I recently created a community for the practice of semen retention. It is an ancient practice and has ties to Taoism. For me and others it is largely for the sake of self improvement and spiritual / material progress.
I posted on a new communities forum and the post almost immediately has garnered several downvotes. I’m genuinely confused as to why. The practice is not hurting anyone, nor is it rude or offensive.
I think people may have just immediately jumped to thinking about it as pseudoscience like sunning your balls or Reddit’s NoFap where people had a habit of exaggerating the effects.
I wouldn’t sweat a few downvotes though. It’s a niche topic and maybe the right people just haven’t found it yet. It may just take time for your community to grow
I expect you got down votes because whatever posts showed up on feeds for people that disagreed with the idea. The default home page is basically pulling posts from everywhere so it’s not just people looking for that niche that will see the post.
People often disagree with things that are fringe and when you post something online you open yourself up to criticism. Personally I would also disagree with the idea but I don’t think here is the place to get all debaty about it. I’m sure anyone can find the criticisms with a quick Google search along with debunking of claims about such practices.
swimming upstream
I know you didn’t mean it this way, but the context made me chuckle.
Also I commiserate with you OP, as I am part of a fashion community whose name we can’t really change due to circumstances, but which attracts certain kinds of unwelcome attention online.
Edit: gahh I meant to reply to socialjusticewizard’s comment
Sorry that happened, but I have to assume this isn’t the first time you’ve been ostracized for it, right? Lemmy is just another group of people, same as everywhere.
Thank you. Well, it’s not something I generally talk about in person (although I know it’s likely seen as strange to most), but on Reddit there was enough of a following that there was not much ostracism, so this is a first for me. I was curious if the Lemmy reaction is more representative of the average person’s thoughts on the topic.
Just thinking out loud. Thanks for your reply!
To expand on what the other person said, the whole thing that makes Reddit what it is is that there are millions of people there, so you can find small interest groups that share your niche and reach out to them. There aren’t that many people here yet.
That, and the other bit where I think people just assumed you’re from nofap, and nobody is eager to see that side of Reddit return. It looks to me more like you’re into a very specific asceticism thing with an unfortunate crossover, but the similarities mean you’re swimming upstream.
