Dec 30, 2021 at 9:58 PM
Join Date: Dec 31, 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 2326
Age: 28
Pronouns: he/him
Ten years ago today, I created my account here on the Cave Story Tribute Site Forums. Ten bloody years. I've got a lot of history here. I've created mods, helped others with modding, and created my own modding tool. I've given feedback on other people's projects, given my two cents on all the latest Cave Story news over the last ten years, and contributed extensively to the theories section.
Most of my concrete contributions to the Cave Story community were over 6 years ago, though. Over the last 6 years, my presence on the CSTSF has mostly been floating around, giving feedback on other people's mods, remixes, or other projects, occasionally responding to theory threads, and maybe giving some commentary on the infrequent new developments in the Cave Story community.
The last 6 years have not been as substantial as the first 4, at least in terms of creating Cave Story fan content. So then that begs the question, why have I stayed here, after all this time? And that is because message boards like this are a very unique way of communicating and building community. It is a way of building community that I greatly value, and it is a medium that a lot of people are abandoning, much to the peril of the internet.
I could already notice this starting to happen by the time that I joined here 10 years ago, but since my time here, I've seen platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Discord rise to prominence. Youtube was already pretty big by the time that I joined here, but it wasn't exactly replacing message boards. Message boards have a unique utility by allowing you to create niche, tight-knit communities that center around discussing some particular point of interest, and creating meaningful conversation and meaningful connections around it.
Out of convenience, people like to go to these big social media platforms because they'll find a bigger audience there. The experience is ubiquitous, you don't even have to create a new account to join a Cave Story-related community if it's a topic already being discussed on Twitter. The process of joining the Discord server is as simple as clicking the invite link, as long as you already have a Discord account. Instant chat and all kinds of fancy features exist on these platforms. I never became super active in the CSMC discord server, or in the Cave Story community on Reddit, or on Twitter. And to be honest, I'm glad that I never really did.
Those platforms have the discussions organized in a much less customizable way than what we have here, and they've largely been overrun with corporatism and cancel culture mobs. One good way to stay free from big tech censorship is to have things decentralized, where there isn't a small set of corporations in control of the information that flows about. Ultimately, Andwhy is in control of what's allowed on these forums, but I sure trust him a lot more than I trust Discord or Reddit. Sure, maybe if the cancel culture mob wanted to destroy this place, they could try going after Xenforo and pressuring them into shutting this place down, but even if that could be done, it would be a lot less straightforward than your typical hit job.
Not only that, but the way things are organized in message boards like this is so much more clear, and allows for more lengthy, thoughtful discussion. Things are too fast-moving for that kind of thing to take place on Twitter or Discord. Sometimes, by the time that you compose a response, or by the time that you log on after a discussion has ended, it's kind of too late, or else you'll seem really awkward for continuing a certain topic of discussion in the Discord chat. And if a discussion has already been had, it's a lot harder to link back to it in something like Discord than on a message board. Sure, we do still have duplicate threads and necrobumps rise up here, but it's still far more manageable to document things on a platform like this than on something like Discord or Reddit.
I won't deny that the technology of message boards is pretty dated. You have to create a separate username and password for each account you have on a different message board community. The user interface isn't the best suited for mobile phones. And it's not like there's some specific mobile app that most of these message board communities have available and frequently advertise that makes the experience fluid and modern feeling for mobile users. I acknowledge these are problems, and they should probably be solved. But for right now, buying into the corporatism of big tech is an alternative I'm going to avoid contributing to wherever I can.
And that's why I'm still fighting to keep communities like this alive. Because whenever I'm actively posting on these forums, it sort of feels like I'm fighting against cancel culture and big tech censorship. Maybe some day some technology or platform will come along that gives all of the benefits I've described of message boards, doesn't have any of the problems I described of big tech, and fixes all of the problems I acknowledged about message board technology showing its age. But until that solution arises, I'm content to contribute to small niche communities like this where I can. And I think you all should too.
Here were a couple of Youtube videos I came across recently that pretty much expressed the same feelings I've expressed in this post:
I kind of identify a bit more strongly with the second video, since it's more thorough, and it more directly addresses the threat that big tech poses to freedom of speech, although the first one is still really good too, since it focuses on the benefit of forums, and how we're losing that personalized, decentralized nature of the internet that made things great in 2001-2010.
