How to become member?
-
VK RAMAN
- Posts: 5009
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29
How to become member?
Is there any guideline for new members to join and how to fill up the application? I like to give this info to a few of my friends interested in Indian classical. Thanks for the help and guidance.
-
rshankar
- Posts: 13754
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26
Re: How to become member?
VKR, if you mean the forum, there were no such requirements..and I have not seen it announced that the policy has changed.....anyone should be able to navigate to the website and become a member...while it is very easy, it also allows spammers to become members...
-
Nick H
- Posts: 9473
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03
Re: How to become member?
... a problem with all forums. You would not believe the trouble that IndiaMike.com has rooting out all the travel agents, drivers and touts! It's just down to the moderators to get rid of the the offenders. Thankfully we don't attract too many of the sellers of shoes, mobile phones, etc.
Rasikas.org: All are Welcome
Rasikas.org: All are Welcome
-
vasanthakokilam
- Posts: 10958
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01
Re: How to become member?
There are no entrance requirements!
Having stated that, it is good to keep in mind that the forum is nothing more than the people who participate in it and it is a reflection of that gestalt. The admins and mods do not generally provide a guiding hand in shaping the direction of the forum at the individual topic level. It is the members who do that. Admins and Mods contribute as members as well.
You are indeed part of that whole. Your own expectations of what this forum is and what it is capable of has to be calibrated against that reality. For example, in the reviews section, anyone is free to review. Don't hope or demand reviews of certain artists, jump right in and open a thread and write about a concert you attended. Similarly, instead of lamenting that no discussions of great depth and substance are happening, if you have ideas for a discussion on a topic of depth, go right ahead and start a thread. All of us are here to learn, contribute and share in our enthusiasm for Indian classical music and broaden our horizons.
As long as one engages in civilized conversations, treating the fellow forumites and artists with respect ( no slur or slander ), things will be alright.
That is the easy part and only part of the story. There is more. Let me discuss one important aspect.
"What kind of per-requisites make for a good forum living on a day to day basis?"
Here are my observations, based on on-line forum activities over the years, here and elsewhere.
It is all in the realm of mental attitude and its adjustments.
Tolerate opinions and opinionated members:
A subset of people seem to not like reading about strong personal opinions and opinionated discussions. If a new member is one such, they better take such discussions in small quantities at first. One should learn to treat someone else's opinion about something as just that, just like how others take your opinion on something. Nothing more, these are not necessarily universal truths. This is a major attitude adjustment. It is easy to do this on topics that you do not care about, but much harder for topics you do care about.
Develop a thick skin and learn to disagree without being disagreeable
Another prerequisite for a good and long association with the fellow forumites is to have a thick skin. Be open to reading about alternate view points without getting wound-up and upset even if you disagree strongly. Or when others disagree with you strongly. Do not turn that into a personal attack or passive-aggressive ridicule. It is just too easy to get into such negativity. The more you get upset about a difference in opinion, the more is the need to strengthen your own conviction about that opinion. Think about that!
The thick skin part comes in when some one disagrees with you in strong terms. If your first thought and reaction is to fume and get out of here, please do so since it is good to cool off but also realize that the skin may not be thick enough. In fact that is a great opportunity for self discovery! Similarly, if on-line disagreements cause you to carry a grudge or bitterness for a long time and you are not letting go, then watch out, that is not a good sign, it is not good for your health.
A genuine sense of humor goes a long way to deal with these things and help in taking things in a lighter manner.
Your own mental baggage
There is another category of one's own attitudes that causes considerable discomfort.
a) a sense that things are going downhill and they are here to lament about it or save the music.
b) a righteous indignation about a lot of topics,
c) a chip on one's shoulder,
d) a superiority complex that their taste in music is better than others
Not that these are bad, in fact many of these things are great catalysts that cause people to act and campaign for changes.
Passion for something comes with such things. We all have these in some proportion or the other.
