How will agoraroad handle an massive influx of new users?

[no_chill]

I really like alternative platforms. Ever since le >reddit went down the shitter, the thought police clamped down on edgy subreddits and >reddit encouraged bots (at least ⅓ of >reddit users are bots) I looked towards other plattforms as alternative.

I subsequently stumbled upon ruqqus back then. (Yeah I know) I was there shortly after the Beginning and witnessed the incompetence and downfall of the site that could have rivaled others.

Now, sooner or later agora will blow up or get some serious influx of new users too, or will get its fair share of publicity. The site is well made, fun and gamey and actually comfy, recipe for success.

Howevee, Im curious, how do you think will agora handle this? It's admins?
Once daily newcomers outnumber todays core userbase (different from the total) the site might look completely different from what it is now. And we will actually have people arguing with you for your opinions or posts. Or worse.

I've seen what it did to ruqqus.

Has anyone had similar concerns?
Also, are any ruqqus refugees in here?

 

[llillilll]

It will be just a fight between our cultures ability to hold its ground vs immigrants that are actively against assimilation/ believe their old website had better culture. terminal users of big social media hate multiculturalism of internet subconsciously soo it is a actual fight. on the other hand agora userbase know better than feeding the troll. We also have a good admin that isn't mentally ill as far as we know soo thats a big plus.

 

[Shantotto]

I've been thinking about this too. Alternative platforms that aren't entirely overrun by schizo posts have this really serene personal/human feel to them reminiscent of the older web.
But, honestly I think that means they won't ever get as big as sites like reddit.
Sites like Agora aren't nearly as polarizing or "engaging" (infinite scroll dopamine) enough for the average person nowadays. Not to mention, being solely website, not an app, is somehow enough of a barrier of entry to deter most people.

Other than with twitch, I don't have too much experience with seeing non-mainstream websites blow up. Twitch in particular seems to have a cultural divide as I've mentioned in previous posts, between the old ("poggers") and new (W/L) community, but the old community adopts much of the cultural jargon/emotes/phrases of old twitch, but none of the relaxed gamer attitudes, edginess, or disregard for political correctness as old twitch, so I honestly don't even know if it is the same people from back then or if the platform just drove out the older userbase (or many of us grew up and needed to focus on work). With a website like this, I can only imagine an influx of users would come from drama with some "content creator" or an online movement. Honestly idk.

I'm sure the identity of this website will change as the userbase changes, regardless of seeing an influx of users. But if there is a major influx of users no doubt the atmosphere won't be the same.

 

[Outer Heaven]

I really like alternative platforms. Ever since le >reddit went down the shitter, the thought police clamped down on edgy subreddits and >reddit encouraged bots (at least ⅓ of >reddit users are bots) I looked towards other plattforms as alternative.

I subsequently stumbled upon ruqqus back then. (Yeah I know) I was there shortly after the Beginning and witnessed the incompetence and downfall of the site that could have rivaled others.

Now, sooner or later agora will blow up or get some serious influx of new users too, or will get its fair share of publicity. The site is well made, fun and gamey and actually comfy, recipe for success.

Howevee, Im curious, how do you think will agora handle this? It's admins?
Once daily newcomers outnumber todays core userbase (different from the total) the site might look completely different from what it is now. And we will actually have people arguing with you for your opinions or posts. Or worse.

I've seen what it did to ruqqus.

Has anyone had similar concerns?
Also, are any ruqqus refugees in here?

It depends on the size of the influx. Currently it already happens in small waves. Whenever a group discovers Agora from a YT video or something they usually stay for a month at most then leave. Some of them leave because they got called retarded or dont like what current users are saying, others leave because the format of the site isn't flashy enough to hold their attention, others lurk and never post. If a large influx of people come in all having the same opinions, the first little while would suck but most of them would leave. The only problem would be that the ones who stay are likely to be large enough in numbers to sway the site's culture. At this point many older users might leave because Agora changed, leaving the new guys with an even more disproportionate presence. Nothing can be done about this without concerted user or admin effort to get things back the the way they were.

 

[no_chill]

Not to mention, being solely website, not an app, is somehow enough of a barrier of entry to deter most people.

Oh yeah almost forgot about this. Though I use agora 80% at the time on phone and it does work good.

