Welp. Here I am, back where I started

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It was the Spring of 2003. For my birthday, my older brother (who is an avid reader) wanted to get me (who he knows is not an avid reader of long-form novels) some books that he thought were “more akin to my attention span”. He had gotten me two of David Letterman’s Top Ten Lists books, and two of the Straight Dope books.

As much as I hate to say it, I liked all of them. And, yes, they were more akin to my attention span. I naturally progressed to the Straight Dope website, and then, like a platform drug, to the messageboards.

But then Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, Rumble, Odysee, Ruqqus, and Gab happened. Like the LED billboards of Times Square, it was like injecting neon directly into my veins.

Then, half of them said I wasn’t welcome anymore.

Them: “Yep. Nope. Get out of here.”
Me: “Wait. I thought this was supposed to be an open forum, like the town square?”
Them: “Thanks for participating. Here’s your copy of Section 230. Please get your foot out of the door. K. Thanks. Bye.”

I must not be alone in this conundrum, because everything old is new again, and the World Wide Web is looking a lot like it did twenty years ago. Mom and Pop, and brick and mortar PhpBB forums are popular for people to congregate at again. Even WinAmp is popular again.

So, here I am. I’m going to get reacquainted, but it doesn’t look like much has changed (thankfully).

Things I’m into. Quiet pensive thought and daydreaming. My house. RPGs. DayZ. Techno music. Any overly-produced music, actually. Learning stuff from other people. Streaming on platforms. Sharing information and stories. Spoken word. Using new information to adjust my thinking. Doing my own research on topics. Those topics can best be summed up as how all the little parts put together create and power the overall engine.

It’s nice to meet everyone (again).

2

Welcome back!

3

Quick question. Is there a way to get rid of all of the extra widgets and stuff on the messageboard page? I like a more sterile and linear look.

4

Try different skins under Preferences and see if there is one you like better than the default. Maybe they’re not called skins any more, but like that.

5

I use the format of “Sam’s Simple Theme”. It’s pretty pared down, as I recall. I didn’t like the default look of the new board. Go to Preferences, then interface and play around with the themes.

Welcome home!

StG

6

Hi.
I’ve read your name before.

7

I thought I found you funny/interesting to read.

I scanned back on your threads, Nope, not you. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:
Kidding.

My favorite posters are interesting types.

Make your new threads I’ll read them and may post a reply.

I’m the official resident re-reader of old threads.*

*not really official, I made that up. I just talk about it alot

8

IS THAT A THREAT

9

Welcome back Old Timer, uhh, @Chicago_Faucet I’m an old time lurker. I post much more than I used to.

@Beckdawrek doesn’t make threats. She merely states facts (as she sees them anyway) and sometimes some pretty good not-entirely-trues.

10

I’m curious–what exactly does one say to get kicked off boards like that over speech issues?

11

Never.
I’m sure I’ll enjoy them.

I’m harmless.:smiling_face:

12

Welcome. Back.

At the risk of sounding old, all that newfangled social media sucks, I know because I spend all day on Reddit. It’s terrible.

13

I was kind of wondering that myself. You generally have to pretty toxic to be removed from places like Twitter (especially with Musk in charge), Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and YouTube. Like Twitter has literal Nazis on it.

14

And if you get kicked off of Gab, boy howdy!

15

I just realized that I forgot to mention Discord, too. But, it’s pretty easy to get kicked off of them.

Someone disagrees with you, and they flag or report you.

They can then go into your post history, and start flagging and reporting those, too.

If you get enough of those, well, then that is a “trend”, and you get booted.

That’s one course of events. Another course of events is when someone says, “Hey, what conspiracy theories are we not allowed to talk about?”, and you answer them.

16

Getting booted from Discord makes more sense since those servers are run by individuals.

17

Yeah. I use Guilded. It’s higher-quality anyway.

18

It’s what I’ve been using for … decades now?

I love its interface. My only current annoyance is that I have an m3u list that will literally erase the information for more than one song (meta and location). If I reload without saving it’s there again, but this happens a lot and is very annoying. My best guess is that WinAmp really doesn’t want to deal with that extremely loooong list. (2275 at current count)

19

What - that’s NOT official??

You learn something new every day.

j

20

I sorta exaggerate my own importance.
:smiling_face: