Apart from the moderators who weren't involved in this process, why do we care? Some guy has been told to help the forum out. Get a grip and pleasure yourself before bed.

:offtopic:

Hey, easy on the trolling there.

He's about as qualified as everyone else who's been modded in the last two years.

lolwut

How can you say that?
You've made poor Burning Down facepalm IRL.

Oh no, what's going on? You mean we have a mod that wasn't appointed through a standard, yet lengthy popularity contest. What a tragedy. Something might actually get done around here without having a round table friggin' discussion about whether or not some douche deserves 80 more infractions before we hold the next meeting regarding how many weeks we should ban him.

I'm pretty sure musicbanter is in no danger of any of that happening.

Isn't the entirety of your tenure as a mod the beneficiary of a popularity contest? Say what you will about the processes that mods have to undergo to make decisions but remember that not only do you have a voice to change things in the mod cave that none of us do, but that the only reason you are where you are is because members respected your opinion enough to warrant your modding. Not because of your expertise at administrative functions...

Fixed

Wait wtf I thought this had to be a joke until I clicked forum leaders and saw his name. Yac is it not possible you could elaborate on this decision???

We're all waiting for more info. Just sit tight and hopefully we'll get something we can chew on without too much difficulty.

I shall do that, FreebaseShreddz.

Thanks a lot for the compliment, bro....

so you're saying that most people here have bad taste?

Here's the deal. everbody who's been a member of this site for at least the past 2-3 years has noticed a significant drop in the quality of the forum. There's been multiple threads created on the subject with everyone giving there own two cents as to what they believe the reason is. More theories have been postulated about this than theories about what killed the dinosaurs. The truth of the matter is that the amount of active members on the site has grown immensely, yet the proportion of people who actively engage in intelligent, respectful discussion regarding music (of all things) has not grown commensurately. The sense of community and unified purpose used to be the hallmark of this place. For my own part, it's the reason why I was once very active on here.

Part of the problem of this is the way that mods are chosen. In one sense it's a great thing that mods are elected by other mods, because we're able to see first hand whether or not a member will be an appropriate fit for the position, but sometimes it doesn't quite work out that way. When a mod comes into their position having already developed relationships with some of the members, there is a hesitancy to to their job with any sort of impartiality. It's difficult to effectively be in a position of power while still desiring to be respected and well-liked by one's peers. The result of trying to balance both is a hesitancy to take action when action is necessary, as well as favoritism, which clouds judgement. In the end, what you have is no longer a unified sense of community, but a collection of cliques, and on the mod side, a bureaucracy that impedes progress.

When I was given my first tenure as moderator, it was very controversial because I hadn't been a member for very long at all, but as people got to know me they discovered that I was genuinely interested in the community and really knew my stuff. Perhaps the best thing to do with Jayshredzz is give him the benefit of the doubt. It's understandable that as a new member he's testing out some of his more unpopular opinions and realizing the power to provoke others to strongly disagree with him. That'll mellow out as he becomes more acclimated to engaging in discussion on here, and as he's called to make impartial decisions as a moderator. I honestly think that this may be exactly what MB needs to become a better forum and I look forward to being more active here than I have been in quite some time.

Unpopular opinions? Seriously? Have you read his post history? If not I invite you to. I don't think I'll need to make a point to go along with it.

I know we're all supposed to be shiny happy people holding hands and ****, but really how much fun is that? Save it for the upcoming Official Kum Ba Yah Thread. I have gone through his entire post history and yes, I think his opinions are asinine, but at this point I'll take asinine opinions and the ensuing drama over 35 pages of who wants to be first in line to fellate Tom York.

Thom Yorke*

Also his opinions are tempered with an attitude that specifically precludes the introduction of open discussion because he actively discourages the introduction of an alternative opinion.

Whoops, guess I gotta get in the back of the line now. I was so close.

The line has no back. You've just shifted position within a giant Thom Yorke dick sucking ouroboros.

Well, we did get the guy to like Radiohead... So there may be hope.

i can't believe that there was 15 pages posted since i slept

he was made a super mod, get over it already

Pardon.

Ditto Pardon.

I'm not happy about this super moderation choice, I don't like that we got no say in it. What the hell is wrong with this place?! I'm away for a few days and **** has hit the fan.

If that's how people are feeling about the staff of this website, I might take a leaf out of Urban's book.

I, for one, welcome our new MB overlord.

based on his post-count and what he explained - that he was an employee of the owners, i sorta get the feeling he's mostly going to be invisible anyway

I don't really believe that the drop in quality has to do with the way people are modded. The site was clickey when I first came here (I pretty much immediately entered the prog click with Comus, Anteater and Boo Boo) and there were a lot more trolls around too and felt less friendly on the whole, yet I felt like people contributed more. There's been a change in posting culture and a lot of guys who were previously big contributors have left the site, f.ex TheCellarTapes, Bulldog and Seltzer.

