The history of RevLeft

[Sinister Intents]

What would be a concise history of RevLeft from the beginnings until now?
How has RevLib changed? Has it grown? has it shrunk? What other items do you think pertain to RevLeft's history? What were your initial thoughts when you joined? What do you think and feel of this site now?

[Comrade Jacob]

What were your initial thoughts when you joined?

'What's a Left-communist?'

I think Revleft doesn't by any means represent the left in the real-world.

[Creative Destruction]

How has RevLib changed?

Intentional, or...?

[Sinister Intents]

Intentional, or...?

International or anything?

edit: yeah that was intentional :)

[Alexios]

Elaborate trolling

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

History of Revleft- short course shall be a textbook for the revolutionary left.

[motion denied]

Older threads seem to be funnier. Apparently, Revleft was this strange place where stalinists were restricted and everyone was anarchist; some of these anarchists later on became trots (the MLs saw it coming from the very beginning, 'anarcho-trots' etc hehe).

Now all we have is a bunch of kautskites, crazy bordigists and lotsa anarchists, not to mention the hip communization people. MLs are a thing too.

I don't know why I'm writing this but w/e.


From the few months I've been here I could only conlcude that Revleft is to revolution what masturbation is to making babies.

[Marshal of the People]

How has RevLib changed?What is RevLib? I looked it up on google but couldn't find any matches except for an online resource for benchmarks within the domain of reversible and quantum circuit design.

Is it a typo or as rednoise said, was it intentional?

[Sinister Intents]

What is RevLib? I looked it up on google but couldn't find any matches except for an online resource for benchmarks within the domain of reversible and quantum circuit design.

Is it a typo or as rednoise said, was it intentional?

Yes, that was intentional :) RevLib=RevLeft

[reb]

Being on revleft has made me realize that whilst leninists larp a lot in real life, they do it more on the internet.

[The Feral Underclass]

What is 'larp'?

[Sinister Intents]

What is 'larp'?

Live Action Roll Play?

[The Feral Underclass]

I see.

Ha. That's kinda funny.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Simmer, boil, catch fire, burn out

hWTFG3J1CP8

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

1. I believe the correct dig is "RefLib", not "RevLib", this latter form being something altogether different, with guillotines and committees of public safety.

2. RevLeft used to be way zanier, for sure. Worse, though, politically. I think it's kinda like, all of our friends started going to jail/getting deported, or civil wars broke out in our home countries, and, y'know, shit got real, and all of a sudden jokes about Stalin became way less important than, I dunno, figuring out whether or not Bordiga is relevant. Which, I mean, still points to something being wildly wrong here, but . . .

3. Malte used to post. Then I think it turned out they held an important political difference with people. Shit was complicated.

4. *******. Nachie. Etc.

[Drowzy_Shooter]

As I've been on, and maybe it's partially due to me becoming better at comprehending what I'm reading as I've kind of grown up with revleft, but it seems to me as though Revleft has become increasingly sectarian to the point of almost being unpleasant.

[Futility Personified]

Am I the only person who misses Avanti? The poster who used to make these long rambling lines of text that read enjoyably but were very confusing on a late night at times. Or have they morphed into someone else?

EDIT: Whilst reviewing such posts (avanti's vision of communism was interesting to hear) I noticed Jesus Saves Gretsky Scores posted in that thread too. I enjoyed their posts, their little user title thing was a little worrying. Warm internet concern to the pair of them, wherever they are.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The older threads on this site that I've read tend to be way more irreverent and "surreal". But the context that they were made in (early 2000s) wasn't particularly interesting. Later era revleft, from the recession onward through the 2011-2014 period has born a lot more interesting discussions, I think.

[Rurkel]

Am I the only person who misses Avanti? The poster who used to make these long rambling lines of text that read enjoyably but were very confusing on a late night at times. Or have they morphed into someone else?

Yeah, the avanti insurrection, from their first appearance to their banning after they posted a story of how they hit someone on the head with a baseball bat in school is a major RevLeft history landmark.

Tracing the history of dominating tendencies in RevLeft could be interesting when you've got nothing better to do. Bordigism and its sympathizers were dominant very recently, though now they're being diluted by a M-L or two.

