There is a cool thread at Steve Hoffman Forums called Ocean of Violets where they are reviewing every single released song one by one. The org could never? We are on 600+ pages now and only up to 1994.

Ocean of Violets: Prince song by song | Page 613 | Steve Hoffman Music Forums

Reviews are opinions, and we all know what opinions are like: Assholes. Everyone has one and they all stink.

The Hoffman forums have built a deserved reputation as places where grown folk discuss music civilly. It is on us to make that the Org is that kind of place.

TrivialPursuit said:

Reviews are opinions, and we all know what opinions are like: Assholes. Everyone has one and they all stink.

oh man.

andrewm7 said:

The Hoffman forums have built a deserved reputation as places where grown folk discuss music civilly. It is on us to make that the Org is that kind of place.

So we're doomed then?

^ not necessarily, I still hold out hope

The Steve Hoffman forums are much better place to discuss Prince.

The threads rarely descend into name calling and nasty comments. People seem to be able to agree to disagree and respect each others opinions.

People on the Steve Hoffman forums are about 2,000% times more on topic than most people here. Steve Hoffman forums = serious music discussion. Tha Org = astrology, waredrobe, dance moves, and literally everything else that has nothing to do with actual music. "Prince could be an asshole? Oh no. He was just a gemini, you see? He remains blameless."

Romeoblu said:

The Steve Hoffman forums are much better place to discuss Prince.

The threads rarely descend into name calling and nasty comments. People seem to be able to agree to disagree and respect each others opinions.

Thing is though, there's only like 3 or 4 people here that actually do that ( we know who they are) and shit up every thread but they're allowed to post with impunity and, whenever they fuck up, rather than ban the offending users, mods just shut down the entire thread(s).

I realize it's a labor of love, must be a pain in the ass and that the mods are all volunteers but, often, they burn down the whole forest instead of just chopping down the rotten trees. Some veterans are real assholes to newcomers, which may explain in part why the board is shrinking so much.

Now to try and figure out if I want to listen to 675 pages of song reviews...

I'll probably pass but thanks to the OP for the link anyway. One thing I know about Prince fans is that their taste is INCREDIBLY subjective - probably more so than for any other artist - and there might be 30 or 50 songs, maximum, in his entire catalogue that everyone would agree on as greatness.

Which I find interesting and chalk up to Prince's diversity.

Thats why I love the Steve Hoffman forums, people actually discuss the MUSIC and not silly rants and immature commentary. I have never been part of a more thorough discussion about Prince in all my years here in a collective fashion. However we do have some good runs when a new album comes out. Just wish there was that much civility here on an actual Prince site.

paisleypark4 said:

Thats why I love the Steve Hoffman forums, people actually discuss the MUSIC and not silly rants and immature commentary. I have never been part of a more thorough discussion about Prince in all my years here in a collective fashion. However we do have some good runs when a new album comes out. Just wish there was that much civility here on an actual Prince site.

I'll check it out.

For whatever reason this board does have a fairly divisive and sometimes hostile/aggressive bent to it. I can't ever imagine ragging on someone for liking or not like certain stuff or pretending to tell others what things they should enjoy or listen to. There's stuff that I can't comprehend disliking or, conversley, being passionate about and loving to death but, to me, that's the subjective nature of art and it never BOTHERS me. What a strange thing to get upset about, no?

I can't imagine becoming upset or rage posting about the things people do or don't like. I might make some good hearted fun of them or scratch my head - wonder if their ears function similar to mine - but I'll never call them idiots or claim they don't understand music. Millions of people like The Big Bang Theory and find it hilarious. They're allowed.

They have bad taste, but they're allowed to.

I won't deride someone for improper use of the search function or for failing to notice a duplicate thread but the org is gonna org and the mods let it ride. I get more threads squashed for pushing back against mean assholes and calling them out than the rude pricks who actually started the drama in the first place do. We could improve the doscourse here a lot if we just weeded out the 4 or 5 jerks who always like to stir up shit IMO but the go to option seems just be "close the thread entirely" instead of silencing the putting the shit stirrers into time out.

It's the same people doing it almost every time. I dunno. I'm sure moderating all these die hard lunatics is difficult.

TrivialPursuit said:

Reviews are opinions, and we all know what opinions are like: Assholes. Everyone has one and they all stink.

Including yours? Or are those the fragrant opinions?

herb4 said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Reviews are opinions, and we all know what opinions are like: Assholes. Everyone has one and they all stink.

Including yours? Or are those the fragrant opinions?

Absolutely.

TrivialPursuit said:

herb4 said:

Including yours? Or are those the fragrant opinions?

Absolutely.

right on

i'll mark that down fo future reference.

TIA

herb4 said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Absolutely.

right on

i'll mark that down fo future reference.

TIA

Whatever floats your boat. Doesn't have anything to do with me.

TrivialPursuit said:

herb4 said:

right on

i'll mark that down fo future reference.

TIA

Whatever floats your boat. Doesn't have anything to do with me.

I'll add "being able to take a joke" to your list of accomplishments.

herb4 said:

paisleypark4 said:

Thats why I love the Steve Hoffman forums, people actually discuss the MUSIC and not silly rants and immature commentary. I have never been part of a more thorough discussion about Prince in all my years here in a collective fashion. However we do have some good runs when a new album comes out. Just wish there was that much civility here on an actual Prince site.

I'll check it out.

For whatever reason this board does have a fairly divisive and sometimes hostile/aggressive bent to it. I can't ever imagine ragging on someone for liking or not like certain stuff or pretending to tell others what things they should enjoy or listen to. There's stuff that I can't comprehend disliking or, conversley, being passionate about and loving to death but, to me, that's the subjective nature of art and it never BOTHERS me. What a strange thing to get upset about, no?

