Why it's so hard to start a forum nowadays

[Retro]

Yes, that's right, I remember now. It's one of the major causes of that burnout I mentioned.

I don't like censorship, but after I'd seen a few pictures and videos of a woman being gang raped (especially vile) dead people killed in gruesome ways and people being murdered etc, I can tell you that it firmly has its place, but that dividing line is as grey as ever. I never wanna see that again. And guess what, it was on Facebook where I saw these things, some in a private group I was invited to that showed these things which I soon left. To be subjected to that all the time as part of the job should be considered a mental health hazard.

 

[DIMIDEAS]

I'd seen a few pictures and videos of a woman being gang raped (especially vile) dead people killed in gruesome

That's a lifetime ban worthy offense.

 

[Crims]

Something about seeing people's real names only being present in Facebook groups makes me cringe, especially if they're noobs. Custom usernames are another thing that forums provide that give people a better sense of community and a sense that they belong in that community.

Same here. Within a year of leaving high school I basically had no reason to use it, and had too much personal information for sharing professionally.

As someone who was around at the time I 100% support the point Facebook was instrumental in the death of forums. As people got more familiar with FUD they lowered interest in actual humane and humanities. Forums versus social media (making a distinction) can't handle a huge 10000 person per day influx by comparison. It's the difference between a community and a system.

 

[Varlov]

I can recall a friend telling me years ago, "Why would you want to create a forum and deal with all of those trolls?". I tried not to take offense, but I kind of did, because someone that is supposed to be your friend, maybe should do a better job with sharing their opinion other then being purely blunt. Not that someone needs to tread lightly with their opinions around me, because I can handle it, but being harsh about it? For the record, you do have to have a pretty hard shell of a personality to create a forum/website because one day you will deal with tough members that will push you to the very edge and you have to be able to handle it and move on.

@Fait hope you are feeling better. I like your website and have been meaning to respond on TAZ, but I've been sick too with little energy.

@Retro Sorry you had a battle with covid last year. My husband got it the first time around, but neither myself or my daughter got it. It's been very perplexing. On the forum owner stereotype, I think people have a skewed idea of what people must be like to be a website owner. That is also unfair sort of profiling of people because of what they do. On weird websites, I can pick up on creepy pretty fast. I don't even have to know how old admin is to know there's something off.

@Stojan Tim Any ideas on what we could call a forum; how to update? I went to look at synonyms for forums and nothing works, so I came up with these, but they are two word phrases:
Social Venue, Social Channel(s)?

@Arantor Agreed, toxic environments and toxic people (online and real) are unhealthy. I've looked at TAZ daily, but it's the same drum beat with a few dominating members, just not motivated. You can't have a substantive conversation without wondering when members are going to swoop in and disagree like it's a big game.

@Mars Totally, exactly. Written perfectly.... people need to do what pleases them and the heck with what other people think. Once you get to that confidence level in your life, it's very liberating.

About your last mention… very beautifully put. I spent too long living according to the suggestions of other until gaining my independence as a young teen. Thankfully I got it early — countless others haven’t been so lucky. There's nothing better than such freedom, and living your own life according to your own just values is its own reward.

 

[Varlov]

Yes, that's right, I remember now. It's one of the major causes of that burnout I mentioned.

I don't like censorship, but after I'd seen a few pictures and videos of a woman being gang raped (especially vile) dead people killed in gruesome ways and people being murdered etc, I can tell you that it firmly has its place, but that dividing line is as grey as ever. I never wanna see that again. And guess what, it was on Facebook where I saw these things, some in a private group I was invited to that showed these things which I soon left. To be subjected to that all the time as part of the job should be considered a mental health hazard.

Dude when I was undergoing some military training one of my buddies introduced me to some nasty darkweb stuff. There was a live chatroom where some veteran U.S. soldiers captured a supposedly convicted terrorist and accepted small Bitcoin payments to carry out any kind of torture you could recommend. In theory, yeah terrorism is evil and genuine terrorists ought to be put down, but I had a feeling that this shit was a bit beyond my pay grade. I agree that some things ought to be censored. This typical American idea of absolute freedom of speech is insane and unarguably unethical... at least I've yet to meet any American which can actually defend such a stance with unbiased logic and reason. Likewise, I don't believe that everyone is inherently qualified to vote or have children, but that's another story!

 

[Retro]

@Varlov that sounds truly sick, even if it really was a terrorist who may have just been getting his just desserts*. That it quite possibly wasn't, makes it way worse; a snuff movie. Horrible.

*Regardless, justice must be seen to be done in court and a proper sentence handed down, including the death sentence, if warranted. I've got my reservations about that too, because of the significant risk of a miscarriage of justice to get rid of innocent people who are causing the bad guys a problem.