But people do not tolerate excessive amount of the above things in others. A lot of forum fights and squabbles can be traced back to these things.
Forum Culture
Yes, there is indeed a culture. People who just drive by get only a partial view. I know some musicians have the idea that this is a place where people fight a lot. Another musician had a put down 'Ah. that is the forum of concert lists'. There are others who get a lot out of the various discussions. There are others who read the forum but not join because it is too intimidating. As someone else said, Rasikas.org is about individual personalities with music as a convenient wrapper. All of this is true to some extent and part of the 'vibrant' culture.
Informing vs Promoting: Members are not idiots
There are indeed a lot of attempts to promote and advertise using surreptitious means. This may take the form of partisan reviews of musicians, responses to posts where promotion is sneaked in and a whole lot of other techniques. That is all unavoidable and there is not much official moderation at the content level. But members catch on to those things, sooner or later. Sometimes members call them on it, or learn to ignore them or tolerate them. Informing vs Promoting is a grey area and there is a wide latitude. As a group we are quite tolerant of that knowing that CM itself is fairly small compared to the overall music consumption. We can not afford to be too narrow in defining that grey area. But people do catch on to where that grey area is and when it is crossed. As a whole, our members are not idiots. This leads to the next topic of 'cred'.
Forum Cred
After a while, each individual poster develops a 'forum cred' among our crowd and that definitely colors how people read and interpret their posts. If your cred is a partisan to a particular musician or school, others will discount your opinions. On the other hand, your cred may give you the capital to be critical of something, while someone who just joined may not be afforded that by the members at large. That may all sound unfair, but that is how social circles are. Learn to live with it. Establish your own cred.
You establish your cred through participation in the various topics over time and letting others know who you are through those postings. The introduction you can post in the 'Welcome to New Members' thread is a start.
A genuine sense of humor, not the ones centered on putdowns and ridicule, provides a pleasant balance that others relate to. Express positive things whenever you can. This way you give yourself the luxury that your negative remarks do not define you.
If you have read this for, here is the good news
Even with a small dose of attitude adjustment along the above lines, forums like this are indeed a fun and interesting place to hang out, to contribute, and to learn something new about our music, artists and events.
Having stated that, it is good to keep in mind that the forum is nothing more than the people who participate in it and it is a reflection of that gestalt. The admins and mods do not generally provide a guiding hand in shaping the direction of the forum at the individual topic level. It is the members who do that. Admins and Mods contribute as members as well.
You are indeed part of that whole. Your own expectations of what this forum is and what it is capable of has to be calibrated against that reality. For example, in the reviews section, anyone is free to review. Don't hope or demand reviews of certain artists, jump right in and open a thread and write about a concert you attended. Similarly, instead of lamenting that no discussions of great depth and substance are happening, if you have ideas for a discussion on a topic of depth, go right ahead and start a thread. All of us are here to learn, contribute and share in our enthusiasm for Indian classical music and broaden our horizons.
As long as one engages in civilized conversations, treating the fellow forumites and artists with respect ( no slur or slander ), things will be alright.
That is the easy part and only part of the story. There is more. Let me discuss one important aspect.
"What kind of per-requisites make for a good forum living on a day to day basis?"
Here are my observations, based on on-line forum activities over the years, here and elsewhere.
It is all in the realm of mental attitude and its adjustments.
Tolerate opinions and opinionated members:
A subset of people seem to not like reading about strong personal opinions and opinionated discussions. If a new member is one such, they better take such discussions in small quantities at first. One should learn to treat someone else's opinion about something as just that, just like how others take your opinion on something. Nothing more, these are not necessarily universal truths. This is a major attitude adjustment. It is easy to do this on topics that you do not care about, but much harder for topics you do care about.
