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Grind][Stuff][Music

 Grind][Stuff][Music is one of the best hubs on DC++, a software that ables Metallers to exchange files. I had some questions to ask them, here are the answers of Skelletona who takes care of some hubs.
 
 

0. Introduce yourself to the readers....

Hi, I'm Kristina, known in the DC world and other places online as Skelletona!! I'm an operator in the Grindstuff hub, and own Vomitcum grind hub...i live in New York, USA and yes i am indeed FEMALE!

1. For those who don't know, describe what a hub is..

Well, a hub is part of DC's P2P filesharing program. Hubs are run on the owner of the hub's computer, and works as a server so other people can connect to each other and share files.

2. What motivated you to create a hub for extreme music?

Well, my hub was created specifically because Grindstuff is so large that it's full almost all the time, and we needed another hub for extreme music fans. Its basically to handle the overflow from the larger hub. In the past when Grindstuff was full, people were redirected to a punk hub. I guess I thought DC needed two great grindcore hubs.

3. You're actually running one of the best hubs for extreme musics! One could find almost all what he wants, from the ultra underground demos to the old school as fuck Demos of the early Thrash metal days, while some hubs offer only the 'big names'... Was it a goal or did it happen as a matter of facts?  

Both grind hubs are called grindcore hubs and were created with grindcore in mind but have ended up having everything from classical to the most rare demos from very extreme bands. That's the greatest thing about it is finding things you wouldnt expect to see shared on a filesharing site.

4. Why did you choose to run a hub, and not a webzine or to create websites to support bands or labels? Why is a hub more convenient to your needs ?

Well for me, a hub is more interactive. You can get music, talk to many people from around the world who enjoy the same music. It's like a family almost. A website or webzine is more informational, not interacting as much with people.

5. Does the maintenance of a hub takes a lot of time? What does the fact of taking care of a hub means in daily work? I know you have to kick fakers and guys sharing forbidden files such as nazi music or rape videos; to find the right scripts to improve the thing... Are there any other needed things?

Well here is where I should thank the operators that work in the hubs, they run scripts to auto-kick fakers and do searches for forbidden files, they do most of the work, the owners just run the hub software, it doesnt take much maintenance really, most work is done by our great ops.

6. What kind of material is needed to have an hub working properly? Does it cost a lot? Do you have to get it official in the eyes of the authorities? Are there any licences to sign or special material everybody don't have in its possession?

All it took for me to run my hub was the hub software and a script or two, no licenses, no signing anything...because each hub is run on the owners' computer, it is their property..(and the officials can bite my ass ^_^ ).

7. You are probably aware some labels have some strong sales problems due to the severe increase of Mp3s Downloads. Do you think you're in a part responsible for the decrease in sales of these labels and the bad situation they're currently in? Or would you rather point the too expensive price of albums? It's obvious most of users download much more than what they would have eventually bought, maybe 10 times more! Do you think the pro CD format will disappear as everythings will turn to Mp3s and CDr?

Hmm that's a good question, well do i feel directly responsible? no, if i didnt run my hub there's tons of other ones out there. yes i do feel that mp3's and the easy availability of albums online is the part of the reason labels aren't doing well with album sales, but i also think that YES, the price of cd's is outrageous!! I refuse to pay it, myself. If i really want to support a band i download the album, then i write to the band and send them some money directly. I hate the commercialism and big business that labels these days are into, i'd rather the band get my money than some fat cat sitting in a big office somewhere. No, i dont see the pro CD format disappearing for a long long time, unfortunately.

8. Does it happen that you buy real CDs while all you need is here for free? Do you think the packaging is a plus, or are the winamp skins enough for you ?

lol....I havent bought a real CD in a long long time, but yes sometimes i like to have the packaging...if there's an album i really want the packaging for, i annoy people into buying it for me for my birthday or something haha...and oddly enough i dont use fancy winamp skins, just the regular every day old fashioned one.

9. Does it happen that you support some underground bands that quote your attention after you listened to their Mp3s?

Yes, this has happened many many times. I've heard bands' mp3s and then really liked them and written to them and sent money for demo's or shirts or offered any other support i can.

10. Did you ever got some problems towards the law because a lot of Mp3s are circulating here... Some big entreprises such as Universal has started big action as subemployed entreprises are searching for peoples sharing Universal films on Emule or soulseek. Did these cyber spy disturb some of your users? Did that finish into real troubles?

This hasn't been a problem for me personally, I mostly share underground things, where the bands/small labels are happy i've even heard of them and don't mind me sharing their material. In my hub and Grindstuff I've heard people saying they received emails for sharing well-known movies or games but there hasn't been any action taken and in my opinion the emails weren't genuine, just scare tactics.

11. The pressions several big bands and multinational labels did on Napster forced this killer file exchange system to close down. Soulseek also had problems. Do you think the authorities could force the closing of the hubs using DC++? It sounds more independant as many many hubs are existing

In my opinion, there isnt anything they can do about DC++. It doesnt have centralized servers like napster and soulsuck, each hub is run on an individual user's pc, plus there isnt a 'company' running the site really, its all individual P2P.

