The First of the Rants

A new thing on Punknews.org is the Rants section. We're hoping that some of you will feel inclined to submit us an opinion/rant piece of something, related to punk, hardcore, emo or the internet. Let me know if you want to do one.
The first is a nice piece of writing by Jordan from Pastepunk.com. Click below and read what he had to say.

Email has an evil relative. It's called the Message
Board
I’ve had some interesting correspondence lately. As pastepunk.com continues
to grow, I have been getting more and more emails from people who are interested
in it, and from those who want to send music to me for review. Regardless of the
topic of the email, there was some sort of thought process used for reasonable
means – a declared intent of communication with a positive vibe. Email has an
evil relative: the message board. There are few things that I think are more
detrimental to the punk/hardcore community than people hiding behind their
computer screen all day spreading rumors, lies, and in general, doing no good.

Trial, in one of their songs off the "Are these our lives?" album has the
lyric, "in the absence of passion, our screams are worth nothing." Powerful
stuff eh? But think about it for a few seconds. How can we claim to be part of
scene intent on changing things both physically and metaphorically for a better
tomorrow, if we spend our time of change typing away posts on a message board
strictly intended to offend others, or spread damaging lies. Granted, there
plenty of message boards that aren’t infected with this disease, but the
majority of the well known boards are. When I was 15, I would spend about 2
hours a day in some AOL chat room called "punk chat" spouting off about "who’s a
poseur, and what bands suck. " But I was 15, and I realized that there was more
to life and this scene that we hold on to so dearly, than getting caught up in
the web of shit-talking.
One of my good friends here at the University of Maryland does a site called
pheer.com that is the best source of show listings in the MD/DC/VA region, but
what is the main attraction to his site? His 200 + message board posts a day of
mostly nonsense, filled in with spates of serious inquiries for show directions,
and a need for band members. This guy’s site is a tremendous asset, worthier
than any flyer made for a show, and a genuine product of value to us all who
live in the area and rely on that kind of information. It is pretty sad that
with all the information available on that site, and the mp3s that he posts from
local bands, that people only care about what is the current state of affairs on
the board. I am waiting for the day that I read a headline in the Washington
Post, "teen killed after message board spat."
Do I use message boards? Of course – they are highly viable means for me to
promote pastepunk.com. When new interviews come out, or major updates are done
to the site, there are a few boards that I always make sure to post stuff on,
but that is the extent of it. I love the computer revolution just as much as
anyone, especially as I embrace it every day as the tool of my expression, but I
draw a line. I long for the days where communication wasn’t necessarily so easy
because you knew it was always sincere. Message boards are impersonal and
restrictive – they inhibit the inherent desire to communicate effectively and
with emotion. Whatever happened to the days where people hung out and loitered
together, instead of chatting online for hours at a time?
If this comes off sounding holier than thou, maybe that is a good thing,
because I want to get the message through. If this applies to you, stop wasting
your time behind the computer screen claiming to be a part of a scene where all
you do is cause trouble and make no mends to better your life. Shit-talking
accomplishes absolutely nothing. Nothing. Get off your can and do something,
even if it means reading a book or watching your father’s video collection of
the greatest battles in the War of 1812. I fear the day that our society forgets
how to assimilate technology and becomes lost in the struggle between personal
and impersonal communication. That’s enough out of me. To quote the words of Bad
Religion, "I’m going for a walk, not the after dinner kind…"
-jordan