xdaxx

Positive threads like these are fine, and in fact, for those that really do stress about the game being down, perhaps they provide comfort or calm, so i'm all for it. It's also true that apportioning blame doesn't make the game come back any quicker (I do understand it's back up in "test server" mode), and things can only get done when they're ready, and therefore patience is needed. However (there's always at least one), people need to hold those that provide a service/game we pay for more accountable, and if nobody voices this, complacency arises. The truth is, their servers should have been hardened after the first attack. Lisa states they moved their test server into a "more respectable" server data center. That should have been done after the first time. With all things technology related, failures occur. It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when", and WHEN it happens those with the ability to get it recovered and back online need to feel the pressure of accountability in order to prevent previous failures from occurring again, and proactively prepare for the next time. It's a business and paying customers must use their voices (and wallets) to show what is and is not acceptable. But again, positive threads need to exist as well because humans tend to go way off the deep end sometimes ;)

Really not asking for much. Just a basic stylish suit and decent facial hair....throw a guy a freakin' bone here.

The fact is that the last forum account approved (at least that we can see) being on February 13th seems to support that the dev's want to devote more energy in breaking "exciting" news in more active social media platforms, and view the forum as far less a priority in terms of reaching out to potential new subscribers. I get the thought behind it, but do think it's a bit shortsighted of them. After all, in most industries, the easiest money is in re-upping. Car, life, home insurance.....more money in just retaining your clientele. That's bread an butter. If you piss off your existing sub base, you better be sure you have enough new subscribers to counter it. I don't know how busy they are, or how many jars they have their hands dipped into, but it would seem to me that it shouldn't be that difficult to just add the forum into their mental check-list of places to post when they have news.

Rochi's solution is the quick and easiest, to be sure. I haven't run IPB forums, but in phpBB, forums having multiple themes is just a built in functionality that is literally a settings change on the back end and then the user changes the theme to whatever ones are loaded. I used to have like 5 different forum themes with all different graphics for users to just choose. I would guess IPB has this as well and should really be just a very quick thing for 3dx to do. Log into the control panel and make sure alternate themes (including a dark one) are loaded up. Assuming, IPB is similar. Should be being the operative phrase I wouldn't wait for that to happen, i'd just use the dark reader chrome extension like Rochi says.

Just piggybacking on this for fun, not as a debate or anything.....but you know Rae (as we have discussed this) that I personally use your format as a template for my own events to some extent. I like to take the spirit of what you do and put my own spin on it, but it shouldn't be a surprise that I truly admire what you do and how you do it. I enjoy having a theme, I enjoy the song intros and little bits of talking because it brings a little fun and humanity into an event. It makes it more about hosting a party than anything else. I have recorded, mastered, re-mastered and re-mixed music by artists. I "create" my own song transition bumpers (out of other artists work). I have never created a purely original digital (or analog) musical composition and don't do what a lot of "modern dj's" do with mashing tracks together......but I do spend a great amount of time putting together the right music for a party/event and go to pains to make sure the mix and transitions are right. I'll add equalization and little tweaks here and there and take an active role while am hosting. Being that i'm absolutely horrid at multitasking (lol) this can keep me completely occupied (just ask LoriD ) I also get the idea that some people don't appreciate that and don't really want anything more than just a good mix of music playing song after song after song, with no interruption. That's cool too. At the end of the day, I don't view what I do as DJ-ing. It's more of party host/musical coordinator than anything else and i'm totally cool with that. I do it when I am feeling it and just to have fun, and i'm ok with not doing it very well lol. Thankfully, I have patient and well-meaning friends I think that anyone, regardless of their style and how they present their event, that puts forth the time and effort and even pays additional streaming fees just so they can share a love for music with friends and visitors deserves props.

