The current state of Agora Road

[VaporwaveHistorian]

Hi manpaint! I see you like long posts, me too. I like writing and reading long text of people's opinions, sometimes contribute, etc. I don't think the word count would help, but I wish there was a way to help it.

"Christian echo-chamber"

Oh I remember some Christian writings here, yes. Well, I say "God bless" a lot, but that's my usual saying. I'm not Christian, funny thing it is. When someone prays, I return. I also wish nice things that sound religious, etc etc. I don't preach or do propagating work, though. However it's called. In my language, we use God's name a lot that even atheists always say it for things (to say thanks, goodbye, you're welcome, i hope, i wish, that's great etc).

About the things in general:
I hope we have more high quality threads. I like writing long things. I like telling stories. My favorite thing is just sitting down with a word page open, writing for a few hours to prepare a post here. My fear is that I may appear as "trolling" or "realistic schizoposting" to newcomers or those who don't know me. I don't troll. I am genuinely mentally gone sometimes, you know. Imagine a regular at a bar who comes there after a bad day at work 90% of the time. Yeah, I come here 75-85% of the time insane. I hope it doesn't disturb people. I mean well. I try to write coherently most of the time and shit like that. Hey, it sometimes proposes nice opinions too you know. Especially in mental health threads.

Anyway, it's one of those 75-85% of the days. Bless you all (nonreligiously, in a nice sense). I hope we always have nice threads.

And about my archbishop title, i took it when the position was vacant. Emailed the guys and proposed myself, ofc they disregarded it, it was a political satire move. I call myself the real authentic premium archbishop since that day.

 

[赤い男]

Wouldn't you supposed to be off the grid or some shit? Why you even care? I found ironic how everyone yapps about free speech in here, and yet here we are, trying to impose a quota on how much a user should say, pfft yeah whatever, by seeing the numbers i think we all agree this idea is just lame. (Starting to get why they don't let autistic people cook)

Also please don't tell me you were the only one who voted for this on yes?

 

[赤い男]

There's a character limit?

I'm afraid there is, there is also a media limit of 20 image (used to be of 25), is kinda awful because sometime it gets hard to fully illustrate a thread.

 

[manpaint]

Wouldn't you supposed to be off the grid or some shit? Why you even care?

Mate, me going "off the grid" was a "challenge" that ended ages ago lol. Truth to be told, I do not care that much. I just wanted to point out things I have noticed. I have previously demonstrated that I can terminate stop being active here should I want to. That being said, I will admit that much like RuneScape and Genshin Impact, the concept of Agora Road certainly lives rent free in my head. This place certainly is the embodiment of the phrase "transience through eternity".

As some have pointed out, I do agree that there is two clashing demographic on this forum. There is like the "normal users" and the "4chan rejects". The rejects can be a problem as IlluminatiPirate puts it:

I want Agora Road to be a place where everyone can enjoy and to not be embarrassed by being associated with it. The reason why a lot of alt tech fails is because the lack of any real moderation and it gets infiltrated by Nazis and glowies.

I also take note that there is no rules against cyber-bullying, so I propose we organize a grand witch hunt.

Someone pointed out in my PMs that a similar thread happened in the past, so clearly this is a reccuring problem.

I will admit that my the idea I proposed in the OP was a bit rushed. As many said, I think we should control the "user qality" rather than the post themselves. I am confident that the situation at hand will resolve itself, but I think we should put safeguards in place to prevent this from happening in the future (i.e some gatekeeping at account creation).

 

[WKYK]

First give accounts less than a month old a posting limit. I don't know why this isn't already a thing, Agora has enough users to gatekeep 4/5 new users here. If a posting limit scares you away, good.

Then we (being people who care about forum culture) should make more quality threads, being the change we want to see. I really think this is a problem we can solve ourselves. I too have felt like things have changed here since I joined, with many users just shitposting all the time, but I also haven't been making threads to offset them. This is mostly due to being very busy in life right now, but this summer we should all (hopefully) have some more time on our hands, if we put some effort in we can certainly improve the quality of discussion.

Also, I'm sure most older users already do this but make sure to not just browse "What's New". Of course there are going to be shitpost/flame threads there because they get the most engagement. Go through the forum list, bump threads that are actually well made (with a meaningful reply of course).

