Good Discussions

[shiels]

Fantastic. Thoughtful and hilarious post woops, thank you!

It's a way of imposing higher standards, praise is harder earned and more enriching, punishment is more severe and really worth avoiding. Everyone on their A game.

On a serious note, I have noticed myself getting more easily frustrated with bad chat, disappointed with friends. I put it down to the pandemic and me getting older and grumpier but it's bigger than that seemingly. This place was somewhere I could come to talk, or even just lurk, and be involved in conversations I couldn't have elsewhere. It would tragic if we lost that and that's why I'm asking everyone to get behind my 7 step plan.

 

[woops]

Reactions are shit, or, why Dissensus is evil

 

[mixed_biscuits]

I promise not to include fewer than 50 graphs per post.

 

[sus]

Some things I notice tanking the ability to have good conversation online are (1) FOMO/ADHD (stimulus chasing) (2) lack of physical social information seems to make it a bit harder for two people to "get vibing", though you feel it when a few people start vibrating (3) it's lower friction to pick up and leave an interaction, eg for reason 1

My advice for sufi to save forum:

1. Disable reactions
2. Put a lower limit on posts to at least 50 words
3. Ban GIFs
4. Ban links without comment
5. Limit thirdform to one post a week
6. Ban shiels after 8pm
7. Impose an elimination poll / popularity contest where we vote off the worst poster for the next month

We could have two modes. You include [slow] in your thread title, tempo expectations are different

 

[mixed_biscuits]

...and 'blitz' threads

 

[woops]

We could have two modes. You include [slow] in your thread title, tempo expectations are different

disgusting. i won't be part of this move against the members of the board, who are thick. its not their fault and anyway the term slow is offensive and outmoded in the 20th century.

 

[woops]

trying to create a 2-tier forum classic us and them ideology

 

[luka]

i always find it funny when people say to me, ooh you must meet some interesting people in this job and i never have the heart to tell them that actually no, everyone is completely bland and generic.

 

[woops]

i always find it funny when people say to me, ooh you must meet some interesting people in this job and i never have the heart to tell them that actually no, everyone is completely bland and generic.

then there are the people who say "what's the weirdest request you've ever had" (they mean for a poem btw) and we have to reply, we've never had a weird one, everyone wants either travel or family.

 

[version]

One of the strangest aspects of spending a lot of time alone, imo, is the loss of voice. You end up being reduced to making the odd noise if you hurt yourself or see a bit of skill watching football or something, but, unless you're one of those people who talk to themselves, you more or less spend your days in silence.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Most successful forums have a 'count to a million' thread.

 

[luka]

what sheils has forgotten, from being away so long, is that you can't only say interesting and intelligent things, its like free improv, to generate 30 seconds of something interesting you have to spend hours bashing saucepan lids together

 

[shiels]

On the face of it, the nature of the transaction could leaves people at a loss for ideas. You could spice it up with some prompts. maybe test a few, fortune teller poets, poem from your dead relatives etc

 

[luka]

you also have to have people to play along with. Gus, bless him, often puts a lot of effort into his threads, but unfortunately no one agrees with what he has to say. Similarly Stan will occasionally make an effort but no one can understand what he's on about and even if you respond earnestly he will just loftily ignore you anyway.

 

[luka]

so getting it to work, when it does work, is actually pretty miraculous. and, as an aside, there's a lot to be said for having a laugh together. it's energy generated and shared and it makes for a fun evening.

 

[sus]

then there are the people who say "what's the weirdest request you've ever had" (they mean for a poem btw) and we have to reply, we've never had a weird one, everyone wants either travel or family.

That's not true legend has it someone asked for "a dog with two bones"

 

[woops]

That's not true legend has it someone asked for "a dog with two bones"

this was not a customer though. it was an agent

 

[sus]

Shiels is gonna make a [slow] discussion thread and model for us how it's done. A perfect little ecosystem for him to tinker in, and then he can tell us the secrets of good conversation

 

[woops]

On the face of it, the nature of the transaction could leaves people at a loss for ideas. You could spice it up with some prompts. maybe test a few, fortune teller poets, poem from your dead relatives etc

massive potential for disaster here though

sometimes i'll get a couple who want a poem about "us" and i will write a beautiful love poem as comes very naturally to me. and then realise they might be brother and sister.

 

[WashYourHands]

Dumbing down to 140 characters perhaps? N00b take

The pandemic fucked everything. Not normal life, sleep the enemy, stress from all directions, patience whittled. Lock a 500 page opus on it where yes = no and no = yes, another variant emerges. If you’re into the minutiae of crypto, I find that repellent but take that as my own problem. The forum offers plenty of alternatives. Tighten your perimeters/parameters to reductionist text - the image has a place

Tunes without comment is a paradox. If you’re among fellow listeners bouncing tracks off each other it can work, but I know where you’re coming from. Only reason for starting a thread dedicated to your current ear worm predilections was to encourage language, extrapolate meaning from joy or the ineffable, why these ear worms operate in individual examples/experiences and how its installation gained traction experientially

Reactions can go, bit RUC zealous the rest @shiels . What about a Shiels top 25 *tings*? Luka had a point about 25 - more succinct number, punchy, offers scope for focus and variety. 100 is a marathon, can only write it when a window opens (over nearly 18 months, brutal task)

The non long-winded version