The unhappiness of ILX

ILX is a community I love.

I have learned a lot from posting here. And following the history of the board has been like reading a vast novel with numerous narrative threads, like house of leaves or something.

But lately what has stood out to me is the extremely bleak emotional tenor of the board. The debates we are having, over and over, don't really stimulate anyone. We're mostly liberal and left leaning and agree on the "main things" but viciously tear each other apart on points of disagreement. The conversations go in circles and no one learns anything. (I am as guilty of this as anyone).

Some posters have taken up very hostile posting styles and have said that they see this as a place to vent or express their despair.

Is this it? Is there nothing exciting or interesting to talk about anymore? Even when threads on non-political topics are bumped, it's usually just like two word posts or something. I don't know if we are utilizing this Internet real estate as well as we could.

It is my dear hope that I am 51'd for this thread. Because that means that I am completely out of line and you all love the way we're doing things here.

fp’d

*hugs treesh*

*becomes treeshhugger*

ilx has always functioned as a depression support group and that is a feature, not a bug

agree that things can seem a bit gloomy sometimes. hiving off political content to a separate board might help. anyway there's the 2019 film poll soon, get psyched!

i have long advocated for a separate politics board.

i wasn't always sure but it certainly feels like it's time now yeah

None of this would be an issue if ILXors were unhappier still.

ILX reflects the life and times of ilxors. It is a notably unhappy time. But I do agree that using ILX to vent stress through hostility or despair is not healthy. We have several threads, including a de-indexed thread on 77 for sharing mental health challenges and supporting one another through them, and these have not been seeing traffic commensurate to the needs I see being deflected to (mostly) the political threads. It seems apparent that many among us could be more compassionate toward one another. I'll try to keep that perspective more often.

ILM is still 95% positive, because music is still good.

I will qualify 'always functioned as a depression support group' actually

way back when, there were a few charitable individuals but (and I stress this is not rly my own experience) the overall mood of the board was much more dismissive towards those with mental health issues - to a callous and even hostile extent

but there has always been a supportive community element idk

that is a good thing obviously and i myself suffer from depression.

i just don't think there needs to be so many politics threads. where are the great debates happening that aren't to do with politics? where something feels like it's at stake but it's not über bleak? i would like to see links to those threads, if they're on ILM or wherever.

So you're saying there should be an I Love Politics board...?

i think so, yeah

I vaguely consider suicide every time I open the uk politics thread. Don't think I can deal with it anymore. But yeah, looking forward to the film poll

The great debates are happening on the slack and are mainly about testicles

Slack is the nü-nü-ILX. ILX is I Love Politics in all but name.

maybe it should be called "politics makes me hate everything"

Everything is political doncha know.

Never understood why there are so many sub boards (maybe 15 years ago it made more sense). Could merge most of them back to ILE and no-one would bat an eyelid.

yeah i mean, a new board wouldn't be a fix unless every time you clicked on it there was a warning

You know what's in here. Do you really want to read it?

YES! | NO! Take me back!

I do wish all the film threads were in the film section. Why did people completely give up on that?

yeah, i don't know

maybe i should get into film and talk to you lot about it

You should check out the classical threads.

classical music? i don't know much about it. would be interested in learning though.

We're polling the late 60s right now. Everyone is welcome!

ILX has been way worse, and angrier, than this

yes

You should totally get into film, treesh! You should start with the best movie ever made: Paddington 2

ilx has been way better, and angrier than this

paddington 2 is an extraordinarily good film though

We should seriously do a Paddington 2 film club. All watch at the same time.

You should come here - Between the Wars AKA The Jazz Age AKA Centuries of Sound Volume 2 - and talk about the music of 1923 with me, it's not a bad year. 1924 will have Rhapsody in Blue!

What's Paddington 2 about?

oooh the all time great, rhapsody in blue

anyway

i have no other thoughts on the unhappiness of ilx or the issues treesh raises

it, and i mean rhapsody in blue, is about hugh grant being a big old meanie

it's usually just like two word posts or something

you got 2 up yr VELOCITY mayne

one easy trick to end the nonstop overwrought political direness: ban the leftists

imago almost totally wrong mind you

Oh hai esby

What's Paddington 2 about?

ILX has been way worse, and angrier, than this

― El Tomboto, Saturday, April 11, 2020 5:09 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes

― mark s, Saturday, April 11, 2020

Thirded. The late 2000s were grim.

