Ito

Basically I just want to say I agree with everyone that has said this is a JAPANESE music forum.
And, like Ito said, there are places within this forum already that you can discuss kpop if you want, nothing is stopping you. 

Personally, I think that if you want to discuss anything the best option is just to start a thread about it, you dont necessarily need an entire subforum to do so.
I like the fact that there is a mix of everything here so I dont feel like I have to just stick to one thing. The fact that there is a general entertainment, discussion, music etc category makes it easier to open up the topics to many more things. and like champ said, making those into separate subforums is just a lot of unnecessary work when it's already there.
I think the only reason a subforum should be implemented is just for the sake of organization but, lets be real here, aint nobody got time for that.
 
MH is a nice community where the members can discuss many things and is not only limited to japanese rock/vkei, but at the core, it IS a japanese music forum.
So that's what I have to say about that.

I'm only gonna say this once. Stay on Topic
 
This thread is not a place to fight your personal vendettas and I definitely don't enjoy coming in here and reading this shitfest.

Dude, we are changing things, this is an ever evolving place. It's just we aren't changing anything on this issue...at least not yet, as we really don't have much reason to...and if there are good reasons, you certainly haven't given us any. If you want us to make subforms for the type of music that you are in to, give us a reason to. And I am not saying "oh, because if you do that people will talk about it." You want to to talk about Kpop, post about Kpop! Get a discussion going! Show us that people want to talk about it. 
 
And as far as you not liking the tagging system goes, just because you don't like it doesn't mean that it isn't a good system.

For those who are incredibly curious:


United States - 11,139 Japan - 5,231 Germany - 4,878 France - 3,571 Brazil - 2,807 Russia - 2,520 Finland - 2,165 Netherlands - 1,878 Italy - 1,771 Canada - 1,618

Dude, we are changing things, this is an ever evolving place. It's just we aren't changing anything on this issue...at least not yet, as we really don't have much reason to...and if there are good reasons, you certainly haven't given us any. If you want us to make subforms for the type of music that you are in to, give us a reason to. And I am not saying "oh, because if you do that people will talk about it." You want to to talk about Kpop, post about Kpop! Get a discussion going! Show us that people want to talk about it. 
 
And as far as you not liking the tagging system goes, just because you don't like it doesn't mean that it isn't a good system.

The thing is that we're not afraid of change. The thing is that we won't go around randomly adding sub-forums while we have no idea whether there is demand for it or not. If you want a K-pop section, sure, but we can't just randomly make sections because YOU want to have a section for K-pop. If we notice there is an actual demand on the forum for a K-pop section, we'll take this into consideration to see if we want to make separate groups for K-pop discussions or not.
 
And I agree with Ito: don't just complain about the fact that there is no K-pop section. If you want a K-pop section, show us that there is demand for it! Start threads about K-Pop, talk about it with others! If we see that this actually is becoming bigger, we can do something about it! Participate in discussions. We deleted a lot of sub-forums in the past because it was just too messy and it took too much time cleaning them all up. We've been fine without them. Also, the tagging system works fine. As far as I know, you're currently the only one who is unhappy with it. If this were more people, you would probably have a point, but since there isn't (or at least people are not vocal about it), there are no plans in changing it.

One of I'm sure many to come: Hyper Erection Mode posts will consist of simple screenshot(s).
 

 
Our first one consists of what the DS staff members (could be you!) will see in the backend when managing band profiles. This is from the current working version of the band module.
 

To say that I am frustrated by this thread is a bit of an understatement.
 
The attitude of some of the members make me feel like you paid something to get this service and ended up not getting exactly what you want. This this is something that exists and you enjoy purely because the love and money of other people. The negativity is stifling. I kind of get the impression that a lot of people think the "staff" is kind of a faceless corporation, that we are in our positions for the power and the glory or some shit. The people on the staff are here because they love this site and the community. They volunteered their time to try and make this a better place, no matter the amount. 
 
