Longtime ILXors - how has this board changed over time?

And BTW, I try my hardest to at least put up a facade of being intelligent, of having something of substance in my cranium, but honestly, when it comes to music, I'm just coming out of a period where I was actively avoiding any "new to me" music and only relying on my musical comfort foods for aural nourishment. And before that, I went through a period where I was only doing that which would allow me to survive. I listened to my Ultravox and Visage and Japan (to name the most "obscure" artists I was into at the time) and assorted various '80s artists and such only to the point to where it wouldn't interfere with my schoolwork, homework, club and organization duties, volunteer work, and nascent social life. In fact, even though I seem like I'm a busy individual these days and am in fact living a fully grownup existence, I've got more free time these days to devote to music listening than I ever had as a teenager.

So that's why I can't contribute worth a shit on ILM, unless you count the few times I post something and it ends up getting ignored or glossed over. That's why I'm forced to stick to the "chatty" threads. I lived to exist for such a fucking long period of time that it's only been recently that I've been able to expand my horizons, and I was kinda hoping on having that happen by frequenting this forum. So I'm fucking sorry I'm one of the idiotic masses around here. I'm just trying my hardest, time and again, and it seems like it's all for nought.

Oh, and I think the longtime posters who have chosen to drop out of sight around these parts have done those of us who really haven't been here all that long a GREAT disservice. Every single one of you oldtimers have contributed in some way or another to getting every single one of us (relative) newbies to come out of the darkness of lurkdom and start posting here. We don't get to hear their fresh perspective on any number of things. That's really unfair of them.

This is true, but it's (a nearly inevitable) consequence of the mode of interaction a message board allows. One's intelligence and one's humor are basically the only traits that are able to conveyed and, therefore, appreciated. (but even on those two qualities, you're selling yourself short)

Are you aware of the fact that whenever somone says "Chicago FAP!" there's this eternal protracted debate as to when and where and why and how? If you said "Chicago FAP!" tonight, we'd all pretty much bend to your will, short of driving to whatever backwater you live in.

With ILM, you can search the archives for seemingly every band you can think of and come up with several threads devoted to them. So, the bands that almost everybody knows have already been C/D & S/D'ed to death, thus, most of the new threads are related to more obscure bands in sub-sub-genres and relatively few people are able to participate.

I think alba's post on actually doing commentary on every thread is maybe the craziest (and I mean this in a good way) meta post ever!

Its been 2-4 years posting for some, and that is a very long time.

I don't find this quite true, at least not for myself. My favourite threads are often the ones where people discuss everyday or personal matters instead of "intellectual" ones, and I'm most impressed by the everyday wisdom and genuine empathy people here show. I you could call that a form "intelligence" too, but you don't need to write lengthy essays for answers to prove it (not that I have anything particular against essays). I liked the thread about male-female violence, for example, because people discussed a subject familiar to most of us in an deep, but not necessarily "intellectual" or "academic" way. I also like the odd trivia threads, like "Weird Animals", because it's nice to notice how so many folks besides me can get fascinated by such peculiar subjects.

Mostly though its because there are just SO MANY PEOPLE these days, its impossible to keep track of everyone, especially as there are more and more changing psuedonyms and email addresses. The time difference makes a bigger impact than it used to be - UK ilx and US ilx are now light years apart in terms of subject matter, tone etc, and with the exception of long time posters like Ned and Dan, the two camps barely seem to talk to one another at all.

Also, the link to FreakyTrigger and the culture surrounding it is virtually non-existant these days.

It goes in waves though - the boards have been poor recently but there was a period from about February to April this year when the whole place seemed pretty cool again.

the end.

Well, believe it or not, I've been following ILx since 2001 but it is only in the last couple of months that I've felt entirely au fait with ILX. Perhaps it is because of the leaving of some of the old-schoolers giving others a chance to catchup with the in-jokes and terminology.
It is only until very recently that I've stopped feeling like an intruder in some kind of clique. I'm not saying that the original community was a bad thing, far from it, but ILE used to be utterly impenetrable for a long time - every post I wrote, whether I thought it was witty or interesting, was guaranteed to sink like a stone - often dragging the thread down with it. This in turn made me feel rather unworthy.

and I want to second every sentiment in there.

Eh? There have been two huge London-based ones in the past week, with plenty of pictures galore, as well as the (comparatively smaller) LA one! Give us some credit! ;-)

You're right, it's not completely true. I should've said that other traits are harder to convey and pick up on, not impossible.

no its still strong, during the break a few ppl off ilx have started contributing to it, and most of the ppl that post comments also post here.

London ilx has had a shift from FAPs to events in the last six months, threads on these are full of anticipation and talk post-event.

posit: the advent of noize was the single most important event in ilx history

there's thruth in that. for a start the brits had to get more american, or they had to die

image posting used to be somewhat frowned upon in general, iirc. it's strange now to imagine how different and, for some, grating the noize aesthetic was around here in 2004.