CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS

  • December 31, 2015, 09:36:49 AM
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 ... 12

Author Topic: Why the name "Changstar" became, like the "Voldemort," forbidden at Head-Fi?  (Read 21798 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Eric_C

  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +13/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 230
Re: Would anyone bother to explain this for me?
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2014, 03:49:58 AM »

^ Likewise. I love this place for the frankness and everyone's experience. Really helpful when you don't have a boatload of cash to play around with, or an engineering background--I know I can count on you guys to cut through hype and whatnot.
Logged

jGray91

  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +8/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 158
  • Does more good lurking than not
Re: Would anyone bother to explain this for me?
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2014, 11:27:43 AM »

Who knows?

I was attracted to this place because of the number of people who, like me, had meandered through a lot of bad audio purchases before getting here. It's refreshing to be somewhere where crap is called crap, the tone is irreverent, and the people can disagree with each other.

Mine was a bit of this, but it was back when the name "purrin" and friends instantly twisted a few panties there and there was a crusade against his measurements and I heard that there was this new forum set up by purrin and friends to bypass the crusade. All told by a female shark herald, who is a special snowflake.

In any case, while I did lurk too much back then, I'm too lazy to scour my memories why Changstar is on the same level of vileness as nwavguy on Headfi.

Instead, here's a treasure hunt for you OP: somewhere in this site, purrin explained why Changstar is called that.
Logged
Thank you based MuppetFace.

complin

  • Powder Monkey
  • *
  • Brownie Points: +7/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 43
Re: Would anyone bother to explain this for me?
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2014, 12:12:50 PM »

Basically Head-Fi is now a full commercial venture so its undoubtedly part of someones pension plan!
Its not only references to this site but others including Head-Case. Today its moderated with a very heavy hand and any dissenting opinions, criticism of sponsors or their products is removed very quickly.
References to sites or links which expose poor products, over priced crap or dubious practices are ruthlessly censored in order not to alienate advertisers and sponsors.
So if you are looking for an uncensored diverse range of opinions and views then look elsewhere, today Head-Fi is not the place for such stuff! 



They are two forums competing for some of the same readership.  Considering HF makes some amount of money from views/clicks and accompanying sponsorships at least partially based on those metrics, its good business practice to not end up directing to the competition.  Its like allowing an ad for home-made bespoke suits in the Men's suit section at Nordstrom.  Sure, this cottage-industry tailor will never truly chip away at Nordstrom's clientele, but those who do end up going to him will often never be seen at Nordstrom again.
Logged

Skyline

  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +22/-5
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 339
Re: Would anyone bother to explain this for me?
« Reply #13 on: April 17, 2014, 12:18:09 PM »

Who knows?

I was attracted to this place because of the number of people who, like me, had meandered through a lot of bad audio purchases before getting here. It's refreshing to be somewhere where crap is called crap, the tone is irreverent, and the people can disagree with each other.
In any case, while I did lurk too much back then, I'm too lazy to scour my memories why Changstar is on the same level of vileness as nwavguy on Headfi.
It's because many at HF don't appreciate having their hype trains derailed...
Logged

complin

  • Powder Monkey
  • *
  • Brownie Points: +7/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 43
Re: Would anyone bother to explain this for me?
« Reply #14 on: April 17, 2014, 12:47:29 PM »

Hype Train, i'm sure I don't know what you could possibly mean  :boom:

It's because many at HF don't appreciate having their hype trains derailed...
Logged

thegunner100

  • Hentai Master Chief
  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +42/-4
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 443
  • A chubby anime cat
    • The Emotional Skyscraper
Re: Would anyone bother to explain this for me?
« Reply #15 on: April 17, 2014, 02:37:09 PM »

I initially came to changstar for its measurements and CDS. I did lots of lurking around and found that this place was quite different from HF. TBH, it's really like the anti-HF to an extent. As mentioned before, we're allowed to call out products for being overpriced or sounding like shit. After lurking around and posting more, I found that I could really trust the memembers (lol what. did I really just type that?) here and their impressions.

I remember reading how the site's name came to be, but I still have no idea what the banner/logo is... I'll have to look for that post again sometime later.
Logged

Tari

  • Poet Laureate of Changstaria
  • Mate
  • Pirate
  • ****
  • Brownie Points: +245/-1
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 854
  • Is tari a wizard
Re: Would anyone bother to explain this for me?
« Reply #16 on: April 17, 2014, 02:53:36 PM »

HF is the internet gateway to this hobby for 99% of forum-goers.  It is by and large a good resource for your average newbite who just wants someone to "recommend me" and get out of the hobby.  As a welcoming place for new members who are not yet initiates in the hobby (and don't see themselves as hobbyists but rather music lovers) it has to give off a more welcoming vibe (think marvel superhero movies vs comic book guy from the simpsons - who is likely to be more faithful to the canon?  Who is more likely to make more converts?) This means no spirited arguments that could be seen as argumentativeness, no ragging on what other people like even if there are many objective reasons to do so, no riffing and razzing and crude inside jokes that signal a club where the average lurker feels like an outsider looking in. 


