Ta dust .. I was just curious is all, I think the site would lose alot of what is good about it if everyone who's regested posted, there's a good smallish regular group on here with a few passing posters .. the site makes my morning, I read this before the papers ..

There are huge amount of lurkers. Two observations:

1. Anytime I go to AAuckland and meet with almost any music industry person, senior or junior, I hear them mentioning some recent topic discussion.

2. ~60,000 authenticated individual people a month on the site, every month. Mosty NZ based. Do the math.

YEAH!

thank you. I had just tidied up the camel dung.

Hahaha, just like Koe did yesterday. The use of 'reply to post' would have given the game away anyway.

praise allah, it was getting a bit whiffy in there.

and more than 3, but less than 10...

~1300

//it's a vibe!

I love The Castle. Every single time I see a post... and bogans ARE awesome.

jackieg ... :-) forever loyal ..

you mean the checks chicks? think they got scared.

Im a teenage chick. But I only ever squee when someone at the restaurant decides to pout boilingfrickenhot chicken and pork stock all down my legs and into my docs. Do Checks girls wear docs? If so, guess I cant be one :(
*gives pathetic attempt at a 'squeeeeee'*

You had to ask for it, didn't you Myshkin? Next you'll be saying "L** S***" three times without the stars...

Oh please little girl, get back to me when you were the subject of the biggest rumour in 8th grade and it was that you tied someone to the wall and tried to sacrifice them with a pair of eyelash curlers in a Satanic ritual.

Have pie and avacado.
Oh, not that anyones listening, but Im going to do a builders apprenticeship, so I probably wont be needing to look pretty for my job- you can hang on to that curler, Joanna.

yeah.... Im doing my arts degree first, but only because I'm taking french, spanish, russian, and english at uni- so when I finish, I'll do building, then sorta missionary-type-non-religious work/teaching people how to be able to do sh*t for themselves in impoverished countries. (oh, and hopefully be able to travel to more places with my languages, well, thats what I'm hoping anyway). Im not sure if 'impoverished' was the right word, but it sounded pretty good to me. Well, you get the gist. I hope. Ive just been at work since midday, so sorry if this hasn't made sense.

OOooooh, potluck as well! I was wondering whose troll that was. I guess I still don't know whose troll that is.. (tries desperately to think of real-life people that might hate me) Are you from christchurch?

//gang

bahaha! "my name is legion"

Are you sure all three of you aren't in fact Bruce?

I find these multiple logins frustrating. And confusing ... reminds me of a song ... Who are you?

But at least I know I am me ... or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof. Or am I ... Just what is it that determines who you and how many multiple logins you need in order to feel fulfilled?

Saul Hudson? Don't you play guitar for Velvet Revolver?

Yes, multiple log-ins I not get my head around.
I am not clear on why I find it disconcerting, it just is.
Ratio of Posts vs Topics, stats anyone?

H - not ch ch. I live in Auckland and Wellington, two 40hr a week jobs, commute once a week.

I think it is interesting that some people are very clear about wanting to be one profile and even allowing their natural identity to be known. While others, like myself, are anonymous and even several profiles.

Is this how the two profile-type groups operate in real life?
Are the mono-profiles a particular starsign?

I reckon one can be far more explicit in a forum argument against ones self, rather than a forum argument against a stranger. It's far more interesting (for me) to see people reacting in an already polarised discussion. Discussions that skirt around the potentially impolite or uncool issues wind up dull quite quickly.
The anonimity of the net allows us to bust out hazardous thoughts and arguments, but for me, there is no real pay off seeing some stranger respond to them, by that I mean I'd rather respond to them myself. I guess it's more of a tool to get my own thoughts in order, selfish.

//Multi-profiling allows us to test, challenge and ultimately even subvert our own beliefs.

The theory is sound, but I have two problems in the execution. First of all, I don't tend to be very good at expanding or enhancing, because I already know whether I agree with myself. I do prefer to debate with different people on nzm because they come up with angles that I never thought of before.

