Longtime ILXors - how has this board changed over time?

And thanks for the kind comment, Doctor Casino; I suppose I've felt there's no real need TO change it...

... people read SNA?

I don't know about the history of noize or "image-bombing" or what all, but it seems like this is the time of a lot of the banning, the woah-how-did-this-turn-into-500-posts-of-two-or-three-particular-dudes-grinding-an-eternal-axe-with-each-other type threads. And again, maybe that's still going on now in threads I don't read, but even when I catch glimpses of it in the present day it seems less instantly personal, more likely to be followed with an apology or retraction or "yeah I was being an ass, sorry thread, carry on" or something.

I think there's at least as many threads where >50% of participants are thinking "Something has to be done about Poster X", but now things are more balkanised, and so more people have no idea about those threads at all (until they turn up on the clusterfuck thread?)

i much prefer ilx in 2012 to ilx in 2005. for one, the most egregious shitheads have been banned or learned to curtail their most obnoxious tics and those that haven't are idiosyncratic enough that they're easy to ignore ('oh, that's just X, doing their shtick again').

ILX feels more stable than it has done in a very long while, I suppose it's into comfortable and slightly boring but basically enjoyable middle age now.

Yeah. I've been sort of on-again/off-again for nearly 10 years, and that sounds about right. I did actually enjoy all the noize wars, the image-bombing and stuff. The early days of the Noize Board were pretty great, even though I mostly lurked there because posting too much felt like an invitation to a bloody nose.

Overall, I really value ILX. It's hard to find anywhere online or off- with as many smart, informed, interesting people. Smart, informed, interesting people who like spending weeks doing polls on Neil Young and the Cure. My kind of geeks, basically.

while the other half of the board hate polls!

Yup. Well, something for everyone.

ilx also has recommending it being the only message board with AG

original odd couple writ large

I Love Books FAP in London about once a quarter.

... people read SNA?

I thought I was the only one who didn't. Been reading ilm since a few months into it so I can't change now. I didn't even read ILE for the 1st few years as I thought ILM was perfect as it was.

I can't grok any method of ILX reading that doesn't use SNA. Include the boards you like, ignore the others, color-code them in groups by theme or interest, and off we go.

I'm just set in my ways I suppose.

Wow, I've never played with Site New Answers before but it just might change my ILX life.

it really will. i didn't use it for my first few years on ILX, for some reason. i think i missed all of the noize wars just because i didn't even know the wars were happening!

... people read SNA?

why refresh 12 pages in the shower when you could refresh one?

I really wish I could get ILTMI to show up in magenta though.

I mean, that's the color it is in my brain.

i look at ilx completely out of habit now. there is pretty much no reason for me to be here anymore. but i'm one of those people who sticks to routines. i often wish i could go away. but i can't. maybe i should try hypnosis. i can't stop smoking either.

threads are really long now.

as someone who jumps across a ton of subboards anyway, SNA instantly made my life easier and awesome and I can't fathom not reading the site via it (much like many ppl can't fathom reading threads without using bookmarks, which I've never really cottoned onto)

of course, the semi-hilarious thing about the advent of SNA and the democratization of the subboards is that I think the rise of its use directly parallels the rise of the city/regional/rolling subject matter threads, like the community basically keeps saying "you can equalize all you want, we will still figure out how to silo ourselves in the name of convenience/expediency"

I thought everyone used SNA.

How do people do it when they seem to pop up any time their name is mentioned? Is there an alert or are they just eagle-eyed??

Leave dates empty if you wish to search the entire database.

I've never understood how to use bookmarks either

just to be clear--when people say "noize board" are they talking about that "summer funtime pickle" thing?

Never used SNA or bookmarks! I just hop around and sometimes use the search function.

Bookmarks are essential. The day I discovered them...hoo boy.

