Why are you not posting

I can’t turn my password into a head

Saving myself for marriage.

Flag Pósta

Ehh, what's there to post?

‘Tis better to have posted and self-banned, than never to have posted at all.

My thoughts exactly.

We have already gone beyond whatever we have posts for. In all posting there lies a grain of contempt.

too angry

Running on empty.

Just because you don’t post doesn’t mean you’re not posting

I would prefer not to
#OneThread

Just because you don’t think you’re shitposting, I can promise you, you’re shitposting

Some days you open up ILX, take a look, and say "nah"

who said i'm not posting

waylaid by days-long subterranean battle with the ancient, forgotten evil Durin's Bane

Imo a very legitimate reason.

Posts once every three days, at dawn, from the east

Calling Ted Cruz is even more pointless than posting.

― Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Sunday, February 28, 2021 11:50 AM (thirty-five minutes ago)

model Ted Cruz as a point placed at the center of his mass

now place him in the potential well of milo's post

frostbite took all my fingers. typing this with my nose.

Gone to see the World's Second Largest Bee.

Alright, I'll answer this seriously.

I've been an active member of many communities over the years, both online and offline, and I place a high personal value on being part of a community. And yet, despite having been here for around 18 years - longer than any of the other places - I rarely post, and I'm much more of an observer than a participant. Some of the reasons for this are about me, and some of them are about the nature of this place.

(This first bit might sound a bit conceited, but there's humbler stuff to follow.)

In the other places, I'm generally one of the more active contributors, my contributions are valued, and I tend to be seen as one of the lynchpins of the community. I'm also seen as one of the smarter, funnier ones - which makes me popular, boosts my sense of self-worth, and makes me inclined to contribute more.

In this place, which is full of smart and funny people, I know I'll never attain the sort of special status which I've become used to. In fact, it's quite the reverse: I generally feel that any contribution which I might make will be of lesser value. My opinions might be too banal, my wit too lame, my knowledge eclipsed by others.

There's also an intimidating aspect to being here. I'm known elsewhere for being quite scathing and cynical at times, albeit wittily so, but this place (even though it's long past its late-00s nadir of viciousness) can outdo me on that score a hundred-fold, and I'm no good at being on the receiving end - so by not posting, I'm keeping myself protected.

More generally, I have developed a sense that ILX people are not "my" people. I find them endlessly fascinating - I'm literally here every day - but attempting to play the role of what I see as an "ILX person" (whatever the fuck that might be) feels like a stretch too far, even for someone who's usually good at adapting himself to the key characteristics of a group without losing his core sense of self. So I rarely engage with posters personally, I reveal very little about my own personality and circumstances, and the posts which I do make tend to be factual and neutral.

I'm basically OK with all of this, and I'm not really seeking to overhaul the ways in which I engage with this place. So this is just to let you know where I'm coming from.

I'm struck by the amusing notion that every single ilxor feels roughly the same as you - that they are not part of the in-group

...and thus, the community transcends its members and assumes an intimidating mantle that all are in awe of

...and whether this is true of all communities where a baseline of intellectual engagement is generally expected

when I started grad school people would not stop talking about imposter syndrome

I don't really find this place intimidating anymore -- I definitely used to -- but I can relate to feeling a gap between one's posting style and one's offline social skills. I've been chalking it up to the pandemic, but I'm often annoyed by the sound of my own ilx voice these days.

Could be that this place is less intimidating because it's more forgiving than it used to be

As Mike says, the Vicious Era was quite something. Character-building stuff but certainly not for everyone

AH WOZ BEA'EN AS UH YOUTHFUL POSTER AN' IT DID ME NOO 'ARM

lol

fewer posters probably helps too. when I got to ilx circa 2010, hot threads often felt like mosh pits

Present levels of abuse are fine albeit the art of the zing is being lost? Idk, idk. I wouldn't mind a bit more knockabout stuff so long as it doesn't punch down so much as across

And so long as it's funny. ILX is incontrovertibly less funny than it was

That's true. I think maybe it comes down to it being harder to surprise each other these days? I feel like I understand a plurality of deems's jokes these days ;_;

That's because he's gone senile

Jude the obtuse thats me

The key is to embrace shitposting, as I have.

