The Hornet Archive - R.I.P.

Written by Makke

I returned from a trip to Stockholm the 26th of September, and found myself in front of the computer about 20 minutes after returning home (I probably would have been there a lot faster, but I had to use the little boys room first ;).

Anyway, I was just connecting to the Internet when it struck me: 'Damn! I have to check what's new at Hornet. Is it over yet?' So I instantly took my browser to Hornet, and yes. It was finally done. Hornet was put to rest.

I know people will write and have written miles of lines of text about Hornet closing down, but I'm about to write my opinion on this.

It is not without a wet eye I read the final words in Snowmans official 'closing words', and I guess I don't really get it until I read: "That's a wrap!"

Shit, Hornet is gone, and a bit of the scene with it.

It was thanks to Hornet my scene career got some wind in the sails, and I made a few contacts.

But in my opinion Hornet got too large in the beginning of 1998. Too many really stinking productions got uploaded and I felt a sting in my nerves. Hornet had always meant quality to me, and now it was flooded with crap. My point is that people uploaded things that couldn't even be called productions!

What I have downloaded most from Hornet is music, which is not strange as I am a tracker, and I've seen the over all quality go straight down the drain.

How good is track that gets rated ONE lonely star, or even HALF a star? Is that track worth saving in an archive?

Sometimes I had to ask myself if the tracker had been joking when tracking the song!

'How can anybody call this music!' I would ask my computer screen, and when you've downloaded five or six songs in a row that are total crap, you lose the will to check out new trackers and their work.

But how is one going to be able to sort out the bad productions from the good ones, and decide which to keep and which to delete? That's not easy, especially with a place like Hornet. What I would like to say is that: When Hornet started to get so many uploads per day that the Hornet organizers didn't stand a chance to listen to all the songs before putting them online, that's when it went too far.

At least my opinion is that the music section on Hornet went totally out of line. There were so many uploads! Many were great, most of them good but too many were crap. And when they got too many uploads the trackers behind the work got anonymous. They didn't get discovered by anyone, just totally ignored, a name on a list, a fart in space! And I don't think that was the intention of the Hornet organizers.

One more thing that makes me angry is the ungratefulness of many people. I don't think people understand how much time it must take to organize a thing like that. And how damn lucky one should feel to have some place where you can upload you stuff without any demands asked!

Shame on the fucking scene for being ungrateful! Many comments I've heard about this only concern one thing: Server space. So many people have just said: 'Oh no! Where the hell will me and my group store our stuff?!'

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! No one is willing to do anything or ask someone if they may store their stuff on their FTP/WEB SERVER. They just want people to throw server space at them and say: 'Here you go. Upload your files here please.' No one is willing to work! They just seem to think that someone else will do the work for them. Well, wake up and smell the morning breeze! Your mom is no longer here to server you breakfast! What are you going to do? Sit and fucking STARVE?!

I just want to say that you won't always be served your food on silverplates. You won't always be served food. Sometime it is time to ask yourself what you can do, for your self and others. Not only what others can - and DO for you.

But, as Tonic said so nicely when we discussed it: 'Let's not see it as an end - let's see it as the beginning of something new!'

A great respect to everyone who feels that they deserve it and a great kick in the ass to the ones who think that someone else will do the work for them. Well, they might do all the work for you, but then you should give them something back.

- Makke / Comic Pirates / Hugi