cobl04
45:33
And the most important thing I want to say about it is that it's my fault as much as anybody's. This is what happens when I've spent SO much time on the same message board for so many years. Certain discussions are going to grow very tiresome. I get it. It's how things are going to go on a forum like this. It just bums me out. I wish I wasn't so addicted to clicking on this site. But here I am.
I hear this man. I was talking to LM about this the other day. Much as it may not appear so, I'm pretty heartbroken with how this message board has gone. On its best days, I got as excited about posting here as I did about the best things in my life - great news, awesome concert, cool TV/movie/album, hanging out with friends... and it's no coincidence that I've shared like almost all of that here. I've been here a fucking decade. I've literally grown up on this board. I tiptoed around some discussions and things earlier on because I was so desperate to be liked and become part of the cool crew, which slowly happened. When I made my first RMT thread, I was shitting myself, truth be told. I was so scared about the blowback I knew I'd get. Of course now I realise that everyone was just having fun, but man, a huge part of me, of who I am, belongs to this fucking forum. Part of the reason I am who I am today is thanks to this forum. When I came here I'd heard two U2 albums and a best of and listened to the music that was mostly on the charts. Fast-forward 10 years and I get paid to write about music I love sometimes. I've been to Coachella. Met a bunch of you. Cried at concerts. Become a fan of jazz. And shared so many genuinely fucking good times sitting on my computer or my laptop or my phone posting here and shooting the shit.
But now I have to face the realisation that this forum is on life support. It will probably always be around, at least until some IT person somewhere deletes it permanently, and it fucking sucks. It wasn't until this started happening, that we slowly started haemorrhoging members, that I realised how addicted to this site I am. Like I get annoyed that there is nothing to talk about when I refresh now. I check facebook, twitter and u2interference like 30 times a day or something.
And what I hate the most, and fear the most, is that I now don't have an outlet to talk about the music I love in the same way. This was a really safe space with lots of great people who really, really share my taste in music (my shithouse opinions notwithstanding). We would run up pages and pages on bands like Los Campesinos! I can't do that anywhere else. I can post on facebook or twitter and get a few comments here and there, even from former and current Interference people, but it isn't the same. And I'm really, really sad that I'm losing something that has been so integral to me. I'm even scared. How am I going to enjoy music as much when I don't have an outlet to talk about the final verse of "In Medias Res"?
tl;dr, I wish I wasn't so addicted to clicking on this site, but here I am. I'll continue to click on it all the time, because I can't pull myself away, but here I am.
Maybe there'll be little spurts here and there and that'll be fun. Maybe another U2 album/tour will reinvigorate it for a while. Maybe a few people will come back for a bit. But it's not the same. Kieran and others have said for ages that forums are obselete now, thanks to social media, and that's very likely true.
But for me, even with the connections I've made via here on social media, it's not the same. it just isn't.
maybe someone could create a Shuttlecock fb and add people and see if that does anything. maybe I will sometimes. but a lot of people have just moved on.
anyway, didn't expect to spill my guts on that, but here we are.