[Zukunftsmusik]

4. *******.

Does this refer to the forum wich name shall not be mentioned, or the feathered incident? Cause it's the same number of letters...


Am I the only person who misses Avanti?

Yes.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

RevLeft started as Che-Lives, a forum organised around the image of Che Guevara, which banned Marxists-Leninists as a matter of policy. The threads back then were, from what I've seen, weird - a lot of internet-exclusive one-man tendencies, a lot of open social-democrats and liberals, and a lot of misogyny, homophobia etc. As much as I hate to say this - and I do, I really do - RevLeft policies have gotten better over the years. For example, we now regularly take anyone opposed to abortion out and shoot them.

[Zukunftsmusik]

The threads back then were, from what I've seen, weird - a lot of internet-exclusive one-man tendencies, a lot of open social-democrats and liberals

So not that different from today?

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

So not that different from today?

Well - posters today tend to be covert social-democrats and liberals. And their internet-exclusive tendencies have three people at least! Plus one dog! Say what you like, you don't generally see things like "liberal socialism" openly advocated on RevLeft anymore.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Here's the rough timeline:lol::

- Che-Lives
- Infighting
- Redstar2000
- US War... lota "sheeple" discussion, arguing against conspiracy theorists
- C.C.
- Infighting
- Obama
- Trolling
- Recession... revolution's gonna happen!
- Tea Party/Glenn Beck obsessions... fascism's gonna happen!
- Modern Era

Main-board participation seems to go in waves. I agree that the experiences of the past decade have changed the nature of discussion to more presing and interesting issues like the natrure of privilage/oppression or the effects of neoliberalism on the working class. OI is definately down compared to during the Iraq war when there were a lot more regular sorta conservatives (pro-Bush, pro-war, etc). The right got pretty demoralized by the end of the Bush administration and so now we just have some regulars but mostly right-wing libertarians and market-(instert normally Leftist label here)s.

[Per Levy]

well looking back, hotel bristol was quite a thing back in the stalin/trotsky threads era. oh and the december purges were fun too, you had to be there, it was insane.

[Red Commissar]

Besides the rather nasty clusterfuck that was the bannings in late 2011/early 2012 and the mess of forum games, I haven't seen anything particularly weird besides the usual e-drama and users spearheading that as with other forums.

Revleft was really a weird place early on. There was an interesting period from like 2006-2009ish from post content when I look for old threads, but I've noticed that before the forum was a lot more erratic and a whole lot less coherent in its views. Some threads made then probably wouldn't fly now, like this one here (more specifically some of the posts in it)

http://www.revleft.com/vb/sexiest-fictional-characters-t19726/index.html?t=19726

Forum seems to've been a hell of a lot more informal then, with all the bad and good that brings.

As for my own thoughts I find me using this forum more than I did in the past. I wasn't all that committed when I first joined but threads and conversations here really pointed me in the right direction to make my views more coherent. For all its problems I might have or others, revleft is really the only place I can go to friendly to left politics that is also active and large.

[Invader Zim]

What would be a concise history of RevLeft from the beginnings until now?
How has RevLib changed? Has it grown? has it shrunk? What other items do you think pertain to RevLeft's history? What were your initial thoughts when you joined? What do you think and feel of this site now?

Che-Lives.com History Chapter 1:

1. In the beginning Malte (aka Edelweiss) created Che-Lives. 2. Now Che-Lives was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the front page, and Malte was hovering over his FTP client.

3. And Malte said, “Let there be articles,” and there were articles. 4 Malte saw that the articles were good, and he separated the articles from the Che-Lives shop. 5 Malte called the articles “Che's biography” and other such stuff, the shop he called “Che Merchandise.” And there was content - the first day.

6 And Malte said, “Let there be a space between the links to articles and other site content and put a massive picture of Ernesto Guevara in it.” 7 So Malte uploaded the picture (which was black and white) and separated the content links under the main Che-Lives.com banner from the other content links (in a weird circle pattern). And it was so. 8 Malte called the space “leet web design.” And there was an aesthetically pleasing front page—the second day.

