I've been staying silent because I am sick to death of hearing politics, politics, politics.

I'm still here, but not finding much to say in the comments. It almost doesn't seem worth the energy to reply to anything. This weird sense of apathy about the Gulch is seriously freaking me out...

Hi coal: Yes, there's been an exodus. One of being driven from contributing producers to lurkers and a second of just shrugging by producers after much effort to find ways to identify anti-O's, religionists, trolls, neo-cons, and others trying to disrupt the 'sense of life' of the site. That's had the result of also confusing many of those new to the philosophy that just wanted intelligent discussion of what Objectivism is and how it applies to life.

Much of this goes back to the time of LetsShrug's recognizing the need to have a tool for identifying trolling anti-O's comments and Posts for new and learning O's on the site. It also ties back to the failure or reluctance of many to utilize the down-vote, reply tool, flag, and ignore tools.

It just gets very tiring and frustrating to continually look at new or hot posts to only find news aggregation and conservative topics listed for conversation. Its interesting that a progressive or socialist on the site would probably encounter numerous negative responses from the site members, yet conservatives (who AR despised as much or more than progressives) get a pass.

I only have one suggestion for those interested in re-invigorating the site, use the down-vote and reply tools available.

Hello Coaldigger,

I'm probably not one of the "regulars" you are speaking of, but I can tell you why I spend less time here than I'd like.

When I first came here, I was looking for a group of relatively like minded individuals, with whom I could associate & learn from.

Over time, what I realized I found was a group of many with whom I agree & can converse with, many with which I can have spirited debate with. Nothing wrong with this...

But I also found a minority, who have decided that they are the authority on all things "Objectivist".

They ridicule, and condemn you for merely seeing things from a different light than themselves, and resort to name calling when they don't get their way.

There is enough of this outside the gulch, I'm not going to participate in it here too...

I lurk occasionally, but have found little to comment on. The sense of life has left the Gulch.

Hello coaldigger,

Many of the past regulars (myself included) have reduced our presence here; it is true. The gap has been filled largely by those that irritated those that left. Sad really. We used to feel empowered to police the site ourselves, speak frankly and vote the same way. When we did not have something to add, or the time, but disagreed, we were free to down-vote and move on, rather than forced into confrontation. If you discourage anonymous down-voting you encourage needless verbal jabs. The result was leaving comments stand unchallenged in any way, thus appearing to have tacit approval, or unsavory replies by those that have run out of patience or tolerance. Some comments deserved nothing more than down-votes- were not worth the time to reply or the discomfort of confrontation. Down voting was frowned upon; some complained that the "score" was unfair somehow, and others decided it was their place to chastise other producers publicly and defend the nonsense rather than let the administrators handle things ... After that, some of the best producers, even those practicing the best of civility, were called out for behavior they felt justified in and that put a damper on the enthusiasm. It was perceived by some producers that quantity of members became more important than quality. Some of the producers decided to go Galt in various degrees. Consequently, the site has suffered and become largely another hot-topic news-feed.

Some of us continue to persevere and remain civil, contributing as much as comfort level dictates, trying to add value. Others run out of patience and either leave or join in the food fight out of frustration. Unfortunately, not all of us have the patience or tolerance required to go on being pleasant in the face of the intractable without recourse and support. Eventually even Dagny could take no more.

Fortunately, there are always new members and with that there is potential.

I want to learn and to teach. To do so, one must be willing to listen as well as speak.
Sometimes even those that listen do not understand the first time without elaboration.
Patience is one of the more difficult virtues.
Respectfully,
O.A.

Consider who made the Gulch an interesting site to visit. Then ask why they have shrugged.

A classic example would be PapaPossum. He was scorned for not being Objectivist enough in his webcasts, for instance.

I was quite serious when I asked whether a Gulch society could exist months ago. From what I discovered, ideological purity was more important as an ideal than the camaraderie that could come from sharing our common values like entrepeneurship, production, commitment to excellence, etc. Since then, my time in the Gulch has waned. I am sure I am not the only one who thinks this.

My favorite part of the AS movies was when Dagny went to the party at the Mulligans' home and was greeted like she belonged. There was a time that GGO had that feel about it.

Yes. It's not the same.

I'm here. :-)

I thought I should comment on the comments to my question. I only post on one other board which is a college football/basketball forum for my alma mater. Almost all members are fans with an occasional troll from a rival, yet they do not get along. Many follow the rules and debate civilly but there are occasional outbursts of name calling and browbeating those that have an opposing view. some posters get mad and quit. Some lurk but do not contribute. Some hijack posts with completely off topic responses.

Initially, I found this site to be different and pretty highbrow and very civil. I was reluctant to post my non-scholarly comments on Objectivism in the presence of the experts here. Occasionally I have done so and was never attacked or berated. I have learned a lot from comments found here and have enjoyed the discussions.

I don't care much for conspiracy theories, hording guns, survivalist preparation, burying gold in my back yard etc. and wonder why that appears hear with people that claim every thought should be based on rationality. However, as long as the value of serious discussions remain high I can look past that and enjoy the site. our sports forum has an ignore button beside each posters name and all
of their comments/posts will be screened out.

I guess that all forums have similarities based on an aspect of human nature that lets "feelings" override "reason". I certainly expected to find less of that here.

I'm too new to be a regular and too quiet for my presence to be noticed.

I'm still here. Fountainhead and AS changed my views. When I finished AS, I did a web search and found this site. It's the only Ayn Rand site I go to. Maybe it's the only one or maybe by dumb luck I happened upon it first in my search.

Just a little unclassified contribution to end my weekend. From my local paper recently-

International Monetary Fund MD Christine Lagarde calls for action to boost growth as downside risks were increasing without decisive action. She wants:
the US to increase the minimum wage,
Europe to improve job training,
emerging economies to cut fuel subsidies and boost social spending.
My comment: Of all those points, only one makes sense.

.. .. more blah then .. ..
To counteract those headwinds, she called for accelerating structural economic reforms, increased fiscal support and continued accomodative monetary policy.
My comment: To the extend that these words have meaning beyond techno-babble, conventional neo-Keynsianism says if you do something that causes trouble, do more of it to get out of trouble.