On the Types of Discussions on the Forums

[Bärin]

[Thread split by: Ahnenerbe - from the original thread 'Who Runs Skadi?']

Lately I've been posting material would've been relevant on the Old Skadi - Germanic studies, physical anthropology, psychology, sex research. Would be nice to get that kind of discussion back but without too much ethnic diversity. (It was the ruin of Skadi One.) Its mostly me and Shadow at present.

Well sorry but I've seen some of that material and to be frank some of it looks bland if not objectionable on a Germanic site and I think it's counterproductive.

When I log in and check the latest discussion, and there is none, except for a list of threads looking more like a dusty anthropology library index from 20 years ago, with maybe 1 or 2 replies, it doesn't look much inviting to discussion... And much of the times it's not even relevant to Germanic people!

I've commented on this before and I'll say it again, in the latest threads list looks something like below, you won't gain more Germanic members but scare them off, particularly those who don't have a lengthy education in anthropology or archeology and have the patience to read 100 page books and 50 page journals.

When the latest threads looks like this then I close the site and move on, because for me as a Germanic, there's nothing to see here:

The Morphology of Human Teeth from Afontova Gora II, Southern Siberia...
Pre-Columbian Monkey Tools
Admixture into and Within Sub-Saharan Africa
The Magic Coachman in Hungarian Tradition
The Genomic Enigma of Two Medieval North Africans
Southeast European Weather Magicians
The Russian Orthodox Medievalist



My suggestion remains to remove the foreign topics and forums and focus on the identity and problems of the Germanic people. And maybe start or revive some threads which are easier to participate for everyone, some of us are doing it already when we get the time.

Listen, Skadi 2 and the Althing had more activity going because there were a lot of opinion threads and polls, like should uniforms be worn in school, should your partner share your political view, stuff where everyone could chime in with an idea. Or historical and contemporary issue debates, like did the Allies do the right thing, is christianity a Germanic religion, these threads gathered 100s of replies and even when they stopped for a while, new members would find them and reply. Most new members will start with some everyday discussion like favourite fashion or what is your hairstyle then go to the political debates and other complex topics.

If you want reply to your threads you either need a short or simple catchy title, your titles are long and boring, sorry, and you need to pose a question or make a comment, something to get others to chime in. Also stop posting so many in such a short amount of time, it doesn't look good to me as an observer/outsider if I check a certain forum and all I see is a long list of threads, all started by you, and with few to no replies. Otherwise it's at most an interesting read, and you may get a thanks for it and 1-2 replies from people with interest or out of friendly sympathy. Sorry this comes as harsh but it's how I see it and not only me, look if you want the board to be mainly one to one discussions between you and your friend Shadow and a few occasional keep it up and monopolise. It's supposed to be a discussion board after all and not a library.

By the way, since Apricity is offline Skadi could house the remaining Germanics who were regulars over there and had enough of the multiculti, IMO. It doesn't need to become a lowbrow forum for uneducated but we need the "middlebrow" discussions back, these what provide the forum with the "at home" and "amongst our own" feeling. We've got enough issues with the refugees, that's too much foreign already IMO.

[Catterick]

Skadi 1.0 was like a library with varied other discussion. Skadi 2.0 became a knitting circle. The second version could fit within the first.

Most serious preservationists do have a wider interest in anthropology and comparative myth. The problem for anthro boards is the ease of stirring ethnic rudeness.

[Sigurd]

Bärin raises some fair points in her post.

Skadi 1.0 was like a library with varied other discussion. Skadi 2.0 became a knitting circle. The second version could fit within the first.

Skadi 2.0 was no such thing as a knitting circle. Its success was ultimately built on featuring all three strands of discussion: Highbrow stuff for the most scholarly discussion, Middlebrow stuff with a lesser participation threshold such as many opinion threads, and Lowbrow stuff where people could unlax.

They all need to be there for a forum to be successful:

• Too much scholarly discussion will lack in a close social circle, because sometimes when we get home from work, we don't really want to write 78-odd paragraphs citing from five books, we might want to share the latest funny cat picture with our friends.
  
  
• Too much Lowbrow pulls down the level of a forum altogether and makes the most intelligent members leave eventually when they find their most thought out posts laughed at by silly commentaries. The not so scholarly also prefer order to be kept + will only hang around in groups that know when to be serious + when to fool around.
  
  
• That middle-brow, the participation-easy stuff, is what ultimately is the guiding link that builds a bridge between the lowbrow and highbrow stuff: Some of them might be semi-scholarly from the beginning (such as a discussion about the Death Penalty) and could end up gearing towards high-brow, and usually do as the discussion carries on. BUT, and this is important: Its participation threshold is so low that some who hasn't read everything can suddenly chime in, offer his opinion on the topic, and fuel the discussion again.

It's a forum and not a library, and whilst it mustn't become as banal as Facebook, it should also not make the mistake of someone needing a degree to participate. Especially when those with a degree might also wish to relax, and not have 'more of the same shit' when they get home.