We are in agreement that the staff isn't as active that we all once were in our prime. But neither is the community. Pointing fingers will get us no where fast. Throwing people out and reshuffling is purposeless if it is done to just appease a few people. Lets say that the staff posts a lot more...does that give us the active community that we want? Maybe yes, maybe no. And it will not happen at the flip of a switch, it will be a slow burn. The success of this forum rests on everyone here, and absolutely none of you are obligated to do anything. If the love isn't there, then MH will die.
 
Will the staff be redoubling our efforts to try and make this community better? For sure. Will we try to mix things up by adding another mod or two from the community? Most likely. But I am not so sure that this is something that can be forced. We will do the best we can to get things flow...there are still people that love this place over 6 years since Jake and I first started it, and while things may be massively different from now then, I plan on continuing to keep this place running for as long as possible. The only thing I ask is that you treat the staff like the hard working people they are. Pretty much everyone on the staff here is an incredible person outside of the forum as well and life can get in the way of this fun little place.
 
 
Side notes:
If we were judging you all on how much you care by the amount you donate to the site to keep it running, we would have closed down already
 
 
It costs $60 a month to keep the servers running. Every dollar you give goes DIRECTLY in to paying the server (as you will have noticed when you use paypal and notice who you are paying - dreamhost).
 
 
I hate to break it to you, but that is the way the forum has ALWAYS been. a majority of the people that visit will never post and just take the downloads. Hell, I don't even know if this forum's community would even exist if it wasn't for the download section.
 
 

Uhh, as long as there's music being shared you can be sure that transcodes will appear.
 
Clearly if you ask around you will find more people who hate transcodes than people who love them. I am admittedly rather OCD about transcodes myself, but still, I'm hesitant about the sub-forum idea.
 
Assuming we set up a forum to house transcodes, I can quite literally imagine having:
A) people who report x as transcode and ask for them to be moved to your 'sub-forum'
B ) people [probably mods] who manually do the moving
C) a group of people who start protesting that x isn't actually a transcode and asked for it to be moved back
D) another group of people who mediate between A and C
E) etc.
You get the idea...
 
The problem (as Champ213 rightly pointed out) is that there's no universal way to prove beyond all doubt that something is simply a bad rip or a transcode. From experience, micromanaging transcodes does nothing meaningful but invite drama (I'm reminded of petty squabbles that go on for 100+ posts on a particular tracker over whether a Super Junior single is a transcode...).
 
Ultimately, I feel that if you really care so much about whether something is a transcode, it's up to you to decide if x is a transcode and what to do if it is. Just don't fall into the trap of spending more time looking at spectra than actually listening to the music.

Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex? - The Guardian

This article touched on something that really scares me about Japan...when people start thinking that relationships are too much work and they "can't be bothered." 
 
Just read the article if you want to be scared about Japan as well XD

Thoughts?

God, some times I wonder if I am really all that good at anything. Just got done skating and damn do I suck :\

I've heard the soundtrack for that game, and I agree that it's great! I actually quite like video game soundtracks ( ), it's just a force of habit to put the TV on mute and put on my iTunes library on album shuffle. When my sister and I were younger, we would play games like Yoshi's Island or the Donkey Kong Country trilogy games; I liked all the music, but she hated it, so we'd always put the TV on mute and listen to music from my computer.
 
One time when we were playing through Yoshi's, we had her computer and she put on the soundtrack for Sweeney Todd (I think I was fighting the final boss Baby Bowser). At the time I didn't think much of it, but now looking back, I strangely find it funny.   And actually, I think about these times whenever I hear certain albums like The Used's album "In Love And Death;" it was playing one time when we were playing Banjo-Kazooie (Click-Clock-Wood: Fall/Winter). This is actually an interesting memory to think about, because my sister and I have completely drifted apart since we moved into a different house a few years ago.
Now I only put the TV on mute and put music on (to earbuds) so I don't wake my parents up at 3 AM! XD
 
And yeah, I was exaggerating about the vapid misanthrope remark (XD); I don't hate people, I'm just screwed up!  
 

If this post is tldr, then skip to the last paragraph.
 
 
Music has always been my outlet. Linkin Park and Papa Roach are two examples of artists that I could listen to and somehow manage my out-of-control emotions, but my heart was always with metal. A friend of mine introduced me to jrock, but I never paid it much attention because American artists were so much easier to access (besides, she sent me a picture and I wondered wtf was wrong with the vk band members XD). Slayer was always my last resort when it came to music because their music never failed to help me stabilize.