Treesh, I rap your knuckles a lot in part because I'm impatient of using, well, most media for confessional real-time venting. But I love you and I want your happiness.

Many of the album and film threads are terrific. Or the books thread!

I do wish all the film threads were in the film section. Why did people completely give up on that?

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, April 11, 2020 4:03 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

IIRC, when I Love Film was started, it wasn't intended as a place for all ILX film discussion, much of which was already taking place on ILE. It was more of a niche thing, for True Cineastes who wanted to nerd out in their own space. In retrospect, this was maybe a mistake.

What's Paddington 2 about?

about an hour & 40 iirc

― force ghost bg (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, April 11, 2020 10:19 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ArcticSphericalBass-size_restricted.gif

Never understood why there are so many sub boards (maybe 15 years ago it made more sense). Could merge most of them back to ILE and no-one would bat an eyelid.

I maintain ILAFL should retain its independence as an island of esotericism and ephemeral in-jokes

about an hour & 40 iirc

Good lord! Jolly good. Well that is a long time, isn't it?

I might try to start film threads in the film section so we can normalize that place someday.

C'mon people now
Shit on yr brother

from Machiavelli's 1525 History of Florence (Walter Dunne's 1901 translation): "The youth having become more dissolute than before, more extravagant in dress, feasting, and other licentiousness, and being without employment, wasted their time and means on gaming and women, their principal study being how to appear splendid in apparel, and attain a crafty shrewdness of discourse."

^ These complaints by the middle-aged-to-elderly are evergreen. The youth never make these complaints about themselves.

The unhappiness of ilx

heres the entire image pic.twitter.com/HipkAvl1qT

— ewan morrison (@MrEwanMorrison) July 4, 2019

a crafty shrewdness of discourse that annoys the shit out of you

All for shrewd discourse, me.

FPed

I forgive you

It's shrove discourse ffs

ilx is all lenten stuff, when you think about it.

and yet none of us is quite able to give it up.

A most ingenious paradox.

when will we start listening to what marvin said

Let’s get it on?

Happy borads are all alike, each unhappy borad is unhappy in its own fashion.

when will we start listening to what marvin said

― Kate (rushomancy),Tuesday, April 14, 2020 2:10 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

"Now that's some good badger milk"?

THAT CREATURE HAS STOLEN THE SPACE MODULATOR!

this makes me very angry very angry indeed

Marvin? he was a friend of mine

"Life? Don't talk to me about life."

You know that new sound you’re looking for?

THAT CREATURE HAS STOLEN THE SPACE MODULATOR!

― Fleetwood Machiavelli (Ye Mad Puffin),Tuesday, April 14, 2020 4:18 PM
Lol

that is a good thing obviously and i myself suffer from depression.

i just don't think there needs to be so many politics threads. where are the great debates happening that aren't to do with politics? where something feels like it's at stake but it's not über bleak? i would like to see links to those threads, if they're on ILM or wherever.

― treeship.,Saturday, April 11, 2020 8:52 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

So you're saying there should be an I Love Politics board...?

― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length),Saturday, April 11, 2020 8:53 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think so, yeah

― treeship.,Saturday, April 11, 2020 8:54 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I just know that I was one of the loudest cheerleaders for the creation of I Love Soccer or whatever its called, to stop those damned kids from kicking their Jabulanis into my yard. All I'm saying is I'd welcome back all those orange-slice eaters into ILE with a hat in hand apology if it meant that the politics threads could find a new home. Preferably in a secret borad that I'll never ask for the invite to.

There's a regularly updated football thread on ILE still. Could make the same exception for politics. Everyone's happy!

I just don’t like to be shouted at.

i have never killfiled anyone but i don't like to be subjected to other people's rage either
irritability and anger are signs of other deeper problems and venting them doesn't solve the problems, it just sprays the problems onto more people
ideally if i have anything to say about it, i am not one of those people getting sprayed

i get that other people talk through their issues in different ways; i'm just not here to get doused in angry droplets

Some posters have taken up very hostile posting styles and have said that they see this as a place to vent or express their despair.

Can I just say that treeship started this thread to complain about other posters doing a thing that he is an absolute master of? Nobody performs their wailing and garment-rending better.

