Yeah, very good! I was wondering what could be discussed after Sam being guest in very long episodes in other podcasts, but no problem whatsoever!
When there is mentions about Maniacs Only thing within Troniks/Chondritic forum, it is mentioned there was some shit talk that would stir anger. I don't remember that the section would have been much of shit talk, more like FREE of it. As it was place where bunch of label owners, distro runnuns, magazine editors, devoted artists etc would have private section for various things. I don't remember as much "shit talk" happening, but more like brainstorming what gave birth to As Loud As Possible magazine, Special Interests magazine, various compilations, distribution networks, labels checking out eachothers schedules, etc etc. Also plenty of personal discussions resulted that all involved knew who eachother is. Main forums were thousands of people you had no idea who they are. No social media or messangers, private places like this may feel "elitist" to some, but clearly something was done right as it generated so many good things that was happening.
Main forum itself was the chaotic trolling infested thing. Power electronics section was way more focused on discussion and only when people were talking about explicit bands and their concepts, or someone would use offensive language, there would be influx of people creating mess. As I did not have vast moderator rights, merely taking care of PE section in form of... well, like I do at SI: Start discussions, bring up informations people may find useful, etc. So when many times there would be trolls pestering forum, and you'd have to ask Greh or Phil to kick them out or issue temporary ban, it was sometimes done in private parts of forum. Eventually forum was beyond repair, and SI was basically spin off of PE section of that forum. All people who were creative and fanatic, were invited privately and rest is history so to say. I would guess beginning of SI goes along with birth of social media. Its easier to shitpost on social media (of that time) than forum. It turned out very positive that forums are no longer the pre-social media massive discussion platform, but now they are slower paced places for die hard people. All the instant gratification of getting people react has moved elsewhere.
I do remember lots of heated discussions. Like Sam says, HNW, damn... if you'd open topic about HNW, it would almost always become quite debate. Perhaps like you'd open topic about spicy power electronics, and influx of dorks coming there would be automation. Nowadays, that probably still the case, but not sure if there is anymore such a hostility towards HNW. Of course, people have their criticism, myself included, but it's not like every topic, review and advertisement get replied with hostility and ridicule, haha. I remember vividly one discussion, where I made very clear my points of not appreciating trendy easy HNW of the time. After handful of messages, RRRon comments "as a guy, who advocates special interests, you appear quite critical for other peoples special interests". Indeed! That's all noise section moderator needed to say to adjust my thinking, hah..
All that The Rita is talking about deep listening, attention to detail and nuances, its absolutely true and instead of trashing HNW releases or artists, one could simply apply that attention to sound or non-sonic substance you prefer.
Waiting for the part 2!
