Transmission Log: October 2025
We’ve been monitoring the same forums for seventeen years. The signal-to-noise ratio follows a predictable curve, but something changed in Q3 2024. The usual patterns of degradation accelerated.
Observed Phenomena
Phase 1: Initial Contact
- Community forms around shared purpose
- Signal clarity: 87%
- Meaningful exchange rate: High
Phase 2: Growth Period
- Influx of new participants
- Signal clarity: 64%
- First signs of semantic drift
Phase 3: The Eternal September
- Continuous onboarding without cultural transmission
- Signal clarity: 23%
- Original meaning becomes archaeological artifact
Field Notes
What’s particularly interesting is the speed at which this happens now. Communities that would have taken 8-10 years to complete the cycle in the early 2000s now run through it in 18-24 months.
The patterns are consistent:
- In-jokes become ritual without meaning
- FAQs go unread, answered questions return
- Veteran members depart silently
- The community continues, a ship of Theseus made of strangers
Archival Status
This dispatch documents a pattern we’ve seen repeat across platforms, technologies, and generations. The medium changes. The decay rate changes. The pattern persists.
End transmission.