Agora Road Travelogue (December)

[Some_porcupine]

Life goes on!
As previously, here goes the old-new challenge!
You know the rules!
If dont, look up (November) or Other(s) months!
Happy blogging, happy merry xmas and keep your sanity!

[prev: https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.php?threads/agora-road-travelogue-november.6189/]

theme could be... jk!
this is job for @Eden
unless... what about , "zoomer identity crisis" and "the time i thought i was evil ("my first delussion")"
joking unless not! yo can never know!

dont listen to me, you know me, take care - who i am, i am the least one to... hm even tho responsibilit could be freedom-feeling...
maybe you CAN write about THAT ^!

(if shit - will edit)

 

[Some_porcupine]

1 / 53 , 1/12 / 23

" social studies in STEM?" (Opinion)

When did "education for the sake of it"

(Deluze and Frankfurt School; https://canadianpatriot.org/2022/11...d-the-rise-of-the-predictive-modelling-mafia/)

became popular, a "thing to do"?! it pisses me off! Also - that "thing" with "social impact!" (fakers...) , since when began "antisocial egoistic autists" (generalizing every name in the book) being a problem?! I remember if then I don't lie, how skills being honed first before anything ( no matter the f*ck of s*** "the provider" of them was) - since when is this "different"!? (Teamwork? collab? sot skills? social life? no-need to fight with others (rat-race mentality)? Master over Self - to be go-getter? No longer Pavlovian conditioning, sugar&whip??)

Is this some thing with Facebook , or and other Big Media, i.e. in the name - e.g. too, PayPal Mafia "crooks"? Genial-but-psycho - therefore, mid-2010s ( or does it started to cook in the mid-90s; earlier?) started to play by the different book - you don't want to have to be genius-only , and you have to be decent person, " not some" geek-NEET-no-soft-skills-know-it-all-snob!!?

I am actually mad as fuck nobody told us; this was dirty play! Don't Go near me...

NEXT: AFRAID TO LIVE - written, ˘ planned
NEXT: WE DONT NEED WORKERS, WE NEED FAMILY(TM)
NEXT: YT-BLACKPILL - EXTRA-SJW "NOTEECER" PIPELINE

 

[Some_porcupine]

#2 "Afraid to live"...

everyone knows that, cca 2009, life begins to be s***. few (4-year (net)) eras , we can say, flipped on its head - victims fight back and if they didn't told you so you'd be convinced that those would they fight against should yell louder, as they, it seems, get hurt more. /smug

But, as it is past 2009, or; 2016, no one can be sure on s***. Also, reminds me of "whig history"?

(* basically you try to compare eras gone to the modern times, but without any context*)

• *Ah god, how I miss mid-2000s...* It surely feels like the more the world, worlds of our differences collide, the more we lost - *simply, the magic of unknown is gone* - everything everywhere get the same, and the bigger the merger , the worse ( again) damage...
• *More we know, more precise and scientific will we get - the more there is to cry for childhood of awe. love was love, tech was precious, friends were everything, life was fun...*
• is it just childhood Nostalgia , or we just blackpill and circlejerk each other in misery - how's the week are all lost nowadays, " back to sun"; waiting for the hero?
• (We) Wanted to be "so adult"...

I was so snob that I ever pushed everyone and everything away just to... Be "edgy"... Aquarius idiot! Afraid to be like every shit kid, I was a snob and posh... If someone had save me back then, from myself! Now I miss "(G)olden Days" I almost didn't have.

"So important" (snobbish), so afraid to be dumb, make mistakes, the bond, (to) "saaame"...

to Live!

<both posts being part of Agora Travelogue>

 

[agoratoad]

if anyone here's wants to write a 2-for-1 blog post, i'm hosting a blogging community event on my own forum and giving away $50 to a random winner

happy birthday basement community (we're giving away money)!!!! | basement community

> update: we have announced a winner! congrats to the-syreth-clan and thanks everyone who gave this thread and the blog posts a read! #### basement community is one-year old baby lets get it!!!!11  i'm actually not quite...

basementcommunity.com

 

[Some_porcupine]

WE DONT NEED WORKERS, WE NEED FAMILY(TM): "Jobs vs. "what is this all even for!" " (doomerism, technocracy, titles, "skills"...)

