Do we ACTUALLY know WHY Ayu does what she does??
 

Um... Since I joined this forum back, um I noticed so much negative opinions on Ayu's releases. That I'm kinda getting an odd impression on her fans...I'm making this thread because i'm curious, and i hope everone can just be POLITE and don't start some crap up.

Seeing all the negativity, even tho we are all different and we have a right to have different oppinions and tastes and likes, kinda makes me sad. I'm pretty much sure that someone will tell me I'm just reading too much into things but maybe if we all would we could undertsand them better? and don't just judge the material based on the artists earlier works?

I see people on here saying they want this, or that, I even saw people literally directly tweeting to Ayu what they want and what she should stop doing because WE don't want it...Even I myself sometimes go "Ayu should release something rocky, I'm getting a little tired of the ballads"....But I never really felt like she's doing the wrong thing... I mean isn't being an artist especially someone who partly composes and writes lyrics, comes up with conceptions and all the creative stuff is all about what you felt creating it or what made you do this in THIS way.
Why before saying "we want this not that" fans think/ask what she felt about the music and the way she creates things? The people she’s working with (and why) to give new material and stuff like that?

I think there’s always a reason why artists chose that way instead of an other. And I'm sure it's not just the bussiness stuff and marketing. Maybe she simply feels she need this right now, maybe she feels comfortable with & in lots of trust for people she works with, maybe she's not in the mood for experimenting. I bet she's doing her best in whatever she tries to do. Some of fans need to be more tolerant towards her, let her live her human being and creative lives, after all, she's not a robot.
We all know that Ayu has gone through so much emotional things these couple of years especially this year. Maybe that's why she might be / was full of lyrical feelings which led her to chose sooooooo many ballads instead of cheerful up-beat songs.

On the other hand have you ever questioned yourself why you don't like it, and why there are so many things you don't like about her or her music now.
I mean If you don’t like it here will always be someone who will get into your place with “I like it”. If you don’t like it you always have an option to chose an other artist from thousands existing on this planet, maybe just take a break? If you don’t like it, maybe you changed and need new paths in music. Finally, maybe the artist had changed and you are no longer capable to understand them?And if you don’t understand them, it doesn’t mean they lost their talent, it just means they or maybe you grew into something new and at this point u have a choice - keep following their path or wish them good luck and moove on.

(the post might change slightly cuz I'm worried some people will be like "I didn't understand a thing" xD )

Well... I'm a BIG fan of her so I like 3/4 of her songs. I love her truly and never question why she do what she do because I have a great respect for Ayu and her music. Therefore, I don't have any negativity about her music. I believe that a true artist is those who express their feelings and thoughts; I bet at the moment when she was writing that specific song, Ayu is being honest.

If I dislike a song from Ayu, I simply won't download it onto my iPod. I don't go around and bad mouth how horrible that song is (I have better thing to do). Those who always criticized and always expect more from Ayu... is impossible. Because first of all, you can't expect others to do things that you want.

Similar to Ayu's wedding news, some people had the most ridiculous theories and opinions about her getting married to her husband. Yes, it's true that they only know each other for a short amount of time. So what? Love happens when you least expect it. Why can't we just be happy for her?

I'm sorry if I offend anyone but that's my opinion.

Only thing I can say to this subject is that I love the song even more when I hear her reason for doing it so.

My only reason when I dont like her song is when its too hard to listen, like Humming 7/4 for example. but thats like, one song in her discography.

I think Ayu summed up the reasons herself. To quote her:

"Music is my life. If without music it's like...I die; I'm nothing!"

Yes I agree with you.
Some people keep arguing about Ayu's recent release. They said something like it's very bad, or awful, or even calling them - crap. Producing a song is not an easy matter. Whatever Ayu had done, we should keep respect them... Liking/disliking is a common matter but at least please do cherish her works!

Thank you! This is what I wanted to say! :yes

People who keep going on and on about how terrible Ayu's new releases are, should keep in mind that Ayu does NOTHING without a reason (be it album titles or lyrics...there is always a bigger meaning behind them!!).
She also has the guts to try out new things!

Ayu really puts all her effort into what she loves to do - making music and performing on stage so that she can be close to us - her fans!

The problem is not what Ayu does.

The problem is that people don't know how to communicate and don't know what's appropriate.

