Thread 4047

Having a thread dedicated to the board could prove useful, so here it is.

Big issues, regular spam, talk about the generals or anything relevant to it.

Recommendations/corrections about the way it's being janitored are also appreciated.

The most common "spam" in /mu/ are Soundcloud/Bandcamp threads.

These are not bad by themselves, it's just people looking for feedback 99% of the time. They problem is how many of them are floating about if we don't keep them in check. Having your project in the OP is a desired commodity and the main reason behind the spamming.

Soundcloud threads are the main offender. They can reach 7 threads or more, each with less than 40 replies. Bandcamp threads tend to exhibit more self-control, but there are some occasional exceptions.

Some people also try to advertise their projects outside of the threads, but most of the time their intentions are pretty obvious and handling them isn't much of a problem. Telling people to buy merchandise, assist to their concert, give likes, etc. Sometimes they just start a thread with an image (usually selfies or pics of chicks) and a link to one of their videos on youtube, recently uploaded and with less than a hundred views.

Soundcloud/bandcamp stuff (cont.)

Evaders, big time spammers and virals:
- >jbenitex SG™connected !KDIkMQS6NA
Evader, soundcloud spammer and general shitposter. No matter how many times he's banned he'll always come back after a couple of days.
- swag ninja
Rarely uses trips, but he spams his Soundcloud/Bandcamp everywhere so he's easy to spot. His most recent alias is Birthday Bash And The Teenage Milk Maid.
- Lunar Eskimo
Spams his bandcamp release (see pic).
I don't know how to solve the soundcloud spamming issue. Some changes to the sicky telling them that's not OK to start a new thread if there's one already up could help a little. A temporal sticky explaining the issue is another option, I guess.

I don't like constantly BRing people for Global 10 (reposting/spamming) because of these threads and I hope we can find a good solution in order to keep both people that complain about SC spamming and musicians looking for feedback happy.

Another issue is the plethora of thinly veiled /soc/ threads that are created regularly.

Music is a social thing and people will always want to talk about the social connotations of music. Threads about concert meetups, /mu/sician experiences, 'pleb' threads and how music affects your daily life are to be expected. But there's a difference between that and asking what's your favorite shoe brand.

The most notorious of these threads is the qt chart aka /mu/-/soc/ thread aka /soc/ general.
It's a fairly friendly thread, but it oozes off-topic. This makes it the second most reported thread in the board (first being the well known k-pop general).
Here's an example of how these threads usually develop: https://rbt.asia/mu/thread/48157708
Everyone is friendly, things go fine. But the discussion isn't music related, just trip circlejerking.

The other /soc/ threads in /mu/ are usually like this: the OP asks about your favorite album(s) and 'x' thing about you. Like this:
Post your favorite album and...
-your highschool grades
-age / country / race / skin color
-favorite cigarette brand
-university you attend to
-clothing
Among others.
Most of them circle around the off-topic question, the album or song is just to keep the thread from being deleted.

A good portion of the board is tired of them and they are regularly reported. What should we do?

I've asked for a new BR for duplicate soundcloud/bandcamp threads. It'll just be a warning though. The problem isn't that people are posting their personal soundclouds; that's perfectly fine and it's good that people are sharing their own music. The problem is that everyone wants to make a brand new thread for their own music, which ends up in clutter and spam.

So a warning with a reminder to use existing threads should be sufficient to get our point across.

>>4050
> the OP asks about your favorite album(s) and 'x' thing about you

I'd like to know what to do about these as well. Often there's no discussion to be found, just people trying to give the wackiest answer to garner some attention, which rarely happens.

>>5108
I find this varies pretty heavily depending on the thread. If the OP is asking about the worst thing people have ever done, it is almost always just off-topic, while threads about which university people attend usually spawn discussion about local music scenes.

As far as I see it, if the topic(s) of discussion aren't related to music at all, it is off-topic, even if people are posting album cover images or youtube links. If a thread is relatively new and the OP doesn't relate the question to music (ie 'worst thing you've seen someone do' as opposed to 'worst thing you've seen someone do at a concert'), I get rid of it. Likewise, if the thread has been up for a while and the discussion hasn't veered towards being music related, I think it is reasonable to delete it.

>>5108
Here's the rule I follow: if music is just an excuse to discuss off-topic, either delete or BR for off-topic depending on how blatant it is.

Examples:
- Post your favourite album and your...
... favourite movie
... university you attend
... waifu
- Post [shoes/selfie/pet] and people guess your favourite album.
- tripfag circlejerks like qt threads.

Threads like these can ramp up replies really fast and sometimes people don't report them, making things worse.

Female artist threads have similar issues, but be careful not to immediately delete any thread with Grimes/St. Vincent/Alice Glass in the OP.

Sonemic // rateyourmusic threads

I've been seeing issues in these threads for a while now, mainly /soc/ garbage and even occasional doxxing, mostly thanks to regular evaders (xusosis and others). While these threads have never been a shining example in /mu/, their quality has fallen drastically in the past months.

So, how can we encourage good discussion? Apart from /soc/ off-topic, I've seen users spamming their names or samefagging in order to gain followers. At times the threads are so full of incoherent spam that they're impossible to salvage.

Any suggestions?