Quite Frustrated With Disjointed Natural Hair Communications Online Today

[CoilyHairedBeauty]

You've said just what I've been wanting to say! I love NP!

Every now and then I'd notice a lull in new threads, and I'd do my best to think of something interesting to get everyone involved. Well, lately, I haven't even been able to do that! Seems like every topic I think of has been discussed before, in depth.

I miss our discussions

As far as social media, I'm only on IG and YT. Those are my fave.

I like IG because it's an easy way to share w/o doing to much. A couple pics here, a meme there...maybe a short video clip....Enough to keep followers up-to-date. YouTube was the first social media platform I ever tried, and I still love it....Just takes work to create professional looking videos. I like being able to *show* how simple natural hair care can be.

I detest FB (been deactivated like 3 years), don't like Twitter, and don't even havvvvve SnapChat. I'm not joining anything else, LOL...

What can we do to get our dialogue going again? (On NP)

[Scribetastic]

I miss our discussions

I miss a lot of the discussions too.

However, there are many I'm happy to see not happening anymore. I don't miss the rudeness.

There were some legendary threads, but there was an excess of attitude even when it was a simple question, point of view, or opinion. I know there were certain people that stirred things up on purpose and targetted people. That's hard to manage unless someone does or says something over the top, so it's near to impossible to control unless you put time into tone policing.

For the few people that still pop in, posts and replies are pretty civil. If there was a way to scale that up, that would be great. I'll pass on going back to exactly the way it was.

[Claire76]

Give it up. Where are naturals hanging out on line now? There have GOT to be educated forum/picture album options for sharing somewhere.

My thoughts (warning brain dump)
I miss the conversations, debates, engagement of the hair community we had on Nappturality. Is that going on anywhere anymore? We were galvanized once; now, we are disengaged and definitely not united anymore. I think I'm beginning to accept that it's over.

Are we really back to pre Nappturality board days?

I thought I'd ask the few that come back here to ck in just in case....

KA

In my opinion the opposite has happened--you've posted on the evolution of natural hair discussions in the social media age. For what it's worth, the last time I tried to find my first NP post, I think wound up with something from 2004. Since then the number of conversations surrounding natural hair have increased and spread across platforms.

I think NP is a fantastic hub. The message boards contain a wealth of information. However over the years I've sought perspectives on natural hair via sites such as YouTube. Also, it seems to me these days people aren't interested in discussing natural hair as much as they once were. They want definitive answers. Mind you, we all know that there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to natural hair. At the same time if there are some basics that I can take away from a video or blog post that I think apply to my 'fro and I don't have questions, then I won't want to talk to anyone.*


*I said all that, even though it seems to me like I've hit the proverbial wall with my hair and I signed into NP because I'm looking for info and trying not to vent.

[KnottyAuthor]

It's an awesome hub-just requires nurturing like all things. In fact, I find communications, period, disjointed in this day and age-not just hair-I just remember when....get nostalgic from time to time .

[Soul Rebel]

I still love NP and I still pop in and participate periodically

The online hair world has become the Wild Wild West lol. As is often the case for me, the more things become mainstreamed, the less I relate to it. So...you know, I've said my peace about what I'm seeing in the online natural hair world, no need to re-hash. I miss discussion and interactions.

(To a poster above, yes NP.com was one of the first online hair boards. Many of us posting in this thread have been around 10+ years)

Sent from my iPad using Forum Runner

[KnottyAuthor]

Yeh, it's crazy how long we've been loyal...I checked in around the end of '03 and after I BC in Jan '05 it was a wrap #home.

[gilroygal]

Hey y'all! I haven't been on here for quite some time and a lot of that is due to life changes, some of which were pretty challenging. However, if/when I long for a hair discussion, NP is always what comes to mind. I recently started DIY locs and the first place that I thought of for help and encouragement was NP. Having said that, I did notice that over time the discussions changed and it seemed like people didn't want to have the deep conversations that originally drew me here. Then came the hairtyping hype and what not and the tone of things changed quite a bit...Having said that, I hope NP remains active for many years to come. I joined in 2003 and I spent many hours on here when I probably should have been working or doing something else. Now that I'm retired and loc'ing, I'll definitely be on here more.

[Claire76]

It's an awesome hub-just requires nurturing like all things. In fact, I find communications, period, disjointed in this day and age-not just hair-I just remember when....get nostalgic from time to time .

I understand. I notice changes in the way I communicate and consume information. Like you, I get nostalgic. I think things were easier when I was a child.

[chachadiva]

Hey all!! I don't have anything to add to the topic. However, I do miss the old discussions we used to have here on NP.

[Phunkiesmallz]

I miss the old conversations and the community. I check back periodically.