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Just Checking In - A Thread For The Recently Returned

07:58 / 09.11.11

Hi All,

As we occasionally get old members appearing to see what's been happening on the site I thought it might be an idea to have this thread active at the top of Conversation in order to avoid having numerous single post threads which just knock the more tasty ones off the front page.

It's up to the trickle of posters we get if they want to use it. But personally I quite like the idea of leaving the old place with some of the more meaty threads at the top of each forum for the weary internet traveller to peruse. Hence my bumping of topics back to the surface.

For those who've been away from the site for a long time and want to know why it's so quiet; basically the site slowly bled members over the period of a few years for a variety of reasons and now it is for all intents and purposes a dead site.

If you want to start up new threads please feel free, but don't hold out too much hope of them being answered. If possible try searching for a pre-existing thread associated with your question and ask it there rather than starting a new one.

Obviously I have no authority or say. People can do what they like. I'm just a faded old Lab Moderator drinking Singapore Slings and obsessing over the good old days. But there's only a few of us left so why not huddle together as the last lights of Barbe-lisation go out?

22:06 / 10.11.11

Hey Evil Scientist,

I find this place fascinating now .. it sits here , a large collection of old conversations and doesn't seem to actually die .. Tom must still be paying the bills !

One day I guess it will go ... until then I find enjoyment reading through all the old drama .. and I guess thats the problem ... no new stuff happens, its like a town that was created due to an oil well and that oil well has run dry .. and the people have left ..

Sad..

10:51 / 11.11.11

Well I suppose as long as the occasional person still gets a benefit from reading the threads it serves a purpose.

If we stick to the town metaphor then I'd say the oil is still here, there's plenty of threads with useful, interesting, or just plain funny posts in them. It was just the town's "police force" only had Nerf guns when, on occasion, it would have been handy to have tasers.

Well not just that, but it was certainly a big factor for a lot of people.

Now it's just you, me, and crazy Alex's Grandma (and she's off her head on sherry most of the time).

18:37 / 13.11.11

Nerf guns .... ! Ha

I always got the impression that Barbelith was an experiment both in bringing together a community of people who more or less created there own rules and used an experimental board tech ..

Is it a success or failure ? If things had been different with the decisions that were made would this place be thriving ? Or did it just reach its old/death phase to early .. (just at the right time?)

07:54 / 15.11.11

I always got the impression that Barbelith was an experiment both in bringing together a community of people who more or less created there own rules and used an experimental board tech ..

I think the over-riding rule was what is now known as "Wheaton's Rule". Don't be a dick. Coupled with the phrase "We don't care if you were joking!" (wrt hate speech, etc)

It wasn't too different from other message boards in most respects; although the Distributed Moderator system meant that there was a greatly reduced risk of a rogue Mod running about. But in the end the powers that Mods had just weren't enough to quickly and effectively deal with trolls and their ilk.

Is it a success or failure ? If things had been different with the decisions that were made would this place be thriving ? Or did it just reach its old/death phase to early .. (just at the right time?)

I'd say it was a success whilst it ran, and a failure in the end. We couldn't expect people to keep on running around dealing with problem posters when all they could do was to get into long and exhausting quasi-flamewars. All of us would much rather be having intelligent chats about other stuff rather than having to explain for the nth time why misogyny is unacceptable.

An in-depth discussion on the final run-down of the site can be found over on Policy. I think the threads there sort of hammer home why people felt it was preferable to scramble their passwords and walk away, or to just not maintain an active presence on the site anymore.

I reckon the place could have survived and thrived even in the current web-environment of social networking sites if the tweaks had been made. But, y'know, to all things there must come an end and all that.

Baobab Branches and Plastic

12:16 / 18.11.11

I never thought the trolls were that much of a problem.

People did get very *serious* about topics though which in some cases might have stopped genuinely interesting/ed people posting questions and comments on the basis that they might have appeared silly, ignorant, or even redundant given the large amount of ground covered in previous threads.

As such if people missed adding something to the 'flying spaghetti monster thread' when it first appeared three years earlier you'd missed the boat, with the end result that perhaps newer members couldn't get into the swing of things and without such lifeblood the board dwindled.

Of course, that mightn't have been the case at all.

19:13 / 19.11.11

I don't personally think that's accurate. Often newcomers to topics and themes were asked to read the whole thread or were linked to old ones where the subject had already been covered.

12:39 / 21.11.11

"People did get very *serious* about topics though which in some cases might have stopped genuinely interesting/ed people posting questions and comments on the basis that they might have appeared silly, ignorant, or even redundant given the large amount of ground covered in previous threads."

I agree with this statement. I've been a lurker here for many years. I've rarely joined in with conversation for precisely these reasons. On the odd occasion I did venture an opinion I rarely received a response from the more established crowd.

