Jeff Wexler Posted August 5 Report Share Posted August 5 I am celebrating the 18 year anniversary of the JWSOUND site. I started the site in 2006 in response to the almost total meltdown of our beloved r.a.m.p.s. group. It was pretty much an immediate success with almost everyone who was on the newsgroup coming over to the JWSOUND site. We have a core group of members that go all the way back to the beginning of the site and are still with us, participating and contributing so much to our sound community — for this I am so grateful! We've had a few bumps in the road, a few updates that went badly, always striving to make things better for our members. We improved the Search routines, still not perfect but coupled with Google it has allowed our members to delve back into some of the most interesting posts from the past. We have over 15,000 registered members from, 23 different countries, we have had generous and unsolicited donations from so many that have been incredibly helpful for me to keep the site up and running. I'm open to any suggestions people might have to further improve the site and its functioning. Regards, Jeff Wexler CAS, your host at JWSOUNDGROUP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Salles Posted August 5 Report Share Posted August 5 Bon Anniversaire JWSOUNDGROUP !! Well done and thank you Jeff Wexler for inspiring us all, all over the world. I did not know the creation of the site was related to RAMPS group. Probably the only "email newsgroup" I had regularly checked at the time. Hopefully my English has improved by now 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Karlsson Posted August 5 Report Share Posted August 5 Congratulations and many thanks Jeff, IMHO this is still the best place for sound people to find help and useful info. Very much appreciated. (And wow, I just looked and I guess I joined in 2011, but I still feel like "the new guy" haha!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inspire Posted August 5 Report Share Posted August 5 Congratulations! I first investigated why this name is a group until I realized that these are your initials, am I right? I was wondering if the core of the group is going together, or do you know each other in the face? Good luck in the future! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted August 5 Report Share Posted August 5 Thanks again, Jeff. I was there for the RAMPS implosion, and was among the first group to defect to the new JWSound. All of us who were there back then were profoundly grateful that someone with deep technical knowledge, a gentlemanly disposition, unassailable credentials and a lifelong personal history in the motion picture business would build us a new "clubhouse" so to speak, and curate it so attentively and well. Motion picture production sound is kind of lonely business, and this forum has been a great source of inspiration, advice, consolation and friendship for soundies all over the world. My life in sound would have been much poorer without JWSound. THANKS JEFF!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dejan Ceko Posted August 5 Report Share Posted August 5 31 minutes ago, Philip Perkins said: My life in sound would have been much poorer without JWSound. Amin . Many thanks and congratulations . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Blankenship Posted August 5 Report Share Posted August 5 Philip put it so well! Eighteen years of JWS, and Jeff continues to contribute so much to the world of production sound! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minister Posted August 6 Report Share Posted August 6 Amazing! Thanks for the great forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrimic Posted August 6 Report Share Posted August 6 Many thanks Jeff for your commitment to our community. Hats off to you ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Reineke Posted August 6 Report Share Posted August 6 Congratulations and thanks Jeff. All kinds of great info for us PSMs and boom ops. I have been here for almost 14 of the 18 years the JWsound group has been in existence.. Prior to that, RAMPS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElanorR Posted August 6 Report Share Posted August 6 Thank you for this, JWSound is such a great archive of sound knowledge...uncorrupted by The Evil Algorithm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcopenhagen Posted August 6 Report Share Posted August 6 I just looked at my join date, and incredibly, it was 2006. I was under the wing of a great mixer, Nelson Stoll, and hungry for all things production sound. The forum was fertile ground for sharing knowledge in a healthy and open-hearted way, thanks to Jeff’s tireless devotion to it. It quickly blossomed into this wealth of information and insight into the shrouded secrets of location sound. Many thanks to Jeff, and to everyone who has contributed over the years. Happy 18th, JWSound! Brian Copenhagen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthias Richter Posted August 6 Report Share Posted August 6 joined in 2007 right in the beginning of my career (left uni in 2005) and still learning from the veterans but hopefully could contribute some of my knowledge too. Thanks Jeff for hosting this great online pub for us sound lovers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantin Posted August 6 Report Share Posted August 6 Thank you Jeff for this wonderful and informative site and congratulations to you for the success and longevity of it. since you asked, there are two things I would like to ask of you Jeff and of us as group. The first is to accept only real names. Signatures and whatever don’t show in the mobile version and I think it adds trust and credibility to the people who post and to those who want to join. Ideally the full name, too, and yes I am aware that I am guilty of that as well. There are many reasons why this might be good and many why it mightn‘t be, but I just want to put it iut there for now. The second ask is that we as a group should try to be more welcoming to newbies and to those who don’t work in sound but have questions about it. And to that end maybe for sub-forums might be useful which could open this group up to more visitors from other sound worlds. I know this site is dedicated to professional sound mixers, but I see a lot of the