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Thread: We need a membership drive, Alex

  1. #1
    Economic Refugee Doomsteader's Avatar
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    We need a membership drive, Alex

    This place is increasingly becoming an echo chamber, with a small(and shrinking) membership all espousing basically the same views. Not only is there little diversity of thought, there are fewer and fewer members here actually posting anything. IMO, this forum is dying.
    #fuckwashington oh, and #fuckalbany, too

  2. #2
    Senior Member MikeyPooh's Avatar
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    Yeah I spent some time just the other day going through the member list...so many names that I recognized, but had forgotten. Lots of people last active 2/3/4 years ago. I think it is what it is.

  3. #3
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    This is not the only forum where this is happening. I don't like change but life goes on. It has been a great ride and there are still enough dying embers to toast my toes. I am not going away until forced. So there!

  4. #4
    Senior Member OldeFoole's Avatar
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    I won't name any names, but there are at least a dozen who are lurking here on a nearly daily basis, most of whom have been members for years. A few more stop by about every week or so. Granted, some may be spooks (toads, finks, etc), but it doesn't take more than a couple to keep official tabs on everyone and everything going on here (our tax dollars at work). As for the rest of the frequent lurkers?

    I realise the language here can be a bit 'course' at times which may turn some off, but all too often this is DOOM we're discussing here, and it seems to be getting heavier and darker rather than lighter. Life After The Oil Crash is being shadowed by the growing possibilities of life after an EMP, or life after a nuclear exchange, or life after antibiotics fail, or life after the pandemic that can't be contained, or life after an extreme ecological collapse, or life after catastrophic climate change, or even life after the internet and cell phones stop working. Subtract from any hope left, the facts of a huge global population vying for their very existence on a resource degraded planet with no more cheap energy slaves other than other subjugated humans. Almost makes me want slide back into bed and pull the covers over my head for the rest of the year.

    Yes, it would be nice to hear other voices, perhaps even some who have an idea for solutions. Still, commiserating the current state of affairs is fine as well.

    I also understand that there have been 'spats' in the past which have driven some away. Some may have "HTTP 410" (the resource requested is no longer available and will not be available again). Some may have just gotten buried in "life", or been sucked away by fakebook and the like. Hard to tell from this watchtower.
    The unlikely and impossible happen all the time, especially to those who believe they have things figured out, due mostly to a failure of imagination.

  5. #5
    jack o' fall trades BigGreenFrog's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WhiteStone View Post
    This is not the only forum where this is happening. I don't like change but life goes on. It has been a great ride and there are still enough dying embers to toast my toes. I am not going away until forced. So there!
    Me too!
    The school of hard knocks does not offer a tuition assistance program.

    The time to build an Ark is when the sun is still shining.

    The problem is...we are all part of the problem.

    The Post Apocalyptic Starvation Diet will succeed where all other diets have failed.

    The lack of the ability to adjust to new and different circumstances is by very definition the inability to evolve and as with all things that fail to evolve, they are doomed to extinction.

  6. #6
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    From my female point of view, it seems sometimes waay too much conservative white male territory ....

    And there are those who really don't want to hear voices that are different to their own.

    And then there are those great people who enjoy a diversity of views and ideas - and that is why I stay.

    I think for many of us, doom seems further away than it used to be, so a doomer forum is less attractive than it used to be, and discussion of doom has devolved to partisan politics in some cases.

    Doom is coming, it's just the timing that is up for debate!
    The “simple life” takes a lifetime to learn....Peter Goodchild
    Live as if you would die tomorrow
    Learn as if you would live forever

  7. #7
    Senior Member MikeyPooh's Avatar
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    Heh, as a white guy I feel the same as you Changer. And yeah I think that's another thing - I bet a lot of the old timers will show back up once the next crisis gets underway.

  8. #8
    Pagan Gardener woodsy_gardener's Avatar
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    As collapse draws closer we lose members who don't want to be reminded of it. We also lose members who have made their preparations and choose to just enjoy their life as there are very few new posts about preps anymore. There is a wealth of information in SusCo that would be valuable to newcomers if we could only make them aware of it.

