Dear SP members: In answer to this question, a long time ago before any of you current members got here, a member named M****s sowed discord upon the sanctimonious of the website on a recurrent basis, as well as a colorful cast of people including myself chiming in to any number of scintillating debates about as vast an array of subjects as you can imagine, alas, as things go with this site, the trolled always became the troll and the cycle continued until the great mods arrived from the sky to return the promised land to its prim and pristine state, and instill discipline upon the disparate denizens of the land.
What you see before you is the resulting fallout. Still echoes of impudent scorn whisper on the wind through scattered posts, concurrent with the bleak layout of such a forlorn and morbid place, a reminder of the churlishness and obstreperousness that formed the foundation of this wearying limbo where only poor souls go to die. “Relax”, said the night man. We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, but, you can never leave.
This is a solid piece of creative writing, but it’s also simply not true. The site’s current rules were introduced at around the beginning of 2016. During 2016 and 2017, 30 plus comments on posts weren’t uncommon. Posts with no comments were also in the minority at the time, and conversations ranged a wide array of topics. Funnily enough, during that time there were occasionally people pushing the exact same narrative as this: That the pre-2016 “free-for-all” times were better and that the rules killed the site.
I have no definitive answer as to why this site has slowed down like this, but I think HDS is maybe close to the mark. The site’s recent slowdown seems to coincide with when visual and mechanical changes were made to the site; like not having a feed of the comments being made, and the requirement of a captcha at login etc. The captcha is however necessary because of how bots were beginning to spam ad posts.
But who knows the true reason. The site has had lulls in activity in the past, but none lasted this long. Some comments being randomly deleted has been a normal occurrence for a while now however: Sometimes it’s due to a word or hyperlink being used, or it was deleted by a user.
i remember when we had a big influx of spam posts and they were so obvious it was horrible, as annoying as the captcha can be itll accept it if it keeps them away lol
Dunno. I’ve been here on and off for years and I’ve seen this site slowly become less lively. Not really sure why comments are getting deleted, maybe they are irrelevant to the topic, or maybe the comments were judgmental and minimized the person’s problems.
I personally don’t agree with the comment removal unless it’s to remove nasty comments. Buuuuuut I am not the admin(s) and I don’t set the rules here.
Many people on this site are suffering, mentally unstable, are at the end of their rope. They are looking for a place to vent…
I personally didn’t mind all the off topic comments on my now deleted old posts, there used to be some very entertaining people who would frequent this site 😛
I can’t even access comments, haven’t been able to for years. The site has changed to more of a dumping ground than a support site. I will say things did get out of control sometimes and some threads went way off topic or were plain unhelpful. I don’t know if any of my comments have been deleted since I can’t see them anyway. either way, I said my piece and off into the world it goes.
I will add there was a point in time, a few years ago, where some users were actively attacking some of our more vulnerable members. Making threats, being critical in ways that were cruel and awful. I was targeted by someone back then and it sent me into a downward spiral. I used to be really active on the site back then and I dropped into a paranoid episode and deleted everything, all my posts, all my art, everything, fearful that I was being watched and stalked. I don’t think I was, it was just my mental illness saying “well hello there…remember me”. But still, it was awful. I sent some emails to the admins begging for help. I don’t know if they heard me or not but it was about that time that the site slowly started changing design. Putting up more security. Stepping in more often when things swung wildly out of control.
I mean let’s face it folks, this isn’t FB or Instagram. It is a site for folks to just be raw and maybe find some comfort, but mostly just be raw. There were some things that got totally locked down, and it makes it harder for me to follow things and see if there are additional comments, but I look at it this way, I can answer the next set of posts if I really need company at 4am while I’m having a paranoid episode and think putting a gun in my mouth is far better than going back to sleep.
“The good old days”. LOL. I will say there were times it wasn’t even a help site, it was just a chat board, and many folks didn’t get any help, got completely ignored, or even heckled. So no, it wasn’t better back then, it was just more chatty. A lot of the chatty folks left for other boards that allow off topic chat. The mods on this board have always been very clear.
Be kind.
No M@6ids
Stay on topic
They own the board. I will say this site has saved my life more than once.
17 comments
Dear SP members: In answer to this question, a long time ago before any of you current members got here, a member named M****s sowed discord upon the sanctimonious of the website on a recurrent basis, as well as a colorful cast of people including myself chiming in to any number of scintillating debates about as vast an array of subjects as you can imagine, alas, as things go with this site, the trolled always became the troll and the cycle continued until the great mods arrived from the sky to return the promised land to its prim and pristine state, and instill discipline upon the disparate denizens of the land.
