I think we need a politics forum

[Steve81]

I would favor a politival opinion/meme thread.
A few people indicate they do not want one here.
I would say: "IF YOU DO NOT LIKE IT, DONT GO THERE". Simple.

And that’s more or less how the forum died. Thanks for the input.

 

[j_garcia]

Sadly that's the way it's going now. Everything is a video. I don't mind them one bit, but a lot of my reading is done during work when I'm waiting on someone to do something for me. I don't want to have to start watching videos to accomplish the same goal. I feel the same about podcasts. I don't really want to listen to people discuss things for hours. It's kind of annoying to me. I should probably give some a chance, but I'm not sure.

Forums have also been drying up for years. Apparently everyone uses Facebook groups or reddit now. Reddit is fine, but it's not the same as a forum. I've been around this site for almost two decades (long time reader before becoming a member) and I'd be perfectly happy having YT videos as well as the written version in an article. Win win.

Facebook groups are also dying a slow death. Our Subaru forum all but died too because of FB, but the FB groups lived a very short life vs. the forum. Main reason is because it is an idiot free-for-all there.

 

[ryanosaur]

An interesting compare and contrast:
When I first joined up, 2018, there was always activity here at AH. It was hard to keep up with if you were really interested in learning. You could post a question and easily nab 20+ replies within a day and sometimes have pages of ongoing conversation about an audio topic.

You know where I see that now?
ASR.

When I wake up in the morning and open ASR, I have 5 pages of "what's new" content to sort through.
To be certain, it is not all of interest to me... In fact compared to AH pre Pandemic, there was more here of interest to me in 1 or 2 pages of "what's new" content.
Half, or more of the ASR crowd seem to be from everywhere else than N.America. This is partly what drives so much overnight content. And today, during the day, I can walk away for an hour and come back to ZERO posts here and 2-3 pages again, over there.

You know what they don't allow? Politics. Somebody posted about "Chi-Fi" and got warned off hard. The thread is still active and the mods have seemingly stepped in a few time to remind folk to keep it cool. That's the closest thing to politics I've seen, there.

On the other hand, it isn't always the most comfortable place to try posting. I said to one guy that I was chatting with that there are smart people in both places, but many of the folk over there seem a helluva lot smarter than me. Where I can hold my own here, there I feel like a 2nd grader going to the JuCo sometimes.
Another one is that there is a lot more active participation there from Industry folk and actual engineers.

What happened to the ones that used to hang out here?

I'm not here trying to harp on the topic. Please do not misunderstand my sentiment. The main point is that the Forum can still have a robust life.

As I mentioned above, the YT presence should still be introduced here. Want to drive traffic there, or back across to the Site?... You have to keep them both tuned up. Want to drive Patreon interest... same thing. Give me a reason why I should put money into Patreon other than a subscription definition on the Patreon page and the feeling it would be a lousy gamble...
Considering that the GoFundMe a few years back was so successful, right now I can't say what I saw as a result of that donation.
I am not making any allegations or insinuating wrongdoing!
But it was said that AH needed help driving content... and here we are with no content.

And with that, I think its time to bow out of this one. I've said my piece and shared my opinion.

 

[gene]

An interesting compare and contrast:
When I first joined up, 2018, there was always activity here at AH. It was hard to keep up with if you were really interested in learning. You could post a question and easily nab 20+ replies within a day and sometimes have pages of ongoing conversation about an audio topic.

You know where I see that now?
ASR.

When I wake up in the morning and open ASR, I have 5 pages of "what's new" content to sort through.
To be certain, it is not all of interest to me... In fact compared to AH pre Pandemic, there was more here of interest to me in 1 or 2 pages of "what's new" content.
Half, or more of the ASR crowd seem to be from everywhere else than N.America. This is partly what drives so much overnight content. And today, during the day, I can walk away for an hour and come back to ZERO posts here and 2-3 pages again, over there.

You know what they don't allow? Politics. Somebody posted about "Chi-Fi" and got warned off hard. The thread is still active and the mods have seemingly stepped in a few time to remind folk to keep it cool. That's the closest thing to politics I've seen, there.

On the other hand, it isn't always the most comfortable place to try posting. I said to one guy that I was chatting with that there are smart people in both places, but many of the folk over there seem a helluva lot smarter than me. Where I can hold my own here, there I feel like a 2nd grader going to the JuCo sometimes.
Another one is that there is a lot more active participation there from Industry folk and actual engineers.

What happened to the ones that used to hang out here?

