[Paladin79]

They look like faces up there: serious cat on left with crazy hair, surprised cat on right.

I built them to spec but I can see what you mean.

 

[Ripper2860]

And tonight's final Jazz recommendation...

 

[schneller]

It is getting a little out of hand, though.

Hear me out…

This thread was, of course, originally about Jason musing over his experiences with this little garage hustle of his. But over the years, it has evolved into Schiit's official Stammtisch on the internet. Sorry for using a German word here. But I'm actually not sure if there's a proper English equivalent for that term, let alone the concept. A "Stammtisch" is a special table at your local watering hole. This table is not only special because it's usually the largest and often also the nicest one in the room, but especially because it's permanently reserved for regulars. It's the place where you meet for an informal get-together with your buddies after work or church, where you discuss local, national, and world politics and develop solutions for the world's problems. Solutions so much more reasonable and practicable than those higher-ups in Berlin or Washington ever could come up with themselves. It's where you analyze, in excruciating detail, the recent performances of the local sports team, where you complain to receptive and understanding ears about "that old ball and chain back home" (that you're actually very much looking forward to come home to after you're done with the next beer, or maybe two — but don't let the other guys know that lest they'll never let you hear the end of it), and where you proudly inform everybody about that new trick your dachshund learned the other day, who is not only your absolute pride and joy and obviously smarter than your no-goodnik son, but who is also coming from a long lineage of award-winning sires and dames, you'll have me know.

Think Cheers, but around a table in pretty much every German and Austrian corner bar; that's a Stammtisch. Sounds familiar?

So, yeah. This thread is Schiit's official Stammtisch. It didn't start out this way, but that's what it has organically grown into. And I think that's a good thing, for obvious reasons.

But the problem with this is that, as with any other Stammtisch, there's a certain signal to noise ratio beyond which the whole thing starts to fall apart.

If there are just five people sitting around that Stammtisch, things are fine. You're easily able to follow all the different topics and threads, and even if you missed a few things because you've already had three beers and you had to step out for a few minutes to heed nature's call, it doesn't take much effort to find your way back into the conversation. Smooth sailing, even if you're already on beer five of the night.
With ten people around the table, things start to get a bit more involved, but you manage. After all, you're with your buddies, so all is well.
But with a hundred people around the Stammtisch, it gets dizzying quickly. Even if you were able to follow just a small handful of those dozens of conversations that are happening simultaneously all around you, you'd be completely lost if you had to step away for a second. Worse, you come back tomorrow, but now you're faced with dozens of new discussions that are all in full swing already, and there's no chance for you to ever properly catch up so that you can feel like you're actually part of that conversation. And what's with all the new faces that popped up since last night that you now have to get to learn the names for, and, more importantly, what sports teams they hate so that you have something to bond with them over?

It's that kind of small beer tent sized happening that this Stammtisch has grown into, with all the noise that naturally comes with it.

And for the most part, I think that's great! The more, the merrier, I say.

But at some point, you reach a level where even the most invested of Schiitizens have a hard time keeping up. More and more you begin to feel like just some common patron, less like a regular. No longer are you just meeting a few buddies for an after work beer at the pub. Now, keeping up with the group has turned into yet another chore you have to do every day. And if you don't, you're afraid to eventually lose your chair at the table.

So, yeah. It's getting a little out of hand.

That's par for the course, though. Schiit isn't going to become any less popular. They're only going to grow even more from here, and as a logical inevitability this thread will only become busier yet. That's just how it works.

The problem is that I don't know what could be done to keep this Stammtisch alive and thriving the way it did for the past few years, yet have it remain an open and welcoming community for new folks to join.
You can mute some people, sure. But with this forum software, the result is a messy thread that gets unnecessarily hard to navigate and to stay on top of, with all that "someone you ignore wrote…" noise strewn in between.
You'd also be muting people, not topics, and so you wouldn't just suppress the stuff you're not interested in, but everything your friends talk about. And muting topics isn't a thing. Not here, not anywhere. (Business opportunity for an AI-based browser plugin, anybody?)
You could also split this thread up in multiple sister- or sub threads. Like a separate thread where the Schiitizenry can discuss woodworking, another one where they can discuss beverages, and a third one where they can discuss music recommendations. Not interested in woodworking? Great, don't add that thread to your watchlist. But that would also, to a degree, tear the community apart. Now you have some of the people you enjoy chatting with spend most of their time in one thread, while others prefer another one. Instead of one massive but at least somewhat coherent thread you now have to keep track of half a dozen separate threads. That's not any less annoying and involved than keeping track of this here thread is.

