Anonymous #4 said:

Denying ones self access to such a resourceful tool is foolish IMO.

You never know when you need harm reduction or news reports on fake drugs or bad heroin. Or you want to grow again, have a cacti garden, or a good old psychedelic experience.

It's why I'd never truly leave here. It's like asking Wikipedia to ban you.

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You can hide the shit you don't want to see and ignore the people you don't want to read shit from. You should adapt.

Hope you keep coming back to the forum that keeps keeping me alive.

All the best

Anonymous #9 said:

Thank you for the awesome response which really helped me get a better perspective on the issue. It definitely gave me a lot to consider. You deserve a longer reply, but it's literally almost 7am here and I have to crash out. I'll be taking your words to heart.

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Quote:

Do you think it's impossible/implausible to have a site with both strong mycology and community features anymore?

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That's a good question. To say it's impossible or implausible to have a site with a solid foundation of both is tricky. The moment one says "nope, impossible", they're immediately wrong, as it's still working fine in one fashion but may be perceived as broken in another fashion by another person.

Problem being is that the answer is subjective.. however, things stop being subjective when multiple long time members fold their hands and say their goodbyes while all echoing the same sentiment. Eventually, people just decide to settle or leave or follow their friends somewhere else. As I'm sure you know, settling for something just for the sake of it is good as to not muddy the waters. Other times it becomes a regret and you find yourself wondering where it all went wrong or what you could've done to keep the fire burning longer.

You've gotta think, too, that this is your baby. It will be part of your legacy when you are gone. Eventually people are going to reflect back on this place and sing high praise. Whether the site will still be here or not is another question. The data will, but will the heart?

That being said, I've spent time lately lurking the social media group which you used to manage. They're helpful and kind people seeking advice and they get it. Their questions don't devolve into troll threads or hate mongering or racism or rape, threats of violence etc. It's just a bunch of people interested in psychedelics, the culture, and all things associated. They are actively seeking to better themselves, they are saturating their minds with knowledge, keeping themselves to a hobby that expands their consciousness, which in turn betters themselves, and the world and so on and so forth.

When something that isn't the Shroomery starts to become more fulfilling than the real Shroomery, it should be a good sign that something needs fixing. As for that, I cannot offer advice or opinions as I don't know the inner workings of you and your colleagues.


In a way, I get it. You're running a business after all. Businesses need customers, and you've gotta find that balance between productive members who bring other productive members here.

I'm sorry to say, but some people just aren't worth the trouble, and they get far too many chances. Sure they might buy a supporter account after narrowly avoiding a ban (I can't be the only one seeing this) or right after coming back from a ban. It's as if they're saying "yeah I know I cause trouble for unpaid volunteers and contribute nothing, so here's a few bucks until I take a dump on your doorstep again". Is five bucks really so worth it when your collective staff puts 20 hours into babysitting an adult?

When something better rolls around, people are going to migrate there, and you'll slowly see this place fade into obscurity. Do I think it will disappear forever? Heck no. Mycology will always be here and will be the last remaining forum when people decide to just up and go.

The good always comes with the bad. Is it nice that we have things like the Pub in which we have a melting pot of literally every forum? Sure is. It's when it's just not worth the time, aggravation or hassle anymore. You have a wide array of incredibly intelligent mods and I think it's a shame to see, say, a professional mycologist waste his time taking care of people who can't bite their tongues for once.

Honestly, with all the niche communities, I think they all deserve their own "Pub" in which they can screw off. Wanna talk about cactus all day? Sure, head on over to the Ethno Garden. Wanna talk about your day-to-day life with your niche community of fellow cactus lovers? Good luck in the Pub/OTD/UCF's...

I know that multiple "mini Pubs" sounds daunting, but seems to work for the people lucky enough to walk outside and grab mushrooms off the forest floor. The mini-communities are what will keep this place alive. Everyone else is just going to continuously cause problems until people decide it's not worth it and leave, and, well, here we are.