12. In a hub, there aren't only a owner and some users, but also some Ops! Tell us more about these guys are doing here! How to become an Op?

oh i HAAAAATE that question!!! i get asked that so many times a day!!! i have two answers for that depending on my mood...'Give the owner sexual favors' hehehe...well ops are the backbone of hubs, like i said before they do all the work, keeping out the bad things, and helping new users. for my hub, ops have to be somebody i have known a while and that i trust. one way to NEVER get to be op in my hub is to ask to be one...i watch my hub closely and see who uses it frequently and who is active and talking in there, and when i need an op i ask those people.

13. I heard you guys were planning to kick every form of nazi music from the hub, but it was finally a forgotten project as it seems impossible to detect every nazi Mp3... Many users have on their Pc some Mp3s of nazi bands even if they don't know anything about the political ideologies of these bands. Does it remain a problem for you to promote (or better said to let the exchange of) nazi music possible?

Well in Grindstuff, we have a large list of nazi bands and the ops are supposed to search for those bands and kick whoever has them...in my hub, i dont have the no nazi files rule..i dont agree with the ideology behind the music, but its only music, i despise censorship as much as i do racism.

14. Now lets come back to the fields of the fakkers and hackers! Did you get some problems with some hackers who tried to hack the hub in any way? Is your computer which hosts the hub's internal spine protected against any form of intrusion? What are these bastards able to do to damage a hub? Why do you think they do that?

Well in my hub, i've never had anyone try to hack it or anything, i suppose it's possible, but they'd have to hack my pc to do it...if they want to go to so much trouble just to shut it down i'd guess they have nothing better to do and just feel like being assholes...the world is full of them you know.

15.Can you tell us what the various kinds of fakers are? What are the worst ones ?

Fakers aren't really something evil, mostly fakers are around because a lot of hubs have super high minimum share to get in, and people that dont have that much to share go get programs that show they have a high amount shared when really they have nothing...just stupid leechers, we have programs to weed them out so they arent a big problem like they were in the 'old' dc days.

16.What about viruses circulating on the hub? Are there some actions taken againt this kind of crap? Is it possible that a virus starts to infest the whole hub and penetrate all the many users' computers? That would be total annihilation! Arf.

No i dont think its possible, unless everyone in the hub is completely retarded and doesnt pay attention to the file extensions...dont download something with an extension you don't recognize.

17.Few months ago, there were many more hubs for extreme music, but most of them died! The remaining crowded hub became overcrowded... Do you know what happened then? This process of purification occured quite early in my opinion…

Survival of the fittest, baby!!! the great ones live on always

18.How many maximum users can be into a hub? It there a physical limit, or is it only a single setting thing any hub owner can change?

It's individual to each hub, depending on what the owner's pc can handle...if its too high then the hub chat will lag.

19.Do you know the differences between a software like Soulseek and a hub such has yours? Does it work drastically the same way or are there any differences?

hmm i have no idea! i was on soulsuck for about 3 weeks and saw how much better dc was and have been on dc ever since ^_^

20.On Soulseek the download time is most of the time much slower than on DC++ hubs, do you know why?

Again i have no idea...maybe because we ROCK!! haha...really i dont know.

21. As many users here, you must download a lot of Mp3s! Do you find the time to listen to everythings? And to listen to everythings carefully? I happened to download so much, I didn't notice some bands that I enjoyed later once the Mp3s mayhem was over...

Oh yes i download a lot...i have more than 80gb shared right now and yes i listen to each album, check that i have all the tracks, fix the file names and tags so everything is just right before i share it.

22.Did you play in a band or do you currently play in a band?

Not really...i've played piano for many years and have sung in blues clubs occasionally but don't have a band...if you know some grind band that wants a chick screaming her lungs out, let me know !

23.What are you doing in your 'normal life'?

Hmmm i think i don't know the meaning of the word NORMAL!! hehe well if you mean what do i do everyday? i was working for a large banking company, but i quit that job a few weeks ago, and moved to new york, i havent found a new job yet.

24.What kind of music are you into?

GRIND BABY GRINNNNND!!! hehehe mostly grindcore and brutal death metal but also many other things, old school death metal, a little black metal, industrial, doom...anything but pop, nu metal, rap or country i guess.

25.Isn't it a temptation to kick and ban some users who share some music, which is Ok for the laws of the hub, but that seriously make you shit?? I happened to see many guys share both extreme metal and some pop for teens à la Chritina Aiguillera and other stupid shits! Some guys even don't know what they are doing here, they probably read 'Metal' somewhere and they might thought 'Cool! It's for eletronic music played with triangle!" arf.  In these cases do you severely kick their ass as they are definitely banned from the hub?

Tempted, yes...do i do it? no..if they have the minimum of extreme music they can stay, a lot of people have to share computers with other people who dont like the same music, i dont care really what else they have as long as they have the 2gb minimum of 'good' stuff

26.What will be the future for the [Grind][Stuff][Music hub in your opinion? Have you got more projects for the hub? To make it bigger? Easier?

Hmmm the owner of Grind Stuff has some things planned for the future i think, but i don't want to say since that one's not my hub...i know the plans for Vomitcum in the future will be (when the software for it is finished) is to link up with a few other extreme metal hubs and make one giant one.

27. When the fuck will you send me back my cock and right hand?? I sent it months ago and I fuckking need it as hell!!! Do you run an European metallers' cock collection or what the fuck?

Baby, you shouldn't have sent it to me if you needed it that bad, MAYBE i need it more than you do, i've been having fun with it every day and i think it's enjoying it's new home hehehehe !

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