[Christopher]

Greetings. I am very excited to announce today that all of the data (posts, topics, etc), members, and so forth from Minidisc Community Forums and its once-existing sister site ATRACLife will be converged into the Sony Insider forums. I feel that this is the best way to unify all of this important data and bring a fresh appearance (and new software) to our existing users. The forums.minidisc.org domain will forward to this new domain before the end of 2009. I understand that this is a big change, but it will be worth it moving forward. Thanks for your continued support.+++

Instead of responding to the items of interest presented by some of the members here, I would like to reinvite everyone to look at Sony Insider forums. I spent some time today to re-organize and establish the framework for the move. This is going to be a dramatic change to Minidisc Community Forums - it will no longer exist and will simply become a forum of Sony Insider with relevant subforums. Here is what is going to happen to the forums within MDCF:

News goes to forum Minidisc > News (subforum)
Announcements goes to forum Announcements

Classifieds goes to Classifieds
Trading Place (merge Minidisc Trades and Hi-MD trades) becomes a subforum of Classifieds

Hi-MD goes to forum Minidisc > Hi-MD (subforum)
MD, NetMD + MDLP goes to forum Minidisc > MD, NetMD + MDLP (subforum)
Find your Minidisc goes to forum Minidisc

Live Recording goes to forum Minidisc > Live Recording (subforum)
Technical, Tips, and Tricks goes to forum Minidisc > Technical, Tips, and Tricks (subforum)
Product Reviews/Pictorials goes to forum Product Reviews/Pictorials
Software Discussion/FAQ's goes to forum Audio > Software (subforum)

'phones goes to forum Audio > 'phones (subforum)
Hi-/MD Evaluations + Criticisms goes to forum Minidisc
Off Topic [Music, Electronics + etc] goes to forum The Loft

There is obviously need for me to explain myself and the reasoning behind this move. First off, I want to say that I am NOT an agent of Sony, I am not on their payroll (although they do advertise on the site through Google Adsense, and we have run contests with their help). I do communicate often with Sony, we are on good terms, and I have many contacts there now. They have treated me very well in the past at trade shows, and accommodate any question or request I submit to them. That is the extent of our relationship. While one day I would love to work for a company such as Sony, that is not what I am doing right now. Sony Insider is not a pro-Sony site. We are simply covering Sony news. I have written news posts on Sony Insider that heavily criticize Sony, and praise them. I am not trying to merge MDCF with Sony Insider forums and make it pro-Sony. I want the Minidisc forums at Sony Insider to talk about all Minidisc products.

I, like many others, am still disappointed to this day how Sony handled the Minidisc format and I wish that it was still as popular today as it was ten years ago. However, we must face the facts and realize that it is 2009, and that the format is fading into obscurity because Sony (and other companies) are not investing themselves into it anymore. I don't need to explain why, but that is an undeniable fact.

I, like many others, have spent thousands of hours making MDCF what it is today. I wish you could have seen how this place looked when I took over in 2002. I knew nothing about websites, nothing about html, php, SQL, and all the other stuff that makes a forum experience work. I had to teach myself, which I did because of people like you supporting me, and things improved greatly (visually/content wise). It has come so far from then, and has exceeded any expectations I ever had. At one time it was one of the most important things in my life. We were guiding the format, and we accomplished alot of things together. The MZ-RH1 is proof of that. All of the Sonicstage updates are proof of that. However, it has grown old to me because of the format not being supported anymore and the only thing really left here for me to do is discuss things with the rest of you. That is difficult for me to do right now because I am investing a great deal of time into Sony Insider, school, another job, and a girlfriend. MDCF went to the bottom of that list very quickly.

It also doesn't make sense for me to pay for two Invision Power Board licenses, nor have seperate hosting, and continue to be invisible here as I've been for quite a while now. When we move, logins, profiles, post count, posts, topics, and anything else you can think of will remain the same. You won't have to re-register. This is about as seamless as it can get.

I want to reconnect with all of you - I miss talking to some of you and I want you to join me in this new venture I'm a part of. It's the most exciting thing I've ever created, and it is taking off far faster than you would believe. Sony Insider is a visually attractive site that is rich in functionality, has relevant and interesting content, and has the opportunity to grow much larger and impact more people than MDCF. Minidisc is a Sony technology. The forum software at Sony Insider forums is much more advanced than the already advanced software here. It became clear to me as I was crafting the Sony Insider forums that there was an opportunity for me to bring all the years incredible discussions, content, and people from MDCF and ATRACLife to Sony Insider forums and create a place that has 100,000 members and 200,000+ posts. Centralizing all of this is a huge boost in resourcefulness to Sony Insider and makes alot more sense looking ahead long term. Centralizing all of the research and help we've done for one another will be much more beneficial to people who need it.


I asked myself when I made this decision - do I want MDCF to be the same right now five years from now? Ten years from now? Do I want to sit on all of that data from ATRACLife and have nothing to do with it?

It just makes more sense to bring this all together guys. I understand that when its all said and done things won't look the same and feel the same. I understand that I am going to lose some of you, which really saddens me. I don't want to lose anyone that still goes here when I complete the move. I am begging you to come with me. I really think that all of us could get along very well, and help people just as much as some of you are doing now and have done in the past. It will not be a pro-Sony experience, and I will encourage discussion of all Minidisc products, just as we do today. There will be no change in attitude.

Thank you for your consideration.

[wisnewskimage]

Will the rest of the info at minidisc.org be staying on at that site?

[Christopher]

Minidisc.org will continue operations as normal.

