Hah! I laughed to see that Gearslutz are re-branding as Gearspace…
I still remember my initial shock exploring that site when I started out home recording … wooh… 10 years ago… What a ghastly bastion of opinionated macho condescension it seemed to me… A real shocking glimpse of a culture that felt so startlingly outdated.
likely for good reason lol… well I dont think I have ever visited that site voluntarily for anything useful 
That was the right thing to do for sure (although an even better thing to do would have been to avoid the offending name in the first place).
However, I very much doubt that this will trigger a significant change in the behavior of those who are oblivious of the issue.
Gearspace looks like a big kids playground to me, but among the noise there is some really valuable information, if you’re willing to go through the hassle of finding it.
My initial reaction was that it was silly to change the name, but then I thought about it a bit.
I’m lucky to have friends who would never use that word in a derogatory way, and live and work in situations where I basically never come across the use of the word “Slut” as a gendered insult - it’s a bit like the “C” word; in the US, my understanding is that it is a gendered word, and consequently it’s not only very rude, it’s also specifically employed to demean women. Whereas in the UK, the word is non gendered - while it’s still a very rude word, it consequently doesn’t have the same targeted nastiness or have the same problematic sexist/demeaning connections.
In the same way, in my world the word “Slut” is only used to describe someone who’s obsessed with something to the point that others can lightly mock them for it. About the nastiest way it’s deployed in my life is when one of my cats gets very friendly with me about 25 minutes before their dinner time.
But the word doesn’t carry the same essentially toothless meaning or connotations for everyone, not by a long shot. If there are people who don’t like the word because of how it’s used in their lives, I’m absolutely fine with a gear website removing it from their name.
I do agree that it does nothing about the often very toxic culture/ behaviour there, though.
I personally don’t care one way or another, but I thought when it was gearslutz it was at least an accurate description of what to expect there. I think there’s something to the fact that while all the other forums crumbled, gearslutz was the only one that kept hanging on. I think its own stupidity is the thing that drew people back to it.
People, in general, are more active when they are emotionally charged. That’s why science advances fastest during war. It’s why you almost never hear songs about how neutral and satisfying life is. Gearslutz thrived on that.
I don’t think a name change will immediately change the atmosphere that kept it alive, but I think it’s going to be a step in that direction. For gearslutz to try to say “we’re not assholes” is like Ford saying “We no longer make cars, we make pianos.” It’s going to be a tough rebranding unless they do it right, it’s going to wither and die like every other forum.
That is a gorgeous phrase!!!
I remember telling someone on the old form ‘Gearsluts doesn’t like me’ and someone else told me ‘you said it backwards’ lol.
As somebody who’s always looking for audio help and audio opinions, I’ve ended up on “Gearspace” without knowing which site I was actually reading. 3 or 4 comments down a thread and I would know exactly which site I was reading. They can rebrand it, but that won’t change the content and tone of the threads in the forums…
Gearspace
I think it’s lame.
Just for that they should be known as GearPutz. 
I would have recommended the branding GearSpice. “What you really really want.”
Better, eh? 
.
Hey Emma,
Thanks for your capsule description, “…a ghastly bastion of opinionated macho condescension.” Love it, can’t agree more. As a manufacturer, we have been approached by the ’Slutz to advertise. As yet, I haven’t been able to justify endorsing (through advertising) such a poorly curated, unhelpful bunch of trolls and dilettante as can be found on that forum. Even some of the pros, whom one would think should know better, reveal their insecure and acerbic side when posting only sarcasm and patent ego stroking.
Before I say anything, please understand that I’m speaking for myself and am in no way bashing or meaning to confront anyone who has pasted here. I’m just sharing an opinion which is solely mine.
I always thought the name fit. I’m not one that allows words to rule my world. My fiance and I say the C word and actually laugh about it because of how and when we say it. We’ve found funny/cute ways to say it. We’ll add stuff like C-tabulous, or an “ie” or “saur” at the end. Trust me, we really have a good time. If you’re a prude, you won’t like us. I’ll say something like “but I said it with a K so it’s less harsh!”
Laughing at words and not allowing them to rule my world is a monkey off my back. Knowing we can say anything without offending each other is so awesome. And get this…we have never fought and called each other names or used any swear words. That’s a no no.
There’s a time and a place for everything but the wussification in this world makes me sicker than a trucker without a filter.
We have rap and pop artists pushing their sexually oriented material to our youth and people are concerned with gender issues and the use of the word slut on a site you need to sign up for. Think about that for a second. Talk about priorities being skewered?!
That said, I’ve never been a fan of GS simply because like this site used to sort of experience when Brandon ran it, (as well as other audio sites) you have guys that think they know everything that never show what they are capable of.
