"It's always good to take time to rest." - Braum
I've been inactive for a few months... I had to take another break. As a semi-veteran I've been noticing some fuckery afoot, both here on Voat and IRL.
Voat-side I've been seeing a resurgence of "tactics" wrought against this forum. Defeatism comments with upvotes, legitimate debates derailed with virulent ad-hominems and assumtive accusations, stupid bunny photos, fucking Imgur links and reddet clone site links on the front page, and shills/scripts who will dedicate up to 2hrs commenting you back about how "you can't disprove my point" while refusing to acknowledge any arguments or you provide at all.
IRL I'm spooked. I've been in the same loc for nearly 20yr, I have a GPS enabled smartphone, the LEO's all seem to know me on facial recognition basis and I've encountered more than my share of 'agents', including one hilarious dude wearing latex gloves who offered to sell me cocaine or a pistol on the street. I'm 65% certain I'm on some kind of list. (obviously, right)
So, getting back to my point, I took another break from Voat. Went outside, got some sunshine, got my head wet and tried to let go of this place, because it seemed like a giant honeypot.
It turns out Goats like honey, because this place continues to be amazing, in spite of it all. Server downtime, disk issues, fake accounts aside, Voat is still is top source of real deal information and debate, so long as you are able to sift the dirt from the gold. The Tommy Robinson coverage, Trump's landmark victory on the Korean Peninsula, Elon Musk's power-plays, news from South Africa and all the fresh dirt on Merkel andTrue-'D'Oh!, even the Q-Anon thread...
HOWEVER - I'm planning on dumping this account. I may or may not make a new account in the future. I don't know anything about VPN's or TOR or anything technical really post-2000 computing-wise, but I imagine the ISP or an IP trace would track my comp fairly easy nowadays, esp. with my cell to to triangulate. Honestly I don't even feel safe posting a 'farewell' but I love you guys. I just want you to know I still browse the site often in read-only mode. Some of our best comments still sit at 0 votes and that I why I love you. You speak your mind freely, without expectation of hive-mind acceptance. Stay lively goats.
P.S.
I remember when I posted on the WoW forums that I was leaving and they told me off, but I've never been back so, tears for fears.
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[–] Romanium ago
Welcome back, Voat is indeed a unique place these days which is a needed change from the forced vanilla PC message that you see most places.