Any suggestions for what we should do with the Libcom forums?

would be nice to be able to come on here without the tedious questioning of my existence tbh

well there's a lot of people that favour the nuclear option, the forums are practically dead already compared to a few years back since most discussion moved to social media, so it might not be so bad to move the rest too. the main problems with that that i see are that discussion tend to get buried very quickly, and most social media is owned by cooperation's which are not exactly in favour of communism. Of cause its also possible to make your own social media with mastodon now, but thats extra work for the libcom admins.
i think my preferred solution would be something like keep comments on articles, sometimes they are useful, and direct people to where they can follow libcom on social media, and it would be nice if that included on mastodon, so people dont need facebook or twitter
maybe sufficiently harsh rules could make the forum work, but its much harder to ban people for bad posts than for harassing someone by @'ing someone whos told them to stop, so i think forums are at an inherent disadvantage compared to well managed social media

I was going to suggest kill it with fire. The forums have been on life support for a while. There are are some pretty good people here that I'll miss but they are welcome to my social media deets if they want (I will screen them :p)

For a while now, for the purpose of a project I’m helping out with, I’ve been trawling through the last five years of Libcom forums looking for posts that are particularly persuasive due to their use of language, humour or particular devices and I can state with some certainty, that as far as threads turning to shit is concerned, with all the elements that make that happen, it was always thus.
In an open space like this you will always have trolls, or reactionaries who’s posting illicits the same response as trolls and these often create train wrecks such as the current idpol thread. The thing is though, that with the right response, these posters can present a good opportunity for us to hone our beliefs and understanding, particularly for those that are less clued up about the topic at hand, and as with any discussion on the internet, there is little chance of the person with the opposing view changing their mind, but the lurkers, who are the majority of viewers, get a great opportunity to see a debate from various angles and then make their mind up for themselves.
As I say, that’s with the right response, the problem is that the right response generally develops into the wrong response, namely, that these debates get carried on for way too long - taking the idpol thread as an example, by the time it was a couple of pages in it was very clear that the anti crew didn’t have much of a case and if the matter had been dropped by the posters arguing against them, a pretty persuasive conversation would have been left there for the lurkers/passers by to read and the ensuing shit show needn’t have happened. So really, whilst the reactionaries are the catalyst, it’s really in the hands of everyone else as to whether things are going to turn to shit or not.
I know people will say it doesn’t matter about what goes on here, that it’s just the internet etc but for me personally it matters a lot. Libcom was highly instrumental in the formation of my politics and it fact, the shaping of the way I currently live my life. Whilst as a resource for radical literature etc, Libcom is second to none, for someone like me, reading and participating in the forums was easily the most effective way for me to learn. I have also met real life comrades and made important friendships with people I met on the forums. It would be a terrible shame if they were scrapped.
Essentially, I see the solution to at least many of the problem conversations on here as the regular posters having a bit of discipline, making their point and then walking away rather than repeating themselves and entering into the competition for the last word.
I also think that more silly entertainment libcommunity type threads would help the general atmosphere. They seem to have almost disappeared over the last couple of years which is a shame - some of the most enjoyable reading of my recent excavations have been pun filled nonsense and self deprecating mass participation comedy skits which whilst they were not usually of any political significance, certainly helped improve the atmosphere so that more serious conversations were set against a more comfortable backdrop.

Edit: And after all that I just commented on the idpol thread! Maybe there’s no hope after all.

Yeah it's a tricky one. Personally I have a lot of fondness for the libcom forums, dysfunctional as they are (and always have been). I do think there's value in having a space for pubic online discussion that isn't owned by one of like three silicon valley billionaires who can arbitrarily decide to ban or delete content they don't like and set the boundaries of acceptable discussion. The quality off discussion on Facebpok, Twitter etc. Is often pretty fucking dire and frequently every bit as toxic as the worst threads on here - it is also difficult for the uninitiated to find where those conversations are happening if they don't already know people in the libertarian communist scene.

That said, web forums in 2018 to seem like a bit of an anachronism, and maybe the time has come to kill them off and focus on the more popular parts of the site. I'd like it if they were replaced by *something* to direct people towards for general libcom discussion though. I dunno what are the kids using these days? Discord? Libcom.org mastodon instance anyone?

dark_ether

More mods with a tighter remit on posts deleted / moved to some 'bin/flame' foum, or temp / perm bans?

