Journal of Other Forum Analysis (Volume II, Issue 1)

[Ethan]

IrishNinja The forum just got less entertaining without that little shit-stirrer. 
How will Nep react to the perma banning of her #1 simp and white knight?

[Boredfrom]

Well, the site is still hell on mobile.

That is indeed correct sadly

If Opera didn't do the resize everything to fit the screen when you zoom in thing I'd never read the Bore.

You're checking out the wrong profiles....go take a look at IrishNinja's....

Lmao




Melody and Fat4all replying:

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Some of the worst posters on those replies.

Fat4all is baiting for a ban so hard that I really want him not to be banned anymore.  

But BDubs is going to BDumb, so I expect a regular ban.

[Boredfrom]

IrishNinja using a gendered insult. 

Yikes. Mask off.

[Snoopy]

They always seem so upset when the rules they’ve spent years championing are upheld

[benji]

Well, since they're increasingly hiding their accounts from being embedded:

[Boredfrom]

They know that Nepenthe is not trapped against her will?

[railGUN]

ACAB, unless my neighbors are being too noisy and I don't want to make personal contact so they don't know who is upset about what they're doing.

Or, ACABUMNABTNAIDWTMPCSTDKWIUAWYD for short.

[Ethan]

"Some members are too popular that if he permed them their actually be a mass exodus"

Oh sweet summer child...

[Snoopy]

If these prominents are so popular then why are they so terrified of a likes system

[HaughtyFrank]

"Prominent members" lol 

There is no one left. Everyone else is despised by the rest of the userbase

[nachobro]

Random constructive dump. Too lazy/tired to provide commentary, but some fun stuff here:

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Does anyone have any ideas on how to improve posting quality? It's been a while now that I've had the sense that the average level of posting has taken a nosedive quality wise. Many threads are dominated by drivebys, snark and various amounts of toxicity. Is there anything that can be done or is it futile to even try? How can people be encouraged to put more effort in their posts?

In terms of this, there's only so much we can do on our end. We try our best to be good examples in these threads, though we sometimes fail as humans do, but it needs to be understood that everyone is fighting against the tide of the modern internet. Social media algorithms will actively reward the exact sort of behaviors that you talk about because they're what generates engagement most reliably. Ill-informed hot takes, snarky nonsense, and toxic nonsense are what gets people going viral. This is exactly the sort of thing we've been discussing how to fight internally for literally years now. I remember talking about it way back in like 2019.

I would say, probably, the best way to promote better discussion and whatnot is to not even engage with the sort of posts you are talking about and engage with the posters trying to have a real discussion. When people see their drive-bys and snark don't get them the same engagement they get on twitter or tiktok or whatever, they'll change their ways. The whole thing is learned behavior from other parts of the internet and so long as it keeps getting them engagement, they'll keep doing it.

A karma system. Posted about it a few days ago but didn't get any responses lol. Thoughts?


This was in the context of helping mods make more informed decisions with bans but also could have a direct impact on the quality of posts if people start realizing they’re being “seen” for their efforts, even just on a backend level of building your profile history.

So, there's a bit of an issue here and it's largely the same with the idea of a likes system: what happens when people upvote (or whatever) a post that is low-key bigoted that we need to ban? We've been in a position where we've had to ban "popular" posts because they were just bigoted and either nobody realized it or thought the bigotry was justified or just didn't care and it's always been a dumpsterfire. Every single time. It's even worse when we have to ban a popular poster for constantly breaking the rules and thinking they are immune and that their popularity protects them from consequence.

It's not a bad idea, but we have to consider all the potential ramifications of doing it. From history, we know that even smaller changes can have outsized effects and make our lives a living hell in the future.

I don't know how to tackle this problem, or if it's even worth it.

It's increasingly difficult to talk about things I like or am enthusiastic about. Everything here is always surrounded by a deep and thick shroud of cynicism and negativity, I think I just can't anymore.

