Nice sentiment Rand. I've tried to follow that rule.
Get a room, you two.
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
My ethos for my podcast.
Progtopia is a podcast devoted to interviewing progressive rock, metal, and electronic artists from the past and present, featuring their songs and exclusive interviews. Artists interviewed on the show have included Steve Hackett, Sound of Contact, Larry Fast, Circus Maximus, Anubis Gate, Spock's Beard, and many more. http://progtopia.podomatic.com See you in a land called Progtopia!
But how boring would it be if everyone were all positive and uplifting, sitting in a circle holding hands singing "Holy Lamb" to each other offering only positive praise while withholding criticism? IMHO that would render PE virtually unreadable. I think a little snark, sarcasm and even a little hate, properly channeled, can actually be good things.
"It was a cruel song, but fair."-Roger Waters
Well, I could do without snarkyness and sarcasm most of the time. I think for the benefit of new members, and especially members who's first language is not English it's better to be courteous and go easy on the snark (until they've been around for a while). What I do expect is to see negative reviews in threads. If someone thinks [insert name of album/artist/film] sucks, then let 'em say it without having to explain it in every detail and without people doing eyerolls. A public thread is open game. A thread only gets "ruined" by negative posts if the OP allows it. Let people have their say without the thread always turning into a pissing contest.
Kumbaya My Lord Kumbaya....where is fun in that?
I HATE this opinion.
I don't waste my time on hate anymore. I used it all up in my youth. To the OP -
"The Bill of Rights says nothing about the freedom of hearing. This, of course, takes a lot of the fun out of the freedom of speech." - Pat Paulsen
My Art- http://www.facebook.com/williamallenrenfro -My Life
It isn't really the dissenting viewpoints that bring a thread down, its when the self-appointed experts suspect their authority has been impugned that everything goes to hell.
Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that
Last edited by No Pride; 04-02-2013 at 11:50 AM.
Some of the dullest and most uninspired tripe I have ever read on the Internet was written by seemingly intelligent folks who are trying overly hard to be positive, polite, even handed and inoffensive to the point that anything truly interesting, original and provacative that they might actually have to say is totally lost in a sea of nuance and forced inclusiveness. Music stirs passions. Passions result in strong opinions, both positive and negative. To try and deny this is to cheat yourself of a piece of your humanity.
I say folks should let it ALL hang out, message board politics and shrinking violet types who can't bear any criticism of their heroes be damned. I'd much rather read something well stated and compelling with which I totally and completely disagree than a bunch of mush that I find to be marginally more agreeable and positive.
Last edited by Frumious B; 04-02-2013 at 02:45 PM.
I hate hate. I love love, though.
I don't have a problem with strong opinions. People are certainly entitled to hate something. I certainly do. My problem is with ignorant opinions. I also have a problem with people who are thin-skinned and always looking to be the victim.
Bravo. This I agree with.Music stirs passions. Passions result in strong opinions, both positive and negative. To try and deny this is to cheat yourself of a piece of your humanity.
, this I don't agree with. Never cared for that "put your hard had and flame retardent suit on" attitude. Everyone should be included on the main boards (private clubs are another story) to be able to post an opinion without being insulted. There's gotta be some middle ground somewhere. Why is everything one extreme or another? (that's how it seems sometimes).I say folks should let it ALL hang out, message board politics and shrinking violet types who can't bear any criticism of their heroes be damned.
It's one thing to engage in criticism.....there's a place for that, I think. But criticism is NOT hate. Some folks don't seem to know the difference, though.
Hate, for the sake of hate, serves no purpose on message boards. But I find that this kind of unproductive spew is confined to a small number of people on message boards, in general. Those folks are just generally unhappy, and want to pull others down with them. I try my best to just ignore them.
Basic Human decency should be a guideline for all of us.
I can subscribe to Vic2012 & wideopen's sentiments above. Hearing varying viewpoints is a good thing. There will rarely be total consensus, and neither should there be. All I would ask of those posters who have a dissenting opinion, is express it with decency (as wideopen suggests) and respect: for other posters, particularly those with a different opinion, and, when it comes at least to Prog releases being discussed, for the artist(s) who invested time and energy in producing the release.
One of the great things about PE is that it avoids the outright nastiness that pervaded places like RMP. There's enough negativity in the world without bringing it to a place like this that many use to relax and escape for a while. Debate and respectful disagreement are one thing; attacking others and starting negative threads are quite another. If I want flame wars, I'll go a religion or politics forum.
What I hate (in regards to PE) is those who jump into a thread discussing an act only to spew their strong dislike for such musician/s. I don't mind snark but when you jump in with both feet in the mouth just because you hate an artist for artistic/political/moral reasons it just doesn't help a discussion of the music. There's certain acts I can't stand for various reasons (Doors, Beach Boys, Nugent) but I have a general rule about not jumping in just to shit on them. I can see complaining about an album or a song, or even if a period in their oeuvre doesn't work for you. But the "I hate everything so-and-so ever recorded" shit is ridiculous. I remember when Michael Jackson died we couldn't have a single conversation about the music because in each and every thread the same couple members would jump in screaming that he should rot in hell. I get it, he did reprehensible shit. But a discussion of his work would still have some merit. And don't get me started about those who get their precious prog panties in a pink twist just because a three-chord act is brought up in OT.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
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