Losing members

[Dayna]

I haven't known Boi much at all, & I've never really been to any other forums because this is the one I've always loved because it's like I have some freinds here that I really. I have had some trouble fitting into the discussions at times. I write things & it feels like they just aren't interesting to anyone. I read back through that thread, trying to understand what happened.
I don't want to cause more trouble or anything. But I've been trying hard to think of how to say what I think of all this.
It seems like a lot of the trouble in that thread and some others starts because of some different points of view on things. If someone doesn't like their points of view, then that's when the insults start. I was mentioning earlier about when a certain artist got mentioned & one person didn't like him & had an opinion,(I myself was in agreement about this one ) & called them something another person didn't like, then the other person gets jumped on & insulted.
I can remember when talking about Damon Albarn, & a couple people here didn't care for him for some reason & sort of said he was a jerk or some other words were used. It hurt me a little bit, but I just figured 'Oh well, it wasn't against me. They just don't see what I see in him. But it's not the worst thing in the world. "

[Ian A.]

I just figured 'Oh well, it wasn't against me. They just don't see what I see in him. But it's not the worst thing in the world. "

Yes!

Three other great truths, often quoted but none the worse for saying again:

"The world would be an awfully dull place if we all had the same tastes in music."

"When in a hole, stop digging."

"It's only music, nobody dies."

[Dayna]

The people that have gone away are my friends and I appreciated all the things I was learning from.

[Chris P]

I hope you are staying in touch with them Dayna, by PM or email. And I think we all fervently hope they will return.

[Tonie]

I just figured 'Oh well, it wasn't against me. They just don't see what I see in him. But it's not the worst thing in the world. "

Yes!

Three other great truths, often quoted but none the worse for saying again:

"The world would be an awfully dull place if we all had the same tastes in music."

"When in a hole, stop digging."

"It's only music, nobody dies."

Indeed. As other people have said, I would have thought world music fans would be open and easy going by nature, but I suppose we are only human. But for what it's worth, as a relative newbie, very ignorant punter (love this word, learnt it here), ignoramus, woman, non-brit etc, I've always felt very welcome on this forum, and found most people here to be friendly and fun. I agreet that people should just stick to Dayna's golden rule of not taking things personally. If I'm not posting a lot these days it's because I'm very busy with things non-music related, so I prefer to be a lurker.

Tonie

[joel]

but I just figured 'Oh well, it wasn't against me. They just don't see what I see in him. But it's not the worst thing in the world. "

The truth is exactly there. It's surprisingly easy to lose sight of, though. I know I've done so many times on various forums (allaboutjazz, pinkfishmedia and several others I've forgotten the name of or which have disappeared from the underbelly of the net).
My view is that when one's level of emotional engagement reaches the kind of pitch it has for some people over the last week or two, it's actually a good idea to go away for a while to regain some emotional balance.
The best way to bring our friends back is to make interesting conversation rather than indulge in long, boring navel-gazing posts (like this one) about why they've gone and what's terribly wrong with the forum.
Some suggestions for interesting new threads:
1) Toucans spotted in the wild by forumistas today
2) Birthday thread with You Tube clip on this the 150th anniversary of Frank Sinatra's death.
3) Why Macca is a better bassist than Charles Mingus was a pianist

[Nigel w]

Tonie,

I never really liked the word 'punter' much, because although it can broadly just mean 'paying customer', the colloquial context in which it is most often used in the UK is in a brothel or a betting shop where it's commonly used interchangeably with "mugs" - as in people it's easy to take money from.

However, I've just discovered via the dubious wonders of Wikipedia that in Hindi, punter means dude and "Punter hai re ekdum" translates as "he's a cool dude". I reckon we should reclaim the word with its Hindi meaning (not sure about how gender works in Hindi language, though).

Keep lurking and join in whenever you find a spare moment!

[Tonie]

Oops, thanks for the clarification, Nigel. I too prefer the hindi translation. I'll check it with my partner, who is Indian.

[Dominic]

But now one corner of his garden is just bare soil with a few weeds just poking up (yeah, I'm talking about you, Dominic - wanna make something of it!) ...

[That Was Jonathan E. Then]

I know those guys from somewhere, perhaps my childhood.

[That Was Jonathan E. Then]

Before forming an opinion of Boi's posting or the various points he makes, I suggest checking his previous postings via his Profile page. More information is sometimes better information — and sometimes not. But I like to know where someone's coming from.

I think I'm right in saying that you'd only get a partial picture were you to do that, because being the long-term sad S of the W forum anorak that I am, I seem to recall that Boi originally used to post as a guest in the days when that was allowable (he sticks in my mind for having filled in some Fairuz gaps at one point).

Drat! Outwitted by technological progress once again. Lucky we have real humans with real brains. Thanks, Con.

[Nigel w]

I know those guys from somewhere, perhaps my childhood.

Yeah, me too. The one on the left is Michael Jackson. The one in the middle I think is called Emoticon. Don't recognise the one on the right. It's not that bloke who wrote Brown Sugar is it?

[That Was Jonathan E. Then]

No, I think it's Mungo Jerry.

[Ian M]

Charlie, on the question of troublesome spam and false registrations which you have to delete manually. Most of these are automated entries (bots) which know how to 'answer' the 'type code in here' question. Which is why most of them have nonsense names. A way round this is to add a question which only a human can answer - anything easy which anyone will know. The bots can't read these or answer them, and you will find the false registrations go down dramatically. Here is a link for further info:

http://www.thesamet.com/blog/2006/12/21 ... bb-forums/

[Charlie]

Here is a link for further info:

Thanks Ian, I looked and could see this might be the solution

I will point out your post to webmaster Zee, and hope we can achieve relief from the blizzard of emails. What is worse is that occasionally I block a legitimate entry who has an unusual user-name.