Philosophy Now Forum

Only 42 different threads with new posts within the last 7 days. Only 12 threads with new posts in the last 24 hours, and I was the most recent poster in 5 of those.

Of course, one might champion quality over quantity, but have you actually read most of the recent posts? So there goes that approach.

A lot of regulars seem to have abandoned the board recently, too. And there don't seem to be very active new users appearing.

I've been posting on http://thephilosophyforum.com/discussions more lately, but that's relatively slow, too.

It's always been slow and could be a little slower I think.

It isnt slow! It is "speciall"

About 50% of the absence is either Bill's attention seeking or the rest of us pointing out that he is unhinged. He got especially excitable in the election run up and there's a couple of threads where he seemed to think that by looking at stuff on Wikipedia and posting here, he was personally driving the US election news cycle. All that excitement, followed by not actually winning, appears to have broken him psychologically, causing him to convert to Trumpism, complete a with a garnish of 2+2=5 if Big Donald says it is so.

He is probably wandering the wilderness for 40 days or whatever, and will no doubt return soon to tell us of all the amazing new thoughts he has had. I am sure they will be just as enlightening as the last batch. He will presumably thank us for waiting so patiently for his triumphal return as our leader from his dark teatime of the soul.

Bob always seems to post less when Bill isn't around. My working theory is no longer that they are the same person though. I now think that Bob won't have a computer in his house because the feds would use it to spy on him. So he probably relies on Bill to drive him to the library.

FlashDangerpants wrote:About 50% of the absence is either Bill's attention seeking or the rest of us pointing out that he is unhinged. He got especially excitable in the election run up and there's a couple of threads where he seemed to think that by looking at stuff on Wikipedia and posting here, he was personally driving the US election news cycle. All that excitement, followed by not actually winning, appears to have broken him psychologically, causing him to convert to Trumpism, complete a with a garnish of 2+2=5 if Big Donald says it is so.

He is probably wandering the wilderness for 40 days or whatever, and will no doubt return soon to tell us of all the amazing new thoughts he has had. I am sure they will be just as enlightening as the last batch. He will presumably thank us for waiting so patiently for his triumphal return as our leader from his dark teatime of the soul.

Bob always seems to post less when Bill isn't around. My working theory is no longer that they are the same person though. I now think that Bob won't have a computer in his house because the feds would use it to spy on him. So he probably relies on Bill to drive him to the library.

This is so hilariously accurate.

In response to the OP, I think the "level" of involvement comes in waves. It seems that people have to step away sometimes to "upgrade" themselves based on new information. Hopefully they return with a cleaner and smoother operating system, rather than just a bunch of ill-conceived patches to the same old program.

It seems that there are two common approaches to communicating on the forum: announcing what one thinks or believes, or mercilessly attacking what another thinks or believes. Which then discourages some people from "stepping out" and/or encourages some people to become even more rigid and unyielding.

My favorite discussions are the ones that really question what we think we know. To genuinely do that, I think we have to set aside our need to know an ultimate answer. So I guess I prefer to prove that we don't know, than to prove that we know.

Coming up with imaginary answers seems far less valuable than realizing how immobilized we are by imaginary answers!!

Most people don't seem interested in this though. They want to CLAIM TO KNOW... and they won't be deterred! It seems so pointless... and somewhat delusional... to me. Like dogs fighting over a meaningless pull-toy.

Despite this, I do my best to explore and express all kinds of things I might not get to do otherwise, even when I'm wrestling in the mud with people. It almost always entertains me and shows me something new, or else I wouldn't do it. I'm not sure what greater "point" there's supposed to be.

Some interesting posters do seem to have disappeared. It's not exactly a 'social' forum, so there's no way of knowing what happens to people when they suddenly disappear. Obvious Leo was an exception.

Lacewing wrote: In response to the OP, I think the "level" of involvement comes in waves. It seems that people have to step away sometimes to "upgrade" themselves based on new information. Hopefully they return with a cleaner and smoother operating system, rather than just a bunch of ill-conceived patches to the same old program.

Actually is some cases it's more like resetting, when faced with contradictory evidence, some people go away in order to dismiss and discard the new information, and come back with the same old BS. There is no assimilation of new data and information, just a resetting so they can continue with the same old rant. There is no improvement or change to what they post.

I'm hunting posters IRL

TSBU wrote:I'm hunting posters IRL

Why?

because I like to see questions like "Was ths forum always this slow?" or "why?"

FlashDangerpants wrote: He is probably wandering the wilderness for 40 days or whatever, and will no doubt return soon to tell us of all the amazing new thoughts he has had.

Please, he's a divinely inspired prophet, what do you expect him to do?