Longtime ILXors - how has this board changed over time?

Just wanted to join the chorus thanking stet for the graphs - those are awesome!

I'm not making any speculations for why things may have changed, I was just trying to read Stet's stats such that they sustained my strong sense of shortening. It's possible that shortening was a myth, of course, and that the idea "posts are getting shorter" is standing in for another, less quantifiable, idea:maybe of a lessening of care per post, or somesuch. Or maybe a bit of both, I dunno. It's certainly true that the internet around ILx has changed a lot over the past decade, and that's sure to have had an effect on the who and how and why of ilx.

I don't take any position on whether this is all a good or bad thing, for what that's worth. We've gained something and lost something. I kinda miss the old days, but I've been advocating the closure of ILx for at least a decade.

Thank Christ for 1) and 2)

boo, couldn't agree with you less.

hahaha this thread has now demystified the totally baffling reason that "the hulk" insisted on befriending me on friendster

i was but a twinkle in ilxs eye at that point

hulk ws

omg stet

Someone should do a study on how the global financial collapse and subsequently job insecurity has resulted in shorter ilxor posts from within the workplace.

doesn't it sortof make sense that because people were online less there was less back and forth, conversation happens more and more in real time, less and less a need to outline an entire argument in one or two posts, more intercut dialogue than soliloquies

individuals used to have ideas worth discussing, now it's all this socialist groupthink

clearly, we of ilx need you to step up your game, mh, and give us more ideas worth discussing. i would do it, but i'm currently too busy doing stuff and things like that.

I like turtles

Are you too aimless to consider one topic

i can assure you ur-ilx posters were online all the time

Yeah I've been involved in this level of "online a lot, posting long/talky posts" thing for years, before this, my timesink was Livejournal, disucssing things there with people (2001-2003ish) and from 98-2001 I was on Usenet.

I think it's mainly that some of the first people on this board were/are writers, so it seemed natural to them to write long pieces.

I don't know if newbies tend to write long posts, I'd expect the opposite (certainly as far as I was concerned) until feet got under the table.

These days I bash off quick posts because 95% of my ilx posting is at work when bored (and looking over the shoulder, heh. I've been told off recently for being on "some forum")

I don't know if newbies tend to write long posts, I'd expect the opposite (certainly as far as I was concerned) until feet got under the table.

Yeah, this bit of WCC's post didn't ring true to me, either. Most often, I think new posters probably adapt to the dominant style.

ILX has always been exactly like WWE

We Want Eazy?

I think the London presence on ILX is as big as its ever been but is more disparate and without the obvious social core there was until 2005/06 or thereabouts.

I Love Everyone

I Love Engerland

I like turtles

needs its own thread, f'sure

I Used to Love Cami's til I FOund Cami Secret

A more interesting question to ask would be "how has ILX *not* changed" because I just got lost in a rabbithole of reading a thread from 2002 where people were complaining about nu-ILM and saying how much better things were in the olden days.

if people stopped saying the past was better then i think we'd know we were no longer on planet earth

...because people would be going on about how planet earth was better.

Tim I look forward to a meta thread in oh 5 years where you repeat the "I've been advocating the closure of ILx for at least a decade." thing again!

8 Years Pass

Psts r shrtr nw

(and looking over the shoulder, heh. I've been told off recently for being on "some forum")

this.

i nearly got sacked cos of ilm.

timely revive

Fair point - back in the day it would never have been Beatles / Stones / VU / Prince.

The most excellent change in ilx since the Greenspun days is that the underlying software/server has become an order of magnitude more stable and reliable. The software has also acquired dozens of new and useful features. Hooray for stet, et al.

Also, early ilx (aka ur-ilx) mainly consisted of a small, clubby group of chums whose posts were often so full of insider references that they could not possibly interest anyone outside that small group. Of course, these chums were all bright-eyed and chirpily intelligent, so when they did discuss items of general interest, they did so with wit and incision. Consequently these posts were attractive to the world at large and ilx grew apace.

Seems like a lot of early posters came in with different groups, with that sometimes being migrations from other boards, others came in due to geographic affinity or grew closer due to proximity in the real world.

Each group brings their own malcontents, with tolerance for those who consistently buck the norms varying. I often think of the ridiculous bullshit that the Begbie character in Trainspotting got away with -- "What are you going to do, he's a mate?"

2 soon

otm

lol... meltdown followed by "is ilx getting nastier" discussion. it's as traditional as feeling full after christmas dinner.

was that a meltdown? ilx meltdowns used to be meltier if so.

I think it may not seem as bad because it melted across several threads.

Which makes me kinda hungry for some welsh rabbit, melted across several breads.

I assume you mean rarebit, unless welsh rabbits are made of some plastic substance I'm heretofore unaware of =)

The first recorded use of the term Welsh rabbit was in 1725, but the origin of the term is unknown.[2] It may be an ironic name coined in the days when the Welsh were notoriously poor [...]

The term Welsh rarebit is evidently a later corruption of Welsh rabbit

timely google doodle

"Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it." - franz fanon

since i belatedly got a smartphone - yeah i know welcome to the 21st gramps - brevity of nu-ilx posts makes more sense than ever EVAH

otm

gotten a lot quieter

(cups hand behind ear) eh? what? speak up!

otm