Sign of toxic work culture - when boss want more than the job makes off as bare minimum.
You might have noticed the trend where people warn each other to do bare minimum the job ask for.
It is, really, nothing difficult, that kind of thing (only with twist) was already described by Good soldier Svejk.
Just tiny addition of blatant over-literal behavior to all that. Without, it is just "what for!"-ism - alpha and omega of doomerism...
People, and younger genz mainly, got it all over themselves - "if you cant win, why to ever try!", sarcastic façade of "i hate Antichrist;" "1769 - the "Industrial Revolution" incident (Trollge) by mOWEN the lawn", and many copy-cats of basically "World is fucked (and Boomers are to blame)".
Ah yes, blame... Waiting for hero... Story old as time itself...
It feels very disheartening, but what would YOU do in their place? Game seems to be rigged from the start. And stories of "Just grow a pair", "Pain will teach you", and other trauma excuses dont help. The most repeated one is "I just entered building or just frolicked thru street, guy say "dont want job?", shook his hand, looked in the eyes, - and get the job". You want to change it all, you want to blame others - but you are "so over" - what to ever fight for. World is changed, mamon rule them all, there is just lies and you either "die a hero, or live long enough to became villain", basically...
Add subscription hell to all that, no direction for life, no goal ("everything is subjective and futile anyways")... but that really gets us to the next post...
- similar themes: Some_porcupine:

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/18bnscv/have_we_transitioned_to_a_vibesbased_economy/
,

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/decadeology/comments/18blful/people_are_already_romanticizing_the_2010s/



NEXT: YT-BLACKPILL - EXTRA-SJW "NOTEECER" PIPELINE

 

[Eden]

if anyone here's wants to write a 2-for-1 blog post, i'm hosting a blogging community event on my own forum and giving away $50 to a random winner

happy birthday basement community (we're giving away money)!!!! | basement community

> update: we have announced a winner! congrats to the-syreth-clan and thanks everyone who gave this thread and the blog posts a read! #### basement community is one-year old baby lets get it!!!!11  i'm actually not quite...

basementcommunity.com

That's E-X-A-C-T-L-Y what I'm fugging doing. Read it and glee, homies:
Internet Usage

Keep your money dough, my fren. I do this for FUN.

Dam, da song don't match da message, but I'ma use it anyways.

 

[macrobyte]

I didn't submit this when I first wrote it bc I didn't know if I would be able to make 2 this month, but I now know I will. So here's one about headphones n stuff The Gramophone was a mistake

 

[Eden]

I'm curious to ask how people feel about the Travelogue being a monthly thread vs it all being on a single thread. Additionally, I'm curious about how people feel about the 2 post minimum?

Me, personally, I believe the Travelogue should be on a single thread. If many of you agree, then maybe that is something that should be considered going into the new 2024 year, @Voicedrew

As for the quota, I do like the 2 post minimum. I don't like how it can encourage low-effort posts, but I like how it pushes me personally to write more despite having a sort-of bar for quality. If you don't meet the quota for a month, I say you don't get included in a Travelogue until you have 2 new posts. I don't believe going into "post debt" where if you didn't meet the quota one month you must catch-up, is a good idea. Then I feel it is tilting the scales too much in the low-effort post direction.

Just wanted to share these thoughts and hear others perspectives. This is not my project though.

@RisingThumb @andreixyz @shrapnelnet @HammerKoopa @whiteVHS @Jade

 

[HammerKoopa]

I'm curious to ask how people feel about the Travelogue being a monthly thread vs it all being on a single thread. Additionally, I'm curious about how people feel about the 2 post minimum?

