I come here to talk film music, but when the board is run in a repressive way or people complain about others monkeying around, I become a very vocal advocate for as much verbal freedom and openness as possible.

These are just words, not fists. People should be able to say as they please and other people should just roll with it, even personal attacks. I've been called everything in the book at this board and I've never cried or complained about it.

The people who want everything civil or reflective of polite and intelligent discussion squash the emotional side of issues and the freedom to do or say as you please. They tick me off. I could go classy, be civil, be eloquent, discuss my theories in terms of academic logic, act above all concern, etc., but fu/ck it, those who repress need to be offended. Rap artists think so, I do too.

As for patting myself on the back, I don't need to. I have enough groupies tending to my every need as it is. No, actually that's part of the act too. I act cocky and conceited to show people that in-your-face attitude isn't deadly. Everything I do or say in this frame of mind is part satire. They're serious, I'm laughing.

it's....ok for you to act like a "jerk" (even at your own expense)...because...it shows us where we're all wound-up as a society/community?

i mean...you have a point, and sure, satire is a useful tool for dramatists...but...do "gangsta" rappers contribute to the community or detract from the civility? both? neither?

Do they drift off topic a little too quickly?
I think so, but I don't think it's a bad thing. Usually there's some post like "Zimmer's latest" and the first 2-3 posts will be about the score itself, the next 10-20 will be those who hate Zimmer or those who love him attacking/defending, and then the next 10-20 posts will be MM users attacking/defending each other.

Are there too many off topic postings?
No, it seems fine to me. Besides, it's an open forum, so let the people discuss!!
Are you visiting these boards more or less now, compared with several months ago, or a
year ago?
About once a day. I was a very active member of MovieTunes, but as it was moving to MM, my life took off in a number of directions so I drifted away from this kind of thing for a while. But I now visit once a day at least.

Are your visits beneficial?
Yes, I usually learn something every time I come here. Or at least who hates who

Do you feel the moderation of the board is a little on the tight side or loose side, as of late?
I've not really noticed the moderation of the board, so I guess that means it's not too tight. But, I've not seen anything really awful here, so it's not too loose either!

Would you like more people to post here, especially those who write reviews online?
I'm not quite sure what this question is asking. But if you mean to have score reviewers participate in our BB discussions, I think that would be great!

How do you feel about the comaraderie here?
Seems healthy and good. Even those who disagree are usually nice about it. Not always, but it is the internet, where 50 year olds pose as teenagers and 12 year olds act like they are 25.

Do you consider people here your friends, or do you sometimes find yourself holding back from posting for fear of being bashed?
I don't consider them "friends" as such, more like acquaintances. I never hold back for fear of getting bashed either, it's the internet!!

Finally, do you like the FishChip guy? Or would you rather elect a new official, or have the title changed?
Peter is fine, and the FishChip title is fine as well. Don't elect someone--any time politics enter life things go wrong. People get accused of sucking up and all the other crap that goes along with the political world.

Overall, this is a great site, a great idea, and I hope it keeps going long after many other dot.bombs die off. MM is a fun place to come and interact and learn a bit in the process.

Cheers!

Sidney

quote:

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Originally posted by Lou Goldberg:
Maybe being reasonably smart and being an ass aren't mutually exclusive.

---

Wearing 'being an ass' like a badge just doesn't make sense to me. I guess I am still operating under the idea that being decent to people is the best way to go. Silly me.

Lou, I have known quite a few people like you... people who seem to think it is their "job" to shake up the status quo. Mostly they have used it as a disguise for their own insecurities and unhappiness. "Those sheep only think they're happy", blah blah blah.

You admit to being a jerk, as if it somehow grants to a reprieve simply because you are self-aware. Well, I got news for ya...

You aren't a jerk. Not really, no. You wish you were... it would make life easier for you if you didn't care. But you do. A lot.

And it is not you against us. Nope. You aren't some kind of voice for the film score proletariat. You've got one opinion. That's all. Wish you were comfortable with that.

Do they drift off topic a little too quickly?
Sometimes.

Are there too many off topic postings?
Yes I think so. I see posts about movies in the Gneral forum yet we have a dedicated movisu forum which gets little use for instance.

Are you visiting these boards more or less now, compared with several months ago, or a year ago?
Been here from the very start, but I'm sorry to say visit less these days.

Are your visits beneficial?
Sometimes.

Do you feel the moderation of the board is a little on the tight side or loose side, as of late?
It's usualy fine. If petty insults get personal then I guess strong measures and warnings should be undertaken.

