Elaborate

Don't worry, it's back up, now.

Why do you still go on /a/? It's been bad for years, honestly.

How did you make this post then?

>he goes on /a/
Ironic weebs have killed it for me.

>>4 not him but I still go because its become too much of a habit for me to just completely stop. its also insanely fast, unlike here. if you can get through the newfags and ignore the jumpfag threads, its not THAT bad

/a/ died for me last year

It's been dead for quite some time now. I've been there since 2007 and any semblance of community or fun has long been extinguished. At the core, it's an anime forum with more vitriol but other than that it has nothing to offer aside from the history of creativity and entertainment it used to provide. There's too much moderation at times, too little at others, the users are newer and newer and don't care about the site, people go there with the intention of shitposting, the list goes on. It's not worthwhile to browse anymore unless you can trick yourself into believing the tepid discussion that occurs for any seasonal airing anime is somehow more engaging that it would be on any other website. If you aren't addicted, it's best to quit before you are. I made that mistake myself.

At some point it became obvious that the average poster no longer cares about the hobby at all. I kept quitting and coming back in spite of this out of habit, but it's frustrating to see.

Stop defining yourself by your hobbies.

>>11
stop trying to define yourself at all.

Never post a nu-/jp/ picture again.

I downloaded that image on one of futabas touhou boards.

>>14
Was going to point this out too, that meme originated on Japanese boards. Nothing "nu" about it.

>>13
Your mistake can be turnt into a valuable lesson: judge people by what they actually say and actually mean, not by appearances.

>Nothing "nu" about it.
Except it doesn't have more than a few years.

>>17
blind cargo cult adherence to an idealized golden age is how you end up like 4ch.
dead.

>>18 It's more active than this place.

/jp/ is also pretty much dead and buried by now. The only thing that hasn't changed from when it still was fun and creative is the URL.

I think the problem is fundamentally the userbase: it seems that the old people eventually left and the ones who replaced them have a very different mindset and attitude towards imageboards and online communities, which is to be expected given the evolution of the internet.

I've been wondering for some time if there's somewhere where all the old people went that still has that atmosphere, but with each passing year it seems clear to me that they simply changed and went away. Old imageboard culture was a product of the mindset and interactions between these people, and those circumstances don't exist anymore. Nothing lasts forever, I guess. I wonder how Japanese imageboards are doing by now.

>>20
changes in culture are to be expected, but such changes dont have to be as negative as they end up being here. the internet has gotten worse, and attitudes towards things on it reflect that..

>>21
The internet is a big place, and it seems that the worst aspects are mostly crowded in to the Mega-Sites: The Google sites, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and I would definitely include 4chan.

There are still many small sites that are untouched by the common culture of the above listed sites, but they're small for a reason and will probably not be "filling" enough for people used to the constant conversation you can find on the Mega Sites. I think something of the old internet, where things were less serious and deeper conversation was possible without the situation immediately dropping to inane name calling can be found, but to actually appreciate these things, users not only have to work to build the community they want, they also have to sever their own personal attachment to the sites they come from.

By that last line, I don't mean to quit 4chan, but rather, you have to stop wanting to build your non-4chan communities in the image of 4chan.

>>22
I already quit 4chan years ago and dont want my smaller communities to end up like it.
But I also like military simulators and watch 1 episode of (seinen) anime a week and dress like an old man.

The 'getting worse' is really a direct consequence of monetization, commercialization. The 'engagement' economy, websites as javascript toys designed to hold your attention long enough to feed sponsored 'content', one way or another. And the way they're structured to do this harms culture and community. Or it just spies on you. So of course thats concentrated to the huge sites.
But at the same time, I feel like the absolute size of the not-shit internet is now smaller than it used to be. Because in the past the internet hadnt been thoroughly commodified yet, but it was still useful, and the portion of at least decent people to interact with outside the then smaller buds of commercialization was larger. So, even though there were fewere such people than now, there were more of them on parts of the internet that weren't terrible.
Now, as far as most anyone is concerned, the internet is the web,and the web is twitter, facebook, reddit, 4chan, youtube, etc. Any given not-shit space online now, I feel certain, is less populace than it was in the late 00's, which is the start of my experience.
And people now would think of a move away from these central corporate monsters as some kind of regression.