And god forbid I happen to have a slightly different opinion than the status quo dictated by social media, then I'm in for a very bad time. It dawned on me today in a thread I started. Here, trying to have friendly debates and healthy thought exchanges is so soul draining and always ends up being essentially impossible. Why should I continue trying? I'm not that masochistic.

During most of my time here all I wanted was to discuss things I love. It's of no interest to me to go into threads talking about stuff I dislike or don't care about, I mainly just want to share my enthusiasm about things that make me passionate and happy.

Why does it all feel so disheartening and soul crushing all of a sudden?

People just seem to only want to pound on each other lately. I don't know if it's the aftereffects of the election, of the pandemic, or just a general sentiment that's been brewing on the internet for years and finally boiled over in 2024, but on a general level it just feels like people (not just here!) only seem to get joy out of knowing they made someone else's day worse, either by catching them in a rhetoric trap or rubbing their nose in a mistake they believe they made.

The state of everything has probably bittered almost everyone to some extent.  Not surprising to see it directly tie into lower forum quality.

Thank you everyone for your replies to my question about posting quality, I read all of them carefully. It seems pretty much everyone agrees that the current state of the internet and social media in general encourages toxicity and snark. It would be very hard to snap people out of that behavior through punishment since it is so ingrained everywhere.

So here's my idea after reading all of your posts: what if we create a new type of thread that is all about thoughtful discussion of a topic? A possible name that came to me is "Deep Dive", followed by the topic that will be discussed, like so:

"Deep Dive: The future of Xbox"
"Deep Dive: The biggest challenges for the games industry"
"Deep Dive: Switch 2 as a competitor to Playstation"

The topics were chosen randomly. The threads would have a clear declaration in the OP (maybe a standard one for all of them) that the posters that will want to participate will be held to a higher standard and will be expected to present thoughtful arguments and avoid hostility or snark. Those rules could be enforced via warnings and thread bans if the administration thinks this would be an interesting experiment worth trying.

The general idea is to create a better type of thread that carries more 'prestige' and that people will want to post in, thus they will have to put more thought and effort into their posts.

ban all the good, interesting, "fun" posters with something to say cause all the petty snitches mass report them for an ounce of wrongthing. wonder why there's no one left posting good stuff and your forum is full of backbiting complainers.

[benji]

Ninja is even defending Nepenthe in his post, Nepenthe who banned some guy permanently for saying she shouldn't be a mod on twitter

Apparently is now a thing:

[Boredfrom]

Ninja is even defending Nepenthe in his post, Nepenthe who banned some guy permanently for saying she shouldn't be a mod on twitter

Apparently is now a thing:

How convenient that they have forgotten that.

[benji]

Yuu is Android Sophia if not obvious:

[kaleidoscopium]

I cannot wait for their eventual spinoff forum, trans-era or some shit. Will be the ultimate implosion.

[DavidCroquet]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/how-a-super-conservative-company-accidentally-created-the-world%E2%80%99s-top-sex-toy.1082727/

lol

I guess it just goes to show how much society back then ignored women and their issues.

It's like a mirror.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/how-a-super-conservative-company-accidentally-created-the-world%E2%80%99s-top-sex-toy.1082727/#post-134321652

I mean, yeah. That's the point I was making. We collectively care so little about women and their needs that a shoulder massager became the world's best selling female sex toy. It's a pretty good metaphor for the whole situation. Hence the thread. Well, also the fact the article is also pretty funny.

...or hitachi accidentally captured lightning in a bottle and hasn't yet been surpassed? This is quite obviously a "discovery of penicillin" situation: if you're arguing that there aren't enough dedicated designers/engineers working on this problem now, then I don't know what to tell you, other than that I am sorry you have such limited interaction with women. 

The wand came with my first prescription of Estradiol.

[benji]

Would be interesting what the likes of Morrigan, Dice and the others in that sexy women characters thread would think of Melody and Cenuaru's bluesky retweets...

How about their own tweets?

