Appreciating this forum's sometimes silly level of courtesy and rules

Elektronauts Elektronauts Feedback
#1

This thread is basically pointless I think. I am one of those who get a bit “oh come on” with how sensitive this forum can be at times.

But, after seeing the video of Benn Jordan announcing that he will not continue to review gear anymore I am really starting to understand how volatile forums regarding something as innocuous as talking about gadgets can get.

It has made me realise how fast things will descend into badgering, bullying and hate in forums like this, and that my belief that, “well, we’re all adults and a little bit of temparature isn’t such a bad thing” has been misguided.

Whichever way you feel about Benn Jordan and what he says, I think most reasonable people would agree that there’s no reason to dox him, harass him, or in any way make him feel unsafe on the basis of what he’s doing. But then I remember the unreasonable psychos among the billions of people in the world that don’t necessarily agree.

In short, I dislike how stringent this forum is at times. But I see the need for it, and really appreciate how this is kept a nice community for people to discuss gear, and help each other troubleshoot issues.

#4beersandgettingold

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#2

i second this statement, if i have transgressed here and been reminded or redirected by the moderators it has always given me pause for reflection and dare i say it, helped me to exorcise my inner c**t

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#3

Wow, awesome deal!

If I didn’t have one already, I would buy it immediately!

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#4

He was doxxed? Interesting. I always thought Benn Jordan was his real identity. I’m not that into him, but it’s pretty lame if he was trying to keep his identity private and got doxxed

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#5

I follow him on YouTube and it might be one of the nicest guy I have seen doing this kind of video….
Shame on the guy who dox him !

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#6

Wow I have no place to comment on the business of others but I can really feel the change of temperature in the water sometimes, when things get even a little too heated or icy around here. It really is deeply felt because the environment is otherwise so very temperate that until the balance is off, you wouldn’t notice it.

I’m not privy to the goings on of Benn Jordan or any youtubers really, and other than the good-natured ribbing I give Mr Pilz from time to time, I am just out of touch with that social economy. But from the bottom of my heart, Benn Jordan, Ricky, Pilz, any other gear demo or other person giving it their all mostly get a pass from me. I get a bit frustrated with the drama queens (kings?) who are mostly spouting opinions about people and others in their ecosystem because once someone told me something that rang very true, and I’ve never forgotten it.

“Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people”

I’m at times guilty of being one of the small minded, but I always try and remind myself of this so that I don’t have to feel like I’m part of the problem. I joke around a lot, but in regards to keeping it civil: people on this forum, or people outside of this forum or wherever, harassment and prejudice are unacceptable. Intolerance is uncomfortable for everyone. There is a code of conduct that is appropriate and as human beings, it would help if we could at least try and be tolerant of each other.

Yet another good thread today @anokah, forum is on fire with awesome. Thank you for saying something.

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#7

I haven’t watched the video yet but I assume it means things like publishing his home address, personal phone number etc not revealing his secret identity.

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#8

I’ve heard this as well, and often reflect on it. I can’t remember its origin but I’m sure it was someone famous.

It was probably said to give comfort to those who liked big ideas but weren’t very good at getting along with other people and a means to look down on gossip. Personally I’m interested in what happens in the lives of people I care about but not all that interested in anecdotes about random people (unless it’s super juicy of course).

But the more I think about it the more I feel like the quote represents a separation of the general levels of abstraction that different people are comfortable with, with each having complimentary utility as a collective.

In the spirit of the thread and @shigginpit I really hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I think you are a good example of how users can make a deliberate effort to bring their best selves to the forum. Around the time you first started posting your avatar used to be an insta-scroll don’t read signal for me. Now I associate it with helpful posts with useful information from someone who obviously has a pretty wide variety of interests and experience.

I’m completely open to the idea that nothing changed and I formed a too hasty judgement and that I wasn’t dealing with a scientifically representative sample of posts. I’m just assuming you chose to present differently. But either way, forum appreciation in essence is an extension of user (and mod) appreciation so hopefully this is taken in the spirit of compliment it’s intended.

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#9

I’ll be hanging onto that too. Thank you.

I should add, I do also truly appreciate the general good vibes to be had here. You people are as funny as you are helpful. So, thanks everyone. I usually learn something or at least leave with a smile.

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#10

That begs the question: What kind of minds discuss gear?

I heard someone on the radio say that the cornerstone of good dialog/communication/teamwork is a willingness to express our own vulnerabilities. I have pissed off others on this forum in the past by ostensibly discussing only ideas. There was a missing piece, however; I failed to discuss my own personal connection with those ideas, for example, by speaking disparagingly about GAS without mentioning my own GAS (I just read the entire thread on the newest TE product). No one is going to be insulted by self-deprecation about GAS. If I mention other people’s GAS, on the other hand, that can be a problem.

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#11

I actually think this is a pretty good compliment because it’s unlikely that people will unilaterally all feel the same way and I know some people will always find something they don’t understand to be annoying or contradictory to their own sensibilities, but I try and keep others in mind and I do my best to help others as much as I help myself. Thanks a lot for even bothering to say so, just the fact that you think about me at all and it isn’t something like “die” is good enough for me, I mostly enjoy your posts too :slight_smile: lol

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#12

I’m glad to have had the chance to interact with you as well, thank you.