Would you like more people to post here, especially those who write reviews online?
Not bothered.

How do you feel about the comaraderie here?
A tad self-opinionated, but playfull dissagreements can be fun to read and on the whole posts seem of general good nature.

Do you consider people here your friends, or do you sometimes find yourself holding back from posting for fear of being bashed?
I've made some close friends I trust here and have a good friendship with over ICQ. I don't really feel the need to hold back from giving an opinion.

Finally, do you like the FishChip guy? Or would you rather elect a new official, or have the title changed?

Mmmmmmm, fish and chips. I don't mind it at all.

Dan (UK)

NP: The Usual Suepcts

quote:

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Originally posted by Lou Goldberg:
Pete M--Virgins suck. There, you've just now been officially bashed, how does it feel?

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Come on!

This has nothing to do with the fact that both are rustic and alienated gringos, but most of all because they smell bad and are bigots. Their nasty presence really pollute the board.

And for that they should be banned (or at least take a shower for God's sake!).

Notice: this was not a personal remark. Just a fact.

Thanks.

I try to leave things alone as much as possible, and even still, several total assw*pes come crawling out of the woodwork about once every three weeks or so to try and goad me into a fight.

In that sense, people like Lux remind me of herpes.

what's wrong with Big Beers?

It's cool, man! You can write asswipe!

So, lets give them a break. Must be a very humiliating experience...

Poor gringos!

quote:

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Originally posted by Lancelot:

Pearl Harbor IS a good film!

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*snicker*

quote:

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Originally posted by André Lux:
After The Big Bear(d)... got kicked from Filmscoremonthly board by its members they become quite bitter...

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I left the FSM site of my own volition, mainly because of asswipes like you. Frankly, I don't know why you still post there. They hate you there more than we do.

(By the way Shaun... it wasn't self censoring... I just didn't know if the whole word would be removed...so I wrote most of it... but thanks for caring.)

quote:

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So, lets give them a break. Must be a very humiliating experience...

---

How very magnanimous of you. (Though the only person you're embarassing here is yourself... wait, strike that... you're actually embarassing all of Brazil.)

quote:

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Originally posted by Lancelot:
[b]WEBMASTER........PLEASE.......I'M DOING MY BEST TO REFRAIN, HERE....[/B]

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Someone throw a piss pot to this lad, before he polute the board even more!

Dude, I was joking! Come on, it's funny!
Respect the winking icon!

I think we should all just stop for a sec, look deep within ourselves, and find our inner

The will set you free.

And now, since I've almost reached the maximum number of smileys for this post, I will say something that, while not really on topic per se, is relevant to the discussion at hand:

This board will run a lot smoother and members will be a lot happier if people just stop taking everything everyone says so seriously. I would say, just as a rough estimate, that less than a tenth of the posts around here that are not specifically about a given score are written with any degree of seriousness. Hell, probably less than half of those that are written specifically about a given score are meant to be taken entirely seriously.

Just something to keep in mind.

"Emoticons are a very clever use of standard punctuation marks to express a human emotion. Here's how they work.
Suppose you're typing a statment such as:

I am feeling happy

The problem with this is, the reader cannot be absolutely, 100 percent sure what emotion you're feeling when you type this. So at the end of the sentence, you type a colon followed by a closing parenthesis:

I am feeling happy

See the difference? Instead of just a flat, emotionless statement, you now have a flat emotionless statement with a weird punctuation mark at the end....Now your reader will know exactly what your emotional state was when you wrote the words: namely, a state of happiness. But that's only the beginning. By using an opening parenthesis after the colon instead of a [/i]closing[/i] one--as in " "--you can express the opposite emotion from happiness--to wit, sadness. This can add real oomph to an otherwise ho-hum sentence. Consider:

Without emoticon:
Over 7,000 men died at Gettysburg.

With emoticon:
Over 7,000 men died at Gettysburg

See the difference?

Of course, emoticons have been around for hundreds of years, as we see from these actual reproductions from original manuscripts:

Call me Ishmael
Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well
It was the best of times It was the worst of times
----------------------------

I hope this has illustrated, to some extent, the ridiculousness of trying to interpret a statement based on smiley faces.
--Steve.

First of all, you ask for people's opinions as to what can be done to make the board better, etc.

Then, I offer that you should stop deleting people's posts without some kind of written explanation why. I consider it positive criticism. Several other people second my thoughts. You have said nothing in response to this.

Instead, I continue to see what so many people are compaining about. You delete posts without warning, as it suits you, with no explanation.

