Is there any other kind?

Yes, but then he became relenting.



Derigin runs the forum software, blame him if something is wrong.



Yes, and now the closest equivalent literature is BastardHead stories, which are basically soap operas formatted like John Galt's rant in Atlas Shrugged.




The forums have become like a factory farm of turgid souls, and Nightgaunt prefers to graze on free-range souls.



No, but I did find an odd work of fiction in Czech in which someone with the same name as Witcher was murdered. That was weird.



Now here's my question. What do the internal workings of the site look like?



^that.

True fact: reading derigin's endless posts is the #1 cause of mod burnout over time. I've survived only because I never read them!

It gets really bad when there's a discussion between Azmodes and I. Longpostapalooza.

Are there ever events in which members meet en mass to hang out/party/chill? It should happen sometime soon.

What about merchandise? That'd be cool.

Thanks!

Oh, that thing turned out to be a story? Huh. I told you the háček made all the difference!!

Happens pretty frequently at metal festivals and shows.

No merch, no plans for it.

We've had one hangout in Montreal where 5 or 6 MA members showed up, that's the most hanging out at once that I've been part of.

This may have been asked, I am sick today and with little energy, but why did The Symposium get shut? I notice that most political topics get shut too, and I wonder if there is a broad, overarching reason for this. Obviously, threads about certain topics (racism in metal, immigration, etc.) often end up getting heated but, for me, I enjoy those kind of discussions. For me, they often help to clarify my own opinions and I enjoy reading/learning from other lay-folk too.

Hopefully this isn't seen as a 'complaint' question; its not intended to be. I have modded a big drug forum over the last 8 years, recently in a particular section that gives rise to huge arguments and semantic merry-go-rounds, and I was at a loss as to how to moderate this. I ended up stepping down as the stress of my dissonant desires (a desire to encourage free speech, a desire to avoid a forum getting mired in unwelcoming debates) ended up causing me physical anxiety. I'd love to hear from other forum moderators about how/why they deal with this internet-specific issue.

edit: what happened to OGMetal? I believe he was either a mod/admin. He was really kind to me in my early MA days when I misconstrued the flavour of the forums and got banned for posting that Carpathian Forest ass crack image. He gave me some adivice and allowed me to rejoin under a slightly different username. I appreciated his treatment of me when he was right in totally dismissing my childishness. I haven't seen his name very much, I assume he has moved on...?

Speaking of this, did Lippyassmajor's account get deleted? It doesn't seem to be coming up in the search, but his previous one of "agentsteel666" works and jesus fucking christ

.

You folks are awful at finding things. Here's the Lippyass Major account.

Acidgobblin, as far as your first question goes... well... it was kinda answered earlier, but not really. The problem with having serious discussions - anywhere online, but especially here - are due to the communities they tend to foster:

First, you have the people who absolutely love those types of discussions and will actively engage in them when they appear. These folks are typically very passionate and serious about the topic, but also highly argumentative and prone to fighting. Give it enough time the threads fester with this fighting, to the point that they start arguing with themselves about how the other side of the argument makes them angry. This isn't healthy for a community, and - especially when mods see themselves as participants - can be absolutely toxic to the survival of individuals in that community. Don't get me wrong. There are some communities out there that thrive on this type of environment... but a metal forum is not one of them.

That gets to the second category of people: the ones that feel that serious, off-topic discussions don't belong on a metal site... or at least should be limited. This might seem radical to some, specifically those who would fall in the above group, but given how such discussions end up becoming toxic it makes sense to some degree. It's totally understandable for a group of forum regulars to want to have a place to talk about their lives and non-metal interests - that is why the Tavern exists. It originally was that go-to place for folks who didn't want to just talk about metal with one another all the time (though I wouldn't be surprised if most folks in this forum nowadays don't venture to the others as much). That's a hallmark of what it means to have a forum community. But it's also its weakness. For the most part, people aren't attracted to this forum because they want to talk about non-metal discussions with total strangers; they want to be here to talk about their lives and interests with people they loosely associate with or at least are somewhat familiar with (because they read up on each other's lives and interests and want to give input). Sadly, though, it's when you have the trifecta - religion, politics and ideology - brought up that these discussions end up getting really toxic. And, like clockwork, there's arguing, fighting, bans, destruction, fire, chaos... and whatever smoldering wreck of a community is left is severely tarnished. I suppose for this category of people they do not particularly enjoy watching their community end up in that state and/or feel that such discussions aren't worth having online.

