Should MPN set up a rant sub forum?

[Markay]

Reading the UB-XA thread and being none the wiser about the product, but reading a lot of the endless repetition of the Behringer business practise comments, leads me to ponder whether there should be a separate rant sub forum, where comment's about a business's practises are welcome, and banned from from discussion of the actual products that get released by companies that annoy people here.

[o0Ampy0o]

That idea has advantages and if people need to make a statement referencing their stance maybe they could use secret code like a, e, or b in their signature. It does not need to be understood by every casual reader. This would avoid a percentage of references and recommendations of products without triggering repetitive and rantful explanations.

 

I don't know whether spelling out the name calls up an evil spirit or it avoids giving them search engine mileage but the A****n, E**Y and Beh*****r or however it is done is counterproductive. It could be insightful having an open discussion with the evil spirit or being able to search and pull up all comments about these things.

 

[Docbop]

I've been on internet since the USENET days of the 80's and in general any thread that goes over a page of relies has turned into rants.       So a subforum sounds good in theory, but people are going to <fill in the blank> where ever they are. 

[Anderton]

8 minutes ago, Docbop said:

any thread that goes over a page of replies has turned into rants

Generally, but that's usually not the case in Sound, Studio, and Stage. This is for two reasons:

• I'm not reluctant to close a thread if I feel it has outlived its usefulness. It's not done as a value judgement about the posts, but more about avoiding repetition of earlier posts so that the thread doesn't become unwieldy.
• My favorite reason is that long threads often go on tangents that keep it interesting. The eventual turn of the thread may have nothing to do with the original topic, but that's cool - seeing how the thread gets from point A to point B to point C is what makes it interesting.

Some people have a problem with tight moderating, but I simply consider it an extension of editing that makes for a better experience. Probably some people have noticed I've done stealth spelling corrections on their posts

[timwat]

Personally, not a big fan of more thread separation.

 

In my opinion, reasonable discourse includes the free offering of ideas and the freedom to respond to these ideas, bound by the agreed rules of respectful discourse.

 

When a party moves outside the boundaries of respectful discourse here on this forum, we have choices - we can call them on the carpet in the thread, we can block them, or we can simply ignore their comments. 

 

Occasionally, we've had egregious repeat offenders who eventually earned themselves a complete ban from the forum...but that's been rare, and I don't recall that happening in years.

 

 

[Baldwin Funster]

Would anybody really go to another section for a long rant without being lured by a click bait title like:

"I burned down my drummers house because.." ?

And this forum doesn't show any preview info on the link on the home page so unless someone checked RANTS every day, few would see the latest rant.

Kinda like the Repair and Mods subforum. 

[ChazKeys]

Ranting if it's on topic I can deal with - but going off topic is more of a problem for me. The UB-Xa thread turned into a bit of a rant and an Oberheim love in  -  so much so  I went off to GearSpace for a few days to get some perspective/info from their OB-Xa thread.

 

Let's just try and stay on topic. 

 

[Dave Bryce]

1 hour ago, timwat said:

Personally, not a big fan of more thread separation.

 

In my opinion, reasonable discourse includes the free offering of ideas and the freedom to respond to these ideas, bound by the agreed rules of respectful discourse.

 

When a party moves outside the boundaries of respectful discourse here on this forum, we have choices - we can call them on the carpet in the thread, we can block them, or we can simply ignore their comments. 

 

Occasionally, we've had egregious repeat offenders who eventually earned themselves a complete ban from the forum...but that's been rare, and I don't recall that happening in years.

 

dB

[Moonglow]

2 hours ago, timwat said:

Personally, not a big fan of more thread separation.

 

+1

 

I generally enjoy listening to rants, as they come from passion within. I also enjoy listening to people argue.

[RABid]

I'm not in favor of separation.

 

I don't mind if someone expresses their feelings on a subject or about a company.

 

If they keep posting that stance over and over and over in every thread related to the subject it gets very tiresome.

 

If they tell me I am wrong because I have a different opinion, ...

[drawback]

6 hours ago, Anderton said:

Probably some people have noticed I've done stealth spelling corrections on their posts

Apostrophe editing wouldn’t hurt! End of rant 😉

[David Emm]

5 hours ago, Moonglow said:

+1

I generally enjoy listening to rants, as they come from passion within. I also enjoy listening to people argue.

 

This. 🤓 Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons and necking in the parlors. These things tend to rumble for a while and then pass on. I see no need for a separate lane. The sidewalk is hot enough. The ants don't need to have us wave a magnifying glass over them, too.   

[Baldwin Funster]

How about a Subforum for suggesting Subforums?

 

 

[marczellm]

I frequent another forum where there is a subforum for discussing controversial topics including politics etc. It fulfills the intended purpose of keeping the rest of the forum clean from these topics. But it has caused situations where some member is unwilling to interact with another member outside of the cage too, because now their politics is known.

[stoken6]

1 hour ago, marczellm said:

I frequent another forum where there is a subforum for discussing controversial topics including politics etc. It fulfills the intended purpose of keeping the rest of the forum clean from these topics. But it has caused situations where some member is unwilling to interact with another member outside of the cage too, because now their politics is known.