The second problem is that I'm really shit at troll alter-egos (except perhaps for the handful of troll logins I share with other people). Most people are; or at least it's fairly easy to spot troll alter-egos and it doesn't take too much more work out whose alter-ego it is. I'm still astounded by the soulsista/trent/pounamu/etc/etc/etc thing, because I had absolutely no idea. It scares me a little that someone could be so good at it.

Mind you, perhaps I've just been approaching the troll thing the wrong way... I entered the novel-writing month last year and writing dialogue was a real eye-opener. The characters' opinions started shaping themselves very rapidly, and moved in directions that I would never have been able to predict, or would have moved myself. I'm very keen to continue writing for that reason, but I still haven't worked out how to translate it into internet trolldom. Mental block I guess, or perhaps having an audience.

// Anonymous profiles are developing their beliefs on the net. Much of the time those beliefs are not cooked and not ready to be eaten in real life.
Mind you, that suggests that those of us that aren't anonymous are more confident about our beliefs, and I know a stack of (anonymous) people here who are equally committed to their opinions in real life - they just don't happen to want to put a face to the login.

//When a profile outs themselves, they immediately become an entertainment spectacle, much like a pop musician. They cross the line between observer and observed.
I can relate to that WRT musicians or the like, but I'm more interested in what you think of someone like me - I have no real-life profile (except the occasional "oooooohhh, you're Heather-from-NZM!") for anyone to harbour any presumptions about me. Just people have said things to me before that suggest they think I'm too open, like I'm being indecorous by letting so many strangers know so much about me. I think my general approach to the internet is as an extension of real-life, so I simply converse the same way I would at a party. I have noticed I "see" nzmusic.com in my head as a large room with people entering, chatting and leaving.

Actually, I guess it doesn't really make much difference if someone doesn't share their identity or their background, because I get to know whether I like or dislike someone primarily by their opinions and even the mechanics of posting - the words & grammar they use, the topics they respond to, etc. Most people, anonymous or not, even the trolls, create personas that are reasonably honest facets of their own personality, I think. As far as I've seen you're the only exception (or at least the only one that's admitted it).

While I understand, and have experimented with internet anonymity, to me it's far less an exercise in the benefits of anonymity and more an exercise in a new form of social interaction. Mainly I'm online to meet new people, share ideas and make offline friends, but a lot of the enhancing/expanding stuff I've learned has been through contrasting social dynamics on the internet with real-life.

// because I already know whether I agree with myself.

Do you though? You see this is where it gets a bit dodgy. In my case, I reckon I used to confuse belief (or agreement with myself) with ability to communicate that belief convincingly (ability to communicate that agreement with myself convincingly) what? he he he. After I started getting inside other characters, I discovered that I could ‘agree with myself’ on almost any outlandish concept (outlandish based on my previous beliefs). That feeling of pride when you're certain of what you believe on a given topic, was the same feeling in my polarized characters. That feeling is very powerful, and I think it is simply driven by the ability to communicate any belief you can think of. Once it’s expressed, you can believe it, why the fuck not? That weird pride feeling can trick me into believing all kinds of things.

// I entered the novel-writing month last year and writing dialogue was a real eye-opener. The characters' opinions started shaping themselves very rapidly, and moved in directions that I would never have been able to predict, or would have moved myself. I'm very keen to continue writing for that reason, but I still haven't worked out how to translate it into internet trolldom. Mental block I guess, or perhaps having an audience.

That’s so cool. It’s a great feeling isn’t it? You should pursue character writing and don’t worry that you can’t apply it to net trolldom. It’s extremely valuable just to be able to write it. Writing in private is the best place. Net trolldom is just a defrag.

//I can relate to that WRT musicians or the like, but I'm more interested in what you think of someone like me - I have no real-life profile (except the occasional "oooooohhh, you're Heather-from-NZM!") for anyone to harbour any presumptions about me.

Well, to me you’re pretty weird. All that stuff about contrasting the social dynamics of the internet with real life sounds terrifying - hopefully one day it will be illegal.
Aside from obviously being the site Matriarch, you’re a really good writer, too good to spend time writing intelligent responses to all these music fuckwits (myself included). It seems like you’re using your writing ability to enhance and expand your social circle when you should probably be using it to forge some kind of brilliant writing career, fuck, maybe you already are.