The Pararelational Paradox

[Jubal]

they are not going to delete search results containing some key technical term because in another context it is rude

True (though this does remind me of the fact that Exilian has a filter on a few core swear words, not actually because they're banned but because it's now an ancient and time honoured tradition that on Exilian we insult people by telling them that they're portugaling stupid and talking bullarmadillo rather than the originals of those words - there's a large exceptions list, of course, because we had somebody get very confused once when they posted about the Kushitic empire!)

It just seems like face-to-face communities reward "the organizer" and "the person who sends the weekly emails" but right now Internet culture is focused on people each pushing their own individual identity and hoping to make money out of it.

This is one of the bits I'm most interested in, because clearly it hasn't always been the case. When I was first running Exilian, we never had any problems finding enough people to do those organising roles. People were quite competitive about getting the various signifiers of rising in a website's hierarchy, and a fair number of those people would put in some work in order to get that. Now, we have important constitutionally defined positions that we just can't fill. I don't know where that middle cadre has gone or how to persuade them back into existence with new recruits, but I feel it's one of the key nuts to crack regarding getting a more workable internet again.

[Othko97]

Are you on Mastodon, Othko, speaking of more decentralised and open source platforms?

I am, similarly I try to use matrix (or IRC) for instant messaging, but convincing people to install another messaging service is a challenge.

right now Internet culture is focused on people each pushing their own individual identity and hoping to make money out of it

I think this is the centre of the issue, without the near obsession with making money there would be a lot less incentive to create these relationships.

[dubsartur]

How long has Exilian been around?  From my point of view, many communities moved from decentralized sites to darknets like FB in 2012/2013, Violet Blue thinks it was around 2013 because in that year as many people viewed the web on small Android/iOS devices as on conventional devices with a browser. 

I think it depends on the genre of your website though, and that a lot of the people saying "everyone is on smartphones" or "you need a birdsite account" are speaking magic not description though: they are trying to make something true by saying it, like political commentators.

[Jubal]

@Othko - I'm at jubalbarca@mastodon.at, and exilian is exilianofficial@mastodon.at, if you want to find me/us there


@dubs: We were founded on March 18, 2008

And yeah, agreed with the "everyone is on" silliness - besides/anyway, you absolutely can use Exilian on a smartphone browser, I regularly post from my phone. I've occasionally wondered if a specific app to access us would help, but decided it sounds like far too much work.

[dubsartur]

And I am https://scholar.social/@bookandswordblog

[Othko97]

Followed you all, I am coldtom@mastodon.social.

[Jubal]

And likewise