So, what do you do?! Beats me. Maybe we (and that absolutely includes myself, just to be clear) just need to accept that things change, and stop complaining. Or maybe the complaining is part of the (bonding) experience? Who knows.

I only know that nothing ever stays the same. This thread will only keep growing. It will only keep getting faster. And eventually, I will be even less able to keep up with it as I already am. But because this experience will change in much the same way for everyone, it will organically transform itself into something new eventually. Something different. Something less noisy, or at least something where the high signal to noise ratio no longer matters as much. It probably won't resemble a Stammtisch anymore, but it'll be useful in a different way.

But in the meantime; here's a cat pic. Because he knows what really counts in life: dozing off next to a pile of awesome sounding Schiit.

"Stammtisch" ist ein geiler Vergleich. Vor allem, weil dieser Thread einen gewissen Grad an Gemütlichkeit erreicht hat. Wenn wir das Ganze noch eine Stufe höher schrauben, könnten wir natürlich auch unseren persönlichen Bierkrug über den Stammtisch hängen, vielleicht sogar hinter einem verschlossenen Eisentor wie im Hofbräuhaus.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

"Stammtisch" ist ein geiler Vergleich. Vor allem, weil dieser Thread einen gewissen Grad an Gemütlichkeit erreicht hat. Wenn wir das Ganze noch eine Stufe höher schrauben, könnten wir natürlich auch unseren persönlichen Bierkrug über den Stammtisch hängen, vielleicht sogar hinter einem verschlossenen Eisentor wie im Hofbräuhaus.

English, please. Not everybody here is as cool and perfect as we are and is able to converse in German, Germanic-seeming audio company name not withstanding.

 

[earnmyturns]

It is getting a little out of hand, though.

Hear me out…

This thread was, of course, originally about Jason musing over his experiences with this little garage hustle of his. But over the years, it has evolved into Schiit's official Stammtisch on the internet. Sorry for using a German word here. But I'm actually not sure if there's a proper English equivalent for that term, let alone the concept. A "Stammtisch" is a special table at your local watering hole. This table is not only special because it's usually the largest and often also the nicest one in the room, but especially because it's permanently reserved for regulars. It's the place where you meet for an informal get-together with your buddies after work or church, where you discuss local, national, and world politics and develop solutions for the world's problems. Solutions so much more reasonable and practicable than those higher-ups in Berlin or Washington ever could come up with themselves. It's where you analyze, in excruciating detail, the recent performances of the local sports team, where you complain to receptive and understanding ears about "that old ball and chain back home" (that you're actually very much looking forward to come home to after you're done with the next beer, or maybe two — but don't let the other guys know that lest they'll never let you hear the end of it), and where you proudly inform everybody about that new trick your dachshund learned the other day, who is not only your absolute pride and joy and obviously smarter than your no-goodnik son, but who is also coming from a long lineage of award-winning sires and dames, you'll have me know.

Think Cheers, but around a table in pretty much every German and Austrian corner bar; that's a Stammtisch. Sounds familiar?

So, yeah. This thread is Schiit's official Stammtisch. It didn't start out this way, but that's what it has organically grown into. And I think that's a good thing, for obvious reasons.

But the problem with this is that, as with any other Stammtisch, there's a certain signal to noise ratio beyond which the whole thing starts to fall apart.

If there are just five people sitting around that Stammtisch, things are fine. You're easily able to follow all the different topics and threads, and even if you missed a few things because you've already had three beers and you had to step out for a few minutes to heed nature's call, it doesn't take much effort to find your way back into the conversation. Smooth sailing, even if you're already on beer five of the night.
With ten people around the table, things start to get a bit more involved, but you manage. After all, you're with your buddies, so all is well.
But with a hundred people around the Stammtisch, it gets dizzying quickly. Even if you were able to follow just a small handful of those dozens of conversations that are happening simultaneously all around you, you'd be completely lost if you had to step away for a second. Worse, you come back tomorrow, but now you're faced with dozens of new discussions that are all in full swing already, and there's no chance for you to ever properly catch up so that you can feel like you're actually part of that conversation. And what's with all the new faces that popped up since last night that you now have to get to learn the names for, and, more importantly, what sports teams they hate so that you have something to bond with them over?

It's that kind of small beer tent sized happening that this Stammtisch has grown into, with all the noise that naturally comes with it.

And for the most part, I think that's great! The more, the merrier, I say.

