Why do people leave ILX for good?

xyzzz, you’re warping what Ned said into a strawman

Quite. My point was not about Morrison's passing, but in general.

as is the case with a lot of writers
??

Regular readers of any kind of books are a small minority within the general public. By the time you winnow it down to avid readers of a single author who wrote highly literary books about black people in the USA, however popular or lionized that author may be among her peers and her readers, you're talking some pretty small numbers.

Toni Morrison's name is well-known to the general public because of her long association with Oprah Winfrey, not because a majority of the general public has read her books and were deeply affected by them. Literature is a niche interest. Always has been.

the main thing I'm getting from this revive is maybe I should read Toni Morrison

That is OTM.

it's roughly as impossible for me to recommend ILX as it is for me to convince people to listen to Hollywood Handbook. The appeal is limited to begin with, it's structurally (but not maliciously) off-putting to new arrivals, you kind of have to have been there for a while, and there's other options for entertainment out there.

That we've disproportionately lost the participation of many women who used to be regulars isn't lost on anyone, probably.

it's an act of violence to actively encourage anyone to use an internet site, has been since 2006

Let me hasten to point out that the ILX I joined in January 2005 was more hostile in a boys-in-a-messageboard way than now. I have no wish to return to those days.

I posted about Toni Morrison on social media, but not here.

darragh otm . find the whole "gosh aren't white people terrible thing" that a few white posters seem so committed to on ilx really gross. got to the point where i've started to think that not having to wring my hands about how bad racism is on a message board is one of the few benefits of not being white.

yeah, white people need to talk about race less, great idea

Quite. My point was not about Morrison's passing, but in general.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 8 August 2019 bookmarkflaglink

Don't see it as general if it's a specific point about how past female posters have been treated on here. My point that its possible it wouldn't have mattered if, say, jbr was still around she might have said something, stands.

A lot of Nobel and high profile writers aren't talked about. And that's often to do with the fact ilx talks about more day-to-day things these days.

And that Lit is a minority interest.

As someone who just showed up here a few days ago, here are my possibly inaccurate impressions:

1. This place doesn't seem cliquish or unwelcoming, though clearly the regulars know each other well.
2. I like the absence of likes or upvotes, it really lowers the sense of pressure around posting/checking back.
3. I probably wouldn't come here to talk about literature that much, though I read a lot. It seems like the chances of getting an interesting conversation going around music are much higher.

Agreed, on all three counts. And welcome!

"it's because ILB doesn't have much traffic"
"it's because it's mostly a music board"
"it's because it's a closed board"
"it's because literature is a niche interest"
"it's because people don't really read in general"
"it's because morrison is a minority interest"

no it's because it's white as fuck here! and as in orbit said if you are a poc why would you really want to hang out here that much when there are other spaces online where you and your perspective might be centered rather than marginal?

all this i write in a thread called "why do people leave ilx for good" that did not list "paucity of nonwhite voices" as a reason in the original poll. but yea i know we've covered this ground before. i don't have anything new to say. ive just been wondering to myself lately about how i don't really post here that much, and the discrepancy between the topics i see talked about IRL/elsewhere online in the communities i'm in and the topics on ILX struck me with this particular example of toni morrison but i could've easily found another

a newbie! Welcome!

I prefer I Love Books to I Love Music myself these days, even tho most ppl are reading stuff I've never heard of/have no interest in lol

xp

I am the father of a queer latina fwiw

― L'assie (Euler), Thursday, August 8, 2019 2:13 PM (fifty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

read this as queen latifah

Marcos, you used to post a lot — why the change of heart?

That’s not a disingenuous question

other spaces online where you and your perspective might be centered rather than marginal

Do you think these other perspectives would get quashed on 2019 ILX?

You know when I feel most bored? When the (many, many) white men on the monthly politics thread share their croakings of doom. I think, what the FUCK, bros? I'm the one with most to lose and I carry on.

how does everyone know who is and isn't white? jaymc.xls?

i look at who is posting in belle and sebastian threads

no it's because it's white as fuck here!

Yes, it is "white as fuck" around here. By gosh, you're right! That is a very valid reason. But it doesn't invalidate whether those other reasons apply, too. Or is your world so reductive that more than one reason cannot contribute to an outcome?

xp lool!

lol jim

2xp

xp alfred

i hear that - i've been trying to take it down several notches.

