It's a good thing that
>>188948 was made as I was writing this, as it ties into perhaps the single biggest problem with /mlpol/: the Achilles heel that the site had since the beginning. The problem that strong community and lively participation was handily able to make a non-issue, but with the participation drops over the months, has only made all the more apparent.
The single biggest problem that /mlpol/ has is very simple.
We have no vision. Let me ask you a serious question. What is /mlpol/?
The answers are varied and complex, to be sure, but I'm confident I can distill most of them down to the points
>>188834 makes. "We're not like those other chans!" "We have good mods!" "No shills, no frills!"
That's all well and good, but that's not what /mlpol/ is. That's what /mlpol/
has.
/pol/? That's easy. They talk politics.
/mlp/? That's easy. They talk poners.
/ck/? That's easy. They talk cooking.
/po/? That's easy. They talk paper.
/biz/? That's easy. They talk shekels.
/wsg/? That's easy. They talk WebM's.
/h/? That's easy. They talk hentai.
/v/? That's easy. They talk vidya.
/fit/? That's easy. They talk fitness.
/lgbt/? That's easy. They're faggots.
/d/? That's easy. They're faggots.
I could go on, but my meaning should be clear as crystal by now: every one of these entities has something at their core, something that moulds their discourse, drives their communities, and that everyone on those boards can revolve around. These entities
are something.
They all have a single, simple vision.Now apply this same simple search to /mlpol/. Almost two years into it, and I have yet to possess a solid answer as to what exactly we are. I know what we
have: a strong community, good mods, financial independence, a laid-back culture, and plentiful if sometimes forced memes. But what are we, really? What drives us forward? What's something we can all revolve around? What are our core ideals? What are we?
This kind of dilemma is strikingly similar to what was witnessed during 2015's US electoral extravaganza, in fact. Republicans, all centered around one guy with a clearly defined vision. Democrats, on the other hand? Their position was 'not bolan dumpf'. That's not a position. That's a
reaction. And a reaction can only get you so far, and as we saw, doesn't pay the piper's due of results when things come down to the wire.
The simple truth of the matter is that /mlpol/ was always a reaction, and not a standalone entity. It has everything to become a standalone, visionary entity: all the things we have to be proud of! I thought after all this time, we'd discover our vision, our identity for ourselves with the power of communal will alone, but it's clear that this isn't how it's turned out.
We're still stuck in 2017's state of reaction against the shitlickers who created us, only to throw us to the wolves soon after. Yet they're still going strong. They can even shit on their userbase, like with the 4channel split, brag about it with glee on their IRC channels, and they still keep their users! We, on the other hand, don't have that kind of permanence. If the site were to die, right now, we wouldn't have much of a memorial going for us. Perhaps a simple "Oh yeah, I remember /mlpol/!" but nothing past that.
The energy of the reaction that created us has long since been running on fumes. Even if the site's finances are stabilized, the community certainly isn't. It's not very surprising that things have gotten volatile around here. It's not surprising that we aren't creating new content. It's not surprising that we aren't being the change we want to see. How could we? We have nothing to anchor us to, nothing to draw us in. Why do you think our lurkers don't ever participate? It all comes down to the same central problem.
We have no vision.This is the true killer of /mlpol/. And it's something that needs to be addressed right now, lest we fail to address it when, like in the losing party of that election cycle, it will matter the most, by which point it'll be far too late.
And in order to address it, we need to all come together for it. User and staff alike. I don't want to see those staff members holding out on their capcodes for this, I want them in on this as much as the rest of us are. They're too tightly integrated into the community for them to do anything less. I want our visions, if we have them, put onto the table for all to see. To be deliberated over, discussed, perhaps even improved or compromised on. Anything that will create a real, honest-to-God anchor that will finally create the gravitational pull we all want our comfy little home to have.
I have a pretty good idea for what my own vision for the site's future would be, but this text wall has gotten long enough as is, and this has been a long time coming. I'll get back to you all on what mine would be.
In the meantime, if you have a vision for the site's future, let it be known, so that we can all come to some kind of an agreement on what it should and should not be. But fair warning: keep it very simple, as in the above examples. If it's not able to be distilled to a single word or phrase, your vision is doomed from the start.