Re: Jazztalk is the greatest website in history!!!

[LennyH]

That's unfortunate, Scott. Thanks to you, Ron and Justin for all of the effort.

I have to admit that I do get bummed when I see reference to dust ups but have no idea what occurred. This has happened several times. I check in here every day and usually multiple times and I somehow managed to miss most of that. I show up and here talk of the situation, the posts have been deleted and, sometimes, people have left or been banned.

I know that you guys have been trying to prevent things from devolving into chaos and I understand but it seems that the dust ups happen regardless of that. I guess I prefer something closer to anarchy (but agree that people need to get banned once in a while). I'd at least be able to see, most of the time at least, the uncensored version of what actually went down.

Regardless, there aren't enough people who want to participate in a board like this anymore, apparently. It's a shame because I ultimately came to the conclusion that Facebook mostly sucks. I re-activated my account because there are certain people who I have no other way to contact but I am reluctant to participate.

[BeBop]

That's unfortunate, Scott. Thanks to you, Ron and Justin for all of the effort.

Agree completely.

I wish I'd had more time to participate...to contribute. Some small part of the problem was timing (as some of the Org-board folks know). Another part - odd to say - is that, after 25 years on "the internet" - despite all the changes and improvements, I'm burned out on the thing. I'm moving back into meatspace more and more. Perhaps I'll run into one of y'all at a concert, or traveling or with a book in-hand. Yeah, real world. That'd be cool.

My best to everyone, Scott, Ron and Justin especially.

[Chazro]

Had a feeling this was gonna happen as the activity level seems to have lessened considerably. Thx for giving it a shot!

[sozamora]

Unfortunate, but I can't say I didn't see it coming. No one can say you didn't give a good try. I never expected the joint to be jumping, but I did think there was a small chance JC folks could make it a relaxed place to chat without the FB limitations.

It does seem like any time there was any momentum, it ended in a conflict. I suppose that's just the nature of group dynamics; I just didn't think it would affect such a small group.

To all FB friends, I'll see you there.

[Monte Smith]

[Pete C]

I was reluctant to participate because this "refugee forum" seemed like mostly an attempt to keep the Jazz Corner group together without any interest in expanding or making a new, welcoming public forum for jazz nerds, but even that would have probably been doomed to failure. The hosted bbs has gone pretty much the way of usenet.

[stonemonkts]

Things were going well until the blow up on your gig thread.

I stepped in with too big of a boot.

You're welcome, I guess.

So it is Pete's fault!!! That intrepid travelling bastard.

Thanks for trying. Not sure why, but I feel more comfortable expressing myself on this format versus FB. Maybe I'm just a "follower" after all.

I guess what troubles me is losing all touch with people like Jimmy C.

[Monte Smith]

I blame Stallone. Never gets old.

[Ron Thorne]

Well, we gave it a shot, folks. Looks like the final fire fight here recently was the back breaker I predicted it to be. We get about 20-30 posts a week. There have been 5 since Sunday.

Thanks for trying this little experiment with me, but it seems there was simply too much baggage for folks here to get along for an extended period. Ron has expressed a desire to take over the board, but I'm wondering if even he isn't seeing the light at this point.

Either way, I will be canceling the hosting service once this month runs out.

Thanks again, and best wishes.

Scott, I haven't seen exactly the same light as you, though I understand your frustration. I also appreciate your considerable contributions.

I began tracking Total posts & Total topic views on Sunday, and from then until midday Tuesday (yesterday) there were over 50 posts and 2300 views by my records. That's obviously not a terrific amount of activity, but it's considerably more than you indicated. That's not said to be argumentative, but rather for some perspective.

I wasn't even hip to the "final fire fight" until after the fact.

If I can justify the time spent and cost factor, I would like to keep this board alive and see if we can turn things around, or at least maintain a reasonable level of activity and interest. Of course, if the members here today are less than enthused about keeping jazztalk.net alive, I'm not inclined to spend time and money chasing my tail.

Should we conduct a poll?

Thoughts and suggestions are most welcome.

[Ron Thorne]

Scott, I was using the Statistics info from the bottom of the site's front page for the numbers I mentioned.

