Has ILE become too pally?

More people meeting each other = more pally posts.

Also: when ILX started the core posters were a few Brits who mostly knew one another anyway and had a separate mailing list for banter and nonsense. Now the locus is a bigger group of New Yorkers who mostly met through ILX so it's natural ILX is the scene for a lot more social stuff.

it bugs me that some people seem to be on ilx exclusively to make flirtatious three-word posts and flatter themselves

Yeah, this bugs me quite a lot. There are people who can be absolutely *guaranteed* to follow posts by certain other people with nudge-nudge flirtation and private jokes, and sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's irritating. Mostly I just think it would be better kept off-board, as it's a bit showy-off, kinda territorial and just a bit icky.

Anyway, I'm a touchy fuckx0r, so this may just be me (and amateurist, if I can speak for him, as I suspect he wasn't being sarcastic), but... there you go.

Ormskirk ILX - And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Bickering

So if I sometimes seem crotchety, it's largely for this reason.

"mouth"

Incidentally Jess I didn't have you in mind as one of the people who seems unnaturally effusive and enthusiastic.

I have an ambivalent attitude to those threads. I rarely laugh at what's posted there, partly because it's about context (threads are always funnier if one sees them as they build anyway - there's a strange element of timing, despite the message board format) and partly just cause people have crappy senses of humour. Yet, I can't stop myself pasting stuff there from time to time. It's a weird compulsion. And I always read it in the hope of an ego boost.

I do find it hard to believe that people are sticking to the 'laugh out loud' criterion most of the time.

For me, it's just because I have read something I think is pretty funny. There is no connection to me and I'm not trying to boost anyone's ego. No evil Machia-pally-ian scheme behind it at all.

maybe not but then they are HUGE threads, and while some do dominate there is still a wide range of people both quoting and being quoted on there - and nobody has really complained about it (because they'll just get accused of hating fun).

the 'laugh out loud' threads i dunno - you either like that sort of thing or you dont- i guess i love it. i didnt want it to be just about backslapping, ego-stroking cliqueyness, but i dont really see the harm in that anyway if thats what people want to do. i suppose some people approach a thread like that and they wont laugh at anything on there because often people will not laugh at something when they've been forewarned that its absolutely hilarious.

it seems that way to me, too, but then I have to sit back and realize that these other people ARE NOT ME, and have v. different emotional lives and may mean exactly what they say when they do that effusive ILXor love thing.

I have serious issues with strong emotions and other people probably don't. That's my problem, not theirs. I know exactly where Amateurist is coming from but at the same time I like to think I know where the other side is coming from as well

(obv I do not, to be honest)

In terms of people being supportive and that seeming trivial...there may be some insincerity on these boards, but it seems that very many of these sentiments are real. Especially with the more prolific posters, you get to know people a bit from their posts, and become fond of some of them. And it sucks to see anyone hurt.