Some members you may encounter here:
(Note: these are posted without permission, so if anyone would rather not be referred to here let me know and I'll ignore you totally. No, seriously, if it bugs you that much I'll cut ya out.)
MODERATORS (MODS)
If you've been on a forum before you'll know what a mod is, if not just think of them as watchmen, security guards or police. They are the people who tirelessly patrol the forum, watching for bad behaviour, cutting out spam (usually before we even see it) and making sure everyone behaves. If a conversation gets out of hand, too personal or too angry, they will be the ones who will either calm it down, shut down the thread or ban one or more of the posters. They're also the people you can take grievances or questions to.
URBAN HATEMONGER
Despite the somewhat scary title, Urban is just as scary as he sounds. Nah, really, he's a pussycat. But he has claws, and no qualms about using them. He does not suffer fools, hates trolls and off-topic posting, and also probably hates all the music you like. But he's fair, solid and really quite a nice guy. He also is a hoot, though it may take some time to get used to his brand of often sarcastic humour. If he seems to be insulting or getting at you, chances are he's not: you just took him up the wrong way and don't know him well enough yet. But piss him off at your peril!
VANILLA
A lovely lady from New Zealand who is always ready to help, and often brings a real sense of order and discipline (ooer!) to any discussion. She is busy studying though so may take time to reply to you. This is not her ignoring you, it's just that she has a life.
BURNING DOWN
Another lovely lady who will almost always be the first to respond if someone pages a mod. She too is always ready to help and is a fine musician, so if you need advice she's the one to see.
JANSZOON
Probably one of the nicest guys on the forum, Jansz responds to cries for help almost as quickly as Burning Down does, and he has a really wide range of musical tastes. Always calm in even the most heated discussion, he's a great man to have on your side and not someone you want debating against you, because you will lose. Check out his journals for examples of his amazing writing talent.
LOATHSOME PETE
A man who knows more about Country music than you want to know, and who is a font of knowledge on most other genres too. Also knows his movies.
FREEBASE DALI
One of our many talented musicians here, and also a super whizz kid on IT, so if you have problems with the site of a technical nature, or even with your own PC or MAC, he's the guy who will ninety-nine-point-nin-percent of the time know how to sort it.
DUGA
I don't know a huge amount about Duga, he tends to post infrequently, at least where I go. But he knows his stuff and is a very nice guy. Maybe he'll drop by and tell you about himself at some point.
SATCHMO
Ditto for Satchmo. I hardly ever seen him around these days, but when he does you can expect he'll have something important and interesting to say.
GOOFLE11
Our newest Mod, Goofle has the most amazing breadth of music interests and knowledge that you could ask for. Name a genre, you can bet he not only has heard of it but has several albums from it. Also to be found in the sports section arguing Arsenal's title chances.
MEMBERS OTHER THAN MODS ON WHOM YOU CAN RELY TO HELP YOU OR ANSWER A QUESTION IF THEY CAN: (In no particular order)
Unknown Soldier, The Batlord, Briks, Engine, Exoskeletal, RoxyRollah, Plankton, Frownland, Jackhammer, Rezzdaddy Longlegs, Ki, LadyisLingering, Paul Smeenus, Anteater, Rostasi, Freebase Dali, TheBig3, DJChameleon, Neapolitan, Christian Benteke, Fred Hale Sr., Wpnfire
(If you haven't been included that's for one of three reasons: 1) I don't know you that well, ie you only joined relatively recently 2) I forgot you in which case step on up and remind me or 3) I don't believe you're the sort of person who goes necessarily out of their way to help others, based on what I've seen here from you. Feel free to correct me and add yourself if you feel you should. This list is by no means complete).
Note: The above notwithstanding, this does not in any way imply that anyone who was not included on the list (intentionally or otherwise) is not a good member, just that the above are the ones who stand out to me as those who are most approachable, helpful and in general least judgemental.
Then there's me,
Trollheart. I'm bloody always here, and I'm happy to help anyone so if you need guidance, have questions or a problem PM me and I'll do my best to help you.