I don't have any horse in this race, and at the end of the day, for the most part, whatever happens on this forum I don't really care. While I stated my opinion is that "Death Announcements" shouldn't have a place (if I am given a choice) based on my experiences, ultimately whatever is decided upon by whoever is fine by me. I do me, you do you. I'd just like to address the above quote briefly, and Vaughan_Rarius, please don't think i'm singling you out. You're just the latest individual that has mentioned it, and it deserves clarification, so those that continue to debate on this subject (and I won't be one of them) can do so without any misconception. As with many quotes and actions in history, they need to be looked at within their context of the time, and their purpose. Setting aside the fact that there are many 3dx users that are not from the United States, and do not have any such protections as our Constitution and the First Amendment.....or their Constitutions may be different, the author of the quote, James Madison isn't speaking about the absolute right to say whatever we want, whenever we want. Most Americans miss (or choose to ignore) the fact that the First Amendment refers to our right to not have our free speech taken away by Governmental Law. It also makes protections for our Press that they also not be limited by any governmental law or restriction passed which infringe upon them doing their jobs. We Americans tend to have just taken this quote in time's context and the First Amendment as we understand it and apply it to our very own Facebook and Internet heavy lives. But this view of censorship as spoken about by James Madison (who, btw, was very much suspicious of all governmental interventions....therefore you can see the context of his quote and the time) does not refer to our absolute right to say whatever we want. Private places like Facebook and internet forums such as these are not covered by the First Amendment. They are private entities that have the right to "censor" as much as they want about anything you say. If they want to set a filter and delete every 3rd, 5th, 9th word a person writes, they can do this. It would be stupid to, lol....and nobody would be here, but they can. If they wish to delete all discussions on politics, religion, gun control, reproductive rights or whatever other hot button issue out there that gets people's panties in an uproar, they can. I do get your overall spirit of not wishing to be censored, but it is not a right in here afforded to you by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and thus should be kept out of the debate of this topic. Carry on and enjoy your weekends ps: I am retired military and not a constitutional lawyer, so if we have any of them in here and i've bungled some core details of my above understanding, please accept my apologies...lol.

This is a sensitive topic and it's very difficult to come out with a viewpoint on it without being accused of being exploitative or simply cold and unfeeling. I'm going to attempt to give a fairly unbiased viewpoint based upon my experiences. These experiences are both from my career as well as being in online communities for the past 20 years. I would like to be clear that I am not making any judgement whatsoever regarding the facts of this situation that has brought this thread to the forefront again. A point was made earlier that perhaps things had changed for the better in the past 4 years and such announcements would be more welcome, perhaps even responsible. The internet has not changed for the better in 4 years. People that choose to social engineer or simply have different variations of Munchausen by Internet have not lessened their activities. Over the past 20 years I have seen more than my share of fake deaths, and manipulated false claims. They are not always done with malicious intent. Some are, yes, but most are simple game situations that grew to an unmanageable level. A lie that became too big and needed to end. A notable example that I had experience with involved an individual who became quite respected and had many friends. Over the course of a year this individual slowly cultivated a narrative in which she spun a tale in which she became increasingly worried about cyber security. Due to my career she often would ask me about "Blue Pill" (an older virtual rootkit that essentially can intercept every activity on a person's computer) and slowly began to state that she believed she was being "watched". This narrative was repeated to many different people in the same community and spread out for months. It escalated to her being "left" notes that assured her that nefarious individuals had access to her computer. Eventually she moved this up to saying the notes were stating to her "keep an eye on your cat", in reference to her beloved cat. She lived alone. She would constantly ask me the likelihood that someone could know all of this. Eventually her cat was murdered and a month later she supposedly died as well, under suspicious circumstances. This was "confirmed" by another "friend" of hers that for some reason had access to her computer after she passed and decided to send along messages to her online friends and communities regarding the sad developments. This warranted the administrators to make a call to law enforcement (both local and federal) and ultimately it was determined (and admitted to) that this person was actually several people, including the "informing" friend as well as other individuals. It was quite intricate and went on for months and months. Ultimately, she admitted she was lonely and started it all out of boredom and never meant it to go that far. But she needed to "see it through and end it". (I could give another example of an online husband and wife where the wife was supposedly diagnosed with a very rare brain cancer and didn't expect to live 3 months. Yet 7 years later the person is still around. When I asked the hubby how his wife was, he looked puzzled as hell at my question. Then when I reminded him of the cancer she was very sick with he said "ohhh yes that. misdiagnosis. she's fine now.") That example was more the exception than the rule. Most of the time fake deaths that I encountered were nowhere near as intricately involved, but usually had something to do with a bad breakup (and wanting the other person to feel bad), or trying to boost another avi's (run by the same person) popularity. Some simply just needed to "kill" off their avi's and move on and wanted to see the love given. Even if the intent isn't malicious, and is based upon some insecurity or mental illness, those actions hurt the individuals that grieve. And like Twiggy said, 99.999% of the time the standard user can never truly verify what is and isn't true. You just can't. In my example above, that person had multiple people "verify" what had happened. It turned out all those people were the same person. Sometimes it's groups of people in on it. If all this sounds paranoid to you, i'm envious...lol. There are some very dark corners of the web (try 4chan and 8chan) in which this stuff is just minor. There is far worse out there than this. But for every true passing, there are probably an equal number if not more that are faked. Even the true ones, I *felt* to be true as I had known them for years. I think the truth is that more real deaths occur silently by people just vanishing from their internet worlds. Nobody knowing and nobody there to pass it along. Again, these are just my thoughts based upon experience and are no judgement whatsoever on Shovelhead and his passing. I simply don't know and don't think anyone should expend unreasonable resources to attempt to find out. However, I would hate to see fake death announcements become a thing that would lessen the memories of those truly fallen (like perhaps Shovelhead), and my opinion is that if the door is left open, that is what will happen. It's sadly just the way the internet is. It doesn't always have to be malicious, but sometimes it is.

