ILM is kinda sucking these days (boring and meta ignore not safe for work)

I agree with Matt DC, I think - certainly in that I never really look at the rolling threads, and so am presumably missing lots of things I might otherwise look at.

I think some polls can be quite interesting / fun. The Britpop stuff over the last week has been fun, if, I guess, not that informative / richly intellectual, just because it was a lot of reminiscing rather than engagement / theorising.

I also think that, while there's been quite a lot of music this year that I like, there's not been THAT much for people to get excited about on a wider, cultural scale - the things I like this year are more solipsistic than ever before, perhaps - Elbow, Spiritualized, etc. I'd have loved people to get excited by The Do, and though people would, but it didn't happen.

I also think that... perhaps ILM did finally just get old, in a couple of ways. Firstly, the forum itself is now nearly 8 years old, and many regular posters have been around for most of not all of that time; a lot of wider 'idea' discussions have been had already, often many, many times.

Secondly, and more importantly I suspect, while the average age of ILM posters has posters has probably stayed much the same as newer, younger posters have joined, the posters who've been here a long time are now 8, 7, 6 or so years older than they were when they joined. People have mortgages, families, more responsible jobs, and a) simply don't have time for dicking about on the internet so much as they used to, and b) have probably mellowed in their opinions and their need to voice those opinions. Newer posters see the 'old guard' posting short pithy replies (partly due to net speeds these days as discussed before, and partly due to the above) and that's how they learn the vernacular of the board.

I think the rolling threads originally worked in a 'let's unclutter ILM so it doesn't have eight Kompakt or dancehall threads going at any one time' but they've now uncluttered the boards to such an extent there's not much new music there, just really big albums or polls or discussion of music that's ten years old. Not that there's anything wrong with the latter but I kind of miss 'one song' threads.

Considering now all you need to do is start a thread, post a YouTube link and people can go 'wow' or 'fuck this shit' or something more verbose, the last few years should have made this sort of discussion easier but strangely it's gone the other way.

Yeah, I'd love to read the Rolling Metal thread but have convinced myself that it's 50% things I don't care about and 50% things I must buy, and with a couple of thousand posts or whatever that must mean $$$$$$.

Rolling threads do stop revives on albums and tracks if people discover them six months late or whatever. By the time I've cottoned onto something it's 300 posts upthread and it seems rude to bring it up.

Never read Rolling threads, seem too clannish and exclusive to me

This thread is sad but true. Hope it's just a temporary lull.

welcome, messiahwannabe!

i wouldn't listen to "wilter", he sounds kind of miserable

have you posted yet to the "Introduce Yourself" thread? you should!

i agree about the "Rolling" threads, i think they're a much bigger problem than the polls

Introduce Yourselves!

Well you can only have one thing or the other. You can't install regulations to ensure that people do not start multiple threads on the same artist and then moan that nobody talks about x, y or z any more.

In any case I save all the long form writing for FT and my own blogs these days; there doesn't seem a great deal of point posting it here any more.

What 'regulations' would these be? Starting multiple threads on the same topic =/ starting multiple threads on the same artist.

Never read Rolling threads, seem too clannish and exclusive to me.

Ditto, sadly.

I like certain rolling threads. I think they cover a lot of bands/stuff that probably wouldn't otherwise necessitate a thread of their own. Matt H's rolling punk thread comes to mind. Is the alternative to start a thread for every single band mentioned? I've always been hesitant about being thread-start-trigger-happy in case they sit there empty and wasted and dead. Is that not worth worrying about?

The mail prob is that you don't exactly get why a thread may have been revived.

See a "Windowlicker, is it a Luke Vibert Ripoff?" thread revive, you don't naturally see the "MTV got caned for playing the sweary video at 8:30pm" story, so you think "not that old arg, I avoid"

That must be another "mike t-diva" contributing regularly to the rolling Top 40 thread, then.

I read the rolling punk thread. And occasionally the rolling metal thread, but that does move quite fast. I've never found either of them to be clannish or exclusive though.

Hmm, I kinda like the rolling threads.

The fault's prob. with me, I'm too much of a dilettante to get embroiled in Rolling threads

I'm scared of ILM.

-- Abbott, Wednesday, June 4, 2008 11:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Big egos here.

i too have been feeling this
- so much so i actually ventured over to ILE yesterday.
first time in in 8 years.
part of me agrees re the Polls/Rolling threads, they can be good, but on the whole most of them just end up being a point system, and thats not a massive leap from a Q review really is it.

So many of the polls are gratuituous. The Times New Viking one comes to mind. And these epic multi-part polls.

I suggest we list some ways to improve ILX, then turn that list into a poll, and then we all agree to abide by the winning result.

