There is a flap every now and again about whether or not MusicBanter is in decline. People wonder if its glory days are behind it, and whether we should all find greener pastures. My concern is if we’ve hit the ceiling.
Back when the real *******s still roamed around here, you could get in some 12-page fights that generally ended in personal attacks and snark, but at least it held your attention. All due credit to the Mod Squad, we’ve eliminated the *******s (as we should), but we haven’t brought in any heavy weights. I might be the cranky old man in the corner, but every time I look at the “new posts” offerings all I see are a bunch of Lounge-oriented questions that spawn endless debate. I could rant for days about why they go on, but lets just suffice it to say that they happen.
I wonder now if this is the limit for MB. Can we move beyond? Are we destined to be a destination for the latch-key kids bored ambition? Troll bait waiting to attacked: Too well modded to be ruined by them. Not intellectual enough to drive them away. How many more The Virgins should we endure? Last night I went to Digital Dream Door for the first time, just to see what the story was. I don’t think I’ll ever make an account there – too many *******s we’ve banned from MB still exist over there, and from the stories I’ve heard, its too undermodded for any real discussion to occur. All I did while I was there was poke around. I could tell in a second what type of community it was. The front page had some ridiculous Ad saying something about “Rock, Blues, and Soul” or something like that. Flags were being thrown immediately: “This sounds like it was made by a 16 year old who still thinks ‘Clapton is God.’”
I immediately went to find the one thing no rebellious 16 year old rock fan can tolerate. If this place was worth a damn, it would have a Country Forum. Shockingly, it did. But just as I’d suspected, I think it had 7 threads, 3 of which were stickied and the unstickied thread with the most posts (a grand total of 3) was a “100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time Thread.” The first one on that list – the best country artist of all time according to DDD’s posters – was Johnny Cash. The second post in that thread was shocked Carrie Underwood wasn’t listed. It was just as I’d imagined.
I’m telling you this story because, as much as I rage against the current state of MusicBanter (and its certainly not the new music bastion it was) its at least got a rich history of debate. You can find a good discussion out there for most bands that had existed prior to now. It appears as if our main competitor doesn’t even have good past debates. I came to MusicBanter roughly 7 years ago for a few reasons.
1. My old forum was closed by the management. They’ve decided to be simply a news site for ****ty music. You can feel free to check out Shoutweb if you want, but I haven’t been in a very long time, and no bands they talked about then made me want to go back.
2. The second reason I came because I remember asking a friend “Hey, do you think Paz’s involvement with Zwan means she’s out of A Perfect Circle?”
I think he asked me if I was speaking English and I knew I had to find people who were a little more savvy about the world of music. I still can’t tell you 3 bands Loose Lips Sink Ships listens to, and I feel like he’s been here for at least 3 years.
For much of my time at MB, its been very productive, useful, engaging, and fun. But today everythings “what are we drinking?” or “lets take photos of ourselves so we can eFlirt with people we’ll never see.” I’ll admit it, I’m depressed. I think maybe I’m too old for the game, maybe I need more than MB can offer. I’ve searched for other forums and I can’t seem to find a damn thing. They’re either too genre oriented or just out-and-out ****ty.
So this is me sending out an S.O.S for any passing ships that can take me back to the mainland. To somewhere they speak my language. To somewhere they still know what exploration is like. MB these days is my Easter Island. Its filled with stone-faced inhabitants unflinching in their interest, and too silent about what it is in the first place.