    I guess we're just down to the hard core, those who can't ignore the ongoing disaster.
    Post collapse nocturnal mammals will do ok against human predation. Coyotes will be the largest mammal available by 2100. Cannibalism is easier than trapping coyotes.

  9. #9
    jack o' fall trades BigGreenFrog's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by woodsy_gardener View Post
    I guess we're just down to the hard core, those who can't ignore the ongoing disaster.
    Those with a bag of popcorn and those on a soapbox.
    The school of hard knocks does not offer a tuition assistance program.

    The time to build an Ark is when the sun is still shining.

    The problem is...we are all part of the problem.

    The Post Apocalyptic Starvation Diet will succeed where all other diets have failed.

    The lack of the ability to adjust to new and different circumstances is by very definition the inability to evolve and as with all things that fail to evolve, they are doomed to extinction.

  10. #10
    Senior Member
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    After all, who in their right mind, focuses on Doom all the time?

  11. #11
    Senior Member Deckard1973's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DweebieDoom View Post
    After all, who in their right mind, focuses on Doom all the time?
    I like to think of it as being informed.

    However, as of late it is becoming more and more difficult to find sites not spinning one way or the other.
    I make it a point not to read comments either. Even prior to the election, I found comments suspect to be bots.
    If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.
    - Mark Twain

    "Do your own research, make up your own mind, think for yourself."
    - Sharyl Attkisson

    If the Russian oligarchs are bad, what makes the US oligarchs good?

  12. #12
    Senior Member TheDignityofStruggle's Avatar
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    A lot of folk shoot the breeze on facebook. Thats just not a platform Im willing to engage with.

  13. #13
    Senior Member Deckard1973's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheDignityofStruggle View Post
    A lot of folk shoot the breeze on facebook. Thats just not a platform Im willing to engage with.
    That right there!
    If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.
    - Mark Twain

    "Do your own research, make up your own mind, think for yourself."
    - Sharyl Attkisson

    If the Russian oligarchs are bad, what makes the US oligarchs good?

  14. #14
    Senior Member comrade simba's Avatar
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    This place is a pub I can drop into for 15 minutes once or twice a day, go through the recent threads, hear what you have to say, crack a joke, maybe toss in a quick idea, and on rare occasions I have something important I want to say.

    Now and then a really big idea gets linked to, and I gain something I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else.

    Therefore, it's fine for this to be what it is.

    Oh yeah, where the fuck else is anybody gonna know me like the long term goat milker doomers I've yaked with for years?
    Last edited by comrade simba; 04-26-2018 at 01:26 PM.
    Not only do the American people have no idea of what is going on, they also have no idea that they have no idea.

    “When they started with the gerbils, I knew it was time to leave.”
    -Aleistar Crowley, exiting a Los Angeles party

  15. #15
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    I get a wider, better more informed analysis of the news & current events here than in other media & with other popcorn enthusiasts with little guns & knives chit chat.

  16. #16
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    Nuggets of info are the main reason I still enjoy lurking however I skim more posts than ever. I am comfortable with my opinions which I mostly keep to myself.
    New members would be a welcome source of new info or maybe new sites to browse. Silco has become like a favorite pair of jeans.

  17. #17
    Economic Refugee Doomsteader's Avatar
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    This place is a pub I can drop into for 15 minutes once or twice a day,
    But for those of us who currently spend 15 *hours* a day, here, having like 10 active posters(and 30+ lurkers), it gets boring

    (Chartreuse rather than purple because it's pretty much true )
    #fuckwashington oh, and #fuckalbany, too