 

[Alhazred]

+1 on the limiting new users to X (or 0, lurkmoar) posts per day/week/whatever.
How many posts and for how long a user is new can be arbitrary, it doesn't mater, because the point is to dissuade people that got chased off of tw*tter/r*ddit etc to start spamming their politics here instead.
I feel like that's kind of the way a forum should be, infrequent posts instead of an effective IRC/discord chat (which *already exists*, making things even more mind-boggling).
Then again, I'm new so feel free to disregard this post accordingly.

 

[Mirchicom]

To prove a point I will be adhering to the bare minimum of a one hundred and eighty one word count for my reply,
which could be stated simply, as @Ashman stated

Disagreed. There is a plethora of ideas that can be appropriately expressed in less than 181 words. Enforcing a 181 word limit will lead to overly-verbose posts.

Signifying my personal distaste with the suggestion, and hopefully showcasing the issues that it would introduce into the average reply chain,
and it's affect on how responses are formulated and function,
Assuming quoted messages do not count towards said word count,
I believe it would cause a reply to descend into cyclical worthless verbosity to extend the word count,
as to make a curt idea longer as to meet an arbitrary word count, that would be your only possible approach,
It would lead to the washing out the posting quality by making replies overlong to hit the bare minimum.
reading numerous messages of such trivial and drawn out complexity would not only be mind numbing, but deeply frustrating,
and would only bring about, as an above user mentioned, copy pasting pointless garbage to simply hit the word minimum,
which would be a far worse and far more damaging result

(181 words 1,037 characters)​

 

[Noxy]

To prove a point I will be adhering to the bare minimum of a one hundred and eighty one word count for my reply,
which could be stated simply, as @Ashman stated

Signifying my personal distaste with the suggestion, and hopefully showcasing the issues that it would introduce into the average reply chain,
and it's affect on how responses are formulated and function,
Assuming quoted messages do not count towards said word count,
I believe it would cause a reply to descend into cyclical worthless verbosity to extend the word count,
as to make a curt idea longer as to meet an arbitrary word count, that would be your only possible approach,
It would lead to the washing out the posting quality by making replies overlong to hit the bare minimum.
reading numerous messages of such trivial and drawn out complexity would not only be mind numbing, but deeply frustrating,
and would only bring about, as an above user mentioned, copy pasting pointless garbage to simply hit the word minimum,
which would be a far worse and far more damaging result

(181 words 1,037 characters)​

Ok

Spoiler: 241 words

Eat plants, meow, and throw up because i ate plants lick yarn hanging out of own butt, yet plop down in the middle where everybody walks and love. Attack the child run in circles meowwww so poop in the plant pot skid on floor, crash into wall for leave fur on owners clothes lick the curtain just to be annoying. Meow all night having their mate disturbing sleeping humans. Groom yourself 4 hours - checked, have your beauty sleep 18 hours - checked, be fabulous for the rest of the day - checked kitten is playing with dead mouse. Lick the curtain just to be annoying please stop looking at your phone and pet me purr curl up and sleep on the freshly laundered towels. Spit up on light gray carpet instead of adjacent linoleum time to go zooooom give me some of your food give me some of your food give me some of your food meh, i don't want it yet sleep on my human's head so jump launch to pounce upon little yarn mouse, bare fangs at toy run hide in litter box until treats are fed and i heard this rumor where the humans are our owners, pfft, what do they know?! for whenever a door is opened, rush in before the human.

 

[StoicCabal]

There's a reason that the advent of Twitter threw internet discourse down the sinkhole.

Word limits should remain on the dumpster net where Frank can spew out nonsense with his 255 character limit that will immediately be taken out of context and in bad faith by Beth, who was scrolling in-between basket-weaving sessions.

 

[Mew]

look guys, here is the only logical outcome of any minimum word/character limit. everyone will just supplement short ideas with keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes removing all readability keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes encouraging filler and spam keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes turning all thought into longwinded run on sentences keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes and encouraging stupid bullshit long essays no one reads keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes and would completely ruin the website.

 

[Mew]

this is such a weird idea. keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes is this what you want agora to turn into?

 

[MySpace Tom]

this is such a weird idea. keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes keystrokes is this what you want agora to turn into?

