Dale wrote:Paul Schwartz, who has run concertina.net forever, is a terrific guy and I really wouldn't want to pull traffic away from his forum. So, I don't know that we want to ban concertina discussion, but I would hope people would actively refer people to his forum, particularly if they are unfamiliar with it. I'd establish a "sticky" with a banner and plug for his site on the new squeezebox forum.
Apart from that, I don't see any reason to do much limiting on the species of boxes on the front end.
Hm. Don't you guys wish you could turn a phrase like "limiting on the species of boxes on the front end." ?
English is my first language.
You know, I really have no objection if accordion players want to have their own forum on C&F so they can talk about playing Irish music on the accordion. Apparently they have no other place to go on the 'net to do that, so who am I to deny them an outlet for their own particular perversion? But there's one thing about this proposed forum that upsets me as a player of Irish music on the concertina, and that is its designation as a
Squeezebox Forum with the added provision that "Oh, you Irish concertina players get on over to concertina.net now and don't be hanging around here". See, the last time I looked my concertina was a box (albeit hexagonal rather than rectangular) and to play it I need to do lots of squeezing. Sounds to me like that's a squeezebox - and I didn't need to be an English major to figure that out, either. If StevieJ wants to call it a squeeze pillbox, that's okay with me as last time I looked a pillbox was still a box. Therefore, a squeeze pillbox is by definition a type of squeezebox.
All kidding aside (even though what I've written so far may not sound like kidding, in spirit that's how it's intended), how would it look if you decided to set up a "Christian Discussion Forum" with no Baptists (or Catholics, or Methodists or whatever) allowed? Or, for StevieJ's benifit, how would he like to see a "North American Discussion Forum (No Canadians Please)"? Having a Squeezebox Forum and excluding concertinas is exactly the same thing! If you want a forum devoted to discussion of Irish accordions, just call it the Irish Accordion Forum and be done with it. If you need a cute tag line to put under it that reinforces the need for concertina players to look elsewhere, just say "Why use two hands when you can get by with just one?" We concertina folks aren't dumb - we'll figure it out and leave you guys alone.
And Dale, while I appreciate your desire not to tread on the territory of your friend Paul Schwartz, as I've pointed out elsewhere concertina.net is a great resource but it does not claim to focus in any way on Irish concertina playing. Although there is of course discussion of Irish music on concertina.net, there is no discussion forum there specifically devoted to Irish music, nor is there any other partition on the site roped out for Irish music players. It's just a general and very ecumenical concertina player hangout. So if you were to decide to set up an Irish Concertina Forum (and I'm not suggesting that you do), I don't think you'd owe any apology at all to concertina.net. Did you apologize to woodfenflute.com when you set up the C&F Flute Forum? Did you apologize to thesession.org when you set up the Irish Traditional Music Forum? Did you apologize to the pub owners of Ireland when you set up the C&F Postructural Pub? (No? Really, I think you should have. You pull a lousy pint here on C&F....)
