Date:	29-Mar-1999 18:29:52
From:	Ed Haggerty (eflat eddie@ aol.com)
	No Impact at all. I thought it was slanted toward more smooth jazz and only the people supported by the larger record companies got most of the coverage. Another example of a site with a jive agenda. Adios. Eflat eddie.

 

Date:	30-Mar-1999 07:35:51
From:	Dr Dave (derickson161@earthlink.net)
	JCS smooth-oriented? That's some other place. The smooth jazz fans were driven off long ago to their own board. I have very mixed feelings about JCS. I've visited it regularly for a couple years now, and came away knowing more than when I arrived. How many web sites of any kind can you say that about? Here and there I got to make a worthwhile contribution. On the other hand, the site has gone through a bad period of vandalism, with obscenities posted over and over again. This is partly due to neglect on the part of N2K--when Jill Maxi Schriebman, the board's moderator, left, the quality and character of the discussions went downhill fast. I think reports of the BBS's imminent demise are premature. For better or worse, the BBS at JCS draws a lot of traffic, and the folks at CDNow are not dumb. I predict it will be reincarnated in some form or another. I've signed off permanently from JCS because I got tired of wading through the crap to get to the good stuff. If CDNow were to reinstate the moderated board model, I'd be back in a hemidemisemiquaver. In the meantime, "freewheeling open discussion" is a great idea, but that's not what's being delivered at JCS. Bottom line: CDNow may not retain the JCS BBS in its present form, but there will be a forum for jazz discussion after May 17. You

 

Date:	30-Mar-1999 11:08:54
From:	Darryl G. Thomas (dgthomas@digizen.net)
	I've been posting at the JCS BBS almost since it's inception back in '96. In it's current state its closing will have little impact. The strength of the site was its BBS. Afterall, there are other online retailers of CDs that offer music and (in the case of CD Universe) at a lower price. The various boards associated with JCS helped to build an internet jazz community. Unfortunately, its main BBS, Jazz Talk, has fallen prey to malicious posters who've rendered the board almost useless as a place for serious jazz discussion. It was dying a slow death and to be honest I'd prefer it to die than stagger on as it is..

 

Date:	31-Mar-1999 02:58:43
From:	Reid (rtt5@gte.net)
	I don't know what kind of impact it will have. When that question was asked, I asked myself, "How many people actually used the bbs at jcs?" It's hard to know. But I do that the people who did use it generally learned a lot more about jazz than they would have without it. It really helped more obscure musicians can some publicity, and that's a good thing. Finally, I really think it got people to buy more music. You'd hear one or two people rave about a musician or album, and that would peak your interest.

 

Date:	31-Mar-1999 09:19:58
From:	Bruce K Woods (wphilly@ix.netcom.com)
	What JCS has done (as well as JOL on a smaller scale) was to provided another voice as part of the Jazz community. Jazz not being a mass market/media supported/popular genre has always had a support base which was spread thin, without a common base. Rock has MTV, FM radio and Billboard; Smooth has Radio airplay and the R&B (it's source) engine to drive it. Jazz has nothing. JCS was the first forum of this sort to have mass appeal.. Of course this mass appeal has also contributed to it's demaise, as savages, and complete losers worked to enhance their imagined reputation, without benefit of identification But on the positve...The site has shown that there are Jazz fans in this country...and that the jazz world has expanded past New York... The impact of it's closing will be simple...It existed...and it can be successful.

 

Date:	03-Apr-1999 05:28:12
From:	Ron Thorne (peppercornthorne@yahoo.com)
	To address the question posed,ie.,"what if any impact will the closing of JCS have on Jazz on the Web"? I have absolutely NO IDEA,in the strictest terms. But, I CAN assure anyone interested that JCS has had a powerful and positive inmpact on a very large group of jazz fans WORLDWIDE,so that alone should spell some rather intense impact! Frankly, I find the question posed above extremely interesting,perhaps even suspect. You'd have to be completely out-of-touch or living on another planet to NOT know how devastating the impending shutdown of JCS is to it's MANY contributors. And,don't forget that JCS,like many other forums, has FAR MORE interest and involvement than is EVER shown by names revealed via posting! Many are too shy to post, but remain intensely "active",and,are you reading this, . . .buy jazz recordings! I don't know,frankly,what effect ANYTHING or ANYONE may have on "jazz on the WEB"! I don't understand the question,honestly. To me,the POSSIBLE answer to the question seems obvious . . .HUGE! Trust me, JCS shutting down will NOT be fun,taken lightly,positive,good for jazz,good for "the web" or anything else! The quality and quantity of information and ideas shared on a DAILY basis on this site was/is truly amazing. And I dare say that there is not a site on the web which can boast the ease of use,along with the sense of community,fun of sharing,and unmatched humour! JCS is one-of-a-kind. Unfortunately, most folks outside this very special community of jazz fans don't recognize and/or appreciate that fact. That's part of the problem! I sincerely hope that I'm wrong in predicting that the answer to the above question in MOST people's head is " . . .Oh, not much! Isn't that the place where there was a lot of foul language and people talking about music we didn't like anyway"? For the record, I'd LOVE to know who proposed this question,and why! Peace.

