Hi all. It's your friendly, mostly absentee moderator here.

I am considering asking the Bandwidth forum to be closed down, unless someone can present a reason why I'm wrong. Here's why.

1. We are not tied to a magazine. Really, all of the high-traffic forums here on MusicPlayer are the online forums of magazines, such as Guitar Player, Keyboard, and EQ. Obviously, there's no "Bandwidth" magazine (perhaps there should be, but that's a different topic). So, we have nothing driving people over here for discussions. I'd be happy to have Bandwidth be a fun place on the web, if we had more than a few people a month visiting.

2. Band members tend to focus in their area of expertise. That seems normal to me. Guitarists share their band stories with other guitarists in the Guitar forum. Keyboardists do it in the Keyboard forum. Point being, there's already a lot of band conversation here on MusicPlayer... it's just not in this forum. Understandable, I think.

3. Me! I am a problem here. Not only am I uninspired to keep this forum rolling with such light traffic, but here's another aspect. I performed in bands from 1982-2005 almost continuously. I played in all sorts of bands... cover bands, original bands, bands that did most work in the studio, bands that only gigged and never recorded. Big venues, tiny holes in the wall. So I'm certainly qualified to be your happy Mod here.

However, since 2005, I have been performing and recording as a solo artist. While I do continue to work with other musicians, I am not in a band. I'm not saying that I don't have the perspective to talk to you all about nearly any band situation, but keep in mind that the perspective changes as time goes by and you're not immersed in the thick of it.

ANYWAY... feel free to reply and let mr know your thoughts. I do like the concept of having a cool dedicated forum for Band topics here, but only if I'm not going to be playing alone. How's that for irony?

Thanks.

I've noticed 14 eyeballs on this thread and no replies.

Seriously, folks... let's get some discussion going here. Is it worthwhile keeping BandWidth around? I'd love to hear from someone with an opinion. Don't tell me you don't have an opinion... you know what they say about opinions.

Eh, you're a Laker fan. WGAF about your opinion?

See, other than one snide anti-Laker comment, we're no further toward resolving this issue.

I don't want to feel like an absentee mod. I'd like to be an active mod. A happy mod. A SuperMod!

But I can't contribute to conversations that don't exist, and I have no intention of starting 20 new topics each week so you can chime in. That's weak. I'm still pretty much leaning toward advising this forum disappear into digital dust, but no hurry. I'll let it wait awhile. In the meantime, I'll just be lonely in here by myself.

Hello? is there anybody out there?

Jeff:

Good timing, I suppose, for me to visit this forum. As you may know, I spend nearly all my time in the Keyboard Corner, but I make occasional -- VERY occasional -- visits to Bandwidth. As someone who plays in a band, I keep checking here to see if there are interesting posts or threads in this forum. Alas, I always find it fairly inactive, despite the obvious efforts made by you to start threads that may generate some talk. Indeed, it's the lack of activity on this forum that causes me to make such infrequent visits.

Put differently, I wouldn't lose any sleep at all if you recommended shutting this forum down. Whether others who are more frequent visitors here would feel differently is another issue entirely. Then again, silence speaks volumes....

Noah

I also drop by occasionally to see if there have been any funny, sad or angry stories posted. While I've played guitar for many more years than I care to admit, I've only been in a REAL working band for the last 2 years. Unfortunately I don't have any real cool stories or wisdom to impart. I wish there was more action here but if nothing goes on here then maybe it makes sense to shut it down.

Great, now I'm depressed because I once again realized that I lead a very boring life

A lot of times I forget this forum is way, way, way down here at the bottom of the page. I would suggest moving it to the top and renaming it. 'Bandwidth' sounds like a CB radio forum, or something.

Okay, that was at least worth a laugh from me.

Here's the deal: the forum can't be on top of the lists. MusicPlayer has made it clear that the forums are prioritized to support the magazine titles, as it probably should be. Since Gig Magazine is long gone, they haven't had a title in years that's focused specifically on band issues.

So, it's going to stay here in the bottom-dwellers, along with the rest of the steerage. I really don't think it presents any problem for the forum to remain here, mostly stagnant, but even I'm not compelled to come by that often, and I'm the mod. Know what I'm saying?

Anyway, I think I'll give it one last shot, and throw out a buttload of band-related topics. We'll see if we can get some passers-by to participate a bit. Like I said, I'd enjoy continuing to moderate this place, if we had some action in here.

Please don't shut it down... I'm just getting here!

I've been looking a long time for a forum that addresses "band" issues. I will do my part to add fresh blood!

Well, we're still here.

For now.

Thanks Jeff! I'm getting a band to start rehearsing soon... I'm sure I'll have lots of stories to pump up this forum again!

You know, as you memtioned - a lot of this stuff gets discussed on the other forums. One reason is that those are the folks you tend to interact with more regularly, and since it's viewed more, you get more/quicker responses. However, that doesn't mean someone who frequents another MP forum can't offer good advice.

Maybe you ought to look out for OT topics on the other forums, and chime in suggesting that they post it here, just to get people thinking about it. If they still want visibility on another forum, they can post it here with a link on the other one requesting to post replies here. I think it could take off if people just got into the habit of looking here.

Another type of topic that I think could be sqeezed in here that gets discussed a lot on the other ones is PA/Monitoring. There is lots of discussion on monitors, mics, in-ear monitors, Stereo vs Mono, etc. I guess technically, that could go into the Tech forum. But maybe lumping those together would also generate more traffic.

Hi Jeff, funny that I'm one of those folks who usually resides at the bass or guitar forums and I thought that I'd check out stuff not specifically instrument related. Lots of interesting stuff.

Newf