/q/ - arisuchan meta

I do think you need to browse lainchan to be considered a lain, if not you are just a future lain till you discover us.

I used to think being a lain also entailed using free software, and staying away from "botnet" and proprietary.
Seems like I was wrong on that part, I now see lots of 'lains' who use windows only (with that disgusting linux on windows subsystem), and generally software that's proprietary and botnet.

Combined with applechan now censoring threads, I see a bit of a grim future for them real lains (inb4 no true scotsman fallacy)

while we're talking about it, when did peeps start using "lain" instead of "lainon"?

was the latter for the longest time…

>>644
I'm not sure when, but I do like "lain" more.

>>645
"lainon" always annoyed me too.

>>640
From what I've seen it's a mixture of people that are genuinely curious about technology and know that their actions in the wired amount to more than just typing on a keyboard. When things happen in and around lainchan we all feel the effects on diff levels because in some sense we know that we're all connected to each other.
(This is all kind of abstract but I'm not sure how to fully explain it)

The image boards are really just the tip of the iceberg that might give a hint of what the community is about. However, anyone looking further than that is bound to be a lain(on).


>>644
Personally I'm used to "lainon" from before but I guess "lain" sounds a little better.

I watched SEL about a month after kalyx started the place, and heard of it another month later. I originally came here for the Lain stuff, but I was also a compsci student so it fit. I did drop out for unrelated reasons and lost my interest in all things compsci for a while, but I remained for the general quality of discussion on any topics.
That's probably what the site is, if you ask me: SEL, compsci, and people self-moderating and having a builder sort of attitude. I never cared for or bought into the "this is a cyberpunk site" meme. Cool things in technology are seldom related to aesthetics or culture, it's rather about the builder's attitude. Critical thinking is important but some forget to practice it towards their own views (or just do it ritually) and make the worst soykaf brewers this place has ever suffered. I find that people who reason out of some political opinion or their goals and ambitions do not fit this place well.
I'd say lainons > lains because 'lains' might give the wrong idea of people who came here for SEL and end up raving about LALL and stuff.

it seems to me that we can be looked at on a number of levels.

first, we stand at the intersections of imageboard/chan culture, and computers/programming. yet we are not /g/.

we also share some commonalities with other /cyb/ communities, and many of our users seem to view the world in which we live as a part of a larger, deeply cyperpunk culture, of which we form part of the 'low life'.

but i still must say, we seem to differ from other places. cyberpunkfourms, some subredits and locations withing 8ch spring to mind.

what seems to set Lain apart is the fact that more than any other place, we seem to view the wired as, not merely another place to go, not merely another economy to exploit, escape to duck into when the world gets too hard.

the wired is a spiritual place, and deeply involved in the future of our evolution as a culture, as an animal. the wired is not simply another part of this world, it is the next.

>all these described traits of "lains"
So I guess I don't belong here either. Figures.

>>703
don't say that, cherished lain comrade, if you are here, something has brought you and something has made you stay.

the fact that the other posters didnt describe you doesnt mean you don't belong, rather that so far an inaccurate, or perhaps incomplete picture has been painted.

please, enlighten us! critique us! make us see our blindness and learn from our mistakes and misconceptions.

>>703
Maybe you should help us expand upon the definition of what it means to be a lain then. You are most definitely welcome here, lain. ^_^

>>696
>the wired is a spiritual place, and deeply involved in the future of our evolution as a culture, as an animal. the wired is not simply another part of this world, it is the next.
I guess I'm not a lain then. I'm just saying so because I take a very pessimistic view of the vast majority of telecom. Most telecom is centralized and in the tight grip of the Ones On Top. To even envision a telecom system I would want to partake in, I would have to imagine that meshnets actually become a thing, or else I abandon internet-type things entirely and communicate on pirate shortwave bands.
I am comfortable, even happy with the concept of a world where I never have to touch the Wired again.
(Damn, am I just a terrible fit for this site? And I felt so happy on it, too…)

Well.

I feel like I agree with both >>709 and >>696 .

The net is important, I hate it, I find it fascinating, beautiful and interesting and full of potential, but also just plain messed up. A more democratic model, as with a well built meshnet, is something I often dream of. Improbable? sure, but its a dream.

>would I ever leave the internet for good?
hell yes I would, if I could live and do my work without it.

I don't think anyone in this thread is trying to make anyone feel that they don't "belong" here, maybe I am wrong but the goal I see is more to understand the community as it exists, rather than to perscribe the community as it should be.

then again, maybe I don't belong here, either.

>>709
I really do think this is actually a place for you. The web as it is, how you describe it, is owned by the megacorps. Me, you, and others dislike that a lot, and I think this fits with lainchan quite well.