An oral history of Elektronauts

Elektron-users in 2013. Here since pretty much the beginning.

Busy phase in life, not much time to post. Lurking but no internet wars for me. Oh, gotta go, see you around!

3 Likes

Probably not quite the right thread, but interesting to muse on how much the internet has changed in my near 20 year stint with the Elektron boxes - someone mentioned likes earlier… there’s a lot of that post the Facebook revolution… subscribes too. Not really a fan as I find it limits conversation somewhat.

Also, video: audio releases now seem to want to be consumed alongside a video of someone’s hands gesticulating or head bopping, as if just releasing the album/whatever isnt good enough without seeing the artists choice of table plant/action figure/facial stew. I liked releasing music but there seems to be less and less of a place for audio only releases (either that and/or my output is questionable ;)).

And don’t get me started on patreon - I don’t remember begging for free coffee when I chose to spend my time scrubbing kitchen ads or arguing about Barbour jackets on an internet synth forum. Money money money! (Though yes, I guess I’ve joined that monetisation process when I started charging for my output. Buy me a coffee?!)
/Rant over.

It’s good to read folk finding this place as helpful as the place I often internet pine for… while times and trends change it’s great that old EU.com spirit lives on for some here… and it’s great that has stood the test of time despite the changes mentioned above.

8 Likes

That was 2013, but somehow I joined in 2012??? I really can’t remember can anyone shed any light? :laughing:

1 Like

I’m the same - think we had an early sign-up option for when it eventually went live, or maybe there was some old moderator testing? I forget exactly…

3 Likes

Glad I’m not the only one :wink:

Yes I think you may be right, maybe @papertiger can give a definitive answer?

1 Like

Cool thread! I love the fact that all of these old forum posts are still up, meaning we can still learn stuff from people who posted things years ago and have probably moved on to other things in life.

I joined elektronauts in 2017 after lurking here as a visitor for a while. The reason I joined is because I got the DT and wanted to learn more about it. A lot of people probably joined after the DT was released. I love this forum, it is a very peacefull and respectfull place compared to other fora like mpc-forums, which is were most of us hiphop heads hung out back in the days. Havent been there since joining elektronauts.

My favorite moment here is when we started doing the beatbattles (3 years and running) as it really gives me a sense of community when a bunch of people who know eachother from this forum end up making music together, and sharing feedback and compliments.

I also like that there’s some forum-internal memes which are part of this forums history, like ‘all I can say is: octatrack users will be very happy’ (or whatever the exact original quote was :joy:) or: ‘is the… still relevant in…’. A time will probably come when people on this forum will reference these things without actually knowing where they came from.

6 Likes

Nice.
No clue what happened at that time, you tell me!

I’ve just looked for the older post here, that’s were I got the date from.
https://www.elektronauts.com/search?expanded=true&q=before%3A2013-07-06

1 Like

My memory is quite bad, and memories of that time are hazy given what was going on with Ryan. I still feel his loss still (!) because he and I grew so close off elektron-users.com that sometimes it hurts to think about those times. As he lost his connection to this world I also lost my connection to the details of the forum, the plan going forward, etc.

I believe that @tIB is right that there was a period where some users were allowed to come onto the forum early, to test it out, etc. I don’t believe I was one of those for the reasons I mention above, and because I was not super excited about the new forum, probably even hostile to the idea. I knew Ryan had been working on it on and off for a while, until the last push to get it done, but I believe the very last push was from someone else… He had shown me designs and we had talked about the new forum, etc. I vaguely remember talking to Elektron about the forum after Ryan passed away, but I cannot remember specifics about that either.

Sorry I can’t recall more details. I think when I joined it was to just put my name down “on the list,” but soon realized there was nowhere else to go, sort of how I feel about this place now. It’s like a college or high school where I have deep affection for various specific users, but don’t have time or patience for a lot of BS that has infected what used to be a (mostly) fun clubhouse.

I’ve probably said too much.

Bleh. Feelings. :laughing:

22 Likes

I remember some hostility on my part too, more due to what Elektron had become (or was becoming) as a company - there had been something of a shift towards the user base too and, well, capitalism I guess. I wasn’t interested in contributing here for various reasons, though like you here I am!

I’m in a similar boat in terms of being here now too, though I’ll soon head back into the background…

And yes, while not on your scale, sadness. For less important/profound reasons a touch of bitterness on my part too if I’m honest… though that’s another story that’s too old now to really care about anymore.

2 Likes

Nice!! Haven’t seen that in a while!

1 Like

Thanks and :heart: A funny memory of Ryan popped in my head, there was a “post your picture” thread way back on the EU forum, me being the total doofus that I am somehow managed to accidentally upload a blank image, along with a description that it was a artsy pic, to which Ryan dryly replied “Post modern” :laughing:

6 Likes

He once sent me a “meme” (did such a thing exist so long ago? :laughing:):

modern art = i could do that + yeah, but you didn’t

We had some great convos… on gchat!

3 Likes

before that, it was the Elektron Yahoo! User’s group. I was an admin there from around 2003. then I believe it was @glaive who was like “let’s build a user’s group site” around 2005. then he brought on @actuel who eventually took it over and gave it a massive visual redesign. from there, I don’t know how it transitioned to Elektronauts as I wasn’t making music or paying attention during that time.

11 Likes

I had completely forgotten that you were a mod in the yahoo group! :slightly_smiling_face: I wasn’t very active there iirc.

I got very involved in elektron-users during the years when I was a mod. It was a great place, like a family of super helpful people. Good old days, visiting the little Elektron gang of 5-6 people in Gothenburg :slightly_smiling_face:

When E-U was replaced by Elektonauts I sort of lost interest as some of the magic seemed to be lost. Probably my own fault for not engaging much in what was taking place here. I guess I was depressed by what happened to Ryan, and to all the hard work he had put into the old forum.

It wasn’t until 2-3 years ago that I started to be more active here again. I love this place! So many helpful and nice people :heart: Sometimes you need to spend a little time with the ignore button (mostly threads, sometimes users), but that’s not too different from living in the real world :slightly_smiling_face:

Shout out to our mods who are working hard to keep this a nice place.

15 Likes

Nice to see you, Battery Collection!

Ryan and I launched the site in the first few days of January, 2005.

4 Likes

Btw, do any of you oldies remember the username of the fellow that came up with the elektronauts name? He always had a new way of greeting us for every new thread he created :slightly_smiling_face: Did we vote over the new forum name?

@darenager @papertiger @tIB @chiasticon

4 Likes

So many memories, so many arguments and so much love. I still hang around here even though I’ve not owned an Elektron box for some time now, though it did all start with the Sidstation for me too! Even though it’s changed a lot from the e-u.com days it’s almost always the first place I go to for any tech/music related problems/questions and I think I’ve contributed my fair share too :slight_smile:

9 Likes

at least I got the year right! I forgot that he helped launch it too.

it was easier than the mods here have it, that’s for sure! far fewer users then.

you were around at least a little bit. I remember you had some excellent contributions to the monthly “one machine only” Machinedrum contests. likely won some too.

5 Likes

Yes. At that time, we had known each other only for a short while. I think we’d both had MnM’s for a few months.

4 Likes

I met my brother-from-another-mother on e-u.com I think (he will correct me, he’s like that) @tIB I’d just bought a bunch of modular from someone (was it @darenager ?!) and we didn’t live far from each other so we agreed to meet in a local Costa coffee where he supplied me with some adapters or cables or something. We remained real-life friends ever since. We now argue mostly about beer making as we’ve given up arguing about synthesizers. :rofl:

8 Likes