To me there’s nothing worse than a big mouth that has poor teaching skills that doesn’t lead by example with anything that is worth talking about or learning from.
They post all these links and intelligent jargon leaving an inexperienced user totally confused while they attempt to make you think this field is some sort of dark art. It isn’t and never has been.
There is of course, some good stuff on GS. But for the most part, it’s simply a site where the majority are full of themselves. They know so much yet if you type their name in a search engine, you’ll see a goose egg and numerous posts on GS only. Yeah, there’s the guy I want to learn from.
I think the name change was stupid. The name they had for the personality of the site as well as the people that are there to deter you, totally fit. We’re blessed to have a site like this one where people actually know what they’re talking about who try and help. That’s what it’s all about.
I have no idea what that means but it sounds funny 
Personally I wasnt offended by the site mainly because I had never visited it, so I didnt even know it was an issue lol… but maybe that’s part of their problem. They are turning into a dinosaur by lacking appeal to more and more people. Atleast by changing names they are getting good and bad publicity equally.
I can relate to both sides of the argument “for and against” the name change for GS.
The name doesn’t make me uncomfortable and I can’t imagine any name of any site making me feel uncomfortable unless it was directed at a specific group or individual personally and with malicious intent.
The name of that site might be abrasive to some people but we have to be careful that we don’t censor every little perceived “bad word”. I think many people are viewing the name change politically or from a right and wrong perspective but I think GS is changing their name because they are losing business opportunities from companies that refuse to advertise on their site. These companies don’t want to be associated with the word “slutz”. The current political climate is creating a social pressure for businesses (and individuals & groups) to follow a certain standard. Society has standards and rules that we follow every day. These standards are important for us. We have laws to enforce some of them and we have social pressure to enforce others. It’s important for humanity to treat all humans with decency and care. Animals and nature should be treated the same way also. I can sort of understand how some people might be offended by that name but I have a hard time understanding the intense personalization of that name. If GS was called skinnyLonghairedUglyWhiteboyMusiciansDickheadCanadianAssholesMusicSite I would have a really difficult time being offended by that. It would be a terrible name though, haha. 
With all the political correctness and cancel culture happening I’m starting to wonder if art and lyrics are going to be put under stricter censorship. Is my name “Wicked” going to be censored eventually? I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that an extremely religious person or group was offended by my name. So if I wanted to advertise my band “Wicked”on Facebook would I one day find out that my band page and all my social media accounts have been suspended because my name was offensive. What happens to our music that has lyrics that are “perceived” as malicious or naughty? The reason I’m mentioning this is because I did have my band account unpublished and deleted from Facebook recently without any explanation. I tried to make a new band page with the same name and it was also unpublished and deleted. So, what other potential damage can come from this kind of censorship?
I think that some of the GS member’s behaviour was much more offensive and toxic than the name of the site. The site would’ve been much improved had they banned abusive members. They’re only changing their name now so that they can maintain and improve their business reputation and revenue.
I’ve never been offended by the name, just find the whole thing highly amusing!
A rose by any other name…
is it still a rose?
O… don’t get started Emma, just don’t…
I’ll call it Cancel Culture and Identity Politics. You can get away with lots of crap if people approve, like the Grammy Awards performance of two female ‘artists’ banging each other on stage (10M views!), but you can’t use certain names, words, or identifiers anymore without losing corporate sponsorships, etc. I was a teenager in 1976 when Richard Pryor released a comedy album called Bicentennial N*****, and even then a white person couldn’t actually say that (bleeped) word. But Richard could, and the album sold masses of copies with very little controversy whatsoever. “Black” artists were heralded, and “gay” artists and performers (Elton John, Freddie Mercury) were “normal”. Now, if you question anything, you’re called a white supremacist. Everything is turned on its head, but I’m afraid the younger generations don’t have that perspective. They say that it takes 20-30 years to indoctrinate a new generation, and I believe that is what has happened.
The old pro’s have said “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”, so it really doesn’t matter. Having public exposure has always been about marketing, so people will watch you for the good and bad pretty equally (see: Grammy Awards - banging). It’s up to you to discern which you want to support with your eyes and your dollars.
Lol I’ll explain. I was being respectable to you, Emma and any other women here. 
If you change the W in “wussification” (which is a made up word) to a “P” it’s more harsh and pretty much means our world is being slowly wimpified (another made up word lol) to where every little thing seems to hurt someone in some way.
And then the response is to change something major because of this person or their small majority that really doesn’t do anything to improve our world. After a while it gets so ludicrously pathetic, you can’t believe this is what our world has become.
Hope that explains it better.
This is all about power.
Gearslutz changed its name because 5000 people signed an online petition requesting the name change and founder Julian Standen decided to change it.
