I’m doubtful they’re looking for a community at this point. I think they would be perfectly happy with an audience.
This question may have been asked in another thread, but I don’t think I’ve asked it before: What aspects of BB keep you coming back despite the problems? Is it the blog content that drives discussion? Is it that there are specific people you can’t communicate with otherwise? For myself, I do occasionally check the RSS feed and follow an article into the comments, but I rarely participate unless it’s about some hyper specific gadget that Mark is featuring. For most of the interesting conversations about what’s happening in the world, I can come here instead.
To be clear, I’m not trying to compete with BB. I don’t have the time, resources, or ambition to turn this into a business venture, and I don’t see any ethical way to maintain a meaningful stream of front-page content without fairly compensating people. I’m absolutely amenable to making changes, within reasonable constraints, to make visiting BB even more irrelevant.
I’m also acutely aware that at least one of the reasons that this community works as well as it does is that it’s small and obscure enough that we don’t have to deal with many of the problems that a community the size of BB does. Not for nothing, but this community is also made up of mostly wonderful people.
@mindysan33 I think I’ve said this before, but the original reason that I built this place was that at the time I was fairly certain that I was about to lose contact with a group of people that I had grown particularly fond of. I am thankful for all of you who come to this odd little corner of the internet and share your time. This place might exist without you (although I’m not sure what the point would be), but this community absolutely could not.
For me, it’s the interesting stories that I wouldn’t see otherwise. Also I like complaining about asshole republicans, and making lame jokes, sometimes with spur of the moment photoshopping.
I can’t do it. I hit my limit for dealing with the nazi infiltrators. Twitter, strangely, is also a good experience so long as you’re careful and skeptical and mostly lurk. I prefer to lurk usually anyway, except places I know aren’t likely to be blow up. Lower stakes, more honesty from the commenters, more talking from me.
I used to like the unusual topics. And then there would be the corrections from people with an arcane, highly-specialized education.
But for the last few years the content became repetitive and less interesting. The site had become a habit to me. I’ve been away for almost a year now.
More like the opposite… getting too upset over a tr0ll… although the note in the moderation said I was “following” the person around, but I don’t think that I was… I’m not even sure who I supposedly “attacked”… one of the last posts I made was about someone making a homophobic comment (assuming that someone was right wing because they were “in the closet”).
I stopped going there altogether – too much bad news. I’ve avoided some of the threads here too, such as the ex-so-called president and gun control topics. Too depressing.
Haven’t read newspapers either since Ukraine . . . not keeping up but good for my mental health. And here I was watching all the shit from our perverted previous “president.”
I don’t blame you. I personally feel like I need to keep up on what’s happening, but I know it’s not great for the old mental health. There is only so much one can do about the world as it is…
Seems like there was a recent Vlogbrothers video about dealing with difficult issues in the world… Here it is… John Green calls it the “sad gap”…
I’m glad you can at least come here. I had a snarky gif reply to a user today that ended up with the other user calling me a condescending asshole and telling me to fuck off. (And I couldn’t help but get in a cathartic reply after which I was over the whole thing.) After the mess got sorted out, they were permanently banned which was a little unexpected and I feel bad about it. Seems like there’s some really bad vibes there right now.
I agree. We’re ALL on edge, because the whole world is just fucked up right now.
And if Ken banned someone, it’s most likely because they have a pattern of behavior that is toxic to the larger community, so you shouldn’t feel bad for that. Ken tries hard not to play favorites, while recognizing that some of us ARE there in good faith, and others aren’t.
I haven’t read the rest of this thread yet. I’m on the verge of flaming out at the other place tho. It’s tough. What keeps me coming back are the social connections I built over time and the sense of having some place within the context of a larger body but… I dunno anymore. It feels more and more difficult. I don’t even feel like I can be honest with myself there anymore. I’m also just trying to fly low with some moderate depression weighing on me right now and that place is not the scene for that.
Yeah I do though honestly I’m terrible with that kind of thing. At this point I’m just trying to recalibrate how much or little participation I want to have there and whether I’d like to launder my username a little bit with an anon or keep my handle there active etc.
I didn’t even see this thread. I ended up here daily because I was bounced from “the other place” on a complete misunderstanding.
I was frustrated there by a series of interactions with another member who’s mode of argument was putting words in my mouth, such as “you are saying lets kill babies”, or “your are saying some other outrageous leap from what I actually said”, and I had enough of it to reach out through a direct message - which was advice I had gotten directly from moderator on the moderation thread.
So I did, except this individual had their private message setting set to none. So instead I posted a public message to the person on the moderation thread. For some unexplained reason the moderator accused me of “outing” somebody via my post –– which is impossible because I know nothing of them to out, and everything in my post was from me, nothing from anybody else, and I don’t see how I can out somebody with information from and about me… And before there could be any dialog they fully banned me on what I am certain was a complete misunderstanding.
Their loss is all I can say. The moderation appeared frantic, in constant crisis, and when you can’t manage a community well you will lose valuable members. I’m actually surprised that I don’t miss it at all.
Moral of the story – don’t argue by putting words in others mouths. Its bad faith and disrespectful of the other participant. Its something somebody does if the goal is to piss the other off, don’t confuse it with good faith debate.
I brought my objections to their behaviour to a place where I might possibly reach them. They had the option to reach out privately if they wished, or not. But attempting to contact somebody who is refusing messages in a public forum ONCE is not harassment. Attempting to contact somebody ONCE is not stalking, abusing, or otherwise.
However your exposition of the person in question here by posting these screen captures might certainly be so.
I’m not even sure who I supposedly “attacked”… one of the last posts I made was about someone making a homophobic comment (assuming that someone was right wing because they were “in the closet”).
