JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Update on site and donations!

Guys,

Why is asking EVERYONE to simply not launch PERSONAL ATTACKS a problem? Argue points, argue issues, don't take personal shots. If you dislike a song, point out the parts that are problematic and offer improvement suggestions. That doesn't mean rewrite their song, but actual music suggestions like "needs a stronger chorus" or "the verses are repetitive" or "the quality of the demo needs to be better, trty finding a demo singer" etc. Even politics can be handled similarly. "Tax increases for the rich will simply be avoided by armies of accountants for the mega rich and the only ones punished will be small business owners who are being squeezed out of existence" (I agree with that fact by the way).

We successfully had these conversations for 15 years. In 2010 I had a huge year of near death health issues. We also started losing key posters who literally died, one after another. By 2015 a lot of this acrimony settled in and the regulars (over 3K of them are on Facebook participating) bailed and went elsewhere. I tried to get them back but they check it out, see the acrimony and say "this is worse than Facebook" and stay away. Several off them chipped in to save the board after I spent 23K and needed more help so they stepped up. But they just don't want to deal with the unpleasantness.

Disagreeing with reason stated is not trolling. Telling someone they have no talent and they are losers etc. isn't useful to anyone. There was a time when we had legitimate music industry folks here regularly. Famous artists, famous songwriters, famous producers and some label folks. We had the PRO's here as well both as participants and as sponsors. Chris Young and Kacey Musgraves BOTH got their starts here as kids. We helped Chris learn how to write songs, pick out his first guitar, I helped him get into music school at Belmont and get out of a bad record deal as a kid. He has stated all of that publicly and played at our showcases and awards events along with countless other legitimate music successes. We helped REAL musicians often and still cared about hobbyists just as much. But little by little the poison drove them away. I know that the 2016 election changed the entire country. But to at least have a pleasant and productive place to get away from the lies and nonsense, we have to do better.

There is only a couple people I know of who have ever been banned from this site. Spammers get deleted, but real live people do not unless they are absolutely psychopaths. If I was a tyrant or subservient to the whims of people who donated money, JAPOV and DOM (who are nearly exact opposites) would have been gone long ago. But my dislike of canceling people has resulted in our current situation. We have a lot of visitors every day, but few registered active users. There ARE solutions to that, but they are VERY expensive and we don't have enough active registered users anymore to justify the cost. (That would allow people to simply register and login via their google or apple email accounts or other social media like Facebook for example).

I know Martin has supported us for years (see his name on the donor list). He called for more civility. That seems like a great idea. If people invest in keeping this going, of course they have input and deserve to. That doesn't mean they can dictate who is here or not or that they are immune to rules. Did JAPOV or Dom get banned after he made a donation? You're still posting here right?

I asked for 10 people to put their name in to create a political board and only 2 people spoke up saying yes. People don't want politics here, that is pretty clear.

As for Japov, I don't even remotely understand your message, so you have to decide if you want to post attacks or not. If not, then simply stop posting bad stuff. Changing an account would not serve any purpose. Either you want to get back to music or you do not. You are a grown man, act accordingly.

Frankly it is embarrassing this discussion has looked like every elementary school squabble in history. Be above the nonsense and everyone will be the better for it.

Meanwhile, if you are bothered by each other, simply click the ignore button and stop seeing the posts that annoy you. That is the best "unpleasant person" repellant that exists. If you choose not to ignore them, that means you WANT to read what they say so what exactly is your complaint?

Brian