itās good to know itās not just a me thing.
in case it needs saying, iām free with the likes now, with not worry if iām doing it wrong.
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we should add sigs. Been saying this for years
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I remember when I would copy and paste a signature in every post before the forum software would do it, back when I wore an onion on my belt, as was the style at the time.
ā
TaliesinMerlin
xXxXx Wizard Extraordinaire xXxXx
āThe best thing for being sad ā¦ is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails.ā
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smh smh such an ic-coded like farming post (this is a joke in a couple ways not least of which is that forums sigs were great)
I find it incredibly charming to look around stuff like neocities and see sites made by people I presume are zoomers making sites that use the design and user experience language of the 1990s internet including the icons and web rings and stuff, but divorced from the original necessity of it. A genuinely fascinating version of what old gen xers or young boomers must have felt as millennials started buying records again
Forums sigs would be like that (positive comp)
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I figured out how to emulate PS2 games and I am having a field day.
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I will say sometimes I find myself browsing the forum topics and seeing someone spitting fire in all of them and I do get a little self conscious about sending them 5 likes or whatever. However, when that comes to me from someone else I consider it a great honor so perhaps I should just assume others agree and continue liking with abandon
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May our IC forum accounts only be deleted on the very same dayā¦
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When I tap the like button, itās because the post got a real genuine reaction out of me. If you see a notification from me, I probably said āhell yeahā in real life.
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Hell yea
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The rest of you could learn a thing or two about post quality analysis from this very special young man
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I think one of the coolest things about Void Stranger is the name. And I think a LOT of stuff is really cool about Void Stranger. But the name is definitely up there
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gonna run my posts through chat gpt now and ask it to optimize them for maximun engagement
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MoH keeps me from deleting posts that no one else interacts with.
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Is this a good time to bring up that the forum clean-up occasionally gives me 40+ notifications to return to
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I smash that like button, and Iād ring that bell for notifications if I could.
I think everyone should feel rad so I like quite often. If the notifications annoy people, I could slow down, but I see it as a Good Vibes button. I love coming back and seeing notifications because what I said resonated with folks. I can see the argument that it makes people tailor their posts but I think this place is better than Reddit in that way. I wouldnāt accuse anyone of ākarma farmingā. I find the idea that someone posts things just for number go up kind of ridiculous anyway.
I see liking as a way of filling a void that body language or ad libing would fill in Meat Space, like a quick nod or a short, āYeah, dude.ā
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I know youāre joking, but I think everyone writes things with the intent of getting a favourable reaction and they might wonder whether that counts āfarmingā or not, but thatās not fishing for likes. thatās just conversation. I donāt get likes when I make friends laugh in Meat Space but I sure do it anyway.
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Yeah I think a lot of us might still carry some or even a lot of baggage from the kinds of social environments, digital or otherwise, that are toxic. Like, I think itās totally fair to say that in some social environments there has been an idea cultivatedāand an expectation enforcedāthat to do things that are meant to be liked by other people is somehow disingenuous or manipulative. As if to say, there are people who do things that other people like because that is their natural almost reflexive behaviour, and it is effortless if not unconscious, and then there are people who, in having to consider the wants or needs of other people at all, must be doing so out for reasons straight out of the pages of The Prince, or perhaps theyāre like Quasimodo, who has to devote all of their time and energy to not burden others with their own repulsiveness (which can be interpreted either as something they must do flawlessly or risk being rightfully maligned, or itās somehow again disingenuous to act as unlikeable as they are assumed to truly be).
Maybe this is getting too into it but itās a very reactionary standard for experiencing social relationships and community. Like, when I think of someone who Iād perhaps call an archetypal jock or a prep, someone who benefits from some sort of projected-to-be-inherent hierarchy or social status quo, I also see someone who feels that whatever their default state of being is must be what is most correct or normal. Which also gives them an invulnerable shield against criticism, since if itās manipulative or disingenuous to contrive oneās behaviour to be more in line with ways meant to make other people feel good/welcome/respected/equal, that means we just have to act according to our more base whims and natural instincts. A reactionary would use this to deflect criticism and reject the need for self reflection, since these base desires are something one canāt, no, shouldnāt control, because theyāre aligned with social hierarchies that benefit them and thus shouldnāt be questioned, or are even biological, theyāre āhuman nature,ā as the reactionary evolutionary biology position roughly goes.
