just before i was demoted, dr bunsen asked me why it seemed like i didnt relate to teh site any more. this is what i said:

hi bunsen its not that i dont relate to teh site anymore, i just feel frustrated, as im not sure what the point is any more. intially we were talking about raves, and i came on here to chat to people in teh scene. then the police got wise and no-one wanted to talkabout that. fair enough, so we went on to informing people about teh scene in a detatched way which didnt neccessarily implicate us in actual illegal activity. i still see that as the main point of partyvibe, to basically be a “rough guide” to raves with some banter thrown in.

ive got nothing against banter, but when people who have no idea about raves at all come on here just to try and pull (do you remember “devang” teh indian dude?) i explain what we are about and send em off in teh direction of faceparty or myspak, or one of teh trillions of generic forums out there. my problem with partyvibe is i feel it has become so distanced from teh real rave scene it is almost pointless. teh real ravers arent gonna come on here to find out anythig, cos its so square and moderated (some of teh stuff ive seen flagged as innappropriate is ludicrous, liek bored security guards throwing their weight around- its not the end of teh world if someoen is a bit offended, and i dont think its our job as mods to stop that unless its properly harsh, which is nearly never is).

its a dilluted version of itself, and while im racking my brains to work out why i cant just redress teh balance a bit, i know that really its our freedom of speech that has been erroded so severly in the last 5 years and the crackdowns on parties which have meant that the dynamism of early partyvibe has been replaced by uslot, who lets face it arent putting on teh most raves, mainly sitting about with the kids reading tomas teh tank, preaching to teh new wave of ravers coming up, who just see partyvibe as full of moaning oldies, and you can see their point!

not only that but this use of teh staffroom to discuss teh darker side of partying (and then not even disclose it on the main board, like the no-mods couldnt take the news) is just elitist and condescending and counter productive. unless we truly represent freepartys as a whole movement, warts and all, we will obselete. im sure theres a few other points, but thats a good startign point. i think i’ll put it up for discussion in the staff room.