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

lol at Fat being all "I want people to see him ban me" as if anyone would be up in arms about the unfunny gimmick poster being banned. Dude is constantly being banned lately, and no one cares. 

Going from his "I'm a dog" gimmick to "I'm a dog and also a creepy sex pest" probably doesn't help matters.

[Polident]

Old fashioned or prudish, it’s still shocking when I go to a CVS and see clit blaster 8000 next to multivitamins.

[Propagandhim]

Lol none of them say any of this shit on the forum.  How cowardly.

[DavidCroquet]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/xiaohongshu-known-as-rednote-in-english-jumps-up-the-apple-app-store-charts-as-the-tiktok-ban-looms.1081242/page-6#post-134317875

Yeah some of the reaction seems to be that it's fine to turn a blind eye to LGBTQ+ censorship if you want to feel like you're sticking it to Zuck and the American government.

[DavidCroquet]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/xiaohongshu-known-as-rednote-in-english-jumps-up-the-apple-app-store-charts-as-the-tiktok-ban-looms.1081242/page-6#post-134318940

Another moderator highlight incoming.

BufBaf: "Why are we cheering on this thing that is self-evidently worse and counter to the generally accepted morality of ResetEra"

Professor Kyuuji: <1000 word anthropological analysis that sidesteps the question entirely and focuses on "interesting" cultural dynamics>

BufBaf: "Wow fascinating I love your post please don't have your discord minions dogpile and ban me 🤩💖✨"

[Steven Snell]

Would be interesting what the likes of Morrigan, Dice and the others in that sexy women characters thread would think of Melody and Cenuaru's bluesky retweets...

How about their own tweets?

What normal things to say.

[HaughtyFrank]

You absolute pieces of shit. Not a moment of reflection that you were part of the people that got the game banned. Not a thought wasted on how many members were permanently banned for disagreeing that the game is a transphobic manifesto. No, it's just evil b-dubs now whose real mistake is to not rescind the ban 5 years after the game was released.

[Polident]

So they all use avatars of cartoon children, huh?

[DocWager]

So they all use avatars of cartoon children, huh?

Pretty obvious, isn’t it?

[DavidCroquet]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/tiktok-to-be-immediately-shut-off-on-sunday-for-all-u-s-users-including-existing-users-who-have-already-downloaded-it.1082913/#post-134329848

Feels like this is a good time for people to just consider disconnecting from any endless scrolling apps. I don't even use TikTok but I'm considering getting off Instagram, or at least rarely opening it.

Would be nice if we could just use this a moment to move on from this as a society.

Xiao will become better than TikTok ever even was.

[Polident]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/tiktok-to-be-immediately-shut-off-on-sunday-for-all-u-s-users-including-existing-users-who-have-already-downloaded-it.1082913/#post-134329848

Feels like this is a good time for people to just consider disconnecting from any endless scrolling apps. I don't even use TikTok but I'm considering getting off Instagram, or at least rarely opening it.

Would be nice if we could just use this a moment to move on from this as a society.

Xiao will become better than TikTok ever even was.

Setting aside the digital blackface, the “own thing” is trying to take over a Chinese social media app.

The colonizing spirit is too strong.

[Ethan]

Xiaohongshu has a history of queer people finding space there as best they can though. It's interesting to read into how queer people do interact with the platforms and how that's changed over time.

Please lecture us on the history of queer people finding space on Xiaohongshu Kyuuji, an app you didn't know existed 48 hours ago.

[HaughtyFrank]

Xiaohongshu has a history of queer people finding space there as best they can though. It's interesting to read into how queer people do interact with the platforms and how that's changed over time.

Please lecture us on the history of queer people finding space on Xiaohongshu Kyuuji, an app you didn't know existed 48 hours ago.

*Meta changes rules*

"OH MY GOD, THIS IS LITERALLY GENOCIDE"

*Chinese apps has censorship in place that makes facebook look like LGBT utopia*

"It's actually quite interesting to see how queer people interact with platforms and how that changes over time"