Slayer was almost an integral part of my life back then. Actually, I even met my daughter's father at a Slayer concert. He was also an avid fan, even covering several of their songs on guitar and using their titles as his screen names. We had quite a whirlwind start for our relationship, but in the end he was just using me the way I used music. We broke up on my birthday, but still went to see a Slayer concert together a few days later. Kinda funny how we both met and parted at a Slayer concert. ;; I was already unknowingly pregnant when we broke up (not that knowing would've changed anything).

Despite drama and stress from him and his friends, I had a very happy pregnancy. I never needed music to make me feel better because just putting my hand on my growing stomach was extremely soothing. Unfortunately, my pregnant sister and her family (then husband and her 2 sons) had been living with us. My sister and I never really had that great of a relationship and things only got worse this time. Her husband kept getting fired from the easiest of jobs (even ones where he was hired as a favor), was stealing from the household, wasting her hard-earned money, and went out of his way to NOT do any household chores. She couldn't get mad at him (she was in a custody battle with her ex over their sons and courts prefer stable marriages to single parents), so she'd take it out on me; mentally, emotionally, verbally, financially, and even physically. I could only endure it because of the little miracle growing inside of me.

My sister was further along than I was, so she had her kid before I did. That just made things worse because her husband didn't really want to be a father and never did anything to take care of his daughter. My sister expected my father and I to take care of all 3 of her kids for her, including feeding, bathing, entertaining/supervising, and tutoring them. Because my sister is the stereotypical blond bimbo, she'd often leave for work without expressing milk (and was adamantly against formula) so I ended up having to wet nurse my niece at various times over a span of 2 months (because the only other option was to let her starve ).

My sister's husband left her on December 26th, after receiving several hundred dollars in presents from her. About 2 weeks later I had my daughter. My sister's abuse only intensified after these events. She moved out in February, after telling her church that I had thrown my barely 1 month old daughter against the wall. Some elderly bitch at the church called me and tried to get me to confess my "sins" to her over the phone. I told her A. I have no sins to confess and B. she is legally required by law to report suspected child abuse otherwise she could be face charges as well. She eventually shut the fuck up and called the police like I told her to; an officer was at my front door no more than 10 minutes later. I still remember him to this day: in his late 30s, slightly husky, white in his beard, and not a single hint of maliciousness in his eyes. He commented that my daughter didn't even have scratches on her face, unlike his own kid. He found out it was my sister who started the false report and put a giant, comforting hand on my shoulder before leaving. No matter how much music I listened to, nothing could stop my from shaking in anger and betrayal.

Not even my daughter's crying could jolt my soul. With just this information, some people would think it was "just" postpartum depression, but I had already met with my doctors to check for it (and met with them again after that incident) and I was given a clear bill of health (both times). I don't know how much later, but days later I just put my music on shuffle, hid under the desk, curled up into a ball, and cried while listening to the music. Linkin Park meant nothing. Pink meant nothing. Papa Roach meant nothing. Slayer meant nothing. Slayer was useless to my soul. Slayer, my last resort, did nothing. And then it happened, a song came on that helped wash away the hurt, pain, anger, and numbness. I'll be damned if I remember which song, but I'll never forget the band; it was Dir en grey.

LOL
That is a kind of hilarious reason to not want to fly.
 

God, I wish I had that kind of opportunity lol. Here in the US, public transportation just isn't that way...if I want to go to a show, I pretty much need to drive. Furthest I have ever driven for a show was about 3 or so hours, which really isn't that big of a deal. That's probably because I just don't really have any friends near me that are in to my kind of music nearly as much as I do...that and when bands come that I do want to see, it is usually a 14 hour drive minimum XD
 

Shit dude, that was heavy...not sure what to say in reply to it because nothing can quite do it justice. The only thing I have to say is that not committing suicide is NOT being cowardly. Life is fucking hard sometime and sticking through it was way more brave than having a small boost of misplaced drive...So I just leave it at that.