What you see before you is the resulting fallout. Still echoes of impudent scorn whisper on the wind through scattered posts, concurrent with the bleak layout of such a forlorn and morbid place, a reminder of the churlishness and obstreperousness that formed the foundation of this wearying limbo where only poor souls go to die. “Relax”, said the night man. We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, but, you can never leave.
You should be writing novels with an ability to write like that!
Wisp, thanks. I have a lot of genius in me waiting to come out. Too bad I can’t quite access it yet.
I agree (you should be writing), and even if this isn’t the official answer, it should be. lol
actually i think i understood it and just accepted it as fact because it made sense……i might have been stoned at the time, unknown lol
They did bring back the banner that shows who is commenting. So at least I can see if I’m the only one here at any given time. That is nice.
This is a solid piece of creative writing, but it’s also simply not true. The site’s current rules were introduced at around the beginning of 2016. During 2016 and 2017, 30 plus comments on posts weren’t uncommon. Posts with no comments were also in the minority at the time, and conversations ranged a wide array of topics. Funnily enough, during that time there were occasionally people pushing the exact same narrative as this: That the pre-2016 “free-for-all” times were better and that the rules killed the site.
I have no definitive answer as to why this site has slowed down like this, but I think HDS is maybe close to the mark. The site’s recent slowdown seems to coincide with when visual and mechanical changes were made to the site; like not having a feed of the comments being made, and the requirement of a captcha at login etc. The captcha is however necessary because of how bots were beginning to spam ad posts.
But who knows the true reason. The site has had lulls in activity in the past, but none lasted this long. Some comments being randomly deleted has been a normal occurrence for a while now however: Sometimes it’s due to a word or hyperlink being used, or it was deleted by a user.
i remember when we had a big influx of spam posts and they were so obvious it was horrible, as annoying as the captcha can be itll accept it if it keeps them away lol
Right. The mods from the sky hacking and calling someone names for a comment they disagreed with….
I won’t be here much longer anyway. ^¬^
Dunno. I’ve been here on and off for years and I’ve seen this site slowly become less lively. Not really sure why comments are getting deleted, maybe they are irrelevant to the topic, or maybe the comments were judgmental and minimized the person’s problems.
I personally don’t agree with the comment removal unless it’s to remove nasty comments. Buuuuuut I am not the admin(s) and I don’t set the rules here.
Many people on this site are suffering, mentally unstable, are at the end of their rope. They are looking for a place to vent…
I personally didn’t mind all the off topic comments on my now deleted old posts, there used to be some very entertaining people who would frequent this site 😛
Hm.
I can’t even access comments, haven’t been able to for years. The site has changed to more of a dumping ground than a support site. I will say things did get out of control sometimes and some threads went way off topic or were plain unhelpful. I don’t know if any of my comments have been deleted since I can’t see them anyway. either way, I said my piece and off into the world it goes.
i love the way you write, it’s so engaging!! you should def keep at it bro
I will add there was a point in time, a few years ago, where some users were actively attacking some of our more vulnerable members. Making threats, being critical in ways that were cruel and awful. I was targeted by someone back then and it sent me into a downward spiral. I used to be really active on the site back then and I dropped into a paranoid episode and deleted everything, all my posts, all my art, everything, fearful that I was being watched and stalked. I don’t think I was, it was just my mental illness saying “well hello there…remember me”. But still, it was awful. I sent some emails to the admins begging for help. I don’t know if they heard me or not but it was about that time that the site slowly started changing design. Putting up more security. Stepping in more often when things swung wildly out of control.
I mean let’s face it folks, this isn’t FB or Instagram. It is a site for folks to just be raw and maybe find some comfort, but mostly just be raw. There were some things that got totally locked down, and it makes it harder for me to follow things and see if there are additional comments, but I look at it this way, I can answer the next set of posts if I really need company at 4am while I’m having a paranoid episode and think putting a gun in my mouth is far better than going back to sleep.
“The good old days”. LOL. I will say there were times it wasn’t even a help site, it was just a chat board, and many folks didn’t get any help, got completely ignored, or even heckled. So no, it wasn’t better back then, it was just more chatty. A lot of the chatty folks left for other boards that allow off topic chat. The mods on this board have always been very clear.
Be kind.
No M@6ids
Stay on topic
They own the board. I will say this site has saved my life more than once.
Once upon a time only mods could pull comments. Now OPs can too.
Hey that’s true, that is a feature I just noticed. So it is likely ops.
I’ve had others’ comments pulled from my own posts by mods, so…