Several points...I'll try to make these in order.
First off, a little clarification on some of the quotes cited by Gmni13 above...they stem from the original
"Bluelight cliques" post made a few weeks ago. My original post was not specifically a response to this issue per se, but a general observation evolved from some of the points brought up in this debate.
However, since some of those points have been rehashed, let me address them, since I chose not to do so when the points were originally made.
MysteryGuest said:
People forget this is an IBB, not e-mail, so it undermines the social element of Social, turning it instead into public showing off of private conversations.
I never quite got the connection as to HOW the "social element of Social" is undermined by any particular type of post that is found in the forum. What does that even
mean? I think an argument could be made that almost any type of post in Social unfavorably impacts the 'environment' of Social... of what value is another listing of where people had sex for the first time? Or a discussion of how much someone hates or loves a particular TV show? Or how much someone hates having something in their eye?
Because of its wide audience, it is a sure bet that any thread in Social is only going to appeal to a limited, perhaps fractional, portion of its users...does that make any one type of thread inferior to any other?
Skydancer said (I expand upon the excerpt G13 made above):
In my opinion, by the "anything goes" idea, Social is turning into a very uniform mass of non-discussion, aimed at a selected group of people. This does not mean that Social is unwanted; it is important to some, and there is always the paradigm "There is a demand and it can be satisfied, so why not?"
"Why not?" is the position I advocate, and furthermore, in regards to the Social forum in particular, I ask this question:
when has Social EVER been anything other than a "uniform mass of non-discussion"?
Social was created to get rid of the garbage hampering discussion in the other, more focused forums of Bluelight.
As with any junkpile, there are going to be treasures, but on the whole its just junk.
Here's a post by Skydancer that was NOT quoted by G13 above:
I have to agree with what Spencer said (although that was formulated in Spencer-style): reading Social is not required. There are lots of people who post almost exclusively in other forums. Most other forums feel like a whole other world, compared to this forum. Most forums have bloomed in the past year and have almost without exception gained critical mass. I find most of these forums highly rewarding. For me, those forums are the best justification for giving so much of my time to Bluelight.
I could not agree more, and these forums are where I place the bulk of my efforts on the site as well...and to the further development of more forums like them as Bluelight grows and develops further.
As Skydancer said above, reading Social is not required. If you gain and grow and learn from using this forum, more power to you. That's wonderful!
If you do
not gain and grow and learn, is it not productive to
do something else with your time and not grouse about how others DO gain and grow and learn from it?