Fucking this. It's almost odd in a way, music seems to do more for me when I am down than it does when things are going well. It's almost like some times the music does a better job of understanding you than any words ever could.

Man, why did we let this thread die?

This actually reminds me of something a literature professor used to say in one of my classes - that some literary works aren't "great" just cuz they are profound or impossibly opaque, or whatever.. but because they are porous - allowing every single reader to make the text their own in his/her very unique way.
 
I guess this is equally applicable to good music in general. Sometimes when we listen to a song, something (usually trivial) just seizes us in a very personal and very magical way. But at the same time you're pretty sure no one else can identify what exactly this "feeling" is..

Kinda interesting to read some positive memories in the midst of bittersweet drama related to your "flashback" hits and stuff. Seems like I am the only one who has experienced only passive breakup...
 
I am being subtle about my memory-related song and post a link to it:
 
http://vimeo.com/69100984
 
This song has cheered me up when I was either down or just plainly pissed off for something (it still does ) I can remember myself jamming along to this hit as a kiddio when I had no chance to hang around with friends during new year's eve....
 
(In terms of PV, I didn't give any symbolic meaning to it when I was younger (except that I took Ken's look there as a "main principle" of my must-looks.../metrosexual issues)
BUT now that I've mustered some good and bad experience, I might say that PV above represented certain phases (as PV shows, negative ones) that I had to go through in my lifetime - it helped me to judge and think over my deeds alot, so yeah, a helpful song in both ways. I am sorry for railing with such off-topic things, lel.)

Laruku's "Blurry Eyes" remind me a lot of a yearly fair my school used to have. I listened to that song a lot doing a very tumultuous part of my life--I was starting to be less shy, was slowly coming out to myself, and was finally making new friends after switching schools. I guess that event holds as a transitional period for myself, so I hold a lot of good memories with that song. The fact that the music video also took place on fairgrounds also helps me make an association between the two as well.

This is gonna sound so....corny? I dont know.
But all I remember was that I was in 10th grade and I was living with my older sister and her psycho ass (now ex) girlfriend 
My mom and I were fighting all the time and I was just really depressed. At that moment I was seriously contemplating suicide (i promise this gets better)
and I guess I had sat on the remote for my stereo or something and the CD I happened to have in there was SHOCKWAVE THE SELECT and the song that started playing just /happened/ to be KuRt's supparation...and I dont know, I just felt like.. wow i can totally get through this because I have awesome music to help me.
 
/end cheese
 
but yeah, music has always been the one thing that never walked away from me in my life, so i always hold it so dear to my heart <3

Well.... I dont have a 'song-for-the-moment' but certain songs just suddenly remind me of things. either of people I loved or knew/was close to or places ive been. I can only really think of one off the top of my head (my mind is a little disorganised like that...) so I will add that for now and include some more later as i start remembering them.
 
 
 
One of my most heartbreaking memories was when I broke up with my gf of 4 years which Ive partially gone into in the single peoples thread
We met on a chatroom thing and we kinda got talking, we were talking for at least 3-4years before we decided to meet up but m heart kinda fell for her before we even met, I live in london and shes like 3hrs train ride away from me up north somewhere. I was working at the time so going to visit her wasnt that much of a problem though train tickets here in the UK are beyond extortionate. 
 
Met up a few times (at my expense of course - She was 18 and didnt have a job at that time cuz she was still in 6th form or in college) and we both enjoyed our time together so I asked her to be mine one day, like random off the bat thing and I was very very shy about it back then but I really really really loved and wanted her and she was totally my little cuddle bunny till things went sour.
 
Her name was Emma, but I called her Emmybear cuz that kinda made her go silent every time I called her that - Its like one of them words that make your heart stop ya know? and it had that kind of effect on her. And she loved to cuddle so i used to cuddle and hug the shit out of her when we met up - hence the pet name Emmybear.
 
I met her parents, they seemed to like me and we got on just fine, I think they liked me even more because her dad plays bass, little brother plays drums and she played a little guitar, and because i was a musician I kinda fit in with her family.
 
Things were great over the next few years between me and Emma but unfortunately things werent so good with her parents,  they started arguing and fighting a lot, mum tried to push dad down the stairs and dad found out that wife was an alcoholic that owed a 'friend' a lot of money.
 