This is a forum. We discuss things here. And opinions top that list.

The problem is that people don't know how to express their opinions well enough that they don't offend other people, or that their tone is not seen as aggressive.

I don't think negativity is bad at all. Personally, I welcome it.

But it's not what you say, it's how you say it.

AHS is a wonderful practicing ground for how to deal with all sorts of people, cause let me tell you, once you're out in the real world, it'll be just like here...x1000.

This is a really fantastic thread. I am also sick of people´s critism to every new release Ayu does recently. Of course her music and the songs are different to what they were a couple of years ago, because she evolves, like every one of us do. We all change frequently, get new jobs, listen to new artists, change our clothing style, change our taste in food, get a new pet, play new online games, get new friends, get a new love. Some of things are big change, some of them are only small. So how can we fans take the right to "forbid" Ayu to change, to evolve, to grow. (I know forbid is a hard word, but I really have the feeling some ppl act like that)
I also don ´t like some of her newer songs, but I also don´t like some of her older ones. I am also a bit tiered of all the ballads, but it´s Ayu´s choice. I love Ayu because of her music, but I love her even more for her personality, I dunno, I just like the way she is, how she impresses her feelings, how she is so sweet to her fans, that´s the reason I will always like her, even if my taste in music may someday make me not liking her songs that much anymore.

Except it isn't and that's bad advice.

I don't see how it's bad to tell people that they should learn how to better communicate with each other.

Well... I do believe Ayu latest release always reflect her mood at that period, and that this should be taken in consideration when u try to understand her... Taking the latest albums as reference:

Rock n Roll Circus was her first album directly dealing with some of her darker problems, like her hearing loss, her loss of relevance in the jpop scene, etc. It's just natural that the main focus of that release was the lyrics, and the music chosen to fit them, instead of fitting a higher album concept... Even If it's one of her worst releases to me, I can understand why it was done the way it was, why it's not a cohesive album (something important to me) and how it was important to her at that time.

Love songs was recorded on the time she was dating her now husband... It's an album about losing and finding love, it's so focused on that, the last song and central single is about marriage... No wonder it's a ballad heavy release.

FIVE was created because of all the disasters in Japan last year... It's more mainstream them all of her releases since God knows when, so it could reach more people outside her fanbase, and it's ballad heavy again because, let's face it, that wasn't the moment for upbeat festive stuff... not on the sense of how Ayu try to reach people with her music, or even on the sense of how she was feeling about it.

You don't really need to go into obscure interviews or hardcore discussions to get those stuff, they are all in the lyrics, on her visual material, concerts, etc. I always say this, and I think this is a good thread to say it again: Ayu is not releasing music for anyone over here, she doesn't know us, doesn't know what we like and this is the best thing she can do as an artist... Cuz in the moment her albums and concerts start being planned having in mind to please us, everything will become a reciclied version of her fanfavorites... So, let the girl do what she knows best... Surprise us, for the best or for the worst, releasing what she wants, not what we want.

I like this thread too. Though sometimes knowing the reason why Ayu chose to write a particular song is exciting and helps me to understand her message, she is Ayu and I am me. I can't order her to do as I command because then her music wouldn't be special. It's fun guessing what could come next (more rock Ayu please :D) but I want Ayu to put out music that she is happy with and proud of. I don't love everything she has released (I'm still trying to get into RAINBOW) but if I am going to criticize it, I will try to come up with an acceptable reason as to why I don't like something of hers. My personal taste in music influences what I may like or not like of her new releases and I am certain it will not always be what everyone else thinks. For example, BRILLANTE is nice and epic sounding but I don't have it on repeat. That is the beauty of a forum where people can discuss their opinions and I don't foresee me leaving AHS anytime soon.

I agree with you!

Constructive criticism is nothing bad. We all have different tastes when it comes to music, but the most important thing is how you express your opinion, because there are two ways:

1. Oh, I totally hate this song!1!!! -.-''

or

2. I don't like this song, because I think...(give the reasons why you don't like it and what you think would sound better!).

^or just "I don't like this song"... people don't really need a strong reason to dislike stuff.

Not saying you didn't say this was the case, but the same should apply to positive comments too then. Just saying "I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH IT'S HER BEST SINCE BRILLANTE" contributes just as little as "Wow, this new album is total **** and needs to diaf."