9 And Malte said, “Lets add some other proper historical content, that'll be fucking ace - like Che's diary and a load of photos.” And it was fucking ace. 10 Malte then played around with the colour schemes, black and red seemed rather appropriate. And Malte saw that it was good.

11 Then Malte said, “We could do something really awesome and interactive with this, what we need is a bulletin board for people to talk shit through. That'd be really productive.” And it was so. 12 The board produced forums: threads bearing topics of conversation according to their kinds and posts bearing related words according to their kinds. And Malte saw that it was good. 13 And there was a test phase, and then the board went live—the third day.

14 And Malte said, “Let there be a different colour scheme in the boards to separate the che-lives page from the board, 15 but let's keep Che central to the content and aesthetic of the site.” And it was so. 16 Malte made two great forum groups— 'Che-Lives.com' and 'Announcements'. He also made a weird grey colour scheme. 17 Malte set the forums in different shades of grey, 18 to separate the different forums. And Malte saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

20. And Malte said, “Let the board teem with Trots and other Leninists, and let Anarchists join too - they're pretty cool.” 21 So Malte allowed people to join, according to their kinds, and every type of lefty was allowed to join without prejudice. And Malte saw that it was good. 22 Malte blessed them and said, “Have fun, educate each other, increase in number and fill the board with informative threads.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

24 And Malte said, “Oh shit! We've got a load of really fucking annoying capitalists trolling the hell out of the board.” And it was so. 25 Malte made the 'Commie Club', so that lefts could chat among themselves without fear of the trolls, the fascists and Nazis were banned outright because Malte is properly committed to the No Platform position. And Malte saw that it was good, at least until everybody started bickering and complaining about the board management, but we'll get to all that in the Gospel of Jazzratt.

26 Then Malte said, “Let us make moderators and other admins in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the members in the forums.”

27 So Malte created board staff in his own image,
in the image of Malte he created them (with different coloured lettering from everyone else to signify that they were staff).

28 Malte blessed them and said to them, “Make sure that bullshit posts get trashed and ban any fucking Nazi that tries to troll us.”

29 Then Malte said, “This still isn't fucking working, we're still being trolled by fucking cappies [to use the parlance of the early 2000s Che-Lives.com community]! Fuck it, we'll just restrict them to a new forum called 'Socialism vs Capitalism'.” And it was so.

31 Malte saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Chapter 2.

1 Thus the board was completed in all its vast array.

2 By the seventh day Malte had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then Malte cracked open a few tins and proceeded to get totally wasted. It was good.


------------

And there you have it.

[Hit The North]

Two points:

1. Weird to call yourself CheLives after a famous Marxist-Leninist and then ban Marxist-Leninists.

2. The modern board seems to run much more smoothly now that it is run less democratically and is more centralised - which kinda proves the Marxist-Leninists correct.

Anarchists 0 Marxist-Leninists 2

[Ele'ill]

2. The modern board seems to run much more smoothly now that it is run less democratically

I just did a double take on who posted this.

[Hit The North]

I just did a double take on who posted this.

Yeah, it's a hard pill to swallow. On the other hand, I'd still prefer the jagged disorder of democracy. I mean, to advocate order for order's sake is kinda fascist.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

The history of RevLeft?

Imagine a boot, stamping on a human face - forever.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

1. Weird to call yourself CheLives after a famous Marxist-Leninist and then ban Marxist-Leninists.

Actually Che was some kind of anarcho-primitivist-Trotskyist-leftcom, according to half the people ever (by which I mean half ostensible socialists, which I suppose is a much smaller set than "half the people ever", but what do you want, I'm trying to be snarky).

[Hit The North]

Actually Che was some kind of anarcho-primitivist-Trotskyist-leftcom, according to half the people ever (by which I mean half ostensible socialists, which I suppose is a much smaller set than "half the people ever", but what do you want, I'm trying to be snarky).
Try harder.

[Geiseric]

There used to be many more active Stalinists who turned out later to be complete wierdos. Not that people who are left aren't still fucking creeps for the most part. My faith in this site is basically on par with my faith in occupy. Ultra left postmodernism ftw.

[SonofRage]

When I joined (2002) it was called "Che-Lives" :grin: