Author Topic: blockland: the community that killed the game  (Read 57512 times)

aka: a persons loveuality is not always (or even usually, these days) obvious on sight irl but is more obvious online cause its not that weird to have a pfp with flags

also something something normies dont use the internet

yeah but like, furries and bronies had a thread on every forum in existence, you couldn't go to a specialist forum for discussing new Subaru parts without seeing one.
Yeah they were quite the evangelists.
But like, the Roblox forums would probably not have allowed a furry megathread by contrast.
It's the combination of a younger, less-than-casually-online, audience that this stuff appeals to and laisse-faire moderation that allowed it to grow so large.

Post real life pictures of yourself is insane though, in retrospect. We really made it easy for predators, we had a forgetin craigslist board as a forum thread.
dunno how you're even quantifying that
Intuition?
If you can't notice it, it may just be the case that your own social group is disproportionally LGBT and so it's what you are used to.

Even the most LGBT-friendly sources then to say that world-wide adults are no more than 1% trans/non-gender-conforming or whatever. For example.
Given the BLF has maybe 100 active users at this point, we'd expect there to be maybe 2 people who are anything but cis-male and cis-female.

the proportion of people who grow up on the internet and present as LGBT will always be higher than the proportion of people you see in day-to-day life because it's not only easier to be clearly LGBT through profile pictures and usernames and the like, but also because it's just easier to be openly LGBT in the online space than it is in reality. people are still being ostracized, disowned, kicked out. and assaulted all across the world and unfortunately it doesn't seem that this is going to stop anytime soon. while the internet has allowed people to abuse anonymity to act as utter loving monsters without consequence, it has also allowed people to be who they truly feel comfortable as without running the risk of ruining their life. it's safe, at least in that regard.
I mean realistically in a blue state in the US, you're not really going to get any stuff for coming out. Even in a red state you'd probably be fine unless you're really out in the boonies.
I doubt the users of the forum are hailing from Saudi Arabia lol
« Last Edit: January 15, 2023, 03:34:28 PM by DrenDran »

personally i believe the internet is simply full of innumerable stray "being a little fruity wit it" rays that have hit many an unlucky soul who deserve just compensation via class action lawsuit

I mean realistically in a blue state in the US, you're not really going to get any stuff for coming out. Even in a red state you'd probably be fine unless you're really out in the boonies.
Statistically trans and queer folk are over four times more likely to be victims of violent assault and other crimes.

It is less likely you would notice how many people you know may be sensible if people in your social circle don't present as trans and thereby don't give people any reason to show their true colors.

All of this is kinda tangential, however, to why are we even discussing the proportion of queer folk here? Is it somehow related to the toxicity in any way other than queer folk are frequently discriminated against and the target of abuse?

Intuition?
If you can't notice it, it may just be the case that your own social group is disproportionally LGBT and so it's what you are used to.

Even the most LGBT-friendly sources then to say that world-wide adults are no more than 1% trans/non-gender-conforming or whatever. For example.
Given the BLF has maybe 100 active users at this point, we'd expect there to be maybe 2 people who are anything but cis-male and cis-female.

"computer... give me the LGBT worldwide stats... cross-reference with blocklanders... "

hey not to be that guy but make a separate topic to discuss that it has nothing to do with the OP

Statistically trans and queer folk are over four times more likely to be victims of violent assault and other crimes.
We live in the most peaceful and prosperous time in human history, we 1st worlders.
If you are middle-class in some suburb somewhere your local stranger-violent crime rate is effectively zero.
0 * 4 = 0
 
All of this is kinda tangential, however, to why are we even discussing the proportion of queer folk here? Is it somehow related to the toxicity in any way other than queer folk are frequently discriminated against and the target of abuse?
I'm talking about confirmation bias, which is super relevant.
This whole thread is just confirmation bias.
Like the Red Sea increasing in salinity as it shrinks, so too is this forum's fate.
Satellite imagery from the time shows that in August 2010 the shores of the Blockland Forum Sea enclosed over 158174 mi2 of water. By December of 2022 that number was just 398 mi2.
Can you imagine how salty that puddle is now?
Most people played their virtual lego game, posted in the community, bantered, got made fun of, made fun of others, etc. and just sort of moved on silently as they grew up and got busy.
The people who are still here, are here for a reason.

Most people played their virtual lego game, posted in the community, bantered, got made fun of, made fun of others, etc. and just sort of moved on silently as they grew up and got busy.
The people who are still here, are here for a reason.
I hope you're not implying being gay or trans or whatever makes one linger here longer than they would otherwise.

It may have more to do the people still here are social rejects, whether they want to admit that or not.

We live in the most peaceful and prosperous time in human history, we 1st worlders.
If you are middle-class in some suburb somewhere your local stranger-violent crime rate is effectively zero.
0 * 4 = 0
What loving utopia are you living that trans folk can be out an about with no consequences?
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/
And that is just the folks who have reported violent crimes.
This completely ignores the endemic homelessness of trans youth that have been listed from their family home after coming out:

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Trevor-Project-Homelessness-Report.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwizgPiY3sr8AhUvBUQIHZx-BgkQFnoECBwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0M1XWm64ObCDcmg-SZ-7NE

I am not sure where you learned that it is great for trans people here in the us?
Sure, the problem is worse in other countries, but whatabboutism doesn't diminish the negative affects here in the "first world" nor does it affect people being descriminated against online on these forums.

hey not to be that guy but make a separate topic to discuss that it has nothing to do with the OP
hey it is nice to see the unquenchable argumentative spirit
of blockland still lives, there's life in these old bones yet lol

to steer back to your OP, I tend to not try to get wrapped in "what could've been" mentalities, everything has a time and place, I don't desire or expect blockland to have a second renaissance. But also like, if badspot would've just had a shred of trust in his community, and had brought some talented young modders into the fold to try and advance the game, at the very least the game would've continued to progress past the brick physics update, instead of just stalling out completely. Badspot made a fantastic playground, and then 100,000 kids came in and started churning out content every second, and the entire time he just treated us all like little silly toddlers. There was some community outreach; adding new default saved builds, making wrench events default, letting Eksi make the official Steam trailer, but other than that Badspot basically never gave the community the time of day, and that's why now the game is pretty much abandonware.

This issue is petty in comparisom to the issue regarding all the abuse that happened here on his watch, but its another nail in the coffin, another byproduct of being completely callous towards a community of teens and kids.

Given the BLF has maybe 100 active users at this point, we'd expect there to be maybe 2 people who are anything but cis-male and cis-female.
do you think the remaining users of this forum are a perfectly random sampling of the global population

do you think the remaining users of this forum are a perfectly random sampling of the global population
No, that was my whole point.

No, that was my whole point.
maybe the better question is why would you expect it to be

going directly from page 1 to page 6 gave me whiplash

going directly from page 1 to page 6 gave me whiplash
yeah for real im confused as to drendran managed to completely change the topic. i will say this is prob why forums arent as popular anymore, theres no way to like... downvote or get rid of comments that are complete offtopic