Quote from: hoodwink on January 22, 2012, 01:22:37 AM

spot-on as usual.  this is a topic in which I've invested a great deal of research, but I haven't the time to get into it properly right now. I can share one thing I've learned in my roughly 17 years online, and a fact that's only been crystallized by information shared on this forum: it's not the trolls, but the people who label others as trolls that are the problem.  as the internet has increased in popularity and availability, the number of users with simplistic powers of reasoning has increased.  these people are reflexively offended (read: intimidated) by anything that challenges them, so censorship and the casual mechanisms available to enforce it are highly appealing.  hence trolling has become shorthand for any view that conflicts with the status quo.

You have been in discussion groups since 1994?

I've been using some variant of online discussion groups (newsgroups, irc, bulletin boards, etc.) since around June or July 1994.  The biggest difference in those days was that the majority of users were in larger universities or had incomes large enough to sustain internet access.  At that point, usage was limited to those "in the know," and it wasn't considered an inalienable right to have an online presence.  Granted, places like Compuserve, Prodigy and AOL were largely cesspools, but discourse tended to be a bit more self-segregated than it is now.  This forum bears a close resemblance to some of the more functional outposts back in the mid-to-late '90s. 

spot-on as usual.  this is a topic in which I've invested a great deal of research, but I haven't the time to get into it properly right now. I can share one thing I've learned in my roughly 17 years online, and a fact that's only been crystallized by information shared on this forum: it's not the trolls, but the people who label others as trolls that are the problem.  as the internet has increased in popularity and availability, the number of users with simplistic powers of reasoning has increased.  these people are reflexively offended (read: intimidated) by anything that challenges them, so censorship and the casual mechanisms available to enforce it are highly appealing.  hence trolling has become shorthand for any view that conflicts with the status quo.

Why search for this stuff online, don't y'all own it, on CDs or digitally? Why not share it on programs like Soulseek instead of hosting it somewhere? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's any risk sharing files on the lesser-known peer-to-peer things like Soulseek.

generally because these free file hosts are far faster than using p2p.  even if a big one like megaupload goes down, there are so many alternatives it's hardly worth it to resort to something like SoulSeek instead of just finding another free host.  in addition, it's probably "safer" to connect to a third party rather than allowing connections directly to one's computer, even if it's through p2p.  the idea of setting up a private hosting service like a torrent site is a great idea but would require a lot of work to both set up and police.  

btw., I'm sorry for not mentioning this earlier, but MultiUpload (http://www.multiupload.com/) and Uploading.to (http://www.uploading.to/) are also really good for archiving since they enable the user to upload to numerous file hosts simultaneously and creates redundancies.  

also, this is the CEO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swizz_Beatz

it's pretty unlikely he'll escape this thing unscathed, even if he hasn't been charged yet. 

but, "this is true death metal, you bastards."

as is so often the case, it would seem that whomever speaks of truth is a pathological liar.

Pete Sandoval and his desire to play Mozart are the least of Morbid Angel's problems

Last night was the first time I've listened to Blessed are the Sick since the trainwreck that resulted in a wooden box w/candles and other fat girl Twilight fan accoutrements, and I'll admit that the album is now ruined for me by Vincent's voice.  Where I once heard the bellowing of demons, I now hear nothing but the guy responsible for, "10 more dead and the bodies piling higher, higher."  So, in essence, this band is now dead to me and will be until someone other than a guy wearing PVC re-records all the vocals on old Morbid Angel albums. 

Quote from: lafindumonde on November 17, 2011, 02:59:45 PM

I just got off the phone with Varg, and I really had sympathy for the guy.

He knows he half-assed the album, but he hoped true Burzum fans would understand. He gets no royalties from the earlier albums, just got out of prison, not even McDonalds or the Corner Kebab would hire him. He's flat broke, plus they're expecting him to pay child support! Poor guy figured if he released some older material while focusing on a brighter-side-of-life Philosophy (gotta try to stay optimistic!) a lot of his problems would finally go away. Basically the only guys who would talk to him were the record execs. Ah well, I'd say most people in his position would have done the same thing.

Unfortunately that's not even true. He actually believes the new stuff is better, subconsciously he has become extremely disillusioned and desperately tries to bridge the gap between the quality/spirit of past works with competence in technique, but it doesn't even remotely hold up to music with spirit (and the latest album of re-recorded works will really cement that fact). At this point it is obvious he took the path of least resistance and should probably have concentrated on political stuff instead.

In short, Varg needs to be forgiven for what's he done with Belus, Fallen and this latest hunk of mediocrity.  Whether you agree with his motives or not, Varg Vikernes is paying the price for having conviction enough to act, and consequently finds himself in the bleakest depths of a situation most on this forum could never hope to comprehend.  Varg 2011 is what happens when you make decisions hoping to trigger an evolutionary leap but are forced to come crawling back to the system you thought you'd surmounted.  The much larger prison Varg will reside in for the rest of his life is one that savagely resists and resents being shunned, and will opportunistically take any slight advantage to shackle one permanently.  

I know nothing of Varg's situation re: paying child support, but as soon as he decided to impregnate someone, he ceded any control of his life.  The same is true to an extent once he was tried and convicted of killing Euronymous.  When he was caught and subsequently imprisoned, he became the state's problem, and, by extension, the state's property.  So, he now finds himself in a situation where he's required to forfeit any semblance of values or dignity in order to meet very real-world obligations.  These obligations don't take kindly to talk of Norse mythology or "trve black metal."  Those obligations (and the system that propounds them) have transformed Varg's philosophical leanings into the idle musings of so many deadbeats.  The people he thought he'd  burned down with the Fantoft Stave Church were all just biding their time until the arsonist inevitably returned, hat in hand, to ask for their mercy.  Once the process is complete, Varg Vikernes is reborn as just another undereducated dreamer, but with a criminal record and socially-crippling associations.  His sole responsibility now is to make ends meet, so if he shits all over his "legacy," so be it; once you're in the position he's in, artistic integrity is a luxury not worth abiding.  

None of this is said with the slightest degree of bitterness or gloating - I genuinely feel for Varg and am sympathetic to his plight.  Unfortunately, reality doesn't look as kindly on outliers as do many of us on this forum, myself included.