This is a carry over from another thread, where a passing comment I made, on a topic I thought was common knowledge, led to a lot of the regulars asking questions. As to not upend that thread, I'll post my response here. I would have responded sooner to those inquiries, but didn't feel comfortable saying much more without JayKeeley's blessing... which I've since received. Ironically, he too thought this was all common knowledge.
Please keep in mind, a lot of these decisions were made several years ago, so not all of this is fresh in my mind. Perhaps JK will add to this thread, as he's at least aware it's being discussed.
In essence, there were a number of factors at play in the closing of the Royal Carnage forum; some of which were also tied to the 'zine. First, there was burn out. People were sick and tired of reviewing the endless shit-stream of CDs being pushed upon us by the labels. The second factor was real life. Folks like JK had less and less time to devote to the 'zine and to post to the forum. However, neither factor would have shut down "Royal Carnage" the forum. The forum was still viewed as a thriving entity, and there was little reason to close it down or rename it.
As time passed, the forum began to attract a different sort of poster. I suspect this had to do with the discussions regarding NSBM and some of its offshoot sub-genres. While these discussions were never an issue in the past, they slowly began to be. In the past, folks like JayKeeley, Dark One and Guggs viewed the genre as having musical value, but laughed off the lyrics as being no more worthy of critical consideration than those of Satanic bands offering praise to Lucifer. However, as time passed, it seemed that some posters started praising the message and a racist undercurrent began to appear.
As Ali would later tell me, it got to the point where you could Google certain racist topics and wind up with links to Royal Carnage threads. Suffice it to say, this was not the vision he had when he, Dark One and Guggs began the forum. Given that JK had neither the time nor the inclination to fight with these posters on a daily basis or try to undo the damage that already had been done to the Royal Carnage name, he and Deron agreed to rename the forum. Why it was renamed instead of closed is a topic I won't go into, out of respect to both Ali and Deron.
As for questions as to why this wasn't made public, I couldn't say. Perhaps because the damage was already done to the Royal Carnage name? Perhaps because so many of the original posters had already been driven off by the racist posts? Again, on this aspect, I can't really offer any insight.
Please keep in mind, a lot of these decisions were made several years ago, so not all of this is fresh in my mind. Perhaps JK will add to this thread, as he's at least aware it's being discussed.
In essence, there were a number of factors at play in the closing of the Royal Carnage forum; some of which were also tied to the 'zine. First, there was burn out. People were sick and tired of reviewing the endless shit-stream of CDs being pushed upon us by the labels. The second factor was real life. Folks like JK had less and less time to devote to the 'zine and to post to the forum. However, neither factor would have shut down "Royal Carnage" the forum. The forum was still viewed as a thriving entity, and there was little reason to close it down or rename it.
As time passed, the forum began to attract a different sort of poster. I suspect this had to do with the discussions regarding NSBM and some of its offshoot sub-genres. While these discussions were never an issue in the past, they slowly began to be. In the past, folks like JayKeeley, Dark One and Guggs viewed the genre as having musical value, but laughed off the lyrics as being no more worthy of critical consideration than those of Satanic bands offering praise to Lucifer. However, as time passed, it seemed that some posters started praising the message and a racist undercurrent began to appear.
As Ali would later tell me, it got to the point where you could Google certain racist topics and wind up with links to Royal Carnage threads. Suffice it to say, this was not the vision he had when he, Dark One and Guggs began the forum. Given that JK had neither the time nor the inclination to fight with these posters on a daily basis or try to undo the damage that already had been done to the Royal Carnage name, he and Deron agreed to rename the forum. Why it was renamed instead of closed is a topic I won't go into, out of respect to both Ali and Deron.
As for questions as to why this wasn't made public, I couldn't say. Perhaps because the damage was already done to the Royal Carnage name? Perhaps because so many of the original posters had already been driven off by the racist posts? Again, on this aspect, I can't really offer any insight.