During this time I took time off work to make more visits to make sure emma was fine, I tried to get both parents to talk things over rather than kill each other but since im an outsider theres only so much I can do to help. Sadly the situation didnt improve and they eventually separated and Emma was totally heartbroken. There wasnt anything I could do or say to make her feel better and things just started going downhill from then on. she started to isolate herself from everyone and wanted to lock everyone out of her life. I stuck by her all through her parents break up and still carried on being there for her when she started pushing me away from her saying she didnt feel 'ready' for a relationship.
 
till this day im not sure If it was the truth or not but i had a huge suspicion that she was just after a way to break up the relationship. Before the issue with her parents ending up in an epic train crash of all train crashes, I said to her that I 'felt' deep inside that she was my soulmate when we were having a cuddle, whether she believed in the whole soulmate thing or not is anybody's guess but i thought she was because she was big on the whole astrology thing. Anyway, she avoided answering me and changed the subject and Instantly picked up on it but let the subject drop instead of letting it ruin the mood but It was always in the back of my mind because I thought she felt the same way about me.
 
Anyway - shit happened. parents tried to kill each other, got separated and she was totally devastated. I stuck by her and comforted her at every opportunity i got and I still persisted even when she started pushing me away and i carried on persisting, trying to get her to talk and open up to me. but she wanted to put us on hold and to have her own space for a bit so I stopped seeing her. We still kept talking on the phone and texting each other but that kind of faded out and then somewhere along the line I hit depression in a big way because I felt that I had failed both of us. 
 
In my previous relationship it was dating a girl who also lived outside of london, I didnt have much money back then so I couldnt go see her as much as i wanted to so that relationship failed and I swore to myself that I would never let myself suffer like that again and that determination drove me forward.
 
 And here I was.... getting close to £400 p/w, NEVER short of cash and still back in the same boat lost at sea with torn sails, rotting hull and oars that are too small to row myself to salvation in waves that would even hide moby dick if he thought he was a flying fish. 
 
I lost my job. I locked myself away and didnt want to deal with people anymore.  and I was totally doomed. I had completely no more hope in life but i couldnt bring myself to commit suicide because I was such a fucking coward.
 
And i lost everything, couldnt pay bills, had repo men knocking at my door. and all i could do was sit indoors and cry about how worthless my life was.
 
First year of depression was bad, second year it was a little better, third year i felt mentally stable enough to attempt to pull myself out of the deep dark hole and try and recover what was left of my life and start all over again. 
 
If you've been unemployed for 3 years or longer here in the UK, finding a job is like crawling through shit because nobody can account for where you've been or what youve done and employers need to know this or they wont hire you because you pose a security risk or they will think youre some sort of degenerate scum too lazy and happy to sit back and collect handouts from the government. 
 
I did manage to get a job eventually when I was for another 5 years before losing it due to budget cuts but thats a story for a different time.... 
 
During the 5years I worked for this company I was contacted by my ex who had went through a lot just to get in touch with me as i had changed my number a few times since the break up. She had just left hospital after trying to commit suicide, we got talking again but never met up in person - filled me in on the goings on since our break up which most of the details are covered in my single persons post. Never talked about the past and I just tried to be a friend to her even though I still loved her inside though if she didnt want me I wouldnt really care so long as we were friends and i could be a creeper and watch her from afar. Sadly that fantasy was short lived as she started to ignore me again.
 
When i finally got her to talk to me, she said she didnt want to fall for me again and she could feel it happening,
 
Not really the answer I was looking for, neither does it answer any of my questions regarding our break up but after being in depression for so long over her I just didnt really care enough to give any fucks anymore even though the thing about her being cheated on by a married guy hurt me inside a little but the other part of me inside just kept screaming at me inside that she deserved it.
 
Well, I talked to her a little longer, Said I was in a position where I could transfer to a different office to be closer to her and get our own apartment yadayadayada if she still wanted to have another try.
 
Obviously she didnt and we parted ways again. 
 