Develop a thick skin and learn to disagree without being disagreeable
Another prerequisite for a good and long association with the fellow forumites is to have a thick skin. Be open to reading about alternate view points without getting wound-up and upset even if you disagree strongly. Or when others disagree with you strongly. Do not turn that into a personal attack or passive-aggressive ridicule. It is just too easy to get into such negativity. The more you get upset about a difference in opinion, the more is the need to strengthen your own conviction about that opinion. Think about that!
The thick skin part comes in when some one disagrees with you in strong terms. If your first thought and reaction is to fume and get out of here, please do so since it is good to cool off but also realize that the skin may not be thick enough. In fact that is a great opportunity for self discovery! Similarly, if on-line disagreements cause you to carry a grudge or bitterness for a long time and you are not letting go, then watch out, that is not a good sign, it is not good for your health.
A genuine sense of humor goes a long way to deal with these things and help in taking things in a lighter manner.
Your own mental baggage
There is another category of one's own attitudes that causes considerable discomfort.
a) a sense that things are going downhill and they are here to lament about it or save the music.
b) a righteous indignation about a lot of topics,
c) a chip on one's shoulder,
d) a superiority complex that their taste in music is better than others
Not that these are bad, in fact many of these things are great catalysts that cause people to act and campaign for changes.
Passion for something comes with such things. We all have these in some proportion or the other.
But people do not tolerate excessive amount of the above things in others. A lot of forum fights and squabbles can be traced back to these things.
Forum Culture
Yes, there is indeed a culture. People who just drive by get only a partial view. I know some musicians have the idea that this is a place where people fight a lot. Another musician had a put down 'Ah. that is the forum of concert lists'. There are others who get a lot out of the various discussions. There are others who read the forum but not join because it is too intimidating. As someone else said, Rasikas.org is about individual personalities with music as a convenient wrapper. All of this is true to some extent and part of the 'vibrant' culture.
Informing vs Promoting: Members are not idiots
There are indeed a lot of attempts to promote and advertise using surreptitious means. This may take the form of partisan reviews of musicians, responses to posts where promotion is sneaked in and a whole lot of other techniques. That is all unavoidable and there is not much official moderation at the content level. But members catch on to those things, sooner or later. Sometimes members call them on it, or learn to ignore them or tolerate them. Informing vs Promoting is a grey area and there is a wide latitude. As a group we are quite tolerant of that knowing that CM itself is fairly small compared to the overall music consumption. We can not afford to be too narrow in defining that grey area. But people do catch on to where that grey area is and when it is crossed. As a whole, our members are not idiots. This leads to the next topic of 'cred'.
Forum Cred
After a while, each individual poster develops a 'forum cred' among our crowd and that definitely colors how people read and interpret their posts. If your cred is a partisan to a particular musician or school, others will discount your opinions. On the other hand, your cred may give you the capital to be critical of something, while someone who just joined may not be afforded that by the members at large. That may all sound unfair, but that is how social circles are. Learn to live with it. Establish your own cred.
You establish your cred through participation in the various topics over time and letting others know who you are through those postings. The introduction you can post in the 'Welcome to New Members' thread is a start.
A genuine sense of humor, not the ones centered on putdowns and ridicule, provides a pleasant balance that others relate to. Express positive things whenever you can. This way you give yourself the luxury that your negative remarks do not define you.
If you have read this for, here is the good news
Even with a small dose of attitude adjustment along the above lines, forums like this are indeed a fun and interesting place to hang out, to contribute, and to learn something new about our music, artists and events.
-
rajeshnat
- Posts: 10144
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Re: How to become member?
Beautiful post VK
Srkris
Why dont you add this post as soon as people hit the register button
Srkris
Why dont you add this post as soon as people hit the register button
-
rshankar
- Posts: 13754
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26
Re: How to become member?
Great points VK....just add one more thing...in the reviews section, people think that there are appointed reviewers, and complain about lack of reviews of their favorite artist(s)....anyone is free to review, there are no designated reviewers, and if reviews of a certain artist are missing, rasikas should start writing reviews, instead of hoping/asking/demanding that reviews of these concerts should be up here!
