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“The food here is terrible!”
“Yes! And the portions are too small!”
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The forum is the the best part!
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If you find you are in entirely the wrong place again and again, then that is your fault, not the fault of the place you keep returning to.
Especially as you have said this many times before.
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For me, it’s the only part.
The content offered here can be found anywhere and everywhere else on the web, so that’s not the draw for me.
The community here is what keeps me coming back.
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honestly, i miss a lot of things about the past that I didn’t appreciate at the time. i’m feeling very middle aged about everything and everywhere. this place once had a fun exiting edge it is true, but that was also the zeitgeist of the aughts was it not? and a lot of it if i’m honest with myself was only fun because of what i didn’t know about it. and, well, here we are in the new now. it seems like the fate of online culture blogging in general is in peril on a structural level. on the other hand when i ask myself should i keep coming back or not i’m conflicted. i dunno about you but my mental health rn just kinda sucks and nothing online helps that issue. in fact, while i used to feel more comfortable with that aspect of myself online now i feel a deeper fear and desire to hide from humans online than i do irl even where i live. yet what i’ve learned from online interpersonal relationships has also been really important.
this is one of the best places online actually that i’ve encountered and one of the only places where i’ve felt comfortable being as open and vulnerable in the full view of the public and it’s helped a great deal with womb-to-tomb feelings of worthlessness, unlovability, and shame for having the audacity to be alive. on the other hand if it’s just making my life and the lives of others marginally less good by causing stress for myself and others here then it’s my responsibility to stop coming back because who the hell else is going to take care of me? i’ve had some unpleasant moments here in the past year or so and I kinda feel like it’s best to pull back as much as possible and focus on what parts of myself or aspects of my life i want to grow or encourage rather than what saddens me or ties me to grief.
anyway that’s a lot of words for ymmv. it can sound harsh to have people say “well leave then” but as some one also kind of asking myself these questions i recognize that sometimes that is the sensible decision.
perfect example. harsh but fair kwim? what else can people say when you put them in that position? especially more than once.
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Spot on!
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what in rob’s safe
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I miss those days too. My perspective on BB changed once I signed up and started posting as the structure of how we communicate and other things in society were also moving in certain directions.
My username might as well be “lurks more and more” because I still do come here for the “wonderful things” found at BB, even though I have discovered places on the interwebs where I can speak freely on many of the topics discussed here. I don’t sign in much, but see that BB has much to offer outside participation in the bbs community and political content.
I rarely felt welcome here as a poster or member of the community, but appreciate many of the folks and intellects that do contribute, plus unique content from folks like @pesco. Most of all, @GagHalfrunt 's work on Israel-Palestine. It seems like this conflict will affect everyone in our world somehow, no matter who you sleep with, what you believe happens when you die, your race, etc. If anything it can help people who care about others to drop guns and unite for humanity, it’s this one.
Thank you. Carry on.
edit–bad grammar
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There are plenty of places in the U.S. where bullets are literally whizzing by people’s heads on a regular basis.
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Also, people are being beaten to death for existing. But hey, we’re not in an active warzone, so who cares… Better to ignore that, because we might have a sad… /s
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Somebody I knew years ago had her living room window shot out after she volunteered to deliver the opening prayer at a city council meeting. Apparently, they only wanted Christians doing that.
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This topic is temporarily closed for at least 4 hours due to a large number of community flags.
This topic was automatically opened after 8 hours.
The onus for that is on each of us individually, frankly.
I agree that full immersion in perpetual negativity is unhealthy; that’s the reason why I mute so many posts here lately, and take breaks AFK when I need to.
When something that’s actually “mostly wonderful” gets posted, I endeavor to acknowledge it, encouraging more of the same positive content.
Sadly, ‘if it bleeds it leads’ still stands when it comes to hooking people’s attention; BB is a business, and the easiest clicks come from rage bait, unfortunately. We can’t control the algorithms, but as a community, we can adjust what we feed into it.
If we chose to ignore/mute the incendiary posts en masse, then perhaps the authors would pivot to posting more affable content.
But far too many of us lean right into all the ugliness; some pontificate endlessly, striving to prove that they are ‘the smartest* in the room,’ others constantly virtue signal in an attempt to show their “moral” superiority, and some people downright revel in all the misery and discord, actively trying to spread it around as much as possible.
I’m not religious, but I do believe in the message of the serenity prayer (with a slight adjustment:)
Change what you can, try to make peace with what you can’t.
*Or the funniest, or the most “respected” or whatever.
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That was an excellent post. Thank you, @Melizmatic !
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