What the forum is about

[jasonw22]

I’d like to recommend a book by my friend and colleague Derek Powazek called ‘Design for Community’.

Ordered! Thanks for the recommendation.

[fjna]

Exactly the same here…
Don’t know anything about modular or monome, but I like reading about it. Most of the times, it gets too complicated for me, but still interesting. I don’t know the difference between a piano and a guitar, but it’s great to hear from people who do know their stuff.
By chance, I got to know the Junto and I love doing them.

[papernoise]

the only other forum I know, that isn’t like that, is the mutable instruments one. interestingly monome and mi have many things in common regarding their overall approach to things.

[radiokoala]

Hey all, nice reflections on what the place is! Here’s some of my thoughts on how to bring in more ppl on here.

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I think what we all should do is take a chance and invite our fellow musicians — be them boys or girls, men, women, occasional extinct dinosaur or a b-movie film star spirit, — to sign up here and join the discussion. Good-natured type only please, but other than that… bring them all in!

Matter of the fact is lines in reality’s quite a secret corner of the Internet (and that is one thing), plus there is not much girls — slightly more than “not any” — who happen to clutter up their living rooms with million of modules, soldering stations, & programmable microprocessors (I can only count some few I’ve met to spend their off-time debugging algorithmic xenakis-inspired pattern generators they built in Max )

So yeah; I’m going to take my own advice and try gettin’ some folks in. I bet some of them will see appeal of this place and stay, roaming around here for a while makes me optimistic to say so.

As for those who don’t… They might have their own reasons for that, but not that this place is unwelcoming or unfriendly (and certainly not non female-friendly! )

My 2¢

[mrspiral]

A few people on the lines forums might remember that way back in the bad old days of the Internet (I mean way back, in the 1980s), I was one of several people who pushed for the creation of online communities for electronic musicians. The AUVM Listserv had EMUSIC-L, and later SYNTH-L, where an artificial and only partly successful attempt was made to differentiate talking about electronic music and taking about electronic music gear. There was rec.music.synth on the Usenet newsgroups, and then there were the mailing lists: The Golden Triangle, Beyond-EM, Analogue Haven and Digital Hell…

In my experience, there was an initial flush of inclusiveness and eagerness to share and listen, followed by a lovely honeymoon of one to four years… after which one distraction or another contributed to the gradual attrition of the forum until there was effectively no one left. To some extent, arguing that this natural shift of attention from forum to forum is somehow unfair is like arguing that the tide is unfair to barnacles; it happens, for reasons that are beyond the control of any human agency, and one works within it rather than attempting to force it in one direction or another.

That being said, I value the overall flavor and tenor of lines a great deal; it hits a lovely note that I hadn’t experienced online in quite some time, and I am grateful for it and hope to contribute in ways that folks will appreciate. The future will be what it will be, and in the present, this is a wonderful place to be a barnacle.

[razzkazz]

Never been much of a forum user but stumbled across this site a while back. I’ve tried to add a few comments here and there, but often i’m more a reader than writer I do get a bit intimidated when I see a topic that looks interesting, then I see there’s 1.5K replies! Just need to find my way here, I’m sure it’ll all work out

[widdly]

Nothing but gear talk is a problem with a lot of electronic music forums and indeed music making forums on a whole. Years ago I used to participate in IBreatheMusic forums which had a strictly enforced no gear talk policy which led to great focussed discussion on theory (it was also a bit of a noodly guitar boys club). There is a classical guitar forum I used to like that was more focussed on repetoire and technique, rather than gear. The same things happens with Painting websites, the discussions are more often about the paint and brushes and not how to apply them.

I like that the threads about books to read and philosophical ideas are so popular here. Perhaps that shows that inspiration and ideas are as important as tools.

[stripes]

i’m a longtime gear forum lurker myself but never really wanted to post in any. i came here for info and resources re: monome, and stayed because i immediately felt like the conversations were creative, inspiring, constructive, and the vibes were very genderless in the best way. no boys club weirdness.

as a woman who is also gay, this site has been the first place on the internet related to music and gear that i’ve ever found where i really felt comfortable and welcome joining the community. and i’ve already made some friends! i don’t care to participate in the kind thread that OP referenced unless it’s an IRL discussion, but i just want to share some good vibes and luv here to everyone who post and promotes a really sweet, calm, and smart forum for all areas of musical and creative discussion.

[AudioObscura]

I just want to know what does ‘cis males’ mean in the top comment?

BTW - Its a good forum this, I ignore the tech stuff as I more than happy with my set-up which is simple and takes care of all my creative needs and don’t need to know the vast amounts of stuff written but I like philosophic and theory stuff… The ‘democracy’ page stuff is interesting but seems focused on American Politics.
I sometimes it feels like the majority of users are from the USA but I might be wrong?

Do we know a rough mix of nationalities on here? Would love to see a breakdown on where people are logging on from? I am guessing more than 50% are from the USA?

Cheers.
Audio Obscura aka Neil - in pretty ugly insignificant old England!

[kisielk]

I don’t know if most are from the USA, there’s quite a few I can think off the top of my head from Europe. I’m from Canada myself… maybe the democracy thread is more USA centric though.

[Taubaland]

FYI

Cisgender

[steveoath]

Another UKer here… Scotland this time.

[fjna]

Belgian living in Indonesia

[kisielk]

I created a poll for fun: Where in the world do you live?

[HLAB-27]

Romanian living in Belgium

[infovore]

Indulgent, I know, but: just a bump to say how much I continue to value this place, its people, and the music you make and share with us. As I continue to be disappointed with so many of the communities around music, this one continues to be one that nourishes me - even when I’m in a rut and mainly refreshing Lines rather than making sound…

[nuun]

for me the output of the LCRP’s are the most tangible and positive outcome of the lines community. after reading a lot on here everyday it’s nice to listen to something the members have created. also the Sound and Process podcast is super nice.

[_mark]

I’m doing a PGCE at the moment, so studying ways of learning. I’m reading a book called communities of practice:

It totally resonates here.

Here is the intro:

Learning + Process + Social Participation + Identity

[philmaguire]

Only forum I’ve been on that talks about gear as a means to fulfil an artistic goal, rather than for a home collection. Worth the price of admission just for that.

[ht73]

As someone who is basically self-taught, and separated from these communities in the offline world, I’ve learned so much in my brief time on this forum, and my goal is to keep learning. I just received two great book/author recommendations in the past 24 hours, for instance, in the midst of some very thought provoking discussion!!!

This is the only place I’ve been able to discuss many of the core artistic/philosophical ideas that flow from the challenges of my personal situation and creative practice.

My problem with other “gear” forums, where I’ve been openly attacked or otherwise ignored for discussing these ideas, and where I’ve seen others attacked for simply being different, is not the gear. I like that as much as anyone, perhaps to a fault.

But separating gear from social/artistic/philosophical contexts creates an unacceptable situation where gear is merely given, rather than shaping and being shaped by all of these contexts. This actually stops people from thinking about gear!

So “gear” forums don’t end up really discussing gear after all. There’s no avoiding these other issues, including politics. I hope the success of this way of interacting can inspire forums in other domains. Hopefully it impacts the offline world as well.

In a word: Thanks!!!