This is a tricky one for me...
In the past few months I've become something of a chronic lurker on this forum. (Striking out on my own has made me super busy - it's either that or fail
)
I know most of what goes on and even spend a fair bit of time on the reviews forum for someone that hasn't posted anything there for a while. I chip in on interesting discussions and of course if a mod is necessary. Which most of the time, it isn't, really.
I don't think these threads help anything on the whole.
It often seems like older members having a bit of a grumble cos "passers-by" or those deemed to be poor members are distracting attention from their songs.
I disagree with the 2 types of members. Not only because I don't think I fit into either category, but because I think many others don't either. It's a fairly sweeping generalisation.
Most replies seem to have forgotten the original post, which was not yet another jab at those just posting songs and not contributing, but an encouragement to review equally and not become "cliquey".
There is a point there. Go to the front page of the reviews sections and note which songs have the most 2 or more pages of replies....
On the other hand, there is no way to avoid it. Passer-bys are just that. They drop off a song and often dont even bother to post a follow up reply when they get a bunch of reviews. Reviewers like feedback on their reviews aswell (especially if they are doing what a review should and offer up constructive criticism/starting a discussion). It's only natural that inactive posters are going to receive inactivity.
Looking at the other side of the story...it has been suggested that newcomers should have to be more active before they post a song. This has been taken to the point where you are kind of enforcing it yourself - with this "cliquey" thing...
So this is forcing newcomers to "break" into the clique. If they are actively reviewing other peoples songs, you might still not post on their song because they are "not in the group". Even worse, if you review their song cause they reviewed yours, isn't that just promoting the "You pat my back, I'll pat yours" mentality that you should equally hate?
They could be active in other parts of the forum...but I fear that at times I might be the only one that notices it
.
The majority of discussions that get large on other parts of the forum seems to be ones like these.
I don't blame newcomers for not wanting to join in...
There are extremely interesting discussions in other parts of the forum which just seem to come to a stop when they are just getting going. Instead of moaning about the reviews forum, how about browsing a few of these interesting topics? (One of which is a first time poster - perhaps they read this discussion, got to scared to post in the reviews forum, but then suffered having almost no-one reply anyway?) :
http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/recording/the-future-for-daws-touch-screen-mixing/http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/recording/how-do-you-lay-down-your-songs/http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/recording/building-a-recording-space-is-it-worth-it/http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/the-writing-process/lyrics-getting-them-to-scan-well/http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/the-bar/breaking-through/http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/the-bar/my-blog-music-and-production-based-musings-)/http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/the-writing-process/all-these-damn-computers-(or-electronics-and-your-music)/ It is not surprising that these discussions never complain about the "contributions" or "writing process" sub forums although there are plenty of one-time posters/advertisers or people trying to promote themselves who post there....
Now I know you can just throw this right back at me, go ahead.
I think the reviews forum does quite well. The only thing these threads seem to achieve is tinam quitting