I can't imagine becoming upset or rage posting about the things people do or don't like. I might make some good hearted fun of them or scratch my head - wonder if their ears function similar to mine - but I'll never call them idiots or claim they don't understand music. Millions of people like The Big Bang Theory and find it hilarious. They're allowed.

They have bad taste, but they're allowed to.

I won't deride someone for improper use of the search function or for failing to notice a duplicate thread but the org is gonna org and the mods let it ride. I get more threads squashed for pushing back against mean assholes and calling them out than the rude pricks who actually started the drama in the first place do. We could improve the doscourse here a lot if we just weeded out the 4 or 5 jerks who always like to stir up shit IMO but the go to option seems just be "close the thread entirely" instead of silencing the putting the shit stirrers into time out.

It's the same people doing it almost every time. I dunno. I'm sure moderating all these die hard lunatics is difficult.

They lust and hunger for attention really. None of that in Steve Hoffman forum. Not sure why in here that is a thing and always have been. Some users trying to make a name for themselves by being the most nasty; opprotunists. See right through them like Windex.

Anyway back to the music...we are discussing The Voice album.

herb4 said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Whatever floats your boat. Doesn't have anything to do with me.

I'll add "being able to take a joke" to your list of accomplishments.

Oh, I can take it, bruh. I'm not up in my feelings. I'm just saying - do you. I'm here for it.

paisleypark4 said:

Hamad said:

paisleypark4 said:

They lust and hunger for attention really. None of that in Steve Hoffman forum. Not sure why in here that is a thing and always have been. Some users trying to make a name for themselves by being the most nasty; opprotunists. See right through them like Windex.

Anyway back to the music...we are discussing The Voice album.

Seeing that the org was the first Prince community I got to know (I never been to any of his shows sadly) I made the horrible mistake in the past of painting Prince’ fans with the same nasty org brush, thinking that being a miserable, obnoxious, know-it-all, elitist dweeb is somehow naturally inherited, or little people playing “my dick is bigger than yours” games to one-up each other intellectually for the sake of inflating & compensating an already bruised ego. It reeked of lack of confidence, and because of that I deprived myself from getting to know anyone from the community, if they’re that miserable behind keyboards no telling how energy sucking they are in real life. Boy, was I wrong though. I think this culture is mostly in this wasteland, because the folks I got to know on twitter truly corrected my tainted view. Those people had grace, more interesting, thought provoking, full of reverence and never made ANY attempt to shut down the course of conversation, as long as it’s about Prince, it’s never trivial or redundant, it’s always worth the revisit if it has been discussed. But most of all, there’s a communal spirit. Far cry from the mean girls in this website. The forum you just shared conveys the similar positive energy I’ve highlighted earlier, thank you for sharing that I’ll do some reading.

Facts!

I was glad I had a base community here before I got on the org..who were completely disconnected from my fam circle here in Minneapolis. People on the org looking for clout and attention...then you dont see them at any real events. You are so right.

Thank you for checking it out!

Hamad said:

paisleypark4 said:

They lust and hunger for attention really. None of that in Steve Hoffman forum. Not sure why in here that is a thing and always have been. Some users trying to make a name for themselves by being the most nasty; opprotunists. See right through them like Windex.

Anyway back to the music...we are discussing The Voice album.

Seeing that the org was the first Prince community I got to know (I never been to any of his shows sadly) I made the horrible mistake in the past of painting Prince’ fans with the same nasty org brush, thinking that being a miserable, obnoxious, know-it-all, elitist dweeb is somehow naturally inherited, or little people playing “my dick is bigger than yours” games to one-up each other intellectually for the sake of inflating & compensating an already bruised ego. It reeked of lack of confidence, and because of that I deprived myself from getting to know anyone from the community, if they’re that miserable behind keyboards no telling how energy sucking they are in real life. Boy, was I wrong though. I think this culture is mostly in this wasteland, because the folks I got to know on twitter truly corrected my tainted view. Those people had grace, more interesting, thought provoking, full of reverence and never made ANY attempt to shut down the course of conversation, as long as it’s about Prince, it’s never trivial or redundant, it’s always worth the revisit if it has been discussed. But most of all, there’s a communal spirit. Far cry from the mean girls in this website. The forum you just shared conveys the similar positive energy I’ve highlighted earlier, thank you for sharing that I’ll do some reading.

I agree with all this

When I meet Prince fans out in the wild it's pretty friendly and commutive. We share bootlegs, talk about songs and it's always cool.

I don't know why the arrogance, mean spiritedness and insults permeate this place so much - and I admit to being sarcastic and snarky sometimes myself so I'm not inncocent here - but I bet the mods could could clean it up a lot by simple banning...I dunno...3 to 5 people maybe? It's not my board though so w/e.

I think a lot of it stems from this place being, like you said, not only one of the first Prince boards and largely consisting of the Hardest of the Hardcore (especially now) so everyone thinks they're a fucking expert and The Final Word on anything that even has the audacity to be painted purple.

Also, some of it has to do with Prince's enigmatic persona, diversity and broad scope (for lack of a better way to put that) so I chalk it up to taste sometimes.

The Hoffman forum can be good but does has its issues with certain members as well. Plus, there's this: http://microdynamiks.blogspot.com/

cb70 said:

The Hoffman forum can be good but does has its issues with certain members as well. Plus, there's this: http://microdynamiks.blogspot.com/

Wow, someone did a whole entire college thesis on this message board. A little extra, but an interesting read!! I didnt know the history of it at all.