Calling all absent users

[JDHURF]

I myself lost interest in this forum several years ago and didn't even bother viewing it. Finally returning to view current activity and posting, even after having stopped coming 'round for years for reasons I need not elaborate and having unfortunately witnessed several fantastic users ghost this place just prior to my doing so, I nevertheless am somewhat amazed by the destitution of this place.

Wtf happened to this place in the interim? Where have so many of the quality and entertaining users gone? Anyone have contacts with them? There's at least several over a dozen users I was amiable with now MIA...

thefranzkafkafront(Boris Johnson)

Davethulhu

eynon81

Indy

Menson

pricklysponge

stripe66506

The Dharma Bum

The Dude

The Tooth

wormwood

Clarino

Darkhorse

Certainly not all are even near my favorite users by any means, but goddamn they all contributed to a more lively, interesting and at times very entertaining and amiable place. I'm sure there are numerous others I've not recalled.

I'm fairly clear on why some left just before I ghosted this place and can deduce why others did so after I did...but f**k...perhaps it's accurate: Philly's recent observation that this iteration of PCF is in its death-throes but for the handful of users remaining active for an indeterminate continuance.

[exploited]

Can you go MIA again? We really don't have the member count to support your insane levels of pretentious douchebaggery. I get exhausted even reading your non-political posts, and I can only marvel at your unique ability to sound like a total f**k dick head even when saying nice things.

[fstarcstar]

^^^^^^This is why everyone left

[exploited]

If all goes as planned, we'll have two less posters by the end of the day.

[John Galt]

here's the deal

we can't make anyone come back, we can't make anyone stay

i found this forum when i was in college. i'm 35. it was half my life ago -- or half of my life has involved it

you want to scream at people and get no where? go to reddit. it's fine, open up r/politics or r/the_donald and have at it hoss

what's left of this forum is basically just a bunch of dudes who know each other and give each other shit, while having a political discussion. reddit is like being at a conference hall, with hundreds of massive rooms that people enter and exit freely. the only people you know are those few posters who are either prolific or famous for things like not spelling their own name correctly. but generally? its anonymous. every conversation you have, unless it's a back and forth, is with a new person. debatePolitics is more like, i dunno, some sort of tribal knife fight. i really didn't particularly care for it, because i honestly don't find anything redeeming about it. here someone might make some epic argument for or against something. there it's just "no u".

here we're at a dinner party here. everyone here is a known quantity and has known qualities. we are having friendly conversation for the most part, even when we rip on each other. this is probably in part that we're a bunch of olds now who don't like things that are different. but it's also that it's not as strenuous as some other forums, and it's not as pointless as posting on reddit. i theoretically could change someone's mind here on something. while I have some deltas from r/changeMyView, they are all over minor things. that's the a place where people go into it with more of an open mind, ya'know?

i can't really speculate on why some people left. there was constant upheaval for one, with the forum breaking and going into various forums. but mostly? look at micfranklin's post recently. he said he's got fatigue: he doesn't want to deal with this shit. not the forum... politics. and the young kids these days? they are just too busy with snapchat and tinder for an old phpBB board

i come here because i find it a relaxing outlet. that's me. maybe you too. but whatever your reason it isn't necessarily transferable onto another person and i think it's wrong to presume that people are driven away by supposed toxicity. i mean if you lived your life upset about everything that happened in politics (and were powerless against any of it, but didn't know it), at some point the truth is going to crash in into you and leave you a wretched wrecked man and you won't want anything to do with politics anymore. the roots of cynicism take hold and you find yourself disinterested in things like this. and i'll open up about this, depression has driven me away before. i didn't post for like a year i think. i was just, plain depressed about everything in my life. i'm fine now, thank you, and we never have to speak of this again, but this can happen.

that all said every canadian on this forum is toxic and on notice

[exploited]

What was the root cause of your depression, Galt? Having to come to terms with never managing to actually hit something while hunting?

[John Galt]

[exploited]

Being from Minnesota is as Canadian as you can get while still being American, so I really can't blame her, Galt. She got a taste and wanted the authentic experience.

I do have to point out a consistent and recurring trend on this board.

1. Upon request, I made a website for a member here, who then reneged on payment, despite continuing to use my work without payment.

2. I sent a package of herbs and spices to another member here, who has yet to send me any dried sausages or links, or even return the various insults I wrote in a letter to him.

3. I forwarded some packages to an American address for a member here, so they could get their wares cheaper. Being generous, I didn't expect any payment; however, I did expect a continued submissive posture in my presence moving forward. This I did not receive.

4. I gave you numerous tips for staying safe in rural Ontario, and recommended a number of great camping spots and travel destinations. When I asked for payment as your travel advisor/attorney, you sent me BroForce, which didn't even feature Captain Canuck (Bro...nuck?).

That is the entirety of my IRL interactions with Americans on this board.

The only time I haven't been ripped off is when I visited LNRW - who now lives in Canada. He took me out shooting and told me some great stories and we had a really good time, and he refused to accept payment for the bullets we fired. Honestly, it is no wonder Trump is President, this kind of behaviour is how he made his fortune.

[Philly]

Forums are an antiquated platform for online discussion. A lot of us found PCF in our teens and have stuck around. I don't believe we currently have any members younger than in their mid to late 20s. If we want to take this community and revitalize it we would have to go to Discord or something, cause this platform is not viable in 2018. But even if we did that, it would never be what it was. The march of time stops for no one.

[micfranklin]

Shit's not the same as it used to be. Between too many differences in politics, fights, bannings and life in general happening people just up and left, and nothing to say of how the original forum went down a while back and not everyone there made it over here, all 10,000+ members anyway. Back then, when folks were fairly fresh to the game, debates seemed to be mostly civilized and deep but educational in terms of what you learned. Now it's like you've seen one debate, you've seen 'em all, you've seen people do dumb shit and put themselves on display so everyone knows not to care about their opinion. No matter what you say or how well you say it, you're not gonna change anyone's mind and they won't change yours.

To put it in perspective I was 18 in my senior year of high school when I first got onto forums. I'm 30 now.