Leeloo is right about the need to pay now for your stream to be heard publicly. It didn't used to be that way a long while back, but these days it's now a requirement (at least with myradiostream). I'm not using winamp any longer, but yes, once you pay it will work properly.

I'm not speaking for Raevaen in any way whatsoever, but as per my understanding, her "Decades" journey was only meant as a reflection of the most influential music in hard rock/metal. It wasn't meant to explore different genre's. Otherwise, not only could you mention country, but Punk, Post-Punk, New-Age, Alternative (and all the variations therein), Rap and it goes on and on and on. Again, I do think her exploration here was only meant to dive into the hard rock/metal scene, and it did do that rather well. ---------------------- On another "Decades-related" subject, and i'm just thinking out loud (maybe perhaps for a hosted event of my own), but Decades would also work very strongly for the "Alternative" genre. This has evolved so much in the past 30 years. In the 80's you would consider bands such as REM, Talking Heads, The Cure, Depeche Mode, and New Order as "ALT"....now they would be considered......not sure...classic, electronic (DM for sure) (?). Alt changed in the 90's and 2000's as well. It would be a challenging topic, indeed, as definitions as to what "alt" is have certainly changed over the years. It's something i'd like to do, but i'm definitely not qualified to nail what alt encompasses in the 21st century. Give me the 70's-90's and i'm good to go.....beyond that and i'm totally relying on the input of others

