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Alt-social failures, coolness, and Good work

anon_jaro said in #3103 1w ago:

The central issue with all these 'alt-social' sites is coolness. A quick binary measure of coolness for websites is the existence of an /about page. Radiopaper has one, as does Uptrust, so they go immediately in the bin.

>>3070
>>3082

Anything that needs to justify its existence to others is not cool. This is a broad truth. It applies to a startup when raising venture capital, a poaster when cultivating a public persona, an artist when creating a body of work, etc. It's bad to be a striver. If you do Good work and share it, Gnon will take care of the rest.

One tricky thing here is that Gnon only guarantees that 'the rest will be taken care of' in the limit. It often occurs that Good work is not recognized in the lifetime of its progenitor, or even for centuries after. This delayed reward scheme does in fact reward you, but only under a wider definition of 'you' which incorporates your spiritual and material parents, children, friends, property, etc.

Another tricky thing is that when sharing, the possible channels for doing so are in different stages of being clogged. A corollary is that Gnon doles out rewards for unclogging channels, as doing so immanentizes His will. As the normie internet becomes more clogged with language model slop, it's best to be clever about finding other channels.

Print is very effective right now (many smart friends have already identified this). Sofiechan is already quite effective, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

referenced by: >>3104

The central issue wi

anon_wyzi said in #3104 1w ago:

>>3103
>Print is very effective right now
Should sofiechan have a luxury print monthly for the high dollar anons to get the latest discourses from their fellow anonymous gentlemen? It could be done, you know.

Interesting theory that the /about page is uncool. I appreciate about pages. When I show up somewhere, one of the things I wonder is "what the hell is this?" I have been converted multiple times by a good about page that lays out a strong proposition for me. But you are right about not needing to justify yourself being important.

Maybe it's something like this: when you can tell that the site (or crowd, whatever) needs to persuade you of something to live, there's a kind of unattractive desperation that wafts off of that. "oh you need me? Then I don't need you" goes the logic. But when something really has "the juice", isn't concerned with me but instead is primarily concerned with that pursuit which makes it interesting, then I find that I am compelled to do the work of figuring it out myself regardless of an about page. The main lesson here being like you say: be more concerned with going the good work than with desperately clawing at the result.

referenced by: >>3167

Should sofiechan hav

desmosthenes said in #3105 1w ago:

I don't hold particularly strong feelings regarding the about pages, but I despise the fonts and layouts of the referenced sites. Radiopaper feels like a bargain bin LessWrong saddled with a Papyrus font, and Uptrust is indistinguishable from every prefab forum-as-a-service, finished with that horrid Fiverr logo.

Sofiechan has done well in abusing the aesthetics of the classic BBS while staying fresh and innovative. The tag system does a tremendous job creating the ephemerality of the browsing experience while offering a functional compromise for indexing. Prioritizing a unified stream of consciousness (the front page) that is not particularly burdened by context or "layout debt," I think, is very important. Users should never have to click more than once before they can start reading and responding.

Compared to the classic chan sites, this design better matches how users have interacted on social media over the past half-decade (Twitter, and every platform that has become TikTok. I'm trying not to belabor the analogy). I haven't checked the character limit, but I’m enjoying the current length of posts. It seems to hit a sweet spot that prevents certain strains of short-form didactic tic-ery used to feign intelligence that is so prevalent on Twitter, while offering sufficient space to flesh out ideas. Articles are linked off-site without concern. It bends just enough to serve the future of bite-sized intellectuals while leaving space for actual thought leaders; but, Yes, we should force people to write and judge them for it.

Important to remember that the most definitive factor in "cool" is the community. It's usually a few early, seminal posters who define and create the success of such projects. Likewise, we only need a few ideological wins to establish Sofiechan as a cultural fixture. The YouTube video essay slop-stock is always scrounging for content and ready to propagate anything ideological, aestheticized, and esoteric, that which can be blurred and extrapolated into lore. Modern esotericism hinges on the illiteracy of younger generations (in both the Word and tech).. Something we should position ourselves to exploit.

A personal request: I beg of you dearly, never add a sidebar.

referenced by: >>3167 >>3188

I don't hold particu

anon_jaro said in #3167 6d ago:

>>3104
> Should sofiechan have a luxury print monthly for the high dollar anons to get the latest discourses from their fellow anonymous gentlemen?

I believe it should, the quality of discourse is high enough to warrant it. I'm reminded that I have a samizdat printed pdf of "Thomas 777: Greatest Poasts" on my bookshelf.
https://archive.org/details/thomas777_202010

>>3105
> Important to remember that the most definitive factor in "cool" is the community. It's usually a few early, seminal posters who define and create the success of such projects.

Having seen this dynamic play out live in the past, I think the human capital of early sofiechan users is plenty good to define and create success on par with what you're implicitly referencing. There are many tiger riders either on here or a degree away, and nothing spurs people on to philosophy quite like an unclogged channel.

> Modern esotericism hinges on the illiteracy of younger generations (in both the Word and tech).. Something we should position ourselves to exploit.

I've never seen this spelled out as honestly and concisely. Zoomer proles need three subway surfers clips underneath the real sauce in order to engage, but as long as you have a dopamine binky, they'll happily give you a few minutes of their time. There are entirely new forms of highly effective media that can and must be invented here. As you say, even if the cultural fixture is in the neoBBS cathedral, you have to fight fire with fire down in the trenches.

referenced by: >>3168

I believe it should,

anon_wyzi said in #3168 6d ago:

>>3167
>Zoomer proles need three subway surfers clips underneath the real sauce in order to engage, but as long as you have a dopamine binky, they'll happily give you a few minutes of their time.
I think the dopamine binky shortform video crowd is a write off and should be ignored. Writing, specifically essays and forums, remains the most powerful technology for serious socially transformative thought ever invented. We should double down on the written word and train people in the combat art of thinking powerful thoughts in 4000 characters or less. I would allow high production high energy IRL speech as an even more basal and powerful medium that we should master as well, but it's in some ways even further from accessibility to the internet goon squad. Let's focus on the higher in man. We should branch into book clubs and IRL fitness, rhetoric, and civics clubs, and supplement all of this with the highest visionary aesthetic ambition, highest epistemic integrity, and most forward-looking use of technology we can muster. Nothing else has ever worked. And we should have fun while doing it.

I think the dopamine

admin said in #3188 5d ago:

>>3105
>A personal request: I beg of you dearly, never add a sidebar.
Ok I'll bite. Why shouldn't we add a side bar? Not that we have any plans for anything like that, but I have considered it in the past. The current design is driven by necessity and elegance. I don't forsee a need for sidebar type stuff, but I'd love to hear more arguments to make sure future designs stay on the straight and narrow.

referenced by: >>3208

Ok I'll bite. Why sh

desmosthenes said in #3208 4d ago:

>>3188
I find the open space really inviting and conducive for thought, like a large window with light pouring through. A bit worried that a sidebar may ruin that view, or make the site feel lopsided.

The front page, though, might benefit from more distinction between posts. It was a little intimidating at first glance. You could argue this is intentional to filter out a certain breed of tourist and I'd accept that. Also wouldn't be opposed to a tasteful footer (maybe similar to the existing header); I've enjoyed your sparing use of color and dividers.

I find the open spac

anon_gwwe said in #3214 4d ago:

where does the black-pink circle logo come from?

referenced by: >>3216

where does the black

admin said in #3216 3d ago:

>>3214
Wrong thread, but we're big fans of pink obviously, and radial symmetry is cool. It's an eclipse. I've heard all serious modern software companies need such a logo.

Wrong thread, but we

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