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by Peripatetic_Archive
part of the beauty of this forum has always been, for me, the collection of witty people, of some genuinely brilliant people, of people with firsthand knowledge of musical events, world events, world politics, links to interesting and thought-provoking stuff on the web... and alongside that, a whole bunch of totally retarded joking around, often from the same set of knowledgeable and brilliant people.
there's been a lot of waste lately. there's always some component of silly stuff, or absurd stuff, and i'm the first to admit that it would be easy to find lots of examples of me saying absurd crap purely for the sake of my own (and hopefully others') amusement. there's a balance of it. the "ebb and flow" that jackalope points out. it's undeniable. it just seems that as of late, there's been a flood of crap, and i'm not sure if it's reached the point where it's begun to outweigh the awesome content that has always made this forum so great. and as that balance shifts more and more to the shit, there is a point, believe me there IS a point, where the shit reaches critical mass, and the thoughtful people walk away, and the forum becomes a permanent shitfest. i would be very, VERY sad to see this forum come to that.
if you've spent any amount of time on any other internet forums, you probably already know what i'm talking about. most forums are already there. most forums have lots of people calling each other bitches and fags and whatnot. this forum has always been a wonderful exception. i just hope it stays that way is all.
not to be the grouchy old man you deride, but... looking at a more long-term trend, considering that though they are still around, there are so many fewer posts from such truly great human beings as tmidgett, LAD, or kerble for example, and there are other folks who have been more recently making major contributions that are nowhere near the same caliber, it only makes sense that some people would be bummed.
it's a totally natural rise and fall. i still question whether my presence on this forum is a boon or a bomb. there are a handful of people, including the Electrical staff and non-staffers that i see as being core components of the electrical "family", where if they told me "you need to stop posting" or "you need to chill out" then guess what i'll do?
i know i'm uptight. maybe a little too uptight. but not *way* too uptight. for example, hearing steve describe what "cranking" is, i didn't gasp, i cracked up. it's a weird idea, and on its own, i don't know that it's terribly funny. but the *way* he tells it, it is *very* funny. maybe that's what i'm getting at... some things are or aren't funny depending entirely on how they're presented. if you present something in an unfunny way, especially if it's more offensive than funny, well then i guess that means anybody who doesn't think it's funny is just too uptight.
i think things got very dour when michael died. and some people were more affected than others. and if you remember, there were examples of people thinking they were being fun and funny, and in one case russ received sufficient complaint(s) that he thoughtfully asked the poster to keep things from being so unbalanced. i don't think things have fully returned to "normal" from then even. i'm still hoping they will. but the crapfest goes on, and doesn't really seem to wane
drew patrick wrote:Peripatetic will win.