Yeah continue to keep politics out of this forum. Beyond that, I can easily skip over the rant posts if I don't feel the need to read them. Provided a rant post doesn't break the rules, it's fine to post imho.

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

[ProfD]

My two pennies...no need for a rant sub-forum. 

 

Let the rants continue in the appropriate threads. 

 

If so inclined, manufacturers and/or their representatives deserve to read the opinions both good and bad or tangential regarding their products and business practices.  

 

Maybe this will inspire manufacturers to return to putting better key action in lowered-tiered pro KBs.😁

 

Personally, I would love to see a 61-key, synth/sampler.  DSI almost got there with the Prophet X.😎

 

 

[Dr Mike Metlay]

Generally this community is pretty good at self-policing and keeping a lid on things. I think a subforum would be a logistical hassle and very counterproductive.

 

What Brother Craig said about chopping off threads that have gone nuclear is very apt. This is not a public forum in front of a US government building, it's a privately owned forum whose owners and their duly appointed deputies have rules people have to follow. If they don't, then they are stopped. 

 

mike

 

 

 

[KuruPrionz]

There are already lots of locations on the internet where people can scream, cry, holler and stomp their little feet. 

I love these fora, they are some of the best moderated discussions on the internet. 

 

Technically, I am a moderator. So far, I haven't had to advise anybody to maintain decorum. I'm not saying stuff doesn't happen, just that it never seems to escalate beyond a relatively minor altercation. 

 

Allowing negativity will generate negativity. Counter productive.

[GRollins]

Thoughts:

---I was a moderator once upon a time on another forum. There were a lot of, shall we say, uninformative posts in threads...enough so that I considered the idea of a "back room" where the adults could talk without interruption. After thinking about it for a while I realized that, no matter how good I felt the idea to be in the abstract, the practicalities were going to be unworkable in the real world for various reasons.

 

---We have, sadly, reached a point as a society where a lot of people want to be angry. They crave the adrenaline rush of lashing out at people; wounding them--emotionally, if not physically. If I'm right, this will eventually lead to physical violence in the real world, but we need not concern ourselves with that here, it's just that if I'm right things will get worse over time.

 

---Given that the people who want to be angry are coming from an emotional place, they cannot be reasoned with. You will not "win" an argument with them. Period. Ever. Reason does not penetrate emotion. "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still."

 

---The angry people feel justified in their position. They have rationalized it and will stick to it like glue. Trying to 'appeal to their better nature' will not work. They think they're already showing their better nature. They feel that their position serves some higher moral purpose and that if people would only admit that they're right, then the world would be a better place...because obviously anyone who disagrees with them is just an ignorant, willful child who must be disciplined and shown the error of their ways.

 

---Yes, there are people who will go on rants, then calm down. It's not difficult to tell the difference between the angry people and the ones who have a temporary snit. Just watch. The angry ones will reveal themselves...over and over and over...

 

---I find it difficult to read threads with a lot of ranting. It gets in the way. It lowers the S/N ratio. I don't see any reason to encourage it or condone it. People who act like that perceive tolerance as approval and will continue their behavior. Those who enable the angry people will find that the angry people will become more and more extreme over time until even they regard the angry ones as a burden. By then, it's too late.

 

---People who are of the angry sort see anger in other peoples' words, even when none was intended. In psychology this is called projection. They project their anger onto others. I could point to a post here where this happened, not too long ago. It's hard to communicate over the web. Nuances get lost. Subtle verbal cues and facial expressions don't make it into posts on a forum and emojis are no substitute. But this projection thing is next level, so to speak. The willful need to misinterpret the words of others as an attack is part of their world view.

 

---Hypothetical situation:

A man walks up to a woman and starts berating her. "You goddamned slut! You whore! You're a disgrace to the human race and you and all of your kind should be killed!"

A bystander calls the man out on his behavior.

The man adopts a wounded expression and says, "But I'm allowed to say what I want. It's my First Amendment right to do so."

Well...yes...and no. The US Constitution and Amendments do allow and protect certain things, amongst them the right to speak out. And that's a good thing. But the process breaks down when people lose all sense of decorum and start saying ugly things, then hiding behind the First Amendment, using it as a get out of jail free card for their bad behavior. This is a complex and difficult problem. Where does free speech end? When does it become something that should, in fact, be restrained by some mechanism? How do you construct a restraint that's fair and reasonable? I could point to certain examples out in the real world, but I'd run afoul of the forum rules in doing so. That's okay. It's just that we're facing a bit of the same problem here. It would be nice if people would employ self restraint, but that's no longer an option, I suppose.

 

---There have always been angry people. They're not a new phenomenon. What's different is that the proportion of angry people in society has increased and they're becoming bolder. Being more of them, they're able to find each other more easily and they feel more powerful when their feelings are reinforced within their echo chambers, listening to one another, egging each other on. They become more and more extreme over time.