Makes me start to think you posted this topic just to get people to come out of the woodwork and say they like you and sh*t, not because you actually are considering making some positive changes to the board. (In a bold attempt at a public apology, I am removing this part... Sorry, Pete. You didn't deserve it.)

Oh sure, I understand. It's your board, you can do whatever you want with it. But until things change, until there's a little more quid pro quo, until you learn how to let people be people, you'll be seeing a lot less of me.

Because a board where the webmaster deletes my posts is a total waste of time.

quote:

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Originally posted by Lancelot:
I hope this has illustrated, to some extent, the ridiculousness of trying to interpret a statement based on smiley faces.

---

ZING! Ouch!

Was that aimed at me? While I can't really be irritated with anyone who reads Dave Barry, I do hope that you read the second, more serious segment of my post. I also hope that, as a reader of satirists like Dave Barry, you recognize that I was actually lampooning smiley use. ( )

Oh, and Big Bear, although I don't always agree with your opinions, I feel it would be a shame if you decided you had to stop posting here. I hope that, given that you and PeterK are both polite, well-meaning adults, you can come to some sort of understanding on this issue.

I will preface these statements with these facts. My last posts with regard with the terms of service were met with Lou Goldberg's "satire". He has since defended himself eloquently. I do not hate this person, I do not know him- while I disagree whit him, it took looking at his later posts to see he wasn't trying to be negative. He just wants it to be as fun as it is positive here most times.

I consider free speech as much a privilege as it is a right- and while it angers me when, in my sensibility, it is abused- I cannot impose my value judgments on Lou or anyone here- but I think I have the right to deman how I am addressed. I prefer mature conversation, but if he wishes to write his posts his way, then he has that right.

However, some of the posts of late are offensive, and Peter has been accused of dictatorial. First of all, it's his site- he is the webmaster, and if you want out of a webmaster who will let anyone submit posts calling people "asswipes" and demand total freedom to say crass and tasteless material with the desired result to denounce other people's interests and personality, claiming that their's is the only right opinion (i.e., their way or the highway), then excerise your right to leave. I'm sure of the fact that there more then a few other who have had it up to this point as I have. And while I can't speak for them, I will say that I am tired and getting an eyesore full of tactless and amoral statements against the webmaster, members' sensibilities of music, and absolute/final statements about composers' music as if to say 'my opinion is the end all be all'.

And the complaint I've seen over the last two years is the same, and Big Bear just restated it in this last posts. Deleting posts as a means of limiting free speech is only fascist to you, Big Bear, because you want an excuse to say what you want, when you want, how you want- but how about the other people who would prefer to have an intelligent discussion? You probably could care less. For the record, I don't think following the rules to the letter is always important- one has to know them in order to break them and understand the risks. I believe that's ture of anything. When I read your posts, Big Bear, I'm not cowering in a corner crying about how my feelings are hurt by the smallest of ways that your statements might have affected me. What I'm thinking is that all thgis energy, even mine, is wasted on getting more angry about the smallest of reasons- and that reason because you feel your sense of free speech was violated without seeing how everyone else's was protected by deleting posts. People in posts like these have gotten more spiteful and disturbingly angry and then they all say the same thing such as "it's just a website- get over yourself". Now you may not have said it, but I'm willing to bet you're thinking it. If I'm wrong, I'll be the first to admit it.

But here's the question: If it's just a website, why are you wasting so much time over whether or not you can say things exactly your way without thiking of others. There is a community here of people who show common courtesy to others- and by the statements I see from you and others, it's seems you could care less about the people at this board- all you seem to do is want the right to be profane and lower you intelligence level where everybody can see because you think it's "cute". Funny,what I see is a nihilist who, in his actions, is making the term "film music fan" a derogatory term.

You've the right to your opinion, and I do hope you have a more intelligent argument to defend your right to represent in you way of writing a post. I'd like to see what is trulyt bothering you about the board and how you think it can actually help. If you have to work harder to show how you think this board would be better with excused crass speech, then so be it, but I do feel the members have a right to see this platitude of yours justified- and yes, I think you do have to justify yourself to this board, because there are holes in your theory about having things be "freer" in this environment. Especially so when you mask it with personal attacks against the webmaster.
All you're doing is making this place too negative to enjoy for the rest of us.

Lou Goldberg once called me, "Goody-Two Shoes". He pronounced it without knowing a thing about me. I said before I could care less what is opinion is. It is still his right to opinion. No matter what he thinks of me, if he wants to express it, fine- if I don't want to see it, I won't read it. He has made VERY good points about "the line between smart and smart ass". He has made a much better point about a freedom of speech here that doesn't ask for anarchy.

