Tangerine Dream

In the last few years this forum has gotten more and more silent. It used to be an active place for fans and friends of great electronic music. There were lots of nice discussions (and several ones that turned bad). Nowadays I am lucky if I find ONE new comment a week. What really happened? It seems that still many check in here from time to time, but none bar two or three, or mostly five, members bothers to write anything at all. For a reference; below is the status of the forum right now:

In total there are 92 users online :: 2 registered, 0 hidden and 90 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)
Most users ever online was 513 on Sat Apr 11, 2020 1:02 am
Total posts 190144 | Total topics 4545 | Total members 681 | Our newest member ErasTD

Obviously the 513 members online on April 11, 2020 must be wrong. Maybe also the total users of 92 online just now. But the total members of 681 I believe is correct (admins did a clean-up after some hacking, and brought the correct amount of members back a while (a long while maybe?) ago.)

Well, these numbers may be false, but still, I have been a member here for 11 years, and it used to be a lively place. So here is the poll. I hope some of the silent members will answer as well. It would be very interesting to know more about the sudden silence. Thanks for your time and answers.

I think there are a number of reasons for this forum failing...


1) most of the active posters bailed out of here en masse for some reason.
2) to go to Facebook in the main ? ( f*** Facebook )
3) for several months now, if not years, there has been no response to any post made and thus hardly worth posting anything. This could still improve if people actually responded . Has never happened and doubt it will.
4) there were a lot of arguments and a fair degree of negativity about , even when Edgar was still here
5) there were problems with the site security/ hacking/ spammers/ functionality. There are still issues with attempting to post.
6) there has been no moderation for years.

It’s a damm shame as the band are producing some great music that deserves discussion and promotion on what was the official TD forum. Sad to see it reduced to this..

PS some of the active posters have unfortunately left earth also now.

sorcerer wrote:I think there are a number of reasons for this forum failing...


1) most of the active posters bailed out of here en masse for some reason.
2) to go to Facebook in the main ? ( f*** Facebook )
3) for several months now, if not years, there has been no response to any post made and thus hardly worth posting anything. This could still improve if people actually responded . Has never happened and doubt it will.
4) there were a lot of arguments and a fair degree of negativity about , even when Edgar was still here
5) there were problems with the site security/ hacking/ spammers/ functionality. There are still issues with attempting to post.
6) there has been no moderation for years.

It’s a damm shame as the band are producing some great music that deserves discussion and promotion on what was the official TD forum. Sad to see it reduced to this..

PS some of the active posters have unfortunately left earth also now.

Those are good reasons that may have something to do with it, yes.
And to the ones that read this post but don't want to post anything, I think voting is anonymous. So if you wish, you can always vote.
PS. Postal votes will not be counted.

I didn't stop!

I check this forum once a week.

Jon wrote:I didn't stop!

I check this forum once a week.

Yes, you are one of the VERY few active members.

I haven't stopped either. I check the forum every few days and I find it sad that there are so few who post these days. I think the biggest factor is Edgar's passing.

Steve C wrote:I haven't stopped either. I check the forum every few days and I find it sad that there are so few who post these days. I think the biggest factor is Edgar's passing.

You are amongst the few as well.

PS. poll updated with one more alternative.

Although I can't speak for everyone, dismissive responses like "The conspiracy forum is somewhere else. Please search the net again, and I guess you will find it." made in regard to new posts certainly limits my enthusiasm for contributing. Also, things like amateur musicians claiming how their amateur electronic project releases on Bandcamp are far, far superior to anything that Peter Baumann ever put out tend to make a negative impression. Ditto for new releases (from TD alumni) like Neuland all but being ignored- it makes the forum look completely dead, honestly.

TheXFactor wrote:Although I can't speak for everyone, dismissive responses like "The conspiracy forum is somewhere else. Please search the net again, and I guess you will find it." made in regard to new posts certainly limits my enthusiasm for contributing. Also, things like amateur musicians claiming how their amateur electronic project releases on Bandcamp are far, far superior to anything that Peter Baumann ever put out tend to make a negative impression. Ditto for new releases (from TD alumni) like Neuland all but being ignored- it makes the forum look completely dead, honestly.

Well, on a serious note. Yes, I found it a bit conspiratorially when you say things like the following:

TheXFactor wrote:The addition of Paul Frick seems to be a subtle attempt on the part of Thorsten to push Hoshiko Yamane out of the band. All the live photos I've seen over the past few years show her cramped into a very small space on the stage, and now the plan is to add a THIRD person? Think about how that will look- visually- and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Insvims wrote:Well, on a serious note. Yes, I found it a bit conspiratorially when you say things like the following:

So in other words, when someone points out how ridiculous it is to label an observation as a "conspiracy" just because it doesn't conform with blind fan adulation, that- in an of itself- is "conspiratorially"? Wow. That is some high level mental gymnastics you're performing to justify owning ten different versions of Goblins Club. You've also lost the point (and purpose) of your own poll, because this forum was dead YEARS BEFORE I made that original post (October 30th of 2020). You yourself said "In the last few years this forum has gotten more and more silent", so how- exactly- does that become the fault of a comment made three weeks ago?

TheXFactor wrote:

Insvims wrote:Well, on a serious note. Yes, I found it a bit conspiratorially when you say things like the following:

So in other words, when someone points out how ridiculous it is to label an observation as a "conspiracy" just because it doesn't conform with blind fan adulation, that- in an of itself- is "conspiratorially"? Wow. That is some high level mental gymnastics you're performing to justify owning ten different versions of Goblins Club. You've also lost the point (and purpose) of your own poll, because this forum was dead YEARS BEFORE I made that original post (October 30th of 2020). You yourself said "In the last few years this forum has gotten more and more silent", so how- exactly- does that become the fault of a comment made three weeks ago?

Seriously, I don't really understand your post here (maybe because English is not my native language). But you said something about an "...attempt on the part of Thorsten to push Hoshiko Yamane out of the band". I can not really understand that remark at all. Where do you get that from? That is why I called it conspiratorially.

Don’t worry about the language issue. It’s my first language and believe me these tirades are utterly bizarre.

This constantly having a go at everything and everyone left posting on here should finally finish the forum off once and for all.

The only clear thing is that TD really deserves and needs a NEW FORUM !
I don't understand why it still doesn't happen... But wait and see, right ?

TDludo wrote:The only clear thing is that TD really deserves and needs a NEW FORUM !
I don't understand why it still doesn't happen... But wait and see, right ?

Since both the TD site and the EF site work with flash player, which will soon no longer be supported, maybe there will be new sites soon or no more sites at all?

Insvims wrote: Seriously, I don't really understand your post here (maybe because English is not my native language). But you said something about an "...attempt on the part of Thorsten to push Hoshiko Yamane out of the band". I can not really understand that remark at all. Where do you get that from? That is why I called it conspiratorially.

This is the only other way I can think of explaining my original point: when I listen to any of the releases with Hoshiko (studio or live), or when I look at some of the live videos on You Tube, it doesn't seem like she's being given a whole lot to do to begin with (which- to me- comes across as unfair). Almost as if they have to begrudgingly accommodate the fact that there's a violin player in the band. So adding a THIRD keyboard player only makes the situation that much worse for her. It's a "bad look", in other words.