Hi folks,

I recently came back to Jemsite after a few years away (joined back in 2006) and some time away from music due to various life events. It's good to be back both on the forum and in music and still see some long-time posters here still active.

However, I've noticed that the forum seems a lot quieter now than back in the day. I remember when I'd read and post on multiple threads most days, especially NGDs and the Tech forum where I posted a lot. Now there seems to be very little happening, which is a shame. What's happening - have folks left? Are we less enthusiastic about Ibanez/JEMs? Have times moved on?

Or perhaps we're all old farts who are too grown up now! Haha.

So... where is everyone?

'87

Shhhhh. You might wake the dead!

A lot of people that used to post all the time are absent as of late. Don't know if priorities have changed or just life getting in the way. Still a fair amount of activity. My biggest gripe would be trying to research stuff on here and all the pics are gone. I have to pay $2.99 a month to host pics but that is less than 1/2 the price of a Starbucks coffee to keep my pics hosted.

yeah I use to post quite a bit. Life happened and I posted less. It also seeming like a lot of the same topics over and over and over. I got tired of it. There were also some really ****tty people on here for a while or at least it seemed like it. I stopped coming to the forum and would occasionally pop in to check out the classifieds.

Either way, it is pretty dead.

I think most people moved over to the Ibanez related facebook groups

It's funny, many forums go through phases where there seems to be a plethora of idiots that just ruin the atmosphere - I've noticed that with other forums I visit. Don't understand why people do it - must be some very sad people out there with too much time on their hands & not enough brains. I was away for quite a bit so I must've missed that here.

There are still a few interesting threads cropping up here and there which is encouraging, and the atmosphere here seems pretty civil. One of the worst forums I visit is a Pilots' forum. Even accounting for the general arrogance that many pilots have it is a pretty vile place. On the other hand a car forum I visit is always very civil and helpful - like here!

I think the internet has changed the way people react to each other, for the worse. Folk act a differnt way hiding behind a keyboard and monitor to what they would face-to-face. I am on FB but tend to avoid it these days - too much "look at me! look at me! look at me!", selfies of daft women on nights out trying to pose as models (yawn), folk arguing about politics (yawn), unfunny and offensive "jokes" and memes, folk having public meltdowns and screaming for attention (yawn), needless airing of every single personal detail in public (what I had for breakfast, what I'm up to at work, new car I've bought, just bought a can of beans at supermarket, have farted 35 times today including a catastrophic shart that contained the onions from last nights curry, etc. etc. etc.) - since turning 30 it's really turned me off. Now I have a handful of forums that I visit plus a couple of weather websites, and that's about all I do now on the internet - can't be bothered with the rest. Minor rant over...!

'87

6speedonline is the only other forum I actually am interested in enough to read and post and it's probably one of the most civil and funny places to hang with alot of really smart and interesting people that bear no animosity to anybody. I'm not sure it's "kept" that way, I've never seen anybody post anything idiotic or inflammatory, never seen anybody warned of a suspension, there just seems no reason. The truly rich don't act condescending to those of us that aren't, it's just a pleasant place with members passionate about the same thing. This may just be in the sub forum of the mark we all have and the Ferrari section could be a bunch of pompous jackwads, but I've never seen it

A lot of forum traffic across the board (no pun intended) seemed to have died out with things like Instagram and Facebook. I think off-topic and random conversations have moved to those, where forums are now being utilized for their more core purpose (original intent of hobby/content).

I do remember 10 years ago shooting the **** on here at night, and it seemed to be very busy, with much more random content. There are always going to be a few bad apples, but for the most part almost all of the forums I've been on have regulated this pretty well.

I have to say I miss bugging Rich to death until he forces me to buy something.

I've been on Facebook guitar groups a lot.
I just come here to watch Glen and Rich fight.

It has gotten quiet here in recent years - this site was in need of repair and updating but by the time they actually updated it a lot of the guys had already gone =( The main thing that kept me coming here was to chat about hockey with my buddy Mike

*Snort*, Huh? What?!

Damnit, who woke up bammbamm?!

Oh, he woke himself. Nevermind.

Use cube upload and you dont have to pay.

I use FB as a way to keep on contact with family and famous musicians that I got to meet and keep in touch with them (i.e. the guys from the English band Power Quest).