bowdenta said:
we've always hazed any new potential member of the BL community in order to weed out the weak and downright stupid. I think this makes the posts overall of a higher caliber.
Clearly BL's been failing miserably at the task of late then. :D
Having been around awhile, I have 3 observations:
1) If you've been around long enough, eventually there's nothing new under the sun as far as the more banal threads...which unfortunately there tend to be quite a few of these days, partially as a consequence (imo) of #2 below.
2) Highly imaginative/creative threads often either get ignored or die a weak death, partially as a consequence of laziness/lack of imagination in crafting a response in line with the thread theme, and partially as a consequence of #3 below.
3) Intelligent but highly provocative posters often tend to either a) eventually get run off largely by virtue of someone they've offended in a position of authority or b) burn out and leave. Say what you want about AF, CMB, GL, etc., say their schticks grew tiresome/annoying/offensive/whatever, but they helped keep the lounge moving by stirring the shit quite well.
Many a time I've had what I thought would be a creative thread idea, only to then think "what's the use, no one will put any actual time into crafting a response in line with the theme anyway".
Alot of decent threads die a weak death simply because no one is willing to put in the actual time to think creatively and respond...it's much easier just to google and post a link to some boring ass pic bullshit, and even if the pic is somewhat amusing it's not the OP's and gets old quickly because everybody
else piggybacks onto it.
And before you respond by saying "well that's your fault, you should post it anyway", believe me, on numerous occasions I have, only to see the threads wither from lack of creative responsive effort. It's a chilling effect on contributing anything.
It seems every 2 years or so BL has this same discussion with the same complaints, and the usual answer is that "it's natural, BL is just evolving, people move on, others with different takes on life filter through, etc.".
Well that's true of course, but I will say that imo the evolution has had a dumbing down effect. I think an objective indication of that is how briskly thread traffic used to move in the past as compared to how it does today...perhaps it's just my perception, but lively thread traffic is down considerably from what it used to be.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
mariposa420 said:
I've said it elsewhere, but it blows my fucking mind that racist, xenophobic and misogynistic comments are left to sit around while there is a ban on poop threads.
While we're on it, I'll say this. I think the whole "no more reference to poop in the lounge" rule was a gigantic crock of shit, and not simply because I engaged in it from time to time.
The only semi-legitimate reason I can think of to even semi-justify that rule was because some people got tired of the schtick. It DEFINITELY wasn't in the same offensiveness ballpark as some of the schticks that are allowed here, and allowed to flourish. E.g., personally I find the "FTW" schtick to be far more irritating than the poop schtick ever was...that's nothing but copycatting someone else's idea that was only moderately amusing
at best to begin with.
At least the poop schtick had some adaptability to various types of responses. FTW, whee, what can you say about that? Banal, that's what you can say about it. 8) The only way it would have been amusing after about the 50th use is if it had been used in a lampooning-type fashion, which it wasn't.
I'm not offended by any posting subject or schtick as long as it doesn't harass another poster habitually, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard the "don't like someone/their schtick? Be a grownup and use the ignore feature" reply given in response to a complaint about someone's posting habits. THAT rule is apparently applied selectively.
i stand by the rest tho! 