He literally wrote "(I am as guilty of this as anyone)." in the OP

Ok I know this has gone round a time or two but I am having trouble seeing a huge unbridgeable difference between:

A. Not reading a politics thread that is on ILE

and

B. Not reading a politics thread that is on ILP (or whatever)

Not trying to be a jerk, and am happy to be schooled on how different these actions are.

i think the difference is that it's possible to mute entire sub-boards. someone could plausibly mute all of ILP while still enjoying the suddenly reinvigorated ILE, full of glorious discussion and controversial opinions now that politics has gone away

If the board is made, and it won't be, it should be called I Hate Politics

personally, i use site new answers and leave every board on, because i believe in the mission of ilx

It should be called I Enjoy Enemas

Can I just say that treeship started this thread to complain about other posters doing a thing that he is an absolute master of? Nobody performs their wailing and garment-rending better.

― WmC,Tuesday, 14 April 2020 20:48 (forty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

He literally wrote "(I am as guilty of this as anyone)." in the OP

― dip to dup (rob),Tuesday, 14 April 2020 21:00 (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

also very unfair to characterise any of treeship's admittedly signature styles as either of these things

but theres twenty posters perform their wailing and garment rending better. twice twenty.

treeship a very handy punchbag for certain ppl on the board imo.

maybe certain posters make acceptable punchbags or maybe itd be more honest to say we all have different behaviours and characteristics we like in our punchbags and treeship is either in some peoples sweet spot or hasnt got whatever x factor would have enough others jumping in to stop it.

also a politics board wouldnt work.

think of the first thread on ile where someone was told "nope thats politics, take it to ILP"

im gonna pour myself a nice scotch and just sit and enjoy a few minutes thinking of that clusterfuck, and it repeated ten times a week.

There's a regularly updated football thread on ILE still. Could make the same exception for politics. Everyone's happy!

― nashwan,Tuesday, April 14, 2020 1:37 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's by far the most popular football thread and always has been. the separate forum kept about 0.5% of football posts off of ile

Football and Film are following on from ILB, which has somehow kept the majority of books discussion separate from ILE (which has a lot of its own threads devoted to books and authors in the archives). So it follows the same lines but for some reason only the Books sub-board seems to have a distinct identity.

Politics wouldn't work because it's a subset of current affairs discussion, and much else besides. A disaster like covid is very much tied with the political response so you actually need one thread for that which does not involve this.

personally, i use site new answers and leave every board on, because i believe in the mission of ilx

― let me be your friend on the other end! (Karl Malone),Tuesday, April 14, 2020 4:10 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

o captain my captain

no, i really see the motivation here. if we don't have to talk about politics, we don't have to worry about it. we can just completely avoid all that unpleasantness and strife. it's pretty much the same thing as football, right?

i use sna and leave every board on because i am old and stupid and don't know how to do anything different

it's pretty much the same thing as football, right?

horse racing iirc

How about I Don't Like Politics, a sub-board where no political discussion is allowed

I am old and stupid

I'm sorry, Kate, but I can't parse that, because "old" obviously can't mean old and "stupid" certainly can't mean stupid. I'm stumped.

xp a better idea but again the first time anyone tries to invoke it, there'll be tears

it's pretty much the same thing as football, right?

Let's see: tribalism, ancient grievances, regional chauvinism, extreme tendentiousness, fierce loyalties, public betrayals of those loyalties, greed, confirmation bias, silly hats, violence, injuries, uniforms, domestic abuse, mental illness, pointless death, purported displays of obligatory patriotism, principled questioning of obligatory patriotism, domestic draft beer, network television, commentators in bad suits, and nachos.

So far I think politics just needs more nachos, and THEN they'll be the same thing.

rooney defending the right

If Joe Biden was a millennial he'd definitely be one of those Americans with an Arsenal tattoo

I'm sorry, Kate, but I can't parse that, because "old" obviously can't mean old and "stupid" certainly can't mean stupid. I'm stumped.

― A is for (Aimless)

awwww, you're a sweetie. it means i have a history of negative self-talk and i am grateful to you for calling me on it. 3>

xp a better idea but again the first time anyone tries to invoke it, there'll be tears

― ole uncle tiktok (darraghmac)

ok, let's roll with that. how about I Love A Good Cry, a board where we all give each other virtual hugs and tell each other what amazing people we are?

fine, but the first time anyone oh I see what youve done there

who's happy right now? no sentient person