>>4162we don't advertise and we're not tethered to another site that serves as a de-facto advertisement.
imageboards struggle to overcome the contradiction that the people on them get off on being part of a sekrit club, but the nature of the format is that it really comes into its own when posting is at a brisk pace. this is especially true when they tend to be associated with 4chan and 4chan derived culture, discouraging most people from openly talking about using them or recommending them to others on non-anonymous sites.
this is ultimately something this site should work to overcome in one grand project, a cross between reform and opening up and the cultural revolution. we must comprehensively work to bring in new users while simultaneously working to destroy all undesirable vestiges of 4chan-derived western imageboard culture and build in its place something newer and better.
the 4channer sees this aim and is instinctively driven to a reactionary backlash: you want to make /leftypol/ into reddit/twitter/tumblr! they know in their heart of hearts it is not possible for this to happen - an imageboard lacks all of the fundamental characteristics which could build such an identikit culture - but they want to retain their illusory little feelings of superiority for some vague cultural knowledge. like funko-pop collectors they have spent so long collecting baubles and buzzwords and shibboleths that they have never stopped to ask whether what they're collecting has any innate value. it does not.
either project alone would be eminently worthwhile: to reshape /leftypol/ as the alternative cultural centre of a new imageboard culture without expansion, or to expand the userbase of /leftypol/ while retaining a mixed culture as we have presently. but the two aims mutually support one another in the most wonderful way: the more people that are drawn in, the greater the rewards for creating new culture, the more new cultural products spill out of the site, the more people ask "where's that from?" and find themselves lead here, the more that others find themselves driven to create something. one and the other, locked together in a virtuous circle.
let us destroy the 4 old things:
1. old culture: for the site to conform to the norms of "imageboard culture" as presently defined by 4chan, or a mythical 4chan minus 5-15 years.
2. old ideas: for ideological unity beyond the broad brush of "leftism". better 500 leftists, 50 of whom are wrong than 50 leftists, all of whom are right.
3. old habits: for a sense of personal superiority, an exclusive site, a secret club, and so on. instead of feeling superior to users of other sites, make them superior: bring them over.
4. old customs: for the comfort of the status quo. far too many fear change: what if this general or that no longer exists on a larger site? solutions can always be found.