 

[Tiffany]

@DIMIDEAS

That's a lifetime ban worthy offense.

Agreed!

@Crims

Forums versus social media (making a distinction) can't handle a huge 10000 person per day influx by comparison. It's the difference between a community and a system.

Well said comparison. I believe a voice can be heard more in a smaller community rather then getting lost in a huge social behemoth too.

@Varlov

About your last mention… very beautifully put. I spent too long living according to the suggestions of other until gaining my independence as a young teen. Thankfully I got it early — countless others haven’t been so lucky. There's nothing better than such freedom, and living your own life according to your own just values is its own reward.

Thank you! I arrived at this level of freedom much later, but at least I arrived. Glad you acquired your independence so early. There are so many factors involved in learning these lessons early in life too. As you said, freedom of living your life, writing your own life story, the way you want it, not the way someone else says it has to be, does make life richer and happier.

Your dark web military story experience reminds me of the movie The Kill Team. Terrifying! American soldiers were purposely killing Afghan people for sport; based on a true story.

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@Retro

*Regardless, justice must be seen to be done in court and a proper sentence handed down, including the death sentence, if warranted. I've got my reservations about that too, because of the significant risk of a miscarriage of justice to get rid of innocent people who are causing the bad guys a problem.

Same here with capital punishment. There has to be zero doubt and an abundance of evidence, as well as other considerations on the crime itself.

 

[Crims]

Forums do make me think of capital punishment quite often..
I don't think censorship is necessarily always good, and I know no one was arguing for it. If you look at Youtube or basically any website nowadays they're algorithmised in a way that basically gives carte blanche to remove anything vaguely mentally stimulating. I agree that gore shouldn't be on the internet though it shouldn't be a use by case for most censorship because anyone could just use that as an example of dumbing down the internet experience.
I think that it almost is responsible for forums and the "trust us" ideology that's been implemented into Facebook and Youtube.

 

[Retro]

I don't think censorship is necessarily always good.

It absolutely isn't and is often misused like you described. Unfortunately, it's also absolutely necessary, but the dividing line is very blurred and shifting, keeping it a controversial issue.

In my role here, I sometimes have to make hard decisions like this, as there's often fallout whether I censor or not. I therefore weigh up the options and take the path that seems best or most appropriate. I'll run it by people sometimes before I decide, too.

 

[Tiffany]

I like the forums vibe where you could just write what you want, people talked about it and you didn't have to worry about big brother coming in to moderate your post because a third party fact checker determines what you wrote is misinformation.

So if I described how you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and said to spread the jelly from the left to the right rather then the other direction, then the almighty fact-checkers may swoop in and tag me for misinformation because that's not how you make a PB&J. This is why I don't post on fakebook or anywhere else, except on my websites, NZ and another friends websites.

*Nebulous I need to drop by your website soon!

 

[Retro]

I share your sentiment Tiffs. That level of abuse was one of the prime motivators to start my own forum where no one can bully me and everyone gets treated with respect.

 

[Crims]

It definitely is similar to the way the general ability of storytelling has been delivered for social media. A lack of good news and emotional storytelling definitely results in apathy to storytelling and forums.

 

[Tiffany]

The art of respectful discourse has been somewhat lost, with exception of some websites that do try to foster somewhat peaceful conversation.

Storytelling and perspective is another great challenge in social media.

 

[Crims]

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[Arantor]

I dunno about that. Seems to me that a lot of the people running the asylum now are rich and seeking to enrich themselves more by division and conquer. There is nothing beautiful in trampling others underfoot, especially not for greed.

 

[Tiffany]

I dunno about that. Seems to me that a lot of the people running the asylum now are rich and seeking to enrich themselves more by division and conquer. There is nothing beautiful in trampling others underfoot, especially not for greed.

People "running the asylum"....so true. Lots of crazies out there. We are among the most normal....just normal nerds.

 

[live627]

There is no such thing as a normal nerd.

 

[Tiffany]

There is no such thing as a normal nerd.

Very true

I'd much rather have nerd friends that shallow-stuffy-fake friends!

 

[AndyB]

It is indeed! Social media can make monsters out of people. I have friends that have totally changed because of it.

Found this interesting article this morning; Tiktok and the fall of the social media giants. For the record I don't Tiktok nor will I ever Tiktok.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/tiktok-and-the-fall-of-the-social-media-giants

Such an interesting article. It not only helps explain how some of these social media giants made their sites so popular, but also explains how Tiktok has influenced Facebook and YouTube to create the Reels and Shorts which we all hate.

In other words, we know Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and similar serve for the most part to get people addicted to the dopamin rush they produce, but the future is likely to get far worse as they perfect the product.

