How do you currently experience Twoism?

[Aesthetics]

We all engage with the forum differently, some come for the warmth, others for the mystery, and sometimes things shift without us even noticing. I'd love to hear your honest (but kind) perspective. Pick the options that best reflects how you see Twoism today. You can select 3 options.

We’re currently revisiting the way the moderator team is structured, and your feedback, whether lighthearted or sincere, helps us better understand how the community feels.

Please elaborate on your choice(s) and also if there isn't really an option for you to choose from, so we can use this on our journey to keep Twoism a great place for as many as possible.

[Aesthetics]

Kicking things off...

As the first to respond, I’ll take the liberty of kicking this off with some thoughts of my own. Twoism has always been a bit of a special place to me, and honestly, it still is. Despite how things shift over time, Twoism is still my favorite weird little corner of the internet.

That said, I’ve noticed in recent years, and not just on this forum, that the world has changed. We seem to have collectively grown more sensitive longer toes, and it feels like there's less space for open conversation. People are quicker to focus on what they don’t like instead of what they do. It’s a reflection of broader societal shifts, not something unique to this place.

It’s also clear that some people experience Twoism in very different ways. Some mainly come here for BoC speculation and spend most of their time in threads like the Speculation Topic, which gives them a very specific view of what this place is. Others, like myself, tend to engage more broadly, or come and go in waves. That’s always been part of the rhythm here.

Over the years, we’ve had silent stretches where barely anything was posted. We’ve had bursts of activity whenever a release seemed imminent. And personally, I’ve also changed, sometimes more active, sometimes more in the background. With the new age of social media forums take a different role I guess. But even so, Twoism has always felt like Twoism to me.

Usually I stay out of discussions around forum direction, especially being part of the team, because I don’t want to steer things too much. But since we’re in the middle of making some changes to the team, I felt it was the right moment to share a bit more openly this time.

Looking forward to hearing your perspectives because I'm open to change, if needed.

[Sherbet Head]

Overall, I still enjoy using Twoism, but the tone certainly seems different these days.

I think the recent noise, as you've described it, is merely a by-product of BoC's radio silence. Let's face it, it's wild that this place even exists in the first place, when you consider it's centred around an extremely inactive and reclusive electronic duo, with a very small discography compared to most of their peers. Many prolific artists these days could only dream of having an entire fan forum dedicated to them. Anything more than a subreddit seems totally outrageous.

So, when we're deep into what is, by far, BoC's quietest and most inactive period, there's naturally going to be some boredom, and I think this is when most of this 'noise' is generated. Trolls are crawling out of the woodwork and filling in the blanks. There are still moments of community and genuine excitement whenever something significant occurs in the BoC camp, and it's always fun to observe and participate, but the in-between lulls are a struggle.

Realistically, other than restricting blatant trolls and spammers, I don't think anything major can be done from an admin/mod level to 'fix' the problem. I think we have to wait for the great transmission for Twoism to flourish once again.

[Mexicola]

Like many things in life, the strengths and weaknesses can be two sides of the same coin.

Back when I was an active (rather than sporadic) moderator here, I often used the phrase 'nature abhors a vacuum' regarding those lengthy gaps in BOC related news to justify to myself some of the wilder speculation that sometimes left me avoiding the BOC sub forum altogether. Twoism was more than 'just BOC' however. Much more.

I made friends, some of them lifelong, met many amazing creative people in the real world, discovered new music and art, all through Twoism. It was a thriving community and I loved it. Part of me always will.

But times change, needs change, life does what life does and bends us towards other things.

I'm floating about here a bit more lately, but less frequently than before and many of the names have changed of course. Yet Twoism still feels familiar. The wild speculation, both encouraged and derided, the occasional trolling, the warmth, the desire to share and discuss. It's all still there and it feels good to me.

Twoism may be more peripheral for myself now, but I can't deny, it still feels a worthwhile organism, worthy of it's place in the cultural world. Long may it continue, evolving, or stagnating. Either works for me and both statuses bring their own pluses and negatives.

All the very best to the new moderator(s) when Ae builds his new team. Enjoy the ride.

Stay tuned.

[magrathea_ultima]

Honestly...

