I've been a fan since 1982. I had a favorite used record shop that carried bootlegs like the Uncirculated set, and I would go to rock shows and buy other paraphanalia, but for the most part I was the only FM fan I knew. In fact, to the great annoyance of my friends, I was the only one I knew who was into ANY band the way I was into FM!
Being a bit of a techno-phobe, it took me a while to get a computer ('96 I think) and even longer to get online ('98, maybe). Not sure when I had the bright idea to do a search on FM...
I found a bunch of other sites first, some wich are now gone, and started downloading bootlegs. Then I took the gutsy step of joining another message board. But it was very cliquey, I would respond and invariably be ignored, so I backed off.
But as you all well know, on the other board they often reference "THE LEDGE", so I had to check it out. And now this is where I post primarily.
There's a lot of different people here and a lot of different perspectives. Like Johnny said there are posters here that floor me not only with thier FM knowledge, but their musical knowledge in general (yes, David, ChiliD...). Also there are those on this board who offer really cool industry insight as well (John Run, hayley...). In my opinion, this is the most
informative board out there.
But, yeah, then there's the people. I found myself coming here for comfort after the election, because I knew there would be people talking about it. I was genuinely disappointed when I couldn't get on.
You guys are often endlessly entertaining. Like when tommer simply posted a chicken picture after Strand said he wouldn't argue with him! How ingenious and completly effective!
I think the people here as a group are more intelligent and eloquent than those on the other boards, generally speaking. I enjoy that level of conversation. I don't mind weird. Stupid bothers me way more than wierd!
The board is called THE LEDGE, and it always conjures this image for me of people sitting along a high Grand Canyon-type cliff. You're sitting there swinging your feet as they dangle over the edge, then someone else walks up and sits down and talks as someone else pulls their feet under them and stands up to leave. So maybe it's just the name.