Me, personally, I believe the Travelogue should be on a single thread. If many of you agree, then maybe that is something that should be considered going into the new 2024 year, @Voicedrew

As for the quota, I do like the 2 post minimum. I don't like how it can encourage low-effort posts, but I like how it pushes me personally to write more despite having a sort-of bar for quality. If you don't meet the quota for a month, I say you don't get included in a Travelogue until you have 2 new posts. I don't believe going into "post debt" where if you didn't meet the quota one month you must catch-up, is a good idea. Then I feel it is tilting the scales too much in the low-effort post direction.

Just wanted to share these thoughts and hear others perspectives. This is not my project though.

@RisingThumb @andreixyz @shrapnelnet @HammerKoopa @whiteVHS @Jade

I like the aspect of it being a monthly thread, its a nice refreshment to see when this starts all over again

2 post minimum is a bit of a clutch specially if you are not used to writing or cant think of something and have to rush it, made it in by the skin of me ass back in September. I think it serves as a good ceiling to reach, but it can back fire when people rush two posts to get in. I propose an experimentation month where we test the waters with 1 post and see if there is a quality improvement?

post debt is a bad idea, hard agree

 

[RisingThumb]

As for the quota, I do like the 2 post minimum. I don't like how it can encourage low-effort posts, but I like how it pushes me personally to write more despite having a sort-of bar for quality. If you don't meet the quota for a month, I say you don't get included in a Travelogue until you have 2 new posts. I don't believe going into "post debt" where if you didn't meet the quota one month you must catch-up, is a good idea. Then I feel it is tilting the scales too much in the low-effort post direction.

I prefer each month being its own thread. I also prefer the 2 posts minimum. What counts as quality is up to each individual person, but 2 posts minimum means a fortnight to produce a single blog of whatever quality you want on whatever topic you want- and it also drives home a point that you need to finish some things(plural) to be included.

I've once heard of a game development college course, where each week, no matter the quality all the students in the class had to produce a new game. Those that didn't would immediately fail the course and get a 0(excusing extreme circumstances). This similar requirement to actually do something is important here. Additionally it demands a capability to draw a line and call something finished. Quality, Quantity and Finishing are 3 elements of the same meta puzzle around creating.

The blog that's great in the head stays silent, forever long dead.

Most people are naturally averse to this responsibility to finish, and the self-inflicted responsibility to produce quality, and want a scapegoat instead of committing to the very goal that this thread circles around. So, I am in favour of the 2 post a month ruling AND the post-debt as it requires commitment and taking on responsibility. A blog is that commitment, and responsibility, so if you already are responsible and committed it falls out of the hat easily, and if you're not, it's an opportunity to learn.

I'll also poke at this idea of quality a bit. The word blog stems from the words web log(do you spot it?). A web log is like a ship log, or a diary logging a person's life, musings, notes and ideas. Sometimes longer form, sometimes shorter form, sometimes high quality, sometimes incomprehensible and comparable to Joyce's Finnigan's Wake. The recent emergence of the word "microblog" should make clear that length isn't that important here either, and hell... shorter is usually simpler, better and more articulately expressed.

 

[Eden]

I prefer each month being its own thread. I also prefer the 2 posts minimum. What counts as quality is up to each individual person, but 2 posts minimum means a fortnight to produce a single blog of whatever quality you want on whatever topic you want- and it also drives home a point that you need to finish some things(plural) to be included.

I've once heard of a game development college course, where each week, no matter the quality all the students in the class had to produce a new game. Those that didn't would immediately fail the course and get a 0(excusing extreme circumstances). This similar requirement to actually do something is important here. Additionally it demands a capability to draw a line and call something finished. Quality, Quantity and Finishing are 3 elements of the same meta puzzle around creating.

The blog that's great in the head stays silent, forever long dead.

Most people are naturally averse to this responsibility to finish, and the self-inflicted responsibility to produce quality, and want a scapegoat instead of committing to the very goal that this thread circles around. So, I am in favour of the 2 post a month ruling AND the post-debt as it requires commitment and taking on responsibility. A blog is that commitment, and responsibility, so if you already are responsible and committed it falls out of the hat easily, and if you're not, it's an opportunity to learn.

