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Thursday, December 10, 2009

I Guess I'm Just A Little Too Sensitive

It's no secret that I've been neglecting the blog lately. My time has been taken up with my eBay store (Displaced Music) and associated auctions. I've been like a kid in a candy store buying stuff I normally wouldn't look at for this venture. It reminded me that however much I go on about the 80's, that there is still a lot of great music being produced today, if you care to look for it.

My main reason for continuing MFL was the pleasure I got from ripping some obscure old singles. Well, the UK post office has still to deliver 9 singles I purchased nearly three months ago, so I put the vinyl to one side. Then, I get this comment:

No offense, but is there a lot of point in posting something in this kind of quality? It sounds like you found this under a tire somewhere.

I'm thinking that if this comment (for this post) had been by somebody I know who regularly posts pristine quality rips on their hard-earned blog, I would take it in good heart. But it's very dispriting to get this anonymously when the single in question was ripped at 320kbps, cleaned up using software, and trimmed with the same care I have done with all my transfers. So now, I'm not going to bother with it anymore.

I have a new blog associated with my eBay store here. But that's yer lot for MFL. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

[UPDATE: Obviously, I'm still here. I thought about deleting the post but as I got a lot of decent comments from friends, followers and fellow bloggers it's worth keeping. For the record, I'm glad I kept this blog going. I still enjoy it immensely. MFL August 2012]

36 comments:

Unknown said...

I never have left a comment, but read your blog all the time. I really enjoy it, and am really sad to hear that you are closing this blog. I am very interested in the kind of music you post, but also still learning about the more obscure 80s acts. I was exposed to a lot of music I never would have heard otherwise, especially since I do not have the income to track down out-of-print albums. The person who posted that insensitive comment was clearly a jerk, and obviously a coward since they didn't even want to leave their name. There will always be people who are pointlessly mean, and the Internet, for some reason, seems to generate that kind of nonsense even more. It is clear how much time and energy you put into this blog, so please know that there are those of us who appreciate your efforts. I wish you wouldn't let morons like that anonymous, ungrateful commenter dissuade you, but I understand your position.

Simon said...

Ah damn. Don't stop, take a break and come back later on.

And just for the record the tunes I have downloaded from you have all sounded absolutely cracking!

But if you don't cheers for putting in the time on one of my favourite blogs, even if I haven't commented for a while. :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your blog, it is a real shame you've called it a day as I was a regular reader. I think the anon comment is outrageous and not representative of the vast majority of people who dropped by.

Thanks again for some great tracks some forgotten and some I'd missed first time around

Suzy Andrews said...

Cheers Fifty, thanks for all the tracks I´ve downloaded from you, sad to see the end of your excellent blog, all the best, Mikey

Anonymous said...

Lately, I've noticed that several blog originators have become full of themselves. Don't get me wrong I've seen some great rare stuff posted on some of these blogs, but it’s becoming painful to wade through the blogger's silly woes or demands for donations. Try spending the extra time and money on a good therapist or get a dog, please don't try to extort sympathy from strangers as a cheap solution.

McDoC said...

Hey fifty,
It sure is sad to find out it has come to this. I found vinyl pops/crackles as something that sends me back to those good old days before CD's came to be. And that was a great time. But more than that, I also got to find out about not just obscure 80's stuff from you but also some gems from a few artists that escaped my radar. I'm grateful for those and should you decide to continue with MFL, we'll be waiting. Hope you'll have a HAPPY CHRISTMAS with your family. Chin up man, you did well.

Unknown said...

Awfully easy to be so obnoxious when you are not required to leave your name.

Anonymous said...

I guess you are - and I also guess Heather and Rachel's friend are too. To reiterate :

1. I said "no offense" - but you all took some anyway. This would be a comment about you, not me.

2. If you cleaned it, great. Did you listen to it after you posted it? There are 7 skips in the first minute of the song. If that's the best you could do, that's fine. Whatever. In no way do I feel like I was being some sort of an asshole by saying it sounded like crap - because it did. That's not YOUR fault - but again, you chose to take it that way.

To huff off and stop on the basis of this is petulance on a grand scale. But that's also your choice. Best of luck either way.

mineforlife said...

Time for some Christmas cheer, methinks.

One thing I have learned is that whenever there is a meeting of minds, there is also inevitably a bumping of heads. Especially so when you are typing a word or two and there is no other interaction. I'm guessing the first Twitter murder is not far away.

So, do I mind the tone of this commentary? Not at all. No one asked me to write a blog, it was my choice. It's also my choice to stop. Believe me, petulance is one of the least of my sins. You could add arrogance, insecurity, passion - I've got past the stage of trying to present myself as anything I'm not. I only have two teenie, tiny comments. One is that I would agree that if a record sounds bad, then that is not necessarily my fault. It's also true that my expensive computer speakers broke last month, so this record was probably ripped without a very careful soundcheck. Mea culpa. What I objected to, in principle, was that you basically told me not to bother posting things that don't meet your quality approval. Maybe I think Mel & Kim sound like crap, but if I post it, then, so what? You could easily have emailed me or made a comment to the effect that "hey you might want to check the file, I think it's skipping a lot" which would have been a bit more helpful than assuming I deliberately chose to foist this excerable mountain of manure on the poor, unsuspecting multitudes who have been waiting breathlessly for a Matt Fretton rip. My second comment is that to say "no offense" is usually an indication that you know your comment WILL offend.