If there's any way to change the culture of a community, I don't think it's by punishing people for writing the short, witty retort which we see a lot more of these days (or whatever behaviour it is you don't like). Rather, you have to reward people who you think are good posters. F.ex when RMR writes an album review, that should be rewarded with something more than just a few comments in a thread.

Had we had more control over this site, I believe we could have turned it into a place that nurtures the kind of culture that we'd like to see here. I'm sure this place being almost entirely static and run without any love or care for the community is a factor that helps turn this place into less than it could be and helps push people away. I can't say for Seltzer, Bulldog or TheCellarTapes, but I know that for my part, displeasure with administration was a large part of me quitting the mod job and becoming less active here. I have a feeling the same goes for Right-Track and now Urban's gone/quit ..

People are afraid that doing something drastic is gonna hurt the community, but this environment kills your enthusiasm over time so the community is already getting hurt. It just goes slowly so it's harder to notice.

People have been saying this site has been getting worse since I joined 5 years ago.

Personally, I know nobody else cares, but the hip hop forum is thriving better than ever, as well as some genres that never existed on this forum prior. I think this forum is doing pretty good, it's only the people who religiously come on this site every 15 minutes that are bored.

A while back, I wanted to have a front page or something like an online blog/magazine style thing, a bit like I'm trying to do on my own site The Polite Force these days. That way, we could promote the various going-ons on that front page. We could have an index over album reviews that you didn't have to dig through a dusty old forum to find. When people wrote reviews, a summary and a link could be featured on the front page. In addition to featured reviews, there could be other music related articles. We're a lot of writers here.

Guys like TheCellarTapes and, for a short time Comus, had radio shows. Those could have been advertised there and been something for the community to gather around. A better webchat could be easily integrated into the website so that people could chat during the shows.

I'm open to the idea that that we shouldn't have a front page (for whatever reason) so it's not about that, but I'd love for the possibility for MB to develop. Then we could turn this place into an environment that better rewards enthusiasm and makes it more interesting to be a member. When we're productive now, it's despite the fact that it's likely not going to be rewarded like it should. I for one have stopped writing reviews here.

This jayshreddz guy probably would've been better off if he hadn't joined first and made a negative impression on everyone before this announcement.

Rather than trying to ameliorate the situation, he comes in this thread and posts a couple of tactless and sarcastic responses. Here's hoping he'll remain a behind the scenes guy.

I still think adding extensions and superflous accessories to the website has nothing to do with strengthening the content or discussion.

I think the multitude of sub categories, specifically the extension of the lounge area (adding the philisophical, media, and all that other BS) is what has effectively drew attention away from music discussion.

^ This is true. Old mods each had different and pretty well defined music interests, like boo boo, Urban, sleepy jack, Seltzer, etc. Maybe I haven't been paying as much attention anymore, but I have little idea what most of the current mods listen to.

haha i deleted that cuz i thought it was hella inflammatory.

its definitively true though. Boo Boo was crazy but he was also crazy about his prog music for sure

It's about changing MB into an environment that rewards productivity. That's harder to do when the site is basically static and run as-is by someone who doesn't show any care about our community. Or do you disagree?

Well i guess it depends on if the argument is that the site has declined

If so, I would argue that the inclusion of these all sub categories, and a larger focus on shallow social media applications (the friends business, journals, photo albums etc) is a large contributor in the decline

If not, I would be more likely to agree with you. Other strong community sites like sputnik, undergroundhiphop bring in most of their traffic via reviews and other blocks of text.

I don't think thats the case here. It's the community that makes it what it is. If you notice a commonality with the posters mentioned by tuna it's that they're engagement and contributions to the website weren't full length text reviews, or well constructed analysis of anything, it was simply by contributing and being willing to participate in eclectic ranges of music.

I post in the music forums quite a bit, and I have never seen you, or most of the mods for that matter. I doubt thats just because my taste is obscure, but because we don't have people who feel like listening to new music, they'd rather shell out their recycled opinions about stuff they're familiar with.

idk, im making some big generalizations with that post so take it how you want

I used to post more on music related topics a while back. I used to run the members compilations, had the prog & fusion album club, had my journal and so on and made a few elaborate official band threads.

Since then, I stepped down as a mod, tried to get my own Canterbury themed site going which has sort of worked (although I never managed to get a proper community going) and instead of doing an album club on these forums, I started one on a mailing list I had with my friends. So most of my music related writings now take place off-site in places where it's generally more rewarding.

For me, it was a conscious decision as MB wasn't able to satisfy my want for writing about music in a way which felt rewarding. That sounds quite bitter, but I'm actually more happy with music writing and the way I use this site these days. F.ex the album club on the mailing list is more fun than trying to do the prog & fusion album club here. I guess all this means that I'm part of the MB decline. But before it came to that, I tried my best and kept going long after it became a chore.

edit :

If my absence from music related going-ons on this site is a slight reduction in the quality of MB, then that itself is an example of the MB environment reducing the quality of the site. I doubt I am the only example of this.