Some Thoughts I'd Like To Share

Jak Angelescu said:

Hello fellow students...

First I'd like to say that I'm saying this as a fellow student, not an admin. So please don't think I'm going on a tirade or being bossy and telling everyone what to do, how to act or what to say. I'm saying this as a student, and my experience with this site.

I've had some exchanges with some students about the community aspect of this site. As an admin and the mother of this school, I tried so hard to get students to focus more on the lessons of this site. No matter how hard I tried, I feel like I failed at that endeavor. And that's fine. The focus was always, and for some reason still will always be, on the community side. And that's fine too. As Syn says himself, "Use this site however it best helps you."

However, on Instagram some private group chats have formed. I advised against this as an admin from happening because I knew it would cause future issues. But I couldn't tell anyone what to do.

Some people have opinions on this site. And that's great. What's NOT great, is voicing your opinion and then demonizing others for sharing theirs when they don't agree with you or even shutting them down before they can voice it. Calling fellow students "entitled", "stupid", and other horrible things I've seen, is never called for. I have had students sharing their sadness about the community of this site and how "cliquey" and "high school" it's become in some aspects due to favoritism and off-site chats on Instagram. It's leading to many students not knowing where they fit in here, or if they even belong here.

I was practically here from the very beginning. And I've busted my ass off to make this place as good as I could during my reign here. Needless to say, some things that have been said about me fucking hurt. And they hurt... BADLY. Especially when I thought these people were my friends. I've never said anything mean or degrading about them, even when I was angry at them. If I was, I always said it to their faces.

Bottom line is that students are talking about other students behind their backs. They're belittling them for not agreeing with them. They're commenting on other's riffs and ignoring someone else. Favorites are being shown. And some students have openly admitted to "testing people" just to see how far they can take their boundaries.

I'm no longer an admin so I don't have to worry about saving face when I say "fuck that concept". It's bullshit bullying and it's rude. I have witnessed bullying and ganging up on other students on this site. If I didn't see it, the situation was brought to my attention.

Yes I have had my opinions on other students. But I have told them my issues with them to their faces. And I've tried hard to resolve these issues. But these harsh Instagram chats have gotten the best of this site to where it's being shown as a "high school that's hard to fit into" and no longer an "awesome guitar site that where we are all welcomed."
When I had private messages on here telling me "I would have commented on that but I know it would have caused a whole shit storm so I kept my opinions to myself", that's not okay. The fact that students on this site feel they have to have zipper lips or they'll be tarred and feathered is not cool. That's not this site. That's not OUR school.

Also, people have made fun of me for offering Bill's private lessons to students on here (Not you Dominik. You always poke playful fun and never have called me the horrible names I've been called). When you all stop gossiping about bullshit in the Instagram chats and actually give advice (if you can) to those who need it on their riffs, maybe I'll stop doing that. When I stop having to counsel students about them being upset as to why no one corrected their mistakes and they now feel embarrassed, maybe I'll stop doing that.


Needless to say, you all are welcomed here.

If you're overweight, you're welcomed here.
If you have a terrible camera, you're welcomed here.
If you are republican, liberal, democrat, gay, straight, alien, cisgender whatever you are welcomed here.
All opinions are respected here.
We want to see you post your riffs.
If you have PTSD, are pro-gun, anti-abortion, have severe anxiety or whatever, you're welcomed here.

I will definitely be spending more time trying to give equal love here to everyone on the riffs because I have so much more to offer now. And I have more free time to do so since I stepped down.

Also, feel free to leave your thoughts below. I'm sure I'll end up in one of those nasty private Instagram chats in some way shape or form, and honestly I've lost the energy to care. If you say bad shit about me then that's on you and your conscious. I'm just trying to be a voice for those who have came to me feeling they don't deserve to have one here.

Much love and welcome to 2021. I hope we all like it here.

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Kat the metalhead said:

This is old but I also didn’t feel welcomed to the school when I joined, I was ignored and felt left out and sadly still do.

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Donovan Etue said:

Well damn, this was sad to read. Thank you for bringing this up though Jak. I remember hearing about a group chat a few months ago and was curious about joining at first but ended up forgetting about it. I'm glad I didn't end up joining it. I see enough of this high school style drama where I live, where I went to school, and just way too much on other social media sites like Facebook. It's petty/pathetic and leads to nothing but more entitlement and issues. I hadn't witnessed much if any of it here or maybe I just didn't pay close enough attention to see it happening. I'm sorry you guys ended up as a target of it. That's wrong.

It's understandable why the forums/community section has become for most the mainstay of the site. The community has a few common interests. A7X, Synyster Gates, Guitar, and Metal Music. That covers a massive area of topics that can come up besides other topics that pop up outside of these realms. I will admit I go through periods where I probably spend more time than I should on the forums compared to the lessons.

I also definitely don't spend enough time checking out one of the most unique parts about the site. The Riff/Media section. Due to crappy internet speeds I tend to not browse through it since videos take a while to load and would count towards our data cap. As well as me not feeling like I know enough to really help someone by pointing out potentially bad habits when full well I have my own. I feel weird just leaving a "great job" comment since that really doesn't tend to help, but neither does critiquing someone's playing with potentially bad knowledge. I'll try and work on that this year.