You know when I feel most bored? When the (many, many) white men on the monthly politics thread share their croakings of doom

amen

better not take it down too many notches tho cause then you'll be called out for being callous

how does everyone know who is and isn't white? jaymc.xls?

WDYLL threads, presumably

As someone who just showed up here a few days ago, here are my possibly inaccurate impressions:

First, welcome. Hope you find this a congenial place to hang out from time to time.

Second, those seem to me like fairly accurate impressions. I especially like your impression #2. I think it makes ILX a better place.

You know when I feel most bored? When the (many, many) white men on the monthly politics thread share their croakings of doom. I think, what the FUCK, bros? I'm the one with most to lose and I carry on.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, August 8, 2019 12:21 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

rip treeship

"no it's because it's white as fuck here!"

Have you bothered to find out who is hiding behind the screen names?

When someone dies it often gets very little interest. I wouldn't jump the gun and say this is a bad thing on the board or its current demographics.

Often we don't have to bother: the responses give the game away.

resisting the urge to start a really obnoxious poll on this subject (kinda surprised there hasn't been one already, I'm sure it would be a clusterfuck)

someone talk me down, the urge is strong

I don't care if you're black white POLLple

Have you bothered to find out who is hiding behind the screen names?

The 'What Do You Look Like?' threads have not been active for at least three years now, but for those who posted to them it is possible to eyeball whether they look white. Such conclusions say nothing much about how a poster thinks or self-identifies, but we also have their posts to examine for that kind of info.

Based on that sort of data, I'd agree that ILX is majority white male, and the least represented 'minority' (in proportion to their numbers in society) is definitely women.

Have you bothered to find out who is hiding behind the screen names?

idk i certainly don't want to contribute to the invisibility of nonwhite posters around here, it's been done to me enough in the past - on a primarily white board we all assume most people are white, which isn't always correct - but let's be real. i've been posting here for a long time and i'm fairly familiar w/ the demographics of the board. lmao are there people here who magically think this is a wonderfully diverse place, just that all the nonwhite posters don't really talk about any aspects of their nonwhite identities bc we're too busy talking music and politics so it's hard to tell who is who? please.

Toni Morrison's name is well-known to the general public because of ...

going to cut out the original end of this sentence and change it to "a well-deserved place on the 'diversity' slate of nearly every high school and college literature curriculum for at least the last twenty years"
a not insignificant proportion of the population has, if not read, at least been in a course that discussed her work

the WDYLL threads get revived monthly on average

in large part because a few of us are vain

you do good WDYLL and I'm fine propping up your vanity in lieu of my lack of courage

I am not doubting about demographics however it annoys me how easily that gets thrown around like it's easy to engage every demographic on what is just a fucking msgboard! Ilx isn't special.

but again I am not sure it has to do with ilx. That Morrison thread is from 2008 and has less than 100 posts..

Time was when there was a completely new WDYLL thread every month and each one had a good 80 posts.

i have tried to figure out if ilx posters are even real people (rather than old posters who want a new voice) and failed more often than not -- even when asking point blank who someone is. this is hardly a place where one's personal details are foregrounded; that is part of ilx's appeal, being free of those markers and labels. but the mystery tends to homogenize rather than diversify for obvious reasons.

darragh otm . find the whole "gosh aren't white people terrible thing" that a few white posters seem so committed to on ilx really gross. got to the point where i've started to think that not having to wring my hands about how bad racism is on a message board is one of the few benefits of not being white.

― oscar bravo, Thursday, 8 August 2019 18:57 (fifty-three minutes ago) link

yeah, white people need to talk about race less, great idea

― Karl Malone, Thursday, 8 August 2019 19:01 (forty-nine minutes ago) link

Maybe just talk about it in a less performative and facile way? But what do I know? I' m not white.

But hey I don't ever post about race myself so perhaps I shouldn't criticise.

Yeah I like the anonymity. It's a huge plus.

I like it when people rapidly change their screen names, because I like engaging with ILX as a gestalt entity, and the presumption that it is a sum of identities instead of anonymous individuals defined by erasure of revealing traits... after a while, though, you can't help but recognize individual voices