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Are we the underdog, the rebels in todays world?

Are we the underdog, the rebels in todays world?

(post is archived)

[–] [deleted] • 9 pts

Well, Boobs, I'll tell you something that will sound harsh, but it's not. With an open heart and total absence of evilness, poal is not relevant enough to be the underdog. Don't take me wrong, I really like here, remembers me of whoaverse in the beggining. I hope it will, I try to help when I can, posting, commenting, saying people in voat that having another fos site is good and there's no need to dissidence between voat and poal (I really believe this). But it's a tiny community, the average voting number is like 7. For now, I would classify poal as a good promise.

[–] • 5 pts

Wow. Brutally honest reply. Good shit man!

And I agree somewhat. I got to Voat just after whoaverse, before the major migrations like fattening, pao etc.

Poal feels ALOT like Voat did back then, just fewer users.

But yeah, I don't think we are in the running yet to be considered an underdog. More like a possible future contender. But I like it here and will stay.

[–] [deleted] • 5 pts

But I like it here and will stay.

Metoo (lol)

I didn't have the intention to be brutal (I know, it's just slang), but to put things in perspective. In the internet, voat is kinda irrelevant compared to reddit. I have my doubts if freedom of speech and success are compatible in [current year]. You'll have a number of adamant users that would never accept safe space content with adposts and adAMAs inserted by the admins, but the big numbers are looking for safe spaces, it's saddening to say. If the commitment is freedom of speech, don't expect to be the next reddit. Unless the world finally sees the dementia behind this sjw crap and everybody becomes normal again. But the recent Linucks (linux + cucks, got it, uh? Uh?) makes me think that the exact opposite is happening.

[–] • 3 pts

Oh God that linucks shit has me down.....

[–] • 3 pts

I appreciate your honesty. No really I do. I know poal isn't large enough to be a contender in the voat vs reddit thing. I'm not honestly sure it ever will be and thats okay. Its a labor of love. The one thing I know is here anyone can speak their mind and it won't be censored. On voat that just isn't true anymore and I laid my issues with voat to rest. Hell I've even commented there from time to time. I am considering the idea of going back just to run my subs.

[–] • 0 pt

We need to increase our numbers.

[–] • 1 pt

We are slowly, we lost some people but they are starting to come back it seems along with some newbies alone the way. Checkout the colored user names!

[–] • 3 pts

the average voting number is like 7.

We've got lots of lurkers too.

Thanks for your honest answer.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

I know. But even if we have 100 users, it's not much. Don't take it as a "give up", if I thought this place sucks I wouldn't be here.

[–] • 2 pts

Poal is closing to a thousand registered accounts.

It's growing slowly with quality users.

[–] [deleted] • 2 pts

I disagree that relevance has anything to do with being the underdog.

Poal is relevant to Voat, hence why they've been giving Boobs shit about starting Poal.

Furthermore, the beliefs held by Poal's admins are contrary to that of most sites today.

Sounds like an underdog to me.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt (edited )

Yeah, maybe my expectative for the underdogs is the problem. Although the underdog doesn't have to win, I'm an helpless underdog believer, and I always expect that they'll succeed somehow. This was my point, poal is still too small to have this chance, IMO. And maybe this is a good thing. I hope more users come here with no flood.

Edit: by suceed, I meant becoming big. If the goal is to build a good platform, it's succeeding already. If the goal is building a community, we're on it. If the goal is to beat the top dog, well man, it'll be a long long road. I hope that's not, this is not a goal that would bring good things IMO.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

I remember the Whoaverse days, and your're right. Poal does feel a lot more like that. That's not a bad thing. Mass influxes of users can make all kinds of problems. I feel like Poal is more open to actual reasoned debate in the same way Whoaverse, and even Reddit used to be once upon a time.

[–] [deleted] • 7 pts

Speaking as a new user who came here because voat is such an awful place; poal is not /the/ underdog, but small sites like this serve a purpose for people who prefer a chilled-out quiet site to post on. It's small enough that it's not controlled by the left/right paradigm or special interest groups and that's something of real value.

We should support small sites like poal (and phuks) etc.. because even if they provide value to only a handful of users, that's something worth keeping on an internet that's being taken over by giants and monopolies. The internet was built on small sites, not big corporate interests - and I'd hate to lose that.

[–] • 3 pts

Poal is closing on 1000 accounts. That being said. This site will NEVER be taken over by a corporate interest. It will not happen ever.

No matter if poal remains small or gets big I will always try to keep it a neutral public forum. I allow a lot of people to say a lot of things here and I believe thats a good thing. Without dialogue civilization doesn't happen.

I appreciate the sentimate that people should support small sites, I really do. However I started the site because I think bigger sites need to have less bias and allow for more opinions and let those opinions stand on their own merit.

I'm rambling at this point which is something I from time to time, I'm human like everyone else. So enjoy your wall of text from the founder. Read it or don't, either way do me a favor and support free speech wherever you go.

[–] • 1 pt

Poal is closing on 1000 accounts. That being said. This site will NEVER be taken over by a corporate interest. It will not happen ever.

You don't like money?

I believe you; but no matter the strength of your convictions now you can be turned, it's just a matter of amounts and specifics.

If it's not money that controls you, it's fear. We are just meatbags who like fancy things and don't want to suffer.

Even if you are tempted and manage to withstand those temptations; you are a mortal like the rest of us and can only exert your influence over the site as long as you breathe.

