The Bump-and-Blitz Game
 

Here's an idea that might be fun if people are responsive. It's really simple, has almost no rules and goes like this:-

Every few days, I'll post a link to a randomly-selected old thread and everyone is invited to go there and post a comment. The only rule is that your comment should be more or less on topic, otherwise, why go to that thread at all?

That's it, really. Here's the first thread I selected at random, so I hope I'll see some of you there today or tomorrow:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/classical...l-shannon.html

And here's some optional information:-

The theory:

i) This game gives us an excuse to explore the backwaters of MB, which may well turn out to be like diving for pearls in a sea full of crud. But whatever happens, it's a chance to bump threads, which I feel to be an inherently good thing. After all, MB now has a long written history which surely we should celebrate rather than abandon.

ii) It also gives us a chance, without commitment, to say or learn something about a topic that may be completely outside our usual range of curiosity.

iii) It could be a very egalitarian community activity, because we'd all be there at the same time and no-one would feel obliged to be either the host, the expert or the enthusiast; we can all say exactly what we want on the topic.

The practice:

If anyone is curious about how random is random, I've worked out a system that uses three dice, and reduces the number of MB forums to about 20 that are suitable for this game. (Basically, they are the music, talk instruments and lounge sections). If you throw three dice, you'll never get a one, two or zero, so I'll start my counting from a different place each time, which should negate that glitch.
Once I'm in a forum section, I'll throw the three dice again, which'll generate a page to go to. When I open that page, I'll throw two dice to identify the thread of the day. (All "stickied" threads will be excluded from the count.)

There's one detail I haven't sorted out, which I'd love some advice on:
Once I'm in a forum section, should I count pages from now back into the past, or should I go to the last page and start counting forwards? (The latter method will throw up some really old threads and is how I came across the link I've posted this morning.)

sounds pretty neat

F*ck it. I'll allow it.

Given how a lot of old threads are threads about specific albums or artists, it might even be downright constructive. Maybe a lot of that stuff deserves to be remembered again.

:laughing:

Thank you so much.

Well, the digging of dead threads is usually frowned upon and also a personal pet peeve but this is different.

https://m.popkey.co/4a3677/QLodW.gif

^ I had no idea about either of these bits of information. Is it really frowned upon? As is probably clear by now, my position is the exact opposite of yours, Exo. How strange.

- so thanks, btw, for overcoming your personal aversion and entering into the spirit of the game! ;)

Hey Lisna, try this...

randomizer.org

It's a peeve when somebody digs up a thread say, for example, about Moby, just for the sake of saying "I like Moby!"

It's better just to make a new thread with a re thought out starting post.

Surely this never happens? :D

Sometimes I’ll be listening to something and think damn this is good so I run through the search engine and bump it with a props

Just lettin ninjas know

Thanks for the randomizer, P_S :thumb:

^ Well, if someone wants to post "I like Moby", isn't it better that they bump a thread to do it instead of opening a new thread for that purpose alone? Despite Trollheart's disbelief ;), I suspect there are threads like that around. How many Moby threads do we need? I would've thought that bumping would save mods the job of merging - or is merging frowned upon too?

Nobody wants multiple Moby threads.

So apparently you can pull up a random thread by number.

Not sure what the max thread number is but if you insert a random number after t= that should do the trick.

Random thread #1967

Thanks to everybody whose contributions have helped to make this game more successful than I had hoped - for one day, at least.

Here's the random thread for day two, which comes from page nine of the Media section, so I hope I'll see you there:

http://www.musicbanter.com/media/754...-industry.html

PS: Thanks for the suggestion, stephen: I'll look at how your method works and maybe connect it to P_S's randomizer, but for the moment, I'm using the technology that I have already mastered, i.e. throwing dice and counting.

As a former mod, I can sympathize with Exo on this. We used to hate it when some Lounge thread in particular would reawaken after ten years and we might have to deal with something controversial again. Something like a James Patterson thread,though, we may not have liked it but we'd probably just roll our eyes.


And, Lisna, merging sometimes isn't as easy as it sounds. You have to determine if the two threads in question really are similar (as in copycats), and if it's worth it when you have to deal with more pressing issues like Spammers for example.


Now back to your regular programming :D.

^ Thanks for the insight into what mods do, which afaik is often overlooked or not entirely understood.

And today's random thread comes from page 8 of the Soul & Funk thread. By coincidence, it's also dedicated to a sixties era star:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/soul-funk...-franklin.html

See you there, I hope!

