I think after downloading the 45th album that I then didn't really get into, I just have to be strongly convinced that I really will enjoy it to even muster up the energy to download it ... for free. Put another way, there are more "costs" to acquiring music than just money. And as soon as it begins to feel like the returns don't justify the effort, people just sorta stop trying so hard. And this point leans on BG's point as well, that having a good filter system of people you know, who know your tastes, remains very valuable. One of the reasons I still show up.

About six or seven years ago, I realized that I was downloading more music than I could ever listen to. And it was kind of troubling to realize that even a lot of what I had listened to and even really liked had been shoved aside and nearly forgotten about so I could get on to the next new thing.

So I decided limit my listening almost exclusively to stuff that I'd paid for. And if I was going to pay for something, I was going to commit to giving it a minimum number of listens - let's say at least five if I really disliked something, and a dozen if I at least somewhat liked it - before shelving or getting rid of it. I've stuck to this pretty well, but it hasn't curbed my music intake as much as I'd hoped. I even caved and started paying for downloads a few years ago as a way of trying to spend a little less and not build up such an unwieldy physical collection, but I still won't ever pay typical iTunes prices ($9+ for an album). This has increased my intake a lot, though, because of how easy and immediate it is, and now I'm almost back to where I was six years ago.

All of this is to say that I never go around searching for links or downloading everything people recommend. I'm generally against downloading leaks, more because it takes away from my enjoyment of music consumption than for any moral reasons, but there are those, too. I have a pretty long want-list (including a 7-page Amazon wishlist that's mostly music) of stuff I already know I want to hear and want to take my time working through. For anything new and unfamiliar, I try to pass it through as many filters as possible before taking the plunge and committing time and money to it.

So yes, any actual music discussion here or on other boards is still pretty valuable to me, and I would be perfectly happy if it was all link-free, save for a youtube or some other streaming clip here and there.

I don't think posting links has killed the discussion on this board, though. Those two things coexist pretty well in other places. People have just left, and maybe the rest of us have just become a little too familiar with each other's opinions.

Good post, squirrgle. I dig the positive spin.

Agree on all of that. To blame it on downloading is overly simplistic. Most of us have simply fallen into our own caricatures, which makes our opinions on almost anything unnecessary to state.

I know i've gotten bored with obner because it seems like we're rehashing the same things over and over (re: the 6 pack threads vs the year threads that drinky did).

this, and for the beer and football talk

Still like showing up here just not as much to read through these days. And, when anybody gets excited about something they're listening to its worth checking it.

I probably do spend more time on Hipinion lately since topics are churning more. They have some great recommend threads in there as well.

I feel I should chime in here. I stopped coming by every day and then every week, month, until almost never because for awhile there the tone, tenor and mood of the board got far too snarky and mean for my tastes. I wanted to learn about new music, share some good classic music, and overall hang out with numerous quirky oddballs who came about because of our love with the original magazine, and its chat room.

When It folded, I migrated, but the mood soon after darkened, and a few ultra-mega super posters just started trampling down everything anyone said. It got old. I stopped posting and still tried to lurk, but everyone began changing their names every hour on the hour and I finally realized I didn't have a place here anymore, so I was gone.

I stop by every blue moon, still don't feel like I belong, and simply move on elsewhere to try to find that lost sense of community and obsessive/compulsive need to listen to everything I can (I Am Reddits Bitch these days) . I bare no grudges, and do not dislike anyone here, but good luck keeping this going, seriously. I find it a testament to your/our need to reach out and rock out as much as humanly possible - neigh - more than that, rock infinitely, indefinitely. P.S. I do like the new Divine Fits album.

Good to hear from you, JB!

+1 on the annoying name changes. That shit was dumb.

I think the mood is better nowadays. We did have an angry bunch here for a good 2 - 3 years or so. I'm assuming the anger is still out there, but perhaps everyone just found another outlet to vent? But too each his own. Glad you're still listening to good music.

i don't listen to music anymore.

I think the largest problem with this board is the lack of new posters. As Rads said, we all pretty much know what everyone's tastes are, and as Shiv said, there's only so many times we can rehash the same topics. A healthy influx of new posters would solve both problems. Easy to prescribe, but hard to remedy.

i have 27,000 posts on a pop punk board, so that's my excuse.

I have no free time for much music, or boarding these days. Still check in sometimes to look for ideas of things to listen to.

If you guys weren't such dicks to new people, there would be more people around this joint. I tried to get people from another board to come over here, but only a couple (nobody, Stone) weathered the locals-only gauntlet.

Even the locals aren't safe, y'know.

Because they might get knocked over by the tumbleweeds? I always thought the meanness of the board was overstated but whatever meanness was ever there has been gone for some time. Unfortunately, there's also a lot less activity of interest to attract anyone new or keep them coming back.

This was never one of the meaner music message boards, believe me.

I didn't necessarily mean mean, I just meant newcomers were/are pretty much ignored.

Hell, the spambots get more responses than new people posting up.

Yeah but newcomers are treated way worse in other places. Generally some effort would be made to welcome people here, at least, even if that wasn't coming from every single person.

I don't know, I don't have much sympathy for people who were too thinned skinned to deal with this place. I mean, I get it if you're getting annoyed with the same jabs always coming from the same people and the same people always getting picked on. That does get tiresome. But that's also kind of typical of every other board I've ever been on.

That doesn't even feel correct to me. I feel like the twice a year anyone new actually posts something clearly written by a human, it gets answered pretty enthusiastically. I can't remember the last time someone new even showed up, to be honest.

Lol. Just curious, can you give examples of boards where the mean people are?

Sound Opinions Message Board (SOMB)
Hipinion (and its parent board, many years ago, PFMS, which was originally the Pitchfork message board)

I mean I don't really think those places are mean, but they certainly don't go out of their way to welcome newcomers. And if you don't really "get" people there and where they're coming from, they can seem a lot worse than they really are.

I tried for a little while, way back after PFMS dissolved and most of it split off to form hpn, to post on another one of its offshoots, Exploding Plastic. Maybe it was just me at the time, taking things too seriously, but people there seemed downright hostile. It was mostly the older boarders from PFMS, and they didn't seem too interested in opening up their clique to any outsiders.

Also, there was a SOMB offshoot called Lots of People Posting (LOPP) that, ironically, didn't have lots of people or lots of posting, and I kind of made a brief attempt at posting there for a minute. I honestly never really liked any of those people or even had much regard for their taste in music so I'm not sure why I bothered. But some admin or mod there was even going so far as to edit my profile information to add in childish insults in the "about me" fields.

And whenever I've tried to use technical forums for any of the software packages I work with, I've encountered some of the worst trolls on the internet. Occasionally responding to my own questions, but usually responding to other people's queries that I dug up in trying to research something.

All of this is to say, if you think CMJ/Obner were ever excessively mean or indifferent toward newcomers, you've had a sheltered life on the internet. Lucky you, I guess.