What is Agora Road's Culture?

[NW_Cryptid]

I've been a lurker here for some time, mostly to sit idly in the cafe listening to music and rarely ever actually using the site. However I recently found myself wanting to try interacting more as I find it a useful way to socialize considering I will admit that I have rather crippling social anxiety. A large part of that comes from the idea that I may not understand or know the culture of any individual forum or site that I may decide to use.

That being said I come to you all with a question, what would you say the culture of Agora Road is? Or rather, what is an aspect of it you believe a new user should best understand?

 

[Mamisu]

The culture is that it's cool and fun and a good time.

 

[NW_Cryptid]

So far I have gotten a sort of net-zero knowledge response to this, and I'm going to just say that's okay as it's telling of the culture in it's own way. For that I sincerely thank you for the information.

 

[Moon-Watcher777]

Someone tell pirate the internet AI is sneaking in.

But seriously. I would imagine a lot of us migrate from schitzo Chinese cartoon image boards. If you hate the antichrist, than you'll fit right in.

 

[Deleted member 2362]

what would you say the culture of Agora Road is?

I was gonna type le funny sarcastic reply for laughs but let's drop it. Here wot I think: one of the most singular attributes of this forum is that the culture changes rapidly and abruptly every few months. Why? for some reason the board struggles with user retention, maybe in part because of said culture change waves happening so often, making users believe that the place they liked so much at beginning isn't the same anymore. This is in part created because of IlluminatiPirate's advertising tactics, where he will try advertising the site in different places at different times. Although the current size of the userbase can sustain a nice community, it wasn't like that a while ago, and the board needed some numbers which explains the advertising situation leading to new waves of users. If the board is shilled on /x/, the place will get an inundation of /x/ adjacent themes for a while. So although this board started as a vaporwave/nostalgia forum, the themes are never set in stone and after a while it feels like the board is about nothing and everything at the same time, with users from very different backgrounds chiming in.

Does this mean there's no culture, no recurring themes? well, not exactly, some stuff gets constant rotation despite the changing wave of users, like the nostalgia threads, tech discussion from a critical viewpoint and arguments about society. Mostly it's all about being critical of what's happening and appreciating the best from the past, with a big focus on relative free speech (Nagolbud and Mtts will disagree here, but that's why I said relative) and different political views. Nonetheless it all changes rapidly, old threads get necro'd by a new crop of users offering a completely different perspective from the perceived reigning views of the time when the threads themselves were created. So yeah, adaptation is what needed in this place. You'll find that the guys that joined around the same time as you did will be the ones you feel most attachment to, although there are always guys you don't stand at first but learn to appreciate later, and viceversa. This forum is like riding a wild bull, you either learn to enjoy the ride or you eventually get off.

 

[Moon-Watcher777]

I was gonna type le funny sarcastic reply for laughs but let's drop it. Here wot I think: one of the most singular attributes of this forum is that the culture changes rapidly and abruptly every few months. Why? for some reason the board struggles with user retention, maybe in part because of said culture change waves happening so often, making users believe that the place they liked so much at beginning isn't the same anymore. This is in part created because of IlluminatiPirate's advertising tactics, where he will try advertising the site in different places at different times. Although the current size of the userbase can sustain a nice community, it wasn't like that a while ago, and the board needed some numbers which explains the advertising situation leading to new waves of users. If the board is shilled on /x/, the place will get an inundation of /x/ adjacent themes for a while. So although this board started as a vaporwave/nostalgia forum, the themes are never set in stone and after a while it feels like the board is about nothing and everything at the same time, with users from very different backgrounds chiming in.

Does this mean there's no culture, no recurring themes? well, not exactly, some stuff gets constant rotation despite the changing wave of users, like the nostalgia threads, tech discussion from a critical viewpoint and arguments about society. Mostly it's all about being critical of what's happening and appreciating the best from the past, with a big focus on relative free speech (Nagolbud and Mtts will disagree here, but that's why I said relative) and different political views. Nonetheless it all changes rapidly, old threads get necro'd by a new crop of users offering a completely different perspective from the perceived reigning views of the time when the threads themselves were created. So yeah, adaptation is what needed in this place. You'll find that the guys that joined around the same time as you did will be the ones you feel most attachment to, although there are always guys you don't stand at first but learn to appreciate later, and viceversa. This forum is like riding a wild bull, you either learn to enjoy the ride or you eventually get off.