And the problem around here is, it is harder to avoid negativity when I'm just trying to get information or talk to those I wish to spend my time with. By all means, for that reason, PeterK should continue to delete posts so that people don't have to defend themselves when they really don't need to. The fault of the negativity isn't his- it's people like you who either like picking fights or get off on seeing their opinions published before the eyes of a crowd like an overcooked ham.

And you can say what you like about my posts- but the bottom line of it is, if you're not listening, you're only proving my points.

Big Bear, go or stay, but the whole point of this post is to get constructive views on how to make this board better- and most of the posts on this thread have done that- and it is exactly what PeterK was asking for in his initial posts. Do you honestly think he'd put this website on here, out in the world, without the understanding that not everybody would like it? He didn't put this out there to get praise, as you say, he works hard on this site- when all he gets from you is the demand for "more freedom of speech" when what you mean is "the excusable right to treat eveyone like **** ."

If this is what you want, I really am truly sorry, but I don't want that around here. I myself will support Peter's efforts to make everyone comfortable here- even you- but with a certain amount of responsibility.

In the meantime, I'm through discussing this. Those of you who feel as I do, I invite you to join me in demanding a more positive atmosphere. I think we've EARNED it.

It was not directed at you, per se, so much as in response to your post....

I think it gets painfully clear here sometimes that people do take things seriously, and sometimes just saying "lighten up, dude!" doesn't diffuse the heat.

What can be done about this? <shrug> Are you sure you want to start pointing fingers at people and saying "You and you and you! Stop taking things seriously! The rest of us, we're cool." [Prob, I'm not directing this at you, as though I demand a response--I'm just ranting here a little.] I think it should be obvious--perhaps not to those who came in late--but that most of us, myself and others, don't always take ourselves so seriously...(otherwise I'd be bitching a blue streak about that Columbia picture glitch....)

Now, I realize that you're fed up, and that you don't feel that you've given Big Bear any less than he deserved, or than he would have dished out himself, but please understand that if you are trying to make a case for decency, tolerance, and politeness, you have to set a good example. Berating people with a competent vocabulary is no less damaging than yelling curses at someone.

Further, I hope that all of you who are pushing for a 'nice' atmosphere while berating people like André and Lou read this and think about it. I for one will not take people seriously unless they hold themselves to their own standards, and having the ability to insult people with some semblance of English-writing ability does not make it less insulting. The board will never rise above name-calling if those who support courtesy also demonstrate it.

I appreciate your attitude toward my posts- aand commend you for having endurance with regard to it's length .

I understand I ran a very real risk and may have devalued my point as you stated. However, I don't think I was calling Big Bear a name so much as making my point. If I was calling him "names", then we can't forget I also called him crass. If it was cruel, I will be the first to apologize- but I doubt that apology would be met very well, nor do I think Big bear is affected by that post in all seriousness. And I do not need to be told what example I have to set with the case I'm making. The example I set was someone who is willing to be fair about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a child playing at being adult, so far as I'm concerned. And yes, it was written with a vibe of being fed up. The way I see it, the way the site is set up, I can always rephrase, as I've edited myself here. And in my post, you can see how I felt I was wrong about Lou Goldberg. If that wasn't clear, I can make it further if need be, but re-read my post if you like. You should see that while I disagree with him, I truly think what he was trying to do was not intended to harm anyone. Nor was I with mine. I do feel truly that two wrongs do not make a right- and my attempt was not to do so. I certainly didn't want to offend PeterK, you, or anyone else. I'm not going brownnose about it, but I'm also going to show courtesy. I'm sorry I didn't see that with Big Bear. The question I'm pondering is how much longer can I simply ask for courteous action and get in response that aligns itself with the air that the poster in question is above all other here.

I just think it's wrong, and I want to contribute to a solution. Did my post do so? Maybe, but to what extent, I don't know. Like I said, I want to support Peter's efforts here. I don't think I did that in a cruel or insulting way, perhaps I'm wrong. Unfortunately, I still I feel that I'd be more apt to admit to it more so than Big Bear would. Sadly, I don't know him well enough to know.

And for point of fact, I wasn't trying to hide behind my "English-writing ability". I think I held true to my ideals, and I'm sorry if you think I didn't. I truly do not feel, however well I meant, I was not undermining my point. I hope this post affirms that. If it otherwise, unfortunately, I do not wish to waste your time in trying to make you see it from my point of view and be so presumptious as to hold you to my value judgments.