It's no secret that we fail to moderate the forums as much as we could. This is a combination of time (libcom admins don't read every word written here, we've found some horrible threads months or even years after they happened) and also moderation decisions are tricky and time-consuming in themselves (witness me trying to split the idpol thread twice).

Short answer - more help with moderation would be welcome and that could start today...

dark_ether

Only have certain forums visible to people not signed in (or none of them at all)?

This is doable post-upgrade (note, more moderation help would also contribute to a quicker upgrade, because it'd free people up who are supposed to be working on that).

dark_ether

A new / reenforced 'code of conduct' where we spell out what is and isn't acceptable on the forums?

The current ones are 10+ years old, could definitely be updated: https://libcom.org/notes/content-guidelines/forums-posting-guidelines

dark_ether

Specific dumping ground with less rules?

We had that with libcommunity and it did not really help. You could move a train-wreck there in its entirety, but people landing on that thread from google can't tell it's the dumping forum, and as importantly, a lot of train-wrecks start out as OK discussions.

jolasmo

That said, web forums in 2018 to seem like a bit of an anachronism, and maybe the time has come to kill them off and focus on the more popular parts of the site. I'd like it if they were replaced by *something* to direct people towards for general libcom discussion though. I dunno what are the kids using these days? Discord? Libcom.org mastodon instance anyone?

This is interesting but for it to actually happen it would probably need people other than the current libcom admins to take it on, but libcom as a site could then promote it and point to it instead of the forums. This would mean probably having both for a while, and not sure either could replace comments on articles (which with some exceptions tend to be a bit more constructive than forum threads so maybe it's fine to have a split like that).

Are there existing anarchist/communist discord or mastodon instances that are good though? Or even not very good ones for comparison?

I do think a big reason people have taken to social media instead of forums is because if someone is particularly annoying and disruptive, you can just block them yourself instead of having to wait for moderators to do it.

All in all I also quite appreciate the forums, as a space outside social media to have slower-moving discussions that aren't dependent on who you follow, the content policies of whatever corporate network you happen to be on, or the turnover time of discussions determined by short attention spans and chronological timelines.

Part of this discussion can be had in the comments under articles, but not every discussion or question is related to a particular text, and it's not so attractive to have a long winded discussion under each article.

I can see flaming is a problem and moderation a very time consuming task, as I don't participate in either, I don't have any solution to offer there.

I am nervous about saying much on social media and I only have locked accounts, I post stuff here and discuss politics in a way that's important for me. However I am also often strongly emotionally affected by people being patronising, sexist or dismissive and it leads to me not posting on many threads where I do have quite a bit of experience. So I would rather that we kept the forums but that people were less horrible on them.

The people suggesting dumping Forums seem to be those most annoyed by the latest 'identity politics' discussions that they with the help of one particular poster seem to spend so much time keeping going. One or two annoying threads does not invalidate all Forums (though I have often suggested dumping/slimming down the number of dead Forums). I have made strenuous efforts in the past to try and get discussion going on library texts and to link discussion on different texts with only limited success but will keep trying that as I find that more rewarding than some of the other discussion threads that already look like a twitter fly-past.

Mike Harman

Are there existing anarchist/communist discord or mastodon instances that are good though? Or even not very good ones for comparison?

I do think a big reason people have taken to social media instead of forums is because if someone is particularly annoying and disruptive, you can just block them yourself instead of having to wait for moderators to do it.

I tried searching for mastodons a while back, and I think there was someone promoting theirs on here (as well as a discord). Didn't find much really.

https://anticapitalist.party/about
https://anarchism.space/about
https://chaos.social/about

Sort of up to the libcom collective really. There's only a handful of forum posters left. Most of the forum posts that have any level of participation are about conflicts and splits in the European anarchist left. Do they really want to put in the work required to provide a space for that? How would the site change or be impacted by the removal of the forums?

As long as people like Serge and Noa are allowed to keep posting like this, the forum is going to become more and more of a boys' club. Threads aren't even crashed by trolls, they are dragged into the fire by regular posters who have been here for years.

Leninist Girl, you have a point about long termers although there is a regular turnover of newbie trolls and wank stains with a chip on their shoulder as well. I don’t think we’re talking about more than a handful of posters though and there is also a lot of great input from probably the majority.
You mention Serge - I don’t know what he’s said, I don’t read every thread and I sometimes skim the ones I do read, but I’ve seen him on the forums for years and always enjoyed his posts, in fact, more than once I’ve hoped to meet up with him IRL although it’s never actually worked out. So I’m not saying you’re wrong but I’d appreciate if you could let me know what he’s been saying that leads to you putting him in the same category as Noa?