I intend to continue posting on these forums for more time to come. How long exactly I'll still be around, I'm not sure. But probably for a while. And I hope you all are also interested in helping to keep the internet an open and free place with meaningful discussions.
Most of my concrete contributions to the Cave Story community were over 6 years ago, though. Over the last 6 years, my presence on the CSTSF has mostly been floating around, giving feedback on other people's mods, remixes, or other projects, occasionally responding to theory threads, and maybe giving some commentary on the infrequent new developments in the Cave Story community.
The last 6 years have not been as substantial as the first 4, at least in terms of creating Cave Story fan content. So then that begs the question, why have I stayed here, after all this time? And that is because message boards like this are a very unique way of communicating and building community. It is a way of building community that I greatly value, and it is a medium that a lot of people are abandoning, much to the peril of the internet.
I could already notice this starting to happen by the time that I joined here 10 years ago, but since my time here, I've seen platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Discord rise to prominence. Youtube was already pretty big by the time that I joined here, but it wasn't exactly replacing message boards. Message boards have a unique utility by allowing you to create niche, tight-knit communities that center around discussing some particular point of interest, and creating meaningful conversation and meaningful connections around it.
Out of convenience, people like to go to these big social media platforms because they'll find a bigger audience there. The experience is ubiquitous, you don't even have to create a new account to join a Cave Story-related community if it's a topic already being discussed on Twitter. The process of joining the Discord server is as simple as clicking the invite link, as long as you already have a Discord account. Instant chat and all kinds of fancy features exist on these platforms. I never became super active in the CSMC discord server, or in the Cave Story community on Reddit, or on Twitter. And to be honest, I'm glad that I never really did.
Those platforms have the discussions organized in a much less customizable way than what we have here, and they've largely been overrun with corporatism and cancel culture mobs. One good way to stay free from big tech censorship is to have things decentralized, where there isn't a small set of corporations in control of the information that flows about. Ultimately, Andwhy is in control of what's allowed on these forums, but I sure trust him a lot more than I trust Discord or Reddit. Sure, maybe if the cancel culture mob wanted to destroy this place, they could try going after Xenforo and pressuring them into shutting this place down, but even if that could be done, it would be a lot less straightforward than your typical hit job.
Not only that, but the way things are organized in message boards like this is so much more clear, and allows for more lengthy, thoughtful discussion. Things are too fast-moving for that kind of thing to take place on Twitter or Discord. Sometimes, by the time that you compose a response, or by the time that you log on after a discussion has ended, it's kind of too late, or else you'll seem really awkward for continuing a certain topic of discussion in the Discord chat. And if a discussion has already been had, it's a lot harder to link back to it in something like Discord than on a message board. Sure, we do still have duplicate threads and necrobumps rise up here, but it's still far more manageable to document things on a platform like this than on something like Discord or Reddit.
I won't deny that the technology of message boards is pretty dated. You have to create a separate username and password for each account you have on a different message board community. The user interface isn't the best suited for mobile phones. And it's not like there's some specific mobile app that most of these message board communities have available and frequently advertise that makes the experience fluid and modern feeling for mobile users. I acknowledge these are problems, and they should probably be solved. But for right now, buying into the corporatism of big tech is an alternative I'm going to avoid contributing to wherever I can.
And that's why I'm still fighting to keep communities like this alive. Because whenever I'm actively posting on these forums, it sort of feels like I'm fighting against cancel culture and big tech censorship. Maybe some day some technology or platform will come along that gives all of the benefits I've described of message boards, doesn't have any of the problems I described of big tech, and fixes all of the problems I acknowledged about message board technology showing its age. But until that solution arises, I'm content to contribute to small niche communities like this where I can. And I think you all should too.
Here were a couple of Youtube videos I came across recently that pretty much expressed the same feelings I've expressed in this post:
I kind of identify a bit more strongly with the second video, since it's more thorough, and it more directly addresses the threat that big tech poses to freedom of speech, although the first one is still really good too, since it focuses on the benefit of forums, and how we're losing that personalized, decentralized nature of the internet that made things great in 2001-2010.
I intend to continue posting on these forums for more time to come. How long exactly I'll still be around, I'm not sure. But probably for a while. And I hope you all are also interested in helping to keep the internet an open and free place with meaningful discussions.
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