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Underground > Policy & Help >

What needs doing?

  
 
Shrug
19:26 / 20.03.11
I'm a bit sick of this. I like and miss Barbelith and although any daily activity seems to have dwindled to the absolute minimum, I'm sure that a lot of people feel similarly.

Do we need new members? Is the registration process still unmanageable?

The board is perfectly functional and as pretty as it ever was so.....

What needs doing?
 
 
grant
14:10 / 24.03.11
I think, for one thing, the destruction of Facebook and probably a few blogging platforms.

For another thing, a different way of doing/being admins on here.

There's a cluster of people on Facebook who still, like, hang out, you know. New pub, old crowd. Is good.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
16:30 / 24.03.11
Hello old chap!

Short version - membership is currently closed. That's not so much because it's technically impossible to let people in. However, there aren't enough moderators to keep the current moderation system working, and banning and any higher-level functions are still inaccessible So, essentially, nobody can join because there would be no easy way of preventing concerted outbreaks of the less desirable behaviour we occasionally came across. As a result of that, traffic has slowed considerably, because people who leave are not replaced - and also because of the rise of social networking, of course, and the odd diaspora forum.

Im not sure how much demand for Barbelith there is out there. Many of the people who would like to join actually want to join a chaos magic site or an Invisibles fan site, either or both of which Barbelith could be but neither of which it is currently set up to be.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
23:29 / 27.03.11
What needs doing?

You need a new hobby?

Joke.

Alt: We should probably have stuck with off-the-shelf software, as what's here doesn't provide the functionality required, from an admin point of view.

However, given that a few attempts have been made to replicate the Barbelith thang *with* off-the-shelf software and no fucker bothered using them for longer than, at best, about a fortnight, I think, on reflection, that maybe my first response was pointing in the correct direction after all.
 
 
Shrug
12:12 / 02.04.11
Ah so, sans moderators and a more open membership policy, not so functional as a board anymore at all.

Spatula, I have hobbies, I waste my time elsewhere almost as efficiently as I did on Barbelith, but even you still seem to check the board relatively regularly.

Did Tom have a final word on what was going on at any point?
 
 
Tsuga
23:38 / 10.04.11
Tom came in some time oh, about a year ago? I tried to look, but didn't find it. He basically said he's got no interest or energy in doing anything here anytime soon but maybe in the future(but he's still paying to host this, so that means something?). I've never been clear why he wouldn't grant more powers to moderators, but ultimately that seems to be the reason that people drifted away; not because they didn't like the site, but that there was no ability to control it. I assume all of the old-timers still drift back occasionally in the hopes that something will have changed, or to make sure it's not gone.

In any case, either Tom will let this place die eventually, or actually do something with it. That's about it.
 
 
Alex's Grandma
23:26 / 11.04.11
If I were Tom Coates, and could face returning to my creation, perhaps the first thing I'd ask some of the more expressive voices about the site's low traffic these days would be something to do with what, exactly, they felt like they'd contributed in the first place.
 
 
Alex's Grandma
23:37 / 11.04.11
Apart from bile, really. Plus horror and madness
 
 
Tsuga
00:54 / 12.04.11
Plus incontinence and malaise, a little tinnitus.
 
 
Tom Coates
21:04 / 27.04.11
I love this place and I love the people who have come through the doors here too. But I have to be honest, my interest in doing the work to maintain it has diminished over the years. It is, genuinely, quite a lot of work, as the moderators found when they went through the approval process for new users. I can't in good conscience commit to doing the work to maintain it. It doesn't make me any money and I have to pay the bills somehow.

Opening the doors to people just generates different kinds of work and is as likely to cause problems as keeping the doors closed. I have always wanted to be able to generate a community that could self-sustain and self-run, but I've never been able to do it. Perhaps at some point I'll be able to make some minor changes here and there, but my suggestion to people is that there are better places to have conversations on the internet today.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
10:59 / 07.05.11
there are better places to have conversations on the internet today

That's probably true, but by crikey you got a wicked bunch of people together here.

Ah well, nothing lasts forever, but it was truly a thing of awesome, back before the Fall. Like the Roman Empire, or the first couple of seasons of Moonlighting.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
22:56 / 07.05.11
Well, possibly. I do, however, think that most of the mods fucking off didn't really help, given the nature of the problem.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
23:45 / 09.05.11
I haven't forgotten you!
 
 
Shrug
14:40 / 16.05.11
there are better places to have conversations on the internet today

I'd like to know where.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
15:10 / 17.05.11
On that note, Liminal Nation has just relaunched this week with new board software and an expanded remit. LN initially developed out of the Barbelith temple forum and has been going for a few years now as an occult discussion forum - but we've relaunched it with extra forums covering politics, science, music, books, tv and film, etc. Check it: http://liminalnation.org/
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
14:25 / 18.05.11
Yes, please do! Come and play.
 
  
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