Then there's the last group of people... the ones who probably have better things to do with their time, but decide to spend it trolling others. Everybody here has likely been a troll at some point. I know I have. You go into a discussion with the sole purpose of stirring up shit and watching the world burn. Maybe there's a good reason for it - you perceive it as being a shit thread, so may as well have fun with it. And, sometimes, the more serious a topic the more entertaining it is to troll and feed the flames. Serious discussion threads just attract these individuals like flypaper.

The occasional serious thread is not a major issue. On occasion some of them can get pretty heated, pretty quickly, but whatever "flames" exist in them are usually extinguished fairly quickly (either naturally or by force). However, picture a whole forum with this type of discussion. That's what the Symposium was. Now, granted, some might counter with "it's because it was full of kids/idiots/dumbasses" or something like that for why it failed, but this phenomenon happens with every online and offline discussion space for serious discussions. It's why that video I linked above exists. You know that one experiment - the Milgram experiment - where people did something that went against their conscience. They pushed the button to inflict pain on others, even though they knew that they "knew better"? That sums up participants in serious discussions. Even the most rational, best-behaved individual can get vitriolic and hostile quickly. My own thoughts on that are that it's best not to encourage that. Small, manageable doses only.

I actually ended up stumbling across it reading some agentsteel666 posts. Everyone always types it one word and that had me fucked up. God, the rectal hair. So dense.

Another factor in the Symposium getting closed is the fact that this is a site about metal, and as such, the only thing everyone here has in common is that we like metal (and sometimes not even that). Aside from metal, everyone has a wide range of interests, hobbies, and educations. In the Symposium that variety of educational backgrounds meant that there would typically be only 3-4 people who were in any way knowledgeable about the subject, unless it was something incredibly broad like "politics" or "religion", in which case there might be 5-6 at most. Among these genuinely knowledgeable people would be a few folks like good old mindshadow, who were obsessed with a particular subject for reasons of TOTAL INSANITY and twisted their knowledge into really bizarre conclusions. Mix those "experts" in with a bunch that didn't really know what they were talking about, and you have your typical Symposium thread.

Discussions usually went one of two ways: everyone who didn't know anything would get bored and move on, leaving the thread a circlejerk for 2-3 people (who often held opposing viewpoints) to rattle on about things nobody else understood or cared about, or the people who knew about the subject would get tired of lecturing the belligerent ignorant on Psychology 101 or whatever and take a hike, leaving the thread to be taken over by a bunch of people who were all talking out of their asses. Basically any good discussion in a thread would take place within the first couple pages, after which point it would devolve into one of those two end states. You can see a less pronounced version of this happen in most serious threads in the tavern too, which is why a lot of the serious threads about terrorism and whatnot end up getting locked.

As the Symposium went on, it got worse and worse, with most good posters getting sick of it and pretending the Symposium didn't exist, like some sort of questionable growth on the back of the forum that could be malignant but is easier to ignore than deal with. Eventually the growth was removed, and everyone felt much better.

i know all the juicy details about why phantomoto isnt here anymore
and im not going to tell anyone.
nenenenenenene

should you ever disappear thyself, I'll make sure to post something similar...

I've been on a lot of forums since the 99 time frame and I really think it can be overdramatic if someone makes a goodbye post. If the post is a well known member and they make a post just to say in case you notice me missing, I am leaving. Just don't have the time to be on here anymore or I'm not into posting anymore, that's cool. I roll my eyes though when someone posts my views are too different, or I am tired of user fill in the blank. I have seen a lot of those posts and really who gives a fuck.

Well yeah, most of the time those are annoying/overdramatic people who wouldn't have lasted long here anyway. Most of the regular crowd here is pretty easygoing when it comes to that.

I was wondering what the purpose of having the ability to hide while you are on the forum is. I mean, you're here either to post something or read what other people posted so why would you want to hide? I used that feature a few times myself but I failed to find it useful.

Well, the whole reason I proposed the Tavern/Symposium split back in the day was to get the political shit out of General Discussion (pre-Tavern), not for the sake of what would become the Symposium. I was just glad the suggestion was implemented and I could browse through my random shit without annoyance (for a while.)

I don't think any other suggestion of mine ended up being used, though I seem to be under the delusion that giving christkiller a custom rank was my idea.

Oh, yeah, christkiller... Another character who people don't use to talk about a lot. I tried to do a bit of research myself but I didn't find any specific reason why he was banned except for "he had an argument with the admins". I understand this is "none of our business" but there's also another voice that can't stop asking "what's with all this mystery?"

Don't remember why he was removed as moderator, but I don't think it was a secret back then. I do remember that he was banned because he vandalised pages in response to being removed as moderator.

I thought Witcher and christkiller were idiots, but only on a personal level. Their way of assuming authority in a lone wolf way was not always 100% helpful, but when all is said and done, as mods, they were hugely responsible for making the huge growth of the site work out successfully and were never the "acting like idiots" kind of idiots. Only one past mod was toxic(ata) for the site like that.