I had left, pissed and annoyed at the proselytism presented here that stands much more as the "official" word in a kind of Stasi way than anything else. Let me explain.

Any and all allusion to BOC being done, on hiatus, disbanded as a creative unit or whatever get actively rolled over with facts which I find hard to reconcile with the works of what I hold dearly to My heart and mind in every situation: the scientific method (which I will not develop here, but Wikipedia is your friend).

Also refer you to the Quote misattributed to Voltaire: "je déteste ce que vous écrivez, mais je donnerais ma vie pour que vous puissiez continuer à écrire". In that, I find that Twoism has strayed from the principle of free speech and a welcoming safe space to express opinions, instead it feels as it has regressed into the chat boards of old which were basically turfs for flame wars (ref: WATTM).

I think some threads are far more volatile and subject to those outbursts than others. The everlasting "GENERAL NEW RELEASE SPECULATION TOPIC" which was closed and opened vowing a new tone as "GENERAL NEW RELEASE SPECULATION TOPIC PART II" and in which the tone is far more acerb, in my view.

As for the rest of the community, I don't have much to say, the other topics are fine, I shared in the past about my struggles with mental illness (general anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder) life as a dad and a partner. Also about photo, art, sharing what I listen to.

To me, BoC is the anomaly in my life, it lies way outside what My musical taste is, but it finds its ways because of the aesthetics of it, it transcends the simple music to me and blends into art.

Art touches me, deeply, I am someone who is very connected to my emotional being and as such I find that when I offer my view or opinion on something, something that instill in me enough interest to come out of my shell and voice it, it is important.

Now when you take that which is important to someone, be it opinion, looks, likes, and turn it down...

Well it does not feel good when that happens, and repeat that, and sprinkle it with a dose of what feels like a political party line that seems to have blind faith just irks me, and maybe others, into silence, drifting or outright leaving.

That's my take on it, I am slipping this into the suggestion box and leave it for those interested to read.

But in parting, i say: be good to one another, follow humanitarian principles, the logic of science, the magic of art and the empowering clout of dreams.

Farewell

[llydia]

Keep it up. Don't change a thing. Just bring the naughty stick out a bit more, that's all. I like endlessly speculating and also laughing/agreeing with the many theories. For something like that to end, would be quite sad. I come back here to read what you guys post, because its cool. So keep going! That's my 2 cents. Love you guys!

[Fredd-E]

Like any forum, what makes Twoism worth visiting is its users, but if good faith discussion is driven away by a handful of aggressive trolls, then suddenly it is no longer worth visiting. This has nothing to do with being sensitive. Luckily Twoism has rules that can help maintain a friendly atmosphere. It is up to the moderators to enforce these rules and do so sufficiently. People should always feel safe here.

[Echelon]

For a while, due to a few rude characters, I stayed off of Twoism and found greener pastures. But I genuinely loved going on this site for the longest time and as you can tell by my post count, it's unbelievably high.

I've also met quite a few wonderful people on here and I've been grateful for my interactions with them.

I've now decided that I will return once the album finally drops and I can offer new speculation and discussion that my millions of posts haven't offered already. And, I believe the negativity will be a lot less once the band finally returns.

At this point, it's looking more than certain because BOC are not the kind of people to cash grab. So instead of griping about the past, I will wait quietly for the best Twoism and BOC themselves to flourish.

One of my favorite tracks on Societas is Paul Hart's Prospect on his optimistic album Futurism. And that's what I believe we'll have!

[Negamuse]

I miss when there was more here to talk about, but that's following a band like BoC really. I met some very cool people here and the offline meetups were legendary. If anything, meeting up outside the forum showed me how wide and varied people's musical tastes were aside from BoC... which is exciting but does kind of collapse the forum experience outside of a release cycle.

The thing that could've really kept the impetus to stay here going was the Twoism records thing, but a lot of those names have wandered off doing their own thing now which is understandable.

Twoism seems similar to me to a forum like Cookdandbombd, brought together by a shared love of somebody that only sporadically puts anything out, so the conversation has to move on to other things (other comedians than Chris Morris in their case). It's funny the parallels, both Chris Morris and BoC seem to have a similar appreciation of the unusual and the uneasy. But that kind of me material only works when you trust the audience to know where you stand and why you're turning over the stones you're turning over. CaB do a brilliant job of making sure that stays clear or maybe it's just that comedy fans self-select differently than music fans do.