That must be another "mike t-diva" contributing regularly to the rolling Top 40 thread, then.

Oh, him...!

I also used to post on the rolling World Music thread, but kinda lost interest.

I suggest we list some ways to improve ILX, then turn that list into a poll, and then we all agree to abide by the winning result.

1. Ban Dom?

I actually ought to look at that World Music thread a lot more.

I haven't been here that long (two years or so maybe), but I don't see it as being that much more boring, insular and hostile to outsiders than it was when I turned up. It has neither improved nor declined in my time here. The rolling metal, world music, reggaeton/salsa and jazz threads are pretty much all I look at, because I really could give a flying fuck about indie and dance music and chart pop, plus I am pretty defiantly American in my listening habits and general musical knowledge, so much/most of this board is lost on me anydamnway. I've started a few threads that have gone mostly nowhere, but I don't care. The best thing about ILM for me has been the discovery of a bunch of amazing writers (Ned, John D., Scott Seward, many others), many of whom I have now had the opportunity to pay to write elsewhere. So for me this is like the world's most awesome version of Mediabistro, or something.

ilm has been shit for as long as i can remember, which is a very long time indeed, but all this begrudging the rolling thread people their fun is arriere-garde claptrap. the rolling threads seem more laid-back and less challops-heavy than the oldd ways.

rolling threads can of course have great stuff in them but they disregard the main strength of the ilx format which is asking questions

ilm (and ile) has been compared to various things over the years - a party (that has perhaps gone on too long), a bar, a pub. everyone has had the experience of being in one of these places and finding yourself talking to someone who isn't asking you any questions but instead just expounding on their pet subject - no matter how brilliant they are there's something dull about it

Yeah I'm not 100% hating on the rolling threads, they bring a lot of stuff to my attention that people wouldn't start a separate thread for. Also they can have a much more laid-back feel to them. At the same time I sometimes feel they suck in topics that maybe should have their own thread - albums especially.

i mean i'd go so far as to say greenspun's format (accidentally?) hit upon the very basis for philosophy and rational enquiry, a line that zig-zags from socrates through hegel and is the foundation of modern journalism: set up a question to provoke a counter-reaction, and poof - it's a new idea generator

xpost

of course if your goal with ilm is to add to your iTunes wishlist then this part is beside the point

No, if they're truly brilliant you should be spellbound, transformed, exceeded.

on ft and blogs i'd agree, dingbod (note to messiahwannabe: dingbod is also known as "marcello") but ilx's format is many-to-many (i.e. more like a party or a pub) rather than one-to-many (i.e. the radio)

i mean i'm sure the pub bore and his circle of mates also imagine they are transforming all who pass within their ambit

It needs to be more like Parliament and I don't mean the band.

It needs to be more like Parliament and I don't mean the band

Although that might help too.

I'd vote for that

"i refer the honourable gentlemen to the answer i gave some moments ago"

"ORDER - ORDER"

hmm .. it could work.

Horrendous idea. Parliament (not the band) is all about grandstanding; challops abound, trolls would fit right in.

I think it the case that any messageboard worth reading or spending time on has a necessary degree of intimidation about it.

We already have that, it's called Tombot.

Parliament (the band) is also about grandstanding; challops abound, trolls would fit right in and play a saxophone or something...

"Well, allright. Hey I was diggin' on y'all's funk for a while.
Sounds like it got a three on it though, to me.
Then I was down south and I heard some funk with some main ingredients
Like Doobie Brothers, Blue Magic, David Bowie.
It was cool,
But can you imagine Doobie in' your funk? Ho!"

Johnnie Walker keeps trying.

"your honour i move that the motion be blasted into funk orbit"

I think my main aversion to the rolling threads is that I feel like a completely frivolous dilettante and if I were to hang out with the 'specialists' they'd mock me, justly, until I cried.

Oh for the golden days of the Jay-Z/Nas rolling thread...

Which is many people's (me included) feeling on first finding ILM, oh the ironing. xp.

I've found ILM a bit sucky for a while, I must admit. It's mainly because I'm talked out on just about everything I'm interested in, and the one or two things I'm not talked out on, I'm the only person who cares about it. Or maybe just me and Gareth.

I think my main aversion to the rolling threads is that I feel like a completely frivolous dilettante and if I were to hang out with the 'specialists' they'd mock me, justly, until I cried.

Don't think this is at all true of the punk, metal, indie or dronenoiseetc threads

huh i was just wondering about this, I hardly ever post to ILM anymore. it's been a conscious decision, like Pashmina I felt like I was talked out and starting to repeat myself, which is already one of my bad habits.