All of us are here to learn, share our enthusiasm among like-minded people (I do have to say that but for the people on this forum, no one else is likely to understand my involvement in CM), and broaden our horizons. For instance, I for one like to read Rajesh and Bharat's reviews - they attend concerts of vidvAns off the beaten track, and I have started to listen to the same, and have been immensely rewarded....and so on and so forth....
All of us are here to learn, share our enthusiasm among like-minded people (I do have to say that but for the people on this forum, no one else is likely to understand my involvement in CM), and broaden our horizons. For instance, I for one like to read Rajesh and Bharat's reviews - they attend concerts of vidvAns off the beaten track, and I have started to listen to the same, and have been immensely rewarded....and so on and so forth....
-
vasanthakokilam
- Posts: 10958
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01
Re: How to become member?
Thanks Rajesh and Ravi.
Ravi, yes, absolutely. I have now incorporated your point.
Ravi, yes, absolutely. I have now incorporated your point.
-
thanjavooran
- Posts: 3059
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 04:44
Re: How to become member?
Shri V K Avl,
Excellent! The responsibility of a genuine forumite is nicely brought out in your message.
With wishes,
Thanjavoran 19 12 2011
Excellent! The responsibility of a genuine forumite is nicely brought out in your message.
With wishes,
Thanjavoran 19 12 2011
-
Ramasubramanian M.K
- Posts: 1226
- Joined: 05 May 2009, 08:33
Re: How to become member?
Vasanthakokilam: Excellent outline of what to expect in a forum like this.personally I am glad that I was admitted perhaps under the "grandfather clause" before these requirements(I am just kidding!!) were outlined!!!
I personally have enjoyed and benefited immensely from the forum both from the veterans as well as the youngsters.New vistas have been opened for me --especially in the area of upcoming artistes(I was a "Kinattu Thavalai" trading on my nostalgic reminiscences of erstwhile musicians till I joined the forum.
However after the recent Rasikas meeting at Mr.Nageswaran's house--where I had the privilege of wielding the gravel--some interesting suggestions--some of them quite passionately--were made and that set me thinking as to how we could enhance the forum's role in the area of CM music.
1.A point was made that reviews are not written for young artistes. I think Vasanthakokilam you have answered it--if you feel strongly about a particular young artiste spread the word-let the forumites know where the artiste is singing or playing so that the local forumite can cover the same. It need not be Rajeshnat's burden alone however enthusiastic he may be undertaking the task!!(By the way Rajeshnat it would be awfully remiss of me if I do not ack your kind comments on my role in the Rasikas meet--I just returned from Chennai and still recovering from the jet lag- so could not respond to the comments of the members who attended--- -more on the few concerts I attended later under the season twitter thread!).
2. Regarding the role the forum should play in highlighting young talent--especially from outside Chennai--the "talent scout" who has unearthed the budding artiste should use his/her influence with the local sabha secretary(Trust me this works based on my late father's experience over the years--the Gayathri Venkataraghavans,the Ranjani Gayathris,the Amrutha Venkateshs--were all products of intensive "nudging" by my father in the Nineties and early this century. During the meet in Chennai I narrated(as described by Rajeshnat in his summary) how R and G got exposed to the Chennai audience(initially as Violin Duos) @ BVB,how my Dad maneouvred the late Subbudu in reviewing it himself(as forumites may know my Dad was one of the reviewers for Indian express for over 3decades and yet he chose to have Subbudu review R and G to provide the "oomph" which it did !!). Shashank's article in the Hindu(I think it was around Mid December) makes the point excellently that the budding artistes of today are at the mercy of the Sabhas because there are no viable alternatives--unlike the SSI-GNB-MMI era when the temple concerts gave tremendous lift especially to MMI.
But the collective force of the Forum can be deployed to move the institutions--I think it can be fairly said in today's day and age real talent does get recognized unlike yesteryears.