Nostalgia and a pining for early internet message board culture is a huge reason why I migrated here. This site just absolutely drips style. Another being the "relative" free speech. There are not alot of places left on the internet where you can discuss unpopular topics without being immediately silenced, or worse shadowbanned. I'm also a fan of vaporwave so that's a huge plus.

 

[deepfreeze]

Social media and their associated AI algorithms are literally driving everyone insane. I'm here to resist, in whatever paltry way, the consolidation of the internet under one giant corporate boot.

 

[gathermore]

Im just here trying to enlighten people to a computational functionalist worldview

View: https://youtu.be/e3K5UxWRRuY

 

[Placeholder]

I've been a lurker here for some time, mostly to sit idly in the cafe listening to music and rarely ever actually using the site. However I recently found myself wanting to try interacting more as I find it a useful way to socialize considering I will admit that I have rather crippling social anxiety. A large part of that comes from the idea that I may not understand or know the culture of any individual forum or site that I may decide to use.

That being said I come to you all with a question, what would you say the culture of Agora Road is? Or rather, what is an aspect of it you believe a new user should best understand?

Not sure honestly. Internet music is cool though.

 

[Max Chill]

I've been a lurker here for some time, mostly to sit idly in the cafe listening to music and rarely ever actually using the site. However I recently found myself wanting to try interacting more as I find it a useful way to socialize considering I will admit that I have rather crippling social anxiety. A large part of that comes from the idea that I may not understand or know the culture of any individual forum or site that I may decide to use.

That being said I come to you all with a question, what would you say the culture of Agora Road is? Or rather, what is an aspect of it you believe a new user should best understand?

Pretty much was wondering the same. Haven't been that long around this place but generally, for the group of people round here, you'll either belong to the people who are nostalgic or subscribe to the appeal of the early internet culture, or the enthusiasts/artists/producers of vaporwave & subgenres, or those who are tired of the contemporary internet that retreated to the small tightly knit spaces/communities or to resist the internet of today. Just a month ago I was still lurking on mainstream social media, now I couldn't even stand looking at its log-in screen; literally feels like exposing yourself to year 1986 levels of Chernobyl radiation.

I guess we can say that Agora Road markets itself as a hub of vaporwave community stuff, but I sensed since my day 1 that this place (is just larping as a vaporwave community lol jk) is a place you can call home regardless of you coming here for the vaporwave alignment or not. It's a place you'll never get overwhelmed (besides the interesting stuff) nor get spooked in speaking out your mind, I mean just look at nagolbud and some of our other bros, man's getting his full bang for the buck of his free speech.

 

[Mеченый Яков]

Someone tell pirate the internet AI is sneaking in.

I'm a simple man, i see Mokou, i laugh.

 

[Mеченый Яков]

This forum is like riding a wild bull, you either learn to enjoy the ride or you eventually get off.

Even with my 19 years old zoomer attention spam, i managed to stay active in this forum for about 6 months now, and it's likely i would be here for a long time, so i guess i managed to ride the bull.

 

[gathermore]

Fuckin' Jesuit.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_lzXfzIHyY

thats fighin' words boy, I better see u in the unofficial Discord channel tonight.

I hope u dont run like a bitch

 

[Mamisu]

thats fighin' words boy, I better see u in the unofficial Discord channel tonight.

I hope u dont run like a bitch

Discord is for chumps

 

[Still a Youth]

I've been a lurker here for some time, mostly to sit idly in the cafe listening to music and rarely ever actually using the site. However I recently found myself wanting to try interacting more as I find it a useful way to socialize considering I will admit that I have rather crippling social anxiety. A large part of that comes from the idea that I may not understand or know the culture of any individual forum or site that I may decide to use.

That being said I come to you all with a question, what would you say the culture of Agora Road is? Or rather, what is an aspect of it you believe a new user should best understand?

the culture here is that you push your way into the conversation and everyone just kinda goes along with it.