I'll also poke at this idea of quality a bit. The word blog stems from the words web log(do you spot it?). A web log is like a ship log, or a diary logging a person's life, musings, notes and ideas. Sometimes longer form, sometimes shorter form, sometimes high quality, sometimes incomprehensible and comparable to Joyce's Finnigan's Wake. The recent emergence of the word "microblog" should make clear that length isn't that important here either, and hell... shorter is usually simpler, better and more articulately expressed.

I really like this response. The value on responsibility and discipline, the strategies for meeting quota and past debt.

I don't like the "post debt" though. My argument why:

It IS easy to fall out of the hat. In fact, so common would you not say we are more likely to see failures, than successes? For that very reason a welcoming atmosphere could prove helpful in the adoption and continued participation of the travelogue, an atmosphere promoting inclusiveness rather exclusiveness. One striving towards gentle welcoming and demonstration of fun / lightheartedness / love for creation. Is the travelogue a S-E-R-I-O-U-S matter? Maybe; to me it is, a little. But that could put some people off, and a debt perhaps more-so. The snowballs of failure breeding failure, and success breeding success. That a traveler was unable to meet the quota one month, for any number of countless reasons, and that they are now twice as worse off vs. a traveler who has erred one month, but the new one brings a new, equal shot at redemption. I push for a little more flexibility rather than rigidness on this front.

If we keep each month being its own thread, I have some suggestions. In the first post, the thread creator should:
- @ travelers that have participated before. Simply as a courtesy reminder / pointer to the new thread.
- Link to prior (month) threads.
- Include some canned explanation of the project.

Additionally, another idea to posit, is the denial of newcomers unless they signed up before / at the start of the month. For the sake of encouraging more participation from more people. It could be a number of factors, but I believe there is a decline in participation, no?

As for the topic of quality. I cannot agree more that it lies on the individual. But I do frequently think about quality and its connection to time. I do not insinuate that quality demands time, or that the more time, the higher the "quality". Your video game dev class story is akin to the parable of the "pottery" class. Within which there is much truth. A strategy valuable for growth, but sometimes we're not trying to get better / grow, but accomplish something. Depending on what, time could be required. Without the post debt we give the participator a month for each post, rather than a fortnight. You could argue that it could've been done in a fortnight, but is it that hard to imagine that no, it couldn't have?

We don't just want people making posts, we want to read them, too, no? Again, on that aspect of time, it is so valuable. For someone to read our writing, to take the time out of everything they have going on and spend a little time with our thoughts. Do we not want to show a sort-of reverence for that? That our reader means more to us, than a "tweet"?

 

[RisingThumb]

It IS easy to fall out of the hat. In fact, so common would you not say we are more likely to see failures, than successes? For that very reason a welcoming atmosphere could prove helpful in the adoption and continued participation of the travelogue, an atmosphere promoting inclusiveness rather exclusiveness. One striving towards gentle welcoming and demonstration of fun / lightheartedness / love for creation. Is the travelogue a S-E-R-I-O-U-S matter? Maybe; to me it is, a little. But that could put some people off, and a debt perhaps more-so. The snowballs of failure breeding failure, and success breeding success. That a traveler was unable to meet the quota one month, for any number of countless reasons, and that they are now twice as worse off vs. a traveler who has erred one month, but the new one brings a new, equal shot at redemption. I push for a little more flexibility rather than rigidness on this front.

I agree that the travelogue isn't a serious matter. Now a person's own blogs are their own work and it's up to them whether it's serious or lighthearted- and how it integrates with the travelogue can be serious or lighthearted. I don't think making it a hard rule is important, but if it encourages people to write more, I think it should be encouraged as a soft and flexible rule... or suggestion.

If we keep each month being its own thread, I have some suggestions. In the first post, the thread creator should:
- @ travelers that have participated before. Simply as a courtesy reminder / pointer to the new thread.
- Link to prior (month) threads.
- Include some canned explanation of the project.

Agreed. Additionally linking back to the previous thread in the OP, and linking forward to this thread in the old thread. Instead of @'ing all people who participated before, just @ all those who participated in that thread.