More than anything else, I believe the forum should actively work to broaden the listener=base for CM--it was a sad thing to note that the few concerts I attended recently in Chennai--be it the MA or NGS or MFA or Asthika Samajam-- the audience was a very old audience and very few youngsters execpt those who were learning or already performing--this is not a good augury.
Sorry folks for this meandering note--I think VKokilam has adquately and succinctly covered the issue.
I personally have enjoyed and benefited immensely from the forum both from the veterans as well as the youngsters.New vistas have been opened for me --especially in the area of upcoming artistes(I was a "Kinattu Thavalai" trading on my nostalgic reminiscences of erstwhile musicians till I joined the forum.
However after the recent Rasikas meeting at Mr.Nageswaran's house--where I had the privilege of wielding the gravel--some interesting suggestions--some of them quite passionately--were made and that set me thinking as to how we could enhance the forum's role in the area of CM music.
1.A point was made that reviews are not written for young artistes. I think Vasanthakokilam you have answered it--if you feel strongly about a particular young artiste spread the word-let the forumites know where the artiste is singing or playing so that the local forumite can cover the same. It need not be Rajeshnat's burden alone however enthusiastic he may be undertaking the task!!(By the way Rajeshnat it would be awfully remiss of me if I do not ack your kind comments on my role in the Rasikas meet--I just returned from Chennai and still recovering from the jet lag- so could not respond to the comments of the members who attended--- -more on the few concerts I attended later under the season twitter thread!).
2. Regarding the role the forum should play in highlighting young talent--especially from outside Chennai--the "talent scout" who has unearthed the budding artiste should use his/her influence with the local sabha secretary(Trust me this works based on my late father's experience over the years--the Gayathri Venkataraghavans,the Ranjani Gayathris,the Amrutha Venkateshs--were all products of intensive "nudging" by my father in the Nineties and early this century. During the meet in Chennai I narrated(as described by Rajeshnat in his summary) how R and G got exposed to the Chennai audience(initially as Violin Duos) @ BVB,how my Dad maneouvred the late Subbudu in reviewing it himself(as forumites may know my Dad was one of the reviewers for Indian express for over 3decades and yet he chose to have Subbudu review R and G to provide the "oomph" which it did !!). Shashank's article in the Hindu(I think it was around Mid December) makes the point excellently that the budding artistes of today are at the mercy of the Sabhas because there are no viable alternatives--unlike the SSI-GNB-MMI era when the temple concerts gave tremendous lift especially to MMI.
But the collective force of the Forum can be deployed to move the institutions--I think it can be fairly said in today's day and age real talent does get recognized unlike yesteryears.
More than anything else, I believe the forum should actively work to broaden the listener=base for CM--it was a sad thing to note that the few concerts I attended recently in Chennai--be it the MA or NGS or MFA or Asthika Samajam-- the audience was a very old audience and very few youngsters execpt those who were learning or already performing--this is not a good augury.
Sorry folks for this meandering note--I think VKokilam has adquately and succinctly covered the issue.
-
rshankar
- Posts: 13754
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26
Re: How to become member?
Well, I can think of at least 2 more examples of such a promotion bearing fruit (not exactly for 'young talent', but for 'hitherto un-appreciated in Chennai talent') in the current 'iNet-and-twitter age' - First: It was when Ashwati Tirunal Sri Rama Verma posted a clip of Smt. P. Ponnammal on youtube that the world sat up and took notice of this great singer, and now, flock to her concerts...Ramasubramanian M.K wrote: 2. Regarding the role the forum should play in highlighting young talent--especially from outside Chennai--the "talent scout" who has unearthed the budding artiste should use his/her influence with the local sabha secretary
Second: I really think it was Kji's clips, and descriptions on this forum that lead to people appreciating fabulous singers from AP like Smt. Manda Sudha Rani and Smt. Pantula Rama.