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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1944 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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It’s a current trend on TikTok / Instagram to post pictures of yourself from 2016. Next month, in early February, we will celebrate our own 10th anniversary of the Culture War Thread. What are we doing to mark the occasion?

Scott made his request for a culture war thread on Feb 14th of 2016 https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/02/14/ot43-roses-are-thread/

This is one of the oldest culture war threads I could find from reddit (and it might actually be the oldest):

https://old.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/470zk9/culture_war_roundup_for_the_week_of_february_22/

It is weird seeing comments from myself in the thread. About a third of the usernames in there are deleted. Some of the other ones I hovered over are suspended. No one else I could find from there is over here on themotte. Was anyone else there for the inception of the culture war threads? Did you just have a different username back then?

I can't help but feel old. But I was young then and am arguably still young now. My opinions have hilariously not changed an inch from back then. I guess that could be good or bad.

I was about to point out a few posters I was sure still comment now and again, and checked each to find that they had dropped off or flamed out somewhere along the line.

I didn't expect the loss I'd feel going back through those old threads. I expected some - the distant, secondhand kind I get at an estate sale, thumbing through a dusty and meticulously organized collection of National Geographic. Instead I'm thinking of that gulf of time between then and now, how much has happened and yet how clearly I still remember nodding along to j9461701 and BarnabyCajones, engrossed in mcjunker's stories, or bemusedly seething at darwin2500 and HlynkaCG. Lurking in those threads was more important to my late adolescence than I'm proud of.

I posted less then than I do now, so I can't evaluate any change in opinion with much clarity, but what I wrote still sounds sane. Good for my sense of continuity, though I seem to be more vulnerable to nostalgia than I'd hoped. Something I'll need to keep in mind.

Instead I'm thinking of that gulf of time between then and now, how much has happened and yet how clearly I still remember nodding along to j9461701 and BarnabyCajones, engrossed in mcjunker's stories, or bemusedly seething at darwin2500 and HlynkaCG.

Bring back TrannyPornO!

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