Additionally, another idea to posit, is the denial of newcomers unless they signed up before / at the start of the month. For the sake of encouraging more participation from more people. It could be a number of factors, but I believe there is a decline in participation, no?

idk why this rule exists. To prevent bombarding this thread with submissions? It's not worth having rules like this until you encounter an issue in reality that can only be solved with a rule like this. Pre-empting issues that exist in theory or in the mind isn't productive(unless you have a very strong case that those issues will come up)

As for the topic of quality. I cannot agree more that it lies on the individual. But I do frequently think about quality and its connection to time. I do not insinuate that quality demands time, or that the more time, the higher the "quality". Your video game dev class story is akin to the parable of the "pottery" class. Within which there is much truth. A strategy valuable for growth, but sometimes we're not trying to get better / grow, but accomplish something. Depending on what, time could be required. Without the post debt we give the participator a month for each post, rather than a fortnight. You could argue that it could've been done in a fortnight, but is it that hard to imagine that no, it couldn't have?

That parable of the pottery class is brilliant. I've always known that intuitively, but I didn't know how to express it well or have some sufficient proof of it! Thanks! As for the point about timescales, yes that's true. If you're abroad for a month(as I was in October) it's almost impractical to do it in a fortnight. Personally, I think it just comes down to offering the flexibility.

We don't just want people making posts, we want to read them, too, no? Again, on that aspect of time, it is so valuable. For someone to read our writing, to take the time out of everything they have going on and spend a little time with our thoughts. Do we not want to show a sort-of reverence for that? That our reader means more to us, than a "tweet"?

This underlies a few questions. Is it worth writing if nobody reads it? Is it worth writing for a perceived audience that might not exist? How should writers interact with readers- or readers with writers? In my opinion, I think this is mostly a blog-specific point, but if we want to bake this in as travelogue writers reading previous writers, what we could have is a system of "for every new blog post written(even if multiple posted)" you go back and read at least one blog post from the previous person in the thread(or for the first post of a new thread, the previous thread).

Overall, I'm ok with flexibility and being welcoming and light-hearted about it, but the caution I have here, and why I'll try not to use any of that flexibility, is that the more allowance you give people, the more they typically take and excuse themselves on. It's corrosive to discipline if all around you are models breaking that discipline.

 

[andreixyz]

2 posts pretty restrictive, so instead of 2 per month, i'd say something like a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 24 per year. Prioritize quality rather than quantity. You can see that 24 posts from 20 users is almost 500 articles. Even if it's quality, it falls a lot in to "quantity" territory and some (most?) content might not get the desired exposure.

I'm looking at myself. Some months I post a lot of long and well-prepared articles, some others I don't post at all, or just some galleries. Content and our time varies and shouldn't be a constraint.

On a separate note:

Music Roundup > Great Romanian Albums - Posted on December 1st

World of Warcraft > Part Six: Thanks for the Carry! - Posted on December 07, the sixth installment telling my adventures in WoW.

 

[macrobyte]

Ballistic Lang. I made an esolang.

2 posts pretty restrictive, so instead of 2 per month, i'd say something like a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 24 per year. Prioritize quality rather than quantity. [ABRIDGED] I'm looking at myself. Some months I post a lot of long and well-prepared articles, some others I don't post at all, or just some galleries. Content and our time varies and shouldn't be a constraint.

I agree a lot with this. Some months I can pound out a bunch of stuff (for fun of course), and it's all high quality. Other times I can barely get anything out because I'm so busy. It all varies, and I feel like it'd be better with more of a longform, more in depth approach than 2 a month. I personally think the best stuff written (which sadly I don't think I've made one yet, but I'm hoping to), is the stuff that takes a while to read, and really sticks with the reader.

 

[andreixyz]

Lottery Is A Scam: Lotto Simulator Written in PHP - Published December 15th, this is one of the best articles I recently published.

 

[Eden]

Just wanted to round-up this month's reasons to be blogging:

#1 This Travelogue; duh.
You can write about anything you'd like, and you're going for 2 separate posts.

