Why has the quality of threads on this forum declined so much?

and my porn filter blocks the whole sub forum lol!

 

At least this place is better than the subreddit if nothing else

 

Because there's a political correctness (neo-communism) going on here and you're not allowed to express yourself unless it fits the specific criteria of the rules which one of them is to avoid offending people, therefore people get tired of walking on egg-shells and migrate to brighter places. And the cycle of cyber life continues.

 

There is also a faux-optimism that is endemic among Gen Z-ers, and is particularly rife in this forum. I'm middle-of-the-road millennial, and when I was growing up, it was cool to be nonchalant and blase. Probably an offshoot of grunge and a reaction against the excesses of the 80s. Now it is cool to always be your best self, to always aim to improve your lot in life, and to avoid negativity like the plague, avoiding neutral and solemn emotions even when they're called for.

I like self-improvement as much as the next guy, otherwise I wouldn't be here. And I may be old-fashioned, but I don't know... I like having both the good and the bad. Quality thinking doesn't come when you're mindlessly happy. A bit of negativity to puncture the illusion is clarifying and humanising. Maybe a lack of this is what makes threads here seem less interesting.

Having said that, I'm in the dark as to what made these historical threads better quality. Could the OP post some examples?

 

I only do it for the streak counter, because I don't like reddit. Maybe I should get a reddit appearance plug-in to change it.

 

I think mostly its that the people who made it all so great are gone. I remember being able to log on here regularly and consistently be able to engage in some sort of worthwhile conversation, whether on topic about nofap or off topic. Now it seems like its almost impossible to have a solid thread take off, unless its just a bunch of people yelling at each other. The people mentioned at the beginning of this thread are only a few of the people who made it great. Waldo101 was a great thread starter and conversationalist. There are many more.

Its not just the off topic section either. Ever check out Rebooting in a Relationship recently? Without Kenzi the place has a whole different feel. I don't think Rockstar has logged in for a year either. I hope they are well. The exodus seems to be the case in just about every section these days.

I've tried to bring back some of the old threads, but they seem to quickly die back down. Others have done likewise with the same result.

The other factor has been that a lot of the content has been moved around. For example, all political discussion was moved to its own group. The effect is that the threads are not ever seen by many potential posters. This first happened when the Sandbox was created, and it was a meme at the time that moving a thread to the Sandbox was akin to throwing it in the trash.

 

Maybe some people are being a little more cautious with their posts too. I've only had one caution/post removal with all the shit I've posted here, but it surprised me, because I thought the post was tame compared to some of my other comments. I'm definitely more reluctant to chime in if my post is anything other than an enthusiastic "good job" or "you got this" post.

Censorship kills quality.

 

Just because you like your debates or controversial posts doesn't make these other posts "low quality". It's subjective... not to mention you're evaluating people's posts like some bloody critic, this is a porn recovery forum at the end of the day. lol

 

Except it's not. You claim the "quality" of posts are down, yet what it mainly consisted of was controversial topics that drowned out other posts, in which people just bickered over endlessly (which resulted in folks personally insulting each other and getting banned).

I don't know why you want that back so badly, I mean there's already an area they're put into now no?

 

Eh, it's not an "ad-hominem", I actually just want to know why you want the old stuff back since you honestly have a lot of posts like these, but as you said you're not talking about the debates or whatnot so.

Well, in terms of "quality" posts why not try giving it a go yourself? I don't know what you like but I would think instead of waiting for a post it would be better to post your own. Quite a few people have left and it's a lot more quiet than it used to be, so I don't think whatever it is you're looking for will unfortunately be back any time soon mate.

 

As someone who only very recently started properly reading this site there are 2 criticisms that come to mind.
1: A lot of posts that I read have strong religious undertones. I have no problem with people turning to nofap for religious reasons and I think its a good place to talk about it. However, some of the threads that I have read contain strong ideas of self shame, guilt, fear and hatred caused as a result of going against the teachings of various faiths. This seems especially true in the womens journal section but happens everywhere, theres a lot of guilt going on in there. Obviously its true that we are all here because we have a bad habit and being addicted to PMO is nothing to be proud about. However, I think it would be good for people to offer those that are struggling with shame a little bit of positivity and comfort and lighten up just a little on the religious guilt aspect of the forum.

2. Theres a little bit too much "poor me" going on here. We are all struggling with this. I know the feeling. Im struggling as well. But it would be good to see a few more happy posts. Its so serious here.

 

I think there are two reasons for a drop in quality in most forums these days:
1 - Most things worth saying were said already, and most topics exhausted.
2 - Forums are old fashioned these days, people prefer short content platforms like twitter.

 

I read a book (Tyranny of Email) and many articles that back this statement.

I think you made a good observation here.

It’s a very interesting topic to me.

Through the decades people have been making communication faster and briefer.

It’s effected all of society including interactions at a personal level.

 

Interesting observation about the faux optimism. I'm a younger millennial Catholic, and the faux optimism gets discussed within our Faith and traced back from 1960s onward when 'Conservative Theology' lost out to 'Liberal Theology' that mixed with Frankfort School/Marxism. Since then it's typical of the 'Liberal Intellectuals' within our faith to mask the anti-intellectualism, secularization, and moral relativity with an unearned optimism. When one brings up the actual state of things they get shunned as being 'pessimistic' instead of taken seriously and investigating their claims for truth. While I know everyone here isn't Catholic, I'm noticing this is more universal than recently suspected a year or two ago.

I too would be curious what constitutes 'big brain' threads, on a side note.

Edit - just saw OP's post that further clarifies. My apologies. Personally I love controversial topics, however, once a side begins to either get angry, insult, or want to suppress information, then the discourse ends. I think it comes down to those who genuinely want to search for the truth even if it means re-evaluating their own positions and those who do not want to re-evaluate their positions under any circumstances.

 

Agreed on 1. On 2, I'd also like to see more light-hearted joshing (check people's profiles though, it's better there). It might just be my impression as someone in their early 30s, but it seems to me good humour about adversity comes with age. I seem to remember being incredibly serious about every. goddamn. thing. when I was in my early-to-mid 20s. When you're that age, the entire world is a competition and you're out against every other neckbeard who lives in mum and dad's basement with too much time on his hands to prove that you're the best at X or that you're hot shit at Y. Or maybe that's just me.

 

It sounds like you know more about its heritage than I do. I'm surprised to see that idea mirrored in theology. On a related note I started my forum adventures on an infamous and now defunct forum for 'faith dialogue' in the 2000s - it was a big shouting match, but it was enlightening and I learned a lot from some well-informed people there (I'm not religious, but I used to be). What was nice was that people didn't shy away from causing offence and there wasn't a pervasive view that people were entitled to their delusions. No one was beneath dignity, but no one was above criticism.

 

No, I definitely agree and as far as I'm aware that plays into Marxism which is about class struggle.

Race vs race
Young vs old
Poor vs rich
Left vs right

This is why I wish Greek and Medieval Philosophy were mandatory Gen Eds in public universities. Let people get more exposure to worldviews besides the class struggle/endless competition mentality.

 

Definitely agree, that's where discourse should be (and used to be). Ideas or ideologies shouldn't be above criticism including faith, and that's coming from a religious person.