This all makes sense from a business perspective.  Those who plan on sticking around in the hobby (especially online) are often better served elsewhere though where these things don't need to be kept in check.


___


Max, sucks about your lost contributorship.  Someone gave it to me a few months back and quite honestly if HF still had all those annoying ads every time I visited, I would have signed off long ago and never come back.
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current

To the OP's question: I only have hints of why. From several pm's and relayed conversations which have made their way to me, evidently, the Architect of HF is upset because he feels the purpose of this site is to ridicule HF, attack HF, etc.

I won't disagree or pretend to not understand why the HF Architect would feel this way; but allow me to explain: As others have mentioned, they came to this site because of bad purchase decisions based on HF "hype". This was a primary driver behind this site. To create a forum where there would be more meaningful discussion of gear beyond hype or simplistic top 10 rankings. For me personally, it was two specific things which tipped me over: a CSD measurement of a headphone which was tweaked via visualization techniques to look really good (it was still a good headphone); and a high touted tube amp ranked #1 in a top X list which many here thought was the biggest piece of sh1t they've ever heard upon hearing it or purchasing it.

So in a sense, we started out as small group of people who felt that had "awoken" from the HF Matrix. Early on, mention of this site was still permitted by HF. I figure the HF Architect and HF Agent Smiths just thought of us as ants which posed no threat. We'll we've grown a lot since then, much more than I would have ever imagined. And because of this growth and our outlook, we've attracted more than a few HF disgruntled. HF disgruntled of course are going to bitch about HF, slam Jude, slam Joe, call Amos names, etc. While I don't think doing such things is really beneficial, I'm not really going to do anything to stop it. (Not to mention that most people who have banned from HF don't last long here either.) I figured people were just blowing off steam. People need to blow of steam. And for the most part, I'm going to allow a certain level of that. I understand where these HF disgruntled are coming from given the seemingly capricious application of ever growing rules being applied to HF members and the lack of moderators to guide or shape things along. (The moderator to reader ratio here is like 100 times more than at HF.) Even, then I'd always advocated a "hands off" and "just get along" approach. We ban people because we don't like them or because we feel they are disruptive and we tell them that. None of that nonsense about disagreeing on agreeing or citing of arcane rules.

So given everything which was just said above, I can totally see why the HF Architect would feel that the purpose of this site was to ridicule HF. I'm sure the photochopped image of the painting where persian ambassadors brought gifts / paid homage to Louis IV (the HF architect's face was superimposed on Louis' face) did not go very well with the HF architect either. But I felt that one went a bit too far so I took it down a day later (or maybe two days). I think a few mods changed the word filters to mock a few HF's they thought were annoying. I do have to be honest and say I did get a chuckle out of some of that though. Another one is the secret meaning of the Jolly Roger. To me, it just comes with the territory. The Head-Case.org guys mock me all the time with "plankton". A HF'er once pm'd a good friend of mine and called me a loser and a shill of the highest order. I think all that stuff is pretty funny - I posted a image of plankton in the MOTD front page a few months ago.

It's hard to explain. It's certainly not personal, because many of us still contribute to HF in meaningful ways and still care about HF (actually this last assertion is probably becoming less true). But it seems to be taken that way and I understand why. But at the end of the day, I actually I don't care. It's just stupid sh1t which makes HF feel even more like a weird place because everyone over there who would care to jump over the $400 threshold for gear already k nows about this place. And I don't want more people here right now. I'm not making enough from the ads to pay for the next level of forum service / bandwidth.

I would have figured if HF didn't want people to come here or didn't want people to bitch about them elsewhere, they should just run their site better. Setting a certain tone for a web forum isn't that hard if one truly puts in some effort. And setting a certain tone / guiding things along is not the same thing as policing. But that's just me. I prefer quality over quantity. Anyways, we know the real reason this site cannot be mentioned is because it is a competitor of sorts.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2014, 06:07:55 PM by marvey »
Logged

N

  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Powder Monkey
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +5/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 57
  • Audio agnostic

Very nice context above.

I think of head-fi to be a marketer's dream, rife with post-purchase rationalization, groupthink (i.e. circle-jerking), and censorship. Way too commercial.

I appreciate the more conversational, open, informative discussion here. It doesn't really feel like there's much discussion over at HF these days.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2014, 08:25:46 PM by N »
Logged

Kirosia

  • Unfaltering Taylor Swift Krusader
  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +117/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 599
  • Psychologically uneven cotton



To be fair, I too greatly enjoy money. I'd knock off any one of you for the right price.
Logged
"Do you know why I wanted to start this war?... To make sure people like you aren't remembered when you die."
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 ... 12