  18. #18
    Senior Member Commoner80's Avatar
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    Been lurking here and on LATOC and Oil Drum for a good decade and have never posted a god damn thing. But since y'all are talking about ME I might as well pipe up. My justification to myself for not posting is that I felt and still feel I have almost nothing to contribute. And since I personally don't require the illusion of personal connection that most of the net is based on, why bother? I'm just another clueless fucking moron city dweller with more time on my hands than most. At least I used some of my free time to get edumacated about the three E's from the likes of Heinberg, Martenson, Tverberg, KMO, Kunstler, Orlov, Al Bartlett, Matt and on down the list to all the wonderful posters past and active. Until about five years ago, I actually thought I could do some basic preps or maybe even move away to some promised land where I could be safe from mutant zombies. Not to take away from those of you working hard to reduce dependence on Ind Civ, but for a spoiled lazy boomer-doomer, loner the notion is a silly fantasy.


    Anyway, you people of SILCO and predecessors saved my sanity and life. Through your reasoned and witty discussion and banter (and juicy links too!), from all corners of the English speaking globe, I have been able to remain positive and keep proper perspective on the approaching shit storm, now moving closer with indeterminate (and greater than previously expected) speed. I have always felt extremely privileged to have been able to keep company with you all here and I thank you. So sad that the millions of curious minds are out there swimming in the brown effluent of trolls and plain ignorance in the comments sections of ZeroHedge, Yahoo, YouTube and useless corp web sites, will never know a discussion board like this except possibly boards for narrow interest topics (hobbies, computers, cars, etc.).



    There is much I could say about the converging crisis (aka DOOM), but it would be far from original and not much different from other familiar stories/opinions/analyses, so I am keeping it brief. I would like to give some feedback to the forum though. I have always sat far left of center politically, but some of you who clearly represent more moderate or even so-called libertarian and right wing perspectives on some issues (like economic, gun, geo-political, etc.) have definitely helped me to see some logic in those points of view that are opposite my own. I am grateful for that and I would hate to see this place die, which some weeks it seems, has nearly happened.

    And for the curious, my handle was chosen to pay respect to Citizens Party presidential candidate of 1980, Barry Commoner. I always wondered who among you instantly recognized the reference. That election was the first I could vote in. USAholes rejecting Carter (and good old Barry) in favor of Ronnie Raygun (who just a few years earlier was as preposterous a candidate as today's throne sitter) was a cold splash of reality; a shock and a disappointment I've never fully overcome.
    from wikipedia

    Barry Commoner (May 28, 1917 – September 30, 2012) was an American cellular biologist, college professor, and politician. He was a leading ecologist and among the founders of the modern environmental movement. He was the director of the Critical Genetics Project and the Center for Biology of Natural Systems. [1] He ran as the Citizens Party candidate in the 1980 U.S. presidential election.[2] His work studying the radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing lead to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.[3]

    The Closing Circle

    In his 1971 bestselling book The Closing Circle, Commoner suggested that the American economy should be restructured to conform to the unbending laws of ecology.[12] For example, he argued that polluting products (like detergents or synthetic textiles) should be replaced with natural products (like soap or cotton and wool).[12] This book was one of the first to bring the idea of sustainability to a mass audience.[12] Commoner suggested a left-wing, eco-socialist response to the limits to growth thesis, postulating that capitalist technologies were chiefly responsible for environmental degradation, as opposed to population pressures. He had a long-running debate with Paul R. Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb and his followers, arguing that they were too focused on overpopulation as the source of environmental problems, and that their proposed solutions were politically unacceptable because of the coercion that they implied, and because the cost would fall disproportionately on the poor. He believed that technological, and above all, social, development would lead to a natural decrease in both population growth and environmental damage.[13]

    One of Commoner's lasting legacies is his four laws of ecology, as written in The Closing Circle in 1971.[14] The four laws are:[15]

    Everything is connected to everything else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and what affects one, affects all.
    Everything must go somewhere. There is no "waste" in nature and there is no "away" to which things can be thrown.
    Nature knows best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon nature, but such change in a natural system is, says Commoner, "likely to be detrimental to that system"
    There is no such thing as a free lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.

  19. #19
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    Thanks for your post C80.

  20. #20
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    Ditto, C80.

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