 

[Aral]

I've been a lurker here for some time, mostly to sit idly in the cafe listening to music and rarely ever actually using the site. However I recently found myself wanting to try interacting more as I find it a useful way to socialize considering I will admit that I have rather crippling social anxiety. A large part of that comes from the idea that I may not understand or know the culture of any individual forum or site that I may decide to use.

That being said I come to you all with a question, what would you say the culture of Agora Road is? Or rather, what is an aspect of it you believe a new user should best understand?

I would say the core of its culture is rejecting the mainstream forms of entertainment, particularly social media, and reverting to a simpler aesthetic and way of using the internet, Y2K style, out of nostalgia for the ones who bathed in it, or simply because the internet has become a special kind of unpalatable "nanny-net" over the last decade. I coined that term to describe the kind of internet that censors everything, dictates how you should live, what you should like, what you should buy, it basically has the nanny aspect at the core. Everything now is policed, censored, manipulated, subject to tracing, like nannies watching over kids. Doesn't help that there's that awful thing to make everything family friendly... as if the web was created for kids.

It started out as the vaporwave forum, but in fact, a lot of us here aren't even vaporwave enthusiasts, or not as something major. We look for a place to call home on an internet that no longer feels like a safe haven. We want real people, real discussions, no "reading time: x minutes", no stupid discourse like on twatter or reddit. And here is the perfect place to do so. There are all kinds of people here, some of them are proper weird, some can be straight up mean, but most of us are chill and let each other live. It's, imo, exactly how the internet should've remained: a chill place to meet with others, instead of being constantly bombarded by bullshit outrage, drama, ads and being censored if you dare say the wrong thing (wrong according to the mainstream doxa, ofc!).

 

[SomaSpice]

So here's how I understand it:

The site fronts as a vaporwave forum, but at its core its all about reviving the experience of using the internet in the Y2K era. This comes from a dissatisfaction with the state of the modern internet paired with distrust for the actions of goverment agencies and big tech companies. The site attracts people that desire a space that allows for authentic experiences free of astroturfing, bots, algorithmic content selection, and the vanality and attention seeking that happens on most mainstream sites.

Also worth noting is that the agora seems to have come from a culture that seeks to reclaim the internet by virtue of creating your own online spaces. If you head over to the webring you can see that the road is affiliated with a lot of other small communities and projects. That culture values independence and creation over consumption and conformity which is why I think you can see that artist types often opt to make this place their internet home or base.

Among those artists I've seen that many come here to shill their projects a bit, and many of them stick around because the place is genuinely cool and you get to meet very unique yet likeminded individuals.

In short, Vaporwave -> nostalgia -> modern internet bad -> I hate the antichrist -> meet people that also hate the antichrist -> try to create cool stuff that has those values and aesthethics -> share them with new friends

 

[Still a Youth]

So here's how I understand it:

The site fronts as a vaporwave forum, but at its core its all about reviving the experience of using the internet in the Y2K era. This comes from a dissatisfaction with the state of the modern internet paired with distrust for the actions of goverment agencies and big tech companies. The site attracts people that desire a space that allows for authentic experiences free of astroturfing, bots, algorithmic content selection, and the vanality and attention seeking that happens on most mainstream sites.

Also worth noting is that the agora seems to have come from a culture that seeks to reclaim the internet by virtue of creating your own online spaces. If you head over to the webring you can see that the road is affiliated with a lot of other small communities and projects. That culture values independence and creation over consumption and conformity which is why I think you can see that artist types often opt to make this place their internet home or base.

Among those artists I've seen that many come here to shill their projects a bit, many of them stick around because the place is genuinely cool and you get to meet very unique yet likeminded individuals.

Seconded

 

[brentw]

The site fronts as a vaporwave forum, but at its core its all about reviving the experience of using the internet in the Y2K era. This comes from a dissatisfaction with the state of the modern internet paired with distrust for the actions of goverment agencies and big tech companies. The site attracts people that desire a space that allows for authentic experiences free of astroturfing, bots, algorithmic content selection, and the vanality and attention seeking that happens on most mainstream sites.

I think you've expressed it as perfectly as anyone possibly could.

 

[calico_jack]

/r9k/ skitozo posting
at least how i use it