vurtomatic said:
Just chill man. We used to have this 'problem' too and there'd be threads like this in which it seemed everyone was debating the fate of Aus Social, but guess what, Aus Social still exists, has carried on, to this current iteration which has you guys starting up a thread like this ...
It's just a cycle. The threads in the forum, the etiquette, the prevalent err mood or trend of discussions, are all informed by the current batch of active users. Your most active users form cliques and end up talking amongst themselves which sometimes alienates new users.
Also, this Bluelight is huge, and there're so many subforums for all the more 'legit' or serious discussions, what would you have people discussing in Aus Social? Football? Politics? Keeping the streets clean (I think we had that before too)?
If there's anything worthwhile to be discussed, I'm sure someone will start a thread. Otherwise, just keep smiling or frowning or drinking or whatever it is that you guys do in here.
Exactly! I just finished reading through the thread so far, and was drafting my eventual reply in my head as I read it, and then got to this one and found my reply pretty much already written!
I've felt for a while that it's gotten a bit stale, but I kept my mouth shut because honestly I wasn't all that interested in putting my money where my mouth is and doing something about it. But it's not through lack of caring, and I still lurk around a fair bit. It's mainly just because I don't know anyone who posts anymore. Like it or not, bluelight is way more fun when you share it with a bunch of people you know in real life. And lets not pretend for a second that it's not cliquey, because it is. I've noticed as time's gone on, that as the more people who I know in real life stoped posting, the less likely any response I make to a thread will get a direct reply or acknowledgment. You tend to scan through threads and when you see a reply from someone you know (or a well known name), you reply to that one. It's not right or wrong, it's just how it happens.
A large reason why bluelight has
allegedly gone stale, is because there hasn't been a large turnover of names in a while. What used to happen was people would all post, get to know each other on the board, meet each other in real life, swap phone numbers, and then move away from the board. This allows new names to get a word in, and other new names to reply to them, etc etc. It's the bluelight cycle, and anyone who's been around for a while will know I've rambled on about it plenty of times in the past.
But is it a problem? Probably not a major one. But what can help prevent it is already in the guidelines and is routinely ignored by just about everyone:
This is not a chat site.
Though it is tempting to be freely social, chat cannot be accepted. This may be the social forum, but it doesn't mean you can post whatever you like. Too many people are making personal posts that only bear relevance to one or two other people. That's what email, ICQ and IRC are for. To a small extent chat will be tolerated, but it is in the interests of all Bluelighters, particularly those who have just joined Bluelight that we leave chat out. This includes in-jokes and threads which revolve around only a select few people. They can be very funny and quite special to those involved, but try to keep them to a minimum and don't drag them out so that other's who don't understand feel alienated.
I used to crack the shits all the time about stuff like that, because I believed then and I believe now, that you're never going to get new people to post, when the older people are doing things like referring to things that happened on the weekend in a way that you had to be there to understand. Things like using people's real life first name when referring to someone in a post - how can someone new be able to contribute when there's a big metaphorical hand in their face telling them they don't belong in this discussion. It sometimes reminds me of a school yard - there's the group of cool kids in a circle, and everyone else can try and work around the edges, but they'll rarely get in.
But to finish, all hope is not lost. This place probably hasn't gone stale, it's just gotten lazy. And I hope everyone can at least see the irony of all these informed, well thought out, level headed, and deeper posts suddenly being made to discuss why this exact thing doesn't happen anymore!
Everyone's still got it in them - just give everyone a chance to be heard! I'm sure there's heaps of people out there who won't hit the reply button because they think they won't be noticed. Lets welcome them a bit more...
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
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