappaport posted:TVIV is generally fun, either because everyone is liking a show and theorycrafting, or because there's That One Goon who doesn't get stuff, the most infamous one being the "Stormfront can't be a nazi!" dude who kept it up until the teevee show had pictures of her sitting and laughing around with Hitler himself to underline that yes, the character Stormfront is a literal nazi and you shouldn't like her. Honestly, yes I love that even here you'll get someone wandering into a thread sometimes who says something that makes the music cut out and everyone turns to look at them like a stranger rolling into and Old West saloon.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 01:29
|
|
|
Every time. I've been here for decades and I feel that way every time.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 01:53
|
|
|
Since I joined the forums I have been bewildered by the stranger and stranger sentences I would write, and people would nod their heads sagely and say, yes that not only absolutely parses, but you have neglected to mention this even stranger detail.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 02:15
|
|
|
inertia, generally
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 06:33
|
|
|
The Saddest Rhino posted:Since I joined the forums I have been bewildered by the stranger and stranger sentences I would write, and people would nod their heads sagely and say, yes that not only absolutely parses, but you have neglected to mention this even stranger detail. do you remember that person that (insane thing) and then it turned out that (even more insane thing) and wow what do you know, (thing that makes everything before look sane as a potato patch)?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 08:18
|
|
|
every now and then somebody makes a funny post and I laugh
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 13:21
|
|
|
vyelkin posted:every now and then somebody makes a funny post and I laugh  Also the ratio of genuine and decent people compared to *flails in the general direction of "the internet".
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 14:15
|
|
|
the appeal of forums in general is that you only see what is posted in chronological order, there is no algorithm or user votes dictating what gets surfaced and what gets buried. obviously you can still curate what you read to some degree but you have to do that work. and i like that! as for somethingawful specifically, i like to read the funny posts. also some completely insane things have happened on and around this website and i want to be around to see it lol.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 14:26
|
|
|
lobster shirt posted:the appeal of forums in general is that you only see what is posted in chronological order, there is no algorithm or user votes dictating what gets surfaced and what gets buried. obviously you can still curate what you read to some degree but you have to do that work. and i like that! Pretty much this & helldump which did some good work cleaning up the forums, I didn’t know about it at the time but going back through a year or two after got me mostly lolling at posters before they went looking for targets and then infighting. Case in point on cleaning house (Requires archives) - https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2621011&perpage=40&pagenumber=1&noseen=1 Now I mainly keep up with a few threads across the forums. Times have changed and I’ve changed with them. The Legends thread is good even if I’m not a gamer.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 21:49
|
|
|
lobster shirt posted:the appeal of forums in general is that you only see what is posted in chronological order, there is no algorithm or user votes dictating what gets surfaced and what gets buried. obviously you can still curate what you read to some degree but you have to do that work. and i like that! It’s also linear instead of a threaded horror. Quoting is so much more effective than threading. Also, the search is not enshittified. I am a white noise poster but I love gross stories and filthy jokes and SA is filled with them. Liquid rats, scat lasagnas, and “your mom” quotes that would make Cicero weep.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 22:43
|
|
|
It's the only club that'll have me. edit for serious: I have always struggled socially. I can't read body language at all, sarcasm tends to go over my head unless I know the person very well, facial expressions leave me bewildered most of the time. I find real-life engagement with people to be a nonstop barrage of esoteric nuance. I can't keep up with what people are talking about, and their interests usually only marginally align with my own. This is a community I've been part of since I was 16. I've grown along with it; I get most of the jokes, and most of the jokes are referencing things I was part of twenty+ years ago so it isn't all references and jokes and in-humor that is lost to me. Most of the time I can engage with people on these forums, even when it's a topic I know nothing about or have very little interest, because the language is generally structured in a way I'm so familiar with that it isn't just alien gobbledegook. These forums still abide largely by the flavor of when it was established, as others have said, it not being mixed around by algorithms and modern incarnations of Internet socialization. And best of all, I joined these forums when I was an immature dummy, and so did a lot of goons, but I feel like I've grown and matured in the right way, and so have these forums. I can't say that about almost anything else I've known for twenty years. credburn has a new favorite as of 01:24 on May 2, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2024 01:18
