Yesterweb Discord set to close to refocus "effort into different projects"

[Punp]

Screenshot here, text to follow:

Hello @everyone

This is a little different announcement than what we're used to, and there is some big news I'd like to announce to you all.

In six weeks' time (aligning with our second-year Discord anniversary - that is, February 20th) we will be closing down the server by transitioning each channel to a read-only status.

After this change, the staff's efforts will be focused on the forum. But more importantly we encourage others to create their own spaces that strengthen the Yesterweb movement. Not necessarily communities - just spaces. We especially encourage making friends and creating small group chats.

This was not an easy decision to make. We feel that this is the best choice for the Yesterweb and the broader movement in general. I would like to emphasize that this is not the end of the Yesterweb, but a refocusing of effort into different projects.

We learned a lot in these two years on Discord and we've made some amazing friends, but the server has become too large, busy and unwieldy to effectively moderate and be an effective tool for change. Organizing nearly 2,500 people in the chatroom format simply does not work and, in most cases, holds us back.

To read more about this decision, you can visit this post on the forum for more information.


yes we're planning on a space where you can share your own communities

Best of luck to sadness and the rest of the moderation team in transitioning away from Discord.

 

[Shantotto]

I'm kind of happy to see them transition to forum. Although I use discord with friends, something about discord servers as hubs for any community really irks me. Maybe it's the ease of accessibility or the ocean of channels but they feel so derivative, empty, and disposable.

 

[ZinRicky]

Finally the test stage for YW's forum is over. I am already there, but with Discord open posting onto the forum was quite pointless.
Maybe I'll go there more often now

 

[IlluminatiPirate]

Discord is way too clunky and fast past to have a meaningful discussion. Glad to see that they are finally moving on to the forum format.

 

[SolidStateSurvivor]

Maybe I'll give their forum a shot since they seem neocities-centric. Really wasn't a fan of the discord but I blame discord itself for that sentiment more than anything else.

 

[ZinRicky]

Really wasn't a fan of the discord but I blame discord itself for that sentiment more than anything else.

In my opinion, it's a little bit of both. But I hope you're right, of course

 

[Blockhead]

never heard of this, what was their goal/topic/etc? Replicating internet discourse of the times of yore?

 

[SolidStateSurvivor]

never heard of this, what was their goal/topic/etc? Replicating internet discourse of the times of yore?

Combination of being against an overly commercialized internet and largely based on GeoCities aesthetics, bit of an emphasis on minimal/non invasive coding as well. The main goal is starting and running your own site rather than maintaining a profile on the big social media platforms. I'd imagine the forum is more aimed at aiding with coding, sharing assets, and express discontent for modern web woes.

 

[ZinRicky]

I'd imagine the forum is more aimed at aiding with coding, sharing assets, and express discontent for modern web woes.

The forum, if I understood correctly, is a drop-in replacement for everything that happened on the Discord server. In this case, it will also be used for community projects (e-zine, radio, etc.)

 

[Regal]

More specifically: YW leadership wants to turn YW into an organized movement. Discord servers---especially multi-thousand person servers established as spots for socialization---are not easy to orchestrate movements in. The switch to the forum is an effort to slow things down and get organized. They will never admit it, but it is also to filter out the casuals who were only there to talk.

IMO they saw the thousands of people in the Discord and retroactively went, "Oh shit we can actually do something with this!"

A couple of the YW leaders are openly Marxists. They have some good ideas about how the web should be, but once you know they are Marxists you start seeing this hyper-left idealism bleeding into everything. A little concerned what that means for this small army of teenagers they have attained.

 

[LostintheCycle]

It's weird they were ever on Discord in the first place, as a movement dedicated to the 'old web' it sounds very not old web to be using a modern site service like that in the first place. Was it just to rope more people in because they assumed a forum wouldn't take off?
Lots of Discord users are part of dozens of servers simultaneously. In my experience almost all of them are the same, typical channels like #general #off-topic #gaming #no-mic #memes #giveaways etc. and they all have the same culture because they're all made of the same Discord users. It's all Discord slush. I guess anyone willing to migrate to the forum are probably somewhat serious ones about the old web, but I will say that I'm generally not sure how much anyone 'believed' in Yesterweb beyond it looking kinda neat.
I've joined the forum to see if it'll be any good.

A couple of the YW leaders are openly Marxists. They have some good ideas about how the web should be, but once you know they are Marxists you start seeing this hyper-left idealism bleeding into everything. A little concerned what that means for this small army of teenagers they have attained.

