The Cellar is a force for good in the world

[Undertoad]

The Cellar was a force for good from 2001-2012. During that time it did what it was intended to do. We had glorious conversations about everything. We fought and still stayed here. New people came around all the time. Because they wanted to be social, and it was a new way of being social. Almost all the people you're thinking about, the people you value, are all from that era. Look at the Join Dates in this thread. What we have now is the leftover of that time.

We have not been that force for a while now. Now we're a force that shits all over an 82-year-old because she's too isolated in her thoughts. We should be the place that helps fix that. But maybe we never were, maybe it's me who changed. Fine.

But now, the question I find most interesting is,

When you set up the new forum, are ya gonna let her on it?

after all, she did post too much. on a forum so precious, so in need of defending, so full of love and sharing that you people weren't even writing 40 posts per week.

[limey]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

The Cellar was a force for good from 2001-2012. During that time it did what it was intended to do. We had glorious conversations about everything. We fought and still stayed here. New people came around all the time. Because they wanted to be social, and it was a new way of being social. Almost all the people you're thinking about, the people you value, are all from that era. Look at the Join Dates in this thread. What we have now is the leftover of that time.

We have not been that force for a while now. Now we're a force that shits all over an 82-year-old because she's too isolated in her thoughts. We should be the place that helps fix that. But maybe we never were, maybe it's me who changed. Fine.

But now, the question I find most interesting is,

When you set up the new forum, are ya gonna let her on it?

after all, she did post too much. on a forum so precious, so in need of defending, so full of love and sharing that you people weren't even writing 40 posts per week.

This. Except it’s not “you people”, it’s *we*. We all took it for granted and have posted less and less, meaning that when an enthusiastic newbie posts a lot that is all you see, instead of it being leavened with posts from regulars. And without that, how can any newbie get a sense of the Cellar’s identity, and without that the Cellar’s regular members feel threatened because the identity of the Cellar is strongly affected by one new person’s posts.
Also, I hadn’t thought how COVID and it’s impact on each of us, wherever we are, will have affected our reactions. I think perhaps we’re all more sensitive.
I think the Cellar achieved something remarkable for a while on the internet, providing a real connection between people who otherwise would not have met, not just because of geography, but also because here we are just names on screens, so our visually or sociologically cued prejudices weren’t brought into play.
We haven’t had new members for a long time because there really isn’t much to see here. A small social group chatting occasionally. And I don’t think it is possible to return to what we had in the Cellar’s heyday, because we have all changed, and Internet use has changed.
But I am very grateful to Undertoad for maintaining this place for so long, and very glad to have met the friends (no quote marks, no qualifying word “online”, I mean true friends) that I have here.


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[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

The Cellar was a force for good from 2001-2012. During that time it did what it was intended to do. We had glorious conversations about everything. We fought and still stayed here. New people came around all the time. Because they wanted to be social, and it was a new way of being social. Almost all the people you're thinking about, the people you value, are all from that era. Look at the Join Dates in this thread. What we have now is the leftover of that time.

During its heyday, the Cellar was difficult to stay on top of. There were so many posts. If you wanted to follow it all, then you had to give most of your day over to the Cellar.

So you had to choose maybe a dozen threads to follow, and even then, the posts came so quickly that if you saw a post that warranted a response, the conversation had often gone off in a completely different direction and to respond at that point would disrupt the flow of the conversation.

So it was good and manageable when it died down a little bit. It wasn't like drinking from a fire hose. Lately it died down way too much. 40 posts a week is nothing. Is that really true? What a trickle.

With the impending death, it's perking up a little bit in one last gasp, but there is still too much noise mixed in with the signal. And navel gazing, like this post, is probably part of that noise. *Shrug*