Is it time to move back here?

[Lechimp]

oops, almost forgot about this. Good thing I remembered near the end of the first week

[clyde]

Nice. I'm relieved to see your contribution. 

 

I was thinking about some of the reasons I prefer these forums over platforms such as Reddit and Facebook. I think that part of it is that nested replies creates a sense that there is a bunch of cross-talk rather than just having one conversation. Of course sometimes people do that anyway by only replying to one other person back and forth, but I don't think that is as systemic.

[James]

A thing that social media, forums, and comment sections all have in common is that I have a habit of typing out long replies, then losing my nerve and deleting it all.

 

Good to see some old faces. Hard not to feel despondent at the way things are, both online and off.

[BigJKO]

I definitely failed this challenge. Sorry.

 

I'm still reading everything everyone's posting, tho. I will be back to posting soon!

[clyde]

I fell off before February ended, but this was a helpful exercise for me. I quickly remembered some of the things I prefer about this format. 

 

I've looked a little bit into possible other forums to join, but as I think about what I want, I'm thinking that a local weekly writing group may make more sense for me. I won't get written responses, but I think sharing medium-length essays and some discussion around them is what I really want. And in-person is so much more attractive to me than online. I currently have that option because I live in a city.

[Lechimp]

Definitely failed but I feel compelled to keep posting here since it's now the oldest forum I've posted at that's still going! Adventure Gamers recently had their forums suddenly shut down after being sold off to a gambling company, and that was the place where I discovered Idle Thumbs

[Chairman Yang]

I'm a very infrequent poster (2015 was my last it seems) and am always interested in resurrecting forums. They're by far my favorite medium for video game discussion. Let's do it!

[brkl]

Adventure Gamers is gone, huh? And I would think there are more adventure games than when I used to read it. We just started playing Return to Monkey Island!

[toblix]

Oh yeah, Pentiment was great!

[Wrestlevania]

Video.

Games.

[Cleinhun]

I do like video games

[Zeusthecat]

I've thought about coming back to post many times, but honestly, my views on many things have evolved over the years and to be blunt, I'm not confident that healthy discussions can be had on these forums with the appropriate level of nuance. Which is a problem for me because if I'm going to post, I have to be able to be open, honest, and vulnerable about my thoughts on things. Quite frankly, towards the end of my time posting heavily on these forums, it started feeling more and more like conversations would get shut down and people banned just when the conversations were starting to get interesting. Words like "dog whistle" and "so-and-so-phobic" got wheeled out to derail legitimately interesting points. It stopped feeling like two sides debating points on an issue and more like one side arguing a point and accusing the other side of being evil for not agreeing with the point. We used to point out logical fallacies when having a discussion and then somehow fell victim to a style of debate that heavily hinged on fallacies.

 

Then on the video game side, I'm still just a Minecraft junkie like always and that was never really a big thing here.

 

I realize some will read this post and think "oh no, Zeus went far right", but at this point, if that is how a post like this is interpreted I just shrug my shoulders. My desire for fruitful conflict has exceeded my desire for people to not get the wrong idea about me. There are so many competing forces and ideologies and when you step back from it all and try to make sense of what's happening in our world, there are some very interesting conversations we could be having if we had the guts to have them. But at the same time, if me having these conversations here is going to hurt people's feelings, then it's not worth it to me and I'll just remain silent and have these conversations elsewhere. I am still a people pleaser after all and would rather not debate at all than debate and have someone's feelings get hurt. 

 

I do truly cherish the time I spent posting on these forums and it's great to see some of you still posting. It'll be interesting to see where things go from here if they go anywhere at all!

[clyde]

I've come to similar conclusions. I have learned a lot about how to communicate effectively and empathically with folks and those skills do not translate well to text. And like Zeusthecat, I have a lot of gratitude for the conversations that were had here. I did learn a lot about my unacknowledged biases, but the tendencies of group-think, divisiveness, and consumer/fandom banter that is noise to me (because I don't really have much interest in pop-culture anymore) eventually  changed where I wanted to spend my time. This is not specific to Idle Forums, but to all the online communities I chatted with for extended periods of time. 

In-person interactions are much more easy for me to access now due to a change in my geographic location, if I was still living in a rural place then I might still have the need to post.

[Zeusthecat]

Right on Clyde. To expand a bit on my side, I've made it a point to immerse myself in things I disagree with and that make me uncomfortable. And some really interesting stuff has happened as a result. I've gotten way happier, way more hopeful, and way more comfortable with conflict. The phenomenon of having an idea that one is completely convinced is true, broadcasting that idea to the world, and seeing it clash with other ideas is such a beautiful thing, if only people weren't so damn attached to their own opinions. 

 

This is going to sound cheesy as fuck, but I've adopted a mentality that has completely changed my outlook on the world. Whereas most people think and assume they are the hero in their story, I take the opposite approach. Statistically speaking, if a hero is out there it is most likely someone else, not me. So when I engage with someone, especially those I disagree with, I put myself in their shoes and imagine they are on a hero's journey and I am the chief supporting character. They are Frodo and I am Sam. And it's my job to help them reach the best possible version of themselves. Notably, I've found that that does not mean just being nice and making the world cozy for them. Quite the contrary: it means challenging them, sometimes vociferously, to try to help them grow in some small way. But it also means treating them as good, decent human beings, regardless of who they voted for and what their political persuasion is. And it means eating shit and acknowledging fault when I have violated my ethos. Which is really no big deal. Being wrong is fine and it's something I'm quite comfortable admitting when it is clearly the case.

 

I hope one day that this is the way the world operates. That everyone could see the tremendous potential in others and contribute to the right conditions for that potential to be met. New ideas and discoveries that move humanity and all of life forward can come from the most unlikely places and if we want to maximize the chance of that happening, we certainly need to stop treating modern discourse as a battle of good versus evil.