 

Date:	03-Apr-1999 05:32:13
From:	Ron Thorne (peppercornthorne@yahoo.com)
	Oh yeah, I forgot to respond to a statement in the original post. Ed Haggerty (eflat eddie@ aol.com)stated: <> Jive agenda? Indeed! ADIOS, EDDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wake me when it's over,please.

 

Date:	03-Apr-1999 05:37:05
From:	Ron Thorne (peppercornthorne@yahoo.com)
	Take-2 Oh yeah, I forgot to respond to a statement in the original post. Ed Haggerty (eflat eddie@ aol.com)stated: Jive agenda? Indeed! ADIOS, EDDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wake me when it's over,please. Sorry,don't know what went wrong the first time.

 

Date:	03-Apr-1999 05:40:33
From:	Ron Thorne (peppercornthorne@yahoo.com)
	I don't have a clue as to why I can't quote a poster via cut/paste,so please read post #1,then read my reaction in the last two posts,ok? I tried twice,and that's enough. Sorry,Ed,and everyone else. However, I did NOT design this board.

 

Date:	03-Apr-1999 16:16:33
From:	Joe M (joem1@pipeline.com)
	The thing that made JCS unique was the BBS community. Anyone with enough resources can throw together a fancy page with all the "bells and whistles" and call it a jazz site. But JCS was more, it had a major following, both of lurkers and regulars. Anyone who doubts the power the JCS Jazz Talk board had need only remember the Joe Henderson controversy last year, which spread like wildfire through the jazz world, and was fueled in great part by a posting on JCS. JCS had its power mainly beacuse of its interface and its management. Today the management is virtually AWOL and could care less about jazz, and the interface, while still the best, is routinely plauged by problems caused by a lack of maintnance. Unitl someone comes up with another superior BBS software package and packages it with a staff who knows and cares about the music community, there won't be another jazz me

 

Date:	17-Apr-1999 11:16:33
From:	Lloyd Townsend (townsend@imaginaryrecords.com)
	One major impact it will have, insofar as I'm concerned, will be the removal from the web of the most innovative and easy-to-use BBS ever seen! The way an entire thread could be downloaded and read off-line (even the 4000+ entries of the "What are you listening to now?" perpetual fav), the way the archives could be retrieved, the way a thread was brought to the top of the list whenever a new comment was added--just an incredible achievement overall! Music Boulevard could have made a profit just by selling the code that makes all that possible! I know I'm coming to this thread late (as I usually come to most things...). I stumbled over JCS shortly after we got our Mac, and spent far too much time there reading virtually *every* thread there for nearly a year. Rarely had any comment worth posting in the company of such august writing (including Scott Yanow and Chris Albertson (among many others!), for 'Trane's sake!!!); always wished I could find some way to bring the topic of Stevens, Siegel & Ferguson up without being flamed as being overly commercial (sorry, that jazz trio is on my label, and it would be a commercial announcement on my part to mention them--but dammit, they're good, and deserve to be heard!). Incidently, they're reviewed here on AAJ, so please check out the archives! Anyway, back to the original line of thought--after soaking up lots of great info on new names in jazz (and spending more on CDs than I could admit to my wife without getting hit :^)> ), the time consumed there got to be too great, and I began dropping in every month or so and skimming threads. Unfortunately, that got all too easy in the past year, as most were either inflammatory or not jazz-related. Again, the barbarians have stormed and breached the walls of civilization, and the cultured few are scattered to the four winds. (A bit dramatic, perhaps--but inaccurate? I think not.) Just out of curiosity, I think I'll surf over to Classical Insites to see if they're still around...but I'll be back here soon, as Jazz is the music of tomorrow...

 

Date:	28-Apr-1999 12:18:10
From:	Bernie Koenig (BKoenig@fanshawec.on.ca)
	I will miss the discussion. There was a lively exchange of information and viewpoints. Thanks to the discussions I listened to people I otherwise would not listened to and in turn I introduced people to musicians they would not have listened to. It was always an interesting place to vist.

 

Date:	04-Jul-2000 02:00:42
From:	Dan
	Excuse my ignorance but what was/is JCS?

 

Date:	04-Jul-2000 02:03:07
From:	Dan
	And why do people think that using initials (like JCS) means anything to most of the population?