Scream & Writhe Forum

It’s time.
I am disconnecting from social media, mostly.
I did have a myspace for my old band, At Jennie Richie. Never did facebook. Elon sent me running from Twitter. Last week I deleted the Instagram app from my phone & i don’t remember the password (not that I have tried to either). The only places I am now is here and the modwiggler forum.
It feels good. It feels right.

Anyone else feeling the need to disconnect?
Don’t dm me abt it. Hahaha.

But how will you keep track of the newest batch drops? Think of the vinyl influencers!

I even stopped posting on MW! Every once in a blue moon I might show up to drunkenly insult the eurorack consoomer mob, but that's about it.

Also, exactly how is this forum not a form of social media?

SS1535 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 08, 2023 8:52 pm Also, exactly how is this forum not a form of social media?

I think about this sometimes too. I guess it's ultimately a generational thing and down to typical use cases and how the platforms are organized.

Modern "social media" platforms, differentiating themselves as forms of centralized online experience, like a shopping district for content where practically everyone congregates, tend to be a lot more chaotic, diluted and superficial. Not to mention tedious and exhausting.

Average people like the convenience factor of a one-stop online escapism shop. By "average people" I mean everyone who still hadn't jumped onto the Internet-as-substitue-for/supplement-to-having-a-life bandwagon before the age of the iPhone. Now everyone's online. And most of them are on Facebook and Instagram. More people, more problems!

Forums aren't intrinsically superior in their design apart from the fact that they aren't as centralized. And that fact alone filters out some of the people who would otherwise walk in off the street just to take a dump in the lobby, metaphorically speaking. Even less so these days, now that forums are not the only alternatives... People have the social media bazaar for that.

Bubble-Congeries wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 12:26 pm

SS1535 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 08, 2023 8:52 pm Also, exactly how is this forum not a form of social media?

I think about this sometimes too. I guess it's ultimately a generational thing and down to typical use cases and how the platforms are organized.

Modern "social media" platforms, differentiating themselves as forms of centralized online experience, like a shopping district for content where practically everyone congregates, tend to be a lot more chaotic, diluted and superficial. Not to mention tedious and exhausting.

Average people like the convenience factor of a one-stop online escapism shop. By "average people" I mean everyone who still hadn't jumped onto the Internet-as-substitue-for/supplement-to-having-a-life bandwagon before the age of the iPhone. Now everyone's online. And most of them are on Facebook and Instagram. More people, more problems!

Forums aren't intrinsically superior in their design apart from the fact that they aren't as centralized. And that fact alone filters out some of the people who would otherwise walk in off the street just to take a dump in the lobby, metaphorically speaking. Even less so these days, now that forums are not the only alternatives... People have the social media bazaar for that.

I agree (much of my above post was half-joke hyperbole!). I think forums are a form of social media, in the broad sense, but their tendency to focus on more niche subject matter and their typical lack of flashy visuals seem to mostly attract genuine/interesting people, whereas most other social media platforms are, as you say, superficial.

SS1535 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 08, 2023 8:52 pm Also, exactly how is this forum not a form of social media?

I said “Mostly”

😀

Happiness, forever wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 2:06 pm

SS1535 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 08, 2023 8:52 pm Also, exactly how is this forum not a form of social media?

I said “Mostly”

😀

Fair enough. haha

A difference of forums vs instagram or myspace (i cant speak to facebook) in my view, is forums allow for much better conversations and communications. You can take yr time with a topic, revisit it later, whatever. Instagram anf those others are a feed, constantly changing, constantly shoving the Hustle in yr face. Buy this, get this, see this, look at this, feel this, think this, be this…
it is rlly is stressful to a delicate flower like myself.

I have to say (rant), as much as I don't like social media itself, I like it even less for how it makes a lot of people unreachable unless you opt into sites like Instagram or are already "established" with an individual, typically via those platforms... Not interested.

It seems intentional in some cases (NOT naming names). I understand not wanting to handle orders all day or whore yourself out. But there's a fine line between being humble and/or self-loathing and/or easily overwhelmed (welcome to the club!) and just fabricating mystique when all you have to do is put an email address or even physical mailing address on some blogspot page... I wanna buy your releases, but I'm not interested in the contrived cat and mouse game. Just tell me where to mail the fucking letter!

Welcome to the void, it's quite liberating. I ditched Instagram and Twitter back in November, been off facebook for 3 or 4 years now. Don't miss any of it. Forums like this and email subscriptions are usually enough to keep me informed. If the tape was only advertised on instagram? Fuck it. Who cares.