 

[Retro]

@Tiffany @AndyB What you're talking about there is basically the same thing that happened to pop music: got turned into garbage, started in the 1980s by Stock, Aitken and Waterman producing formulaic cookie cutter "music" that "hit the spot" to maximise sales with "instahits" and has gone on ever since. This is why I haven't listened to music radio for over 15 years now, keeping it exclusively talk radio. I literally have no idea what the current top 40 singles are, or what the number 1 is and don't care.

Of course, there is lots of great music being produced nowadays and more so back in the 80s, but those acts and artists don't usually hit the big time due to the above issues. It's almost criminal.

 

[Tiffany]

Such an interesting article. It not only helps explain how some of these social media giants made their sites so popular, but also explains how Tiktok has influenced Facebook and YouTube to create the Reels and Shorts which we all hate.

In other words, we know Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and similar serve for the most part to get people addicted to the dopamin rush they produce, but the future is likely to get far worse as they perfect the product.

I thought so too, @AndyB. Dopamine, plays such a big role in the lure of these websites as the brain is constantly in a happy state as long as you stay online, very much the same as shopping and gambling work too. I'm really surprised that as much information has been shared about the danger's of Tiktok from a myriad of warnings coming from various groups (not even considering the political or security implications) that Tiktok is the number #1 website.

@Tiffany @AndyB What you're talking about there is basically the same thing that happened to pop music: got turned into garbage, started in the 1980s by Stock, Aitken and Waterman producing formulaic cookie cutter "music" that "hit the spot" to maximise sales with "instahits" and has gone on ever since. This is why I haven't listened to music radio for over 15 years now, keeping it exclusively talk radio. I literally have no idea what the current top 40 singles are, or what the number 1 is and don't care.

Of course, there is lots of great music being produced nowadays and more so back in the 80s, but those acts and artists don't usually hit the big time due to the above issues. It's almost criminal.

I've been listening to talk radio since I've been old enough to walk. My dad, always had talk radio on in the car and to this day, I do the same. I don't have playlists and a huge library of music, though I am a musician, like my family does. If I could listen to the radio to the songs I really like, then I might, but radio was ruined years ago by all of the commercials. Talk radio, keeps my interests because I listen to the stations on the topics I like, which range from politics, financial and investing, state of the housing market and I even nerd-out on some of the home-improvement chat if I happen to be near my radio at the time.

As for music, I'm the same....after the 80's, music did change. I can't tell you much of what I liked in the 90's because I started to not see the attraction in the Top-40 hits. I leave it to my daughter to keep my updated on anything new in music, that and meme's

 

[AndyB]

So if i understand correctly, when we check our phone or computer constantly to see if we got a new Like or other social interaction, we can quickly become addicted. The level of addiction can be unhealthy I assume if over done.

When we visit a forum (like this one) where we spend time reading posts and then researching the topic in order to make a rich reply, we get our dopamine rush during the learning process.

So the question is, how is a quick dopamine rush like checking for Likes different than doing something which requires research thinking and problem solving? They both produce dopamine.

 

[Tiffany]

So if i understand correctly, when we check our phone or computer constantly to see if we got a new Like or other social interaction, we can quickly become addicted. The level of addiction can be unhealthy I assume if over done.

When we visit a forum (like this one) where we spend time reading posts and then researching the topic in order to make a rich reply, we get our dopamine rush during the learning process.

So the question is, how is a quick dopamine rush like checking for Likes different than doing something which requires research thinking and problem solving? They both produce dopamine.

You very cleverly worded your question ....so Saying this with "tongue in cheek"~

The difference in the dopamine rushes is that on websites like NZ you are expanding your mind, writing great masterpieces, training your brain and learning great nerd stuff..... ....when you are on Tiktok you are like a hamster in a maze, looking for that button to press to raise your happy meter a bit until you find the next button.

 

[AndyB]

The difference in the dopamine rushes is that on websites like NZ you are expanding your mind, writing great masterpieces, training your brain and learning great nerd stuff..... ....when you are on Tiktok you are like a hamster in a maze, looking for that button to press to raise your happy meter a bit until you find the next button.

Exactly my thoughts also.

What I find interesting is that by using the "learning" method to get your dopamine rush, you get the rush less frequently, but I think by having knowledge aquired by learning something, you can get the good feeling more easily. For example simply talking with others and sharing ideas can get you that good feeling.

 

[Tiffany]

Good Point. It's a metered dose of dopamine in a sustained release form that allows you to be more reflective in your writing at a nice pace.

There is so much value in talking to others, particularly in real life, but that is the beauty of forums and social websites like mine, that you can share thoughts, work through issues, discuss the more controversial topics, but still maintain that bond through something we all have in common; humanity.