I put him in the same category as Noa because he often comes of as trying to fit into the "cool rational bro"-trope, just often commenting about how wrong everyone is without contributing with anything really(at least around social issues). He even has the big lewboski profile picture to match. What really put me over the edge is that he used the t-word...

I disagree with Serge sometimes and he can on occasion be dead wrong, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to start writing people off because of their avatars on a libertarian communist board when your name is "LeninistGirl".

I must say having always appreciated Serge's posts I am finding some of his views now increasingly difficult to stomach.

A particular low point was when he started defending a poster who made up ridiculous claims that black factory workers had tried to exclude whites from their workplace, as they felt "unsafe". That poster eventually admitted that he made it up, but Serge defended him nonetheless.

TBH things like this are why I am normally sceptical of people who start complaining about "identity politics", because they do things like this. Complain about "identity politics" one minute, then defend crazy racist lies the next.

Rob, I'm not writing him of because of his profile picture, I'm just saying it fits the way he acts.

I’ve noticed that at the most, the posts of Serge’s I’ve seen lately he may have seemed a little more irate than expected but even if there is some disagreeable or worse stuff that’s been posted I couldn’t write off someone who up until now has been a poster I’ve appreciated for years. I say that as somebody that’s acutely aware of his own lapses into shitposting in the past and also bearing in mind that we don’t know what shit comrades may be dealing with at the time as was the case with me.
I hope I don’t sound like some sort of apologist, people should be called out when appropriate but not written off completely.

I would miss them, but I am not sure how useful they are any more. I do sometimes wonder if it isn't just a mix of people who don't want to do politics on social media and people who get blocked from social media.

Moderation is very hard, making those judgement calls is extremely dififcult and time-consuming. And a code of conduct helps but doesn't make the decisions for you. I stick to dealing with spammers etc because that is easy. I have been tempted to ban Noa, but that is up to the admins. Moderation help is very useful, but it requires a big commitment on both sides to get mods trained and up to speed and it also requires a lot of trust because mods become part of the website.

The forums used to be quite unwelcoming in some ways but I don't think they are unwelcoming now, but there isn't much of a welcome either. I don't know how to get more people onto the forums but I am not interested in the alternative.

Per request I'm reposting this comment,

At this point I'm just frustrated that really no space is safe and that it is allowed to turn into such a debate. Like why is people using the t-word(especially in a negative way) and making up conspiracy theories about queer ideology turning into a such a big debate instead of just being cleaned up? And who are the people up-voting it? It's like nobody seems to get how serious it is to just casually use the word t-word. Does the admin team have any trans representation?

Should apologise for introducing the t word. I am trans and I often use it about myself and in anger at phobes, but I should be more careful about it. Sorry.

I'll also add to 'this shit is incredibly draining' chorus. I try to remember that the overwhelming majority of my comrades, including on these threads and in some of the orgs involved (not all of them, but I won't open that one), are as horrified by this bullshit as I am and have trans people's back. Thankyou to them for being decent human beings.

being decent human beings

Did you just call me a liberal?!!!

Actual lol!

ticking_fool

Should apologise for introducing the t word. I am trans and I often use it about myself and in anger at phobes, but I should be more careful about it. Sorry.

I also did this so I apologise if it made cis people being shitty think it was okay for them to do it too.

dark_ether

If I was a mod i'd be tempted to kick anyone who downvoted leninistgirls latest comment and jospanners comment at the top of the page. Cuz, wtf?

Tbh I’m not sure what the point in the downvote button even is. An upvote or “like” button serves a useful purpose in allowing people to signal that they agree with something without discussions getting clogged up with a lot of repitition and “Yes, this!” Downvotes seem to mostly be a way for cowards to get at people without meaningfully contributing to the conversation.

Remove forum content from 'latest posts' so people can link to Library content without fearing new people being early pulled into a very off putting swamp

Impose a low limit on the number of times anyone can post per day on a thread to stop threads becoming dominated by the same angry bloke over and over.

Sadie - mind you don’t fart, your downvotes could smash even my previous record of 31 for one post!

Sadie

Tbh I’m not sure what the point in the downvote button even is. An upvote or “like” button serves a useful purpose in allowing people to signal that they agree with something without discussions getting clogged up with a lot of repitition and “Yes, this!” Downvotes seem to mostly be a way for cowards to get at people without meaningfully contributing to the conversation.