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#13

I think it is amazing how a lot people just cannot shed the 12-year-old-middle-school-wild-animal mentality. Middle school kids are vicious, but of all the things to claim as “supposed to be”, this one is definitely and objectively supposed to be an early teenager phase, and not adult behavior. It’s wild.

I roll my eyes a synthfluencers, music production Youtube, all that stuff, and I sometimes share those views, but holy shit dude, if I don’t like something, I move on, for fuck’s sake. Why would I get bent over backwards over gear?! Who died? Whose life is at stake? Such lack of self awareness and self control and maturity to punch the store clerk for saying that the offer is no longer valid.

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#14

This is the way

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#15

I can relate to the perspective that in exposing one’s own vulnerabilities, one opens others to the validity of one’s own opinions but there may be a more psychological aspect to that than we realize. I believe if you want to think about gear in the broadest sense, it comes down to those who are either fascinated by the utilization of it and what it can do for them so let’s call them realists, and then another cross-section are perhaps taken with the potential for them to either better themselves or their music with it and might be broadly thought of as “dreamers”. I have to believe that in the end, both have the same or a similar goals, in that discussing it they hope to either aggravate or deflate the pursuit of it.

There could of course be more options, those who in fact are fascinated by others use of gear and want to know more about it, or even those who hate what it represents and have chosen to randomly pursue a path of specific nihilism towards this branch of audio and electronic musical pursuits, but overall while acknowledging the specificity of these sub-groups, the broader scope would be to think there are those who are curious for their own reasons and some want to GAS, while others want to defeat GAS with knowledge.

I may have not been able to quantify or articulate the specifics of it a couple years ago (as I was generally avoiding the internet) but at this point, I’ve read enough posts and shared in enough people’s experiences to see some patterns coming forth. I am by no means any authority on this, but I am a bit of a middle of the road case, as there are things I want and don’t buy, and then there are things I don’t want, and then buy. I’m not really looking to be influenced, but at times the influence in others ability to demonstrate function and benefit bleed through into the most steadfast of us.

Minds that discuss gear will clearly vary, but it seems that most people use it as an opportunity to make ideas tangible and, to me, unless we attack each other, that puts a lot of them into the former category (at least as far as this pursuit is concerned) of higher thought. But that’s an excellent question to ask, and I’m glad that you did.

*As a caveat, people who have a strictly academic interest and aren’t interested in buying anything, just learning will not fit under this blanket statement I’ve made, but if all people could be covered by a few paragraphs of digression, the diversity of our species would probably not be looking good right now.

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#16

This forum as been pretty hands off as far as I’ve seen. The only issue I’ve had is once when I had a topic that contained a swear in it, one of the mods edited the title taking it out. I found that to be pretty ridiculous as we’re all grown ups here who I’m sure can handle a little profanity. That was pretty ridiculous but other than that the mods have seemed to only step in when discussions devolve into badgering/insults and to put topics that were created in the wrong category to the correct one.
Honestly that’s all mods should do, keep conversations from devolving and keep things organized anything to far beyond that gets into power trip territory.

I’ve noticed a trend across pretty much all major platforms where any negative speech quickly gets pushed down or flat out deleted. That’s a terrible trend for obvious reasons, the lack of or suppression of opposing opinions is how everyone ends up in these echo chambers we’re seeing and people’s voices and opinions don’t get heard.
If one wanted to open a topic about how much the analog rytm’s synth engines suck compared to something like the Machinedrum then one should of course be allowed to do so. Discourse is what leads to progress. And as far as language in a forum like this believe everything should go with the exception of hate speech obviously.

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#17

I was actually trying to think about this in my earlier post but I couldn’t crack it.

Again, I don’t like the great, average, small categories, but I think it might be this:

Small minds - don’t discuss gear but buy whatever X uses and are happy
Average minds - discuss/create gear
Great minds - make music/genres/invent midi

Obviously all categories make music, but if you think about it you’ll see how all categories are actually required for the musical endeavour.

This is why I prefer to think of it in terms of what level of abstraction people enjoy and feel comfortable with. Some people like using the tools and enjoying what others make with the tools; others mostly like the tools themselves; and others are really into what can be built and are pretty agnostic about the tools.

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#19

I don’t like olives. Imagine I wasted time, energy, emotions, heartbeats, and shaved off minutes off my life if I sent hate mail to the olive industry and picketed outside olive canning companies because I find olives foul to the taste, LOL.

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#20

I honestly feel this forum used to be nicer/friendlier.
That or the mods were just hiding stuff faster, which I don’t believe since I have been hanging out here all day.
Especially the synthfluencer youtube thing seems to trigger people way too much. Every other gear topic gets wasted once some youtuber or gear video is mentioned.
Vibe has been better here, at least in my opinion.

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#21

You better take that back about olives brah. Mods are you seeing this shit

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