If you like the name Gearslutz you should start your own petition.
Stan, man, don’t get me started with the black thing. I’m beyond repulsed by that whole thing. The double standards in the world are just out of control. They can use colors to identify with something and we cannot, yet we’re always the racists.
I’m tired of seeing BET, Black chic’s rock on Xbox and anything with “black” in the title. If we created WET (white entertainment TV) we’d be called racists, there would be protests, riots, killing. If we started ANY ORGANIZATION with the word white, we’d be racists. I don’t want to see or start a white organization, but my point is, if someone wanted to, they should be able to. What’s right for one should be right for the other.
I recently was called a racist for worshipping “Jesus the Jew” and for not acknowledging that Jesus was/is black. After that comment, I have no bones telling people of color what I think of them for playing this race card. How dare they attempt to dictate who I worship.and what my Lord may look like.
My belief is, if Jesus existed, his appearance would most likely be middle eastern. But who really knows or cares enough to fight about it or call a person a racisr? If Jesus is black with 3 heads, I’m cool with that. But if we don’t know for sure, you can’t go around calling someone racist for not believing as you do.
I have no issues with anyone believing their spiritual force looking and being whatever they want them to be. My issue is when you bash me for my beliefs and try to force feed me your racist way of thinking. Yet I’m the racist? Seriously? I will not eat double standards and could care less what people think of me. I speak my mind about it whenever I can.
Speaking of the N word, it blows me away that such an ugly word which they hated since it was used for the first time, is so widely accepted and used by them. My way of thinking now? If the shoe fits, wear it with pride.
Idiots don’t even realize they make their entire race, including the wonderful black folks, look bad.
I’ve never had a racist bone in my body. I’ve had rappers in my studio for many years. I have black friends over my house, I broke the racism barrier with my parents when they were alive because they had issues with black folks from years ago living in Philly as kids being beat up. Having my parents accept black folks was a special day for me.
So when someone calls me a racist, I go postal. In first grade I invited 2 little black boy twins to my birthday party at my house. My mom felt she needed to hide it from my dad. When he got home, I told him. Those little children did nothing to him.
To this day, I’m friends with those twins. I recently saw them at my highschool reunion. One of them hugged me and said “you are love…when my brother and I think of you we see love. Thank you for always accepting us.” I didn’t know what to say man. So I teared up and hugged him super tight.
I try like heck not to allow the world to make me bitter or change me. But it seems to be getting harder and harder. I’m a guy who calls it like he sees it. Wrong is wrong and right is right. The problem is, no one has the guts to step up and admit being wrong nor do they step up to the plate to help fix the wrong for the future.
We live in a world where blame is placed on everyone and every thing other than the person/people who are guilty of starting the mess. So much gets swept under the rug, it’s beyond pathetic.
Anyway, oh yeah…Gearspace…screw them too. LMAO! Sorry for hijacking, Emma! 
I worry a bit how often something like this is immediately linked to cancel culture and then immediately political opinions about race follow - it’s something I’ve seen a lot. More than ever before in admittedly only 15-20 years of adult life, it seems like people are coiled springs of interconnected beliefs and you can’t poke one idea without the whole mass pouring out like a wave.
I’ve seen it in my own parents and grandparents - conversations that leap from idea to idea with non sequiturs or “and what about…” “and another thing…”
I’m not even saying I’m not guilty of it myself. I do try to avoid being certain in my world view though, because when I was younger I had a very defined one and it kept on proving me wrong.
@Danny_Danzi, specifically on race, I am totally ok with Black people identifying as black, especially in America which has a huge history into recent times of racism. The UK isn’t without shame either. It takes decades to recover from that. In my opinion, it’s very different when a White person wants to create a group specifically about and for white people because historically White people have been getting their way at the expense of Black people anyway. So… if Black whatever helps get society onto an even playing field so that race can genuinely be ignored, I’m cool with it.
The problem in the world is that most people are inherently self centred, and no matter how strong the case is for helping a specific group that’s historically been oppressed, as soon as someone feels like someone else is getting help that they’re not, they’re up in arms about it. Especially in America, which has such an individualistic culture (in some ways it’s quite primitive, for all its wealth and power, since it’s only really 120 years since it stopped being a frontier society)
I try to be a bit more dispassionate, but then if we ever met you’d find out just how self deprecating I am and perhaps understand where I come from.
I now favor the name GearNutz. Did they not consider that one? 
The power thing (and the double standards) is out of control, everywhere. I just saw that near the trial of Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, BLM is stopping cars in the street and saying " Honk for George Floyd, or else!" So if they honk, they let them pass on by. I can only guess what the mob will do if people don’t comply.
Oh, and thanks for your candor Danny. The world has gone completely Nutz!
