glory

Need not be direction for the entire activity. Just direction in general.

Thanks for playing. Warning though: The part I highlighted could get you sent back to the Cadets 2018 thread. Not programming!

Okay. Top six because some folks believe competitive success leads to influence. Just programs to keep us focused.

There y'all go. Topic on demand. Hope you like it.

HockeyDad inspired me. So here's my question to spark a little discussion during this quiet month. Of the top six finishers' programs in 2017, which would you like to see continue as a direction for drum corps? And which would you like to see abandoned? For reference, the top six finishers, in no particular order, were: BD, SCV, Crown, Cavies, Bluecoats and Boston. Define the program attributes as you like. But know that this is a discussion about programs, not performance, staff, members, expenses, etc. Anyone who discusses anything except program will be required to read the Cadets 2018 thread from beginning to end. The question again: Of the top six finishers' programs in 2017, which would you like to see continue as a direction for drum corps? And which would you like to see abandoned?

That's two I can't use. Can't be unoriginal.

Have I just been exposed as a fraud? Or is it just possible that when there is little to say the single corps thread format is as crummy as any other? Worse perhaps because it's opaque?

Would love to. I just don't know anything interesting.

By "we" I meant any and all of us, including me.

I wasn't suggesting any more work for the moderators. In fact, I wasn't suggesting anything. I wanted to have a discussion. Are we happy with the way things are? Or would we like it better if we stopped perpetuating these comprehensive threads (by some miracle, if you must) and started breaking out our topics into more focused, finite discussions?

I fear this is what it's becoming. And I blame opaque threads that obscure what's inside.

Jeff, are you saying we've optimized the site? Can't get any better? Or maybe you're saying the people here made it this way because they want it this way? Forget that there could be redundancy at some point in the future. Does what we have now feel right to you?

Noted. Thanks.

I think what you've done is describe the issue itself. With the possible exception of BD (where a championship seems possible every year), kids leave their 7-12 corps in pursuit of what they hope will be an elite experience. The corps they left don't move up because they're being beaten by the very talent who left them behind. I'm not making an argument that anyone owes his current corps anything (though he might). I'd just like to define success as something more than getting the highest score from the judges on Saturday night. If you're hanging your hat on that, you're not hanging it on much.

Geez. I'm so tired of saying this: I agree with HockeyDad. Healthy debate should be a major part of the draw here. Drum corps' identity is as much about debate as it is brass or drums or drums or guard. What's the best way to spark that debate? I doubt it's within a series of single corps threads. Maybe not in single SHOW threads either. That's another place where it sometimes feels as if interesting conversations go to die.

Well... I'm back to not agreeing with HockeyDad. This is so wrong. My suggestion has nothing to do with any one thing in any one thread. I and others are saying we don't like hunting for discussions of interest within long, meandering threads. We're saying it's better for all if the discussions happen in finite threads with defined topics. Please don't ascribe any other motive to me in prompting this discussion. Believe it or not, you would be mistaken.

And as for the "don't read" or "post your own" comments, this is a discussion board, isn't it? Isn't it?

Seems as if most of the posters to this thread think I'm talking about the Cadets thread. I'm not. Except to to the extent it is one of several year-long threads. Are y'all going to take my word for it? Or are you going to do what you do so often in the Cadets thread and make it sinister?

The best? The best at what? The best can be defined many ways. As a parent, I'd urge you to urge your child to precise about what "best" is before he or she follows the crowd to the best and misses something better. Best might be winning a championship. Or it might not. Is being second - or fourth - best? Or more to my point, is there any doubt that doing my best is the best? If my best helps others to be their best, isn't that the best we can do? My opinion ... And it's just my opinion ... I can't speak about you and your child... My opinion is too many young people make the selfish choice. They seek out the prospect of ever more elite credentials. And for what? A summer last year at Crown or Bluecoats was several placement spots better than the six through 12 corps. But was it better? The best? HH

So the news breaks someplace else. Doesn't mean it can't be discussed here. DCP never was the only source for drum corps news. It was, I'd say, a better aggregator of drum corps news and opinion in the past than it is today in part because the new discussions were easier to discover. You had a nugget or a thought and you started a thread. Easy to do. Easy to recognize. Now it's not so easy. For all I know there's a fascinating conversation happening in some single corps thread. But unless I search all of the them, I'll never know.

An unfortunately simple list for me breaks down like this: A lot: BD and Cadets A little: Blue Knights and Bluecoats The rest I am content to forget, which makes 2017 an unusual year for me. Usually, I'm watching 10 of the 12 regularly and all of the 12 occasionally. Not last year. HH

This is what I"m talking about. And it's doable. HH

No it won't. All the same news and commentary in a single thread would form a series of discussions specific to each topic. It worked well for more than a decade here. HH

No issues with anyone but lots of issue with the year-long threads. What I meant was the folks posting are probably the ones most comfortable with the format. I'd also go so far as to venture than some of those less approving of these year-long threads have stopped posting or reading. It's just too difficult to find topics of interest. I frankly have no interest in sifting the all the compliments in most of the corps' threads to find what I come here for, which is news about drum corps - along with what I'll call a "range" of opinion. In my opinion, this format where it all gets lumped together in threads dozens and hundreds of pages long is a mess. HH

I may have just made the mistake of asking the people who created the mess if they mind the mess they're in. HH