AHS is absolutely nothing like the real world though. Even the way people interact with each other on here is completely different. It's the internet, and people take it far more seriously than they should. I'm not saying people should just be *******s to each other on here, the opposite actually, but the internet and the real world are hardly the same and people need to learn to better distinguish the two.

^Internet is part of the real world... People that u find over here aren't pre-programed NPC's from some bizarre digital game, but real people, with toughts, desires and feelings. People like to act this or that way over here and create a online character? Good, everybody does it daily on the "real world" too... This "internet shouldn't be taken so seriously" ******** is what makes comments on websites and forums so unnecessarily agressive nowadays.

I totally agree with Emiko, being on AHS, a huge online forum with people from everywhere in the world discussing stuff all the time is a amazing experience of tolerance and verbally voicing your opinion...

^ Ummm, complete misinterpretation of my comments. The obvious rhetorical question is a tad pretentious; of course we're all real people. What I'm saying is that even though you were saying it sarcastically, a lot of people on the internet actually do act as if they've created a persona for it. This doesn't really apply to places like Facebook, but for message boards, most definitely. Certainly not everyone is this way, but people online (specifically message board users, people on last.fm, etc.) act completely different from how they'd ever even dream of acting in front of other people, face to face, or in the "real world" as I would actually call it. In that aspect, I absolutely think that the internet and the real world are two separate things, but only for people who chose for it to be that way. Oftentimes that's the case though.

That's why I don't think people should take the internet seriously. If you do, you're bound to get offended by people who see no boundaries as far as expressing their opinion, as extreme as it may be. Hell, just go and look at the comments on the majority of popular Youtube videos and you'll see quite a few disgusting comments that probably 85% of the people writing them wouldn't say to anyone else in real life. I could go on, but I'd hope that you got the point by now.

v To avoid making another post about this and going more off-topic: it looks like we agree then. Guess we just have different ways of thinking about it. Whatever, not important :P

^I think u missed my point... People DO create characters online, but they do offline too... Still, if everyone thinks internet shouldn't be taken seriously, and that everything can be voiced and done online without any major consequence, things won't get much better.

Also, we meet *******s on our real lifes too, so, it's not like meeting some online isn't a good experience to take for life anyway... and... I think we are going too off topic xD We can discuss it on PM if u like. =)

Uhm yeah.

There is a difference between disliking and claiming one opinion (in this case a dislike or a 'hate') is right. That's why there is so much fighting going on at AHS. It's nonsense that we have to tolerate the things Ayu does. She has chosen to express herself in things you barely can overlook it. It's also nonsense that we should tolerate a song because 'there is a special or deep meaning in it.'
It is just simple; if you don't like what you see or hear, then you just don't like that. There is nothing wrong in the way Ayu express herself, but there is also nothing wrong to see those expressions as something "wrong." Maybe that time could change the mind.

But hey, who am I to say that? Also I think this way sometimes. So do you.What now? Makes that us b*ches?

I would absolutely love to see more in-depth comments about her material written from a positive aspect. :D I think a lot of people (including myself) don't do that much anymore because the atmosphere here is, frankly, really negatve and taken over by people who don't even consider themselves as fans anymore.

Tbh though I feel on a fan forum the negativity-positivity share shouldn't be 50-50. I was really dissappointed when, not that long ago, there were 2 similar threads of something along the lines of "What you hate the most about Ayu" and "What you love about Ayu" and the former had like 20 pages of commets while the latter had less than 10. It's sad. I'd love it if there was a completely new forum for her and the still-fans would mass migrate there and it would also be a lot more newbie-friendly, and those sick up to death of her could safely come to all the other areas still here lol.

I just realized this is probably really off-topic huh... To put it more topic-fittingly I think the general reception to her stuff here comes across a lot more negative than what the reaction of her fanbase as a whole is because of the reasons I stated. Who knows, I could just be lying to myself but it honestly seems a lot of people who are long-time members even sometimes develop some kind of hate towards her after the general negativity here rubs off on them and because of the stupid fan-made juxtapositions between artists. Meh, I love me some Ayu anyway, and I don't ned her to be what suits my moods anymore because I've realized I respect her past, and therefore current, artistry enough to not dwell on the parts of it I don't care for.

