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dreamwidth_pagansEver so often you’ll see a thread online about the subject. “Where ARE our Elders?”. As someone who has been part of Cybergard since the days when alt.pagen was the only “show in town”, I can answer the top 2 reasons.
1: Converted out.
Many of us became part of the alt.rel community in our teens and twenties. Many of the things that may have attracted you to your present Way then no longer do as you get in your 30’s, 40’s and older. Unfortunately, many never fully worked through their childhood religion issues and instead of looking for an alt.rel that would they just return to their previous Faith OR Convert to other more “conventional” religions. I know quite a few Buddhists that began in our community;>.
2: Withdrew.
I’ve personally done this a couple of times in the last two decades. You get tired of the squabbling in general, the disrespect to you personally and sadly, a heckovalot of shallow people who think this is a LARP. You 1st withdraw to closed groups/lists/etc. and then just a close group of friends….usually of the same Way as yourself.
The Truth is, I’ve yet to run into an online community that respects those who have put in a couple of decades on their particular Path, no matter the lip service. Many online communities have a high “tween” and under population(less than a decade and a half in), just the place you’d think those with more experience would be needed and welcomed. Sadly, not. For me, I PERSONALLY get tired of being put down because I don’t know the web source for something I learned 3 decades ago from a college Mythology text(which is where most of the CR and Nordic Folk looked for theirs). Not everything has a “wiki” and not all of that is ACCURATE.
I Honestly don’t know what can be done. In the last few yrs pretty much everyone I’ve known online more than a decade has withdrawn or Converted and a chitload of those over 5. And on some forums just posting this will invite “featherburn”…..
Cheers,
Pat
1: Converted out.
Many of us became part of the alt.rel community in our teens and twenties. Many of the things that may have attracted you to your present Way then no longer do as you get in your 30’s, 40’s and older. Unfortunately, many never fully worked through their childhood religion issues and instead of looking for an alt.rel that would they just return to their previous Faith OR Convert to other more “conventional” religions. I know quite a few Buddhists that began in our community;>.
2: Withdrew.
I’ve personally done this a couple of times in the last two decades. You get tired of the squabbling in general, the disrespect to you personally and sadly, a heckovalot of shallow people who think this is a LARP. You 1st withdraw to closed groups/lists/etc. and then just a close group of friends….usually of the same Way as yourself.
The Truth is, I’ve yet to run into an online community that respects those who have put in a couple of decades on their particular Path, no matter the lip service. Many online communities have a high “tween” and under population(less than a decade and a half in), just the place you’d think those with more experience would be needed and welcomed. Sadly, not. For me, I PERSONALLY get tired of being put down because I don’t know the web source for something I learned 3 decades ago from a college Mythology text(which is where most of the CR and Nordic Folk looked for theirs). Not everything has a “wiki” and not all of that is ACCURATE.
I Honestly don’t know what can be done. In the last few yrs pretty much everyone I’ve known online more than a decade has withdrawn or Converted and a chitload of those over 5. And on some forums just posting this will invite “featherburn”…..
Cheers,
Pat
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-26 07:54 pm (UTC)But you might drop a couple that are lower priority.
If it's just one person doing that, that isn't a big deal. But in aggregate, especially in places which had, for whatever reason, a group of people in roughly the same life stage, a number of core posters doing so within a time span (six months, a year) can radically change the dynamics of the discussion or organisation, even if every single one of them had excellent reason for it, and even if the group still has a lot of good stuff in it. Some discussion spaces recover from that, or route around it, without any problems. But a bunch don't.