I'd need to double check, but this should be an easy enough change to make if we wanted to. Down votes were supposed to be more of a 'report post' mechanism but it's clear they're not that. Witness the downvotes on the comment pointing this out ffs.

And I agree with the analysis, we originally added up votes to replace the need for 'great point' and 'this' comments. If you disagree with something for whatever reason, it's easy enough to reply to it.

Just to say on this topic we have discussed it before, as in the redesign of the site we plan to remove the forums structure, and instead just have a content type called "discussions", which you will be able to look at through the tracker.

That said, this is potentially a good option which we could even do now:
AndrewF

Remove forum content from 'latest posts' so people can link to Library content without fearing new people being early pulled into a very off putting swamp

AndrewF

Impose a low limit on the number of times anyone can post per day on a thread to stop threads becoming dominated by the same angry bloke over and over.

..... or set a minimum time between posts if that's easier. I think most BB software has that natively. (Maybe set a period of 3 or 4 years :-D).

Crosses over with this incomplete discussion posted where else! but on a Forum!
https://libcom.org/forums/feedback-content/dying-forums-or-just-slow-02012018

AndrewF's idea is definitely a good one. The tracker already has a tab for just tracking forum posts so they don't necessarily need to be in the main tracker.

Just so I am clear, the t-word hasn't been used on this thread but has on another and the t-word isn't trans?

I think the admins are pretty clear on a supportive position for trans people, they haven't been banning people from the forums but Mike and Steven have written quite regularly, as has Juan I think. I am not sure who the admins are now, I can't find the page anymore. But last time I looked there were 5 or 6, which is not a lot of people to maintain a site this big, there are a few mods doing a few things, but not many. Not sure who or how many.

Modding takes a lot of work and also requires people to be available a lot.
For example if someone says something stupid but has been taken to task by another poster is it worth deleting that post or is it better to leave it up to show those ideas being refuted?

Downvotes are blatantly being misused, one of the problems with this is that the number of decent posters seemd to have dropped, so the bad ones who obsessively vote against people (admins have cracked down on that in the past) seem to have more weight. half a dozen votes on a comment is quite a lot now, but I can remember a few years ago posts could get a lot more than that. If the admins/mods can't moderate it then it probably isn't necessary.

I think the fact that these threads are some of the longest recent threads tells its own story too.

Just one thing, some threads could perhaps be kept and stickied, or reformulated in some way. I am thinking of Steven's police brutality thread, R Totale's prisons thread etc.

T word is tranny and it popped up on the identity politics thread. I think trans folk introduced it in a (sort of) reclaimed slur way, but non trans users were using it as well. I won't be using it again to describe myself because of that anyway.

jef costello

Modding takes a lot of work and also requires people to be available a lot.
For example if someone says something stupid but has been taken to task by another poster is it worth deleting that post or is it better to leave it up to show those ideas being refuted?

Yes this is very difficult and we usually tend towards the latter, just due to seeing things hours after they've happened. One option would be to do some kind of 'spoiler' filter on the original post where the original text is available if you click on something but not actually removed, but we don't have that technically at the moment.

Also, while a stupid post in isolation is a stupid post, if someone just registers to post stupidity it's easy to nuke it and block them. If a long term poster says something stupid, it's not quite so easy (and that doesn't refer just to recent discussions, plenty of long term posters have talked complete crap on this site at one point or another).

Just one thing, some threads could perhaps be kept and stickied, or reformulated in some way. I am thinking of Steven's police brutality thread, R Totale's prisons thread etc.

I think sticky threads work in the forum listings, but they don't work on the tracker. We could probably make them work on the forum tracker though.

Yeah, I think threads rather than discrete articles are kind of more suited to keeping track of long-running situations with lots of relatively small developments rather than a few big ones - with the best will in the world it'd be hard to keep putting up new "Picturehouse workers to strike again" articles every time the Picturehouse workers go on strike, but one big "Picturehouse dispute" thread that people could bump with "Picturehouse out on strike again this weekend - any comments this time round?" posts might be more manageable.

R Totale

Yeah, I think threads rather than discrete articles are kind of more suited to keeping track of long-running situations with lots of relatively small developments rather than a few big ones - with the best will in the world it'd be hard to keep putting up new "Picturehouse workers to strike again" articles every time the Picturehouse workers go on strike, but one big "Picturehouse dispute" thread that people could bump with "Picturehouse out on strike again this weekend - any comments this time round?" posts might be more manageable.

Could these be news articles or blog posts with comments (or edited-in updates) though?