I wouldn't take that so literal... People just tend to speak more about what they dislike than what they like... We use to say on marketing that when somebody is happy with your product, they will tell how good the product is to 3 people, when they dislike it, they will tell it to 10.

^That's true, it says something that even most of my own long posts are frustrated rants about negativity or something of the like. :laugh I wish people weren't like that, here and anywhere, there's so much negative stuff everywhere without even looking for it so people should share and enjoy the good stuff more and it would be nice to do so without it always being degraded by the negative. :tipsy Well.

^This can be applied to anything, the world, people. But seeing how this is an Ayu forum, we concentrate on Ayu.

Sometimes I get frustrated when I don't like a song, because I feel Ayu can do better, but unless it's a misconception about her, she is doing her best, so I might just be expecting too much. I wish she'd compose, and I feel that she could, but this could be, again, the mindset of someone who thinks she has more talent than she actually does. At any rate, I don't need to have a specific reason to dislike something, it's usually either not to my taste, or the song is awful in my opinion.

Interesting thread!

I also agree that it's not what you say but it's how you deliver your point of view.
Although we have the right to say what we want to say, even if it's negative and can hurt others' feelings, we have to be sensitive and responsible enough in a sense that others will see your point that won't make you look like you're being *****. But misunderstanding arouses because every person differs from the other and it's how they comprehend what you mean to say especially if they just read the comments. That's why intonation in verbal communication is needed. Did I make sense? hahaha. Oh well. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. Whew, that's harder than I thought.:thud

Even I, myself, had disliked some Ayu's songs and even live performance and photo shoots that I wished she never did. On the other hand, I'm glad that she did those things to show herself and her creativity limitations. For me, that makes Ayu imperfectly perfect artist. Nobody in this world can always be the best.

Fans expect too much from Ayu which I think makes her pressured. (haha. I just assume that. Sorry!) Remember, we (fans) don't own them, they (artists) own us.

@Not~Yet: No, I agree with you.

I don't participate much in discussions anymore, because I really don't feel like dealing with rude comments. I can remember there was a time when I would agree with people on this and other forums a lot, but I guess I've just grown tired of it.

I LOVE Ayu! I love her music, I love her personlitay and the way she deals with things. And I don't think I've to defend myself against people with other opinions!

It's totally okay, when people don't like what she does, but some of them are really rude when it comes to voicing their opinions and I've better things to do than teaching them some manners.


Totally off-topic, but your set is GORGEOUS! :smitten

nobody owns anyone.

How dare Ayu fans have expectations and voice them?! Its not like Ayumi herself set those standards! I understand disagreeing with comments like "Ayu sucks $$$ cause RnR circus is no Rainbow" but i find it laughable that expressing a dislike means that maybe the individual themselves is at fault and it couldn't possibly be Ayu releasing No way to say clone #45, blowing up her lips to the size of balloons etc

Talk Asia xD

I loved her Engrish in that interview :D

^ Yes! Best interview of anyone I've ever seen, ever.

This post has made me love you.

^Well, about her moving to Tokyo... she most likelly moved there to be an "idol", what she actually was for some time... and idols tend to be multimidia personas... they sing, act and model... So, either one of this activities she succeded the most, she would do something on the other 2 as well..

For a lot of people, I don't think knowing exactly why Ayu does what she does would change anything about the way that they feel about her work.

IMO, people are going to feel the way they do and rarely do they ever change their mind. However, I think that issues tend to come up when there's negativity about a release or two (or three... or four... or five... you get my point?) and all that you see someone talking about is how much they hated something that was released years ago and it's just a bit much. Like, we know you dislike it and wish it was never released but there's no need to talk about it so long after the fact.

I don't really know when it was that AHS became a breeding ground for anti-Ayu sentiments but it's really weird going to other forums and seeing people love their artists with very few complaints if any at all. And then you come to this forum and you see people essentially bashing her when critiquing a release and normally it's because "it's not what they expected from her" or because they want the old Ayu back for some reason.

About positive comments not being elaborated on, I think with a lot of Ayu tracks, they just click with people. It's hard to explain just why the song is so good while it's can be much easier to go on about why you dislike it. (Her voice is bad, lyrics are repetitive, melody is terrible, etc.) I feel that most of the time people who are satisfied with Ayu don't really need to go around talking about it as the ones who are dissatisfied do which creates a bit of a strange environment where it appears that an overwhelming majority dislikes her, when it's really because those who dislike what she's doing are waaaaaaaaaay more vocal.

leeaaave ayu aloooone!!!!