 

[MindControlBoxer]

Also how many of these thread were gonna get, it seems like every 3 months or so the cycle repeats as in

>the state of agora road agora has fallen
>WHOA AGORA ITS SO COOL WERE THE BEST


Ive seem this cycle repeat multiple times. And its the same users.

 

[赤い男]

Also how many of these thread were gonna get, it seems like every 3 months or so the cycle repeats as in

>the state of agora road agora has fallen
>WHOA AGORA ITS SO COOL WERE THE BEST


Ive seem this cycle repeat multiple times. And its the same users.

Has been like that since 2022, nothing new under the sun.

 

[manpaint]

Yeah I think the number of posts limit is a way better idea than the minimum word limit count. Wtf was manpaint thinking. I truly do not get how this individual could come up with such an imperfect and botched idea lmao.

 

[handoferis]

Not all of Agora is about longform discussions or debates. If I'm posting in an art thread, I generally don't have too much to say.

I think that the problem with the site is facing now is that there are two different demographics here. You've got guys who like the way the old internet used to be (and who find social media to be alienating), and guys who post here because nobody else wants them. The latter have a way of driving away the former.

Damn, you elucidated my problem in two sentences, impressive.

First give accounts less than a month old a posting limit. I don't know why this isn't already a thing, Agora has enough users to gatekeep 4/5 new users here. If a posting limit scares you away, good.

Then we (being people who care about forum culture) should make more quality threads, being the change we want to see. I really think this is a problem we can solve ourselves. I too have felt like things have changed here since I joined, with many users just shitposting all the time, but I also haven't been making threads to offset them. This is mostly due to being very busy in life right now, but this summer we should all (hopefully) have some more time on our hands, if we put some effort in we can certainly improve the quality of discussion.

Also, I'm sure most older users already do this but make sure to not just browse "What's New". Of course there are going to be shitpost/flame threads there because they get the most engagement. Go through the forum list, bump threads that are actually well made (with a meaningful reply of course).

+1 to this. Some people can't comprehend the idea of lurking to get a feel for a place and immediately start shitting it up instead, I am all for restricting the ability to do this.

 

[Caspar]

The problem is the other way around. You should aspire to say as much as possible in as few words as you can. The forum has too many posts which drag on for centuries. Would you need to block somebody if their posts was clear, concise, and to the point? You grasp whether you agree or disagree instantly. Rather, you have to deal with these stream of consciousness essays which make a couple points over a huge span.

If you're discussing Kant's categorical imperative or Hume's problems with inductive reasoning, fine, write at length, but most of the topics I see posted are not so complex as to require at-length essays.

 

[Some_porcupine]

Yeah I think the number of posts limit is a way better idea than the minimum word limit count. Wtf was manpaint thinking. I truly do not get how this individual could come up with such an imperfect and botched idea lmao.

dont worry, philosophers too, didnt got it all right in the fist place, nor scientists or mathematicians.
that distinguishes science (religious) follower from real scientist - they learn from mistakes, experiment, (and are funded by gov or army but that is for other day, other discussion), until they dont make it right...

 

[Ross_Я]

Also how many of these thread were gonna get, it seems like every 3 months or so the cycle repeats as in

>the state of agora road agora has fallen
>WHOA AGORA ITS SO COOL WERE THE BEST


Ive seem this cycle repeat multiple times. And its the same users.

Maybe there's some kind of a third step in between those two? Maybe someone actually does something?

 

[Captain]

No. Rules like this ruined good forums. The minute you get uptight about what you can or can't post it becomes pointless to engage. It's like those forums that don't want you to post something that was posted 10 years ago and would rather you seek it out and revive the dead thread. It does nothing to encourage conversation. If there was any rule I would support.. it would be to ban the work "toxic". That word is used to describe things people don't like instead of what it means. It deserves the Costanza treatment lol.

The influx of new users can be really annoying as they bounce around the walls trying to figure out what this place is. But if we want them to fit in we have to set the example and not go off the rails with them. Nothing is stopping any OG from saying "lets keep this on topic". Complaining on a separate thread and taking your ball home doesn't fix the problem.

Rules don't fix problems, the culture fixes the problems. We are the guardians of that culture.

Also this is "agora has fallen" post 35,543