My great pleasure @
Ontheroad I was an early member of EP. and SW when it came out, as EP fell.
what is different has a lot to do with WHEN it was different.
consider these common viewpoints.
EP was more civil, less angry shouts,, more discourse. less single point input more nuanced discussion
This is true.. in the first years in the "aughties" this was entirely true
But as time passed, more and more participants, in EP started to show more of not only the angry short form rhetoric, but an uptick of misogynistic men who simultaneously were sexually aggressive,, dick pics,, "show me your tits" kind of thing.
I think this was mirroring the continual advance of the Culture of Anger, that was in ascendance across America and reflected in Social Media.
Social Media itself , has fostered this Culture of Anger,, Right and left. It is one thing to be a Rude and Hateful Ass-Hat,
when you are anonymous or out of physical reach compared to real world interactions where a loud obnoxious and hateful person will find them selves ostracized, even from those communities they are naturally a part of.
Both "cancel Culture", and MAGA would not have been as successful, without that hard to reach nature of social media, VS real Social interaction.
So YES EP was nicer,, and smarter on the average than SW is now, but I insist much of this can be lain at the foot of that increase of left/right anger, bereft of natural Human systems that support decent civility
Is SW guilty of things? sure..
The wholesale erasure of uncounted thousands, of posts and responses, some few years back, enraged many. the thoughtful and creative content that was overnight removed, for reasons that were never made clear. the merging of groups hardly related, often into repulsive ones, was a denial of our collective creativity. I never took part in discussions of *ahem* "Bathroom Erotica" yet I found myself grouped with such, to my dismay. This WAS a mistake by the admins of SW
In addition We have lost so MANY excellent posters,,
educated beyond the norm, full of information in detail. Often because they were either,, attractive and not hiding it, but non responsive to shallow sexual bullying.
We lost these wonderful creatives, yet KEPT those that bullied them.
We have lost many of the younger people, especially Girls, who found themselves swamped by a combination of the Misogynists and Sexually aggressive incels, helpless to this onslaught
they fled, and who could blame them? the SW system has little in place to deal with this
so Was EP better? By some measures YES
but SW is reflecting the increasing vitriol that
social media by its very nature, encourages. when Quality is subservient to angry clickbait , driven by goal of Ad revenue.
It is my HOPE that, this post gets more traction, and perhaps can spawn
considered evolution of this Community.
I do NOT have the Answers
perhaps we can find them together
and yes, I imagine there were be a lot of anger,, at this response as well. i hope it will be more civil than is usual.
Thoughts?