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...is-crocker.jpg

I like her rockish stuff the most, because thats what i enjoy, her pop stuff I enjoy as wel though
I think she performs because she wants to sing really, at the end of the day thats why all singers perform, its the same with guitarists, artists, directors etc they do what they do because they want to theres nothing wrong with that (just as long as they can)

I dont understand why you get people who are like "I ******** HATE AYU NOW BECAUSE OF HER NEW ALBUM" thats just being silly, just because one album was different from the others does not mean that it is a reason to hate her, and it's childish. If they dont like it then there is an eject button on a cdplay/pause button on an ipod etc, and I do think that there are other fans on ebay who would quite happily buy the album from them.

Yeah ayu has changed, big deal its not the end of the world, I like the fact she has a variety of styles, it shows willingness to try out new things, and who wants to keep using the same style all the time anyways? No one wants to here the same thing for an entire album, I would lose the will too live.

And about the negative comments, I thought this was a fan forum not a freaking hate club!!! and even if its about her voice, can they please show me a singer who hits EVERYSINGLE note precisely? cos I have yet to find one, its like writers/artists block, you get your moments, sometimes people need to stop being so picky, (seen many people on youtube for example)

THISSSSS

(this is also a reply to koumori) Well, according to an interview back in the 90s (the one with Shikano) she moved to tokyo because she liked it, after visiting it a multitude of times on modeling trips (that she did to support her family financially). She started doing music with Columbia because her modeling agency fired her for being too short and transferred her to music. And then she was dropped for failing to chart and did the other thing left - acting. :laugh

anyway, back on topic, as her fans of course we have the rights to our opinions about her works (I would argue about her personal life, however, so long as she is being safe). But I think what's going on in AHS in particular is that a lot of people have been here forver and like hanging out here, but they're not really fans of Ayu anymore or just not much into her works now. But they still try her stuff out and it's just not clicking with them. I still love ayu but it's easier for me to like her newer stuff too when I dissociate it from her older stuff. Then again while I like a lot of her older stuff more than I used to, there's a lot of classics i used to love that i'm meh about now. It comes and goes.

I was just joking!;)

Nice topic. :) I didn't read anyone else's posts yet either so they won't mix up my own thoughts on the matter. :)

To me if this was mentioned somewhere between 2008-2009 I would say that yes, she is quite boring these days but that's not how I feel these days. Even if some songs on her recent releases may annoy me (BRILLANTE for example), I may later realize that they're actually quite good. There're even some of her older songs (July 1st and A Song is born) that I've suddenly fallen in love with. :D

I also believe that the main reason for all that negative feedback is because people tend to have huge expectations since this is Ayumi Hamasaki we are talking about. I mean, she used to have those really creative and mind blowing songs before (not that there's no gems here and there these days too, of course) like M, ourselves, evolution, Endless sorrow and so on. People tend to think that she's going to release something like that again and then get disappointed when the songs has more simple composition (like meaning of Love and Days for example) than what she used to have. Personally I used to have really huge expectations because GUILTY was such a kick ass album. I thought NL would be the same but it wasn't. I do enjoy listening to some songs on NL though but it's still not on the masterpiece level in my eyes only because I haven't gotten very familiar with it. There are some really awesome songs there though that should've been singles imo (LOVE 'n' HATE for example).

But one thing is sure, she does release a bit too many ballads. When Love songs was to be released, I understood those releases very well. I loved it when released her singles like during 2005 for example. I love that kind of variety in her singles that I wish would be back but I've also already gotten used to her releasing many ballads lately. Maybe it's just some kind of a adulthood thing then, I don't know. :D I've noticed that since her 10th anniversary she's been releasing less rock singles and more medium pop/ballad double a-sides than she previously did (like in 2007 when there was glitter/fated, talkin' 2 myself and Together When...) but imo Ayu can do whatever she wants and will release songs that she personally wants (I assume she decides what she'll release and when, right?). I will listen to her new songs and if I don't like it, I don't and I'll say it aloud, and wait for the next one because I know she'll have at least some cool remixes at times on her ballad singles anyway (like that Microphone remix on MOON/blossom, omg <3). :) And if she's seriously going to work with Tetsuya Komuro on her next album then I'll probably love her music since I love TK's music so much~

