I ignored it for years. It's mainly abkut the mechanics / politics of the database. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of specialist Group forums on Discogs although many are wastelands. Electronic Music has about 20,000 members, though.
MatthewK - the second photo needs a Hoffman (Left) caption. (haha xp)
― The First (Noel Emits), Monday, 10 December 2018 22:57 (five years ago) link
lol
― What Do I Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 00:56 (five years ago) link
(You have insufficient privileges to reply here.)
jerks.
― brimstead, Wednesday, 13 November 2019 01:06 (four years ago) link
You are insufficiently privileged to reply here.
― Una Palooka Dronka (hardcore dilettante), Wednesday, 13 November 2019 02:53 (four years ago) link
I found such behavior sad for a senior citizen.
― brimstead, Wednesday, 13 November 2019 05:45 (four years ago) link
Xpost that is usually because the thread is locked (for going off topic, political snark, etc)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 13 November 2019 07:11 (four years ago) link
"I was alive at the time. I was there. I remember his plane crash at the high school". I pointed out that yes it's a shame we lost 2 bright stars- Valens and Buddy Holly.
I get that The Big Bopper was a DJ with a novelty hit, but damn that's cold.
― pplains, Wednesday, 13 November 2019 13:12 (four years ago) link
I have discovered the stereocentral forum which is a good laugh though it's really a Hoffman boards slambook.
― akm, Thursday, 13 August 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link
lol really? audiophile mastering beef
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 13 August 2020 01:21 (four years ago) link
Didn't think I'd see a thread dedicated to that forum. Honestly, the feuding that's gone on over there has been the saddest spectacle I've ever witnessed on the internet. It's even spilled out into Wikipedia, and I imagine whoever runs it is shaking their heads, wondering "why the hell are all these people waging this ongoing edit war on a page over a mastering engineer?" It's really sad yet fascinating how it's snowballed over the years, eventually ensnaring renowned engineers like Ken Scott (the Beatles, David Bowie's glam rock albums). The low point was when it came out that Hoffman had a reputation for stealing and/or neglecting to return masters, which is how he got fired from his previous job with MCA.
Anyway, it's heavily populated by complete nuts, and I don't mean obsessive collectors, just socially dysfunctional malcontents. But there are a few highly knowledgeable people who have come and gone through there, and it's worth searching the site once in a while if you need vital record info, especially if it's related to mastering, masters/sources used, etc. Just be sure you get the right info from the right people posting. It's especially edifying if it's coming from people who work in the business. (The great Motown engineer Bob Olhsson actually posts there once in a while, and thankfully he comes off as a very sane and likable person.)
One can go on forever about all the negatives - I mean, sweet Jesus, it actually spawned another forum that exists solely to mock it - but on the positive side, I guess it took highly esoteric but really good information about how masters, records, CD's, SACD's, etc. sound the way they do and made people more knowledgeable about it. In some cases to an unhealthy degree, but it can be nice when you realize it can save you a good deal of $$$ when you get in the habit of skipping remasters of music you already own because they actually sound worse than what you already have.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 13 August 2020 03:36 (four years ago) link
god i had such a good laugh reading your post, it’s all so painfully true. thank you
― budo jeru, Thursday, 13 August 2020 03:44 (four years ago) link
sadly, I would definitely read a juicy Hoffman expose lol
― brimstead, Thursday, 13 August 2020 04:55 (four years ago) link
https://vintagerock.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/steve_hoffman_interview.jpg
― assert (MatthewK), Thursday, 13 August 2020 08:08 (four years ago) link
here's that slam forum: https://stereocentral.freeforums.net. Like I said, some of it is good reading, particularly the stuff they snag before it's deleted where some SHF posters go off into really awful right-wing political shit.
― akm, Thursday, 13 August 2020 14:50 (four years ago) link
anybody wanna explain what the hell is going with that forum?
i'm out of the loop and seriously confused by all of this.
― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Thursday, 13 August 2020 16:02 (four years ago) link
discovering that forum makes me wonder where the anti-ilx forum is
― akm, Friday, 14 August 2020 16:08 (four years ago) link
it's called ilx
― singular wolf erotica producer (Hadrian VIII), Friday, 14 August 2020 16:25 (four years ago) link
ha.
Austin, i wish i could help but i don't think i know anything you don't know. birdistheword's post sort of sums it up pretty well i think.
― budo jeru, Friday, 14 August 2020 17:33 (four years ago) link
yup. I visit about once a month and the threads on bands I'm really interested in have been pretty helpful.
― frogbs, Friday, 14 August 2020 17:39 (four years ago) link
Good god, the current thread over there about RZA's new ice cream truck jingle is.... something.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 14 August 2020 17:41 (four years ago) link
lol I racked my brain trying to think why RZA would write an ice cream jingle and how it would become a clusterfuck on the steve hoffman forums and I'm sad to say I pretty much guessed right
― frogbs, Friday, 14 August 2020 17:49 (four years ago) link
hipinion?
― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Friday, 14 August 2020 18:14 (four years ago) link
xli?
― Time Will Show Leo Weiser (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 14 August 2020 18:17 (four years ago) link
so wait, it's literally a parody thread full of fake posts in the SHF style? That seems like a...very odd use of time
― Paul Ponzi, Friday, 14 August 2020 18:23 (four years ago) link
Its not really full of parodies, more filled with threads mocking Hoffman and specific posters.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 14 August 2020 18:32 (four years ago) link
There can't be many places that banned so many users they decided to start their own forum just to make fun of the one where they originally posted.
― skip, Friday, 14 August 2020 18:37 (four years ago) link
That actually happens a lot, 2 that I could think of in recent years.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, 14 August 2020 22:16 (four years ago) link
Looks like the Hoffman Forums got taken out by hackers, at least that's what is implied by some posts on that slam forum.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 23 November 2020 16:45 (three years ago) link
Looks like it's been DOS attacked
― Mark G, Monday, 23 November 2020 16:46 (three years ago) link
Xpost blimey!
dammit they are my source for Jethro Tull news
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Monday, 23 November 2020 16:47 (three years ago) link
According to that other forum, someone may have hacked H0ffman's own account and posted a few things under his name.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 23 November 2020 16:51 (three years ago) link
Now we will never know which pressing of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs best foregrounds God’s coked-up despair.
― pomenitul, Monday, 23 November 2020 16:51 (three years ago) link
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 23 November 2020 16:53 (three years ago) link
I got a message on there thsi morning saying they'd been hacked, claimed to come from Steve Hoffman himself. NOt sure how true that is, also seemed to be an individual message to me so is that a BCC type thing.
Got told i might need a 2fa which i know nothing about
Tried to chjeckj back on there about 20 minutes ago and I can't get near the site apparently.
― Stevolende, Monday, 23 November 2020 16:54 (three years ago) link
According to that slam forum, every user got that message from Steve himself.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 23 November 2020 16:55 (three years ago) link
what are the odds that SH posted something horrible and then decided to blow up the board
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Monday, 23 November 2020 17:03 (three years ago) link
Fuck I wanted to figure out what the hot-stamper for Breakfast in America was!
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 23 November 2020 17:06 (three years ago) link
sounds like the whole joint got hot-stamped
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Monday, 23 November 2020 17:13 (three years ago) link
You think the hackers used MyDoom or Slowloris in the attack, or do you think they went the classic route with Stacheldraht?
Those first two will definitely keep your victims guessing for a few hours but the pitch on Stacheldraht leaves you with no doubt that you've been fucked.
Six of one, half a dozen perhaps....
― pplains, Monday, 23 November 2020 18:06 (three years ago) link
According to the big guy's twitter, it was one of the mods that got their account hacked.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 23 November 2020 18:07 (three years ago) link
As much as there was a lot to make fun of there, and what an alternately lame and borderline toxic place it was in general, I did use the search function a ton to try to suss out eg whether it was advisable to pick up certain represses & such. If it’s permanently gone, I’ll miss it.
― the thing that the angry Left forbids (hardcore dilettante), Monday, 23 November 2020 19:13 (three years ago) link
yeah it was actually a pretty good resource sometimes
― frogbs, Monday, 23 November 2020 19:15 (three years ago) link
Yeah, as easy and fun as it was to dunk on that place and some of the people that populate it, it was often a good place to get some good information. For better or worse, there were a lot of connected people that shared some good info about releases. Andy Z@x, for example, would stop by to give updates on that Woodstock box.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 23 November 2020 19:16 (three years ago) link
Absolutely. It amazes how many people, mostly engineers, have left that forum, either because of Hoffman or because of the socially-dysfunctional assholes who would lash out at them. Mastering engineers who have worked on countless releases, but also people like Ken Scott (The Beatles, David Bowie, Devo) and the late Orrin Keepnews (every jazz listener should know him). And yet, look at how many reissue producers still participate on that forum. The producers behind the new Richard & Linda Thompson, Tom Petty and Replacements box sets (all different producers) were actively participating in threads, answering questions and taking feedback.
― birdistheword, Monday, 23 November 2020 20:24 (three years ago) link
*amazes me
looks like it's working now?
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 November 2020 20:43 (three years ago) link
I.. uh.. no, no idea.
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/is-rock-music-dead.937372/page-22#post-25206133
― Germs! Germs! Germs! (Noel Emits), Monday, 28 December 2020 16:12 (three years ago) link
(comment is gone btw, I actually reported it with a not very nice comment to their board admins about how they delete the most benign crap but leave up some sexist weird bullshit like this; it was gone within ten seconds)
― akm, Monday, 28 December 2020 17:43 (three years ago) link