#2 basement community's birthday bonanza!
Write 1 post around the theme "Internet Usage" and get a chance at $50 clams, yo! @agoratoad (basically) paying you to write. You would have to join basement community and make a post there to enter, but it's a great forum and I cannot vouch for it enough. This would also count as one of your Travelogue posts!

#3 IndieWeb Carnival
Write 1 post around the theme of "Holiday & December Traditions". Here's a chance to get involved in the IndieWeb which is a pretty cool crew imo. This would also count as one of your Travelogue posts!

#4 32BITMAS
The 32-Bit Cafe ( @xandra ) has become inspired (in-part) by IndieWeb Carnival and is running its own. Its official theme is "Reflect on 2023 and/or what's to come" But this event is NOT exclusively blog related and I encourage you to look through its numerous avenues for participation as I think quite of few of them would qualify for a Travelogue post!

Bit-by-bit, I think we're going to have greater variety of reasons / opportunities for you to write, while also connecting with others.

Hope all you travelers are having a good holiday season

 

[Eden]

Choosing between ideas for blog posts by Tracy Durnell (2023-12-18)​

 

[Some_porcupine]

NEXT: YT-BLACKPILL - EXTRA-SJW "NOTEECER" PIPELINES (opinion | agora road travelogue | changed theme slightly)

Let's Gamble YT Algo! (prev. cookies, pipelines and ego-traps of [/gen] echo-chambers)

Inu2u - involuntary user to user Do you use YouTube, are you signed in, do you click agora videos that were shared? Then you might have noticed that (hopes it is not only me) within few days, the videos you watched, - maybe you posted them, too, on agora, or even not - have been reposted by...

forum.agoraroad.com

Unordered Society- A culture that is no longer in the hands of the creatives

Recently I've been thinking more about the fact that most people really aren't that good at choosing what's good for them, or even what makes them happy, and that this is one of the main reasons for the drop in discourse, ie people are able to choose what is discussed and how it is discussed...

forum.agoraroad.com

Society is Artificial Due to Feedback Loops Created by Unwitting Marketers

:monkaOMEGA: Back From /x/, Anon having an existential crisis about the artificial state of society :monkaOMEGA: Okay so back in the day, some computer nerds made machines that would take in a bunch of outside data, process it, and try to predict the future. To fund it, they predominantly sold...

forum.agoraroad.com

The Normalization of SJWs and its Effects on Western Culture

I made a status post about this about half an hour ago and it's since exploded, so I figure it might be something to just bring to the boards. In the mid-2010s it was commonplace for people to dogpile on "SJWs." I don't use the word SJW to be disparaging; more as a way to conveniently refer to...

forum.agoraroad.com

20/56 (57), 23/12/23

"Yes you No" ideologies exceptionalism, merging many groupthinks "for better" , accounted-for(,) stances, than to rather be left alone - unwilling, "z núdze cnosť", pragmatism:
snarkly speaking, the "I seen... (Prepare to die.)" speech (forgot that one i seen on twitter), but i got from it was - the contrdictions one can cope with, to (id repeat myself) not be "left alone" in the identity politics "representation" you see (wrong types one), - you see, the things (among others) Disney and R.T.D (Doctor Who writer) are doing. And too, making history "whig";
"History" that was in the past unheard of, that could never have had happened, just couldnt; the fantasy of , and that too, - white (majority) people who "dont get" the struggles , who werent there...
Taking history outside its own making, context, off time...

 

[macrobyte]

Why the Indie Web should stay small
I still got 7 hours (I wrote this a while ago, posted it yesterday). Basically just saying that we shouldn't try to take over the social media web, it's a lost cause. Keep the best kept secret of the internet a secret.

 

[Eden]

Why the Indie Web should stay small
I still got 7 hours (I wrote this a while ago, posted it yesterday). Basically just saying that we shouldn't try to take over the social media web, it's a lost cause. Keep the best kept secret of the internet a secret.

Based af. I appreciate not being the only one, thanks homie!
My second submission for this month:

Gift Giving​

I wrote it specifically for this month's IndieWeb Carnival: "Holiday & December Traditions" as mentioned above.
Deadline really helped with pushing this one out, for better or worse I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