Q: What’s the purpose of having this blog when you have the forum?
A: A very reasonable question. Essentially this blog was made because blogs typically index better than forums which will obviously help our site’s SEO, getting us indexed more easily, and hopefully will bring more people to our forum, which is https://forum.marianabay.com/ for those uninformed. This is obviously not to replace the forum which will always remain the top priority, though I do plan to build this blog up as I do find it fun to work on. Furthermore, this blog can work as a valuable archive of forum articles and posts in case the forum is ever down or there is a data loss for whatever reason. Either way I believe this blog serves a purpose and that’s why I created it, simple as.
Q: Who is Dwayne the Cat?
He is the supreme dictator of the Democratic Republic of Mariana Bay and our site’s mascot, though don’t refer to him personally as the mascot because he will claw your eyes out and shove them so far up your rectum that you’ll have to start shitting out your dick. He’s no one’s fursona or some placeholder mascot, he’s Dwayne and he’s here to stay, and also to commit human rights violations.
Q: Why should I use the Mariana Bay Forum over a much more popular social media application such as Reddit or Discord and Why was it made?
Gonna crosspost my response to this question from a thread on my forum I already made on it (https://forum.marianabay.com/threads/why-use-the-mariana-bay.30/)
Why use a retro forum such as the Mariana Bay? Question like this I do understand where they are coming from. Forums are archaic, old, and not as advanced as an app such as Discord, plus sites like R*ddit have simplified the whole forum format, making many 2000s forums rather redundant. The difference is is the Mariana Bay is run by normal, everyday people who aren’t on some big corporations payroll to shutdown those who may think a bit differently from the norm. Reddit and Discord in particular have been complete control freaks on what is allowed to be said and promoted within online discourse, ostracizing those who don’t parrot the same worldview as McDonalds and university campuses. We here at the Mariana Bay don’t agree with that and believe in free expression for our users (though within reason, please refer to the rules). More than ever more small forums are needed to fight back against big corporation’s grip on online communication and this forum I hope makes it’s impact in being a useful tool in that fight. As users of the web we can’t allow a complete monopoly on online discussion and I encourage those who care about their freedoms to sign up to this forum and one’s like it as it’s the best rebellion we have against these data hogs.
On this site we believe in transparency too: what changes we make, openness when situations may arise, etc. I don’t believe in keeping the community in the dark guessing and instead being very open in what’s being done with this site and the plans going forward. Moreover, we want to hear from our community in how we can make this place better so it’s enjoyable for everyone regardless of who you are.
The Mariana Bay is strictly apolitical I must also add. We don’t tend to appease one political side over the other and will allow whoever into our discourse. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy debate and hearing both sides of an argument, and though obviously we have to be careful with certain discussions, so our host doesn’t pull the plug on us, we welcome you to express your thoughts on a matter without the fear of being censored or booted off for it. All we ask is you don’t promote any extreme ideologies or throw statements that target a certain group as we are all about good vibes here, not bad ones. As this is an open forum and anyone can read it honestly just use common sense and good opsec as it’s 2023 and you don’t know who is reading what you write or what will upset or offend an outside group. To finish this paragraph, the views expressed on this forum do not reflect those of the entirety of our forum or I, the forum’s owner, everyone’s view is their own.
For those curious about our name choice for the forum, the Mariana part comes from the theorized Mariana’s Web, a supposed deepest layer of the net that is said to hold some of humanity’s darkest secrets and can only be accessed via quantum computing. Though this elusive layer of the net has for the most part been debunked as a hoax made to distract people while some of the biggest dark markets were being taken down by the government agencies in the late 2010s, the mystery and allure to the name still remains hence why I’ve used it as in the end this forum is small, obscure, and currently can only be found by those who have the “luck” of finding it. The Bay part of the name, as you can easily guess, is taken from the Pirate Bay, which is still one of the largest media piracy sites since it’s inception in the early 2000s, obviously here we do not promote media privacy but we have taken that part of the name as this is a music forum and it’s rather fitting as since it’s heyday music was, and still is, one of the largest targets of piracy that is shared around on that site, so the reference felt fitting.
Thanks for those who read all this and I hope it helps you understand what this site is aiming for and answers some of the questions you may have had about it.
Q: How can I contribute to the Mariana Bay’s Development & Growth?
A: You can help by posting on the forum and creating articles for it, spreading the good word of the forum on different social media platforms, making videos about the site and its content, drawing art or even making memes about the site; the possibilities are endless and every little bit of effort helps.
The above is prone to be updated and changed at later dates so be sure to check back in the future in case any enquires you may have get answered here.