I try very hard to keep some discussions around particular countries, struggles or disputes together which by accident sometimes gets listed on the currently identified Forums (eg on Turkey recently) or under the Notes from below UCU strikes an the Deliveroo bulletins and any way of helping with that in the future sounds sensible.

Maybe, although I guess it'd have to be clear from the title that they were meant to be generic/ongoing - so not like "cinema workers to strike on May 31st" or whatever.

I don't have time to read the thread but just want to say:

I love the forums, even though I've sometimes read shit on here that has upset me.

Reading forum threads has been VERY educational for me. (Including discussions I was never involved in, from years before I was even an anarchist.)

I'm sure there are countless others who've learned a lot from the forums and reached a better understanding of politics, and also as a result, become more effective in their actions.

Facebook and Twitter are a hundred times less effective as means for discussion and learning.

It would be a big loss if the forums were gone.

All that said, I agree with the point raised by dark_ether in the OP, and think this is a decent solution:

dark_ether

Only have certain forums visible to people not signed in (or none of them at all)?

dark_ether wrote:
Only have certain forums visible to people not signed in (or none of them at all)?

Isn’t anarchism obscure enough already? Keeping it hidden still further would be fucking crazy.
It would be pretty dishonest too - how we deal with trolls and more importantly, how we deal with those with objectionable views is something that should be open to public scrutiny. If our reaction to these things is not fit for public display then we should be changing our reaction, not hiding it.

Noah Fence

dark_ether wrote:
Only have certain forums visible to people not signed in (or none of them at all)?

Isn’t anarchism obscure enough already? Keeping it hidden still further would be fucking crazy.

i dont think forums = anarchism

radicalgraffiti

Noah Fence

dark_ether wrote:
Only have certain forums visible to people not signed in (or none of them at all)?

Isn’t anarchism obscure enough already? Keeping it hidden still further would be fucking crazy.

i dont think forums = anarchism

Forums about anarchism are part of anarchism’s presence on the internet, and the internet is by far the most likely place that people will access anarchist ideas and information. How is hiding part of those ideas and information away from public view gonna do anything other than help keep the movement even more pitifully small than it already is?

Noah Fence

dark_ether wrote:
Only have certain forums visible to people not signed in (or none of them at all)?

Isn’t anarchism obscure enough already? Keeping it hidden still further would be fucking crazy.
It would be pretty dishonest too - how we deal with trolls and more importantly, how we deal with those with objectionable views is something that should be open to public scrutiny. If our reaction to these things is not fit for public display then we should be changing our reaction, not hiding it.

Good point! I was thinking to have most forums seen by public, but maybe one forum that is non-newbie friendly, that you need to be signed in to see.

Lucky Black Cat

Noah Fence

dark_ether wrote:
Only have certain forums visible to people not signed in (or none of them at all)?

Isn’t anarchism obscure enough already? Keeping it hidden still further would be fucking crazy.
It would be pretty dishonest too - how we deal with trolls and more importantly, how we deal with those with objectionable views is something that should be open to public scrutiny. If our reaction to these things is not fit for public display then we should be changing our reaction, not hiding it.

Good point! I was thinking to have most forums seen by public, but maybe one forum that is non-newbie friendly, that you need to be signed in to see.

Nope, that’s plain old dope fiending. Transparency and free access to all ideas is imperative. The only things that should be hidden are those that might endanger us in some way.
The idea of protecting newbies is pretty condescending. You’re not a liberal infiltrator, are you?

Noah Fence

The idea of protecting newbies is pretty condescending. You’re not a liberal infiltrator, are you?

Shit, I've been caught! ABORT ABORT!

Ok, I do think you have a good point. But so does dark_ether. I guess I'm torn.

One thing I'm certain of, tho: FORUMS SHOULD STAY :D

I’ve often found the forums interesting and educational.

Sadie #30 makes interesting points regarding the downvote button, though I feel the same can be said for the upvote button. ‘Me too’ can be just as sneaky as ‘this is crap’.

The up/down buttons I use according to my own criteria - can I use any other? And I’d defend my choices. Therefore I advocate ‘open voting’ where ‘who thinks what’ is revealed, and expose any cowardly or herd mentality. Better transparency than simply limiting options.

Therefore I advocate ‘open voting’ where ‘who thinks what’ is revealed, and expose any cowardly or herd mentality. Better transparency than simply limiting options.

If only that were the case, the problem is that many people simply wouldn’t vote either down against the Libcom faces or up against a controversial view. Shame.
For me personally, because of the lack of transparency I rarely vote at all and never vote anyone down.