 

---Personally, my life kinda sucks right now. I don't need the negativity and bullshit. I chose this forum precisely because it seemed calmer and more mature. Where would I go if this forum goes down the tubes? I don't know. All I can say is that when you go to your quiet space, only to find that it's not quiet, you kinda wish you hadn't gone there.

 

No, there are no easy answers. Not out in the world. Not in here. The decisions that would need to be made are above my pay grade, as the expression goes. I'm just one guy seeking a quiet place where I can escape my life for a while. That's getting harder and harder to do.

 

Grey

[ProfD]

3 hours ago, GRollins said:

I'm just one guy seeking a quiet place where I can escape my life for a while. That's getting harder and harder to do.

I've been hanging out here for a long time now. I'm betting the S/N will remain on the high side. We also have great moderators here too.

 

Trouble doesn't last always. There's a bright side somewhere. In all things life related I encourage you to hang in there mayne. 😎

[Adan]

One of the great things about this forum is that, here, credibility actually matters, at least in relative sense compared to the internet writ large.  I think this helps keep things within reasonable bounds and fosters some degree of self-correction.

 

If there was a rant subforum, no one would go there. Imagine a bunch of creepy old men in raincoats exposing themselves to each other.  No one would be satisifed.

[jazzpiano88]

On 11/24/2023 at 1:24 AM, Baldwin Funster said:

How about a Subforum for suggesting Subforums?

I tried to do something like that a few years ago in some piece of software I was using and it ended up recursively generating a file structure on the system that grew out of control, within minutes crashing the system.  I didn’t know how to stop it and panicking felt like I had let a chain reaction go critical.  

 

Rants are fine with me.   Gives insight into what people are thinking.   

I think the world has a population of people who psychologically cannot tolerate being around any conflict.   It’s like people who don’t have a sense of humor and they don’t understand why anyone else could possibly find something funny, and therefore think the problem is with others rather than themselves.   

[Baldwin Funster]

1 hour ago, jazzpiano88 said:

I tried to do something like that a few years ago in some piece of software I was using and it ended up recursively generating a file structure on the system that grew out of control, within minutes crashing the system.  I didn’t know how to stop it and panicking felt like I had let a chain reaction go critical.  

 

Rants are fine with me.   Gives insight into what people are thinking.   

I think the world has a population of people who psychologically cannot tolerate being around any conflict.   It’s like people who don’t have a sense of humor and they don’t understand why anyone else could possibly find something funny, and therefore think the problem is with others rather than themselves.   

Who remembers the debate between Spock and Landru?

[Baldwin Funster]

Ok so the dialog was a little different than I remembered it. I thought there was more talk about subforums. Still classic though...

 

 

[RABid]

I want to rant about AAA and warn everyone to check their bills. Where do I go? Should I just stick it in the next Behringer thread?

[KuruPrionz]

28 minutes ago, RABid said:

I want to rant about AAA and warn everyone to check their bills. Where do I go? Should I just stick it in the next Behringer thread?

This is why God created Facebook... 

[RABid]

I'm going to tell my story just so people know. 

 

I got an unrecognized call on my cell phone and let it go to voice mail. They left a message and when I listened a man from AAA said he gave me a free upgrade to premium level free for the rest of my year and for the next year. After that it would be at the regular premium price, which meant if I did not change it back I would eventually be paying a lot more. Well, when my electronic bill came the next year was not a free upgrade. My price went from $120 to $200 for the next year, and I was on auto pay and auto renewal. I logged onto my account to change it back down to the middle level but the web sight only lets you upgrade your plan. There is no option to downgrade. Guess you have to call and talk to someone for that. What I did was remove the auto pay and electronic billing. The sight told me I would be mailed a bill. I do plan to call and complain. My thought is this should be illegal. So...

 

Anyone with AAA, check your policy before your next autopay comes due.

[Stokely]

That sounds like the damn health plan at work.  It defaults to "smoking=yes" every...single...year.  Despite the company and plan remaining the same.   So if you aren't changing anything, but don't go in actively to uncheck the smoking box, you'll now be charged more until next year when you can change it again.

I'm sure some smart young exec got a raise for thinking of that small-but-easy way to milk a bit more money out of people.

Just the tiny tip of the shitberg that is the US Health insurance and "care" system.

[David Emm]

*SIGH* I hate being able to sympathize with a lot of these posts. I'm reaching a point where I feel as if I'm being screwed with my pants on any time I do business with any place employing more than 20 people. If someone did such things to my face, I'd do a Mike Tyson on their ears. The police might have to show up, but they might also call it justified and walk off. 

 

Historic point > Insurance can be laid at the feet of two men: Meyer Lansky, Al Capone's bookkeeper ( *cough* protection money, natch) and Charles Ives, avant-garde composer, also known as 'The Father of Modern Insurance.' He devised amortization tables early on, when insurance was still semi-honorable and aimed mainly at  large businesses. Sure turned into a feces cyclone, didn't it?

[ProfD]

Joe Pesci had a line in the Lethal Weapon movie about them f'n you at the drive-thru. Probably applies to insurance companies too. 😁😎