I have always loved this place more than Other Alternatives and it's looking like we're the last ones standing, for however long that continues being a thing. It would be lovely to think it stays as a place where it's a welcoming community but it IS the web in current year, so.

I'll keep dropping by until I drop off

[kube]

I interpreted this question very literally... I experience Twoism mostly through the RSS digest feed I receive weekly :3 and it's a very pleasant means of checking in on this place

[Josh]

I experience Twoism the same way as I always have. I'm a habitual visitor, infrequent poster. I come here primarily hoping for news on Boards of Canada and I also like to know what other music, movies, books and other stuff people are into. I also like learning about other people. That means you.

I have no idea what the impetus of all the moderator reshuffling and board reorganizing was or is, whether or it's necessary or not, any of it. All I know is that it's been a really long time since we've had new BoC music to talk about. As Mexicola already said, nature abhors a vacuum and that is what I see as the root of any problems here, real or perceived.

Will a new LP or EP or even a single fix everything for everyone? No, but it will go a very long way toward helping. If I were a mod here, I wouldn't change much. I would only want to ensure that no one feels unwelcome or receives any kind of hostility because of their gender, sexuality, race, etc. We should have no tolerance for that. I feel that by and large we're pretty good about this, but then again, I'm a generic middle-aged white dude, so your experience may be very different. If that's the case, I encourage you to make your voice heard, either publicly or privately to the mods.

As for now, let's find a way to enjoy being stuck together in Casablanca where we wait and wait and wait...

[Josh]

BoCablanca?

[Mexicola]

Of all the gin joints, in all the world...

Etc

[dana]

The elephant in the living room and you don't even do anything about it, you know who i'm talking about.

[fujee]

I'm also a less-frequent poster than I used to be, partly down to life getting in the way and partly because I want to spend less time online. The latter is admittedly quite hard nowadays.

I would say it's changed a bit in recent years, a few trolls and the like. But it's also got something other places on the net are missing. It's slower, people are on the whole more considerate and respectful, and it's brimming with talent. Because of that it does still seem to attract the best of those in BoC's orbit and beyond.

The in-person meets were incredible and maybe someone will carry that torch forward. Maybe we'll even do another one? I'd love that and would definitely carve out some time for it, but I appreciate they take a lot of work and dedication.

With all that being said, I still visit Twoism a few times a week to have a browse and ultimately I'm grateful it exists. Music forums were a big part of my life over the past 20 years (wow, has it really been that long?), but now many of them have disappeared for more centralised forms of interacting online.

The timing of this thread is quite interesting for me, as I recently went back and had a look through my earliest posts. Most of them were pretty embarrassing, to be honest, but some also made me smile. I probably spent 20 minutes or so reading through them and thinking about where I was, who I was living with and what I was doing around that time. I also found a few posts where I'd shared something creative - a photo or some music - and it made me realise I need to do more of that. Being busy, tired and sometimes stressed is no excuse.

Those memory holes cannot be found in many places online these days, because the internet is A LOT less diverse than it used to be. At least, that's my perspective right now. Maybe there's more and I'm missing it.

Anyway, this has gone on longer than I intended, but this has definitely struck a chord with me:

Kicking things off...People are quicker to focus on what they don’t like instead of what they do. It’s a reflection of broader societal shifts, not something unique to this place.

I'm almost certainly guilty of this more than I'd like to admit. There's a lot that upsets me about the world we live in, but then places like Twoism also make it great.

To the best forum out there. Always was and always will be.

[steeldancer-x]

If you are looking for BOC insight, I'm sorry but this is not the place to go. It's a cool little 'after-school-club' type of corner but if you want any actual info/discussion you are going to be sitting here for awhile hoping to wrestle it out of ppl. The world is too modern and quick for that anymore.

I'd say bring more ppl from TMW (that's where most valuable BOC info/cringe has been found) but everytime they come, they either make it weird or be disappointed when they can't keep attention like they can on the discord. Soo..... it's a weird time to be a fan. Don't know what else to tell you

But for the record, IMO BOC is too big for the world. There are other things we can discuss...