As I said, I don't mean to be argumentative, but thought your numbers seemed awfully low.

C'est la vie

[jtx]

[imageleft]http://www.createway.com/images/shared/kumbaya.jpg[/imageleft]Sites like this are cyclical in their activity levels, so I am not surprised about the current state. The fact that there are still 88 people signed up as members seems significant to me, even if that means that only a few posts may be occurring per day on what is also still the first week of the new year.

I haven't posted to Facebook in 3 weeks, but I would be dejected if I went in tomorrow to post something, only to discover it had been mothballed. I am pretty sure that many members of this site would have that same sentiment if Jazztalk.net were to shut down like this. It seems that aside from the dust-ups mentioned that there are far more here who get along just fine, and still get enjoyment out of this experiment.

I would recommend making some refreshes to the forums and topics to demonstrate that the site is actually evolving (dare I say we remove "A refugee forum" from the masthead while we're at it?), and see how that goes. It would also be good to hear from the other 80 or so who may not be aware of this impending doom. A group e-mail might actually garner some new interest and traffic, especially if that e-mail mentioned some of the new stuff that has been added, and any policy clarifications or other announcements that might allow the recent issues to be put to bed.

Once you undo something like this, it is exceptionally hard to re-do it. My vote is for keeping the band together, man.

[BFrank]

Thanks for giving it a shot, guys.

I think this 'board' technology has become somewhat dated compared with the various social media sites that have proliferated in the past few years. Nothing WRONG with it, but I think a lot of people (myself included) have enough trouble keeping up with those.

[ValerieB]

I am voting to keep the site going but feel quite selfish doing so since I sure haven't contributed much and don't like the thought of Ron spending time and money if it's not going to succeed. I just haven't been very motivated lately to post since there have been some not-so-positive things going on in my life concerning health issues with friends.

I'm not aware of the "final dust-up" nor do I care. from the old days, I'm very used to ignoring them.

just want to get my "selfish vote" in. I think there's a good chance that this site will "catch on" but it's not based on much except my gut feeling.

whatever happens, big thanks to Scott, Ron and Justin.

[J.A.W.]

I'm not sure you can blame it on group dynamics.

It's more like this particular group just brought too much baggage/history. What, to an outsider, would seem a perfectly innocuous comment would drive the protagonist into a rage. Because, there was a history there.

Nature of the beast, I suppose. We're only human.

If nothing else, I can honestly say that you cats were worth the effort. What we accomplished, if for only a short time, still impresses me. A group effort gone awry, but at least we all gave our best.

I'll still miss it.

It's exactly that kind of belligerent atmosphere that drove me away from JC - not that I posted much over there (my post count was only about 1,000) - and prevented me from posting here. Wise decision, Scott.

[walto]

I like having this place available, but I really have no idea what time/trouble/$$ is involved in doing so. I've offered to contribute a few bucks a couple of times, but there have been no takers. I don't know how to help otherwise. I also don't know what the most recent argument was about--I'm guessing it's not worth blowing up the board for, but WTHDIK? Obviously, if Scott doesn't want to run it, he shouldn't have to. But it seems a shame to put it out to pasture if others can and would be willing do it--especially as the members have offered to pay all costs several times.

[BeBop]

There hasn't been 50 posts in the last week+, so I'm not sure where that figure came from.

Aside from this thread there have been, since Sunday:

One post in the TV shows thread
One post in the Sonny Rollins thread
Five posts in the movies thread (also counting those that have been posted after the start of this thread)
One post in the shameless self promotion thread (also after I started this thread)
One post in the old habits thread

That's a total of nine posts since Sunday.

FWIW, I have been lurking more than posting, but you've kept me interested/amused enough to keep dropping by.

Unfortunately, I'm not much of a general-topic conversationalist. I haven't watched TV, seen a movie or viewed a video since 1978; I don't follow sport.

Need to get in an extra "thanks" for Ron's photos.

[hornplayer]

I am voting to keep the site going but feel quite selfish doing so since I sure haven't contributed much and don't like the thought of Ron spending time and money if it's not going to succeed. I just haven't been very motivated lately to post since there have been some not-so-positive things going on in my life concerning health issues with friends.

