Mmmm so some interesting Delcamp friction…
EDIT (02/09/11): FABIO ZANON NOT BANNED ACCORDING TO COMMENT BELOW
It seems that Delcamp has been the subject of some debate on other guitar forums, apparently mainly due to the heavy-handed moderators.
First noticing it on this thread (“wasn’t it the case that many interesting personalities avoid this forum, because of bad experiences with it… I’m talking about Matanya Ophee, Frédéric Zigante, Fabio Zanon”), I followed a link to here, where details of other bad experiences were related in the comments at the bottom, my personal favourite being:
with ridiculous censorship, the low quality of knowledge of the moderators, what remains? Beginners being mislead by know-all wannabe’s, being mislead by … (Did I mention the holier-than-thou, let’s-be-friendly-to-everyone people ?)
Upon quoting this as “interesting”, I was informed by PM that my comment had been deleted by a mod. Ironic huh?
I found this after following up the Matanya Ophee reference. My favourite here is:
one man’s twisted notion of himself as an arbiter of guitar issues. The end result of his stupid arrogant policies is that membership is reduced to the lowest common denominator, and the discussion level is pitifully pedestrian infantilism.
This year Mr. Ophee was nominated for a GFA lifetime acheivement award - he is not a person to be sniffed at, and it’s ridiculous to delete him from a forum… He also looks like Santa Claus on holiday 
Some selected Delcamp agonies:
http://www.gprotab.net/forum/topic.php?id=1625
http://guitarra.artepulsado.com/foros/archive/index.php/t-3851.html
And as usual someone took it slightly too far and made a youtube video about it
Yeah, just be careful with those Delcamp freaks, who know nothing, but censor everything: They need their self-congratulatory mannerisms in order to boost their own esteem and hide their inferiority.
They were very quick to close this topic… but not before insulting the original poster.
http://www.delcamp.us/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38562
July 8, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Link update:
http://www.classicalguitardelcamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38562
February 27, 2012 at 9:11 pm
http://www.delcamp.us/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38562
They were quick to close this thread. But not after first insulting the original poster.
July 8, 2011 at 6:54 pm
Word of caution though…
watch out for Ophee. He ain’t no Santa Claus!!!
Or if he is, he’s the Santa from hell.
He’s not shy, about telling people what he thinks!
And there’s quite some controversy around him…
basically he’s funny and eccentric, but sometimes he can be quite harsh…
Anyway…
Matanya Ophee only got the GFA lifetime achievement award, because he deleted some interesting content (e.g. his thoughts on the GFA and Parkening).
Luckely the data was archived:
Here is: classic Matanya coming at you with guns loaded… my friend:
http://web.archive.org/web/20051218090027/http://www.orphee.com/rmcg/charles.htm#Parkening
His blog:
http://matanya.livejournal.com/
Other stuff…
http://www.cesura17.net/~will/Music/Jokes/Ophee/ophee.html
hehe
July 8, 2011 at 7:05 pm
It is very interesting though, and as far as I can see there’s not that much I can disagree with on his Parkening assessment.
July 8, 2011 at 8:24 pm
With all respect to Ophee main accomplishments and knowledge…
including his criticism of Parkening (e.g. bringing religion into the guitar in an inappropriate manner)
…but his comments and belief that Parkening was unable to play the prelude of Bach’s BWV 1006a at the speed at which it was recorded is really mediocre garbage. Pitty that Ophee sometimes dips down to the frivolous.
July 13, 2011 at 6:27 am
Talking about Parkening…
The competition is a joke. First of all: why on earth create a competition in his name?
That’s ridiculous. He’s almost a nobody of the classical guitar world, and now has a competition with really big prizes named after him.
Secondly: Have you seen the required repertoire. I’m come on!!! Get real!
To force someone to have to play sheetmusic arranged by Parkening is close to a crime. What the hell: do they think we’re not capable of creating our own good arrangements (or sourcing good ones)???
Complete lack of artistic freedom.
July 8, 2011 at 9:02 pm
All competitions are jokes in fundamental ways, ie. music is not sprinting in olympics etc etc etc everyone knows what I’m on about so I won’t go on any more.
July 8, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Look at the colourful crowd who’ll be competing at the 2012 Parkening competition:
http://www.classicalguitardelcamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=65852#p737309
April 10, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Looks interesting…
As interesting as a competition could be anyway xD
BOOM HEADSHOT!
April 10, 2012 at 9:38 pm
Personally I think the delcamp forum is the best for positive and helpful comment for amateur guitarists and a lot of people seem to agree. His ‘rules’ are spot on.
July 9, 2011 at 7:58 am
Yeah I mean it’s just what’s your cup o cha right? Just thought it was interesting
July 9, 2011 at 10:15 am
So what forum options do guitarists have??
There’s Delcamp with censorship and low quality standard people. All the good posts are from people who don’t stay there long.
There’s LNT Guitar Forums, which is the haven of copyright offenders. They have scores (sheetmusic), mp3s and videos to reach to the moon.
Not really a good place to be, unless you’re willing to play by their paranoid idiosyncratic rules.