Since others are making announcements here---I made an Instagram since this thread was started, in a poorly thought out attempt to follow contemporary noise. After a short time, I can report back that I don't understand how the site works. (I will stick more to forums...)

wise words from the departing

I deleted my Facebook account over 10 years ago and deleted my Instagram about a year ago. I can't deal with having so much space in my head taken up by advertisements, outrage memes, thirst traps, and "influencers". If you can compartmentalize it, great, but I am not able to do that.

I don't miss any of it, but it does kind of irritate me that shows are pretty much exclusively promoted on Instagram.

Regarding forums such as this one, they lack the endless scroll and petty reward systems (likes, etc.) that make something like Instagram so addictive. This is a specialized place where a bunch of nerds have to make an effort to articulate their thoughts, even posting a meme on here takes more effort than making any kind of post on Instagram. No endless scroll, either, as there are days when it seems like no one posts at all and I am sure as shit not going to get sucked into any kind of thirst trap or advertisements (more often than not disguised as so-called influencers). You could technically call it a social media if you want, but doing so is like saying hay fever and the bubonic plague are the same because they are both respiratory ailments.

December Man wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 3:54 pm it does kind of irritate me that shows are pretty much exclusively promoted on Instagram.

I think this is changing (albeit very slowly), or at least there is enough shared sentiment that people are more than ready for alternatives to this. Even the new/younger generations are steering clear from the social media giants.

Here we have the recently developed https://montreal.askapunk.net/ for show listings. There have been a considerable amount of new, younger people coming out to all shows lately and many of them have been asked how they heard about the show (Facebook, etc), and they all said Ask a Punk.

The bonus with Ask a Punk is the sharing features. I can filter all the shows tagged "scream and writhe", or even "noise" and embed the feed within my own website displaying only Scream & Writhe and/or noise-related gigs.

"If you build it, they will come."

Scream & Writhe wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 4:53 pm

December Man wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 3:54 pm it does kind of irritate me that shows are pretty much exclusively promoted on Instagram.

I think this is changing (albeit very slowly), or at least there is enough shared sentiment that people are more than ready for alternatives to this. Even the new/younger generations are steering clear from the social media giants.

Here we have the recently developed https://montreal.askapunk.net/ for show listings. There have been a considerable amount of new, younger people coming out to all shows lately and many of them have been asked how they heard about the show (Facebook, etc), and they all said Ask a Punk.

The bonus with Ask a Punk is the sharing features. I can filter all the shows tagged "scream and writhe", or even "noise" and embed the feed within my own website displaying only Scream & Writhe and/or noise-related gigs.

"If you build it, they will come."

That's awesome, it looks like a great resource! I'm not plugged in to what's going on here enough to run something like that but I would love to know how you got it started as far as platform design and user buy-in. It is super cool to see alternative channels like that.

based on the way the domain is setup it seems like there are plans to open the platform to other cities, is that the case?

December Man wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 5:09 pm

Scream & Writhe wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 4:53 pm

December Man wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 3:54 pm it does kind of irritate me that shows are pretty much exclusively promoted on Instagram.

I think this is changing (albeit very slowly), or at least there is enough shared sentiment that people are more than ready for alternatives to this. Even the new/younger generations are steering clear from the social media giants.

Here we have the recently developed https://montreal.askapunk.net/ for show listings. There have been a considerable amount of new, younger people coming out to all shows lately and many of them have been asked how they heard about the show (Facebook, etc), and they all said Ask a Punk.

The bonus with Ask a Punk is the sharing features. I can filter all the shows tagged "scream and writhe", or even "noise" and embed the feed within my own website displaying only Scream & Writhe and/or noise-related gigs.

"If you build it, they will come."

That's awesome, it looks like a great resource! I'm not plugged in to what's going on here enough to run something like that but I would love to know how you got it started as far as platform design and user buy-in. It is super cool to see alternative channels like that.

dust wrote: ↑Thu Jul 20, 2023 2:31 pm based on the way the domain is setup it seems like there are plans to open the platform to other cities, is that the case?

The Montreal calendar was created by a someone locally using https://gancio.org. It's hosted and maintained locally by the same person*. If anyone has the means to create one for their local region, everything they need is found within the Gancio install. I would assume that once other cities are up and running with their own accounts their subdomains can be added to the roster (chicago.askapunk.net, etc).

*This person just admins it, but anyone is able to contribute events with or without an account. Creating an account allows you to modify or delete your own events as needed. Events created without an account are also subject to admin approval before they appear.

thanks for the info, gonna look into that

Oh wow! That is a cool and needed resource.
I personally wld love to see a return of THE LIST, which was a double-sided tiny-type (think 3pt) single line listing of EVERY show in the SF Bat Area for a month. One dude made it, iirc. Every house i went into in the Bay Area had a The List magneted to their fridge.