Noah, over the years I attended several meetings of the SPGB (all their meetings are open to non- members), where there was discussion of open voting. Their elections for office holders are open rather than a secret ballot. On occasion the argument was put that an election would be more honest if it was secret. People would vote for the ‘best’ person rather than feeling the pressure to favour a pal. In the end it appeared to boil down to trusting members’ integrity to vote as their conscience, or as the SPGB might put it their ‘rationality’, dictated.

The thing is if you do that, it makes no matter whether the ballot is open or closed. Given the choice, I’d opt for daylight every time.

Couldn’t agree more about daylight but whilst I find the voting system on Libcom interesting and would prefer to keep it, as a guide to people’s thoughts it’s bent as a nine bob note. That is absolutely indisputable. However, it’s still a very revealing feature, it’s just that what it reveals is very different from it's intended purpose.

You lot are so conservative, not only should you abolish the libcom forum. but activity fight for the abolition of all forums, though not as a transitional demand, as that would be trotskyist.

Burgers

You lot are so conservative, not only should you abolish the libcom forum. but activity fight for the abolition of all forums, though not as a transitional demand, as that would be trotskyist.

As forum is the Latin word for a marketplace, and language games with etymology are the highest form of politics, this is the only truly consistent communist position

Burgers

You lot are so conservative, not only should you abolish the libcom forum. but activity fight for the abolition of all forums, though not as a transitional demand, as that would be trotskyist.

Uncreative

As forum is the Latin word for a marketplace, and language games with etymology are the highest form of politics, this is the only truly consistent communist position

And it's comedic posts like these that would make me miss libcom forums the most.

And it's comedic posts like these that would make me miss libcom forums the most.

Even when they out you as a liberal?

Yes, even then. And if we hope to get a laugh on the forums, keeping a few liberals around can only help.

Lucky Black Cat

Yes, even then. And if we hope to get a laugh on the forums, keeping a few liberals around can only help.

Then please stick around!

I like these forums even though I think they basically died just when I started posting (sorry :-)).

I don't really care about downvotes and I haven't seen much of the bad vibes that people talk about but I tend to stick to the fluffier threads so maybe that's why.

Just seems like there's a real lack of energy.

Cactus, as you enjoy the more lighthearted threads I’ve dug this up for you...

https://libcom.org/forums/libcommunity/im-officially-middle-class-25022013

And for something to really get you making with the lolz...

https://libcom.org/forums/organise/emergency-outreach-autonomous-womyns-front-01032015

I’ve no idea why but the Socialist Beard thread has been taken down. Wtf admins???

Noah Fence

I’ve no idea why but the Socialist Beard thread has been taken down. Wtf admins???

OP had all posts unpublished.
https://libcom.org/forums/general/how-many-u-have-socialist-beards-21042013

cactus9

I like these forums even though I think they basically died just when I started posting (sorry :-)).

We've found the culprit, everybody!

Yea! I say we ban cactus9 and call it good.

Redwood

Yea! I say we ban cactus9 and call it good.

It could work.

Where is the thread containing the cartoon series that took the piss out of the libertarian poster? 'The adventures of Captain Buckethead' I think it was.

Ooooh, I sort of remember that. Those were fun. I'd love to read them again!

That was one of Omen's cartoons, I believe.
http://libcom.org/gallery/adventures-comrade-appleton-anarchy

Edit : COME BACK OMEN!

I think Omen made the error message for libcom, back when he was Nemo. iirc he took a break, forgot his password so started a new account.
Some of the things here are his, not all of them make sense if you weren't obsessively posting on libcom ten years ago though.

Those individualists surely had their way with words:

'You should listen to me I have solved these contradictions, my doctrine is consistent, moral and pragmatic.'

and my personal favorite insult:

'You libcommies are slipperier than an oilskin sack of greased eels.'

To this day, I don't know what that means but I think we should be proud to be on the receiving end of that one.

Omen's comics are so great :)

I wish it was easier to post images on the forums. We can only post online images but can't upload stuff from our own files.

Btw, if the forums do get shut down, will the old posts remain as an archive? Or will it all be deleted from the internet, gone without a trace?

Easiest way to do images is to upload to something like imgur, then embed them.

And no, we won't delete stuff (well, we may unpublish some crap but not any good stuff)

Aside from the comics, Omen also wrote this 'capitalism under the dome' comedy sketch. It's basically a script, so there's no images that accompany it.