MIA HOM Member Official Thread

I might end up MIA because I'm getting bored of the site, but the kind and understanding community keeps me returning. I'm wondering how we can make the community more active and also, more diverse.

muckie wrote:

I might end up MIA because I'm getting bored of the site, but the kind and understanding community keeps me returning. I'm wondering how we can make the community more active and also, more diverse.

Forums, in general, are on the decline. They aren't as active as they were 10 or even 5 years ago. I enjoy them because I have been forum active since about 1984 (back when my ole trusty Commodore 64 would dial up to bulletin boards to post messages on countless forums).

I don't do Facebook or any other thing like that so forums are my outlet. ALL of the forums I post on are waaayyyyy down from where they used to be with the exception of the Steve Hoffman Forums which have so many active users that new posts are buried on page 3 within 10 minutes unless you get a reply.

So while I don't post every day I stop by and browse at least once a day, even if it is only for a few minutes. I used to really enjoy the activity in "The Complete Works" seems like everyone used to post there all the time.

As for Metal Metropolis, I am gonna miss it. Had a lot of info.

Quote :

I used to really enjoy the activity in "The Complete Works" seems like everyone used to post there all the time.

I enjoyed those too, but when the board had a glitch and more than half of the old discography threads got deleted, it kinda took the wind out of everybody's sails... nobody wanted to start all those threads for all of those artists over again.

Yeah, when the old threads vanished from The Complete Works it ruined the entire thing for me.

S.D. wrote:

Yeah, when the old threads vanished from The Complete Works it ruined the entire thing for me.

Ah - didn't realize that happened I just thought some of them were deleted for one reason or another. Didn't know the board took a dump and lost some threads.

The only forum that I actively visit that is not completely dead is NintendoAge, because it's like the go-to place for Nintendo Collectors (spun off of AtariAge). But since I'm not a big gamer anymore (mostly there to sell the remnant of my collection) I go here. The other two music sites I visited recently are dead as a doorknob, and most of the people I want to talk to on Twitter either ignore me and/or are too busy. Spending much of my life engrossed in the mindless distractions the internet has offered, I finally got to the point where I realized how much of it was wasted accomplishing very little except, most importantly, refining my communication and writing skills. I have made some good friends, but when I got more mature and began to deduct how many were really worth keeping on my lists, it came down to a handful. And nowadays, most of them outside my family ever talk to me anymore. My one close friend online now says virtually nothing and is absent from Facebook. I think he's feeling similar isolation and distrust as I am. This gives me more motivation to stay offline and develop my skills in music, literature, foreign languages, etc. and not waste it on stupid arguments or memes online. I rarely look at YouTube outside of music, and I don't ever use Instagram. Unless I really want to research something from a respectable source, I make it a habit to hold resentment for tabloid or pop culture news sites that do more damage to the integrity of the subject being discussed than helping it. Internet has potential but like anything it's abused. We often spend more time fantasizing about the potential of it than actually being creative. The creative arts have always been tough to make a living in and now with the swarm of competition its even more challenging, but I hope to find some ground and be able to influence people in a practical way.

muckie wrote:

The only forum that I actively visit that is not completely dead is NintendoAge, because it's like the go-to place for Nintendo Collectors (spun off of AtariAge). But since I'm not a big gamer anymore (mostly there to sell the remnant of my collection) I go here. The other two music sites I visited recently are dead as a doorknob, and most of the people I want to talk to on Twitter either ignore me and/or are too busy. Spending much of my life engrossed in the mindless distractions the internet has offered, I finally got to the point where I realized how much of it was wasted accomplishing very little except, most importantly, refining my communication and writing skills. I have made some good friends, but when I got more mature and began to deduct how many were really worth keeping on my lists, it came down to a handful. And nowadays, most of them outside my family ever talk to me anymore. My one close friend online now says virtually nothing and is absent from Facebook. I think he's feeling similar isolation and distrust as I am. This gives me more motivation to stay offline and develop my skills in music, literature, foreign languages, etc. and not waste it on stupid arguments or memes online. I rarely look at YouTube outside of music, and I don't ever use Instagram. Unless I really want to research something from a respectable source, I make it a habit to hold resentment for tabloid or pop culture news sites that do more damage to the integrity of the subject being discussed than helping it. Internet has potential but like anything it's abused. We often spend more time fantasizing about the potential of it than actually being creative. The creative arts have always been tough to make a living in and now with the swarm of competition its even more challenging, but I hope to find some ground and be able to influence people in a practical way.

