About Changstar and Super Best Audio Friends. A Post from Tari

A little doodle about Super Best Audio Friends from Tari (he's currently off the grid, so I am posting this):

A Brainyquote.com search for "quotes about change" tells me that it was Mahatma Gandhi who coined the phrase "you must be the change you wish to see in the world." I had a dear friend who lived by this precept and drowned in a wishing well.

Changstar.com could have changed. It could have pivoted into the age of VR and autonomous cars or whatever the Internet tells us is happening next; but sometimes to affect real change, a reset and rebrand is needed.

There are probably a number of you who thought Changstar was perfectly good the way it was with no need for a revamp. There are most likely an equal or greater number who see no reason Super Audio Best Friends could be any different in a positive way with the same core members.

Changstar definitely developed in tone, emphasis, and purpose since its inception. That is a product of the growth of the forum, the type of member attracted to the site, and the steering on the part of administration. (Let's be honest though - trying to steer a forum is like trying to steer a speedboat, only to find you're out of gas. And hitched to a truck that's driving you down the freeway.)

Somewhere along the way, a significant portion of Changstar's reason for existence (not to mention many user's fun with the forum and the hobby) was lost. We found ourselves not unlike the Grebulons, taking potshots at poorly performing or overpriced gear (or the people behind it), honing our snark, and invariably derailing threads without any sense of reason behind it - other than "isn't that just how things are done here?"

The truth is a forum this size is mostly shaped by its members. If the members pull in many different directions, it will never have any sense of cohesion. If everyone agrees out of fear or pride, it will resemble just another hive mind. If everyone is walking on eggshells lest someone be offended, then this place will be way too PC, and "too much like X other website." If allowed free reign with a keyboard and puffed up sense of Internet importance, it could come to be too much like a place that no one wants it to be.

People want an Internet interest board to be an extension of the hobby. They are into the hobby for enjoyment or to get away from the stress and relentlessness of real life. That means we need to be a place we can enjoy. A place where we can make super audio best friends. A place we can accidentally mention a user by their first name at the dinner table and when asked "Oh, is that your new friend from work?" We can say with a little embarrassment since it's still weird, "No, Bob is a friend of mine from Sweden who also likes 'that audio amplifier stuff' and he's coming to a convention soon and we're going to hang out and laugh about that time the other guy was so weird, also on the Internet and someone deleted the post so I can't show it to you."

So really, to the question "What is Super Best Audio Friends" - the answer is, it is what you make of it. If the Internet is the playground then forums are a sandbox - and everyone knows sandboxes can rock. But if you're the kid who has to always have the biggest castle - or piss on everyone else's - then you're really not wanted here. Kids can help each other learn to play around with cool stuff in ways they hadn't tried before. Heck, none of it may even be helpful as kids can be stupid, but at least they're trying.

Playground dynamics often have a kid who ends up being in charge, for better or for worse - but when playtime is over and everyone's mom picks them up, it is clear how powerless everyone truly is. So any cult of personality or messiah complex perceived by the smaller-minded folks is seriously pointless. Similarly, the kid who really wants to be in charge is usually the last person you'd want to be in control - to that end we'd like to make this site one where those who are in "power" are the ones who really don't care about the petty drama of it all and have busy lives in the real world. And that kid who gets fed up when other's don't understand his "art" made of sticks and sand and has a meltdown and his mom makes everyone apologize to him for the "mistreatment"? Also not someone anyone really wants around.

This stuff is so basic that it feels like it should go without saying. But lets be honest - users here are so into an obscure isolationist hobby that they need a specialist forum - and not just the "mainstream" forum, but the "edgy offshoot cutting-edge forum that gives you the real deal" (or something like that.) These people are likely to be socially weird, have issues with arrogance or narcissism, and often end up here because the bigger places "couldn't handle them" and their crusader nature. So, we get it. But we're not interested in a site that resembles a YouTube video's comments section.

So - we're going to try this SBAF thing. Larger scale, less overbearing, probably just as irreverent and hopefully more pleasant.

___

PS - I'm sure the conspiracies will be thick on the ground, but let me say (with whatever integrity I am perceived as having) that the administrators (such as Marv and Ravi and others) acted in an exemplary manner in the events leading up to the formation of this site. And that is majorly underselling it.

 

This thread made my evening. Thanks to Tzvi for his post and to Marv for sharing it with us.

 

In case someone didn't get it:

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/navy-seal-copypasta

 

Nah, I got it. Just trying to play along with it