Some, a rather nice chap contacted me on Last.fm just to tell me he shared my taste in music, primarily SR and TJ (along with Radiohead and GO!GO!) so I thanked him, and told him about this place. The reply...

"some people told me this forum are full of rude people that dont't welcome new people quite well... so I have decided not to participate in discussions... because I haven't felt the need of... but who knows someday.."

I wish people didn't spread such crap (not this guy, but whoever informed him). Of course we can have some heated discussions; it's a discussion forum after all, and if you don't like em then stay away from those threads in particular. But when have we ever been unwelcoming? I think that -- particularly outside of Variety and Hirama vs Uki threads -- we're a nice bunch of folk :(

I'm a little surprised that we're noteworthy (+/-) to anyone but our userbase.

And I think we're receptive to everybody. So long as they don't come in thinking they know best or take things personally, we're hospitable.

Well, to be perfectly honest, we can be a little assholy sometimes. Like if we just know that our Romaji is correct and any deviation from that is completely wrong. Or if somebody doesn't introduce themselves in the New Members thread before posting their opinion or, oh...I don't know...requesting sheet music. Let's not forget that old Ringo > new Ringo and that Uki is like sandpaper + scrotum and that there's hope for Ringo yet and we know exactly what'll save her music. That kind of elitism might turn new members right around.

well, i always write the romaji wrong. I've never seen anyone shunned cuz they didn't introduce themselves in the new members thread. The only recent occassion was someone made a thread intro-ing themselves in the main board and they were politely directed to the new members thread. Requests are a diff matter entirely. You cant come in posing nothing but reqs -- off topic -- and expect a warm reception. If I'm a stranger and I go to your house and keep demanding OJ, wouldn't you be miffed?

The other matters are debates you see on any kind of forum, thats not elitism.

Haha, full of rude people. Well that might be true.
I believe people like Badtz and Catch5 (and maybe evil) left this place because everything was getting too heated and personal. (No doubt, I do take responsibility for some of the heat I contributed.) For while the stuff happening here was something like a reality TV show...

...Anyway, I think this place needs new blood though. Sadly people come here expecting free downloads, or sometimes request for stuff that none of us could possibly contribute... not to mention that everything SR/TJ related has been discussed to death.

It's unfortunate that people put us in a negative light. Maybe it is a little difficult to get cosy and stuff, but I think once you settle in, it's a pretty tight community.

Jihad, you know if you came to my house and asked for some OJ, I'd pour you a (shot) glass in a second. (Ten cool points for using the word "miffed," btw.)

I'd like to think this is a pretty tight community, but sometimes we go overboard and might trample on other people's opinions. I guess that happens everywhere, though, so there's not much that can be done about that.

I just wish people would stick around for long enough to realize that we're really just a cool bunch of weirdos. We need new people like I need my morning shot of Everclear (which is a lot), because, like riiingo-hiiime pointed out, we've pretty much talked about everything there is to talk about and need some fresh perspective every once in a while.

Here's my fresh perspective for you:

I write Kenshou Naoshi all the time and nobody gives a damn. The only problem with song names is when somebody writes in kanji/kana/whatev instead of romaji...

oh right. Write the friggin romaji newbs =p

/writes Kenshou too. Probly cuz Maou wrote it that way

As someone who wants this site to flourish, I can understand where the previous administration was coming from in how they felt the "haters" were tearing the community apart, even if I disagree with how the administration chose to deal with that.

I don't have a problem with either side of the Old vs. New conflict, as long as people on both sides are being constructive about it. I think what happens is the key advocates of each side have already spent so much time trying to make their criticisms or defense constructive, that they start slacking on the job of continuing to be constructive, because everything they've already said is 'established', so the debate plays out like television commercials where the longer (and informative versions) are shown first, then shortened versions keep getting replayed just to refresh your memory. But if you didn't catch what was going on before, then you feel all-the-more alienated.

It's become established to hate all over Ukigumo with little or no continued 'reason' at all, because "everything's already been said". In this kind of atmosphere, most of what the new members see is a whole lot more of "Uki sucks", than what it was ever based on. And if you ever try to revisit the reasons after newbies have already seen all the blunt hating, then you're "making excuses", and any attempt anyone feels they could make to challenge those 'excuses', will go through an increasingly 'personal' (and therefore 'pointless') battle of Hard Sell.

If this community is damned if we do, or damned if we don't (on silencing/banning the "haters"), then we might as well support Free Speech. It's a double-edged sword that's self-policing only when multiple sides actually have the motivation to be completely open and constructive, rather than dispirited members/lurkers talking to their buddies through other channels about how this community is eating itself.