I'm not aware of the "final dust-up" nor do I care. from the old days, I'm very used to ignoring them.

just want to get my "selfish vote" in. I think there's a good chance that this site will "catch on" but it's not based on much except my gut feeling.

whatever happens, big thanks to Scott, Ron and Justin.

Valerie has said what I was thinking, so I'm just quoting her here. I've never posted very much in the last several years of JC, and I haven't posted much here, either. But I do appreciate having this place to land and check out what's going on Jazzwise in the rest of the world.

I hope it continues.

[pig pen]

I think this 'board' technology has become somewhat dated compared with the various social media sites that have proliferated in the past few years. Nothing WRONG with it, but I think a lot of people (myself included) have enough trouble keeping up with those.

I don't know. I am a member of another board where I just looked at the stats and there were 244 members online at that moment and over 1000 non-registered users browsing. They also list over 5000 members as active (over 44000 total) and have >170,000 threads. Clicking "new posts" brings up thousands of posts with just minutes between the time of each post, so it is extremely active. So, it can work!

I have given facebook a chance and could never get the hang of it, part of it being a visceral dislike of the facebook entity and companies like them. I sincerely hope that I see them go bankrupt.

[steve(thelil)]

Thanks for all your efforts, Scott and Ron.

And fuck Stallone. (Thanks Monte)

[bluenoter]

Scott, six people who happen to be around at the instant you ask a question---or even one day later---do not a poll make. But would any poll results motivate you to keep going if you don't want to?

Once you undo something like this, it is exceptionally hard to re-do it. My vote is for keeping the band together, man.

"Werd!" (And jtx has put in a lot of time and effort on this sucker!)

I guess I'm addressing the following to both Scott and whoever might be willing to take over (as well as to everybody else)---

As I've said, I can contribute a token amount of money, and here's my current thinking on contributing time as an assistant:

I have steady availability, nearly 'round the clock and 'round the calendar, and I know that I'd have no problem learning to perform most mod/admin tasks. I'm not much of a "people person," but even in that realm, I think I'd be adequate.

BTW, I've been compiling lists of potential new members, and I passed some of those names over to Ron a while back. Has anyone done any recruiting lately? (Now, that's something I feel that others could do much better than I.)

[BFrank]

I think this 'board' technology has become somewhat dated compared with the various social media sites that have proliferated in the past few years. Nothing WRONG with it, but I think a lot of people (myself included) have enough trouble keeping up with those.

I don't know. I am a member of another board where I just looked at the stats and there were 244 members online at that moment and over 1000 non-registered users browsing. They also list over 5000 members as active (over 44000 total) and have >170,000 threads. Clicking "new posts" brings up thousands of posts with just minutes between the time of each post, so it is extremely active. So, it can work!

I have given facebook a chance and could never get the hang of it, part of it being a visceral dislike of the facebook entity and companies like them. I sincerely hope that I see them go bankrupt.

I assume you're talking about the Hoffman board. I don't go there much because there are too MANY members.

FWIW, in FB you can set up private groups and have ongoing discussions with only those who have been invited/allowed to Join. Yet, I understand why people don't want to sign up for FB at all, though.

[bluenoter]

What's "the Hoffman board"---AAJ? Edit: Never mind; I found it (Google Steve Hoffman). Never seen it before!

The O board seems to be doing well, or at least holding its own. I'm a member, but I rarely visit; I've never been able to warm up to it.

I lasted two days on Facebook. Aiieee! There's a way to delete one's Facebook account permanently, and I did.

[walto]

The busiest board I've ever used is College Confidential. Hufrakingmongus.

Scott, I will PM you as requested.

[J.A.W.]

What's "the Hoffman board"---AAJ?

Nope, it's mastering engineer Steve Hoffman's board: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/ A lot of people love it, many hate it. It has its share of grown-ups who behave like adolescents.

[bluenoter]

What's "the Hoffman board"---AAJ?

Nope, it's mastering engineer Steve Hoffman's board: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/ A lot of people love it, many hate it. It has its share of grown-ups who behave like adolescents.

Thanks! I'd just found it and was trying to figure out what it was like.