Sisyphus Be My Guide

A

Anonymous

Guest
I wonder why I bother sometimes. I write a Commentary and painstakingly set up sub-forums for everyone to rate and share their feeling about Iron Maiden songs.

We have over 2,000 registered members and the comments about the songs are so few and far between that I wonder if people who are listening to Maiden really have a mind of their own. With a few notable exceptions of people who post intelligent comments, I either get no response or posts like "yeah it's good" or "Maiden rule anyway" without any constructive argumentation.

The same goes for the ratings. People rate the songs they like and forget about the rest. There are maybe 10 votes for songs that are the most popular, whereas stupid polls like "who is the best guitarist?" or "which singer do you prefer?" get 40-50 votes within a week!

What's wrong with you Maiden fans? Would you rather discuss Adrian's mullet in the late 80s than what a song like 'Revelation' could possibly mean?

Awww. I don't know. I must be getting old... [!--emo&<_<--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/dry.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'dry.gif\' /][!--endemo--]


That was my grumpy rant for the week. Just let me know if anyone's really interested in gaining some culture from Iron Maiden through the Commentary or if you'd rather not expand your knowledge and mind for fear of getting into trouble for being considered a nerd. [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
I feel attacked by that rant to some extent - but I have an excuse:
I would contribute alot more, if I wouldn't be in the middle of my final exams at the moment [!--emo&;)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'wink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
oh, and if I wouldn't be so goddamn lazy [!--emo&:dork:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/dorky[1].gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'dorky[1].gif\' /][!--endemo--]

Anyway, the point you've raised there is actually one of the big problems that make me dislike BBs - They're usually full of crap - this BB is mainly an exception... or it was, actually - there's more and more stupid threads popping up. Well, in a few months I should have alot of time to spare, then I'll try my best to contribute to the Commentary forum... I promise!

In the meantime, don't forget there's always ppl who care... even if they don't post... [!--emo&:unsure:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/unsure.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'unsure.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
You won't often see me post in the Commentary forum, as I'm not necessarily good at reviewing lyrics and make philosophic posts about the meaning of the songs, but it's still a rather interesting read.

Sadly there has been a small trend, especially in the Maiden Chat, to start the same stupid threads you can find on the Maiden BB. When will we have "which plants would the Maiden members be?" here?
 
Mav, I think part of the issue (for me at least) is that there's just so many songs. I haven't yet had the motivation to go through every single thread and rate every song. I generally rate a song when someone posts something new in that thread and gives me reason to visit. It's not that I'm ignoring the Commentary BB; it's just that it's too much to work with in one sitting!

However, I do still consider myself a contributor to this forum. I am working on some information which I intend to post soon (hopefully starting later today). Specifically, I've been working on some musical analysis of Maiden songs to complement the vast amounts of lyrical analysis which appear here. The reason I haven't been posting it yet is because I wanted to analyze a large number of Maiden songs together to look at similarities and differences between them. I'm also trying to write up my comments in language that a non-musician will understand, rather than use technical jargon all the time. Anyway, I have a bunch of stuff that's just about ready to go, so I'll be posting it in a few hours. Happy now, Mav? [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Well, Maverick. The other regular mates have said their piece, and here's mine. I totally agree with the analysis of Freaky and others about the Maiden Chat forum. I think the moderators should be empowered to stop the stupid threads. For crying out loud, guys! Kill the bloody Official BB-like threads! There's no need of them.

As for posts on songs, I too have not had much time. Even to finish rating all the songs. You know I'll do my best when I get around to it, because I do care about the Commentary. Without the IMC, I likely wouldn't still be a Maidenfan like I am. But I totally agree with you, Maverick, Freaky, SMX, Shadow. Where's the intelligence? We're lucky, we have some great posters (Those above, plus AM, RW, The Duke, Onhell, and Mig Daimon come to mind, apologies if I missed some people!). Perhaps...we could look at organizing a time period to discuss certain albums, say a week or two for Iron Maiden, a week or two for Killers, etc. That might encourage people to do more.

As always, I look forward to the varience of posting we get here. SMX, kick some ass with your posting, buddy! And again, I encourage you all to log onto my profile and add my various IMs. Onhell and I have found bouncing ideas off each other before we post to be extremely benificial.
 
Hello there !

Well first,
[!--QuoteBegin--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Awww. I don't know. I must be getting old... [/quote] Yes you are, and you won't get any younger as time passes by [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

Ok, let's be serious...
Maverick, you created all this sub-forums on request of some members, and you did a great job there, there is no denying that. You gave everybody the opportunity to vote and comment each song of each album (which represent quite a number !). But you can't expect everybody to do so.
First, as it had already been said, voting and commenting all this songs take some time. Maybe there will be more answers and votes after a while.
Second, we can choose not to take the opportunity you give here.
As a matter of fact, I didn't vote on nearly every songs because I think that concerning music it is a matter of taste as well as mood, and as my opinion could change, I don't want to fix it... It's a point of view, of course...

Now, to all the posters on that thread.
This forum has some "stupid" threads. It will be great if this forum doesn't become like the IMBB. I agree with this. This is a recurring complaint here. Well, this is a forum...
The people coming here and posting here are doing so because they are looking for informations about Maiden, they want to discuss with other fans, ask particular questions, or simply have fun (just have a look at the madness forum : it is the one where there is daily posting). You can't expect everybody to think the way you think or to see that forum the way you do.
I don't think "the moderators should be empowered to stop the stupid threads". We discussed that point once, and it seems everyone agreed with the fact that as long as we discuss with "courtesy, tolerance and respect", this forum will be alright. And personnally, the word "empower" gives me the creeps.
Some want to know which singers, between Di'Anno and Bayley, the others prefer. That may seem stupid to you, but it's not for them. Either you tell them what you think, or you accept this kind of thread. But stopping them woull be elitist and I don't think it's a good thing.
 