[Abby Normal]

kurisu,

I peeked in at the forum structure at SonyInsider. The wording of the placeholder description for the MiniDisc archive is not clear. Does it mean that there will be sub-forums in the Audio category or will everything have to be discussed in a single forum named "Audio"?

Regards.
Abby Normal

[Christopher]

I understand that the transition seems a little confusing right now because I haven't specifically wrote where things will go. It is a big project, but it has been a long time coming. In the next week, as the transition begins, things will become more clear. I believe that yes, the Minidisc related discussions will have its own seperate forum, and then subforums within that. There will not just be a huge Minidisc forum with no organization, that would be insane.

[bland10000]

Will our sign-in from here apply to Insider or do we need to sign-up anew over there?

[Christopher]

All logins and profiles should remain the same, which is very very nice. I want the transition to be as easy and unobtrusive as possible to everyone here.

[Abby Normal]

....There will not just be a huge Minidisc forum with no organization, that would be insane.

All logins and profiles should remain the same, which is very very nice. I want the transition to be as easy and unobtrusive as possible to everyone here.

Thank you! That eases my concerns. Sanity good!

[Christopher]

No problem. Thank you for your support.

[bobt]

Hi Chris,
Good move, will save a lot of bouncing around
Bob

[RobA]

My question: What happens if you have an account at all 3 sites? (MCDF, ATRACLife, and Sony Insider)? Will the accounts be merged?

[the wizard]

Sorry in being maybe the only dissonant opinion here, but I'm not sure that is such a good idea. MiniDisc isn't all about Sony. Sure, they invented it, improved it, and killed it, but Onkyo, Kenwood, Panasonic, Sharp, Aiwa, Denon, Buffalo, Pioneer, Sanyo, Casio, Marantz, -well, nearly every Japanese electronics manufacturer- had a try with MiniDisc.
Unless I have misunderstood, and MiniDisc.org will live on alongside the mirror copy inside SonyInsider.

[sinus]

Sorry in being maybe the only dissonant opinion here, but I'm not sure that is such a good idea. MiniDisc isn't all about Sony. Sure, they invented it, improved it, and killed it, but Onkyo, Kenwood, Panasonic, Sharp, Aiwa, Denon, Buffalo, Pioneer, Sanyo, Casio, Marantz, -well, nearly every Japanese electronics manufacturer- had a try with MiniDisc.
Unless I have misunderstood, and MiniDisc.org will live on alongside the mirror copy inside SonyInsider.

I have to agree with you - but I think you understood correctly. Sorry.

[Deleted Member]

Deleted by author.

[kino170878]

Yes Sony killed Minidisc, but they did make the best units out of all the manufacturers (which makes sense as they invented the thing). I've had Aiwa and Technics MD units crap out on me, I never had a Sony go bad.

[sinus]

I'll do the same as skogens - there still is the german MD forum ... i might as well wait for a new international one.

[john ferguson]

Yes Sony killed Minidisc, but they did make the best units out of all the manufacturers (which makes sense as they invented the thing). I've had Aiwa and Technics MD units crap out on me,/ I never had a Sony go bad./

Your lucky my MZ-RH10 will not title tracks...and to fix this...Sony wanted £200....YOU CAN GET A NEW ONE FOR £250!!!

[the wizard]

I'll do the same as skogens - there still is the german MD forum ... i might as well wait for a new international one.

I will leave the forum too if it moves solely to SonyInsider. I can't believe premium members' support has been supporting this change. Very disappointed I am, but naïve I have been.
Yes, we should create an open international one, independent, not tied to any brand.

[Abby Normal]

Have a bunch of things to do today, but just a quick reply on the ensuing controversy:

I probably have a slightly different take on things considering my late entry into the format, but those of you who have read enough of my posts should know that I am pretty disgusted with Sony myself (they're what kept me from entering the format until it was nearly dead, after all).

That said, I'm not positive that folding it under sonyinsider is the kiss of death either. I could be wrong, but as far as I can tell sonyinsider has no direct relationship with Sony, does it? Furthermore, Mr. MacManus has been a great steward of the contributions that this community has made--not to mention that he gave these contributions (in addition to his own) an environment to grow.

Additionally--I could be wrong, but I doubt it--this change doesn't hamper anybody's ability to discuss other brands. Assuming I'm not wrong about the non-existence of a direct relationship, we'll be able to continue our criticism of the Sony brand as well.

In conclusion, I understand the feelings that putting the minidisc forums on a Sony-centric site evoke--I just don't think that after all that this site has done for us that it is fair to characterize this as a "hostile takeover". Nothing is changing in terms of ownership or management. Chris just wants to consolidate hardware, software, and databases. It's clear that there's been a lot more recent attention paid to the sonyinsider site in terms of design and functionality. Once the sites are merged we'll be able to enjoy the results of those efforts in the minidisc community, too.

Regards,
Abby Normal

[sharpsony]

I am absolutely shocked by this sad news. So far, minidisc.org has been the (virtual) home of the worldwide MD community, kind of "United Nations of MiniDisc lovers". The site and the forums have helped countless people solving problems with their MD/Hi-MD gear and provided the community with world exclusive news about the format - positive news (like the introduction of Hi-MD, MZ-RH1 etc.) as well as negative news (the death of the format). Why the hell do you want to split apart this nearly perfect site? I hope you will reconsider and revoke this decision that I do not understand at all. In my opinion, moving the forums away from minidisc.org is the beginning of the end of this wonderful worldwide minidisc community...

This post has been edited by sharpsony: 22 August 2009 - 06:29 PM