(Anonymous) 2021-01-13 03:36 pm (UTC)(link)
da

What business is it of yours why people read coal? Who the fuck do you think you are? Just because they haven't done exchanges since they had a bad experience doesn't mean they don't want to follow the excitement or wank of something they once enjoyed and may go back to eventually. Honestly, your accusations are so stupid and out of left field.

I skipped exchanges for a couple of years because I was taking care of my ailing father and getting six hours of sleep a week, but even though I had no energy for exchanges I followed coal so I still felt like I was part of it in a way. Guess I had no business being here.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-13 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
You sound pathetic.

There’s so much positive namespace discussion and ways to be a part of Yuletide that you choosing to do coal only apparently this even more pathetic, yikes.

Get help.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-13 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
You're here trying to troll coal in the middle of January, and you have the nerve to call other people pathetic? Lol.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-13 09:08 pm (UTC)(link)
DA

Pretty sure it is you who is the troll.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-14 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)
DA

Sometimes, you're not interested in "positive namespace discussion". It's boring, especially when you're not part of the thing that's being discussed. Wank is entertaining and provides a good distraction from RL shit, even and especially when you have no times to the thing being wanked about because then you have no emotional investment.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-14 02:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I realize the time to ask this probably isn't January, but where is the positive discussion happening? I started reading coal a few years back because I didn't see any volume in the main coms on LJ (and then DW). Or at least, nothing like the volume it had back in the day. Discord? Something else? Something with a form factor like Coal where an old like myself can follow a discussion.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-14 03:08 pm (UTC)(link)
The Discord is year round.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-15 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
If someone knows this, let me know - is it on EAD? I tried the Yuletide discord a few times this year but failed to find anyone actually discussing yuletide there.

I kind of feel like the reason _coal has been relatively positive the last few years is there isn't anywhere else.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-15 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I mean, what are you wanting to discuss?

Fandoms you will want to request for 2021 Yuletide? If you mention them in the Yuletide server or general chat, someone will talk to you. Even if they don’t know the fandom, they will share what they’re hoping to request too.

Still wanting to talk about the stories? If you share it in recs or talk about it in general chat, someone will engage.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-17 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I want to join in an ongoing yuletide-themed discussion where I don't have to always pick the topics? Not necessarily offseason, YT discord wasn't all that heavy on the yuletide during the season either.

Like I believe you that there were YT discussions that happened, but whenever I went in YT wasn't the ongoing topic in general chat and the yuletide-specific room hadn't been active for hours, and since it's chat not threaded posts, you can't just pop in on a topic everyone else moved on from two days ago and have other people know what you're talking about.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-17 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm. I think you could make this happen on the Discord, but if you wanted to make a coaltide server it may work.

I think your best bet would maybe to make threads here where people could come in, however I think the anonmeme format is specifically bad for offseason conversation because you stand out so much more and people become vaguer as a result in order not to out themselves. When people are vague or feel shy because they know they're the only one talking for however many colies track and lurk, there isn't much discussion.

I think you're better of making (Coaltide discord) or encouraging (popping into the Yuletide discord) on-topic namespace where people are more comfortable to say that they hope to request X fandom or just read Y fic and liked it.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-18 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, i mean, if I want to start a yuletide meta discussion I can do it on my regular namespace, it's just be nice to have a place to go other than _coal to see what other people are discussing and join in without leading.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-18 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
DA

FFA, lol_meme, and the warlock place will probably humor you about Yuletide year-round but yeah, _coal is the year-round Yuletide space, and most Yuletiders 1) aren't interested in keeping it up year-round 2) don't only just do Yuletide, so they want to talk about their current exchanges rather than Yuletide.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-18 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
I mean, I'm not particularly looking for off-season, and general exchange meta is fine. It's just that even during yuletide season the only places I can reliably find those discussions are anon memes, since the discord at any given moment is more likely to be about what people had for dinner or whatever, even, like, the day after assignments, and it seems to be the only other place anyone suggests.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-18 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
AYRT

The exchange channels are pretty much always on topic because the mod makes people move it to general chat otherwise. I just clicked on 5 random exchanges and all of them were relevant, as is the general exchange chat. Maybe you last checked on a slow period but now seems fine.

(Anonymous) 2021-01-18 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
It might be the other way around - maybe during exchange season the discords fill up with people and the usual more focused chat in the general channels gets drowned out, and they're more on topic the rest of the year.

But it's not that the exchange channels themselves were off-topic, it's that they moved slower than coal even during busy periods and the only channels that were constantly active were the off-topic ones. (And it's a recurring issue in MANY discords that as soon as a good, on-topic discussion starts in the general chat channel, someone decides it needs to move to a different channel, and nobody moves with it so it dies there.)

(Anonymous) 2021-01-18 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
I like EAD way better the yulechat because I find the people there a whole lot less annoying, on the whole. I can't tell which one you're talking about, though.

(Anonymous) 2021-02-01 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
NC.

ITA. Who the fuck does AYRT think they are? God?