Most serious preservationists do have a wider interest in anthropology and comparative myth. The problem for anthro boards is the ease of stirring ethnic rudeness.

What qualifies someone to be a 'serious preservationist'? Some people are more interested in one part of our race & culture --- and others, that's why everything is featured on Skadi: The scholar, the homemaker, the martial artist - they will all find something to stir their interest.

Certainly to me, a mother who shares about her experiences in child-rearing or who might share about traditional Germanic knitting techniques, ultimately does more to preserve than someone who is a lexicon, but ends up as a rich, childless 70-year-old with no one to pass that knowledge on to. :

[Bärin]

Skadi 1.0 was like a library with varied other discussion. Skadi 2.0 became a knitting circle. The second version could fit within the first.

Most serious preservationists do have a wider interest in anthropology and comparative myth. The problem for anthro boards is the ease of stirring ethnic rudeness.

I know you and your friends use this "knitting circle" a pejorative but it doesn't offend me in the least. We had a familial, at home feeling. The Althing and later Skadi 2.0 was a place where people shared their personal view and experience of Germanic preservation, where we discussed friendships, relationships, marriage and parenthood. It was occasionally infested by foreign elements and members who wanted their point across had to push it but Skadi was eventually cleaned of the anti-Germanic poison. There was anthropology discussion as well but focused on Germanics.

Skadi 1.0 was according to my reading and sharing of experience from some veterans, much more diverse and multicultural than now. It was a forum with predominant anthropology discussion but conflicts between North and South Europeans, Slavs and Meds, Finns, Indians, Jews and Turkic people discussing anthropology. We don't need to look like another version of Biodiversity or Anthroforum. If you want an example of what happens when you switch the focus on "human biodiversity" and get greedy on anthropological quantity look at the Apricity. It started out as an "European cultural community" but is now a cesspool. :thumb down What does it help that they're known for their anthropology section? The reputation of Apricity to White and European nationalists is a poor one, a "serious preservationist" as you claim doesn't last on that board for a day.

In the day to day life of Germanics it's of little consequence if someone knows the Asian subraces, and what the scientific terminology for all these things is. We are guided by instinct and tradition and don't need to know how many cm an African skull has. But anyway, you'll post what you like, I just thought to give you some reality check.

By the way since you seem to revere Thorburn, maybe you should know he liked and supported the "knitting circle" version of Skadi. He and Forseti always wrote they wanted a Germanic home community whenever I expressed my thoughts about the direction of the board. I think after Skadi returned Thorburn wanted a forum more like the Althing, which had the advantage to start as Germanic from scratch, and which harboured a big Germanic family feeling.

Skadi 2.0 was just right in my opinion, and if we want to incorporate the new social media generation, which is used to attention span and simple topics, we should pay attention to the daily, "hearthy" topics, as well as current affair topics. These middlebrow/poll discussions which Sigurd exemplified are good, because even if there are 100 pages, a topic like death penalty invites for opinion, and these are the kind of topics newbies look for and chime into. Being new can be shy, so replying to such a mass thread blends in better than creating an own topic or being the single reply to a complicated one. The way Skadi looks now, if I were new and an outsider, I wouldn't feel too compelled to post, sorry. :S

[Huginn ok Muninn]

Lately I've been posting material would've been relevant on the Old Skadi - Germanic studies, physical anthropology, psychology, sex research. Would be nice to get that kind of discussion back but without too much ethnic diversity. (It was the ruin of Skadi One.) Its mostly me and Shadow at present.

It's nice to see new threads popping up, and I wouldn't want to discourage you from posting them, but I think Bärin and Sigurd have made some good points as well, that we do need a bit more balance here. When you do post a new thread, you might want to comment yourself about the topic and why it intrigued you, which might be more conducive to others chiming in on the discussion. Also, since we are focused on things Germanic here, you might want to reflect that in choosing which articles to post. Few people come here expecting to read about Sub-Saharan Africans or Russian Orthodoxy. Surely, there are general anthropology/archaeology topics that would be interesting, like the post on teeth. You did post two articles about teeth at the same time in separate threads though, which I thought might have been skillfully integrated into one thread under the general topic, again with discussion from you about their relevance, etc.

Another thing for those bored with the academic posts, maybe you could start more topics on the things you find interesting and relevant. That would go a long way to adding the balance you seek.

[Nachtengel]

It's nice to see new threads popping up, and I wouldn't want to discourage you from posting them, but I think Bärin and Sigurd have made some good points as well, that we do need a bit more balance here. When you do post a new thread, you might want to comment yourself about the topic and why it intrigued you, which might be more conducive to others chiming in on the discussion. Also, since we are focused on things Germanic here, you might want to reflect that in choosing which articles to post. Few people come here expecting to read about Sub-Saharan Africans or Russian Orthodoxy. Surely, there are general anthropology/archaeology topics that would be interesting, like the post on teeth. You did post two articles about teeth at the same time in separate threads though, which I thought might have been skillfully integrated into one thread under the general topic, again with discussion from you about their relevance, etc.