Well contained in that thread Morrigan linked on the first page is a bunch of talk about CK and all that stuff. Apparently he asked to be de-modded.

Also contained in that thread is the whole Korn thing and a bunch of other good stuff I can't remember. Although you'll have to sift through a whole shit ton of markthevictor being an annoying ass hat of epic proportions. That and a lot of what they talk about in that thread is dead and gone with dead end links unfortunately.

It'd be cool, too, if contributors stopped here for a second to say "Yo, I'm leaving!", instead of choosing to silently vanish into thin air. I specified choice, because it'd be inconsiderate to expect them to write a post in any other circumstance. I don't know where on earth Zorg85 is, but I really miss his professionalism. He's probably not very "well known" on the forum, but he was a damn good contributor.

What, you think they owe you anything?


....lol
Do people not know who Zorg was?

Nope sure don't! Do tell.

*raises hand* Are we supposed to know?

I've literally never seen the guy's name before right now.

It's one of christkiller's many, many alt accounts. You wouldn't know about that account unless you kept up with the update history/report queue on the main site.

I just remembered a Russian guy who made a big stink about his band being submitted and accepted and he wanted to resubmit the band himself and it turns out the whole reason was he didn't like the last digit of the band ID number or something like that

There was also a Peruvian guy (gomorro was it?) who uninentionally said so many hilarious things and got quoted a lot in people's sigs.

And there was a user who not sure what happened to her, but someone searched all her posts and found that she mentioned evisceration or some form there of in almost every one of her posts.

I thought it'd be cool, not that they have to or anything.


So he was banned again?

...and then, there was Dwight. Mallcore kid.

Pretty much a professional mallcore kid. Tried to be serious at first but succeeded only in being annoying, so he got shut down, and each of his straw-man accounts that he made afterwards lasted maybe 5 posts at the max before they, too, got shut down. He was basically some 12-13 year old autistic guy who either found new forums to troll, or mommy took away his computer.

There were a few "Dwights" over the years- for example there was also that guy from the French band Sewer who ceaselessly tried to promote his terrible bedroom black metal band, and some guy from Argentina who used to always spout neo-nazi crap (before Napero changed his title to "Genetics mixed by the lowest bidder" and subsequently banned him) but Dwight was the first one I remember.

That guy out-BastardHeaded BastardHead. He was awesome.

gomorro was an absolute treasure and everybody who joined after he went away is a lesser person for not witnessing his brilliance.

Which reminds me, has there ever been a forum band as notorious as Fastowl? That was another one of the greatest things to ever happen during my time. The best viral marketing I've ever seen.

Last I remember he was having sex with his cousin and his uncle didn't like it and there were some issues there. Hope he's still alive!

He's on Facebook still. He doesn't really post but people still interact with his page and occasionally he'll answer, so he's still around. Just remember to always live by his words of wisdom: "If it's smelly, eat it like a jelly"

Good to see he's still kicking around, even if it's on an infrequent basis. Yeah, that's my motto.

Flittering, yo.

Apocalypse and Rainfall are probably up there too.

Fastowl was just really something, though. Wasn't it gomorro that said "they must be great if fast is in the name?"

Ahhhh, I remember that fucker....I remember his "serious" post, it was some kind of super-long, pseudo-intellectual rant about how metal had "failed" and how it was pointless to play or even listen to metal anymore. I don't think I bothered to read the whole thing because it just seemed like a blatant troll trying to get under people's skin. He did come back a number of times after that, I kind of wonder why...though.

I actually have a question too, and maybe the moderators would know the answer or even some normal users. I'm sure whoever was the moderator of reviews back in 2009-2010 will still probably wince when "alexlovestheredchord" is mentioned (for whose who don't remember: imagine bitterman except literally an infinity worse, and on bath salts). I can't remember who said it, but I recall that there was some kind of rumor that he had resurfaced later on, here on these very forums, as "Veracs" (and I guess everyone remembers what he was like). It doesn't surprise me very much, but I was always curious about where that rumor came from...

Dwight was one of if not the funniest troll I've ever come across. He talked about how his folk black metal/whatever band went to the top and then he realized playing in a band means selling out or some shit and how no one should play metal. My sides were splitting at that whole thread but when he ended with something like HAHA I TROLLED ALL OF YOU NOW I'M GOING TO WATCH PORN COME ALL OVER MY KEYBOARD AND GO TO BED in all caps and I fucking died I can't believe anyone took him seriously and missed the hilarity.

edited to add I'm not Dwight in case anyone's wondering

Found it! viewtopic.php?f=1&t=66804&start=40