And when it comes to AHS, I like to read previews. I'm always curious about what everyone says about Ayu's releases, even if they're negative or positive. But I'll be honest with you that sometimes I do think that does her older fans even like anything she does anymore. When I first came here, I think there wasn't so many negative previews anywhere but in the last 2 years there has been quite a lot which makes me really wonder what's going on here at times. :/ And sometimes I wonder what's the hate for some certain things Ayu does because personally I think it's none of our business anyway. o.O

I know that someone's going to come and tell me I've complained many times myself. Yes, I have. I won't say I haven't because it's true. But as I said before, I have no expectations on her music (it's cruel, I know but it helps me to love her :)). I'm very curious though every time I hear there's something coming but I try my best not to get too excited. Then, when I listen, I just look for the most amazing songs from her recent releases and concentrate on those (and yes, there has been quite many so my fandom hasn't really died yey). Then, maybe much much later, I concentrate on my least favorite songs. :D

Oh wait, who has been a idiot and gone to tell Ayu she should stop doing something she likes? o.o That's so rude. Even if people are dissatisfied with her stuff these days they shouldn't go tell her that she should stop doing it. :/

And I think I'll just stop now. If you didn't understand me or didn't get my point, I'm sorry for that. I'm not a native speaker of English so I may have not been able to say something like I say it in Finnish. -___- And I'm tired as hell too. And Ayu trance 2 kicks ass. :heart

//Why do I feel like this post is totally crap and doesn't even fit the topic itself? 8D

I dont understand, why the THISSSSS?

ahhh thank you ^_^

I think the way people are coming across as rude and negative is not uncommon in fandoms, but seems to be a whole lot stronger from Ayu's fans. Maybe it's because most Ayu fans on here became fans when they were teens, 13-15 something perhaps, and along with them changing as they are now older, Ayu changed a whole lot as well, as did her musical direction. She likes changing directions, trying anything and everything. Her fans are also very different it seems. Some wants something familiar, others want her to go ****ing bananas and do post-punk, some just treats her like their daughter which they've been dissapointed with for years: She just can't do anything right, unless she were to release another "I am..."

I'm often confused too about what fans really want for her (or rather; from her).

I've been both positive and negative about some of her choices these past years, because she can of course do whatever she chooses and I wouldn't want it any other way. That doesn't mean that I like it. Those are opinions. Constant negativity however, just seems to me like that person fell out of love with her music, but still clings on to her for the sake of nostalgia and love for her older works, refusing to let go.

Something that bothers me just as much is the super obsessed fans who will actually attack others for being critical. If people form their opinion politely and with valid points, don't attack them. "Getting tired of criticism" is no excuse either. Sometimes people who never disliked anything before suddenly will say: "Wow, I don't really like this at all." And people will be all over him/her.

The whole "Interwebz VS da real life", meh. It's more a question of how well people "know" each other, I think. At least it's partially that. The more people talk/text/message each other, the bolder we get. Internet or real life, it doesn't matter. And then it really starts showing who are kinda just full of crap and who are awesome.

Even if she did that, people would just moan still because it's Ayu doing the same thing. She can't win :(

I would just cry myself silly out of happiness (well...sadness) if she ever made another album that made me feel that way lol

I think I've said this before: nostalgia factor. With her old albums (from before you follow her), you go through and ignore all the stuff you dislike. You don't have to wait for the M/evolution/SURREAL/HANABI/moments/ayu-was-so-much-better-then-song while she released style-you-dislike.

When you follow, you have to wait for that golden song, that ONE song that makes you feel like that other ONE song. And it feels so much longer because well... it's not been made yet and isn't waiting after those 3 songs you like to skip.

I know ayu does what she does to get her emotions out, but it's also to please the fans so when you see a lot of fans aren't pleased it is kind of sad. Yeah it'd be great if we all could enjoy her music together all the time but it just won't happen in any fandom. But with this fandom specifically I get tired of reading "this is the best song ever" or "this is the worst release ever". It's always those two opposites and not a lot of detail. I just prefer to read detailed posts to understand how people came to the conclusion a song "sucks" or a song doesn't. It's why I don't read so much of this forum anymore. It's kind of like reading youtube comments.