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Soul Flight
Stranger
Registered: 05/04/23
Posts: 236
Last seen: 1 day, 58 minutes
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History of Shroomery? Alternate forums or discord?
#28331080 - 05/23/23 10:45 AM (8 months, 2 days ago) |
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Hello all,
What is the history of Shroomery? When did it start? How many users over all those years broken down by year?
If feels like shroomery is in a low ebb from a former glory. Is this true? Is everyone on discord? Is there a better forum for discussion of psychedelics and philosophy?
Thanks
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geokills
∙∙∙∙☼ º¿° ☼∙∙∙∙


Registered: 05/08/01
Posts: 23,417
Loc: city of angels
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Re: History of Shroomery? Alternate forums or discord? [Re: Soul Flight]
#28331745 - 05/23/23 06:56 PM (8 months, 1 day ago) |
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The Shroomery was founded by Ythan in his youth, originally [at one point] hosted by the Lycaeum, which isn't around anymore but is somewhat analogous to Erowid, as a hub for substance use information.
Quote:
Ythan said:
We never created an "about the admins" page because it seems kind of self-indulgent, but I do keep getting a lot of the same questions over and over. I figured I might be able to cut down on this by answering some of the more common ones in my bio. So here you go!
I started the Shroomery in August of 1997. I was 15 at the time and yes, that arguably makes me a hypocrite for enforcing our 18+ age requirement.
My main contribution to the Shroomery is programming, including the content management script which powers the main site and most of the BB's enhanced functionality. I also have a hand in many other aspects of the site, including server administration, graphics design, page optimization (for size and search engines), promotion, monetization, member support, and guiding our continued evolution.
As far as I know, nobody ever got busted due to a post on the Shroomery. We got a subpoena once in a child custody case, but the guy knew about it and expected it. We also got a subpoena for evidence in the Silk Road trial, but it was for a post that was already public, and it wasn't the evidence that led to the bust. Those are the only incidents I'm aware of. Always use caution and common sense on this site, but hopefully that helps put the risks in perspective.
After years of running the Shroomery as a volunteer operation, the admins now receive a modest hourly wage. For some reason this seems to bother certain people, and I invite them to lead by example and forgo their own paychecks while taking on increasing workloads and responsibilities.
I don't really trip regularly anymore, these days I'm mostly just a pothead.
There are pictures of me online, here is one of them. Just don't get the wrong idea, I'm not a goddamn hippie!
Here are a few general stats:
- Total members: 207531
- New in past 24 hours: 79
- New in past 7 days: 537
- New in past month: 2346
- Total forums: 227
- Total topics: 1406624
- Total posts: 23848046
It is true that forum activity has slowed down, and much of this has been attributable to the general migration pattern of internet participants to major social platforms such as Facebook, Reddit and Twitter. We do have a Private Group on Facebook that has over a quarter million members and a growth rate that vastly exceeds what we have see here currently at the "mothership", but such is the ever evolving nature of social tendencies on the internet. Our primary goal is to support this website and ensure that it is available to provide information to folks who seek it, preserving everyone's right to express themselves freely with minimal censorship.
Happy to have you here Soul Flight!
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-------------------- ┼ ··∙ long live the shroomery ∙·· ┼ ...╬π╥ ╥π╬...
Edited by geokills (05/24/23 08:33 AM)
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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


Registered: 08/08/97
Posts: 18,774
Loc: NY/MA/VT Borderlands
Last seen: 1 minute, 51 seconds
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Re: History of Shroomery? Alternate forums or discord? [Re: Soul Flight] 1
#28331909 - 05/23/23 10:21 PM (8 months, 1 day ago) |
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Yeah the site was probably most active around 2008 - 2016 or so. In terms of actual post volume, we only get about 25% as many posts as we did in our heyday. But registrations haven't dropped in a corresponding way, and the mycology and psychedelic-related forums are still going strong. People just seem to be having more of their miscellaneous, casual conversations on social media. This phenomenon is affecting all classic message boards to some degree, not only the Shroomery.
When I started this site (which was actually at drh.net/shroomery, not the Lycaeum originally), it was because information about psychedelic mushrooms was somewhat scarce and scattered around disparate sites online. I wanted to change that. And things certainly have changed. People now have a plethora of options to get truthful, accurate information about psychedelics. I think that's great, regardless of who controls the platform. But we do have one thing none of the social media sites offer: a 25 year history of caring about our community, putting their needs above those of advertisers or shareholders, never selling out or spying on our members, always responding to support requests by real staff with the ability to help, and a trove of institutional knowledge built up over the decades. So regardless of the ebb and flow of the internet, we'll still be here focusing on what we do best. And I'm glad to welcome you to the community!
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Soul Flight
Stranger
Registered: 05/04/23
Posts: 236
Last seen: 1 day, 58 minutes
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Re: History of Shroomery? Alternate forums or discord? [Re: Ythan]
#28332102 - 05/24/23 05:57 AM (8 months, 1 day ago) |
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Thanks. Interesting data.
I think quora, reddit, dark web, discord, and others capture a lot of audience these days. But shroomery has a good reputation.
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ShiVersblood
VAmPiRES HELLA ❤


Registered: 08/18/07
Posts: 115,620
Loc: United States of America
Last seen: 14 hours, 50 minutes
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Re: History of Shroomery? Alternate forums or discord? [Re: Soul Flight]
#28333892 - 05/25/23 09:59 AM (8 months, 6 hours ago) |
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I used to post on tons of different forums and most of them have all gotten shut down by now. Just recently a forum I was on a lot got temporarily shut down because of insane online drama it’s kind a a weird story to get into tho hahahahha. It’s a freedom of speech battle going on with clear net etc.
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