waxidermy claims this board is ”dead” ”over” etc

[Jimster]

Been put onto so much good music from this site. There are folks here with a deep understanding of music who can articulate this in a way you don't find anywhere else. The non-music stuff is also great - love the photo threads.


I guess LIFE has caught up a lot of the OG heads, as jobs, spouses and kids eat into digging, surfing and photoshopping time. People get older, priorities change, people get their questions answered and then have nothing to add.





I've never had any technical issues with the site on Firefox. I don't know what people are doing for it to look f*cked-up. I also use the Adblocker add-on, so I don't have to endure banner ads (not a dig @ RAJ, I don't want to look at any ads on any sites, thanks).





One day, when the kids are older, I hope to hop over the pond again, hit up the coasts and buy some strutteurs dranks. Are you going to be the crusher of dreams?

 

[troubleman]

I've been here since the beginning. I haven't always posted, but throughout the years, I've learned sooooo much and met so many great people!!! I will always be a consider myself a Soulstruter. I hope this place is always here!!!

 

[Junior]

day said:Junior said:and the number of old posters popping up in this thread kind of confirms the trend.




I'm not sure I understand your point. As someone like yourself, who's been here borderline a decade, of course we're gonna have an opinion on what's going on.




To clarify, it wasn't meant as a dig at the people posting in this thread. There's a fair few posters who've popped up here I don't really see posting on the strut any more on an even semi regular basis and it's great to see the old names. The fact that they posted in this thread though suggests to me that they do still check the site pretty regularly and care about what's going on but don't feel any motivation to engage the rest of the time. Either that or they stick to posting in a single thread I'm not checking.





Don't get me wrong, I think any site needs a constant supply of fresh blood to keep it from going stale and real life priorities are always going to mean changes in frequent posters (and it's great that in many cases this is due to people becoming successful in the very field we discuss here) but there seemed to me to be a mass exodus of the old guard which has left the site floundering.

 

[bboyparkz]

A lot of forums are shadows of their former selves these days.


Ive been in this kind of conversation on many such forums and it's generally believed Facebook/twitter/Wordpress are where people spend their time these days, and for many that (online) time is far more limited than it used to be.





Soulstrut has changed greatly over the years, from back in the days where folks would would talk almost exclusively about crate digging basics (drumbreaks, different versions of GOMLW or Spinning Wheel ect) right up to not hardly talking about records at all.





As someone who joined the community early on and still checks the site almost daily (I have hours of downtime at work) I feel the site got far too clicky some years ago, it became more about in-jokes than the music. Now I'm happy with the in-jokes if that's how it's going to be but the focus on records/music was lost, how many times does somebody typing LOCATION remain funny/entertaining?





Also whilst its something that has never bothered me here or elsewhere site redesigns always seem to have a detrimental effect, I've seen it so many time, a site gets a make over, folks moan, and forum became less popular than before. I've seen this so many times, if I had a successful forum the last thing I would do is change it.





Anyway I hope SS continues though I'd (if I could be so bold to) suggest Raj cuts the site/forum down to the basics so he doesn't loose money.

 

[kala]

"The new design for the classifieds is ineffective and I personally cannot justify the cost for it. Additionally, if it was cheaper, perhaps more people would post better shit, including more set sales instead of "fake" set sales, ebay links to tired records and general personal store webpage garbage"





what he said


bring back the old classified format,drop the prices


the new one is awful

 

[kala]

"the SS dudes who hide over there and talk shit about this place"





where is faux-realz?


getting a haircut whilst listening to the newest mixtape he copped in the ghetto?

 

[Duderonomy]

DocMcCoy said: But all the same, I'm not sure I have the stomach to move to another country and learn a new language just for the purposes of talking shit.




Dude - what exactly do you do in Berlin?





:cheese:








Srsly doe, point taken and agreed with. It feels like revenge of the nerds over there. I have a look to see what I'm missing, and yeah, there's record talk which is great, but I kind of feel like I'm in some club made up of the people who were made to feel unpopular here ('tenderberries' or whatever they're called), so maybe the Strut is repping what it sowed with the clonning of the sensitive private press snoozer enthusiast or something.





Bigger point that I agree with is that my life is busier these days.

 

[Strings]

I love the strut and hope it will survive. Some suggestions:





1) This site is nothing without the forum. Anything else we can live without if it means that Raj can't afford to run this place anymore. As many people have said, you can easily run a forum without losing money. Mixes etc can be hosted by soundcloud.





2) I appreciate all the effort Raj put into this new design, but personally I never liked it. It looks like a lot of posters agree, and therefore it can be swapped with an uglier and more cost effective design if necessary.





3) Kill the classifieds section. Do it like the waxidermists. A well moderated sub forum where you can trade/sell/want records where you have to contribute to the main forum before you can post there. Like in the old days. Makes it attractive to contribute in the main forum if you want to take part of the selling/trading here.





