I wonder if there are still members around senior enough (not about age but in period knowing about PA) to tell us how was PA in the beginning.

Was it significantly different than now?

Who was adding albums and bios, and writing the early reviews, M@x himself and a few helpers?

Was the look of the homepage similar? (I can imagine than the header collage came quite later courtesy of a member whose name I do not remember but who posted a few such collages).

Was there a forum from the beginning?

It would be amazing if anyone would have kept screenshots of how the site looked like in the past but I guess that's too much asking for...

Looking at how websites appeared over a decade ago is one of my favorite internet activities, lol. Thanks for sharing those links!

Cool! that's just what I meant.

Love the "sub-genres tab", Neo, Prog-Metal, 70's Classic Prog and Symphonic. That's the way many of us used to see it back in time 

Mary Carey 

^

Perhaps the scope was more limited too, now the spectrum of subgenres and bands present and discussed in the site is huge and few if any people can be highly informed about them all. I guess that if we would still concentrate our threads on the classic discography of Genesis, Yes, ELP, Camel, Crimson and Floyd, the debates would sound pretty well informed as well. Plus, many younger people are joining who have to discover the classics working backwards, and this is not a bad thing at all (and they are surely better informed than me when it comes to modern Prog bands like The Mars Volta, Haken or whatever).

it was on his Hammond L100 organ, let's keep the debates informed 

More or less how it should be

I was just about to mention him, Karney.

I remember him vividly.

Too bad he had a serious temper.

He was one of the most colorful people around.

BTW it's a bit of a pity that a lot of people don't post here anymore, like Threefates, Trouserpress, Snow Dog, the Bald Angels, Erik Neuteboom... Or they pop up every once in a while, like Vompatti...

Well, that's just as it is, but I remember the good old days. Okay, these days are good too, but it's a different kind of good. 

Was that the guy who was posting in a Welsh dialect 

 

 

And here's a snapshot a day later:

 

 

And no doubt it was Kansas-related

I remember him as Knobby (assumed that it's the same Wallace).

Interesting comment.  But I don't remember either Henry or Vompatti as being fanboyish, if anything they, esp HP, were quite subjectivist.  There are others though who have disappeared, JS19, dtguitarfan.  Some of the regulars fell out, I think - JLocke, toddrulfusteg or whatshismoniker.  Of course, micky and raff have stopped posting on this forum, Cert1fied is either too busy or has lost interest.  Mike is another once active contributor who seems to have gone.

Yes, they were also good company on the site.

Both in their very own way.

 

That's not bad Ep .... those screenshots (and material) were better than most of the stuff out there!

 

I didn't come here until 2007 (so says the Avatar!!!), and I don't exactly remember the number of threads by then, which would have been 3 years AFTER EP's links ... which even I do not remember ... however, based on my memory, all conversations and work have always been fairly good and valuable in many ways ... despite many of us not agreeing to it all.

 

The only change/suggestion I want to see is the top 100 be only BANDS ... and not albums, so we start RESPECTING the music itself, and not our "favorite" ablums! It would take the "favoritism" out of it all a bit more, and I think it would help create a more respectful relationship with jazz and classical folks for the appreciation of music and its value to one's life. For that to happen the kid stuff, or "fan'aticism" needs to be slowed down, and the "top ten" is all about fans, and not the music!

 

If you want the music to be remembered 100 years from now, the fan stuff will likely have to be cut down and the discussion get more intimate and detailed about the beauty of the music.

 

In the end, this is about OUR choices. We simply accept and take what is "given us". We don't have the fight tomake the change, and support, and that means that the more we want to change things, the less theywill change!!!!

 

All in all, it's better than nothing, although I still think that silence is better, and learning your own inner path is way more important than anyone telling you what to go listen to, so we can become a better "social" person that society wants us to become to ensure you buy their car, 2.1 children, green sox, you know ... the usual cheap crap made in heaven knows where that you won't find out until there is a fire and 500 folks died from it, and they were only making $3 dollars per day!

 

At least PA is voluntary, I have been told! But in Sociology 101 they tell you that "interest groups" run 85% of all institutions out there to favor their own views!

I missed one planned PA meeting (was there more than one?), which was a pity in retrospect. Oh well... no use crying over spilled milk.

Snow Dog hasn't posted in a long time, but hopefully he turns up once again.

I had let him have my address so he could send me a CD ( he never did). That was before all this all blew up. I know its unlikely he would visit me but didn't want to take a chance.

Wallace The Lad wrote: Wallace here! Thankyou for the fond rememberances. I dont remember much of the old days here. (I suppose I was here around 2005 on???) Back then I was mainly posting to a Yahoo prog group. I would like to look up those elder-days posts, but those two linkiepoos given seem to only get one the Wayback Machine and not much else. I recall Bald Freida (oar summart loikes) and she was quite knowledgeable. Also there was a very sharp poster, Barbitzoter, or mebbe I'm confusing with Progressive Ears. Unlike former stalwarts who seem, in the main, to have deserted the ship, I would continue on Progarchives, given the opportunity. THAT is just the problem. (I expect this post to be wiped-out by the end of the day.)

I really need to check that out, because SMN forums are like a wasteland of narcissistic, elitist personalities.