Yeah, when I saw everyone needs to have their pronouns in their profile I got the vibe of the place. The funny thing about pronouns is they are almost useless. In conversation you only hear them in a group setting where the particular person is the topic to use their pronouns instead of name. On the Agora forum (not Agora chat) I rarely refer to people with pronouns because when dozens of people are replying you usually want to make clear who you mean. So having pronouns on your profile next to every post on Yesterweb just seems like a culture thing.

 

[SolidStateSurvivor]

More specifically: YW leadership wants to turn YW into an organized movement. Discord servers---especially multi-thousand person servers established as spots for socialization---are not easy to orchestrate movements in. The switch to the forum is an effort to slow things down and get organized. They will never admit it, but it is also to filter out the casuals who were only there to talk.

YW mods have already acknowledged they want to make it a large scale movement of some kind:

But it is inevitable that people will continue to look for ways to fight back against the corporate web and we must be ready to accept them into our movement! -AuzzieJay (Moderator)

I think one of the big benefits of this move is that we're going to see who is committed to the Yesterweb in terms of ideology and message. A lot of people just want a social space, and that's fine, but I think part of this move has been a soft reset in the way that we look at our community and engage with it. -vincent (Moderator)

I wish they got more into specifics of their movement in their thread but it still feels a little vague to me. Like I get and agree with this idea of leaving the big social media sites and learning skills to bolster one's netizenship, but I am unsure why you would need to mobilize such a large number of people. I guess my lingering question is what is the endgame idealized goal of the YesterWeb? What is their metric of success?

It's weird they were ever on Discord in the first place, as a movement dedicated to the 'old web' it sounds very not old web to be using a modern site service like that in the first place. Was it just to rope more people in because they assumed a forum wouldn't take off?

I never understood that either, if you're serious about this concept of "old web" then go for something like IRC over Discord. It seems like they were more focused on growing and getting as many people as possible into the group. Better late than never in terms of moving away from Discord.

Society's interpretation of the past is absolutely crucial when forging ahead into the future. It serves as a basis for how to proceed because it provides people with a combination of past successes to emulate or a way to learn from past mistakes. While the past/history is open to interpretation, there is a reason historical "revisionism" is passionately contested/waged. It is why one has to be critical of who invokes history and for what purpose. I get the impression that the Yesterweb has a slight tendency of falling into this revisionist mindset by leaning on this nostalgic (idealized) interpretation of what the early web was; using that as a basis to shape either the current web into that, or at least applying it to be the prevailing Neocities culture.

 

[handoferis]

I never understood that either, if you're serious about this concept of "old web" then go for something like IRC over Discord. It seems like they were more focused on growing and getting as many people as possible into the group. Better late than never in terms of moving away from Discord.

simple reason: kids too tarded to /msg NickServ, also would all be there like "where r my emojiys??? "

 

[ZinRicky]

It's weird they were ever on Discord in the first place, as a movement dedicated to the 'old web' it sounds very not old web to be using a modern site service like that in the first place. Was it just to rope more people in because they assumed a forum wouldn't take off?

I think this is what happened:

• YW's admins had no clue whether YW would take off or be a failure.
• They looked for a "community" option with the least technical effort needed (Discord).
• They managed said community until it went big.
• They decided to branch out to align more with YW's creed/vision and to scale down the active community.

 

[Punp]

Can't waste time moderating a community if you don't have a community to moderate.

 

[Eden]

Update: They've recently shut down their webring and are in the 2-month process of archiving and deleting the forum.

 

[№56]

Update: They've recently shut down their webring and are in the 2-month process of archiving and deleting the forum.

"There are too many opportunists, too many people that used the YW for financial or even just social gain. We thought maybe the issue was the discord server-it wasn't. It was a systemic issue."

Okay, what really happened here? Too much shilling or just a heated janny moment?
Edit: I actually looked at the forum and it was more or less dead already. Looks like their attempt to transfer the discord community over never took off.

 

[LostintheCycle]

I actually looked at the forum and it was more or less dead already. Looks like their attempt to transfer the discord community over never took off.

That's the thing I didn't like about Yesterweb. It feels like they preach stuff but they are still 'safe' in a sort of way. You should make your own website, but host them on Neocities. Talk up the old web, but use Discord as the main platform and refuse to use IRC because of an 'association'. I signed up for the forum a while back and it was quite boring.

I'd like to archive a golden nugget from that thread.

