Back in the 80 and after a somehow tiny little 15 min of fame my band split up. After that i kind of slowly started to write for myself and the satifaction from doing it. Just using hardware casue i really couldnt cope with the the Atari machines at the time. Anyhow, soon i i got a computer and somehow stumbled over some not so legit software from Radium. We talk very early 90's now and maybe some understand where this will end up.

Here now decades later im pretty sure im a horder in the sence that i never throw anything away. This weekend i went over and took the not so easy desition to go over my pile of hard drives. Sure i got some wide smiles on my face going over them. Memories and even more memories.. BOOM, i had enough.. i just wiped close to 32tb of music software out. Felt sick for hours after, fighting the feeling of get a hard drive restore program and get what a could back. But i handled it and after some time it actually started to feel pretty good. Cause at this stage i feel a little more free and most of all, handling all downloads dont take up any more time. Kontakt libs and large bundles etc are just gone..

I should add that i "own" alot of software that i bough after beeing able to try it without any limitations. Its still more than i need so i now look forward to get a little more time to finish and creat more music.

Okej, maybe more written than needed to just ask a simple question.. or get a advice..

How should i move forward without getting caught in this web again. Seriously, it has to stop casue i havnt felt this good in ages and done more focused work in half a day than before. Dont take breaks to check if there is a new plug out that can do what i think i need to do something.. So

If anyhow been in the same situation or have a good tip on how to stay like this.. let me know.. And no.. download porn instead isnt an option.. thoose drives are full already

Be safe all
Vaijj

 

I think that was a joke, at least half-joke.
But while we are at it, I don't think porn is bad, even less something to feel guilty of. It's a taboo to mention it since 30+ years and up, even less if it's with women, but taboos and bad things are totally unrelated in many cases.

Obviously if you get addicted is bad like almost everything, but being single with seasons of no couple/special friend for me it works fine. And prevents other actually bad things like paying to certain.. ladies .. ahem ahem

Also, Tinder helps...

 

Win.32.Shemaleware Detected

 

wow, interesting.
good to hear that you have managed to clean up the "garbage". that is a clear sign of something happening so it should mean you may not fall into it again, specially when you say you have not only deleted it but you have a goal of finishing stuff, now you have a mission, clear vision.

often imo its a lack of clear vision/goals that allows one to spend all that time with the "hobby" of hoarding.

my only tip would be dont make it easy to dl and store crap. keep your system streamlined and clean.

 

Best piece of advice for any men out there.

 

seriously, all has been written already
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=treat+hoarding

 

I'm old school and burn everything to dvd-r
60+ spindles but everything is in a spreadsheet
I have almost every movie now lol
Also all latest software, music, data is on 3 different hard drives and also burned.
I am definitely a data hoarder but organized.

 

I used to hold onto everything from here and RU and have it meticulously organized as well on mostly one drive. I was in the process of moving things around and backing up older files when my main drive with all my plugins and libraries failed beyond repair. This was just a month or two ago and I lost everything. Not in a hurry to get everything back and this might fix my hoarding problem but definitely the least fun way to do it.

 

There's a difference between hoarding and collecting, but it's not easy to say where hoarding begins.
For me, e.g. I don't trust Amazon & Netflix, so I store movies I like on my NAS. Same goes for Spotify and Music therefore I have quite a big Music collection. I've had a CD colletion as well, but dumped the whole shit after some years of digitizing.
With software I'm quite a hoarder I fear. "Just in case"
Is it an addiction? Not quite sure, as I think it depends on if/how an addiction is a problem for ones social life. It isn't atm.
I think almost every human being has an addiction (or a multitude) in one or another way. And again, as long as it doesn't destroy ones social life, there is no real problem.

 

That is actually a really good tip.. and somehow in the lines how ive now set up most things on my net computer. Deleted pretty much all sites with links to whatever i use to download.

Haha, thats a good one. But as im married i really cant use it without raising some dubts at home .. but it may explain the use of Porn lol..

@skeltoid i had it like that before i bought some big drives just for all this data. But even a big NAS dont help if you just keep on adding stuff to it. I mean seriously, why did i have every damn version released of XXXXXX. Was like 20 versions of some things.. that i didnt even use.

@twoheart Totaly agree with you on its hard to draw the line.. but when i started to realize that i already had the solutions for what i was trying to find in creating process, but still went online to find THAT pluging that would do it for me. Then it clearly affect my creativity and totaly took away time and ofc became a problem. I kind of felt like it fir years but just didnt dare to just delete the stuff. I mean i already have more bought stuff then i need and actually also started to sell some of it..

I used to wake up in the middle of the night, soaked in sweat thinking that my NAS crashed. Ohh how i wished it had..

I will look at that post, but if your in the middle of it you just dont look.. and at the same time i think its a little bit like a pricess of healing to write this stuff out.. But thx for leting me know..

And thanks all for sharing..

@ArticStorm Thanks a mill for writing that.. spot on...

 

We recently bought a house out in the countryside which has curved downloading for me extensively... mostly due to the fact that theres so much stuff to do around the property and the internet here sucks (download speeds around 600kb per second if I'm lucky). I recently took up farming so Ive been doing a lot of yard work and planting crops along our property which keeps me busy and I also quite enjoy.

 

Discipline? Wisdom?

What else to say to any addict?

But whatever makes you happy. Nothing wrong in collecting and cycling through plugins. Does one have to make a "song" to make it all worthwhile? If it makes you feel better, then great. If it makes you feel worse (can't finish this song!) then why not fire up the latest subtractive synth with a wowzy new filtery thingy and press all the knobs? Who and what is it all for anyway?

I guess collecting plugins can be avoidant behaviour, where it prevents one from realising one's real goals and therefore leads to frustration and unhappiness (goofing on plugins instead of making art, man). But it needn't necessarily be. What's wrong with 'goofing with plugins' being an end in itself? Why is a "song" the validation? Why is that the measure?

So, wisdom and discipline. :D

 

First things first:
acknowledgement, acceptance.
If one doesn't acknowledge and accept first, he/she has an addiction problem, there will never be a cure.
Why else every AA statement begins with "I'm XY, I'm an alcoholic."

Sometimes it takes decades to accept but only months to get rid of an addiction.

My only - pathological - addiction so far was smoking. Once I accepted it that it was an addiction and decided to fight against, it was extremely easy. That day I stopped smoking.
It's 25 years now that I touched my last zig. But I'm a smoker and will be a smoker 'till my end. So yes, one needs a little discipline as well.

 

Man, that seriously sucks.

Yeah, definitely porn better than tinder in your case lol.
Jokes aside, good luck with your problem. Like someone's told it seems you're on the right track.

 

OK.
I you want to deal with it, it's essential to be aware when you are acting addictive. It helped me, when I first tried to smoke less, that I got a tiny little paper notebook (always in my pocket) in wich I noted every cigarette with date, time, location. It showed me my own idiocy ;) From the start I smoked less and less because I was aware of what I was doing anytime. It brought me down to around 10 cigarettes a day (coming from 40).
Just a little trick, check it out.
A variation would be to allow downloads only on weekends. Sth that helps you to control yourself.