4) I acknowledge that the clowning is an important part of the culture here, and most of the times it is justified. Nevertheless I feel that it is a bit too much sometimes. Especially when knowledgeable people try to contribute with threads about records/music for then to get clowned. In recent months Upskiboo for example have shared personal stuff which should appeal to at least some people here, but some of his threads have been killed by the mob. I think if people seriously tries to contribute with something positive record wise, the different cliques should be a bit less aggressive with the clowning. Wait at least a day or something so the thread has a chance.

 

[Beatnicholas]

i'd say none of this debate is particularly new - how to make SS better (age old topic), certain asshole behaviour on here (largely a thing of the past), bad politics of certain people (done to death), waxi vs strutty (two halves of the same whole with historic interplay, in which threads often cascaded from one to the other, as this has done, and this thread has appeared many times before).





twitter is sucking the life energy out of message boards full stop if you ask me, most of them are less active than they once were, no matter what the genre, and i've read at least 10 boards for years, they are all pretty dry nowadays. also retro-vintage-record-digging is not really in fashion these days as collectors get older, there are few young people coming into this path, their methodology now is mostly based on youtube, shazam and the collectors frenzy app for iphone. there was once a time where timmy digalots like me would get sonned, and lurked daily, meticulously noting things down.. the factors that brought them here are not to do with content quality of this site, but the need to rely on the knowledge of others, which is less of a concern now. Nothing really to lament here, there are still good threads - focus the energy on sharing and posting good stuff, and try not to get drawn into this heated "them vs us" stuff.

 

[yuichi]

I feel the site got far too clicky some years ago, it became more about in-jokes than the music. Now I'm happy with the in-jokes if that's how it's going to be but the focus on records/music was lost, how many times does somebody typing LOCATION remain funny/entertaining?





Also whilst its something that has never bothered me here or elsewhere site redesigns always seem to have a detrimental effect, I've seen it so many time, a site gets a make over, folks moan, and forum became less popular than before. I've seen this so many times, if I had a successful forum the last thing I would do is change it.





Anyway I hope SS continues though I'd (if I could be so bold to) suggest Raj cuts the site/forum down to the basics so he doesn't loose money.

100% agree with this.





Meanwhile, Faux Rillz is over there bitching like a coward.

 

[tripledouble]

damn dog, youve kept up with 20 message boards? that sounds full time and then some

 

[kala]

"Meanwhile, Faux Rillz is over there bitching like a coward"





what has he ever added to either site but empty vapid hip hop discourse?


not a mix ,record find s or a pittance of record knowledge dropped???ever


yet dudes dick ride him and he is considered "one of the crew"


do tell why?

 

[yuichi]

Underrated but definitely an asset:





tripledouble


the_hook_up


funky16corners


meaty_ogre

 

[yuichi]

Like the more compact and older style version of the forum already. Please change the background color of "white", too much white (no racism), to a more subtle color. It's never kind on the eyes for extended durations....

 

[Beatnicholas]

tripledouble said:damn dog, youve kept up with 20 message boards? that sounds full time and then some




haha, just counted and that was way off. lurking not posting, and its more like 10 - 15 of which many are closed / dead now

 

[billbradley]

Duderonomy said:It feels like revenge of the nerds over there. I have a look to see what I'm missing, and yeah, there's record talk which is great, but I kind of feel like I'm in some club made up of the people who were made to feel unpopular here ('tenderberries' or whatever they're called), so maybe the Strut is repping what it sowed with the clonning of the sensitive private press snoozer enthusiast or something.




I think the "tenderberry" reference actually comes from here. Traditionally a lot of the dealers and ARC regulars go to dinner at Hoover's after the show closes on Friday. A blueberry (or maybe it was a blackberry) cobbler was shared "by two grown men" and then made fun of in that thread.

 

[Lamont]

i'm pretty much done with southern rap, sample based hiphop/pop, blazing downtempo, classic breakbeats, etc. hence i don't check the site that much unless someone finds a fresh angle to old music





if the quantic dude reissues cumbia 78s, i'll check the strut if anyone tackles this but it doesn't happen + the witty banter people are moving into their 30s

 

[Horseleech]

yuichi said:Like the more compact and older style version of the forum already. Please change the background color of "white", too much white (no racism), to a more subtle color. It's never kind on the eyes for extended durations....




Desert Theme, dude.

 

[sabadabada]

Originally I came here because I took a wrong turn looking for "soulshare" (sad but true), but if not for SoulStrut I would still be collecting bossa nova conjunto lps. I got into Brazilian soul because I wanted to be able to post about things the people here would like. And I'm glad I did, because I discovered some great music and picked up a lot of records you cant find anymore.

 

[sabadabada]

yuichi said:Underrated but definitely an asset:





tripledouble


the_hook_up


funky16corners


meaty_ogre




Funky never posts here anymore. I admit that I made a point of trying to piss him off, but I really admired his blog and the man knows his records like very few people here now.