So my decision to stop now was a natural one. Kind of like Matt Fretton's career. Ironic that.

Anonymous said...

Wow. When this...

"is there a lot of point in posting something in this kind of quality? It sounds like you found this under a tire somewhere."

..gets "translated" to this...

"you basically told me not to bother posting things that don't meet your quality approval"

...you got issues that I can't even begin to tell you where to start with. Once again, and most sincerely, good luck with that.

mineforlife said...

So what are my "issues"? Come on, I'm dying to know.

Anonymous said...

Here's one possible response you could have come up with : "Yeah, I know, I did the best I could - it was just a crappy copy of the record". Or, as you already mentioned, "Really? Sorry, I had some speaker issues - didn't realize it was kinda messed up."

But no - instead, you seem to feel this need to be persecuted and unappreciated - somehow managing to extract "I deliberately chose to foist this excerable mountain of manure on the poor, unsuspecting multitudes" from a pithy, offhand remark about a poor sounding record. (From a complete stranger, no less.)

But again - what difference does any of this make? You've already indicated that you "know" what I really mean - even if I tell you otherwise. So if you're "dying to know" - you personally might want to think all of the above through a little bit. Or not. Either way, whether you decide to stop things here or not, I'll be deleting you from my bookmarks. So feel safe because of that, or hurt, or whatever. It's your life.

Anonymous said...

Hey Fifty,

It's Wavey, I love your blog, screw the bat rasterd that is saying those comments...there are 99 more people that love your blog and everything that you do.

Sadly there are people in this world..ON NWO and FA too that think they run the joint and can do and say what they please. Well *uck'em this is getting out of control! They are acting like teenagers picking on people...they need to GROW UP. It is ruining places like NWO and FA. I wonder if your person is the same one that was taking stabs at me over at the post!

Please don't stop on account of this a-hole!

Thanks for everything you have shared with us, I have discovered some great bands and music from your.

Wavey

Daniel said...

to Anonymous, you wanna listen to something in good quality? I tell you what. Listen to your own fart. As it's obvious the jerk you are, it would be in flac quality.

fifty, if I were you, I'd stop as well. Thanks very much for your time and effort. The world is full of losers.

Anonymous said...

When one has a child and the child cries out, "Look Mommy,Look,” please give that child a few minutes of your attention or we as the collective whole will have to spend the rest of our days making up for a deficit in that man child’s stilted development.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe it. I take a few days off from using the internet...and THIS is the news I come back to? One of my favourite websites shutting down for good?

I personally have never had a problem with the way the downloads from this website have sounded, and was looking forward to many more in the future.

I'll be very sorry to see it go. Although i've been using the internet since around the year 2000, I didn't really start "following blogs" until early last year, and this website was the one that got me into it.

I can understand your anger, though. Nobody is forcing you to run this website. You've clearly put a lot of time and effort into it, and I can imagine how disheartening it must feel to receive a comment like you did. I know I'd think "What's The Point? They Don't Appreciate It.".

But, I do appreciate it. And from the other comments left above me, it appears I'm not alone. Thank you for all the singles and albums over the last couple of years. Thank you for the obscure B-Sides and 12-Inch Versions that would otherwise go unheard. Thank you for the old single reviews from magazines like "Smash Hits" and "Record Mirror" that made for such interesting reading. And thank you for creating such a friendly and generous website.

I hope the future brings you happiness, good luck and lots more Ultravox records.

(I'm a different "Anonymous" from that "other" one, I'm glad to say)
(Oh, and I agree with you about "Quartet". That's my favourite Ultravox LP, too!)

David said...

Holy sh*t Batman!!! WTF. In the real world and not the t'interweb, this is called bullying. It happens in the playground, it happens at work, and now obviously it happens in cyberspace. Tell Annon to take a hike. This is a great site, never once did I expect to here some of these gems, the quality as far as I was concerned was fine, and beyond at times. I especially would like to thank fifty, for re posting His Latest Flame, since I pinched a copy, I have had several listens. So once again Fifty, thank you for your sterling work. And Anon, go and pick on someone with your same mentality.

Unknown said...

I guess it doesn't count for much, but I'm grateful that someone out there has enough interest in music I made 25 years ago to go to the trouble of making a good MP3 and to scan an article I'd forgotton existed. I'm sorry that you're so disheartened you've stopped your blog, but perhaps it's a small compensation to know that I genuinely appreciate your efforts. Matt Fretton

Andys80s said...

Say it aint so Fifty! I have to tell you that those annon posts have a certin ring to them. Anyway please just take a break and come back soon! Thank you for all the time you have spent-
Andys80s

Anonymous said...

