What the eff happened?

I used to come here every single day.

Now, I come on every once in a while and it seems the 'trolls' have taken over.

Couldn't find the 'Random' thread that used to be used daily.

Where did everyone go?

Anyway! Just had to talk a tad. lol!

I wouldn't say that the trolls have taken over some (however few) good people are still here. I include myself in that group, though some here view me as a troll or "pig"... c'est la vie.

But to get to your question; what happened?

I think that the latter portion of the Obama years saw the building of socio-political angst nationwide/worldwide, which played out here somewhat heavily and started the exodus from the TFS.

The 2016 election phase saw a lot of people leaving TFS.

Then came the Trump years. The divisiveness and angst grew, and a sizable number of people decided that things like facts and science were evil... This played out here and a large percentage of the few people remaining just couldn't take it and left TFS.

With Trump's loss we lost a segment that either loved him and/or hated liberals who are all Hillary Clinton mini-me's.

So now we are in the Biden years.

TFS has a few "factions"...

1. Trump loving, science hating, fact doubting, liberals are really communists in disguise and should be hated with all your being.

2. A loosely linked group of liberals, former Republican/conservatives, agnostics, former religion believers... who don't see eye-to-eye on all things, but mostly can agree on things if and when facts are presented.
3. The believer in the conspiracy theories.... aliens, sorcerers, secret societies, some undefined THEY control everything. This group sometimes embraces facts, but usually tries to side step facts or change whatever the given subject is/was.

Groups #1 and #3 almost never admit any mistake. If facts are presented they go silent or change the subject or pretend like they said something else and are being misunderstood... or blame whoever presented the fact(s) as being a "pig". I suppose you could call these people trolls.

At least that is more or less how I see it.

I've thought about leaving, but I think I am the last of the 'old guard', so I will hang on until Tino decides to shut TFS down.... though I think I might be traveling soon, so I might be gone for a few weeks/months as my travels out weigh TFS (in terms of value) by a long shot.... but I'll eventually keep coming back until one of us is gone.

Side note: To my way of thinking Twitter is a waste of time and for twits...I know many people who feel the same and are leaving twitter. Of course the people I know are not necessarily a representative sample of the world.

I think Facebook is failing and will soon see an exodus... the people I know only use Facebook for family contact and stupid memes... though a few conservatives rage about s*** that isn't real based on false memes... but they seem to be getting tired... again the people I know are not necessarily a representative sample of the world.

Instagram seems to be a safe haven for all... post a picture, people LUV it... go about your life at least partially validated.

Wow... that... was too long.

But as yet another side note: The USA is presently slipping into an anti-fact based information dark age. Bulls*** reigns supreme.

I think that western Europe and (hopefully) Canada and Japan will mostly avoid this dark age.

China will be the big winner.

The USA, as we know it, will break apart in the next 100 years.

TFS is a microcosm of this and may not survive the next 10 years.

I think “trolls” being referred to here are the Russian spambots. The front board is littered with them. It’s been that way for a while, and we few regulars who still post almost accept it now as some sort of wallpaper, but it can be a bit jarring for those coming back here for the first time after a hiatus lol.

But in regards to the declining activity of this forum, the format of these kind of sites have given way to the proliferation of social media groups and the huge variety of comments pages. TFS’ heyday was over a decade ago, when such other outlets were less prevalent.

I will agree that, while the internet in general has brought much good, social media has definitely negatively polarized people, proliferated disinformation, and augmented outrage & paranoia.

16K posts in 2020.

5K posts in 2021.

Get your posts in before the lights go out.

agreed