Of course, you're correct, Master Owl. I suppose that sometimes seeing people do the same thing over and over and over again...


Hey. Could a subforum be created for all the things like Best "X"? That way we could clean up Maiden Chat?
 
Hey Maverick, it's too bad to know that you feel that way. I'm fairly new here so my words may not carry any weight. I agree with sinisterministerX on the visiting bit though.
Maybe some people don't look at Maiden as others do and are more attracted to the artwork or 666 or whatever. They might not put too much thought into the structure of the song or it's lyrics or the meaning of the lyrics for that matter. Honestly, I passed this site over once or twice before something caught my attention (I can't remember what it was but I think it was an intelligently written review of a Maiden song) and I knew that this site, along with some of the contributors, had a legitimacy to them. It's great to be able to say something about what a song MIGHT be about without somebody saying "what the &*#$".
Some people may just hear the song while others listen.
I hope that you get the response you wanted within the next few weeks. Maybe you should give a restricted time as to when we could be able to vote (ie: for the next two weeks).
I am looking forward to the evaluations that the SinisterMinister is planning on doing.
The interpretation that GOR wrote for REVS was 'enlightening'. If anyone hasn't read it - CHECK IT OUT!
 
[!--QuoteBegin-infliction+Apr 26 2004, 04:19 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(infliction @ Apr 26 2004, 04:19 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] I'm fairly new here so my words may not carry any weight. [/quote]
You couldn't be more wrong! Being new doesn't mean that you can't post quality messages -- as you just did! [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--] Many posters have been commenting intelligently from day 1, whereas others have been posting crap for the past 2 years or so.

So don't worry, we don't look at the number of posts when we read a message. As long as it's properly written and constructive, who cares if a so-called "newbie" posted it! [!--emo&^_^--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/happy.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'happy.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
I'm in agreement with LC about a designated 'best of' area. For example, how many polls/threads have we seen which boil down to 'what's your favorite Maiden album'? Let's create ONE favorite album poll, sticky it at the top of Maiden Chat, and DELETE any similar threads which crop up.

In general, I'm with the Owl here. I think these topics are valid for discussion; what annoys me is that the same things come up again and again. I don't want to eliminate the clutter; I just want to reduce it.
 
[!--QuoteBegin--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]We're lucky, we have some great posters (Those above, plus AM, RW, The Duke, Onhell, and Mig Daimon come to mind, apologies if I missed some people!).[/quote]

Oh Gosh ! He remembered me ! [!--emo&:bow:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/bowdown.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'bowdown.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [!--emo&:bow:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/bowdown.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'bowdown.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [!--emo&:bow:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/bowdown.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'bowdown.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

Thanks Loose Cannon, this is something that really moves me, as it comes from you, "Loose Cannon the Great" poster !

Back to the subject

Well, I agree with you all. I don´t know if you ever took a time and counted how many songs Iron Maiden has. Counting with Sanctuary, Drifter, Total Eclipse and Virus there are 125 songs. 125 pieces of art, each one with its own sounding and own feelings.

Its hard to go through all the songs and re-listen them and tell your feeling about it. And for me its harder, as you know, since I´m not an english man by nature (I guess its easy to perceive some ´mistakes´ in most of my posts). By I´ve tried hard !
I don´t like to start topics. I prefer to join in them. But again, most of times is harder for me. You just have to write. I have to think and think and re-think and then write. And also, I don´t want to just write "Yeah I agree with you" or things like that.

This is the ONLY ONE site about Maiden wich really takes its as a serious subject. I am a member of some other forums and none of them reaches the feet of this one. And I have always taken Maiden in a serious way.

Maverick, I think you should think about something. Maiden took more then 20 years to became what they are. You took some months (I think) to write the commentary. So I think its fair for that you wait sometime for us to answer the topics.

I totally understand your point and REALLY AGREE WITH YOU. But I also think that you should give us a bit of time.

Ok ?
 
Wow, all great responses! I too haven't had time, also, I don't own all of the maiden albums, so this summer i'll try to vote and comment on the ones I do. Oh Master Owl... EMPOWER! BUAHAHAHAHA. and Infliction, you forgot the %! !@#$%!
 
I have carefuly read all the posts in this thread (thanks for the credit infliction)...

I too would like to see more discussion in threads about songs, but bear in mind the general rule of bbs:

the frequency of subitted replys and the number of registered members is in reverse analog (?) of the quality of the posts. if you know what I mean. Other than that, I have done my best to contribute to the site whenever I feel I have something worth mentioning about a song, even if it is a small but unmentioned detail... Plus, I have systematicaly plugged the site and the bb to other forums I visit to get other people intrested in such discussions over here...
 
i just ran through the whole commentary bb, added quite alot of stuff and voted for all the remaining songs... I'm looking forward to seeing some counterposts on my current replies...

ps. I'd be cool if we could rate the studio bsides or other studio rarities of every album as well, each of them added to the respective album discussion page...
 
Well, thanks a lot Gor and all those who participated. I noticed that, since I had a good whine about it, people have voted more and sometimes even added pretty interesting comments.

Keep it up! [!--emo&B)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/cool.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'cool.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
I'm doing my best at writing reviews for my website. Since I write a review for every individual song, I'm also posting them here. I think that I'll have one for every song I know -and since I only have 7 albums, it's not that much- by the end of the month [!--emo&:)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'smile.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top