The AbsolutePunk Legends, Myths, And Rumors Thread • Page 46

Remind me of this user. It sounds familiar, but I can’t recall any details.

 

Lol, to be fair, by like 2015 the AP politics thread was more or less what it is now. At least as far as I recall

 

Living in Boston, that was such an odd experience, because all of my friends groups totally understood the abstract of why it was a problem, and how terrifying of a precedent it set, but it was just like "eh, this time fine whatever, kill the fuckers, but next time, no." Was a very odd vibe. Kinda the closest example to how quickly people will sell out when they're scared.

 

There was some awful shit said around that time. Glad for the most part people have grown.

Reading that oral history I half expected to see Slade give a quote

 

I’ve had a weird history with this community lol

I don’t think I’ve ever said any of this here, but I first joined the site back in probably 01/02 (when did it actually transition from a blink fansite and launch as AP?). I had a few different usernames over the years (MaybeOneDay was my first, I think), and eventually I was somehow able to convice Jason to give me a staff position writing about ska, at which point I had to change my username to my real name since that was a requirement lol

I posted way too many news articles and reviews about bad bands that like maybe 3-4 users ever cared about, and I always got along good with Jason and he had my back on numerous occasions when readers used to bully me for my posting style.

Eventually I ended up getting into a spat with Jason because his girlfriend (I believe) was on staff also at the time and she had posted some sort of fake news about Less Than Jake, who I’d become very close with over the years (we did a bunch of ABSOLUTExclusives together lol), and they asked me to take it down. Jason ended up basically screaming at me over AIM for removing his girlfriend’s post without asking first, which soured my opinion of him for a long time, but looking back, I get it. We were all young and very dumb and the internet was a silly place lol. I won’t mention her name out of respect for Jason and just in case it’s an old wounds sort of thing, and him being happily married these days.

Eventually I took a long break from staff because someone very close to me at the time had taken their own life, and Jason was very cool in letting me disappear for a while. Fast forward like however many months later when I was ready to get back into news posting, apparently AP had been bought out by a certain company, something I was completely unaware of at the time having shut myself away from the internet for a long while. A former staff member that I never got along with at the time convinced Jason I was only coming back for a piece of the pie, which was completely untrue. I don’t blame Jason for taking the bait at all, I’m sure this guy was super convincing in his argument. I don’t remember why we didn’t like each other, but I’m sure we both said some very dumb and hurtful shit to one another way back when.

When Jason decided it was best I didn’t come back to staff, I was pretty hurt for a while and left this place for a long time. I held a grudge, not really against Jason or the site, mostly just the other staff member. I knew I was missing out on so many great experiences by not getting to do it anymore.

I ended up writing for Smartpunk, property of Zack, and a handful of other now defunct sites for a while, but I haven’t done any writing for a long, long time. Mostly because I wasn’t actually very good at it.

Fast forward again to AP shutting down and this place opening up, I first made an account here under my real name and posted quite a bit for a couple years ubtil I started some dumbass argument with Jason over Hawthorne Heights’ mainstream popularity (that sounds so goofy to say out loud lol) in their heyday, and I was being such an insufferable twat Jason rightfully banned that account. I then commented or DM’d him something on Instagram because I was heated and he blocked me on there too, which still stands today lol

Six months later or so I made this account and have had nothing but good interactions with Jason and most everyone here, and I plan on continuing the trend haha

Sorry for being such a miserable jackass @Jason Tate. Whatever I said, I’m genuinely sorry for it and I’ve always thought you were a good dude. You gave me an opportunity way back when that gave me some of the most insane experiences of my life. I’m forever grateful for that.

Anyway, this post was way too fucking long and this thread was a trip. Love y’all, here’s to another 20+ years lol

 

Sometimes I feel so stupid when I say out loud something I’m arguing about on Chorus.

Except for the chips and dip argument Rham embroiled the NFL thread. I was on the side of angels haha

 

God, I love this place.