I've seen this before, it's going to one those blogs." Thanks guys, after all of the overwhelming positive responses, I've decided to keep laboring on." "I was hurt at first by the negative comments, but seeing how all of you really love me I will keep pushing on." Most of the blogs out there are either soliciting for donations to buy new equipment or fishing for positive reinforcement to feel needed to keep posting. Man up and shut up or delete your site and be done with it.

Plastik44 said...

I have enjoyed quite some posts on this blog over the past one and a half years, but this: I don't know. I've seen many good blogs come and go over the years. The reasons were often that this hobby had become too time-consuming in the end and the blogger didn't feel that the effort they'd put into it was appreciated by enough people, not to mention the complaints.
Now I see that it's unfair to complain about things that one got for free in the first place. On the other hand I believe that one shouldn't expect praise only. Why did you start with blogging? Because you wanted to tell people something that you thought important. But let's be honest, this isn't a favour somebody's asked for. You do this for yourself.
If this had happened to you on the street, you'd probably have told anonymous to get lost and would have carried on with your hobby anyway. So why don't you do so here and ignore what you don't like. After all, you blog - like it or not - for nobody else but yourself, even if some of us drop by occasionally and even when they enjoy your posts.

Unknown said...

Why don't you just change the settings on your blog, so no one can comment anonymously? Might shut some people up.

Anonymous said...

Heather is not Anonymous. You click on Heather's name and it says, "Profile Not Available." What is the difference between Heather and Anonymous? Heather can feel good about herself because she is the champion of all that is right. She is better than Anonymous because she is a good person. Heather doesn't say anything negative unless it's about Anonymous. Heather isn't a hypocrite because Anonymous is a bad person and it is justified to be negative to bad people. The definition of bad people is anyone that doesn't believe in what Heather believes.

Anonymous said...

The real irony here is that most people can't take a moment to leave a comment to thank someone for posting free music and for their time spent doing it, but they will take the time to participate in a good ol’ public flogging. Humans are like a bowel movement, they're a byproduct of some asshole and they always reek of shit.

Unknown said...

Dont let the bastards grind you down 50.

What you do is appreciated by way more folk than those who want to have a go at you.

Anonymous said...

This is a sad day indeed....Godspeed, fifty. I had some great times going through your posts - and the best thing of all was getting to know you. All the best to you and your family - Merry Christmas, Happy and Healthy New Year.

MissP
xo

A KICK UP THE 80S said...

Really sad to hear that the comments of an idiot has made you decide to close the blog. You will be missed.

Anonymous said...

"es una lastima", greetings from southamerica,and its a great loss,from the 80s fans like me,im discovered great bands and song here,and inspired me to make a blog,but your selection was unique,and eclectic,--mrdisco---http://go80smaxis.blogspot.com/

xolondon said...

gahhh, I missed this whole thing. You'll be back, i Feel it!

Suzy Andrews said...

Have a great Xmas 50 and all the best for the New Year

LowOiL said...

Well I loved to wander here when I had time to browse when time allowed. Now some bloviate (that can't stop listening to himself splatter) has gotten under the skin. I can't count the gems I have found here and I was glad to get them (and they sounded a million times better than the junk that gets put out now days).

I get the feeling the record companies hire these cretins just to degrade moral.

Thanks Anomalous jerk, Merry Christmas.

Hate to see ya go Mine. You will be missed.

LowOiL

Ruud said...

Your blog was great. Forgotten gems shouldn't be forgotten. Some loss of quality in sound is inherent to vinyl. It didn't bother me.

"Call of the wild" 12" spinned many times on my record player. After all these years it's a great record. Many thanks for all the nice posts.

greetings from Holland

Anonymous said...

I just found your incredible blog and it's closed! Thanks for your amazing work and equally great taste.

Craig said...

This is a sad state of affairs. Anonymous you dont realise how ridiculous and full of your own self importance you appear! You could have left well enough alone but you chose to continue your rant and defend your indefensible position. You my friend are the one who needs a psychiatrist!

fifty I also appreciate your fantastic effort and despite the idiotic rants of the few there were many largely silent followers who learnt much from your vast knowledge of the genre. many thanks my friend.

Phil said...

I've just seen that you've stopped the blog. It was a great ride. And if I ever needed to be reassured that there was someone around with an obsession for music to surpass mine, I'd come here to Mine For Life. Thanks for all the gems you resurrected (and even the dregs!).

Let's hope Anonymous sorts out their passive aggressivness but we all know there'll be another blog they'll find to drop their excess baggage onto. "Humans are like a bowel movement, they're a byproduct of some asshole and they always reek of shit." They really don't like anyone, do they? It's interesting to see that they came back 7 times to shit over everyone else. 7 comments? Might as well create a blog. Or not.

Anyway, back to nicer people. Good luck with your next endeavours, fifty!

Anonymous said...

Arguing. In the comments. Of a Blog. On the INTERNET.