Why are you not posting

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.

I applaud the effort

Wouldnt think of neither luna nor mike-t as particularly invisible posters at all fwiw

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

― scampless, rattled and puce (gyac), Wednesday, 3 March 2021 17:17 (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

POLL

On Deem's observation that "we discussed a lot more stuff and lot more breezily here once", this is true and there's often a rush of nostalgia when I see an early ile thread. People were a lot more open about their personal situations in the early days, which made for more distinctive voices - but quite understandably that kind of candour has mostly disappeared.

people are more wary about sharing stuff on internet now, i think

I think these are in fact less dangerous times to post personal information. Much less chance of someone, for example, idk...making a ytmnd of your sexual confessions using a picture someone else lifted unasked from your Facebook. If anything we should feel more comfortable posting all sorts of nonsense

I'm posting less - mostly due to being increasingly insanely busy for a way longer stretch of time than I had hoped/anticipated - but I do like to think, or like to believe, ilx is a place one can always return to, even after a (long) hiatus. Which isn't about having earned your stripes or being what mike describes as being or having become "an ilx person".

I don't see colour ilx people, I see a community with people drifing in and out, some always here, some perhaps overstaying their welcome, but a loosely connected yet connected array of individuals all the same. There is no "ilx person" imo, nor should there be.

But this is all perspective, I can see how others feel different. Regardless mike, to me you are def part of the community.

I really appreciate this place. Thank you all for tolerating me.

Thanks LBI, I appreciate that.

Seconding that - you're OG as far as I'm concerned!

But the newbies are also welcome I *guessss*

I think my brain has always had a bit of trouble with the text only format in terms of tracking individual personalities. A group of the longtime posters that I can match to a face or some other more straightforward memory, are easier to respond to. The new layers have gotten deeper and denser over time and without energy to sift it all, it’s maybe better to opt out.

as a lurker, as a college student, i used to feel like mike the diva felt, overwhelmed by how knowledgable and interesting the people here seemed, especially compared to the rest of the internet. these days i feel too close to ilx to really say what it's like, if it is good or bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_z_UEuEMAo

when i started posting, i was super intimidated. i think i started posting here -- and posting in a very transparent way, just writing what i thought even when i knew it would sound dumb to the cognoscenti -- because at some level, way below the threshold of consciousness, i wanted to be rejected by this community i admired. this is a weird thing to admit -- i just thought of it and i'm not even sure it's true. but when think back to who i was at 24, i really hated myself. i had no career prospects and i had just been dumped by a person i thought i was going to spend my life with. in any case, this community didn't reject me after all. that meant a lot to me -- probably more than i even realize.

again, i'm backtracking a lot here. i am no longer starstruck by the posters whose bylines i recognized or whatever. but yeah, when i was in my early twenties, i absolutely felt that way.

always liked your posts treeship

thanks dan. same to you.

treesh our origin stories are remarkably similar tbh

it's weird because i, in most respects, have a pathological fear of rejection. something to discuss the ol' psychoanalyst's couch.

Eh not the whole profile now buck, just the origin story

Physician, heal thyself.

fwiw mike-t-diva I always think of you as one of the disco experts around here

I would post more but often what I have to contribute is redundant - nearly always, someone has already said it faster and with more eloquence than me. When I see people casually tossing out posts full of insight and with flair and humour, I want to be positively contributing to the conversation in the same way.

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!