Musicbanter Improvement Thread (techno, indie, genre, albums, u2)

[right-track]

Agreed. The avatar and sig threads are retarded...off with their heads!

[right-track]

He has an ex Soviet early 1950's cold war computer that fills an entire room.

[Piss Me Off]

Wrong thread much?

[right-track]

Oops.

Probably caused by a quantum omnipresence of string particles resulting in a warping of space and time.
Apologies.

[Son of JayJamJah]

Either that or you forgot to refresh

[Loser]

I got a beef with the search.
I don't like the 4 letter rule when serching for bands or threads, what about bands like U2, or The The...They get the short end of the stick....I don't know, just a bit annoyig for me.

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by Loser

I got a beef with the search.
I don't like the 4 letter rule when serching for bands or threads, what about bands like U2, or The The...They get the short end of the stick....I don't know, just a bit annoyig for me.

Just search for something U2 related (like Achtung) and you'll get relevant results. Don't search for Bono though, because MB is the primary source of Bono-hatred in the world and the sheer intensity of it might just blow you away.

Seriously though, The 4 letter rule is indeed annoying.

[NSW]

I love this website, there really isn't much I would change, except for the parameters of the search option. I know it's been said already, but it really is a pain in the arse. I think a better search option would minimize the number of duplicate threads as well, since sometimes you just can't find an existing thread no matter what you type in (at least I've experienced this). Please don't ask for examples because I can't remember what happened 5 minutes ago, much less a week, month, or whatever.

@ ashtray...sorry if I offended. I was just joking around.
@ Urban...thanks for sticking up for me.

[ashtray]

Originally Posted by nonsubmissivewife

I love this website, there really isn't much I would change, except for the parameters of the search option. I know it's been said already, but it really is a pain in the arse. I think a better search option would minimize the number of duplicate threads as well, since sometimes you just can't find an existing thread no matter what you type in (at least I've experienced this). Please don't ask for examples because I can't remember what happened 5 minutes ago, much less a week, month, or whatever.

@ ashtray...sorry if I offended. I was just joking around.
@ Urban...thanks for sticking up for me.

No problems. I was the **** to begin with you were just joking. I just want to have fun like anyone else

[Ghostrider]

Originally Posted by jackhammer

If we deleted the *ahem* less intelligent posts on here, we would surely be enforcing even more elitism by suggesting that many posters have less intelligence than the mods? One sentence posts from new posters are annoying as hell, but if we delete everything then those new posters are scared off straight away. This site can be as educational as it can be entertaining and deleting every post that does'nt always fit our criteria could be detrimental in the long run.

This segues into something else that I wanted to mention. Sometimes we all have to remember that most of us were all young once and generally musically naive. Many new members arrive and if their tastes are genre specific or commercially orientated, then we should encourage them instead of jumping on their backs straight away. I myself am guilty of this on occasion and it should be reminded that the lifeblood of any forum is new members. I have already heard a lot of new bands from these boards, so let's hope that we continue to promote unknown bands and be nice to fellow noobz.

I think you've pretty much nailed this n00b issue Jackhammer, Spot On,,,as you lot would say. I am new to this site myself, I've only been a member for a couple of weeks and I can sympathize with how new members are reticent to post their opinions only to be shot down in flames as soon as they put one up. I don't think the problem is Elitism amongst Mods/Veterans, it's just that you have all been "Bantering" for so long you're like a family at the dinner table, you say and do things with each other that you don't even think about anymore and yet to a new visitor it's hard to know when you say something how it will be received or dismissed out of hand, so many just say little or nothing at all.

"One sentence posts are irritating, but we don't want to scare off new members...", I have lost count of how many short meaningless posts are in here, I would rather read 10 one sentence posts that a dozen arrows pointing above you and LOL,,,exceptions during long exchanges between members having a great argument...but most of the time they are just annoying echoes and don't add anything to the topic at all.(I know Urban said you issue a warning when it gets out of hand...) Talking Pish...I'm guessing this is slang for swearing, colorful metaphors etc..., in my other forum it is simply deleted on sight, it's done because we want to preserve the civilized exchanges and feel that flaming each other just doesn't add much to the thread, I read the rules update the other day by Urban, and then the exchange between Right Track and Civic, and then Civic was permanently banned. I read the actual post by Civic before it was deleted and absolutely agree that it was way out of line, and because of other violations the decision was taken and the ban was issued. My first exposure to the moderators maintaining discipline in the ranks and it was professionally done all the way around.

I haven't really started to post as often as I should,,,mostly I'm still getting a better feel for your forum, and downloading numerous new bands/albums that you have introduced me to, so it's hard to contribute to many of the ongoing discussions with a worthwhile post. Ha ha,,,about the older popular bands,,,it's simply what I grew up with,,,the new emo/techno/rap/indie genre's are new territory for me, so I just read, dl some recommended bands and continue to learn as much as I can about all these new artists before I can offer something concrete to a discussion about them.

Suggestion #1- Move the New Members Intro to the very top of the opening page, and have all of the Moderator's introduce themselves with a quick summary and a very basic outline of forum policy/requirements.(I know I started posting before I even stumbled across the cool intro thread in the lounge...this site is so large that it's easy to get distracted and miss something as basic and necessary as this thread.)

Suggestion #2- A Banter Octagon,,,a sub forum where members can meet to really take the gloves off so to speak,,,if you are going to allow Pish etc...then why not a proper sub forum where almost anything goes, except very demeaning personal attacks, I don't think they have any place in a public forum.

Suggestion #3- Bumping old posts...the scale of history in your forum is astonishing to a new member,,,I have gotten lost more than once just looking over some of the ancient posts scattered throughout the popular threads. Maybe the Moderators could pick a few of the really good ones that are still relevant and resurrect them for new discussion. You know Urban picks 2 or more this week, Right Track next week etc....and then eventually they can be archived or locked.

So far I've enjoyed Banter and hope to get to know everyone a little better so that I can participate more fully, but I have limited time as well so sometimes I don't get a chance to visit as often as I like.