Moog
Hey y'all - where has Duke and Salmacis been? Nice to see some old school names in this thread.
A little birdy whispered to me via a popular social networking site consisting largely of a blue-and-white theme (and an increasing similarity to the
former most popular social networking site it overthrew) that you had asked about me, Moog. How nice! Still with the Cliff Burton I see. I love it!
Truth be told, I gave up on this forum for two reasons: (and unlike a lot of the attention hounds/drama queens, I didn't feel the need to write a 'Farewell' post and then wait for the 'please don't go' responses. Those threads make me
retch.)
1. I just don't get enough of the 'prog' discussion that I so require. Seems like 95% of the forumers here think prog = prog metal. Sure, it's great for those who want to talk about Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Rush and Symphony X (and ONLY those bands) but when I saw my fiftieth thread about someone a little less known or a little less metal (say, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Gentle Giant or Resistor) drop off the main page in two hours, never to return, I knew I had to find a better outlet. This forum was great for me for years and years but became too middle-of-the-road. I found progressiveears.com and never looked back. I *live* there now, and get all the arcane prog discussion I can handle. I can talk about The Watch, Guy Manning, The Tangent, Knight Area or the new 5.1 Crimson remixes to my heart's content, and have twenty responses in the same time that thread would have dropped off here. Nobody's fault here, it's just the way it goes - and a lot of the other topics/endless rehashed polls had just become boring to me.
2. I had seen one too many influxes of 'new breeds' of forumer. Silly popularity contests sprang eternal and turned off/pushed away too many of the people I thought were interesting here, such as the remaining 5% who DID like to talk prog shop as much as I did. And I won't rehash controversial events from the last year or two, suffice to say: a lot of people here behaved in an absolutely appalling manner and should be ashamed of themselves. And that behaviour was not at all limited to newer forumers. A number of the beloved 'Old Guard' were among the worst offenders. There had been ups and downs before, but this was just disgraceful IMO and actually made me say "I'm glad I'm not a part of that forum anymore." But enough about that.
In the spirit of positivity, I have reminded myself that things can swing back the other way and change for the better. Perhaps this forum could once again be something special and fun. Perhaps as I get older, I get more tolerant or realize that I am also not perfect. I shall endeavour to keep more of an eye on this forum and see if something strikes my fancy in the near or far future. In the meantime, I wish you all the best and return you to your regularly scheduled program. I have to get back to Prog Ears, I haven't rambled on about Jethro Tull b-sides in about two hours now!
Cheers!