Poor Harmony Central forums!

The fact that they "temporarily" killed the review forums probably stopped a lot of the site traffic. It amazes me how much "improvement" can screw up a site. I used to visit HC all the time before the previous revamp. The front page had an easily viewable list of new product announcements and updates and the reviews section was accessible and easy enough to navigate. With the previous new site, the whole visual aesthetic got on my nerves and I used it much less. Now, we'll see. When the reviews come back, maybe it'll be useful, maybe not.
 
I think they really did it this time. I used to think 2.0 was bad but now? LOL!

Look at the graph of the sites web traffic.

It is down to almost nothing.


harmonycentral.com | BoardReader Links

I have been over there and I must say that the new forum is very painful to look at for these eyes. As Jackson Browne sang...."doctor my EYES!"

You can see the new site here. (If you can bear to look at it.)

Electric Guitars - Harmony Central



It is sad. I always felt, that they had something against Fractal, that always left a bad taste in my mouth. I used to be on there everyday about 5 yrs ago. They need to sell it back to the guys who originally started it up. They used to be great at user reviews. I went there yesterday for the first time, thinking that they would have some Namm info, couldn't really find any. Of course I didn't look that hard either.
 
The fact that they "temporarily" killed the review forums probably stopped a lot of the site traffic. It amazes me how much "improvement" can screw up a site. I used to visit HC all the time before the previous revamp. The front page had an easily viewable list of new product announcements and updates and the reviews section was accessible and easy enough to navigate. With the previous new site, the whole visual aesthetic got on my nerves and I used it much less. Now, we'll see. When the reviews come back, maybe it'll be useful, maybe not.

Same here. I used to visit their review section all the time before the original revamp. The site was so messy and confusing after that, I just quite visiting.

The forums aside, their new layout looks to be a potential major improvement over the old one, IMO. Here's hoping that when they do get the reviews up, they'll be more easily navigated than they were previously.
 
Speaking of gear sites' former glory days: I can't get over the fact of how poor Huge Racks Inc is today. 3-4 years ago they were the biggest haven for rack/pro guys. I think most guys abandoned the site and migrated to The Gear Page and FAS of course. On average there's like 10 post a day today on HRI. It used to be like 100-150 a day 3-4 years ago, as far as I recall. They too did a design upgrade a few years ago. I remember clearly that it was then I stopped frequenting the forum... :S

MySpace is dead too and here's hoping Facebook will follow the same destiny in the few years to come... :)
 
Yeah - that site became ridiculous! I guess that's what happens when Guitar Center is behind you!
 
here's hoping Facebook will follow the same destiny in the few years to come... :)

Some say that FB has caused the demise of many forums...




Shame about Harmony Central - I've never been a member, but do recall reading lots of stuff on there and getting tabs etc in the early days of being a music based internet user
 
Some say that FB has caused the demise of many forums...

Which is a shame because I find Facebook to be completely ADD inducing. It's fine for the social bit, but for band and informational sites, it sucks. It also seems like high school revisited (like me, friend me). I don't know what the alternatives are, but just as sure as continuous improvements we can't even imagine the the Axe Fx, they're coming.
 
Speaking of gear sites' former glory days: I can't get over the fact of how poor Huge Racks Inc is today. 3-4 years ago they were the biggest haven for rack/pro guys. I think most guys abandoned the site and migrated to The Gear Page and FAS of course. On average there's like 10 post a day today on HRI. It used to be like 100-150 a day 3-4 years ago, as far as I recall. They too did a design upgrade a few years ago. I remember clearly that it was then I stopped frequenting the forum... :S

MySpace is dead too and here's hoping Facebook will follow the same destiny in the few years to come... :)

I think the Huge Racks site is doing just fine. There might be a few less people on a daily basis, but that's a good thing. HRI was at its best before it peaked in popularity, when the user base was a tight community of bright people, it's getting back to that again as the daily users goes down. Having more people on a forum isn't always better. HRI is run by good peeps and there are a lot of very knowledgable users on there even if they don't post as much as they used to. You just have to know which people to look for when you have a question.
 
I was there briefly years ago posted some reviews on some pedals and then was reviewed by reviewers in a way that wasn't called for. The more I read around the more I saw immaturity and constant flaming, after that I never went back, I figured it was a kiddy site.
 
i hardly visit harmony central anymore for serious stuff.
if i want a good laugh i'll pop by the amp forum.
but i do recall the days when i will religiously read through every single review of a piece of gear i was keen on getting..
with the proliferation of gear video reviews (professional or otherwise) on the net, the hc reviews seem to have lost relevancy.
 
+1 on ditching Harmony Central after the face lift. They absolutely ruined the site. The last few time I used it, it was a nightmare finding what I was after and the few reviews I found were far from what I would call useful.
and oh yeah.......Facebook makes my stomach lurch. Wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
 
I think the Huge Racks site is doing just fine. There might be a few less people on a daily basis, but that's a good thing. HRI was at its best before it peaked in popularity, when the user base was a tight community of bright people, it's getting back to that again as the daily users goes down. Having more people on a forum isn't always better. HRI is run by good peeps and there are a lot of very knowledgable users on there even if they don't post as much as they used to. You just have to know which people to look for when you have a question.

I used to live on HRI. I kinda burned out on gear in general after doing a couple of big rigs and stopped hanging out there. I've been back recently, and I was digging on Marsa's Burning Water rig blog. One thing that defines HRI for me is the Landau-centricity. I'll forever be grateful for my intro to Mike via hanging out there way back in the day. "Where Bob means more than just, Bob!" Just tried to visit and they've exceeded their bandwidth, LOL!
 
Not music related, but there is a site called Wikitravel which was a Wikipedia for travel destinations. It had been around a few years when a company called Internet Brands bought it, plastered ads over the whole thing, and then threatened to sue its volunteer editors when they complained about all the ads on other forums.

So the entire body of volunteers asked the Wikipedia people if they could move there (which they did) - it is now called "wikivoyage". Internet Brands is now trying to sue Wikipedia for "stealing their volunteers" and is suing the volunteers who proposed the move.

Meanwhile the original site has become spam hell. Welcome to the Internet.

Wikitravel Drama: Wikimedia and Internet Brands let the lawsuits fly | Tnooz
 
It is sad. I always felt, that they had something against Fractal, that always left a bad taste in my mouth. I used to be on there everyday about 5 yrs ago. They need to sell it back to the guys who originally started it up. They used to be great at user reviews. I went there yesterday for the first time, thinking that they would have some Namm info, couldn't really find any. Of course I didn't look that hard either.

I was in Harmony Central was a while for a while a few years ago..
I didn't like it there much..
too many that are too narrow minded
too many that are "right all the time" / "my way or no way" / "I'm right you are wrong"
and it seemed too volatile at times.. flaming wars etc...

I got tired of it pretty quick...

funny... many of the guys in there with the "loudest knowledge" and most absolute opinions couldn't actually play for sht and had never graced a stage [in a serious way]...
way too much much "received wisdom", way to little "real experience"
EDIT: very little experience is perfectly fine..
having such little real experience but having such loud and authoritative opinions though is just plain silly [made me cringe at times]

and.... it's no wonder FAS is not liked there, because many of the same types of people with their narrow minds, received wisdom, beards and sandals think that if it ain't got a valve in it, it ain't ever gonna be a worth while piece of kit...
this means that the AXE is inherently evil and clearly the work of Stan [spelling?]
 
Pretty sad for sure. It used to be the greatest place for reviews and they killed it. I go from time to time but it seems that every forum sub-categories has just gone to 90% off topic discussions. Really off topic.
 
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