 

[SolidStateSurvivor]

Edit: I actually looked at the forum and it was more or less dead already. Looks like their attempt to transfer the discord community over never took off.

Pretty much, I think it grew too big for them to manage and the forum as a way of splitting it off into something more manageable filtered too many people. I got the impression the majority of their members on neocities were the type of person whose webpage was a static page linking to other more active mainstream social media, so not everyone was super engaged to begin with despite having a high headcount.

The subject of Agora Road finally came up on their forum when discussing alternative communities for people to check out, and they really don't like this place. Seems like they're still tilted about Nagolbud's ramblings and a few other things (even though those guys got b& or chased out..)

I disagree with a lot of the generalizations they are placing on this forum, they go as far as to say this is a place where people want to ensure "my type of people [transgenders] deserve to be shot." I'd like to point out that most people here really didn't want to see another transgender debate thread, most called it out as merely divisive bait and found it rather odd that's the only thread OP not only bothered to make, but post in. Most here try to sniff out and discredit the provocateurs running COINTELPRO ops.

when your place becomes inherently hostile to certain groups of people not for their opinions but for who they are, you also create a bubble - usually an alt-right one.

Except this forum has it's fair share of LGBT users and even communists. I see more of a tendency to divide people into ideological bubbles on the YW forum than I do here. Most here judge the posts on the context of the discussion rather than preconceived notions of what the user's overall alignment is.

a place in which pretentious social outcasts can rant and talk shit about their delusion of persecution or nutty conspiracies not even their mother believes

Not sure where they're quoting this from, but this just falls into over generalization. Those "nutty conspiracies" have certainly struck a chord given how much some have been covered elsewhere, wouldn't be so quick to dismiss those questioning their surroundings. If one is skeptical of some of the ideas presented here then by all means come and debate it, Agora has always welcomed skeptics, makes things more lively. I guess what perplexes me most is how a group (YW) so critical of capitalism is apprehensive to the idea of questioning the corporate press or government, institutions that are both upheld by and seek to maintain such a system for their own benefit.

having to coexist with alt-right fellows to access those discussions is something most people wouldn't want

If one is unwilling to engage with an opposing perspective on mere principle then one can't just blame other factors like relaxed moderation on a place becoming a "circle jerk," in the end that falls on the individual/group for refusing to debate in good faith. Calling this place "alt-right" is just as poor a use of buzzwords as calling Yesterweb "radical left."


There maybe somewhat skewed leanings towards one "side" or the other due to group demographics, but there's a lot of overlap between both Agora and Yesterweb. Of course there's the shared interest of "the old internet" and vaporwave adjacent aesthetics, but even ideologically we all seem to lament the over commercialization of the web. Both groups seem to share the universal truth, even if some of the symptoms and causes we point to differ.

From my understanding YW closed registration to their forum, but I do have an account on there. Might revise and repost some of this there, if anyone wants to add anything then by all means go ahead.

 

[Regal]

I disagree with a lot of the generalizations they are placing on this forum, they go as far as to say this is a place where people want to ensure "my type of people [transgenders] deserve to be shot." I'd like to point out that most people here really didn't want to see another transgender debate thread, most called it out as merely divisive bait and found it rather odd that's the only thread OP not only bothered to make, but post in. Most here try to sniff out and discredit the provocateurs running COINTELPRO ops.

Agreed. Goes to show however that Agora does need to be somewhat mindful of optics. If we/anyone cares about optics anyway.

"There are too many opportunists, too many people that used the YW for financial or even just social gain. We thought maybe the issue was the discord server-it wasn't. It was a systemic issue."

Okay, what really happened here? Too much shilling or just a heated janny moment?
Edit: I actually looked at the forum and it was more or less dead already. Looks like their attempt to transfer the discord community over never took off.

I am pretty well integrated into the YW community outside of the forum. Nobody knows what this chip on their shoulder is about. They complained about this when closing the Discord and now complaining about this when closing the forums.

The theory is that they simply didn't like people advertising and discussing their sites. Considering the tenants of Yesterweb you should want people advertising and discussing their sites, but who knows.

IMO it seems baseless and just another excuse. The forum was DEAD. There wasn't people advertising their stuff. It isn't a "systemic issue." The only systemic issue is bad leadership. This is a good reminder that just because you start a Discord server doesn't mean you have what it takes to lead a community.

I'm just a little disgruntled about the entire thing. It could have been something really cool. So much lost potential.