The nicest thing about them actually is the guarantee that you don't overlook a revive of a thread you were big into like, three years ago. It pops up at the top of New Answers and it's like a little surprise package.

i look at ilx completely out of habit now. there is pretty much no reason for me to be here anymore. but i'm one of those people who sticks to routines. i often wish i could go away. but i can't. maybe i should try hypnosis. i can't stop smoking either.

I really quite understand this feeling. Like, the only reason I stay is because I've been here so long it's just all familiar to me. I've quit for up to a year or so at a time, but always end up back. And I start to understand things like, why people persist with voting Labour or Democrat - that no matter how burned out or dejected you get with what it's become, it's still way better than any of the other options out there. :-/

Oh great, now I've depressed myself. I'll go and laugh at rave kids encountering Dressage for the first time. That will cheer me up.

SNA --> Blog View (how to read everything, all the time. Turn images off, if surfing at work, though.)

PK - yes. IIRC it was J0n Williams who came in with that aesthetic and it changed the face of ILX forever. Does he still ever post?

he was banzored for life

ORLY? He was one of the few morans I actually really liked.

Yeah, he was nice, but I think he hacked ilx one weekend or something?

it was J0n Williams who came in with that aesthetic

Like everyone who started here, he came in all calm, quiet and polite. THEN he went noize.

It's astonishing to me, the excuses that people are still willing to make for ILX bullies. Like, people still repping for JW and Dom. That's one of those things that makes me realise that I will never see eye to eye with a person, and I really shouldn't actually bother to try to.

these threads make me all nostalgic for classic ILX exchanges like "take her, dude" and the mountain of O_o that followed it

There are only two eras, 'golden age' and 'cesspool'.

golden cesspool

i also can't imagine not using bookmarks. for those who have never done it, try this no-risk demo:

1. just below this text, to the right of my username and the date, click "Bookmark."
2. go do something else for 20 minutes.
3. come back to ILX, refresh the page.
4. if someone has posted on this thread since the time you clicked "bookmark" (which is very likely), at the very top of the screen you'll see a link that says "Longtime ILXors - how has this board changed over time? has new answers"
5. click on that link, and it'll bring you right back to the post you bookmarked (this post! whoooooaaaa we are becoming so very high this is trippy)
6. if the entire experience was too frightening and you are too high and you just want everything to go back to normal and you just want to sleeeep maaaaan, you just want to sleeeeeeeep, then go to the bottom of this thread and click "Remove Bookmark from this Thread"
---
as Doctor Casino mentioned, bookmarking is especially nice for threads on topics you're really interested in but that only get bumped on occasion. that way, you don't miss a revive. also, if you ask someone a question on a thread, it's useful to bookmark it immediately afterward. that way you'll catch their response, even if it takes them a few days to get back, without having to search for the thread over and over and check.

i've been on ilx since 04 and tbh when i discovered noize in 06, everything abt ilx/the internet clicked into place for me

xxpost Well, JW never did any harm to me - I mean, I wasn't keeping tabs on his every interaction and yes he could get quite irritating at times, but from what I can recall he had his inspired moments. D0m on the other hand....

I only use bookmarks for threads I want to read that I suspect will blow up in number of posts while I'm away or asleep. Anything to keep from having to load the whole thing. Otherwise I just rely on the little circle vs. the little dot. (Still wish it was possible to hide threads.)

one day will have to come a Fancy-a-Lobster day in Maine

remember, when an ILXOR changes their username it is the equivalent of Timelord re-generation

Some days I read nothing but bookmarks.

anti-bookmark, pro-SNA. Agree with the mellowed middle age observation. free jw!

Everyone should get a new username for a week and everyone can try guess who they are

actually now i think back I do remember JW doing some pretty inexcusable shit against a few select ilxors that was completely o_O

Sooner or later all these threads turn into the same discussion about the same banned posters.

^^^

I really wish there were a way to turn off the little circle on threads you clicked by accident, or no longer want to follow.

pro-bookmark, pro-SNA - both are necessarily to fully squeeze the juice out of ilx imho