But at some point, you reach a level where even the most invested of Schiitizens have a hard time keeping up. More and more you begin to feel like just some common patron, less like a regular. No longer are you just meeting a few buddies for an after work beer at the pub. Now, keeping up with the group has turned into yet another chore you have to do every day. And if you don't, you're afraid to eventually lose your chair at the table.

So, yeah. It's getting a little out of hand.

That's par for the course, though. Schiit isn't going to become any less popular. They're only going to grow even more from here, and as a logical inevitability this thread will only become busier yet. That's just how it works.

The problem is that I don't know what could be done to keep this Stammtisch alive and thriving the way it did for the past few years, yet have it remain an open and welcoming community for new folks to join.
You can mute some people, sure. But with this forum software, the result is a messy thread that gets unnecessarily hard to navigate and to stay on top of, with all that "someone you ignore wrote…" noise strewn in between.
You'd also be muting people, not topics, and so you wouldn't just suppress the stuff you're not interested in, but everything your friends talk about. And muting topics isn't a thing. Not here, not anywhere. (Business opportunity for an AI-based browser plugin, anybody?)
You could also split this thread up in multiple sister- or sub threads. Like a separate thread where the Schiitizenry can discuss woodworking, another one where they can discuss beverages, and a third one where they can discuss music recommendations. Not interested in woodworking? Great, don't add that thread to your watchlist. But that would also, to a degree, tear the community apart. Now you have some of the people you enjoy chatting with spend most of their time in one thread, while others prefer another one. Instead of one massive but at least somewhat coherent thread you now have to keep track of half a dozen separate threads. That's not any less annoying and involved than keeping track of this here thread is.

So, what do you do?! Beats me. Maybe we (and that absolutely includes myself, just to be clear) just need to accept that things change, and stop complaining. Or maybe the complaining is part of the (bonding) experience? Who knows.

I only know that nothing ever stays the same. This thread will only keep growing. It will only keep getting faster. And eventually, I will be even less able to keep up with it as I already am. But because this experience will change in much the same way for everyone, it will organically transform itself into something new eventually. Something different. Something less noisy, or at least something where the high signal to noise ratio no longer matters as much. It probably won't resemble a Stammtisch anymore, but it'll be useful in a different way.

But in the meantime; here's a cat pic. Because he knows what really counts in life: dozing off next to a pile of awesome sounding Schiit.

Well said. In the ancient days of Usenet, I was a local at rec.skiing.alpine, which was a Stammtisch for skiing fanatics until growth blew it apart in acrimony (real acrimony).

 

[Ohno Schiitizen]

I am so naughty.
Still haven't tried the headphone jack on Kara...gah

Schiit on you .....

 

[jonathan c]

The journey of $5000 starts but with a single piece of Schiit.

... short journey (=errand?)

 

[Paladin79]

F'sakes, there is absolutely nothing wrong with people sharing thoughts, discussing miscellaneous topics, and ideas in a respectful way.

Let people have at least one corner of the net where you can talk Schiit, have a laugh and enjoy cat pics.

Great photo!!!!

 

[Ripper2860]

... short journey (=errand?)

I didn't want to scare him off.

 

[JanMc]

Yes, it is. Our granddaughter just turned two. Quite a treat.

That is some great hair!! A bit redder than mine but just about the same hair style.

 

[sixergixer]

Tonight's Jazz recommendation...


Best heard with Schiit gear and a 'Southside' in-hand, made with my new fav Gin - Oregon Spirits Gin.

 

[Ohno Schiitizen]

Stammtisch... not only about the gear, but music as well, most important thing....

I do not like those only talks, which show off their gear like an ad and never talks and share music...

 

[cgb3]

Working up a post-nup for the wife to sign before clicking on BUY.

Have you thought about a last chance reconciliation fishing/sailing trip?

I'm not suggesting anything. As a lifelong sailor, many things can be solved on the ocean.

Why do I keep coming back to Brad Pitt's character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

 

[Adam Balm]

Schiit on you .....

Yeah, you're correct

 

[cgb3]

Well, she’s not a cat, nor a dog.

But Sonora (born 3/21 afternoon) is my very first grandchild. Kudos to Southwest Airlines who gave my son ability to pause his training so he could be there. Mom and baby doing fine. We had a 90 minute face time video call later that night, and she’s the chillest baby… (doesn’t take after her dad).

She has her mom’s cheeks.

Good chance she'll see the next century. Congratulations, I love to see new life.