Any reason why ILM is so quiet these days?

I like Facebook's recent multi-threaded approach now, even if it is still a bit glitchy.

oh god no

(and fuuuuuuuuuuuck fuck fukc fuck f u c k twitter's even worse take on this. so hard to follow a thread now.)

anyone who likes multi-threading should be banned from ilx

I would like to see more posts where people boast about obscure music they love and try to win others over. Preferably in topics not dedicated to sed obscure music.

Maybe we could have obscure music by genre threads or if said genre is already obscure then more active threads dedicated to that particular genre/style that can include less obscure music

the minimal text groove of ILM is work friendly - FB is not.
hence i still hang around here.

Totally this. I'm able to ILX at work because it's totally inconspicuous. Plus I absolutely loathe Facebook and I haven't used it or Twitter in a couple of years (outing myself as an old).

Maybe we could have obscure music by genre threads---― The Once-ler

We have plenty of them already.

Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2015 and onward: Salsa, Bomba, Merengue,Reggaeton, Bachata, Latin-Jazz and more

Chitlin Circuit Double-entendre -filled Soul 2004 (and onward) Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" is a song of the year

why would we have our discussions facilitated by some fly by night web megacorp when we have our own sweet DIY platform right here? greenspun forever aeon flux forever

I miss threads for new artists. Used to check new answers and after seeing an unfamiliar name enough times I'd say "oh maybe I should check out this dizzee rascal guy." Whereas now someone would've just posted I luv u to the rolling uk carpark thread or whatever.

I mean I get the desire to discuss artists in context or just the friction of starting a new thread.

eh rolling threads are kinda meat grinders

okay, how about we have one thread where we discuss our favorite finds and old flames?
I feel like no one notices when I bump a thread for 'obscure band ____'

i think people probably notice but if they're not interested there's not much you can do!

i like to bump clarke's metal faves thread for that but it always takes me like 10 minutes to find the damn thing so i tend to just let it go

eh rolling threads are kinda meat grinders

way i read this you're agreeing with me? rolling threads mean that the new answers page isn't a useful guide to anything except which scenes people are following.

i think people probably notice but if they're not interested there's not much you can do!

^ This. I mean Louis has been trying to get us all to listen to the Cardiacs for about 8 years to little or no avail.

do you guys like Haves & Thirds? i love this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BHC3YrXUuU

^ This. I mean Louis has been trying to get us all to listen to the Cardiacs for about 8 years to little or no avail.

haha.
indeed.
i did check some of the bands out as per nudged on that thread, but, nah, not for me ..
i am in two minds re the rolling threads.
on one side, they can provide a great quick dive into a particular scene/sound, but on the other, if you are not invested and up to speed with the detail, then the thread becomes a bit of a closed shop and can end up being too intimidating for genre scum surfers like me.

i tried to watch a couple of cardiacs videos because of him. didn't get far.

I remember someone liking the Cardiacs but maybe it was the art bears
what's her face

The minimalist and anonymous thing is a big draw but then again I started with Usenet and BBSses.

ILX has 88 threads about dizzee rascal

way i read this you're agreeing with me? rolling threads mean that the new answers page isn't a useful guide to anything except which scenes people are following.

yes; i was just adding that the 'context' provided by a rolling thread seems pretty minimal/notional.

I mean

but there's rarely that much in the way of discussion and when there is, it's generally the same four or five posters doing an inside-baseball thing.

what other form would discussion take on a genre thread

I like the Cardiacs fwiw

I like art bears

i like big butts

I like art bears

Best prog band of all time imo

It's not impossible to imagine that ILM will outlive Facebook.

Facebook is just such a miserable experience

And no fucking way is Twitter better than ilx. Everything on there washes away so quickly, there's no way you can get a substantial exchange going unless you're riding the app all day long. Everything just disappears.

This is the only place/app/whatever that doesn't make me want to kill myself

^^ otm

i have tried asking questions periodically, but i think a lot of the conversation that used to keep ilm (specifically) alive was fueled by discovery and people learning about stuff from people who had more expertise. i don't enjoy personality-driven sniping or argument wrt music honestly, mostly i have used ilm to ask questions and to discover new stuff. also, it afforded people like me the chance to talk about music with only words to identify me. i never would have attempted to do any number of things if it weren't for the freedom of being text on a page. i hope this isn't a death knell (but even if it is, i can't say i'd walk away empty handed)

I've only got one thing to say, Can we be shown weirdos + Mike Love?