There’s rec.music.classical.guitar, which is for American middle-aged male men to hang out. Ophee’s lurking around there.
There’s Acoustic guitar’s classical corner. Very American.
There’s Guitar Salon. Again very American.
There’s classicalguitar.nl. Was dead. Now seems to work again. I dunno.
Then there’s blogs… it’s fun to post in the comments section! Usually blogs have people that are a bit more advanced. But there are also some problems… You cannot create your own topic. Your at the mercy of the blog owner, who can reject your posts, etc.
Oh well…
July 9, 2011 at 2:57 pm
So what forum options do guitarists have??
There’s Delcamp with censorship and low quality standard people. All the good posts are from people who don’t stay there long.
There’s LNT Guitar Forums, which is the haven of copyright offenders. They have scores (sheetmusic), mp3s and videos to reach to the moon.
Not really a good place to be, unless you’re willing to play by their paranoid idiosyncratic rules.
There’s rec.music.classical.guitar, which is for American middle-aged male men to hang out. Ophee’s lurking around there.
There’s Acoustic guitar’s classical corner. Very American.
There’s Guitar Salon. Again very American.
There’s classicalguitar.nl. Was dead. Now seems to work again. I dunno.
Then there’s blogs… it’s fun to post in the comments section! Usually blogs have people that are a bit more advanced. But there are also some problems… You cannot create your own topic. Your at the mercy of the blog owner, who can reject your posts, etc.
Oh well…
July 9, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Yeah of course so serious musicians who for some reason chose to play the guitar have a problem. When it comes down to it forums can be good for discussion, but infinitely better is talking to other like-minded people in person…
By the way please bear with me, I approve all comments left by real people, but there’s too much smam to leave it on auto-approve.
July 9, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Blogs are fantastic. Be sure the enjoy the comments at the classicalguitarreview.com article on Miloš Karadaglić.
Some of the best fun (and informative reading) I’ve seen in a while!
At Delcamp they’d ban you for that.
Fortunately Simon seems to be rather cool with the comments, which is good (he’s a good chap – at least I hope he is!).
July 16, 2011 at 11:28 pm
I must say that Delcamp has really gotten stagnant in the last 3 years or so. It’s a rotten shame that Fabio Zanon was banned from there. There are about 3 good teachers who post irregularly there. And then there are those who post because they want to make sure no bad information is passed around at Delcamp; I suppose threads about Mad Maddie the Pirate accomplishes that . . .
July 23, 2011 at 9:24 pm
I just found out that Fabio Zanon was NOT banned from Delcamp (straight from Mr. Zanon himself).
August 20, 2011 at 1:04 am
Ah cool OK cheers for that
Interesting, wonder where this stuff all comes from eh
August 20, 2011 at 5:05 pm
I just wrote a post at Delcamp… about Christmas carols.
You know… about how I’m practising some carols and about my all-time favourite christmas CD: “Ten vánoční čas” by Štěpán Rak.
Very harmless, or so I thought.
Well the post has been deleted by the moderators.
The reason is: M. Delcamp does not permit religious content.
What a joke!
I will abide by the law and my own personal moral code. But I will not let others take my freedom away.
This is a censorship at it’s finest: the kind of censorship that cripples one’s right to be oneself.
I’m all for tolerance and respect.
But I’m against self-made rules that infringe on my rights of expression, by making topics that would require my tolerance and respect… unmentionable.
This goes to show… that there are people who cannot differentiate between cencorship and tolerance; and force their fearful weak standards onto others.
What a joke.
December 19, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Oh and another post which was removed, was one in which I included a link to a fantastic video of Pavel Steidl performing Paganini (with some great fast legato scales). The video is freely and legally provided by Czech Television.
The reason given, for the removal, was that the video begins with advertising.
My thoughts on this: the few seconds of advertising, are negligible.
Reason- television-programming all around the world depends on advertising in order to finance its programs. So without those first few negligible seconds of advertising, Czech Television would not have interviewed Pavel Steidl in the first place, and we would not be able to see his masterful performance on internet-video.
Yet again, Delcamp’s rules are completely ridiculous.
In fairness: I can agree with the forum saying that advertising *on the forum itself*, is contrary to the spirit of discussion. I mean… we don’t want publishers going around, misapplying the forum for the sole purpose of marketing their sheetmusic in order to make money (“Buy our new legato book”).
But in my post, I was not marketing anything. I was merely starting a discussion thread on Pavel Steidl, and the fantastic fast legato scales which he plays.
No advertising occurred in my post.
So there you have it: in addition to questionable and ridiculous rules of the forum, incompetent moderators go to great lengths to make rules even stricter… removing links to legal guitar-related material, if those links happen to have some advertising somewhere.
I have obviously quit the forum, and will not support such restrictive rules, that are far stricter than legal-law and stifle my freedom to communicate.
Ophee is correct when he says about Monsieur Delcamp:
“one man’s twisted notion of himself as an arbiter of guitar issues. The end result of his stupid arrogant policies is that membership is reduced to the lowest common denominator, and the discussion level is pitifully pedestrian infantilism.”
January 2, 2012 at 6:17 pm