im not rich
.....average income

I can contribute.

hmmm. don't know if it's of any use, but I have some "critics"... please ignore if my view is not shared...
impressive stats, BUT.

post count is for me quite a turn off actually. I understand that this forum is more than just a 'music' thing, but the forum seems to be balancing on a subtle edge of "serious"/"non-serious" content, and to be honest, for me it is less and less interesting. this actually was already the case on SL, but nowadays the majority of posts is quote of "agreed" or some other non-relevant crap. in the end the content has its limits and the forum covered most of it already. most active users are stimulating other active users with praise of their opinion etc. the "norm" is shifting to a majority norm, which is not the most interesting. I don't think it's possible any other way, but well... it gets less worth the efford to voice your opinion, share some thoughs or discuss (new) bands or other things.

donations might be a good idea, but also FOR ME I'm not going to pay for this. I think the chat department is for the worse as this even more stimulates the inside "we're friends" additude that reflects in every topic as well, which makes it less interesting to participate. topics drift from a nice interesting opening post to a insiders wittyness on the 2nd page already. We all disgust "hypes" but it's happening on this forum too. what's cool & what's not standards crystalized by reply bombers.
creating more departments for "elite" members will create an even more incrowd culture.

the double edged sword is not only cutting on the costs, but also on the relevance of DFFD it seems.
but again, maybe it's just me whole losing interest. only thing is thought, that I this might be happening to others already as well, and otherwise might be happening "soon".

Agreed ( )
No, really. You have a point there. I definitely don't want any closed "VIP member" areas or anything like that here.

Same here. I'd donate in a heartbeat.

there are many good points here, even though i don't share your views on a few of the things pointed out they are undoubtedly true, i guess that's just the natural order of things when people get comfortable in a place.

however, i find that with the general discussion being separated from the band/label/releases section it is at least easier to purely access the forum for the information you want and not bother with all the inside jokes / backslapping etc....

i agree that the chat (even though i've clicked on there numerous times) is more or less unnecessary and mainly "hey how are you", "how's the weather" and "let's talk about doom dom" types of smalltalk. i much prefer the private messaging and being in touch via email or other means.

however i still believe this can be a great platform, there will always be poeople who bitch and complain and people who call others hipsters purely because they don't like the same thing.... that's just immaturity one must ignore and look beyond.

umm dunno what point i'm trying to make. just thoughts on your thoughts i guess.

Count me in, Toby

Pit: I appreciate you taking the time to post your views, but I have to say that while I'm very sure you are a decent bloke, I don't agree at all with you. I hope you stay being a member here, but I think the development of this forum is important and will make the place better for the majority, and I can't just bow down to one persons wishes. I agree the VIP area idea isn't fantastic, and it was just a thought about how to reward donors and as such its not a definate plan.

I like the fact that this place has a 'friends' attitude, new members join daily and go on to contribute, and become part of the community. Its like you seem to want this place to be insular and impersonal, just a sterile factual resource. If people don't like the chat, they don't have to use it. There is plenty of separation between music and chat, and while there is quite alot of thread static and derailment, but thats just the way of things. The mods try and keep on top of things, but I dont want some rigid police state forum where chat is just stamped out cos its not totally on topic.

Everything you have mentioned that you dislike is stuff that I have tried to deal with both on here and on SL and people have pretty much made it clear what they will tolerate and not tolerate. I think I am pretty fair and don't rule this place like a tyrant, when I could quite easily as now we're independant I'm beholdent to noone. But I'm not wanting to do that, I wanna keep the easy goin feel of this place.

In closing, I just wanna say that while I hope you stick around, but if you don't then fine, DFFD will evolve and become more than just a forum. I've seen and used alot of other net forums and I think we have it pretty good here compared to some and as such I wanna improve it and make it better for the people that do actually enjoy it.

Also, I'm sure you will wanna reply to this, and you are welcome to, but I don't really want to get into a debate about it as I know we will just end up disagreeing further and it will just sour the positivity that people have about the future of DFFD.

Whatever happens I'll just throw my 2 pence in and just say that Toby deserves massive props for keepin this place open - genuinely the only place on t'interweb where you can find bullshit free people who actually care about music and are willing to share new bands etc. I've got into loads of good stuff through this here portal.

It still doesn't alter the fact that Psycho III is really shit though.