conservations moving to Facebook and away from here, and I think we should collectively try to change that, because Facebook is terrible in all kinds of ways and this site is much better, and we need to direct traffic here again. Thanks again Jeff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted August 7 Author Report Share Posted August 7 Constantin, even though you joined in 2012 I consider you as one of our core members who have contributed so much good constructive and informative posts over the years. Regarding the use of real names, I have always encouraged this but never felt that it was so important to actually institute security measures or sign up routines that mandate it. At a certain level what bothers me is that I feel like I have gotten to know so many people here but I do not like having conversations with "soundie276" or whatever. I will continue to think about this issue and thank you for bringing it up again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wandering Ear Posted August 7 Report Share Posted August 7 Congratulations Jeff! An incredible community you have built here. My only request is to keep going! Or at the very least make sure the community continues with the wise leadership you have provided if you ever tire of running it. Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VASI Posted August 7 Report Share Posted August 7 Happy Birthday to JWSOUND! My career would have not be the same without this community; BIG THANK YOU to all of you! Best, Vasileios Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantin Posted August 7 Report Share Posted August 7 22 hours ago, Jeff Wexler said: Constantin, even though you joined in 2012 I consider you as one of our core members who have contributed so much good constructive and informative posts over the years. Regarding the use of real names, I have always encouraged this but never felt that it was so important to actually institute security measures or sign up routines that mandate it. At a certain level what bothers me is that I feel like I have gotten to know so many people here but I do not like having conversations with "soundie276" or whatever. I will continue to think about this issue and thank you for bringing it up again. Thank you, Jeff, I really appreciate that! I was mostly just trying to think of ways to direct more traffic here and away from Facebook and thought that the name thing might be a start. Maybe others have better ideas and maybe that should be a separate discussion anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Documentary Sound Guy Posted August 7 Report Share Posted August 7 3 minutes ago, Constantin said: I was mostly just trying to think of ways to direct more traffic here and away from Facebook I think this comes down to bringing people in person by person. The traffic game is rigged by Facebook, Google and all the others. They spend billions of dollars to make sure people spend time there and not places like this. The only recourse we have is to continue making this a nicer place to spend time, and to actively bring people here, one at a time, via in-person conversations and connections, and to continue making this the place where important conversations about film sound happen. It's worth considering some of the things that people can get here that they can't get elsewhere. Off the top of my head, those things include: A place to buy and sell expensive gear with other working professionals. It's easier to trust and vet people here because the community is small enough that reputation is relatively easy to verify. A searchable back-catalogue of information and opinions about our craft that goes back 18 years. All credit to Google for indexing JWSound so that it is frequently the best / only source of information about our equipment and workflow. I'm sure this history brings in traffic. If you want to learn about a particular piece of equipment, this forum beats social media hands down because the algorithm is transient by nature. It's not intended to leave a permanent record. Advice and opinions that are more experienced, level-headed and knowledgeable than social media. Yes, we have our share of grumpy old men, but the forum format lends itself to longer, more detailed and thoughtful answers than the chat-style comment box of social media. I briefly tried to balance my time between here and the location sound subreddit. I'm here because the level of responses on Reddit tend to be film-student level, and there are professionals here. These are the things to keep in mind when having real conversations with other sound mixers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted August 8 Report Share Posted August 8 I would add that one of the things one gets here @ JW that is generally lacking elsewhere is the ability to talk to other mixers who have dealt with situations that only an experienced mixer would have ever encountered or would understand. These can be technical but can also be in the realm of "the handling of the famous and powerful". Very valuable.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted August 8 Author Report Share Posted August 8 11 hours ago, Philip Perkins said: I would add that one of the things one gets here @ JW that is generally lacking elsewhere is the ability to talk to other mixers who have dealt with situations that only an experienced mixer would have ever encountered or would understand. These can be technical but can also be in the realm of "the handling of the famous and powerful". Very valuable.... So true and you have been with us from the very beginning, always offering up an amazing variety of work experiences you've had. In the beginning I was often surprised by the types of jobs you were doing until at some point I realized that of course Philip is doing a mayonnaise commercial one day and a symphony music recording the next day. I learned a lot from you. Thank you for sticking with us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martijn76 Posted August 15 Report Share Posted August 15 Congratulations!! With 18 years of sharing and community building. This place continues to be among the best if not the best. I feel very lucky i stumbled on here more then 10 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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