Dec 18, 2019

I think those talking about marginalising the Eminem section to help this site grow are off-base. No one in hip hop has ever reached the level of obsessed cult-following fandom Em has had (and inexplicably continues to have...). The new blood for RB and SL was 90% Eminem fans: RB grew because of the D12 connection in the early days (if I remember right the last 2-3 years of its existence there were very few new members who were active and stuck around). SL grew primarily due to Koolo's leaks and the Straight from the Vault EP. Most rappers most listened to song on Spotify is whatever song of theirs features Eminem. Eminem fans also tend to be neekier and more autistic than say Drake or Kendrick (or whichever rapper is hottest atm), which are good traits to target if your aim is to rope people into actively posting on a hip hop message board for years. A lot of these fans can be moulded into good posters over time.

Anyway, my suggestions:
1. StudioLeaks should have never been shut down and re-branded. Kendrick stans are mostly part of that cohort of people (teens to early 20s now I guess) who have never used message boards and hold their online music discussions on sites like twitter, facebook or reddit. In the golden era of message boards, there weren't really any websites that EVERYONE seemed to be a member of like FB and Twitter. Once that started happening, the need to scope out smaller online subcultures to find people with similar interests as you diminished. That's okay, and message boards will probably still survive in the long-term as they're better for developing subcultures than huge social media sites owned by big corporations/funded by big money which are used by too many people and which end up pretty sanitised and censorious because the media will jump on anything controversial, and they have shareholders they're accountable to. But the rebrand from SL to S.80 (and the need for every single member of SL to re-register on a completely new site...one which had no downloads at all) hurt this site.
Even if Koolo stopped leaking, the eternal branding that site had from dropping so many leaks was gold...even now on youtube videos of the songs Koolo leaked there's often a lot of comments talking about StudioLeaks and Koolo...no mention ever of SectionEighty. There is no reason for anyone to ever find this site really. Dropping a tape of unreleased songs from the highest selling artist of the 21st century was basically a great marketing move that would have lasted for pretty much the rest of eternity. But it was wasted when the site was completely re-branded, just because Koolo stopped actively leaking.
2. Downloads section: I don't know about the legality behind this nowadays, but the downloads section is what kept me coming back to RB in my first couple years when I didn't really give a s--- about the rest of the site and didn't post much. By force of habit of logging in every day to check the new singles posted, I eventually checked out the rest of the site and became active. Without the downloads section I probs wouldn't have logged in much in my first year, and then forgot about it completely. If it is at all possible to have a Downloads section (preferably hidden to guests) then I think this would be a great idea to help the site grow.
3. Censorship: Probably a bit controversial, but what helped me to stick around on RB (and get more actively involved in the non-music discussions) was the trolling, savagery and lack of censorship. It stood out from the other hip hop boards I had been on, which were a lot more sanitised and PG. And probably contributed to me ending up solely on RB and forgetting all about the other 2-3 I used to check occasionally. I think a totally uncensored website (perhaps only bans for illegal content) would be a bold move and would stand out and attract the type of people who might make this site vaguely interesting again (JMG types, but not as old and washed up). I guess also most people who have the time to post 20-30x a day are teens, and teens love being able to say whatever the f--- they want without having a finger wagged at them (or being permaban'd).

I think that's all I can suggest because I don't use S.80 enough to comment on much else. I will say I really hate the design of this site. It's too clean and the way we have to navigate it (sections at the top) doesn't seem intuitive, but that could just be me.

I do miss this system

 

Oct 21, 2015

I can shout the site out on one of my songs, idk if it would work or not but I stand on a corner during rush hour and hand out my mixtapes panhandle style and I get 100-200 people a day to take and play a cd. I get 500+ plays on soundcloud a day from around the world, I'm sure that could help. I perform every weekend at colleges around Houston, I could shout you guys out at my shows too but you gotta help me promote my s--- when I drop it. Check me out:

 

Jun 7, 2015

Oh man i didnt Tag him for a reason

Forrestgumprun.jpg

 

Nov 30, 2015

 

Sep 6, 2017

Can we have like minor goals along the way @Koolo? Like a picture of you and every $100 or so it updates and an item of clothing is removed?

Asking for a friend

 

Jun 10, 2015

I think we should be able to poke each other like facebook

 

May 12, 2015

SectionEighty has so many talented members. From Creative SXN producers and rappers to writers/bloggers to app designers and app creators to mods and admins.

Feel privileged to be a part of this site.

 

Oct 2, 2015

i blame eminems music

 

Feb 12, 2017

@Ordinary Joel gave me the most likes? Didn't see that coming

 

Apr 18, 2015

 

Jan 19, 2018

give it 5, m8

 

Jan 19, 2018

Inb4 Fugazi leaks Relapse 2 and Nut up

 

May 14, 2017

Like srsly do you rly want this

Over this

 

Jun 16, 2015

I like this.

Tried to put a crown icon in the circle, but it's so small that it's hard to make anything look good, so best I could get:






FYI, if anyone ever needs icons, check out http://flaticon.com

 

Nov 19, 2015

here m8

 

Oct 28, 2015

Posting live from the caddy with the app. d--- it feels good to be a gangster.