None. Ask Ahab, he'll tell you.
Or indeed, any Moby threads.
Yeah I think it's really more annoying when they literally have nothing to add to the thread other than "I like [insert artist here]" or "lol" or some other stupid braindead ****. I assume if someone resurrects a thread with a well-thought-out post it doesn't piss the mods off as much as the other way; at least then an old thread might have new life injected into it, as Lisna posits above, rather than just, to continue the heavy-handed analogy, be woken up, shouted at, and then allowed slip back into its coma.

Good morning guys :)

Don't send to know for whom the dice rolls. Today it rolls for this thread, buried on page 62* in the Punk section:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/punk/4890...e-without.html

* Here´s a curious factoid: the Punk section has 75 pages of threads whereas the Soul section only had 14. If I may quote Trollheart, "Makes you think."

How many punk threads did Elph start? :D

^ HaHa! I'm not sure, but scanning the first page of punk, he was certainly the last person to contribute to several threads. Other regular contributors seem to be Dylstew and, to my surprise, Neapolitan. He obviously has an aggressive, rebellious side that I never guessed at!

Not having any real interest in punk I never go in there, but it always amuses me that for months, perhaps even longer, the thread always visible is this one.
http://www.musicbanter.com/punk/8663...-punk-nah.html
I mean, can't you guys find anything else to talk about other than Green Day? :laughing:

Good morning again! It's time to run through your electronica files/cds because today's roll of the dice takes us to page 51 of the Electronica forum, where we land on a thread with an intriguing title:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/electroni...direction.html

Hope to see you there :wave:

Also, this is a pretty damn good idea, especially if it stimulates music genre discussion.

^ Thanks for the support, Maajo, and thanks to all the contributors so far who are helping to turn these old threads into fresh talking points.

Today the dice take us to:- http://www.musicbanter.com/rap-hip-h...op-lovers.html

See you there, I hope!

1986

Happy Sunday everybody! I hope you have an agreeable day and find time to look at this morning's thread, which goofle posted on page 9 of the Avant Garde section. A completely new name to me, so I'm sure to learn something here, and perhaps you will too:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/avant-gar...ng-dauner.html

Well, today takes us to the General Music section, which as we all know is one of the busiest sections here. In fact it has a total of 433 back-pages, so that's where I went, and then counted forward eleven, which brought me here:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...ggestions.html

You are invited to take a look, if only to see jibber's avatar.

Today I’m writing in some haste as I’m off to work soon, but see you in this thread, I hope. ( From page 8 of the Stereo Equipment section) :-

http://www.musicbanter.com/stereo-pr...s-war-etc.html

Good morning fellow Blitzers! Thanks again for all your contributions, which have helped make this game a success so far. :thumb:

Today you are invited to revitalize this examination of where Metal came from, (page 8 of the Rock Music section):-

http://www.musicbanter.com/rock-meta...oto-metal.html

Hi! Today's thread comes from page 15 of the Sport section:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/sport-rec...-feck-you.html

And just to let people know that tomorrow, like most Fridays, I have a very full day and won't be bumping a thread here, ok? See you on Saturday instead.

Here is the thread that comes up today (Sunday), from page 15 of the Classical Music section:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/classical...-sullivan.html

Hope to see you there to exchange opinions about Messers. G & S :)

Today we land on a thread which I hope might generate more interest than some of the last selections. This post comes from page 110 of the Alt/Indie section:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/indie-alt...die-songs.html

See you there, I hope!

OK, here we go... Today's dice take us to The Lounge, and counting from the back, I arrived at this thread on page 274:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/lounge/41...-remember.html

I hope everyone can test their memories and contribute ...

So far the random element is doing a good job of scattering the results right across the different sections. Today it brings us to the Pop section, where half-way down page 11 I found this perhaps dated gem:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/pop/75482...what-i-do.html

This is the result I was dreading, because it takes us to Talk Instruments, about which I know nothing. Anyway, here's today's thread; see you there (maybe):-

http://www.musicbanter.com/talk-inst...o-you-use.html

Today we're back in the Pop section again, this time on page 23:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/pop/50315...therlover.html

Good morning all. Today's roll of the dice takes us back to the Avant Garde section, this time to page 19, where I landed on the following thread. See you there, I hope - or as a 60s dj used to say, "Be there or be square!"

http://www.musicbanter.com/avant-gar...yone-like.html

(btw, we are now beginning to revisit some sections. We've been twice to Pop, and now twice to Avant Garde, so I'm going to add the sub-sections into the count. Rock, for instance, won't just count as one possibility any more, it'll be three: Rock&Metal, ClassicRock, and Prog&Psychedelic. That way we'll have more options in the mix, ok?)