I can't say outright, bro.
Red shoes. Citrus eyes. Ring any bells???

 

Not gonna even bother commenting in the 300+ threads of how to install omnisphere, Foster69 existential crisis posts, or off topic stuff.

 

I reckon that you are off topic in this instance mate!

 

Great thread @DieM

im Guilty of hitting the rating button more often than pinching inn.

superintroverted guy here. I used this forum with no account for a few years, it was WAY to indemidating to actually make a account and jump in on the conversations. The skilllevel and knowledge is thru the roof. back then it wasnt that hostile here but then again the same could be said about the outside world "backthen"

i still dont speak up alot. even if this is the internet. that doesnt change one thing its still "me" you know. ussualy it seems whatever i pinch inn with, it "falls for deaf ears"

maybe the real "issue" is something along the lines of :

oldworld vs newworld

its like brothers vs cousins

thinking back to my youth
when i grew up, the world wasnt cruel
when i look out the window now, the world is cruel

what we all need to do more off is to show compassion towards one and another.
we are all struggeling. each in our owne way. if you aint struggeling on some level,then you are either too yung, or hiding from yourself. living in denial

 

I tend to agree with @peterA .I don't wanna talk about moderators or something as I don't feel that they are lower than my expectations.The real deal is with the content of the forum.I believe an audio related forum wouldn't "have to" but rather "tend to" have more conversations on sound related stuff.
So I remember when joining the forum, there were lots of threats about gear, mixing advices, music news, music opinions etc.In between there were also some chit chat topics that wouldn't bother.But as the time was passing we managed to fill the forum with political and chit chat threats that left no space for the real purpose of the forum.I missed the old days (ok call me a dreamer) and even if I'm rushing , I still want to contribute in this community.
I believe we need to understand on our own how to behave in a community and not need a forced rule to make us stop spamming or talking nasty etc.We are the ones that need to give this forum his early interest.Not the mods.If we open up interesting discussions , I think anyone can post in a good manner.I mean come on you joined this forum to learn something more, motivated by your passion in music.Why talking trashy with other members about other kind of stuff.
It's like arranging meeting at the national opera house to fight over football.Only trolls would find that interesting.

 

Talking about your so-called "shyness" is just another form of Narcissism. A way of saying "everybody look at me" and having people think you're doing the opposite.

 

ive been around enough forums (even run a couple) and after a while you see a clear pattern.

there are certain characters, that are not like the rest, a sorts of net-thugs who dont "join" forums, they see it as a "take-over" or "conquest".

for them this is of a life or death importance. they are often sociopaths you would NEVER deal with in real life, but, here on the net you potentially share space with anyone and therefor from time to time you see resolving explosions on these open platforms.

i can smell those characters after 5 minutes, consistently I can tell you if a forum member is a maniac in disguise with psychotic tendencies after reading just some comments even when they try to "go under the radar".

they often suck they air and life of forums, they systematically build gangs and since forums are much a labour of love they often try to destroy places on their way out.


i prefer the regular folks, the "shy" ones, the artistic ones. they are the soul of the community, not the air-sucking drama-queens, not the loud-mouth pricks who pretend to pass their abusive psychopathic behaviour as just being "honest, truth"-sayers. expect an abusive prick when you hear the words "i just say it like it is" lol ..

so if you are a shy one, step forward, its a forum not something to be afraid of or consider to be "someones" or some "gangs" reserved space.


.

 

Last edited: Sep 29, 2018

Funny you should mention that because at times it feels like gang warfare. Someone starts a thread, possibly even a sensible one, and before long the 'gang members' are queueing up to put the boot in.

I remember making my first post here asking for advice and comments about music licensing. Not a single response - not complaining because maybe nobody had any views on the subject - but at the same time I was seeing threads running to several pages containing nothing but hostility with the 'AS mafia' running wild. The result was that I stayed away, not because I was intimidated, but simply because I couldn't be bothered with a forum where fighting seemed to be the main pastime.

Talking about moderators I go back to my original point that the forum needs a clearly defined purpose. Without that you simply cannot effectively moderate anything and my sympathies go to the mods who do try their best and I certainly wouldn't want their job. I do notice that we only seem to have 2 mods here which might also contribute to the problem as they have their own lives to get on with and can't be here 24/7.

I am a moderator on another forum (non-music) along with 4 others and we come from different time zones as well so the forum does have almost 24/7 coverage. That means that any problem is likely to be picked up and dealt with within a couple of hours at most.

However you define a forum disagreements are bound to happen and I wouldn't want it any other way. A forum that is nothing but a warm, cuddly, fairyland would be extremely boring but even so it would be preferable to what we have at the moment. I know some will say that if you don't like the nasty threads then just ignore them and I do but my answer would be that those threads should not be allowed to exist as they bring down the whole tone of the place. Nothing to do with censorship, just good housekeeping.

