Is ILF too cliquey? Are we pushing people away? BST question

[codetocontra]

What is the problem here? We aren't nice to new kids? Hmm? Is it because some of them come here looking to push their new products, their overpriced hype pedals, their band, their demo videos, or gain influencer cred by acquiring more followers? Or do they want to participate in a larger community of explorers of sounds, gear, and otherwise appreciate the humor? People in the former group aren't welcomed because we aren't here for that shit, while the latter group is more than welcome to assimilate. There are a lot of newer names that are fitting in nicely with only a few exceptions of blatant trolling and obtuse agendas.

It is funny that the purpose of a forum is to cultivate a community of like-minded individuals. Eventually relationships and bonds are formed. Running jokes and memes occur. Suddenly it is a "clique" and seen as a bad thing. Yet, I don't see ILF as exclusive. If anyone wants to participate in discussions then they can and will be included. There are a lot of posts in every thread that aren't quoted or replied to, but they do count as part of a larger narrative.

Ironic to introduce the idea that we aren't open to strangers while simultaneously suggest that we have a post-count gate so strangers can't participate in the B/S/T. As it is now, we are pretty open to having complete random people make an account and post whatever pedal for whatever price. We are open to stranger danger, even though sometimes we don't want to get in the van and eat the candy.

[sonidero]

Nobody knows me but please check out all my fake clones in bst and hit me up yo...

[nogodsnobedtimes]

I'm a new guy, and I gotta say ILF is far more welcoming than some other boards. I just sort of wandered in, lurked, joined, and never had to defend myself to prove my worthiness. Though that could be because I read more than I post and I'm not active in B/S/T.

[Seance]

This is new to me. I respect it, but I don't really see it. I might have gotten inside before this cold set though. In my experience most new people who post a little bit here and a little bit there somewhat frequently seem to get included quite well. Worra and Raj spring to mind. Sharktooth too.

Fun fact: I just noticed that you joined ILF a few months after me and yet you have nearly 10,000 more posts than I do.

I have no real point, I'm just hoping that this trenchant observation will raise my post count.

[coldbrightsunlight]

You're obviously just not enough of a nerd.

[ibarakishi]

^^^really underappreciated post



but on a real note, i can say personally that everyone has been really welcoming and including to me here. I know i don't have a huge post count. But people have still lent their support and respected me. Curtis has helped me out more times than he probably should have. When i have asked questions, i have always received polite answers from other members, even if my questions were inexperienced. I have already stated this in the other thread about the community here though.

I was just talking to somebody about this not too long ago, how honestly though the relationships that i have found and made through ILF are seriously some of the nicest ones that i have. Talking to and working with people outside of the forum too is great. I really value these people in more ways than i will state here. But really, that is my favorite part of ILF. I wouldn't have met these people and been able to talk with them and have them become a part of my life if i hadn't started participating here.

I know i don't have a lot of weight in this topic, and because i am not a longtime member my opinion probably will not be regarded very highly by most, but i think one of the strongest aspects of ILF is that it is an open community with very little authority outside of its own community care. The benefit of this system is that it is as strong as all its member are. The opposite is true too, in that if people stop caring and participating in their community, and investing in it, then things become broken fast. ILF is only what people decide to bring too it, and it loses whatever people decide to take away. I cannot speak for others, but i would rather live with the cost and possible risk of ruin to hold my own freedom than to surrender it to some authority to make my choices for me. The things that people are bringing up about B/S/T are understandable too, but i think in the end ultimately you have the freedom to choose to not deal with someone who has a low post count. And if the person with a low post count who wants to buy something is a rational and somewhat logical person, they will completely understand that because of their low post count people will be slow to place a lot of trust in anything dealing with a lot of money. The minimal post count for B/S/T i think would discourage some people from abusing that freedom a little bit, but ultimately there will always be somebody that will just want to work the system if they see enough value in the end game.

When i was just starting ILF, i traded with JonnyAngle and he was incredibly nice to send something here to me in Thailand. I don't even remember how low my post count was then, but it was super low. But i told him when i contacted him about his B/S/T post that because of my low post count and because i lived in Thailand i would completely understand if nobody ever wanted to participate with me. I really respect him a lot for that, but i know what a risk that was on his part too.

I have a lot more i could say about this, but i will just leave it at this.

A long time ago someone told me:

'Fear is the thief of freedom, forgiveness is the triumph of anger, and love is the thread that silently stitches back together hope.'

[Chankgeez]

I just kinda see this place as the misfit table in the school cafeteria, you have the nerd, the dweeb, the spaz, the gothy one, the one obsesses with superheroes, etc.. All drawn together for protection from... Them...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJsqv3JStWI[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJsqv3JStWI

[Chankgeez]

Nobody knows me but please check out all my fake clones in bst and hit me up yo...

I don't know who you are, but I think I'd buy a fake clone from you any day.

