So we have this one pub here in town - it thinks it's Irish. Got an Irish themed name, got the tri color hanging proudly out front, and various Guinness/Bass/Jameson's signs displayed prominently in the window.
Now this pub's been open a little over two years. When it first opened, the food was great, the atmosphere wonderful, and it was the best thing to happen to the pub "scene" (this is still Salt Lake after all) here in ages. The owner was very active in the local Hibernian society, and seemed to have a keen interest in not only opening up a highly classy pub, but one that truly reflected a less standard American and more "old world" (as he puts it) Irish or UK experience.
Well, as time's worn on, the owner has become more and more interested in the bottom line, and turning his proffits higher every month - and less with the original feel of the place. So now the ol' pub has become just another green beer and plastic shamrock joint. Sports game re-runs blaring on multiple TV's. St. Pat's day there is appalling. The food's gone right in the toilet. We've played a regular weekly session there almost since it's opening, but many of us regular musicians have been talking over a good place to move to that we don't have to compete with the 49ers game, or the juke.
The boards here have become much the same thing. Lots of static. Lots of noise, and less and less of the root cause they were initially created to support. Waaaaaay back when, back when Teri K was in her teens probably
, we didn't have a splintered board.
Everyone who came here did so to talk about whistles, or music, or a particular maker etc. We even had many more makers takling then. I wonder how many of our current numbers have even read through Dale's site? It's called Chiff and Fipple - and it deals almost exclusively with the Irish tin whistle. There is a small section on home gorilla breeding, but apart from that, it's solid.
Over the past few years, it's been said that the boards have reached a "critical mass", and were just not manageable as they once were. However true that may be, it strikes me as highly curious that there never really seemed to be a need for management at the onset...but now we have 4 moderators just trying to keep up with civility.
As has been pointed out before, there are PLENTY of boards on the internet for discussion of any topic you like: Politics, religion, more politics, sexual orientations, genome splicing, the cost of fruit/monkeys/spare organs in India...hell, you can probably find a forum for how to make money starting up your own fake Irish pub. And yet the balance here is more towards this trend and constantly growing further away from it's origins.
I've found that I post less and less anymore, and many of our more experienced posters (and players for that matter) have given up completely on C&F as a whole ages ago. As it stands, I fully expect to drop further and further down the total posts rank and file. If it's true we *have* reached this mystical critical mass, my fear is that C&F is due to go supernova at any time...with nothing left but a dead core...just your every day, average black hole.
(Where the hell is my thumbs down Charlie Chaplain emoticon when I need him?!?!)
That is really poignant. Well, we can only try.
