Welcome to PianoClack!

CyberGene

Hello and Welcome to PianoClack

This is a forum for all piano enthusiasts who also love to chat about the little things in life! The moderation here is minimal and every topic is allowed, especially off-topic since it's what makes us friends ☀️ However, insults, vulgar language and hate speech are not allowed. While we all have different opinions and are welcome to express them freely, let's try to keep the atmosphere friendly and respectful 🕊

clack | klak |
verb

make or cause to make a sharp sound or series of such sounds as a result of a hard object striking another: [no object] : he heard the sound of her heels clacking across flagstones | [with object] : he clacked the castanets in fine syncopation.
[no object] archaic chatter loudly: he will sit clacking for hours.

There are no sub-forums here as on other forums. At least not exactly. Instead the concept of tags is being used. There are the so called primary tags and it is mandatory that you assign one of them to every new post:

Pianos
Pianist
General

These are like main sub-forums. There are also the so called secondary tags that you can optionally assign to a thread to better describe its content, such as e.g. DIY, Knowledge, etc. If there's a thread with some videos, you may add the Recordings tag. You can assign up to three secondary tags. More about the tags and their organization HERE (registered only). You can select on the left what threads you would like to see, you can read "All Discussions" regardless of their categories (tags) or you can choose to see discussions with only a specific tag. By clicking on the "Tags" link you will see a map with all the primary and secondary tags.

Links to Some Useful Tips

(These are only visible to registered users)

Private messaging on the forum

How to upload pictures and files

How to format text in your posts

How to insert nice looking tables in your posts

How to hide discussions with a certain tag - if you don't feel comfortable with sensitive topics such as politics

Introduce yourself

On the main forum screen you can always click the "Info" link next to the forum logo to open a page containing links to these tips.

CyberGene

Why was this forum created

Since there's some confusion over the history and purpose of this forum, I will repost a quote:

This forum was created after a few people got banned on PianoWorld forums for a pretty mild thing: off-topic. I have been banned on PW myself for off-topic twice, the second time for an entire month. Since I am a software engineer but had never had any real experience with hosting and maintaining a forum/website, I wanted to learn it for fun and to understand what was required to create your own forum. And so, the bans on PW turned out to be a good opportunity for combining my tech-driven curiosity with the idea of offering PW members a space where they can speak their mind without fear. My idea was not to steal people off PW. It was mostly like an off-topic zone to PW, one where people shouldn't be afraid to discuss even politics. (This happens here from time to time and I understand not everyone is happy with reading such topics, so it's pretty easy on this forum to hide topics with a certain tag, e.g. "Politics". There's a sticky explaining how to do that). But anyway, this forum got its own traction and we're still discussing mainly pianos, piano playing, DIY MIDI projects, music, composers - it's all a serious talk about hardcore piano stuff. And a bit of off-topic chat 🙂 When the forum was created, some PW members also registered here. Almost nobody left PW for PianoClack. My idea was never to steal forum members and I've never expected people here should stop using PW.

CyberGene

Limitations for new users

A lot of forums on the Internet suffer from spammers. Our forum is a small one and, as of now, we don't have any full-time moderators, which is why there are some limitations imposed upon the newly registered users:

Users are considered newbies until they create 5 posts.
Newbies cannot upload files.
Newbies cannot start private discussions
Newbies cannot like posts
Newbies cannot flag (report) posts
Newbies can reply in discussions tagged with the "Politics" tag but their posts will go through an approval first
Newbies can post in other discussions freely without an approval, however there's an automated detection logic that may decide that the post needs to go through an approval anyway (too short content, links to anything but YouTube, content that is not English, emails, phone numbers, etc.)
The above logic will be applicable for the entire first day even if the user creates more than 5 posts (and even if they go through an approval and get approved by the moderators)

Once a user makes more than 5 posts, the limitations are removed (except for the first day scrutiny that may still trigger for a post based on its content and hold it for approval).