THE FORUM: SOME INFORMATION TO HELP YOU LIVE IN IT
Even if you've been on a forum before, or are on several now, Music Banter operates a little differently to those I've been on, or am also on. Without going all mushy about it or overstating the case, we're not just a bunch of guys and girls talking about music. Some events here (good and bad) have drawn us closer together (GROUP HUG! I SAID
HUG NOT...) and cliche though it may be we're a little more like a family. Some members have met each other in real-life, others have plans to. Some never will. But we all care about each other here and though arguments and heated debate breaks out, we all know when to stop. Usually. This should not imply this is a love-in or anything of the kind, just that we're more than just names on a board. Kind of.
Anyway, if you decide to remain here and want to become a part of our community, a few tips that may help you and steer you away from any controversy, misunderstandings or outright confrontations.
As in life, the motto to live by here is “treat others as you would like them to treat you”. Unless you're a masochist, in which case... um. Anyway, basically if you're nice to people they will usually be nice back, or at least not total wankers. If you rub someone up the wrong way from day one, apart from being illegal in 42 states this will colour your relationship, not only with them but with others, particularly those who know them or are friends with them. Start off on the right foot. First impressions last, and if you make a bad one in your first few days here it's going to be a little hard to shake that reputation. Nobody's asking you to suck up or be super nice to everyone, but if you can control your temper, debate without losing it, accept criticism as long as it's constructive, and allow everyone their opinion then you should be fine. Also remember lots of people have been here a lot longer than you, so please don't assume that you know everything. We don't, so you can't possibly. Arrogance is not attractive.
If you're going to post a new thread make sure one doesn't already exist. Nothing irks a mod more (and you don't want to see an irked mod, believe me!) than having to close, delete or merge three threads that are all about the same thing. Think about it: the forum has been in existence for over ten years now, so most of the usual questions have been asked and every major band or singer has been covered. This does not of course mean you can't contribute to threads that are already there; just don't start new ones. Use the search feature. Actually, don't: it doesn't work. Use Google.
Do your best to keep your posts on-topic. The only place off topic posting is allowed, even encouraged, is in the Lounge and its subforums. Try to keep on point and don't repeat yourself. Also try to have more to say than “LOL” or “Me too”. You can use GIFs and YouTube videos but don't overuse them. Sometimes a GIF or video can say more than a hundred words, but then there are times when you need to express yourself properly too. Try not to get into the habit of letting the picture or video do your talking for you.
Don't use bad language. Well actually that's bollocks. You can use bad language if you want, although we do have a swear filter, but after you've been here a while you can be inducted into the inner circle and learn the mysteries of how to fool it. But don't make posts full of bad language. It's just not necessary.
Please, please, PLEASE for the love of God please try to spell properly! Okay, this is not an actual requirement but it bugs the hell out of me. And others. Text speak is not something we want to see here, and capitalisation, punctuation and grammar, used properly, all make your posts not only more attractive but more interesting. Nobody's going to kick you out for bad spelling but please do your best to try to do it right.
Don't annoy mods unnecessarily: they bite. They do, really, and their bite can equal anything from a 24-hour ban to a permaban. If you're permanbanned you're not getting back in. Bans are not handed out arbitrarily or with any sort of vendetta in mind, but if you flout the rules and ignore warnings the Ban Hammer will fall on you, be in no doubt of that!
Don't go into threads just to cause trouble, eg to disagree for the sake of disagreeing with the topic or to troll. This sort of behaviour will get you a one-way ticket to Banland. Of course we encourage differences of opinion and you can argue with anyone about anything, but your argument needs to be informed. No point in going into the Prog thread for instance and writing “I hate prog it sux”. If you however say “I hate prog because there are too many keyboard solos”, someone will debate that with you. Be constructive, not disruptive.
Avoid making a post of your 50 favourite videos, each with a YouTube attached. This will slow down, or in some cases actually crash some computers. So if you HAVE to show 50 videos use the spoiler tags, at the very right of your screen where it says "Show/hide". Just highlight the video link, click the icon and input something, anything, and the video will be hidden till someone clicks on the spoiler tag.
If you're frequenting the Current Affairs subforum, don't post openly controversial topics like “Do you agree women deserve to be raped?” or “Are all muslims terrorists?” --- these sort of threads are just made to bait people and cause controversy, and will ultimately serve no purpose but to set people at each others' throats. If in doubt, post a thread asking if people think this needs to be discussed, or ask a mod. Or me. Or any of the other members. Check before you cry havoc and let slip, you know, the dogs of war.
As in all forums it is considered bad manners to post all in caps, ie OMG I JUST LUV THIS NEW BAND CHECK THEM OUT!!!! You're shouting, and you don't need to. If you forgot to release the caps lock, you can easily go back and edit your post properly.
