Eric B.

I'd been a user of RYM for over a decade. But I just can't stand it anymore. If I were rating the RYM of 2014, I might give it a 3 or 4. But today, in 2024, it's devolved significantly into a very ugly and oppressive place, worthy of the worst possible rating. And this is because the mods and admins have become unbearably strict and authoritarian. They keep adding more draconian rules that suck all the life, variety, and individuality out of the site. Rock music is probably the most popular genre on RYM. But ironically, the anal-retentive and humorless owners & mods are the least "rock and roll" people on the planet.

There used to be a lot of cool and interesting contributors to the site. People who had fun and engaging profiles, compelling and/or humorous reviews, and uniquely thought-provoking lists. But now almost all those people are gone (and their lists & reviews deleted). Many of them were banned for petty and arbitrary reasons. And the rest of them have voluntarily abandoned their accounts after years of increasing harassment from the fascistic moderation team.

Lets look at the review system, for example. Ostensibly, anyone can join RYM and write their own personal reviews of any album, single, or film. But over time, almost all of the best and most interesting reviews would get unpublished or deleted. This is because the rules for what counts as an "acceptable" review on RYM became ridiculously strict and rigid. It's literally to the point where the most famous professional rock critics of the 70s/80s/90s (Lester Bangs, JD Considine, David Marsh, etc) would not have their reviews accepted on RYM. Too much creativity and individuality. No, can't have that! In order to be acceptable to RYM standards, your review must fit inside the most bland, sterile, cookie-cutter box. It's gotten so bad that if you look at the RYM reviews that are still visible, you'll see that most of them could have been written by Chat GPT. It's pathetic.

But whatever you do, don't you dare complain. This is because the main owner (Sharifi) and his moderation team are the most petty and vindictive people on the internet. If you complain, they retaliate and bully you. They attack your character. They gaslight you. They constantly accuse you of "bad faith" just for wanting the freedom to be yourself. Or they send their friends to troll your page with abusive comments. Then they punish you with warnings or suspensions based entirely on their false allegations. It's disgusting and inexcusable. Verdict: This site sucks. It sucks because of the dictatorial attitude of it's owner and admins.

Message to the owners: Stop banning the most interesting members. Stop unpublishing the most interesting reviews. Stop deleting the most interesting lists. Stop trying to force the entire community into cookie-cutter mini versions of yourselves. Let a diversity of styles and opinions flourish, instead of suppressing them. Then, and only then, you might eventually have a site that's worth coming back to.