Why So Quiet Around Here?
RAJ
tenacious local 7,783 Posts
I started Soul Strut in 1999 out of my love for hip hop music, journalism, and graphic / web design.
In 2001, I started this message board from scratch and eventually what was a hip hop focused web site quickly turned into a one dedicated to records sampled to make hip hop music and the art of finding these old records (crate digging).
By 2003, people quickly descended upon this place to meet and congregate with other records nerds to learn a thing or two, showing off their finds and musical tastes.
Soul Strut became a diverse community of music sharing, hip hop beat development, political conversation, pop culture celebration, and cutting edge news.... way before the ubiquity of social media platforms.
By 2013, there was a mass migration away from the message board format in favor of the ease of smart phone apps and social media. Couple that with people getting older and moving on, changing trends, and the proliferation of info at the click of a mouse, Soul Strut was in the midst of a free fall.
Many have suggested I pull the plug, but that would deny me and others to use of this site as a valuable musical reference / nostalgia act. Check the search engine and your mind will be blown with incredible information that passed through here.
For those who still check in and contribute, I thank you! For those who fell upon this site by accident, click around, explore, maybe you can help in it's revival.
-- RAJ
In 2001, I started this message board from scratch and eventually what was a hip hop focused web site quickly turned into a one dedicated to records sampled to make hip hop music and the art of finding these old records (crate digging).
By 2003, people quickly descended upon this place to meet and congregate with other records nerds to learn a thing or two, showing off their finds and musical tastes.
Soul Strut became a diverse community of music sharing, hip hop beat development, political conversation, pop culture celebration, and cutting edge news.... way before the ubiquity of social media platforms.
By 2013, there was a mass migration away from the message board format in favor of the ease of smart phone apps and social media. Couple that with people getting older and moving on, changing trends, and the proliferation of info at the click of a mouse, Soul Strut was in the midst of a free fall.
Many have suggested I pull the plug, but that would deny me and others to use of this site as a valuable musical reference / nostalgia act. Check the search engine and your mind will be blown with incredible information that passed through here.
For those who still check in and contribute, I thank you! For those who fell upon this site by accident, click around, explore, maybe you can help in it's revival.
-- RAJ
Comments
Don't forget the wealth of that archive unreal mixes by some great DJs. I still click around that too. I've got some shitty mixes of my own from the past year or so, maybe a post-yer-mix thread is in order? The advantage of this place to me has always been taste. I don't see a direct equivalent anywhere.
Message boarders are the true pioneers of electronickal connectedness. We're on the sp12, doing more with less. Stay up!
My tendency is to post comments, not topics, which is a hard habit to break.
Tons of knowledge in here to not look back at old threads. Where did all the Strutters from a couple of years ago disappear to?
Old heads stand up!
remaining OG members.
Every new iteration of SS saw a drop off of members, each greater than the last.
Meanwhile, waxi, which underwent one change, still hums with activity.
That said, correlation =/= causation, and all that.
Also, whatever became of mylatency? Dude was hilarious bitd.
For all the style waxi lacks, it more than makes up for in civility. Older dudes are def down with nostalgia (breaksyo!, golden-era, etc., funksoul yadda-yadda), but they're not looking to get into a random (and seemingly endless at one point) tug'o'war with anonymous internet dinks.
Locking away the banhammer, and the website changes are what did this place in, and social media just exacerbated the sitch. When there were mods who put dudes in check, this place was at its peak, imo.
There were foolios who provided high comedy while flirting on the edge of banishment. All the while, music and great stories were still at the fore. Shit was mad entertaining.
I would say there were a few weeks (months?) where the assholes had the run of the place and no one reeled them in. That turned a lot of people off, and there was little left to bring them back given the rest of the world kept moving along and providing other options, be it Waxi or real life. We were already losing people at that time, and that politics clusterfuck sealed the deal. Maybe moderators would have helped given the self-regulation the Board operated under was gone as key people left.
Speaking personally, why would I want to be part of a Board where people got to say some pretty heinous shit unchecked and got run of the place? I had stayed long after my friends and favourite posters left but that time-span left such an awful taste.
There used be enough of a variety of people here that even with whatever BS people were spouting, that didn't define the Board. Not the case anymore.
There’s just no vibe here.
In terms of vibe, the place is what you make it. You can be the difference and such... rescue the site from the Blahs....
Can I trot out the old adage about it being the only place I can banter with Meriman and dem / only sign of intelligent life across the pond? Thanks in advance.
Because one definitely didn't need thick skin to be on the Board before, right? I have no idea when you joined but people would actually go on other boards to complain about how mean SS was. Few newbies lasted. A poster said he wanted to punch me in the ovaries. It was so accommodating here, we never had more than five women posting at any given time. This is not about hurt feelings but the culture of the place. But you tell'em, tough guy.
Ovary-punching? I didn't see that but I'd put that in the folder alongside threats of gypsy curses or being punished in the next life. Sometimes the kids on here lacked social graces and/or have never spoken to a woman IRL, remember. FWIW, I enjoyed yours and AwDamms views on the deal-breaking covers and sartorial threads. You should bump dem.
Wow. I'm surprised nobody did anything. Did you flag it or report it? I really hope that a mod didn't see that shit and let it slide.
I'm not big on moderation of things that people say. But any threats or bulling should have been dealt with. That shit is a cancer that needs to be cut out.
That said. So many people left for Facebook, waxi, reddit, etc etc etc. But it's kinda obvious many are just the type to jump from thing to thing. That's just the digital world we now live in. People get bored of their blog, FB or whatever and move on. I think the bigger prob (And issue that must be addressed) is always going to be pulling in new people. Which is tough for any online forum nowadayz.
It was superpoaster (who was the resident punching bag until he got semi famous as Jesse Futerman and then he was the Board’s darling. You know how it is.). Lots of people saw it and asked for him to be banned. I don’t remember supporting his ban to be honest – don’t recall if he was or not. He said he was sorry and all that.
It was aggressive passive aggression in that misogynist nerd way. The board was full of them.
My point was more to question the notion of that all one requires is thick skin to weather a group of people who change the whole atmosphere of a place when thick skin was a requirement for just logging on!
Anyway, the Board is not for me anymore. I am putting in my two cents as to why off the subject heading. In no way am I saying shut it down.
I know your heart's in the right place, but as a presumably earnest response to an ovary-related threat, this could use a little work.
I was alluding to the fact that I believed the hatters had gone, or the fact that there appears (accoring to my skin depth) to be no recent hattred going on .