 

lmao

it was weird but whatever, I’m sure he was just trying to be a good boyfriend at the time lol

 

excellent post

 

thank you!

 

That post is what I like about being here, at this age now. It’s so weird to think about having joined when I was a teenager still lacking certain inhibitions and full of foolish, immature thoughts and opinions, while also looking to be a part of a community of other kids my age who liked what I liked. And now I’m in my late thirties. And so are a lot of you. Some are even older, some a bit younger, and then there’s another newer generation of young people here who are the age I once was when I started on ap. It’s just so, so strange to realize how truly young and inexperienced I was when I joined and I’m still here twenty years later. For so, so many of us now we’re all here with such vastly different perspectives on…everything, and that leads to a lot of collective embarrassment about the past and a fairly apologetic tone across the board. Basically most of us just feel like, “hey…I was sort of a dick back then and I’m really sorry, I hope you can find your way to forgiving me and, if not, then it’s on me to work toward being better,” and the response to that is generally “hey, uh…ditto.”

 

We all grew up together.

 

Well I guess this is growing up.

 

I love Sum 41

 

I forget people on here now might be new and young, haha. I just assume everyone is my age.

 

I would guess I've been on the board longer than most (close to 20 years now).

AP.net helped me become an honors graduate. Not a joke.

I studied communications at a small midwestern liberal arts school in the mid aughts. I had an unbelievable teacher/advisor named Professor Sweet (real name) who wore Doc Martens and a battle jacket to class every day. He taught about cultural theory and how different cultures/subcultures communicate authenticity, what it looks like to be a class/culture member and how in/out-groups shape the theory around them. I barely remember most of the academic research at this point, but I remember it was fascinating. It was like someone had put the punk/emo subculture into academic terms that A) made sense with the reality I was living in and B) tied it back to cultural ritual processes that were not dissimilar from how cultures over decades, centuries and millenia have been reacting to each other.

But what happens when a new form of communication enters the picture and how are those rituals realized?

For my senior honors thesis, I attempted to research just that: how AIM messages, arguments about the punk or not nature of Good Charlotte and .GIFs were all new looks on an old battleground of how a subculture creates, reinvents and defines itself for all to see.

I found the paper a while back and I've always talked to Jason about sending it to him - might as well finally share it for anyone who wants to read.

DETERMINING SUBCULTURAL AUTHENTICITY THROUGH IDEOLOGY

 

I can't remember exactly what year I joined AP.net, but I was on there for a looong time. I either heard about the site from The Ataris message board, Warped Tour, or from seeing AP.net mentioned on a CD I bought.

I loved starting the AP.net members tribute compilations on there. In the beginning of doing those, we'd get sooo many submissions, which was awesome. It gave a lot of us bedroom musicians a creative outlet. Everyone was always incredibly supportive with everyone, leaving track-by-track reviews, giving tips and encouragement. It kinda felt like a community within the community, and it was really cool. And I was usually so busy organizing everyone's submissions and making the album artwork and stuff that I wouldn't get to recording my song until the day before it was due, generally haha.

Also, I ran the fun StatlerAndWaldorf account where I could make dumb dad jokes and people either loved it or hated it, and it was almost more fun when people were annoyed by "their" posts haha.

 

Today may be my 20th anniversary of becoming a user on AP.net. It was the 2nd or 3rd, I am fairly certain. 2nd feels right. I think I took a screen shot of my profile before it got blipped. Will look for it later. But fuck, I’m old and been here a long ass time.

 

Bummer.

 

What year did ap go down? 2016?

 

Yeaahh I don’t need to see my posts from 2007. My Facebook memories are embarrassing enough

 

Confirmed. I’ve been post for 20 years. I did start going to the site before that, but that was when I joined the forums.

I clearly hadn’t updated my profile in awhile. I hadn’t been to college since 2010. And I don’t know what I meant by extremist there.

 

Oh my god I loved the StatlerAndWaldorf account!