#41

it’s literally impossible to pin down DiS. i come for rap music (?!) but there’s also feircely contested music rating threads, very delicate and insightful threads about love lives and mental health, detailed debate about current issues, insightful threads about things I really enjoy snooping on and learning about like parenting despite not being a parent, or people’s fish and chips orders despite not eating fish. occasionally very progressive and candid threads that give you access to very insightful observations (unlearning toxic femininity was a recent one). and its my main source of news for videogames. also plenty of beeves, bants, shitfits and occasional unsavoury characters. also once someone from the forum made me a custom lychee and tequila hot sauce because i won a raffle. and when i was struggling with a prolonged encounter with someone with borderline personality disorder one forum member became a genuine ally and source of support, and I’ve used the hardship fund before and it’s helped me pay bills in times of real financial turmoil

it’s literally impossible to explain this place to anyone in my real life

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#42

Social media for music geeks and friendly people. Without the neo-fascists.

#43

Really nice post.

Agree that it is truly hard to pin down what makes DiS so unique, and it certainly is that. DiS is the best, only form of what could be termed social media that I engage with nowadays. It’s not all smooth sailing, but there are so many contributors, who let’s face it are strangers yet it feels more than that.

I have posted on here for years, mostly music based… BUT the pandemic saw DiS take on a real form a communication for me. It is social, it can make you laugh, a lot, it can educate and encourage new art forms, in many varieties.

The Dark Souls thread(s) took on ridiculous levels of communication for me, experiencing that game and engaging with DiSers and their encouragement at a low point in the pandemic was so damn inspiring. The you can do this feel and tips, the speed of which, again, people I do not know spurring me on in a game I thought was beyond me, hard to translate with words but these people feel like real friends now. When I got through that game DiS had changed for me, I knew people were supporting me and reliving something I was awestruck with from their own experience. It’s just a game, but it’s not really, it’s more than that, like DiS really. It’s just a forum, except it is much, MUCH more than that.

Some people you really click with, people that may irk you, you begin to look at yourself and wonder why you may feel shades of conflict, at that point you being to feel everyones individual plight in life right now and that’s where harmony feels right. It’s very rare I get irked on here, yet when I do, when I reflect on that I genuinely feel what these people are posting is kind of like me at a different stage in my life. Some of my best friends in real life, that I have not seen for over a year due to the pandemic, initially I did not get on with them, that spark of conflict is what makes one realise that actually we are the same, then some real form of friendship forms, like a deep one.

The fact people are here, that they always come back is kind of kindred, they annoy, they make you laugh, they inspire, they support, they pick you up, they like your daft posts, they feed off you, you feed off them. DiS overall feels like a relaxing luxury to me and a part of my life. Feels silly to say that, but it’s true. Long may it continue.

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