|
|
|
credburn posted:It's the only club that'll have me. Yeah, this is a cool place and I've met a lot of nice people through it. And I'll echo some other sentiments that I've learned a lot from all the weirdos here, politics-wise, and it's one of the few nerd spaces I'm not constantly bracing for someone to morph into a rantsona with a fedora on. Not all the time at least.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2024 05:04
|
|
|
it's funny, it's informative, it's a twenty-year habit, blatant phobics get banned and the lack of voting/likes/rating on individual posts allows me to exist in blissful unawareness of how bad my posting is
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2024 16:35
|
|
|
Nuns with Guns posted:I've been thinking lately about how this website has persisted. There's been a lot of drama, an ancient internet legend about being a garbage dump, a haven of demons or large bats, some occasional cross-thread trolling, and still this place hasn't quite died... even as it has gotten gayer. This isn't any kind of official feedback or discussion thread, but I thought it would be fun to reflect on why it's still fun to post here, if you can peel back the slimy outer later coating around the place. I mostly stick around because I like your posts Op
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2024 22:36
|
|
|
Wait, misread the name, sorry never mind. Thought I made the thread
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2024 22:37
|
|
|
oldpostless
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 22:41
|
|
|
oldpainless posted:Wait, misread the name, sorry never mind. Thought I made the thread I'm getting old too, op. There's no shame in that.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2024 21:23
|
|
|
No algorithm, no invasive ads.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2024 02:23
|
|
|
It's a distilled example of what was good about the old internet.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2024 05:43
|
|
|
I am also dead and gay, but teeming with life. I've been lurking here since I was about 12, this is a lifelong problem of mine, and it's caused me to meet some of the very best people in the world. It's a rotten old town with a new town slowly built on the ruins by the people who outlived them. It's full of ghosts, stories, regrets, legends, jokes, and History.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2024 04:47
|
|
|
That is not dead which can eternal gay And with strange aeons even I'm gay
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2024 06:17
|
|
|
same reason I'm still married
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2024 21:31
|
|
|
other sites have gotten progressively crappier over a long enough span of time that this lump of frozen slag is now the highest hill in the eroded badlands that make up my favorites barLawson posted:same reason I'm still married we love you too buddy 
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 15:55
|
|
|
Nuns with Guns posted:I appreciate the sense of humor here. People can be sarcastic, or tease someone for being dumb, and it's not slapped down for stepping out of line with a really rigid code of conduct. Sometimes mod actions can feel kind of lovely, but there's actual people to talk crap out with, instead of an algorithm or faceless drones everything is outsourced to who slowly go insane from trauma like with Facebook or Twitter. 
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2024 21:03
|
|
|
as long as soros keeps on paying me, i'll keep on posting
dee eight has a new favorite as of 21:43 on May 18, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 9, 2024 23:42
|
|
|
the pyf pubes thread and cspam
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2024 12:08
|
|
|
For internet communication with strangers I just hate everything else. Forums are the best way to do it. People can still go crazy on forums, but forums aren't literally the Torment Nexus from "Don't Create The Torment Nexus" like every other social is. They discovered the way to make content that drives you insane into an addictive product, and gently caress that. It sounds insane to say but forums are a healthier way to do it, if you're going to use the internet at all, which I don't recommend.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2024 18:10
|
|
|
If Lord of the Rings was written today, people would say the Palantir is an obvious social media analogy or something. A shiny compelling object that lets you see what's happening all across the world, but the shadowy entity controlling it only lets see things that make you depressed and/or compelled to keep watching!? Or in other words Deep Glove Bruno posted:forums aren't literally the Torment Nexus from "Don't Create The Torment Nexus" like every other social is
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2024 01:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2024 01:32 |
|
|
This place doesn't loving 'game-ify' posting on it, it's pretty strictly moderated (for all the controversies there have been) so enshittification is usually nipped in the bud, it's relatively trustworthy, with folk coming from all different sources of experience/professionalism... compared to the absolute brain-blasting volume of pointlessness in other social media sites, this place is pretty good.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2024 12:19
|
|
