IDM Mailing Archive

first of all, i'd like to say a sincere thanks to lance for starting a moderated idm-l. i sure as heck will be joining. however, know that it will be a very very large undertaking, even if only 25% of the current idm-l members switch over. for those of you new to the list, lance has been around here quite a while, and, when not in one of his occassional silent periods, has contributed more to this list than just about anyone else that i can think of. thanks lance... on to other topics. the signal to noise ratio on this list has become nearly unbearable. there's been many a time when i've said to myself, "screw this, i'm outta here" and then remembered, "damn, i can't...i'm the list admin". there was a point (even within the past several years) where this list was an extremely useful entity. i bought records based on other's recommendations, went to shows to meet other listmembers, and generally geeked out with other likeminded people. now, many of the people whose opinions i so respected have left. it may amaze some of you to hear this, but there was a time when people respected each-other's opinions, even if they disagreed, the word "fuck" showed up less than 50 times a day, and was almost never followed by the words "you" or "off". granted, i was not here when this list started (i joined prolly a year into it), but i have seen glimpses here and there of what a good, functional idm list can be, and where we are at right now is not it. Right now this is beginning to look more like an AOL chatroom than a group of people interested in discussing experiences, ideas, and discoveries, which is what this list was originally formed around. here's a quote from the idm-l policies: "So as to prevent the list from becoming a hopeless barrage of flame mail over what is and is not "intelligent", the official stance will be that all opinions are to be respected - you are welcome to disagree and post your disagreements, but outright flames and name-calling are to be avoided. However, if you declare that "Rozalla is intelligent dance music", you should be willing and able to back it up - not just "because it obviously is." Just remember that your mail goes into approximately 900 mail boxes worldwide therefore unrelated or unneccessary posts should be kept to an absolute minimum." However, that quote is pretty old. I stole it from the previous list admin, who i believe stole it from the admin before him. One major change is that instead of 900 list members, we are looking at closer to *2000* list members. As one would expect, as a list grows, the traffic increases....but what we didn't expect was the overall demeanor and disposition of the list to go down the crapper in a direct relationship with the number of listmembers. I'm sure i'm not the only one getting sick of the "confield rocks" / "confield sucks" / "screw you" / "yer mom" kind of crap posts that are multiplying like rabbits around here. that being said, if i find that people are being rude, disruptful, hasty on the reply button, or generally disrespectful to others on the list, i *will* kick you. you may or may not get an accompanying email from me re: why you have been kicked. i've tried the nice friendly route, where i ask politely for people to please keep their arguments and flame wars off-list, but it doesn't seem to be working. consider yourself warned. i would like to get this list back into the bearable, if not good category. here's what i need from listmembers: - reviews: tell us what you think of the music that you buy. if your review contains the words "rocks", "sucks", "blows", "bites" or anything similar, keep it to yourself...at that point you're only writing to get a response, not to foster discussion. - news: keep us updated. not about about the 14th ae-ripoff track that you've posted on mp3.com in the last month, but about interesting things....if you can't distinguish between the two, please find another list. - be selective: only write if you have something to say that adds to the discussion. "me too" posts & posts that re-state what previous posts have said are not needed. - show some restraint: if someone on the list is acting like an idiot and obviously trying to get people pissed off, just ignore them. they're like the little kid down the street when you were growing up that didn't know how to make friends, so they just pestered the other kids. if we ignore them, they'll get the picture, and hopefully come back later with something useful to say. and lastly: - someone organize a damn potluck. ferchrissake, nothing brings people together like a crock pot full o' meatballs (tofu-balls if you prefer) and some generic soda. you think i'm joking but i'm not.... early aphex and potato salad go very well together. okay, i think that's about it. it's late now and i apologize for the typos and grammatically-challenged sentences. let's get our ish together folks. discuss amongst yourselves.... brian r. clickpop@hyperreal.org idm-l admin --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org