I do love this poll, but in these golden era's of hard rock/metal there is no way I can pick 1 song to rule, find, and bring them all into the darkness and bind them, so i'm going to give an approximation of perhaps my top choices in each. I absolutely know my choices won't ever be the popular ones, lol.....but they're mine And yeah, sorry for breaking format and not picking just one And btw, most of these probably are on my mixes as well....lol 70's: Given a choice, i'm always going to go with Rush in the 70's when they had a very heavy sound. "Cygnus X-1" is a great example of this: Black Sabbath definitely belongs in here too, and while I do love the dark and full of gloom self-titled song listed in the poll, my choice for them would be "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath". This song is equal parts dark and downright evil. Led Zeppelin while not quite of the same ilk as Sabbath, definitely had some heavy tunes as well. Their live version of "No Quarter" is fantastic. Bonham's drums are thunderous and Page's guitar riffs are among his best. The Who I can't in good conscience leave out "Won't Get Fooled Again". The Who redefined themselves with their landmark 1971 (my birth year) album, "Who's Next". The studio version alone is powerful, but live versions are scorching. Honorable mentions for me would be "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" by Pink Floyd (live versions from '77 are scorching and nasty...which had everything to do with Waters and his disillusionment with the crowd and Gilmour's growing hatred of Waters and just wanting to play the fucking show. In Oakland, he throws his guitar down at the end of the show he was so pissed and goes off into the crowd while the rest of them try to do an improvised encore). "Running With The Devil" by Van Halen did usher in a whole new era of Rock. Can't deny that it changed the game. There's a ton of KISS tunes that could have a spot: Black Diamond, God of Thunder, Detroit Rock City, Shock Me. 80's This is almost impossible to nail down to one song. Too many to choose from. Iron Maiden ruled the 80's. "Hallowed Be Thy Name" certainly can be given top spot (and will be my choice), but so could "Prowler", "Phantom of The Opera", "2 Minutes to Midnight", "Revelations", "Powerslave", "Wasted Years" Rush and "Tom Sawyer" deserves a spot at least for the hard rock category. AC/DC: "Hell's Bells", "Back In Black" and "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) Motley Crue: "Looks That Kill" Metallica: "Seek and Destroy" (this could easily be the top spot for me) or "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and yes, "Creeping Death". Van Halen: "Girl Gone Bad", "Unchained", "Mean Street", "Panama" Def Leppard: man, almost anything from "Pyromania", but how about "Rock of Ages" (although as a dark horse, i'd go for "Too Late for Love" or "Stagefright" Black Sabbath: The Dio years produced some crazy good stuff. How about "Children of The Sea" Ozzy: "Crazy Train", "Suicide Solution", "Diary of a Madman", "Mr. Crowley", "Over The Mountain" and "Bark at the Moon" and as the 80's close out and music starts changing a bit, does NIN "Head Like a Hole" deserve a spot? 90's Rush: "Between The Sun and The Moon" Iron Maiden: "Fear of The Dark" NIN: "Closer" Rage Against The Machine: "Bulls on Parade" or "Killing In The Name" Metallica: "Sad But True" Soundgarden: "Black Hole Sun"

While I admit that my music interest in from the 2000's to present has strayed a bit from the hard rock side of things to some Chill/Electronic/Alt stuff (Tycho, Boards of Canada, newer Depeche Mode and New Order's last release), I definitely have at least a couple thoughts here. For the 2000's, I immediately had to go with something from Iron Maiden's album Brave New World. At the time it was such a welcome (and huge) thing to have the classic lineup back together again. Initially I thought I might choose "other" and go with "Blood Brothers", but ultimately I agree with your option above: "The Wicker Man". It was a return to form for them, and a classic tune that sounds like it would be perfectly at home on "Somewhere In Time" or "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". An album I continue to listen to. For this current decade, on the hard rock side of things I absolutely have to go with something from Rush's outstanding (and final) album, "Clockwork Angels". The tune "BU2B" (Brought Up To Believe) is definitely my choice. It's a surprisingly heavy tune and really gave that album an early weight. Lyrically, it's about what you'd expect from Neil Peart......thoughtful and questioning. Geddy Lee's vocals have adapted to time but his bass playing is nothing less than masterful. Alex Lifeson sounds in full classic form with those power chords and harmonies. Neil Peart, while aged and technically changed still sounds pretty fantastic.

I would like to see a breakdown between natural and store bought.....see if those results are skewed a bit differently

I'd like to know a little more about this as well, but I assume it means that one can use an ogg encoder now instead of relying on mp3. 30% reduction in size (compared to mp3) for the same sound quality. So depending upon your streaming service, i'm guessing it means that we can play much higher quality music at same bitrates. I'm no expert, but that's my guess. No clue about your spotify question, however.

This is excellent news. A positive, progressive step forward.

Well done!