In any case, I think itās totally fine to do things out of a desire to be liked by other people, and though that also has its own pitfalls (people pleasing, masking, that kind of thing) thatās kind of an entirely different conversation (and maybe those things are still also a product of the aforementioned toxic social environments). We should be putting in some amount of effort into being likeable, in the sense that we should be mindful of other peopleās feelings, their need for safety and dignity, but even also just to reclaim the joy in cultivating social and communal relationships, which has been so stamped out of a whole lot of social life, to be replaced by dominance hierarchies and/or transactional if not extractive social antagonisms.
For me, one thing I feel Iāve inherited from my indigenous culture is a very serious and socially complex attitude towards humour and especially teasing. Among indigenous people, teasing and laughter is constant. Like I swear to god, a quarter to a third of all things said among indigenous people is some minor poke at someone in the conversation, some callback, some tiny detail. If anyone has ever seen indigenous social media influencers, half of the jokes are just like āever X this guy,ā even if the behaviour or characteristic being pointed out for ridicule is completely innocuous or even straightforwardly positive lol. Itās not an environment where itās possible to thrive with a thin skin, because pretty much everybody will pick up on it and want to bring you down a notch, and getting worked up about something only makes it worse, since it will just draw more attention to what youāre being teased about, and will just give more ammunition to the teasers.
If that sounds like a really cutthroat social environment, I suppose Iād also point out that as long as the relationships are healthy to begin with, there is never cruelty in it, Iāve never witnessed anybody being teased about things that they would actually be self conscious about. And Iād also contend that it serves an extremely important social function, which is that it is meant to maintain social equity, and ongoing ego deflation. The laughter is never meant to be directed at anyone. So it really acts more as a gentle and carefree reminder that we are all equal, we all have flaws and we all feel embarrassed sometimes, and none of that is anything to be ashamed about, so much so that we might as well zoom in on our flaws real close to be able to highlight all the goofy quirks of being human. We shouldnāt feel anger or revulsion or resentment at other peopleās weaknesses or indignities, not just because it could just as easily be us next time getting teased, but because having weaknesses and flaws and indignities is something we all, without exception, have in common. And, if someone knows what kind of thing about you that you might blush if someone were to confirm they see it but it will still make you laugh from having it pointed it out, while also avoiding saying something that will actually make you feel like shit because itās too sensitive of a thing to pounce on, it means that theyāre paying attention to you very closely and are trying to learn what makes you who you are.
Anyway, I donāt think this kind of attitude towards teasing is unique to indigenous communities, itās just very well preserved in our communities, so I think about it a lot. Itās something that I think people who are close friends and who feel intimate towards each other default to regardless of their ethnicity. Iām also thinking about how a certain young lady on this forum reached Teasing Critical Mass by drawing attention to a way to rile her up, and might be getting dogpiled a bit about their passion for a certain type of transport style puzzle. And, just because I think itās beneficial to maybe vocalize this kind of thing in environments where I canāt be certain that weāve all internalized and taken the time to understand these social dynamics for what I think they truthfully are (and how they are also so often repressed or even corrupted in other contexts to just reinforce hierarchies or excuse cruelty), Iām hoping that she understands the affection and desire to express a feeling of cohesion and understanding that is behind all the quips directed at her, just in case she maybe bit off more than she can chew in terms of seeming to willingly volunteer to be the fulcrum for a forum communityās jokes to rest on for a few days. Personally I love that sort of attention, I love being the class clown even if it means performing some self deprecation, but itās a big responsibility that you have to have an impenetrably thick skin for, and I want her to know also that if anyone is crossing the line that she can say sheās had enough, and in this very healthy and strong social environment I think everyone would back off and give her some room to breathe. I mean, I am still intentionally, cheekily dodging being in the limelight for having said (correctly) that Undertale is a Bullet Heck and not a JRPG, which is way more genre anarchist than saying Goof Troopās block puzzles arenāt Sokoban puzzles (I also came around to her side of things, they arenāt).
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