What do you like about this board? What would you change?

[percussion boy]

Hey folks . . .

The thread about Knights leaving got me thinking about pros & cons of this board -- what would you change? what would you keep?

Here's mines:

PROS:
The quality of the community and moderating is pretty damn civilized for the internet, 98% of the time. People are really generous with their knowledge.

CONS:
I wish we attracted a broader spectrum of the recording community. We don't seem to get many pros, although the ones we get bring a lot. We don't seem to get self-recorders whose focus is outside the pop thing (e.g, not many hiphoppers here). I'm not sure how to change these issues.

We collectively tend to drive company reps into the burning windmill, at the least hint they might be trying to sell us stuff. This is too bad, because sometimes company reps know things, particularly about their current and legacy products. Too bad we're too cool to talk to them.
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Anyway, what do you all like/dislike?
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[dwlb]

I agree about the narrowish musical focus. Too many people assuming the only music anyone's recording is 2 guitars/bass/drums or some slight variation thereof.
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"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."


"I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat." --Wes Montgomery

Engineer's note: the closeout groove on Side Four is ineffective.

[vernier]

I like the colors ..brown with yellow and red highlights. And the name "Tape Op". Complaints, none.
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http://www.jeanettechase.com/

[fossiltooth]

A better search function would be great.

In addition to making life easier for those who already use the board, I think it would also attract more new users.

That said, I like that it's a fairly small forum.

I think it helps keep things cordial.

...oh yeah, and I'd like to see that "fossiltooth" guy make fewer posts.

What a jerkweed.
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Justin Colletti
Recovering Audio Engineer/Guy-Who-Likes-To-Type

[comfortstarr]

Two things (and I aim that at myself as well):

1) More participation and action in the "Listen to my music" section. I really like hearing what people are doing, how they are doing it, and thoughts/ideas/advice about how to do it better. I'm on the musician side of things and those "case studies" are easy to learn from

2) A little more about compositional process. However, I recognize that that's kind of not the purpose of TapeOp, so I'm cool with that not being a topic around here.

But those are minor. I think this board is aces.

[GooberNumber9]

I love it here. I've been on forums daily since 1999 and this is the best one on any subject that I've been on. Certainly the other audio forums have more personality problems, in my opinion.

In some ways there is a lack of "Pros", but I like having a few, polite, engaged people who have a lot of experience like Joel Hamilton on the board. Yeah there might be a board out there where you can see posts by George Massenburg, but he is rarely as helpful as Joel and and Chris and the other old hats around here.

My absolute favorite thing about TOMB is that the "price point" of this board is right for me. Other places don't have nearly as much information about quality gear at budget prices. Oktavamod, Black Lion Audio, and the EH 12AY7 pre spring to mind right away, and we have people like Mr. Joly and Matt (right?) from BLA posting here. I'd rather hear from them about their products than from George Massenburg about GML stuff that I might never even see in my lifetime, much less buy for myself.

I'll go +1 on the search feature being a downside, but I've read somewhere that it would not be possible without a lot more cash available for hosting or something like that. There's a whole thread about it and if I remember Hillary pretty much spells out that there's not much that can be done right now.

Anyway, I love it here.

Todd Wilcox

[DanTheNarc]

[billkahler]

I'd like to see an easier to read font ad color on the home page of the board. Old eyes have trouble with the small fonts in red. I know black and white isn't as cool but take a look at a book!
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billkahler.com (musician)
prettygoodgig.com (podcast)
ufofarm.com (organic electronica)

[rwc]

the one minute time limit on making new posts/PMs

say I log in and have six PMs regarding selling gear. immediately that means I have to spend about 6 minutes of time at the computer.

Same with posts.. it makes editing typos or even innaccurate info a pain in the ass.

It doesn't keep waves, apogee, or icydock from spamming the board, so why use it?
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Real friends stab you in the front.

Oscar Wilde

Failed audio engineer & pro studio tech turned affordable modern gizmo repairman and tech for various studios along Manhattan's grimy 30th street.

[JWL]

Agreed, rwc.

Also, the search engine for the phpBB software sucks, so having to wait for a period of time between searches is maddening.
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The acoustic treatment experts

[subatomic pieces]

I'm confused about the suggested lack of "pros" on this board. From what I can tell, there are quite a few people posting here who make their living from audio engineering/producing.

Is the problem that we don't have enough "names" here? That's not a problem at all, if you ask me. The people we do get who are well known and work on rather high-profile records, are people who are sympathetic to the TapeOp cause. And, that is CREATIVE MUSIC RECORDING. I don't see anything going on here anywhere that would prevent or discourage a big league, high profile, big name producer or engineer from registering and participating here if they believe in furthering the cause of CREATIVE MUSIC RECORDING.

I like the size and vibe of this community. If we had a guest forum by someone from the Lord-Alge clan, it would just attract a bunch of assholes who aspire to become really, really rich aping that soul-less garbage.

I also like the magazine's philosophy on what stories they'll run. They just want to publish interesting, informative articles about people making creative recordings. I've seen plenty of articles and interviews in TapeOp, about so many different kinds of music. I don't really see where the narrow focus is. It's not in the magazine. And, if you think that something is under-represented in the magazine, I love that you're encouraged to go do an interview yourself and submit it to the magazine.

I think that the board is the same way. Don't think that there's enough discussion of hip hop production? Post a freaking topic.

I also think that the handling of "company reps" here is absolutely perfect. It's how a community should handle things. If someone involved in manufacturing gear actually participates here and demonstrates that they can be an active participant in the community first, then they're not ever castigated for mentioning their own products. If their first post is some lame spam, trying to make a buck off of our enthusiasm, without ever participating in any other way, they're rightly run out of town.

The only thing that I can think of that I'd like to see changed, is to possibly add a way for registered users to anonymously "rate" either posts or members. I think that might go a long way towards preventing people from spouting off shit that they've heard but never really tried. It feels good to help people. And, sometimes, I think people offer up advice about things they don't even really know about, in some kind of misguided attempt to gain respect. If we had an anonymous way to rate the posts or the users, people might be less likely to do this. Also, it would save me from sometimes feeling like an asshole for pointing out bad advice.

[evengangstersreadtapeop]

Hello there, old thread.

[billkahler]

After messing around a but with Safari, I found I can go to view and select no styles and it's much easier to read - blue text on white background.
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billkahler.com (musician)
prettygoodgig.com (podcast)
ufofarm.com (organic electronica)

[dwlb]

[Spindrift]