'Scene Spirit -
Where has it gone?'
Hi Adok,
I've just read "Scene Spirit - Where has it Gone?" from HUGI#28 (a bit late of me perhaps, but better late then never) and I can't but write a mail about it.
First of all, it was made clear that there's way too little feedback given (both on demos, diskmags and, I assume, basically all scene productions). This is to my knowledge painfully true, and I know that I write little to no feedback. Do I have any excuse for this? Not really. True is that if I wrote feedback on every scene production I heard (like when listening to nectarine), I would be writing feedback almost all the time, and that doesn't really work out. But when it comes down to demos or diskmags, it wouldn't be a trouble to write feedback, because I don't watch/read that many of those. So why don't I give feedback? Could it be that I'm used to the way it is in the world I live, that if something is good, I assume that if I say nothing, they will assume that it's good? But what if something is bad? Then maybe the matter is that I don't think it deserves feedback, or maybe I can't come up with anything constructive to say. These are really bad excuses, and none of them are fully true. The truth is also that I'm lazy and have a lot of other things to do. One thing though, I would never, ever flatly complain about something that is offered to me free. Not even if I wasn't too lazy to write. I have no right to do that. People doing this is one of the worst things I know about. But enough about that.
What I actually thought was: well, I've never given any feedback about Hugi, because you if anyone should know that it rules ;) But because of that article, I'm going to actually say it.
Hugi rules. I've read every issue since I've first heard about it, and some of the ones before that. And I've never thought, "man, this mag has too few articles." In fact, issue 28 had a lot of stuff to read, enough for two smaller issues. I almost think that I would like smaller issues more often, but that's just me. A couple of times I've thought about writing articles for Hugi, but nothing ever happened, because I don't really know what to write about. But at least I want you to know that I, and probably thousands of other people (who simply assume that you know it already), really appreciate Hugi. You've are doing a great job.
Now I will continue to rant about stuff in this article. It will mostly sound as I'm making up excuses for being lazy, and maybe it is, but it's all true. It's also kind of a defence speech for me and everyone else who is like me.
I kind of agree that a pure consumer isn't a scener, but that's also what I in some ways doesn't like, because of late, I've not done much for the scene. I'm not very active right know, haven't ever really been really active. I've released two demos, the last one about three years ago. Both were released at local demo parties, the first one I got a coke for (it place 2nd, there were three entries, as far as I know, both of the others were written during that party). The second one, I don't know how it placed, because the results weren't announced. Other than that, I've written a couple of articles for a now dead Swedish scene site (planetzeus.net). As of late, I've only encoded and uploaded a few songs to nectarine, and worked very little on a demo. So, in the end, I'm more or less a pure consumer. At least right know, or just before I started writing this. But I call myself a scener. And I want to continue to do that. So, why don't I simply produce something then? Mostly lack of enthusiasm probably. There are some really great productions available in the scene, and some incredible groups. Really really good stuff. Stuff you know that you never ever is going to beat, or even come close to. That removes some enthusiasm. Then you also know that if you actually made something, then probably you would only get complaints, if anything at all. That kills enthusiasm. And lo! the circle is complete. This is a problem in other areas as well, but with a scene production, the only audience you have is the scene. If you make something else, you have something that you can share with other people as well. Getting feedback from people you know isn't that unusual, and I know many many more people who aren't sceners then I know people who are.
I love to create things. That's one of the reasons I like computers so much, they make it possible to create lots of stuff. It's also the reason why I can't but write this mail. Being called (or being a) pure consumer isn't anything that I like. In fact I'm pretty much not a pure consumer regarding many things. But I guess that's what I am in the scene right now. I like scene productions, but I create other productions. Does that make me bad, or a leech or something? If so, then so it will continue to be. Because there is no way I can stay away from all scene productions. And I want to continue to call myself a scener, hoping that some day I will create another scene production. But it probably won't happen today, because I'm lazy, got no enthusiasm and have a lot other things to do.
But at least I gave some kind of feedback today. I guess it's a step in the right direction.
P.S. Don't forget, Hugi is great. So was that article.