That's another thing which could be done, to merge similar topics. When I post a new article, I usually check to see if it doesn't fit into an already-existing discussion, that way something new and interesting is shared and the discussion gets revived, like the article on jealousy. Some people read it and found it interesting while some people just paid attention to the general topic and replied to it. I'm sure at least half of the threads could be integrated into wider topics and become more discussion-friendly.

Another thing for those bored with the academic posts, maybe you could start more topics on the things you find interesting and relevant. That would go a long way to adding the balance you seek.

That's true, some of us already do that, although it's got nothing to do with boredom with academic topics in my case.

However I think Bärin's point was more about attracting activity from new members and causing non-members to register. Although Skadi has returned since March is still feels fresh activity-wise. I don't know how much effort has been spend in making it known, advertising it on other boards etc. but considering the time it's been around I think the activity could use some boosting. Just my 2 Eurocents.

[Catterick]

I know you and your friends use this "knitting circle" a pejorative but it doesn't offend me in the least.

True that 2.0 was less interesting than 1.0 for me but I mean it less perjorative than you think. To each their own.

There was anthropology discussion as well but focused on Germanics.

A focus on Germanics doesn't mean entirely about Germanics. Germanic studies requires a context. If you want to know the Vikings you must also know the Finns, Sami and Balts. The following races have shared territory and heritage with the Germanics: Celts, Latins, Slavs, Balts, Slavs, Iranics (Scytho-Sarmatians), Caucasics, Huns, Turkics (both in Pannonia) and Uralics. This is not even touching the Vandal Kingdom in Africa or the Norse exploration in the New World.

Skadi 1.0 was according to my reading and sharing of experience from some veterans, much more diverse and multicultural than now. It was a forum with predominant anthropology discussion but conflicts between North and South Europeans, Slavs and Meds, Finns, Indians, Jews and Turkic people discussing anthropology. We don't need to look like another version of Biodiversity or Anthroforum. If you want an example of what happens when you switch the focus on "human biodiversity" and get greedy on anthropological quantity look at the Apricity. It started out as an "European cultural community" but is now a cesspool. :thumb down What does it help that they're known for their anthropology section? The reputation of Apricity to White and European nationalists is a poor one, a "serious preservationist" as you claim doesn't last on that board for a day.

I agree with you.

In the day to day life of Germanics it's of little consequence if someone knows the Asian subraces, and what the scientific terminology for all these things is. We are guided by instinct and tradition and don't need to know how many cm an African skull has. But anyway, you'll post what you like, I just thought to give you some reality check.

The reality check is forums are an escape from day to day life.

And Sigurd don't punch below the belt.

Certainly to me, a mother who shares about her experiences in child-rearing or who might share about traditional Germanic knitting techniques, ultimately does more to preserve than someone who is a lexicon, but ends up as a rich, childless 70-year-old with no one to pass that knowledge on to.

[Shadow]

When Skadi became about Germanic costumes and Germanic food, sorry folks, but I could care less. Race, most culture and Germanic Preservation went out the window.

Now, we gave millions of non-Indo-Europeans invading all of Europe, and North America for that matter. If this does not upset you, you are fricking dead. Most Europeans and Americans are evidently fricking dead. It ought to be Skadi raising awareness, not longing for the sewing-circle days.

[Nachtengel]

The reality check is forums are an escape from day to day life.

Yes to a good extend forums are used as an escape outlet, especially for people who haven't the option of an exclusively Germanic environment offline, so they seek it online. So it's understandable that those people prefer a place where they can feel cozy and at home. They hear enough about diversity and foreigners on TV, they have enough <insert foreign ethnicity here> month so for one instead of learning about and comparing foreign customs, they'd rather just be among their own people. Yeah you could say it's sticking their heads in the sand, but it's getting them here in the first place we have to worry about first.

I think Skadi needs a bit of everything, anthropology and academic articles, everyday discussions and current events, as well as knitting and recipe topics. It's not just about what you present though, it's also about how you present it. And at the moment, it's neither more like Skadi 1, nor like Skadi 2. At the moment the number one concern of the staff and of us members I think should be the activity. You get more members > you get more interest in your threads and replies. So maybe what Skadi needs is an active advertizing campaign, with banners, videos, links, etc.

[Catterick]

Yes to a good extend forums are used as an escape outlet, especially for people who haven't the option of an exclusively Germanic environment offline, so they seek it online.

Right. There's a reason people larp as Vikings, Nazis, Crusaders etc.

So it's understandable that those people prefer a place where they can feel cozy and at home. They hear enough about diversity and foreigners on TV, they have enough <insert foreign ethnicity here> month so for one instead of learning about and comparing foreign customs, they'd rather just be among their own people.

Besides it inviting trouble thats why I'd avoid threads about current affairs - unless they're heavily tone policed. Real world ethnic tension gets raised, people vent their spleens and the atmosphere is ruined.

Yeah you could say it's sticking their heads in the sand, but it's getting them here in the first place we have to worry about first.

I wasn't criticising when I said people use boards for escapism. Promote the escapism, feed the curiosity. Why be some normie if you can explore you're roots?