 

thanks for the interesting post peterA.

also, that often loose talk of offering "freedom", to me that is a fairy tale in forums. you have a forum then you must decide what you want it for and how is to behave. and to me having differences means they must be talked in a respectfully in a meaningful way or not talked at all, end of story!

a forum is a home, and if its your home you decide how its to be. and at least at my home you are an abusive fool, racist, homophobic prick or similar you get kicked out at once! you dont survive a second time. I dont need to hear the subjects "reasons" or "arguments"

personally I always welcome a moderation run like a military compound (didnt find a better word, excuse the ordinary comparison, as english is not my native language, i do my best and must therefor often revise words and phrases in my comments to be clear) in the sense of order based on justice .

at the first "elevated voice", a reminding slap! to calm down, and at a second transgression OUT for a month.

that signals "not welcomed" to lowlife assholes. and let me tell you it even fosters people, in this day and age of homeless spirits, also lots of youngsters test their boundaries, and for pricks that ambient its not even interesting for them to even register

BUT, for that to be reasonable it takes mods with time engagement and a TONS of sensibility, its a marriage of intellect and a natural feel for justice and discipline.

that way everyone knows whats up and how things work.

the day you start being "flexible" and pretending to call that "liberty" or "free speech" when in reality its just lack of order and lack of interest in the forum and whats even worse, lack of judgment ability and therefor fear of being called "dictator" and not be able to defend your stand flies take notice it and make attempts, try to build up a little mobs and the general overall quality of the site risks to go down the drain.

this place is adorable, for what it is I like it a lot. as for now it holds a amateur producer hospitable profile. THAT is appreciated by most, PROS and beginners.

and who knows what it turns into with time.

AS has the future for itself, I have no doubt what so ever.

 

Last edited: Sep 29, 2018

Even the content are struggling? As much as the discontent are struggling? Interesting question.

At times in the past there certainly was a rather strict policy on 'opinionated chuff'. I fell foul of it myself - by posting "serious" stuff in response to a load of conspiracy guff - and then I felt unfairly treated when I was reinedin for it. But the place (every such place) works better with a concentrated focus - this isn't Facebook - and diluting the focus has obvious demerits. OTOH, I like general and social political chit-chat and a bit of controversy and to clamp-down on anything 'political' can easily be too heavy-handed.

Even if that were so, is it that objectionable? And if it's not true, if people are in need, why not give them what they want? What's wrong with that? It would surely become obvious if folk were narcissists rather than genuinely shy.

lol. Yes, I have a similar sort of reaction to folk saying such things. I have a bank-exec acquaintance who loves to say about folk asking for $millions in loans whilst saying "I am a very honest man, Mr Banker, very honest!". It's a major skill in banking to spot the shysters.

Indeed. Why expose one's self to the brutal nastiness of a few chumps? It's clearly a big negative of the internet, for all its positives otherwise. It's a hurdle for even the most well-adjusted folk, and I hate to think about how it impacts youngsters. Still, I guess this is all a realtime experiment in self-regulation and dispersed authority, non-hierarchical structure and all that jazz.

That everywhere needs Mods is a stark thing. As is the difficulty of the "job", especially unpaid.

All very strange and quite fascinating / tedious.

 

For some the anonymity of the internet creates a safe place to be someone else...
For others, a safe place to be themselves.

 

THAT!

We tend to forget that the Internet is just a medium through which we are projecting our own different-selfs as much as we are receiving and recycling everybody else's projections. Its not a fairy land and it has its rough edges but in the end it IS what we make of it for our selfs (much like life, you know)

Much love and respect to all the folks who decided to take shorter or longer leave from here!
Drink a beer (or dont), smoke a leaf (or dont) and enjoy life with some good music around!

 

Last edited: Sep 30, 2018

I've been meaning to stay away from the subject (at least, in a serious way), but I guess I have word... or a thousand to say. Without thinking about it, I've become one of the oldest members around, and I've seen this chaos happen again and again. I know the feeling is right when people claim for stronger moderation. However, there was a time when we had moderator abuse by a member that took it by his hand to mislead opinions and punish people who were against him. It did't happen to me; I actually became good friends with him, but the truth is the truth, and abusive moderation is the last thing we need. @SAiNT was very smart about it and handled a serious crisis the best he could. New mods were sworn in and the mission was to let this place be more open and less vindictive. At the same time, opened the can of worms, and having grown a lot, AS attracts both great people, and ill-hearted ones, and I believe keeping this place in check must be a lot of work. Balancing moderation and freedom of speech is a delicate matter. Going a few years back, there was a time when people would openly insult each other with long threads of fuck-related words. It was around the time when Pro Tools 10 for Mac was cracked. This place was the jungle. As for the dominant voices in the forum, there are generations of people coming and going. That's how it works. Some people come around, learn about making music and production, then they move on. That's why periodically the same questions appear again: Which DAW is the best? Your favorite compressor, and so on. It's the voice of a new generation of people coming to the forum. As for the trolls, they also come and go. However, there are some great friends that make an impact and become missed. When the good ones leave, it's a void that is hard to fill. From Someone to Foster to TonyG, all of us make a contribution to this place. I bet Foster kept improving his chops until he didn't need us anymore and moved on. One thing I know about him/her is their stubborness, and that leads to success. They're not quitters, just on-movers. I wish the best to the members that are finding a better way to kill their time than to be around here. All this drama is proof that people care.

If we want it to, this place will turn back to what it is for: a music forum where newbies and pros share as equals. That's its joy.

It's true that the internet lets you be whoever you want to be, but manners always matter. I wish a simple policy would be enforced: A person should only be allowed to post a negative or neutral rating rating after having given a number of likes, as it is in other forums. Or even better, members could be granted the right to a nasty rating after every number of likes. That way, a troll can be educated to appreciate the good stuff in this place. There's a technique to give feedback in debate club, the sandwich technique. It trains people to sandwich a negative opinion between two positive remarks. That way, a participant is forced to think positively before they fire away at someone. Always start with the positive, criticize, and go positive again. Maybe we could try that... Or just fill me up with dislikes.

 

Last edited: Sep 30, 2018

interesting thread. interesting take eddieXx in particular. this kind of 'forum phenomena' fascinates me to no end.

i have also enjoyed some of your other posts on the most recent circus that has passed through town.

some of the main actors, in the current play, seem to have dramatically left the stage and set fire to the curtains recently, so maybe the production has finished its run, for the time being.

i will say no more.