Usually music news these days is super depressing. Like I just read something that makes me want to crawl back in bed.

Also maybe think-piecing things to death has had an effect on discussions. Music/video drops and you've heard it and read an article/headline about it and by the time you get into a ILM thread there's all this meta baggage it's already been discussed to death and Twittered about and everyone has probably read slightly different takes on it and now you are dealing with all of these invisible browser histories that you have no idea of.

This leads sometimes to threads where people are arguing against arguments that don't exist on the threads themselves but on external websites. Which is fine and good but kind of confusing.

It's a small issue but one thing I've always liked about ILM is if you make a misstep, you don't get an instantaneous beat down from some gatekeeper hard man, more snark or gentle steering in the right direction unlike some more specific forums on or off FB where hair trigger peeps go from zero to apoplectic in one exchange.

Damn. I'm not sure I've ever had that experience.

But I think ILM has mellowed a bit (aging? music taste isn't so identity defining?), still loads of snark and sarcasm of course.

still loads of snark and sarcasm of course.

which apparently scared a lot of posters away

I don't see much of that on ILM tbh.

There's a lot of snark but very little actual RAGE, which I occasionally see on other boards.

Snark gets boring really quickly though.

But, you know, first there was Zing now there is Snark, plus ca change.

i have tried asking questions periodically, but i think a lot of the conversation that used to keep ilm (specifically) alive was fueled by discovery and people learning about stuff from people who had more expertise.

i think the lack of zero-cost instant universal availability also meant that ppl constantly had to rely on finding productive/attractive ways to convey that expertise to others w/ analogical reasoning, comparisons, descriptions, convincing personal representations, etc. - as an investment in discovery

all that can take place in full view of the actual artifacts, and after the fact rather than before everyone has had a chance to experience them, but there's a kind of natural indolence that comes out when you can just hear something for yourself and nothing much rides on whether you can articulate its significance or quality in anything other than private terms

there's a related dimension too, that opinions are connected to ppl and once the internet is glutted w ppl and their opinions, there's a real disinclination to find out more about anyone via their opinions (like, the difference between being 20 in 1999 and finding out, like, 'omg there's all kinds of super music fans on the internet!!!!' and being in your 30s in 2010 and being like 'ugh, more super music fans on the internet')

scared away, bored away, i don't really care

there#s been some serious bad behaviour occasionally over the years but it's easy to skip it on ILM in particular and god knows u have to have some kind of deterrent for challopians, blowhards and other spoilers of joy

But, you know, first there was Zing now there is Snark, plus ca change.

― holger sharkey (Tom D.), Thursday, July 9, 2015 6:30 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

almost as if it was just an intrinsic part of human communication

Some posters were banned too, right? R@cc00n is the most recent one that comes to mind.

at least deems will be pleased bans are back then

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/plum-juice-glass-realistic-full-drink-cocktail-straw-isolated-white-background-vector-illustration-41601780.jpg

almost as if it was just an intrinsic part of human communication

Well, maybe, it's sometimes pretty forced and some people just don't have the Zing/Snark chops but feel as if they have to join in when they should leave it to the experts.

I'm rambling now, I'm going home.

Your mums an expert

there used to be better handwringing on ilm too. step it up, you guys!

i think that ACTUAL valuable new posters are coming in and will continue coming in, although it takes a while sometimes to see who's gonna stick around, and which Raccoon Tanuki's are worth trolling back until they go away

― some dude, Thursday, July 9, 2015 12:37 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

as a relatively new poster (started in 2013), it is extremely hard to understand the culture of ilxor, took me a while to understand a few things and i still feel outside the circle at times. you need to invest time, and none of my friends my age really care about discussing music on a message board (they will do it on twitter, facebook, etc).

OK tom I'm not sure I buy that, quite aside from the fact that you employ the zing/snark register as often (and as well) as any given poster I don't think I agree that it's that dominant around here really, even if I cared about these putative swooning consumptives "scared off" by internet zingers. Maybe I've missed the really vicious stuff tho