I know what you mean. Sometimes 90 % of my time (online) is wasted doing absolutely nothing. It isn't just forums on the decline. I can't even get friends to send/reply to e-mail any more! They are much better at sending a text message (I'm referring to old friends, not current coworkers) than anything else but even then sometimes I don't hear anything. No reply, not even an "OK" to the text. So I take the hint and move on. I have one friend I have known since childhood. He might send me a long e-mail once every 5 or 6 years and I in turn start e-mailing him but get NO replies. So I give up. I hear from only 2 childhood friends on what I would call a regular basis. One of them lives in Florida, 4 hours away in Jacksonville (we grew up in Tennessee). I talk to him on the phone once every couple of months. We are the most active talking or texting during the college football season. The other childhood friend I only hear from by text message maybe 5 or 6 times a year, also during college football season. I hear from NO ONE I went to college with. No one replies to anything. Again, I am not on FB or twitter so maybe they are active there... I even have a biological brother I don't hear from, in fact I haven't heard from him or talked to him in about 4 years.... And I have texted him and e-mailed him, called him and get no reply... "He's pretty busy" I am told. Yeah, aren't we all. I asked my other brother about him (they live in the same town) and he said he never hears from him either because he thinks he is too busy. My wife and I live away from our families and where we grew up. Not sure if people would stay in touch better if we lived closer or not. Maybe, maybe not. I know some of them would be tickled to death to see me if I stopped by to visit them on one of my trips to Tennessee.
As for forums I spend time on music forums and no others. I like it here and about 3 others but that is it. And as big as the Melodic Rock forums are those are more dead than any of the others I look at.

Sign of the times I guess. Everyone seems to be too busy to do anything. Everyone has their face buried in phones. (I'm guilty of that too).

I haven't lived anywhere near my family for the past 20 years. Hell, my Mother and I talk on the phone every few months but we have't seen each other in person in over a decade. I have some half-siblings, but no real relationship with any of them, I see their posts on Facebook now and again but that's all. I really don't have much in common with my family (aside from my Mother) so I honestly don't see any logical reason to reach out to them. They have their own lives, I have mine and we live thousands of miles away from each other.

I have some old high school and college acquaintances on Facebook, but I don't have any kind of meaningful interactions with any of them. Too long ago, too much has changed, no real connection still exists with these people. I'm not the same person I was at age 15...or age 25....or age 35. People from the past make connections at specific points in your life, but as you change and develop those connections can become vague and then nonexistent. I don't mourn their loss, any more than I would want to magically become my 25 year old self again (no thanks, I didn't like that guy either).

Time marches on, the people that matter stay relevant to us, the people that don't slip by the wayside. All just a part of life.

mikeinfla wrote:

I know what you mean. Sometimes 90 % of my time (online) is wasted doing absolutely nothing.

I've been doing a lot of that lately myself. Actually, ever since I went to school for IT, I'm on the web now doing nothing more than ever!

mikeinfla wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Yeah, when the old threads vanished from The Complete Works it ruined the entire thing for me.

Ah - didn't realize that happened I just thought some of them were deleted for one reason or another. Didn't know the board took a dump and lost some threads.

I have a bunch of them saved. I've uploaded them and linked to these uploads several times already, but I think the appeal is more about the ability to continue commenting on a thread rather than just read what other people wrote years ago.

S.D. wrote:

I'm not the same person I was at age 15...or age 25....or age 35.  People from the past make connections at specific points in your life, but as you change and develop those connections can become vague and then nonexistent.  I don't mourn their loss, any more than I would want to magically become my 25 year old self again (no thanks, I didn't like that guy either).

I just want to meet my 22 year old self so I can say, "Hello, me. Meet the REAL me.."