-- I made a video of her and uploaded it to my old YT channel because I wanted a memory to be floating around somewhere on the net and hoped that one day she might stumble across it. Unfortunately that channel got harpooned by a bunch of copyright trolls and blocked but the song i used is
 because the (translated) lyrics spoke to  my heart and very much reminded me of her. I still have the video on my NAS so i might re-upload it at somepoint. but its really nothing special - just a karaoke with japanese and translated english lyrics with her picture in the background after a brief introduction at the start of the video. 
late last year i started listening to an Aussie death/symphonic metal band called 'Make Them Suffer' and they have this song called
which greatly describes my exact feelings and thoughts i was having every day during the first year of breakup when i went into depression. The aggression in the song and the vocals describes my thoughts and feelings perfectly. It just makes me think of her every time i hear it... 
 
Oh, And
 was classed as 'our song' when we were together because of the distance between us.

I can't put it as eloquently as some of you guys did, so here's a short list of random memory fragments:
 
BUCK-TICK's song GALAXY reminds me of a particularly good new year's eve party, tho at the same time reminds me of my girlfriend at the time and how everything was so good (obviously I'm single now), so you can say it's a kind of ambivalently bittersweet and/or melancholic feel.
 
I bought the Smile album by Boris while on a trip in Scotland, so listening to it (especially the more moody and droning tracks) makes me recall the slightly chilly and rainy days my family and I spent there, the long drives looking at the awesome green hills and mountain scenery while raindrops beat against the car windows.
 
Listening to Merry's Peep Show album always makes me remember the awesome time I had on my first "let's go to another country and see a gig!" type of journey when me and a bunch of friends went to Germany by train to see Merry's concert. Fun times, even despite the br00tal train ride, lol.

I definitely associate music with illustrations and other projects I've worked on. I'll look back at something and be like, shit son I listened to so much Eins:Vier when I drew that thing.
 
It's hard to come up with specific memories, I'd have to go through all my music and just listen to it and see if something comes back. However one thing I can remember off the top of my head. Couple years ago drove across several states with my Mom because she has a fear of flying (fear as in she doesn't want to take her weed on the plane). I remember looking out at the endless farmland and listening to the shit out of some La Feerie. Whenever 目覚メノトキ　〜覚醒サレタモウ一人ノXx〜 comes on I can picture the endless fields of rural Idaho perfectly.

Maximum the Hormone has always cracked me up

Not to be funny, but I actually cried when tails was shot out the sky at the start of the "Wing Fortress Zone" on Sonic the Hedgehog 2. DEAD SERIOUS. I was like...5 or 6 years old, though xD
Other than that, I'm not a gamer so...^^
Actually, Phantasy Star 2's storyline was pretty moving....even though it was an old-ass Sega RPG. xD

squarrel? Is that like 2 squirrels fighting?
 
I prescribe to the theory that you should have the absolute least amount of subforums as possible. It is impossible to give everything a home...it's kind of like trying to give genre labels to bands, and we all know how fucking ridiculous that this.    This isn't about being anally organized, it is about creating just enough organization to be conducive to conversation. When you have a super active forum with thousands of posts a day, it makes sense to split things up so that threads don't immediately get washed down the page. But MH isn't in that kind of situation, about the only forum that is active enough to push a new post to the second page in the matter of a day is the downloads forum.   There are also massive negatives to having too many subforums, they massively limit exposure. I would argue there are places where subforums are hurting us now (specifically the news->events subforum). Making people drill down even further kills so many views to any specific thread in that subforum...I would say as much as 75%, if not more.   Needless to say, I do not think we need a reorg when it comes to subforums. I am fine with the discussion of reshuffling or adding new forums if the need arises.     Kpop:   There are two problems I have with this.   One: I reject that idea that you can not properly discuss or download Kpop as things are now. Absolutely nothing is stopping you. If you want to post it, talk about it, download it, it's all good   Two: We are not a Kpop site. If there is one thing that I have learned about forums over my past 10 years of actively visiting and running forums, it is that they work best when they are specific to a certain topic. In our case, it is Japanese Rock. I will never try and stifle discussion of Kpop, I will welcome it with open arms...which as I just stated above, you can already actively do on our site. But I will never make it our focus, just like I wouldn't agree to do it for any other genre of music.