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School of the Rock(tm) Discussion Forum Signup Page
The SchoolOfTheRock.com™ discussion forums offer a safe place to discuss Contemporary Christian Music, music performance, worship leading, saxophones and other musical instruments, and thorny theological questions.
Over the years, some of the articles on our web page have generated a lot of reader interest, but, unfortunately, our readers had no way of knowing that we were also hearing from other folks with similar experiences, concerns, and questions. With the forums, our readers can interact with each other and not just with me.
You can use this page to sign up for:
- The discussion forums at SchoolOfTheRock.com/forums. This is a place for discussion of topics related to Christian music and Saxophones (yes, that's an odd combination, but I have an odd history.) Unlike our private FB site, anybody can view the discussions, and most of the posts stay online indefinitely, so you can come back and look something up five years from now. However, you can use a nickname to protect your identity from other members and outsiders, plus membership is still strictly controlled, so you don't have to worry about rude people and "trolls."
- Our secret Facebook group: Independent Christian Musicians, - sorry you can't see it before you sign up, but that's how we can safeguard members who want to discuss serious topics, without everybody on the internet being notified. On the other hand, the way this works, you need to use your default personal facebook account to access it. So everyone within the group will know who you are. That said, we monitor every post and keep strict control over the tone and content of the discussion, so rude people get uninvited in a hurry.
Our free e-mail Momma Don't 'Low(tm) newsletter, which publishes updates about our music sites, including SchoolOfTheRock (Christian and Saxophones), CreekDontRise.com (acoustic, folk, and related forms), and Classic Train Songs.
Note for Real People Who Want to Sign Up - I would rather have ten people I know and trust on these forums than a thousand I don't. You may think I'm being intrusive or demanding by requiring you to give me real information before you sign up, but on other forums I've managed, that was the only way I could guarantee that every member feels safe from sniping or worse.
Sadly, every week dozens of spammers and jokesters fill out our forms thinking that somehow their unwelcome advertisements or content will show up on our sites (they don't). Some of those fake request from spammers even come with real people's names and e-mails attached - they've harvested someone else's address book so their requests would look legit. So I'm now asking people who want to subscribe to our forums to supply their real full name, city, state, and some information about themselves and their interests so we know it's it's not just a random spam attempt. You can also check off boxes that apply to you, and you can use the comment field to ask questions if you want. Considering how much personal information I've shared over the years on these web pages, I don't think that's asking too much. Again, NONE of your personal information will ever be revealed, sold, traded, or used in any way except for me to have a better idea of who my readers are.
Update for 2016 - A few years ago, when someone signed up with partial or apparently fake information, I used to e-mail them back and ask them to verify the request. As often than not, they had never heard of us - some spammer had just used their e-mail address in a vain attempt to hack our site. Unfortunately, that kind of followup on our part meant that we spend hours following up on would-be hackers that we could have spent helping out real people with real questions.
So, sadly, if you attempt to sign up with partial or apparently fake information, or a generic comment like "this looks like a fun site," we will delete your request without even getting back to you.
I heartily apologize for any inconvenience, but the fake sign-up requests have gotten out of control at our end, and we want to devote our attention to real people.
Finally, we'd like to know more about our reader base, too. So if you don't mind filling in a little survey, that will help us figure out what kinds of articles we should be working on next.
Paul Race
SchoolOfTheRock.com™
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