S.D. wrote:

Yeah, when the old threads vanished from The Complete Works it ruined the entire thing for me.

I have tried to do something new, but it isn't the same. It sucked that a lot of hard work got flushed down the toilet and we still have Geoff Tate & QR threads that go on forever.

Lari wrote:

mikeinfla wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Yeah, when the old threads vanished from The Complete Works it ruined the entire thing for me.

Ah - didn't realize that happened I just thought some of them were deleted for one reason or another. Didn't know the board took a dump and lost some threads.

I have a bunch of them saved. I've uploaded them and linked to these uploads several times already, but I think the appeal is more about the ability to continue commenting on a thread rather than just read what other people wrote years ago.

Try posting them as new threads (and their respective postings underneath) with credit to the originator, that way they can be commented on currently. It might work !

James B. wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Yeah, when the old threads vanished from The Complete Works it ruined the entire thing for me.

I have tried to do something new, but it isn't the same. It sucked that a lot of hard work got flushed down the toilet and we still have Geoff Tate & QR threads that go on forever.

Too bad there isn't a way to back up the threads on here...

We have Judas Priest discography threads that never seem to go away. It's like a pest that won't die or the Bubonic Plague. Personally, I was thinking of starting a campaign to have all the JP threads deleted and make one all-encompassing "Best [inserthere] of Judas Priest thread". If this keeps up, I'm going to leave. >:\

The board has been so dead recently I don't see a problem with the Judas Priest threads. At least they get a little traffic.

Feel free to start threads on topics you'd like to discuss. Also, just because a thread exists doesn't mean anyone is forcing you to participate in it. I ignore stuff all the time.

Lots of members leave all the time, except most don't threaten it (when they get bored), they just go... Almost every topic has been discussed. Now we just usually talk about new album releases or miscellaneous topics.

And, still no threads on Skankin' Pickle. TZ - Start a thread on Skankin' Pickle, man!

Even during my ska phase I couldn't get into Skankin' Pickle. Same with Mephiskapheles. I did really like Mustard Plug and Slapstick though. Pie Tasters were good too.

You're old, Toho. You still remember the Skatallites debut when it came out.

I was more into the ska/powerpunk bands like Reel Big Fish and Goldfinger but that led me to explore more of the ska genre. I bought a ton of it then all of a sudden it started boring the hell outta me. I still dig out RBF occasionally but that's about it.

I ended up doing a complete 180 and started my industrial phase after that.

That IS a 180! haha. I, personally, love all three stages of ska. The original, the two-tone, and the 90's. It is part of where I came from, so - no brainer for me.

KMFDM's "Nihil" kicked it off and Nine Inch Nails "Broken" sent me full bore into the industrial world.

Ya know, seeing as how a lot of this thread has been bitching about nothing new going on here, maybe it would be interesting to start a thread where everyone posts their musical journeys. I don't recall ever seeing anything like that here.

muckie wrote:

We have Judas Priest discography threads that never seem to go away. It's like a pest that won't die or the Bubonic Plague. Personally, I was thinking of starting a campaign to have all the JP threads deleted and make one all-encompassing "Best [inserthere] of Judas Priest thread". If this keeps up, I'm going to leave. >:\

I did Saxon too. When all 20 studio albums were polled, this happened.
http://www.heartofmetal.net/t22376-the-story-of-20-polls-on-the-hom-saxon-studio-albums-101?highlight=saxon

I put a lot of work into it because stuff like that is fun for me. When I am done with Priest, I'll choose another band. It's cool that you don't dig on it, no big deal. Feel free to campaign, ignore, or participate.

Good luck trying to make others conform to how you want things to be done. if you succeed send me a synopsis of how you accomplished it, I have been trying to do it for over 50 years.

S.D. wrote:

The board has been so dead recently I don't see a problem with the Judas Priest threads.  At least they get a little traffic.  

Feel free to start threads on topics you'd like to discuss.  Also, just because a thread exists doesn't mean anyone is forcing you to participate in it.  I ignore stuff all the time.  

I often start threads that get ignored a lot too   I don't really care cause if one person digs what I've posted then that's all good.