>>23
>I already quit 4chan years ago and dont want my smaller communities to end up like it.
You're farther along than I am then, I'm still struggling to change my habits regarding that site, and it doesn't help that some stuff I tend to genuinely like is mainly discussed on 4chan (Like mecha anime and Kemono Friends).

Yeah, big sites are all about causing its users to be addicted to them, and there's a ton of little tricks that they do that smaller ones don't. It's one of the first things I noticed when I went out of my way to tear myself away from them and on to less invasive alternatives. I can understand why it feels like a 'downgrade': It bluntly is, as the mega sites have functionality that mimics those of smaller sites plus more. Going back to smaller sites is the electronic equivalent of going to the country for a simpler, less stressful life where you can learn to be more self reliant. Yes, it sounds good, feels good, and is probably far better for individual users as compared to soaking in the crowded chaos of larger sites, but it will mainly appeal to hobbyists.

Personally, I find the most difficult thing to adjust to when going from big sites to small ones is to learn how not to lurk. Or more accurately, learn how not to be a spectator.

https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-dan-mccomas-made-world-worse-place-2018-10

>>24
On the topic of lurking, I've found I should do that more. Years ago, I used to learn the culture of a place. Now I just barge into a small community. I try to be polite about it, but I notice it.
It probably has to do with me realising more and more every day how time is a limited resource. A month spent lurking is time you can't get back. But you can post and still spend some time learning, even if it's not as intense as lurking.

>>26
Small places do have especially fragile ecosystems, but it also seems the biggest existential threat to them are lack of activity
Maybe it's due to my limited experience, but there rarely seems to be a magical 'balance' point for imageboards: either they're next to dead with like 5 posts during a week, or are 4chan/8chan. I do remember Pooshlmer having a nice balance when I used that a lot, but it seems, much like how the rest of the internet is now, everyone gathers themselves to one or two sites and won't explore outside of them.

Though thinking of it now, a good example of how people not lurking can destroy a community: I think a good recent example is DangerU. Being listed on Google Play strained that place, and the Russian kid posting cheese pizza links devastated it. Now it has a captcha to protect itself, even on /burg/. The site's owners are still working on it and adding features, but I remember them admitting to the userbase that they don't hang around the site as much because it's not fun as it was before.

>>28
it didnt used to be like that though. Like you said, there was some time at which pooshlmer had a decent balance. I remember 7chan being slower than 4chan by a good bit, but not at all dead. The same with some forums.
Maybe part of it is that the idea now is that a website is a product, rather than just a social space.

>>29
All bets were off once those imaginary internet points people love to mock were magically made in to actual dollars. It's why people getting kicked off the major platforms for violating the TOS has been regarded as censorship by the masses: They COULD just make their own site, use the budding decentralized solutions to get their message across in a way that can't be removed, but you won't get as many points that way, and without those points you don't get money. We can have droves of YouTube alternatives but they don't matter because the 'content creators' can't get paid that way.

(Side note: I'm beginning to feel ill whenever I hear the word 'content' used to refer to anything on the internet. That word really lays bare that everything on the big sites are meant to 'sell' stuff to people, even stuff as trashy as the 'commentary community' output on YouTube).

Despite 4chan folk wanting to distance themselves from reddit by pointing out that they don't have a karma system, the populace somehow managed to turn simply getting replies in to their own form of internet points. Very few people actually want to discuss things, they just want to sell you their bad humor and "ironic" outrage, with the payment being attention. The most basic function of a discussion board is now regarded as a transaction. That's bad.

>>30
>"ironic" outrage, with the payment being attention
You're right. I realised that I wasn't going to reply to your post, since I generally don't reply to posts I agree with, but I reply to posts I disagree with. I don't reply to bait, or try not to, but you make me think.
But in truth, the soul of discussion is some element of disagreement, even if minor.

>>30
I regularly interact with an online group tied to a hobby of mine, when they're not discussing the hobby they shit up not only a certain board on 4chan, but other places as well. They compete with each other who can get the most replies and who can get people upset the most. I watch in suffering, knowing that nothing I say will stop them from engaging in such destructive behavior.

Is there a way to deal with such troll groups? I don't know.