Experiments in Audiofile

[death metal black metal]

Ajattara

Check out the table beneath the normal links. It's an experiment; maybe it's something that helps our European and American users find the right download.

One scary fact about Megaupload is that it's just down the street here (literally). As a result, our upload times are quite good, while our rapidshare upload times are slower than political change in an entrenched democracy ruled by oligarchs.

[Prospero]

There are better hosts than Rapidshare and Megaupload.

[MasterEnslaver]

sharebee and shareoneall are good ones. They allow the user to select from a range of hosts (including rapidshare and megaupload) to choose to download from. I don't know if the site does that automatically or if you have to upload to each of the options.

My main problem with rapidshare is the waiting period. I've heard people complain that megaupload is slow, but it downloads at my max speed (about 26 kbs) so I'm fine with it. It would be good to have some variation in hosts, so that we aren't set back by download limits

4shared
zshare
divshare
axifile
mediafire

are a few alternatives that spring to mind

[Fallibilis]

The good thing about megaupload is that it's generally consistent, and it's one of the fastest. Too, I believe files last longer than on other services, such as Mediafire, that rapidly turn over inactive files. The use of Megaupload is suggested, especially since one shouldn't be needing to download more than 400mbs of material every couple of hours (listen to the album).

[ASBO]

Mediafire and Divshare have timed out on me too much.

Axifile is new to me, and I have never used zshare and 4share.

I like rapidshare and megaupload because their infrastructure is huge and they are easily accesible by most.

If I wanted bulletproof hosting, I'd set up a P/W system and let people FTP stuff. Getting 500 gigs of storage and 100 gigs a month traffic isn't that expensive these days.

[chrstphrbnntt]

Lots of people in Europe have problems uploading anything to Megaupload, or getting any download slots, though. So it's best to use multiple uploading services.

[death metal black metal]

New code:

Code: [Select]


[embed]YouTube URL goes here[/embed]


So you go from this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET1SGQhwhto

To this:

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET1SGQhwhto[/embed]

[neoclassical]

Megaupload no longer limits German users as strictly as they used to do. No problems with them at this time. They also seem to have gotten rid of the annoying sex-ads.

Another thing: I don't think subpar music should be in Audiofile at all. Can't condone this new trend. If Gorath is bad, don't link to it.

[ASBO]

Two schools of thought at ANUS:

1) Keep it elite, only mention stuff that's great.

2) Keep it current, mention what's going on, then highlight the best.

I've gone from #1 to #2 in the last year.

Why: #1 is only thinking of ourselves as we are now. #2 is a growth strategy -- show people the best of metal, and encourage it to grow.

If we want stronger metal, we need to interact with the community, not just please ourselves.

It's counter-intuitive, but I think most people are never given a chance to like good metal, because people aren't there to show them why it's better and re-inforce their inner self feelings that they might like it more.

At least, this is my experience.

[Fallibilis]

Two schools of thought at ANUS:

1) Keep it elite, only mention stuff that's great.

2) Keep it current, mention what's going on, then highlight the best.

I've gone from #1 to #2 in the last year.

Why: #1 is only thinking of ourselves as we are now. #2 is a growth strategy -- show people the best of metal, and encourage it to grow.

If we want stronger metal, we need to interact with the community, not just please ourselves.

It's counter-intuitive, but I think most people are never given a chance to like good metal, because people aren't there to show them why it's better and re-inforce their inner self feelings that they might like it more.

At least, this is my experience.

I think #2 is actually the logical choice. Like some instruction manuals (though I've never really read one) that sometimes begin with the "don'ts" before the "do's," by including the mediocre bands we can elucidate the right path(s) by showing the wrong path.

[neoclassical]

#2 is a growth strategy -- show people the best of metal, and encourage it to grow.

If we want stronger metal, we need to interact with the community, not just please ourselves.

Point out the bad metal -- yes, makes sense.
Make it available -- no, does not make sense, and does not "show people the best of metal".