I do read old threads as they contain some fascinating discussions. However, the level of knowledge and intense discussion quite intimidating - and I say this as someone with two masters degrees. There was a cosy core and the door appeared shut. Perhaps I should have been more persistent

07:46 / 22.11.11

You know why it's so quiet in here?

Membership is still set to "invitation only" so there's no influx of new members. And we should be getting new members because, hey, the Invisibles trade paperbacks are still in print and at least soem new readers must be finding this place on way or another.

So..uh..yeah.

I still pop my head in from time to time like an indecisive newborn sticking his head back in.

There's an interesting mental image. Chew on that for a little bit.

08:19 / 22.11.11

Membership is effectively closed at the moment. I'm not sure who was given the authorisation to allow new members in, but it was sort of decided that the continued loss of Moderator-level members (coupled with the limited powers of moderation they actually had) meant that letting new members in would allow potentially allow unrestricted trolling to infest the site.

Without some level of control I think it's better that the place be left as a memorial to itself.

13:38 / 22.11.11

Point proven.

21:38 / 22.11.11

In what way?

12:56 / 26.11.11

I can't believe you guys are still arguing about this stale old shit. The world has literally billions of people in it. Go talk to one.

13:56 / 26.11.11

You mean none of you are people?

I knew it! It's just me and the chatbots left!

Damn it, damn it all to hell!

13:59 / 26.11.11

But fair point...

I kill stale argument with a +2 Bolt of Cheezburger!

23:10 / 26.11.11

Talk vs. argue.

21:07 / 27.11.11

Sing vs dance!

22:40 / 27.11.11

Oh no, I'm arguing with you. On Barbelith.

16:28 / 02.12.11

Traffic will pick up on 22th December 2012.

18:56 / 03.12.11

Why say ye that?

18:59 / 03.12.11

mayan doom - though researchers suggest it will simply be the dawning of a new era [oh shit, this is area seven!]

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

21:27 / 15.06.12

Ah. It makes me sad that I got really drunk on the eve of my thirtieth birthday and drunkposted, a little over four years ago and got too embarrassed to ever, ever come back here and post again.........until now. When I'm fairly sure no-one who I humiliated myself in front of is still posting. Ah nostalgia. I'd have loved to have been here, fighting valiantly against the slow heat death of the board, ah me.

I am a weak, shallow and silly man. And in the unlikely event any of the few people who actually LIKED me on here thought I'd died of alcohol poisoning when I failed to return, I apologize for my cowardice unreservedly.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

21:45 / 15.06.12

Takes me back. Takes me back it does, to being a hopeless 20something eedjit, not half as bright as he thought he was, posting stupid stuff about spirituality shopper and getting right beaten down for it, instead of a hopeless 30something eedjit posting almost as stupid stuff on facebook but having everyone posting under their real name being far too polite to give me the slapping I've richly earned.......

Ah me, was that me, was it?

Oh the 00s. Strange times. Strange times indeed.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

21:51 / 15.06.12

And as the thought occurs that my edit of my first post will NEVER get the required approval of two moderators - Just to say, in the unlikely event that anyone like for instance Seth or Transfer, who I think actually knew who I was and LIKED me is still checking in occasionally, if any of you guys thought I'd died from alcohol poisoning when I never returned, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm a small, and silly man, and I can but apologize.

10:56 / 24.02.13

Bump

23:26 / 24.02.13

Hey.

Evil Scientist?

I don't know what you're hoping to accomplish, if anything, but you really need to stop.

Let it go.

No matter how many times you apply the paddles, the patient is not going to rise off the table and walk again. It's just not going to happen. All things end in entropy, and Barbelith is no exception.

Bookmark your favorite threads, by all means, if you wish to continue to use Barbelith as an archive. (I've done so myself, for many threads.)

But recognize that that's what it is: an archive. Not a living place for conversation. Not for a long time now.

Realize that, and then just let the front page sink beneath a rising tide of spam advertisements for steel toed boots and personal injury attorneys. It's going to happen anyway, no matter how you may wish to the contrary.

There's no need to exhaust yourself, shoveling against the tide. I don't know who you're doing it for, but you're doing no favors for yourself, or anyone else.

I say this with love, and with sorrow. Let it go.

Let it go, and say goodbye.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

01:36 / 25.02.13

If you need an Ugg-free Barbelith experience, there's a Firefox add-on called "Scrapbook" which lets you dl entire sites (including all your PMs). There's lso the Wayback Machine; just select a date prior to Tom's reopening of the board.

In any case, there's little to be gained by bumping threads. All that does is dilute the last page with multiple "bump"s.

10:36 / 23.04.13

I'm here! And fighting spambots with a +1 Sword of Bumping!