We might need a ""shitposting"" has the meaning changed? thread

Tbf ‘shit’ in English is bafflingly polysemous to us ESL folks.

mike-t thats an interesting post!

ilx is not very cutting anymore, and bar the odd long-entrenched personality/policy (and after this long on a board for ideas theres essentially no difference tbh) clash ppl really dont seem to me to say very much mean to each other at all, rly

When they disagree on policy type issues, all bets are off but that criticism seems to me to be as dismissive and ad hom as it ever was- people are here so long that not very many are too interested in hearing anything from anyone else anymore i would say (vs the bad old days ppl seem to remember anyway)

But the day to day zings, which were often absolutely killer btw, are p much gone as a part of the site. Most ppl giving and taking these brushed them off as part of the tone of the site but it was also often (not always, not always) softened by the idea that in another thread thered be a conversation about whatever going on where the same posters were just burbling away happily. We discussed a lot more stuff and lot more breezily here once as well as talking through things in ye olde longer post stylings between heavyweights

Now, for me anyway, theres less of a thread by thread feel/culture and the personas and relative positioning of same carry over across every thread and board, again maybe its all one with posters being long long term here and everyone playing their parts at this stage.

Ive no idea what the question was

That's true. I think maybe it comes down to it being harder to surprise each other these days? I feel like I understand a plurality of deems's jokes these days ;_;

In this place, which is full of smart and funny people, I know I'll never attain the sort of special status which I've become used to. In fact, it's quite the reverse: I generally feel that any contribution which I might make will be of lesser value. My opinions might be too banal, my wit too lame, my knowledge eclipsed by others.

xp The changing shared external environments over time def a huge part, as well as us all getting old together and all that, yeah

otm

xp

The cruellest xp ;_;

There had to be one person on ilx who liked me better

Interesting post from mike t-d...I've been here for a similar length of time, find it fascinating, and am also very much in the 'observer' category.

The reason is time really. I feel that to be a core committed member you really have to be dedicated to putting the hours in and following and responding in real time to the cut and thrust of posts. As it is, I'm content to dip in - mostly as a passive consumer.

I’m sorry, deems, it’s just that my main commitment itt is to relieve lurkers of their lingering shyness. Not being arsed to post is a perfectly legitimate position, however.

it was very typical of ilx that we managed to find so much to argue about despite basically all agreeing that the harper's letter was some self-serving bs

I didn’t detect that in j.’s posts, which were aimed at fostering a philosophical discussion on historical liberalism and the ethics of universalism. Unless I’m missing something here?

2xp

also fitting that we'd moved past it and sleeve dredged it back up, doing their usual demonizing "you are terrible and should stop posting, asshole" schtick. which is fitting because one time he attacked a mod for being a terrible mod and cited their treatment of another poster and then that poster stepped in and said "please do not speak on my behalf, I like this mod"

ok i'll recuse myself now, i'm taking us further off topic.

There was no need for sleeve to drag me in to this at all. He could have talked to me off-board on FB if he had an issue with me.

I hope mods are looking at his actions.

In the 'why do people leave ilx for good' thread, several people said they'd basically fled to Twitter, which I didn't get then, but then it happened to me

I perfectly understand why people choose to quit.