[ibarakishi]

I just kinda see this place as the misfit table in the school cafeteria, you have the nerd, the dweeb, the spaz, the gothy one, the one obsesses with superheroes, etc.. All drawn together for protection from... Them...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJsqv3JStWI[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJsqv3JStWI

'i miss kristina...'

deep moment and deep feelings

[Seance]

You're obviously just not enough of a nerd.

Obviously.


But permit me to engage in this tangential rant for a hot minute......





I am not a "pedal nerd" because that term is fucking bullshit. This whole "blahblah nerd" shit has jumped the shark.
I reject the word "nerd".

If "nerd" is applied to everything for which people are enthusiastic or even just vaguely interested in,
then the word means nothing. Time to kill that word and bury it with "bling" and "butt hurt" in an unmarked
grave. Does that make me a "language nerd"? Or perhaps this post proves that I'm a "rant nerd"?

It's like the fucking word "hipster". It means nothing. "Hipster" is always other people doing pretty much the same
things that you do. A woman I know with horn-rim glasses and sleeve tattoos who incessantly embroiders inane bullshit and
sells it on Etsy always natters on caustically about "hipsters" and what "hipsters" do and how terrible they are.
What in the living fuck?!? Why hate who you are and what you do? Why hate people who like/love the same things you do?

The internet makes most things mutually present and coequal on the same playing field. To hate those who love what you
love is to allow the internet to infect your thinking processes and determine your own stances. In politics this is poisonous.
In cultural life it is a stance devoid of sense or empathy or humanity.

And let's be honest, "hipsters" were originally the Beats. Then a new generation came along that wanted to be some of that,
but also were a bit of something else and people basically called them pseudo or "wannabe hipsters" by calling them "Hippies".
They weren't quite cool enough, or legitimately cool, in the eyes of the Beats.

So are modern "hipsters" a shoddy imitation of a shoddy imitation of real 1950s "hipster"? The tactic of being "ironic" about
everything that you surround yourself with and drape on your body and ingest was a response to the deadly boring "earnestness"
of the Hippies. But enthusiasm is not the problem... being fake or hypocritical and contradictory about it is the problem.

There was a documentary about the "Summer of Love" in San Francisco and this old Hippie guy talked about how "fun" it was
to not have a job, "ball chicks" and get high and then get free meals courtesy of The Diggers. And then he bemoaned how
just a few years later it was "such a bummer" when the people getting those free meals "really needed them". They broke
the fantasy! Their real and legitimate need and poverty sullied the illusion of this entitled Hippie-cockhead. He was just
play-acting Utopia and these dirty, sullied real humans ruined his fantasy with their actuality and real struggles.

But just because Hippies are hypocrites doesn't mean that enthusiasm or genuine engagement is lame or meaningless.


The only solution is to start talking about being a "hipster nerd". Perhaps the self-referential outwardly expressed
self-loathing will create a blackhole that will consume the word "hipster" and the word "nerd" forever.




At the end of the day, deep down in my heart, I guess I'm pretty much a "fart nerd". Fart jokes just do
not miss. Every time I hear a car horn or a buzzer go off I say "Excuse me"—acting as if I had just farted.
It never gets old. Part of the joke is apologizing for farting since the world is now a place where
people don't apologize for verbal diarrhea, much less for an inert percussive poof of air farted in an elevator.










And that, evidently, is why my post count is so low.

[BetterOffShred]

Dude.. my man! We should hang out. I'll buy beer!!

[Chankgeez]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIpc_2rayFM[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIpc_2rayFM

[Snufkino]

ILF is a small community and so it can be slow. Threads usually tend to stay on page 1 for ages or die off quickly. Somewhere like TGP things move a lot faster simply due to the larger community and diversity of topics. ILF has more "personalities" which might be off-putting for some I guess. I wouldn't say TGP is totally devoid of personality, but it's more that it has the ubiquity of a shopping centre. You know what you're going to get, things seem busy so you naturally gravitate toward it.

I don't post often, but that's mainly because I have nothing to add. I'm just here for the P U R P L E and B/S/T.

PS
Buy my shit.

PPS
Sorry none of it is purple.

[codetocontra]

Somewhere like TGP ... diversity of topics

You mean 5 threads on one page about the same thing?

[Chankgeez]

ILF is a small community and so it can be slow. Threads usually tend to stay on page 1 for ages or die off quickly. Somewhere like TGP things move a lot faster simply due to the larger community and diversity of topics. ILF has more "personalities" which might be off-putting for some I guess. I wouldn't say TGP is totally devoid of personality, but it's more that it has the ubiquity of a shopping centre. You know what you're going to get, things seem busy so you naturally gravitate toward it.

I don't post often, but that's mainly because I have nothing to add. I'm just here for the P U R P L E and B/S/T.

PS
Buy my shit.

PPS
Sorry none of it is purple.

If you built a purple overdrive, TGP'd be all over that.