 

[calico_jack]

It will handle like every other niche thing that gets popular quick, sperging about joindates, culture shifts, and if we're really (un)lucky a youtube video retrospective

 

[no_chill]

It will handle like every other niche thing that gets popular quick, sperging about joindates, culture shifts, and if we're really (un)lucky a youtube video retrospective

I'm calling shotgun on the youtube video retrospective hehe

 

[RealTomCruise]

It depends on the size of the influx. Currently it already happens in small waves. Whenever a group discovers Agora from a YT video or something they usually stay for a month at most then leave. Some of them leave because they got called retarded or dont like what current users are saying, others leave because the format of the site isn't flashy enough to hold their attention, others lurk and never post. If a large influx of people come in all having the same opinions, the first little while would suck but most of them would leave. The only problem would be that the ones who stay are likely to be large enough in numbers to sway the site's culture. At this point many older users might leave because Agora changed, leaving the new guys with an even more disproportionate presence. Nothing can be done about this without concerted user or admin effort to get things back the the way they were.

Lmao, I saw a post where redditors were freaking out when they stumbled across the containment chat, acting like they stumbled across a secret backdoor of Agora. I guess they really didn't understand the concept and purpose of it.

 

[no_chill]

Lmao, I saw a post where redditors were freaking out when they stumbled across the containment chat

Huh, what if certain forums are locked for guest users too? If thats already the case than, nice

 

[Deleted member 3990]

Also, are any ruqqus refugees in here?

Former Ruqqus user reporting in, although I became inactive after Voat and >reddit n-slurs began flowing in. Ruqqus didn't fall because of newfags. Its downfall can be attributed to a troll that I like to call "carpathianfaggot," actual username carpathianflorist or carp. Essentially, he made the friendless admins think that he was their friend, and slowly influenced them to turn the website into a conservative mini->reddit, which caused a massive exodus of the entire userbase and for the site to shut down a few weeks later.

Had Ruqqus been given room to grow without admin intervention, the userbase could have slowly turned more moderate, and actual discussion would begin flowering in that case. Just look at how Gab turned out to be.

 

[no_chill]

Former Ruqqus user reporting in, although I became inactive after Voat and >reddit n-slurs began flowing in. Ruqqus didn't fall because of newfags. Its downfall can be attributed to a troll that I like to call "carpathianfaggot," actual username carpathianflorist or carp. Essentially, he made the friendless admins think that he was their friend, and slowly influenced them to turn the website into a conservative mini->reddit, which caused a massive exodus of the entire userbase and for the site to shut down a few weeks later.

Had Ruqqus been given room to grow without admin intervention, the userbase could have slowly turned more moderate, and actual discussion would begin flowering in that case. Just look at how Gab turned out to be.

Hmm. Actually I dont think the sole reason for ruqqus downfall lies within carp. As I was also close with the admins and regularly talked with them. It surely was one reason but the main reason was that they became disgusted with the site and how toxic many users have become. I recall my guild being flooded with Actual gore posts and shit. Not to mention personal threats all the time which are just fucking tiresome. They pulled the plug as it was unsalvageable...

 

[h00]

Gatekeeping
In times of >reddit/yt based newbie invasion, just straight up ban annoying/inflammatory posters.
It's really the only effective way to preserve the site and keep it from ever turning into a >>reddit

Or, as a better solution, have a cap on monthly new users. During normal activity the cap will never pop, but when some big YT-er decides to kill a niche for views the flood can be stopped after the cap gets triggered. New people coming on will see they can't register, and 90% of the time get bored and never come back.
Perhaps a system can be tuned to have separate monthly, weekly, and even daily caps.

Anyways, for the conservation of a niche communities culture gatekeeping is really the only way, how it's implemented is up to discussion.

 

[manpaint]

This is an interesting question. As someone who do a bit of sucessful gatekeeping, I might have a potential solution.

Assuming the influx of new users would caused by a catalyst (i.e a Youtube video), then perphaps a simple registration delay could do the trick.

If my memory do not fails me, I believe that your account currently need to be approved by an admin before using the site.

As we all know, people have little attention span nowadays. We can weaponize this.

I hereby propose the following: Upon creating an account, the user would be notified that the activation link would be sent in 7 days (number could be adjusted further).

Assuming someone really wants to be there they will willing to wait. Otherwise the memory of the Agora Road will wither away as they go on with their life. This means it would supress those who would be merely following the hype.

As they say, if there is a will there is a way. If someone really resonate with the essence of the Yesterweb, then a short wait will be a small price to pay - but will be an hinderance for those seeking the cool new place.

 

[consonant]

I think Agora is pretty fine because like it's already been said this site probably doesn't do much for people who are used to modern sites, the layout alone is probably jarring. Also new users don't have to be that bad as long as the people already here make it so that they need to appeal to us and it's not us trying to appeal to them. Which I guess is gatekeeping?? I don't even know what people actually define it as.

It's also important that we don't fall for shitty traps like someone assuming you're x because you posted 1 thing or become a place where you bitch about some group of people.

 

[bnuungus]

Or, as a better solution, have a cap on monthly new users. During normal activity the cap will never pop, but when some big YT-er decides to kill a niche for views the flood can be stopped after the cap gets triggered. New people coming on will see they can't register, and 90% of the time get bored and never come back.

I disagree with this strategy bc it prevents people from joining based on randomness rather than whether or not they actually want to fit in with the community. @manpaint's solution would probably work best because if someone is truly captivated with the site they'll lurk for that one week waiting period but the people only interested in Dead Internet Theory will just get bored.


Personally I don't think agora is in any danger of getting overrun anytime soon. There are three types of people who make accounts on this site and it's apparent from the Introduce Yourself thread. There are the DIT people who make the one post on introduce yourself and then never post again, the DIT people who instantly fall in love with the site and stick around (I fell into this category), and the people who find this site bc of vaporwave.

Group 1 is generally just interested in DIT and once they realize that's not really what the site is fully about they just get bored. This is the group that we would be gatekeeping against and given their posting tendencies we don't need to worry about them anytime soon, but if they did become a problem, I think manpaints solution would work pretty well.

Group 2 I would argue is where most of the current active userbase falls into. Most of the posts on this site right now are made by people who joined this year and most of the people that joined this year joined bc of DIT. The key difference between groups 1 and 2 is that group 2 was led here by DIT, but they were truly drawn in by what this site actually has to offer. Group 2 was more interested in a site where real discussion could occur. I know this is what drew me in and I would hazard to guess it's the reason why a lot of others were drawn in as well.

Group 3 actually seems to be searching for older agora. They were drawn here because of what the site was originally made for but don't post too often bc the site isn't exactly what they were led to believe. I wasn't around back then but occasionally I'll stumble across a thread from like 2018 and the site just feels way different. Group 3 is easily the smallest group of newcomers but I'm heartened every time I see one. I truly believe when the day comes that no one on this site is interested in vaporwave anymore is the day that agora falls. Once a website completely loses it's original vision is when things turn to shit. So for that, I thank and welcome all of Group 3 for being the backbone and foundations of this site because without you, this site will fall.

 

[manpaint]

I think people who find this site organically (i.e not being shown it in a YT video) are more likely to stay. I personally found this site through a button on some random Yesterweb website. I had never heard of the Dead Internet Theory before.

Granted it is possible that someone who find out about this site through a YT video to genuinely want to stay there. I think a lot of people dislike the modern web but are too afraid to voice their opinion because of the "things must move foward" mindset.

Truth to be told, I thought I was a weirdo for liking old stuff. It's only when I heard someone describe VR chat as "feeling like the old web" that I started to theorize that there was a community like this somewhere.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I don't think users should be punished for joining in a specific timeframe. I don't think locking up registration for a period of time would be a good solution as it could put off those who want to genuinely join our community rather than being here for the hype.

 

[Deleted member 2362]

The massive influx of new users already happened a while ago. This used to be a vaporwave site y'know

 

[manpaint]

The massive influx of new users already happened a while ago. This used to be a vaporwave site y'know

I wasn't there to witness it (joined around 1 month ago), but I theorize it is simply because there is few forums like this where general stuff can be discussed freely.

While they are alternatives, they are not as active as the Road, thus people are drawn to post there. It dosen't help that most Buletin Board Forums are focused on one topic.

 

[no_chill]

The massive influx of new users already happened a while ago. This used to be a vaporwave site y'know

Because people got bored of vaporwave unironically. I know this site for a long time lol. The vaporwave subs are also seeing less and less engagement. Theres simply no reason for me to post vaporwave content either anymore. No one cares

 

[gizzardwizzard]

others lurk and never post.

got caught