I am Cellar

I wish my IRL friends could get a little Cellar every now and then. I think you all know what I'm talking about. Especially those on Facebook. That place just needs a good thread drift sometimes. And a tailposting moratorium. And well shit, it needs a little Cellar.

The Cellar might be too smart, savvy and jaded for just anyone.

I have been trying to get my friends to come here for years, they just smile and say no. Like they might have to learn a new secret handshake.

the cellar has balance.

the cellar has all the crap we have IRL, more or less, but FB, ugh. Just no. Even FB admits to moderating that shit to death. Picture this: I like a woman's shape, curves, etc. That's the cellar. FB takes that shape and observes that slender waists generate 1.5x more eyeball time than less slender waists (because it monitors and measures that shit nine ways from sunday). It then (throws balance out the fucking window) proceeds to tightlace your feed, corseting your FB experience because if some is good, more is better. The result is a deformed presentation of what started out as/comes from just regular people.

There is no such tightlacing here on the cellar. what we have is just people, granted, articulate thoughtful people who share the good and bad and mundane, but those people, we people ARE out there IRL.

an interesting thought is what is it that the cellar has that is missing IRL? ... immediacy? odors? ... I don't know. I do know that it takes time to compose my response here in the cellar. I can (much more easily) speak without thinking IRL

:)

I was also just amused by the "I am" meme ;)

BigV;920452 wrote:

I do know that it takes time to compose my response here in the cellar. I can (much more easily) speak without thinking IRL

Agreed. Being at best a two finger typist, I have to "preview" posts for misspellings, continuity, or words/phrases left out entirely. I often edit, change wording I think might be misleading, add thoughts, and reduce verbiage. This also provides a minute or two for second thoughts... should I or should I not?



Aside; dozens of times I'd come back to the Cellar to find I'd polished a preview and moved along without submitting it. :smack:

FB for the most part is like HS. Getting into the right groups is where the more serious discussions happen - especially in the secret (member invite only) and private groups.

I think a huge part of it is just organization. Facebook is like if you took all the posts on the Cellar and just printed them on the screen in chronological posting order. Too much chaos. You're in the middle of the maelstrom, instead of on the outside picking and choosing which subjects to poke your head into and which to leave alone.

but if it were a perfect world it'd be so dull.....

Today I am Pilchard.

I am Lumber

if you took all the posts on the Cellar and just printed them on the screen in chronological posting order.

That would be okay! But what FB does is to take all the posts, decide which ones are becoming important, decide which people you're closest to, and show *some* of them to you, on a basis and in an order they decide you will like.

Of course everybody doesn't want to see everything everybody posts, right? You said you were friends but most of your friends aren't friends... FB knows that...

So! Didn't see that important post from your friend? They may not have LIKEd YOUR posts enough, or their friends may not have LIKEd that post very much. Seeing every single crappy post from that one friend? Aw, FB has decided, through its own special secret sauce, that you're actually close and want to see each others' shit! Did your friend announce that thing that was important to you? Well too bad they did it at 1am and it got buried!

and good luck finding something you remember discussing before yesterday

Great points UT & Jim. Those problems are solved here in teh cellar.

I don't like that I usually ignore what from my perspective is stupid shit on facebook. I know that, unlike the cellar, facebook is not where you have a vigorous debate about something. If you've been on the cellar a while you've had sacred cows gored and maybe gored a few, but your presence here suggests you're willing to take some heat for beliefs. After the blood letting people can be damn humane here as well.

FB has its purposes, but being real and honest isn't really part of it. It's all superficial and sharing pictures with people you know.

that's where I'm going wrong I think ;)

glatt;920542 wrote:

FB has its purposes, but being real and honest isn't really part of it. It's all superficial and sharing pictures with people you know.

...

FB *does* have its purposes, and that consists of making money for the owners. (see the language of politics thread, subsection corporations). The stuff you list is the worm on the hook to lure your eyes. somebody's getting paid. and what is paid is **attention**, and you're paying it.

If you pay it knowingly and willingly, no problemo. really, I am fine with it. but there are a lot of people who aren't (fine, or knowing, or willing). that's where I get irritated. the crap I can skim over, just as I change channels on the tv, skipping the craaaaapola. I have a finite number of minutes, and a finite amount of attention. I try to spend what little I have as wisely as possible.

Sure, sometimes that means whimsy, or relaxing, untaxing content. sometimes it's more demanding. but I always try to be mindful of my choices. when I'm unhappy with the situation, I look first to my own choices, for my own ability to control what I'm exposing myself to, and respond accordingly.

sooo much of fb is controlled by some ______ algorithm with little care for my desires. or worse, with a mind to create and control and initiate my desires for me. no thanks.