I'm so sorry to hear that. I know if it wasn't for the community seeming so welcoming when I first gained the courage to start commenting I probably wouldn't have used the site as much as I have, have it become one of the few sites I visit a few times a day. To hear that you didn't and still feel left out is disheartening. I won't say I've watched all of your uploads on the riff page, that I think you have played perfectly from the start, or that you've gone from a rookie to a hall of fame level player since you joined. That'd be blowing smoke up your ass and I'd feel wrong doing so. I remember reading/talking with you before you first uploaded on here. You were nervous about getting good camera angles, trying to perfect things in your playing, and not sure what to really try and show off. But once you uploaded something I could tell you were a beginner. That's not an insult. I'm just stating what I saw. But you had something that got driven to improve and to succeed. I could tell you were really trying to do well. It's very noticeable that you've improved from that first upload to your recent upload of the Bat Country rhythm cover. Your playing is better and you seem more confident in your playing and your uploads which is awesome to see. You've got a long ways to go until you're a shred god but if you keep up with what you're doing. I believe you can get to that level a lot of people would like to be at. The type of player other players look up to.

Jak, I have no idea why people are making fun of you for regularly bringing up Bill and his lessons. You've improved a lot thanks to him and his lessons. As well as your intuition to improve which you do your damnedest to instill into fellow students here. I'd be talking about what helped me metaphorically level up a few levels too especially if I had been playing as long as you have. You're making sure/helping people realize that one thing that can really help take you to a new level in your playing is working with a guitarist/musician/teacher that is better than you. That has all the more years of experience both good and bad to help you avoid making mistakes they made. Thank you for doing so!

I don't want to ramble on too much more but thank you for bringing this forth. It's sad to hear this bullshit made it here. Hopefully with time and hopefully some self reflection people will look to improve themselves and get rid of the toxic crap that permeates all through out social media. This is an awesome place with a ton of knowledge. Fucking use it for that instead of being a toxic asswipe.

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Kat the metalhead said:

You are beyond amazing! You have been there for me since I joined the school and I am beyond thankful for that!! You made me feel welcomed and very much loved!

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Jak Angelescu said:

Hello fellow students...

First I'd like to say that I'm saying this as a fellow student, not an admin. So please don't think I'm going on a tirade or being bossy and telling everyone what to do, how to act or what to say. I'm saying this as a student, and my experience with this site.

I've had some exchanges with some students about the community aspect of this site. As an admin and the mother of this school, I tried so hard to get students to focus more on the lessons of this site. No matter how hard I tried, I feel like I failed at that endeavor. And that's fine. The focus was always, and for some reason still will always be, on the community side. And that's fine too. As Syn says himself, "Use this site however it best helps you."

However, on Instagram some private group chats have formed. I advised against this as an admin from happening because I knew it would cause future issues. But I couldn't tell anyone what to do.

Some people have opinions on this site. And that's great. What's NOT great, is voicing your opinion and then demonizing others for sharing theirs when they don't agree with you or even shutting them down before they can voice it. Calling fellow students "entitled", "stupid", and other horrible things I've seen, is never called for. I have had students sharing their sadness about the community of this site and how "cliquey" and "high school" it's become in some aspects due to favoritism and off-site chats on Instagram. It's leading to many students not knowing where they fit in here, or if they even belong here.

I was practically here from the very beginning. And I've busted my ass off to make this place as good as I could during my reign here. Needless to say, some things that have been said about me fucking hurt. And they hurt... BADLY. Especially when I thought these people were my friends. I've never said anything mean or degrading about them, even when I was angry at them. If I was, I always said it to their faces.

Bottom line is that students are talking about other students behind their backs. They're belittling them for not agreeing with them. They're commenting on other's riffs and ignoring someone else. Favorites are being shown. And some students have openly admitted to "testing people" just to see how far they can take their boundaries.

I'm no longer an admin so I don't have to worry about saving face when I say "fuck that concept". It's bullshit bullying and it's rude. I have witnessed bullying and ganging up on other students on this site. If I didn't see it, the situation was brought to my attention.

Yes I have had my opinions on other students. But I have told them my issues with them to their faces. And I've tried hard to resolve these issues. But these harsh Instagram chats have gotten the best of this site to where it's being shown as a "high school that's hard to fit into" and no longer an "awesome guitar site that where we are all welcomed."
When I had private messages on here telling me "I would have commented on that but I know it would have caused a whole shit storm so I kept my opinions to myself", that's not okay. The fact that students on this site feel they have to have zipper lips or they'll be tarred and feathered is not cool. That's not this site. That's not OUR school.

Also, people have made fun of me for offering Bill's private lessons to students on here (Not you Dominik. You always poke playful fun and never have called me the horrible names I've been called). When you all stop gossiping about bullshit in the Instagram chats and actually give advice (if you can) to those who need it on their riffs, maybe I'll stop doing that. When I stop having to counsel students about them being upset as to why no one corrected their mistakes and they now feel embarrassed, maybe I'll stop doing that.


Needless to say, you all are welcomed here.

If you're overweight, you're welcomed here.
If you have a terrible camera, you're welcomed here.
If you are republican, liberal, democrat, gay, straight, alien, cisgender whatever you are welcomed here.
All opinions are respected here.
We want to see you post your riffs.
If you have PTSD, are pro-gun, anti-abortion, have severe anxiety or whatever, you're welcomed here.

I will definitely be spending more time trying to give equal love here to everyone on the riffs because I have so much more to offer now. And I have more free time to do so since I stepped down.

Also, feel free to leave your thoughts below. I'm sure I'll end up in one of those nasty private Instagram chats in some way shape or form, and honestly I've lost the energy to care. If you say bad shit about me then that's on you and your conscious. I'm just trying to be a voice for those who have came to me feeling they don't deserve to have one here.

Much love and welcome to 2021. I hope we all like it here.

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