Don't promote your or your friends' music, as in the above post. Nobody cares about them, nobody will check them out. All you'll do is check yourself out for breaking our rules.
If you find you're having a problem with a member or members, and can't sort it out with them don't do it in a thread. If you can't reconcile your differences over PM then let a mod know, or even me. We're not in high school and we're not going to be chasing the bullies off the playground, but at the same time we won't allow someone to be victimised unfairly, so you have somewhere to turn if you feel that's happening to you. Whatever you do, do not respond in kind. I speak from experience; you will end up banned even if the aggressor(s) are too.
Also, you can help. Just because you're new doesn't mean you don't know something we don't, or have the answer to a question that's been asked here. Don't be afraid to stand up and contribute, that's what it's all about. Nobody is going to frown on you for taking the lead in something, as long as you know what you're talking about. And there's nothing stopping you guiding other newbies either, once you know your way around the place.
SOME JARGON YOU MAY SEE IN POSTS AND THREADS
Like every forum this one uses some acronyms and codes generally understood on the net, but in case you've never been on a forum, here are the main ones:
USER CP: Your Control Panel, which is located at the top left of your screen. You can use this to change things like your signature, avatar, and any other details. Also to see your Pms and other messages, and to post photos if you wish.
PM: Private Message. You can send a PM from your User CP or by clicking on the username of the person you want to communicate with, and selecting “Send a private message to...” Remember, if you're PMing a mod, they are busy so it may be a while before they get back to you.
Rec: Recommendation, whether for an album, track or band.
Avatar: The little picture under your username. You can select anything you want for your avatar, but due to recent Google crackdowns no nudity or near-nudity, or any overt sexual pics. Sorry. You can have your avatar made bigger (ooer again!) here,
http://www.musicbanter.com/editors-p...-requests.html but please don't abuse the service.
Sig: Signature. Here you can put any text, quotes, urls or whatever you want, up to a max of I think 1000 characters. You access this again from your CP and then your signature is shown every time you post.
Usertitle: Distinct from your Username, this is the text that appears just under your name and before your avatar. It usually starts as “Groupie” but after a while you can change it to anything you want, as long as it fits. Again, User CP is where this is done.
THREAD: Any post on a subject. “The top 100 albums” is a thread. So is “Do you like Elvis” and “My favourite biscuits”.
POST: Anything written in a thread. Your posts show with your details and the time and date of posting, so everyone knows who's talking.
QUOTE: If you want to refer to something someone else posted you can use the QUOTE feature. Click QUOTE on THEIR post, select and highlight what you want, copy it and then paste it into your post. It will show as “Member X posted...” and then the quoted part. This is helpful in determining who, or what part of a post, you're replying to or referring to.
EDIT: If you make a mistake on a post, or forget something you wanted to add, hit EDIT and change it, then POST and it will make the changes for you and show in that post.
You can also use
MULTIQUOTE if you wish to reply to a bunch of people or several messages at once. This is done by hitting the third button to the right of your post (looks like
this) and then hitting POST REPLY. All the quoted bits will be pasted in for you and you can write your message then. Note: if multiquoting it's a good idea, almost essential, to write your reply in between the QUOTE and /QUOTE tags on each part, so that that person knows you're replying to them. If anyone's confused about this post here or PM me.
DELETE: You can't, strictly speaking, delete your messages but you can EDIT them and erase everything or the part you want taken out then POST. Any posts that have to be approved, such as in the Editor's Choice, cannot be edited by you. The Members Journals section is an exception to this rule. You cannot edit anyone else's post anywhere though; you may quote it but not edit it, for obvious reasons.
LOCKED: If you see a padlock symbol in front of a thread that means the thread has been closed and no further discussion is possible. The thread is though still readable. If you think it should be reopened you can ask a mod, and depending on why it was closed in the first place, they may oblige.
That's all I can think of at the moment. As I say, this is a work in progress so will be added to as I think of other stuff or other people suggest or remind me of things I may not have considered.
As a newbie, you have a voice here too so ask any questions you want in this thread. I will ensure they are answered with the minimum of sarcasm. Hopefully this will help to serve as a way to introduce you and acclimatise you to the rather decent forum we're running here. We hope you enjoy your stay, and become a regular, contributing member. We look forward to meeting you out there.