Better strategy would be to have threads for popular but bad metal with fake download links that lead to goatse or a statement that warns of bad metal.

You don't encourage the good by propagating the bad. Everyone has heard of metal today, but for most people it has become a spin of pop music, because such people are rather "flat" individuals that don't look for more than what pop music offers. Metal has become increasingly popular, but most of the new metal listeners belong to this group of "pop fans" who bring their drama into metal. Other individuals have potential for an understanding that must be awakened by confronting them with the best music metal has to offer.

Interestinly enough, a search for "heavy metal" on google.com spits out http://www.anus.com/metal/about/history.html for me as the 5th result. "Black metal" with http://www.anus.com/metal/about/blackmetal.html (sic) and "death metal" with http://www.deathmetal.org/ show up right after Wikipedo.

I imagine that a noticable bar on top of those sites with a text like "How does heavy/black/death metal sound like?" and the option to listen to some metal on the spot would be much more effective than making Audiofile unattractive, because that is plain and simple what you are doing by not cleaning it up.

[Trauco]

I agree with the above. Show people the best, plus discuss it in the forums and the smartest would understand music better and what makes bad bands "bad". Including samples of good and bad alike only makes the audiofile forum congest with information.

My opinion, of course. I understand the admin's intention to conduct this experiment with the Audiofile forum. Let's see how that turns out.

[ASBO]

You don't encourage the good by propagating the bad. Everyone has heard of metal today, but for most people it has become a spin of pop music, because such people are rather "flat" individuals that don't look for more than what pop music offers. Metal has become increasingly popular, but most of the new metal listeners belong to this group of "pop fans" who bring their drama into metal. Other individuals have potential for an understanding that must be awakened by confronting them with the best music metal has to offer.

Think of a flower.

It offers the bee nectar, and as its payment, makes the bee spread pollen.

We need something to bring in more people. We get popular, and that brings the ones who can recognize the best to us, and then others emulate them.

Most of the good people out there are not exposed to good metal, and unless they suddenly see a vision from heaven telling them what to look up, they won't know.

We should not be antisocial dorks who won't reach out to others. They're our people, they're just "sleeping" right now, and we can wake them up, and do it without telling them they're dumbshits for listening to bad metal. They're not dumb; they're misguided(*).

People are going to look after what they think they want.

We're like a radio show -- we give them what they want, but we also give them what's good, and they slowly turn toward the latter, first personally and then demographically.

In an ideal world, you would be 100% correct.

Right now, you may be more like 49% correct. Do you see what I'm saying?

* - I think many are capable. Some are not. I'm an IQ realist, including its distribution among ethnic groups and the clines/classes within them.

[ASBO]

Also, there's too much of this pattern:

People come in here, learn a few things, then declare themselves elite and stop doing anything to change the world. Their Faustian spirit dies, because they're in the grips of cognitive dissonance: I'm elite, but the world will never recognize that, so there's nothing to be done but please myself.

That masturbatory impulse drags this forum down into negativity, stagnation and boredom.

[DrBob]

Also, there's too much of this pattern:

People come in here, learn a few things, then declare themselves elite and stop doing anything to change the world. Their Faustian spirit dies, because they're in the grips of cognitive dissonance: I'm elite, but the world will never recognize that, so there's nothing to be done but please myself.

That masturbatory impulse drags this forum down into negativity, stagnation and boredom.

Oxygen (O2) is an essential molecular for humans and other animals because it allows for aerobic energy production.  However, it is often forgotten, that this same molecule is a corrosive gas.  After decades of breathing in this poison, it eventually corrodes the human body to the point of death.

This serves as a great metaphor for the mindset you describe and this other observation you made.

Sometimes, the thing that gives us such energy and makes us feel alive, is what ends up getting us in the end.  We can only take so much and then we just shut down.

This may be inevitable and I have no idea how one would turn such a person around.  The only suggestions I have to offer them are heroin or suicide.