Dead Nexus Theory: Or How I Learned to Stop Gatekeeping and Love the Psychedelic Reformation

[blig-blug]

I can agree it does feel like a different place

Look at the state of the Internet. Look at yourself vs. 15 years ago (I don't mean anything in particular, just we all change). It would be very strange if it didn't feel like a different place.

I am sure I am not the only person getting messages asking where to even get plant materials now. When I first joined up here this was openly discussed

That hasn't been the case since 2012, when it was barely 6 years old. Has the Nexus been the "Dead Nexus" since 2012? If not, the change must be unrelated to sourcing being allowed or not.

Does anyone really, honestly believe that the Nexus would be full of (non-bot) activity if just sourcing talk were to be allowed? Really?

 

[redbird]

I see everybody getting fixated on the sourcing or no-sourcing talk aspect of Dreamers' post, which I guess is understandable given the strong feelings around it.
At the same time I see it as only a small facet of the overall post, which was a call to action to get creative on how to keep this place alive.
I want to echo that call to action and encourage people to try and get past any infighting about whether sourcing should be allowed or not. I think it's something that should be decided on and at the same time it shows the possibility of being a huge drain on people's emotional and intellectual energy. I think instead we should focus on bigger ideas of how we can maintain the vibrance of this community.
I'll admit, that even though I was a reader of this forum a decade ago, I'm only a recent newcomer to being a participant. That said I find it hard to believe that sourcing is the only thing that made this the place to be.

 

[blig-blug]

I think instead we should focus on bigger ideas of how we can maintain the vibrance of this community.

Well, according to the OP the Nexus is dead and an empty shell. So, nothing to maintain, other than perhaps it being an archive.

Of course, I do agree that there are many aspects to improve, and more involvement would be much desirable. That was my intention behind the original proposal for a Nexus Day, for example. It didn't pan out as I had originally thought because our capacity to act collectively currently is limited, or maybe the idea just wasn't that good. We are all volunteers here and this is a herd of cats, not sheep, which IMO is good but does make coordination difficult.

I think criticism and nostalgia are easy and cheap. But useless without any positive view or proposal. If I've focused on the sourcing proposal it's because it's the only clear positive proposal in it, and about 10 out of 18 paragraphs reference it directly or indirectly. It's also a proposal that affects everyone, and one that I oppose and think would be negative. Furthermore, its justification being that it will bring back the Nexus to life (assuming it doesn't have it) seems deeply mistaken to me. Thus, it made sense to address it.

There are other two proposals mentioned in passing: being more welcoming to newcomers (assuming it doesn't just refer to allowing sourcing) and talking about the Nexus in other websites. Those proposals have the beauty that, unlike a change to the Attitude, they need no consensus: anyone is free to engage in them at any moment. So, just talking about them without doing anything in that sense seems pointless to me.

This is a critique of the Nexus being presented as an eulogy (eu=good, logos=word). Criticism is fine, good, and healthy, but it should be presented as what it is. To say that the Nexus used to be so good but now is just a dead and empty shell is not an eulogy, and I don't think it's a very constructive criticism either. I would even say it's not very considerate to the active members that keep it running and alive through their activity nowadays, which would seem to be empty and meaningless, equivalent to death.

So yeah, I'm all for positive and concrete proposals to not only keep the Nexus alive but also increase its vitality. I do expect that when the proposal is something the one proposing it can do, they will either lead by example or stop to consider whether perhaps the reason they're not doing it is the reason others aren't doing it. It's easy to demand others to do better, not as easy to do so oneself.

I hope further conversation about improving the Nexus and getting more community involvement will happen. But IMO it will have to be in a thread that starts from a more constructive, clear, and concrete perspective.

 

[ommani]

I initially read the title of this thread as, Dear Nexus Theory, which I’ll admit was more to my liking. While this forum may be relatively less active compared to an earlier time, I still find it to be a lively place with lots of great contributions from a fairly diverse group of people, joining from different parts of the world.

On a personal note, I appreciate the opportunity to interact with likeminded people in Europe, being originally from Eastern Europe, but having lived in the US for most of my life.

In the immortal words of Bilbo Baggins, but without the subtext of saying goodbye:

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.