Promises are great, but the lesson of reddit is that platitudes don't mean anything in the long run, and even those who you thought took a principled stand on issues that matter can be quick to turn their back when it is convenient or profitable.

Voat, poal, phuks, etc.. these are temporary refuges on a path to a more permanent solution.

This isn't me bitching about Poal, I think this place is doing a great job. It's just a more general rant about the place the internet has come to.

You're fighting the good fight, but we need to end the war.

[–] • 1 pt

Well honestly I don't really like money all that much, I think it does a lot more harm than good in the world. I think the love of money probably explains most of the problems the world has today.

I'm sorry I'll have to disagree that its a matter of amounts and specifics, I've resigned myself to my socioeconomic status and I'm happy where I am. No amount of money is going to make me sacrifice my principles.

You are correct that I can only exert my influence as long as I breathe but should that ever become an issue I already have things setup in such a way that someone that holds my values would succeed me. I'd also advice that person to do that same.

I Just don't see P2P being a viable solution look at bittorrent people believed that was the solution to file sharing and could never be shutdown and it wasn't but governments did huge damage to it. I think this fight needs people standing up and saying no. I don't think P2P can win it in the end.

We are both fighting the good fight but the war is far far from over. Who knows how it will end or if it ever will but we both are standing and fighting.

[–] • 1 pt

The distributed intention behind notabug is brilliant - I basically agree that power corrupts and all these sites can be turned if they take off.

Notabug is not for everyone: Having the vast majority without an identifying label and casting unlimited meaningless votes makes for a real mess that is almost too chaotic to bother with. No doubt you have your own reasons for not attempting a more standard reddit clone with minimal censorship....

Could Poal be distributed? If not, what would need to be done?

[–] • 0 pt

Exactly this. I hang out on a lot of mediocre backstreet video game forums just because how you can get to know people.

[–] • 6 pts

the underdog of what? social media? free speech forums? forums in general? or just underdogs of the Internet?

[–] • 4 pts

I guess my question would apply to all of the above.

[–] • 3 pts

Yes probably. But they have alot of underdogs only a few make it. But do you want to make it? Then you become a target.

[–] • 6 pts

Do I want to make it? Good question. Some days I have more resolve than others. I won't give up as I Just don't have any quit in me.

[–] • 3 pts

Does mentioning Poal on Reddit get you banned from subs? If not, Poal isn't as hated as Voat, not sure if that is good or bad. People don't know Poal as much as people have heard of Voat.

[–] [deleted] • 2 pts

Financing it is going to be a bitch.

[–] • 3 pts

Nah, I got this. Unless it explodes in popularity I'm not worried.

[–] • 2 pts

This reminds me of Whoaverse when i first made an account. you can nearly count the active accounts on one hand, and the owner is reasonably active participant. I know this phase of a web forum does not last forever, but its more personal when a user base is this small and nearly every odball thing gets some interest rather than being lost in a sea of submissions. and never seeing a single voat up or down as reddit has become, and voat is becoming.

Right now there are 4 tiers of a attention, Reddit for the largest audience, funny junk for a different censor set, voat for the unrestricted no censor view, and poal for the nitch view of what this group finds interesting. 4chan and infinity chan can be seen in all 4 of these.

as for the underdog, poal is in line to become one, but there's quite a few other sites ahead of poal to become an underdog. being actively sabotaged by the top dog is a sign of being the underdog, as voat is a ban-able word to type on reddit in some subs.

[–] • 2 pts

It’s the side chick.

[–] • 1 pt

Ooooooooh, thats a low blow.

[–] • 1 pt

Haha! I mean, it is a small community. I only browse here and funnyjunk but I think other go to other larger sites. So coming here is kinda like cheating on the big sites.

[–] • 3 pts

Side chick though? As a married man I take offense to that. REEEEEEE

[–] • 1 pt

We're the junkyard. The scrap heap. Nobody comes here to search for components because it's easier to buy new. The few people who do come here are weird.

[–] • 0 pt

But we have some of the most unique parts compared to anywhere else.

[–] • 1 pt

It's seems to be another echo chamber with a different tune. For a news aggregator site it's good. But that's only cause guys like PMYB2 and AOU are consistently posting good shit. It's probably my expectations. Other communities online outside of the news aggregators seems to have more community involvement and people actually do shit.

Here and on voat people just seem to stay on these sights an circle jerk. The perk of no censorship is not enough to make a platform. It might be one day if the internet gets real fucked up but I doubt that.

Phuks.co in my opinion is the real underdog as it has the most viablilty of being a popular site. The amount of behind the scenes work and future development coming down the pipe could make it 10x better than Reddit.

Something I've notice is that the communities with the highest engagement usually have a chat room. I recommend https://riot.im if you don't want to use the cucked Discord

[–] • 1 pt

we do have a self hosted chat room chat.poal.co I really should add all these outside things to the sidebar or something.

[–] • 0 pt

Voat has heavy censorship through CCP restrictions: it's an enforced echo-chamber like Raddle. As long as Poal remains censorship-free it retains the potential to diversify its users opinions.

The minimal censorship on Phuks is basically invisible to me, as I don't have the inclination, or see any worth in saying things that violate their hosting provider's conditions. Poal's creation shows it's not invisible to others.

[–] • 0 pt

Poal is set up better than voten.co, saidit.net, & stagevu.com, also has more particpation, etc., so I'd think one of them would be the underdog...poal & voat look like possible future competition for reddit.

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