They've always been a bit of a cauldron, but on the whole I've been enjoying car and bike forums for about 20 years now. You can learn a lot and chat about obscure things with similarly engrossed individuals. I first noticed the rot was outweighing the good stuff about 5-6 years ago and started backing off particular forums as "the scene" took on an air that I didn't feel I wanted to share but slowly and surely they've pretty much all succumbed to a sort of aggressive mob-rule. Is this me being over sensitive or have online forums got worse than they used to be? It might just be me getting old and grumpy...
lets say for the sake of argument an isis thread got posted, a sensitive topic to start with, views will get expressed many you might not agree with. but you will participate, then maybe one or two will respond with belittling comments, maybe someone you have interacted with before maybe not, maybe they will hit a nerve, maybe intentionally maybe not, the natural thing is to respond, the clever or wise chose not to. people start getting angry, more people will be less inclined to contribute. and so the rot continues. some will call it cliquey (i hate that word) because you appear to gel with some but not with others you become less inclined to contribute because you cant be assed with the hassle, slowly but surly the otherwise easy going leave , leaving you with the opinionated my way or the high way types to peck over the corpse of a long forgotten forum.
Gotcha, and yeah that's about the size of it. And that about puts the finger on it with a lot of the forums I've been a member of for a long time, the more balanced people have scarpered and taken their valuable knowledge, experience and contributions somewhere else.
A big problem with some forums, this one included, is people post stuff on a thread thats not related. They will then have their own little chat with others and ruin a decent thread. The guy asking about an increase in 600 Monster performance is a good example. Another reason I rarely post :-( Decent replies get lost in a sea of tripe, meaning some won't bother to read the whole thread.
Nah it can't be full of em yet they've just let me in Gotta repost this... bloody great find @JR45 ... Brilliant (and why didn't it post the pic when I hit Reply to JR45's post? Anyone?)
Note from a lurker! All forums are negative, it beats me how anyone would buy a thing after reading the appropriate forum. Car bike or washing machine? I read mostly for amusement which usually turns to frustration. Forums are very powerful though an example of this is the government stopped us putting tax discs on our bikes All because most Ducati forums couldn't decide where to fit their tax disc without asking several hundred other people . We do need more positive threads ....though. Dont get me started on tyres These are good these are bad , not sure the last time my tyre spun up out of a corner because it had a lack of grip. Get on your bike ride it, stop whinging , all things breakdown Even Volkswagen's.... Also Nearly every bike out there has a butterfly valve to beat or cheat the noise / fuel regs its nowt new Rant over...........maybe back to lurking in the background.
It's your age love :Kiss: With forums anyone can reply some you love some you hate etc you can't walk away from them like the pub The more irritated you get the more you want to react Just use your ignore button I have been on a couple of forums but none as nice as here even with the opinionated Other forums are much more clicky than this one I try to make everyone feel welcome even if I do go on about red :Muted: