Feeling the need to constantly tamp down suggested topics, and I can’t keep up!
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A voice online.
Thank you.
bows deeply
12 Likes
It’s where I go to find out what’s in @beschizza’s safe.
Oh, and to harangue trolls with animated gifs
23 Likes
Like this?
(I’ll post my own entry tomorrow, I think.)
Edited to add quote
25 Likes
A rich and engaging MMORPG – a constant source of fresh challenges to engage my wits and my ability to recall obscure corners of the Internet. So many old forums have become deserted and crufty, but there ain’t no stopping this train.
I reckon I haven’t a chance of meeting any of you in person, and I’m not sure what I’d say if I did, but I hope you all truly enjoy the posts from this monocled blue hexagon as much as I enjoy posting here. I mean, the Likes seem to be a pretty good indication.
17 Likes
Yoink.
7 Likes
Ever been to a SF/F convention? More accurately, ever been to a good convention? I get much the same feeling here. Although I’ve seen the BBS referred to as an “echo chamber” from time to time, I don’t get that at all. There is a great diversity of opinion here. I sure as hell don’t agree with everyone about everything. However there is something we’re lacking, and this is what reminds me of those good convention: for the most part, there is a respect of the other participants here. Disagreement on opinions? Oh, absolutely, but not only are ad hominim attacks relatively rare here, they’re usually called out when they happen. Conversations here are varied, both in subject and in POV of the participants, and while I may walk away due to sheer volume of posts sometimes, I’m (usually) not walking away due to volume of the discussion!
So yeah, this is kind of an online convention to me. We even have a bit of an artist’s alley, once in a while, some gaming, and, although it could really use improvement, something of a dealer’s den. I’m still waiting for the filk room, though. (Just please, and I say this as a Leslie Fish fan, no continuous verse version of “Banned from Argo.”)
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Flying at night, eh?
On instruments.
Word.
12 Likes
A social outlet when I have no other. Somewhere I’ve made real friends, despite never meeting any of you. A place to learn from awesome people around the world with very different stories from mine. Somewhere to be pushed to examine my own positions and become a better person.
A club that bans me occasionally, to keep me wanting to be a member.
Plus, a means of procrastinating like no other.
32 Likes
Yeah, I do that too. I always end up here after work (12 hour graveyard cab shift) and my mood is sometimes not so fancy. Which I really didn’t like, because I adore this community. The US political season hasn’t helped much either.
To answer OP though, I originally stuck around here because everyone wrote in full sentences. I feel like if you expect someone to expend the effort to understand you, you should expend the effort to speak clearly-ish. Kept coming back because everyone here is smarter/funnier/wittier/better educated than me, and most are insightful, compassionate, pragmatic, and those are the people I want to be around.
30 Likes
Or even just a better reptilian former President.
8 Likes
At the start just the new comments section and then I realized it was a bit more. Then the questions thread started and it was all downhill from there.
It eventually took over my other hangout which is a BBS run for the Pacific Northwest 40k geeks as my time playing that has dwindled over the past few years.
It is a bit more broad in the geekscope here and I like that. I have come to like the lot of you or at least the side of us that posts here.
19 Likes
I’m still waiting for the filk room
Deliver us from such evil, amen.
10 Likes
I’m a bad person. At least I feel that way. But I live on the BBS. It’s literally my social group. If I’m banned from here, I have no one to talk to except the people who I’ve met here. I have the email addresses and phone numbers of a select few who like me enough to trust me with their personal data.
I’m beyond honored by this trust and I would never betray it. And they are people who I trust in turn to tell me when I’m an an irrational asshole out for blood.
I never abuse the trust of those here because above all else I value the fact that they call me a friend. Facebook’s “friend” system is garbage in comparison. My friends are those who will take the off hand chance of me drunk-texting them in the middle of the night. Which I desperately try not to do and have only done a few times myself. To terrible consequences.
The BBS is my social group where I can make new friends and where I can bitch and moan about my piddly worthless shit to people who know I’m being a bastard.
23 Likes
Earnest play creates earnest players. Plus garbage trollies. But as long as you give the long-time in it for the long-haul players a little power, they’ll fucking tear the trollies apart.
That’s how communities work. The pillars are not shy to unleash nuclear power on those who aren’t here honestly. And we do like to convert those who aren’t here honestly, but when we see them gunking up our machinery, they’ll receive no mercy.
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I’m pretty sure we could get Tom Smith to write a song about BoingBoing. (He wrote one about Penguicon, after all!)
6 Likes
I am continually impressed by the quality of the discussion here, most especially on the random / obscure BB posts. These companion topics invariably offer not just quirky humor (I expect that!) but solid analysis and insight alongside the jokes. It is a source of continuing delight.
I do struggle with what we can improve for the many political and contentious topics. I completely understand the repetition of talking points and common tropes in these contentious/political topics gets tedious for the regulars; at some point almost every position on a controversial topic has been seen here, in one form or another, ad nauseam. And a topic full of dismissive animated gifs is not what I personally want BBS to be.
19 Likes
I’m with you on most of this, but there’s only so far you can engineer discussion. At some point you need to just let people do what they do. (I think discourse is pretty damn awesome though.)
18 Likes
A home for happy mutants = I am not alone
Community seems to self regulate pretty well, most threads are generally interesting and not dominated by post whores/shit posters, and we still have plenty of dedicated threads for people to playfully indulge in those things too without dominating the boards.
A place to talk about guns (hue hue hue)
14 Likes
The BBS to me:
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The closest thing around to what I used to get from Usenet; wide-ranging discussion with a broad range of intelligent people, many of whom know interesting things.
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An opportunity to indulge in my US politics hobby/obsession (I blame The West Wing…) with people who actually know what I’m talking about (most Ozlanders don’t follow US news in anywhere near the detail I do).
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Pretty much the only regular social outlet I have these days (chronic illness is a highly effective means of culling your social circle down to the bare minimum).
So, to the mods & admins & y’all in general: thank you. This site contributes quite a bit to making my world a less shitty place.
25 Likes