Sleeves post wasnt mod worthy fer gods sake it was a bit man and ball and i dont agree with it maybe meself but lads can we put an area of calm into play here at all or else VAR is gonna get a look in and we none of us want that

men and ball tbf, created and unfairly vilified a clear out-group, def FP-worthy, big fan of sleeve tho so no drama rly

I understand why people would want to quit, but fleeing to the angriest place on the internet feels like a lateral move, at best.

things feel much more personal here

idk I'd rather it be personal

well yes, it isn't bad per se, but it can sting when you find yourself on the wrong end of it

imo the creepy liberalism thread is cursed and no one should post in it

For sure! But then that makes it easier to quit in an aggrieved huff for a long break without admitting wrongdoing. Twitter just induces anxiety and self-loathing and doesn’t unhook you.

Yknow in my experience

branwell made kate leave iirc

I always thought they were the same person? Now 85% of the board drama is even less coherent to me.

for some reason twitter does not have that effect on me nearly as much, I think because I steer away from content that would cause that

xp

milo, there are 2 different Kates here is the thing

There aren't. If there's one courtesy I'd extend to the departed it's not to deadname them

fair enough, there have been at times and this is the source of confusion, but yes you are correct

Twitter is a horrible place because the format encourages an atmosphere of soapboxing with compartmentalized hot takes in a sea of competitors all trying to have the hottest take for maximum visibility and the stimulating/attention grabbing nature of the rhetoric infects even the users that are there just as an audience to the point that everyone is unaware that they're all boiling down and dramatizing everything so opinions are now clickbait headlines.

I don't use twitter though so maybe I'm wrong.

Twitter doesn't really 'algorithm' so it's easier to wade through the sea of shit and also you can talk to your favorite rappers sometimes

most of that that is true, but also applies to middle school

xp

i will be ambiguous about which post i was xp'ing, but honestly a lot of life is like middle school

Karl what rappers did u know in middle school

ZERO

the cowboys (the name of their clique in middle and high school) dominated where i grew up. country, rock and roll, very little rap. i didn't even know who tupac or biggie smalls were until college (2001)

actually, scratch that - the only rap i remember people listening to is the beastie boys. gee wonder why

(beastie boys are cool, but still)

oh god i was really on a tear ahaha, definitely had more reason to quit than j. did but my obtuse self-confidence kept me here ffs

― imago, Thursday, 4 March 2021 bookmarkflaglink

pic.twitter.com/6nXjnmsY9H

— joolsd (@joolsd) March 4, 2021

lol

🤡

Twitter is a horrible place because the format encourages an atmosphere of soapboxing with compartmentalized hot takes in a sea of competitors all trying to have the hottest take for maximum visibility

Maybe! I mean quite probably! My experience of twitter is that it's as much of a bubble as anything else? I often see other ppl freaking out about what "Twitter" writ large is saying when my timeline is not saying that at all.

on the note of "leaving a board due to a period of hostility, I used to write music reviews for a defunct site called Satan Stole My Teddybear in my early 20s. I was a terrible writer and was going to college and working for shit wages in a terrible Cali-Mex restaurant, and I used to get in flamewars with this guy who called himself Vic/Lord Vic, who if you scour alt.rocknroll.metal.metallica on Usenet in the mid 90s, you will see he posted all over the site there. he fronted this band Rampage and trolled us all and got me riled up. I think he was last around in 2003. I would stop posting any time this guy or other guys started trolling too bad as I got wound up too much (wasn't on my meds yet).

dude found me on FB minutes ago and apologized to me TODAY for his trollish behavior and was asking how i was doing. lol. that's out of the blue. seems a dece guy now.

Damn, big up to Lord Vic.

The cover of their live album from 1999 is, uh, something.

In case anyone wants to google that, yes, it's NSFW.

he was hanging around with the anus.com folk back then, until he realized they were actual Nazis and fled

Maybe! I mean quite probably! My experience of twitter is that it's as much of a bubble as anything else? I often see other ppl freaking out about what "Twitter" writ large is saying when my timeline is not saying that at all.

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Friday, March 5, 2021 4:17 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's the "retweet" feature that really does the thing I'm complaining about

And fair point but I'm not necessarily commenting on the "bubble" effect. Yes all social media definitely has that problem!