Susan G
I may be romanticizing the way things were here years ago, but it seems to me folks used to be able to voice their opinions on these forums without feeling like they had to be on one or the other side of a lengthy debate where one team always had to "win." It wasn't quite so adversarial.
Expressing opinions is
great. My opinion is that stating multiple negative and untrue speculations
as facts is not great.
I don't have to "win" anything. Maybe it's my editorial/fact-checking background but I do feel compelled to correct misinformation and if someone
persists in disseminating misinformation, I feel compelled to reply because silence is perceived as assent. As to Vintage Vibe specifically, I have a problem with someone who says he switched from SONAR to Cubase, yet still comes in here periodically to complain about the program. IIRC this is the same person who was experiencing a problem with his system, and refused to even try advice the community gave him about possible problems to check because he was so sure that it had to be SONAR. Eventually the community just gave up trying to help, but not until after making a considerable effort.
Regarding notation, he has contributed a plethora of negative posts in a thread about a program he claims to have switched from using "except to open legacy projects." So what is his motivation for coming in and complaining about SONAR? I don't get it.
Compare that with JSG. He was of the opinion that MOTU DP was better than SONAR so he switched.
No one got on his case because that was his
opinion, he is credible, and frankly, many if not all users of staff view believe it could be improved so they agreed with that
opinion. I have been an advocate of improving it, but it's people like JSG posting solutions that makes things happen - not a Cubase user dismissing a transparent and forthright statement from SONAR's project manager about Cakewalk's position vis a vis notation. If Vintage Vibe had simply said "Well I'm glad to hear it's not dead and is something you're reviewing" instead of doubling down and saying that he was certain nothing would ever happen, I feel that would have contributed a lot more to the thread, and encouraged people to present solutions that would help
expedite the process of improving staff view.
You can see thread after thread in these forums that go along in a positive and useful direction until one person with an agenda comes in and does the equivalent of barfing on the rug at a party. Look what happened to the thread I started commending the community for contributing useful techniques and being more precise and specific in their bug reports.
There are plenty of people who have negative opinions of SONAR, and that's to be expected. Some people think it caters too much to EDM. Some people think it doesn't cater enough. Obviously both of them can't be "right," but they have
opinions and that's the way they see the program. I would hope no one would say "No, you don't see the program that way." That would be absurd; we're talking about someone's opinion.
So yes, opinions are great. Misrepresenting facts is not,
and I believe people should be held accountable for what they say on forums, just as I expect to be held accountable for what I say. I stand behind what I say, I research as much as possible to verify the accuracy of what I say, and if I'm aware that I've said something incorrect, I always say that I stand corrected. If you think I'm a jerk, that's fine. But you can rest assured that I say what I believe, and I have made a considerable effort to make sure what I believe is true.
I believe the comments Vintage Vibe made were unwarranted, misleading, and possibly mean-spirited. I'm sorry that upsets me, but it does - and all the more so because I remember posts he did years ago that were anything but that.
I have to be honest and say there were two people who've come to this forum that I felt were toxic to the forum and disrespectful to the community and yes, I hoped that I could make them feel unwelcome enough to leave. And they did. But Vintage Vibe is
not one of those. I simply do not want to let stand misleading statements from a Cubase user lest someone come in here, read what he says, and think "Wow, what a crappy company. This guy says right here they don't care about the education market, they'll never fix staff view bugs, staff view is dead, and they're never going to address issues with notation. Well, no one said he was wrong, so it must be true."
That's the way the internet works. Then misinformation gets picked up other places. Anyone visit Gearslutz last January and saw that if you don't subscribe to Cakewalk's subscription program, your software doesn't work until you pay more money? And that updates are $500 a year?
And just to be clear, I don't have to "win" anything by saying this. I am telling you exactly why I am so upset. If your opinion is that I'm being as ass, that's fine. If your opinion is I'm standing up for the truth, that's fine. But I am who I am. I contribute a lot to this forum, to Cakewalk, and to this industry. The same personality trait of intensity that makes me care enough about users to spend hours helping them when I could be doing a zillion other things is the same trait that makes me impatient with people who are rude to Cakewalk - the people who make this forum possible and graciously provide access - and the community, who by and large are helpful and honest.
I do not like the way the world is going. Propellerheads shut down their forum because they didn't want to have to deal with this kind of crap. I can't blame them. I realize I may be contributing to the world's negativity by not having patience for people whose primary contribution to forums is negativity (which to be clear, is not the same as negative opinions). However, I also believe not standing up to it simply encourages more negativity by allowing it to take root. Unfortunately, that has been my experience on internet forums for the past 20 years, and I've seen no evidence that situation has changed.