Duga, I agree with your original post. MB was nothing like the bitchfest it is, as you call it, when I first signed up. And people were merited by their discussion of music and what they had to share, rather than who is BFFs with who etc. It has become very cliquey meaning that it is difficult for new members to feel as though they can fit into the community. The reason why I often take long absences from the forum is because I just get sick of all the drama, I love music and discussing music, as well as other interesting topics that the forum and its members offer, but often I just feel like I'm stuck in a year 9 high school class.

I'm not sure what the solution to the problem is. Maybe you could take a harsher approach towards members who tend to derail threads and go off-topic. One thing I've noticed about MB lately is so many forums go completely off-topic with silly, nonsensical and pointless banter that doesn't even relate to the thread.

I'm not sure how I feel about removing Lounge threads from New Posts. I don't think it is the actual Lounge threads that are the problem, I think it is more so the posts within ALL threads of the forum that are bitchy and off-topic. Plus, I still like viewing the Lounge threads, I'm sure many other regular members do, too.

I think we should all give up.

It sounds like a technical thing and it's not something that can be done with just a flip of the switch by the mods. I feel like it's something they have to go to the Admin for and we all know how that's going to turn out.

You would!


Well that's nice that when you joined it wasn't a bitchfest but when I joined new members got ripped apart way more than they do now. Insults were thrown around like crazy by mods and members alike and there was just the same amount of clique like behavior as it is now just that it included different members. You either grew a tough skin or you run away. I actually couldn't take it for a bit and ended up stop posting until I got used to the abuse. We are extremely welcoming to new members than we were in the past so I don't see why people keep bringing that up. The amount of welcomes that new members get in their intro threads is pretty good actually. The fact that new members don't stay is that they probably feel like the music they listen to isn't discussed here or there isn't much music discussion going on.

^Yeah, I was thinking the same.

@Lateralus, It would still be easy enough to see Lounge Posts, they just wouldn't dominate the New Posts section anymore, making the forum more attractive for music-driven newbies and rendering the lounge as a lesser part of an otherwise active music community. Just sayin'.

Anyway it's probably not possible. I loved the idea, though.

Honestly, I hardly ever run into people who push religion down my throat both offline and online. I think there is nothing wrong with having faith in religion. I'm a Christian and don't go to church but I have my own relationship with God. I do have had issues with a couple of people who are on the main street of the centre of Auckland who keep trying to approach me about their religion (I don't what one it is as I'm not interested) and I find it really off putting. If I wanted to believe in that religion I would do so on my own accord, not by having my personal space taken over.

I also despise people who hand out pamphlets. I actually had to run away from a guy once who was following me to give me whatever he was advertising, it was kind of funny and pathetic!

It was to some extent when I joined as well, I remember my first ever post was in the Tool thread and I got completely shut down by a bunch of people making fun of Tool fans and commenting "Now I know why I hate Tool fans" etc. But I figured that was pretty normal for an Internet forum, I stuck around anyway because I liked the discussion about music.

I don't really think it's about how welcoming we are to new members, I think it's more about the fact that while new members feel quite welcomed, after a few months they tend to leave due to not being stimulated by the music discussion (perhaps, this is an assumption). I still feel as though a LOT of threads tend to go completely off-topic with members posting one-word answers or stupid frivolous stuff or stupid pointless GIFs that doesn't bring anything to the discussion... at least dj when members like yourself reply to threads you are bringing something valuable to the discussion, rather than some off-topic bull**** that noone understands because it's some inside joke between "BFFs zomg let's use musicbanter forums as our personal chat channel" IYKWIM...

Oh absolutely right DJ! Back in the day it was the wild west. People would have flame wars with each other and it was all on! I honestly prefer that then to what is happening now. I definitely think that bitchiness and off topic posts need to be deleted far sooner so us mods will take all of this feedback on board. We want this to be the best place it can be. I would really like to see the cliques die down a bit and have people who may not like each other, get along for the sake of the forum and not cause unnecessary drama.

Personally I feel that I need to concentrate on music more than the lounge, I tend to get carried away in it!

Wow you totally hit it on the head there. I recently saw two members have one conversation in three different threads which went for 3-4 pages that should have either been in the chatrooms or the shoutbox. That's what it's there for.

Kate, I really want you to stick around and I hope that this thread gives you some hope. :)

First of all the current cliques are just groups of friends sticking up for each other.

Secondly, people not liking each other getting along while that's nice idealistically it isn't too realistic sad to say. Everything doesn't have to be peaches and sunshine between members and if someone doesn't like someone else they have a reason for it and will stand behind that reason regardless of whatever happens. Some people are better at putting aside gripes than others but some people aren't and that's just who they aren't. You really aren't going to change that about them. It's part of their personality.

I beg to differ.

I actually think it speaks volumes about a person when they can move past their personal grievances, put it aside and not bring anyone down. I think people can have a grudge but still just be a contributing member of MB. As long as no rules are broken or unnecessary accusations are thrown at others. But that's just my opinion.