I'm not here trying to harp on the topic. Please do not misunderstand my sentiment. The main point is that the Forum can still have a robust life.

As I mentioned above, the YT presence should still be introduced here. Want to drive traffic there, or back across to the Site?... You have to keep them both tuned up. Want to drive Patreon interest... same thing. Give me a reason why I should put money into Patreon other than a subscription definition on the Patreon page and the feeling it would be a lousy gamble...
Considering that the GoFundMe a few years back was so successful, right now I can't say what I saw as a result of that donation.
I am not making any allegations or insinuating wrongdoing!
But it was said that AH needed help driving content... and here we are with no content.

And with that, I think its time to bow out of this one. I've said my piece and shared my opinion.

Sorry to hear you say this. I guess you miss the fact that we put out at least 2 YT videos per week, post at least 3-4 articles/week on our homepage, have a weekly Newsletter with unique content and constantly update our social media pages with product teasers on a daily basis. Not sure what else you'd expect but we are putting out a fair share of content of diverse topics. With that said, if you prefer other stomping grounds, no worries.

 

[Danzilla31]

An interesting compare and contrast:
When I first joined up, 2018, there was always activity here at AH. It was hard to keep up with if you were really interested in learning. You could post a question and easily nab 20+ replies within a day and sometimes have pages of ongoing conversation about an audio topic.

You know where I see that now?
ASR.

When I wake up in the morning and open ASR, I have 5 pages of "what's new" content to sort through.
To be certain, it is not all of interest to me... In fact compared to AH pre Pandemic, there was more here of interest to me in 1 or 2 pages of "what's new" content.
Half, or more of the ASR crowd seem to be from everywhere else than N.America. This is partly what drives so much overnight content. And today, during the day, I can walk away for an hour and come back to ZERO posts here and 2-3 pages again, over there.

You know what they don't allow? Politics. Somebody posted about "Chi-Fi" and got warned off hard. The thread is still active and the mods have seemingly stepped in a few time to remind folk to keep it cool. That's the closest thing to politics I've seen, there.

On the other hand, it isn't always the most comfortable place to try posting. I said to one guy that I was chatting with that there are smart people in both places, but many of the folk over there seem a helluva lot smarter than me. Where I can hold my own here, there I feel like a 2nd grader going to the JuCo sometimes.
Another one is that there is a lot more active participation there from Industry folk and actual engineers.

What happened to the ones that used to hang out here?

I'm not here trying to harp on the topic. Please do not misunderstand my sentiment. The main point is that the Forum can still have a robust life.

As I mentioned above, the YT presence should still be introduced here. Want to drive traffic there, or back across to the Site?... You have to keep them both tuned up. Want to drive Patreon interest... same thing. Give me a reason why I should put money into Patreon other than a subscription definition on the Patreon page and the feeling it would be a lousy gamble...
Considering that the GoFundMe a few years back was so successful, right now I can't say what I saw as a result of that donation.
I am not making any allegations or insinuating wrongdoing!
But it was said that AH needed help driving content... and here we are with no content.

And with that, I think its time to bow out of this one. I've said my piece and shared my opinion.

I get where your coming from. The activity has died down a bit. But also thanks to the pandemic inflation and other factors beyond anyone's control audio and new products seem to have died down a bit as well. Saying this has been a tough time for our industry is an understatement. I'm hoping things pick up in the next year or 2.

And I'm also for nixing the politics. I'm so tired of it. I mainly come in here to escape all that. Sometimes you look in those types of threads and see some of the most inaccurate absurd things sometimes and it's impossible not to get sucked in. But it's rarely enjoyable.

But it's a hard thing for me. Im torn because I do respect audioholics support of free speech. Not very many places allow that kind of back and forth anymore. And as you said very knowledgeable people have given feedback I appreciate. I'm torn about it. Divided I guess you could say.

 

[panteragstk]

Political stuff would just be another topic if people could remain civil. They can't, so it isn't.

 

[Trell]

Political stuff would just be another topic if people could remain civil. They can't, so it isn't.

Threads with posters promoting magic cables are not that civil either, and those threads are not even in the SteamVent to begin with.

 

[Trell]

An interesting compare and contrast:
When I first joined up, 2018, there was always activity here at AH. It was hard to keep up with if you were really interested in learning. You could post a question and easily nab 20+ replies within a day and sometimes have pages of ongoing conversation about an audio topic.

You know where I see that now?
ASR.

When I wake up in the morning and open ASR, I have 5 pages of "what's new" content to sort through.
To be certain, it is not all of interest to me... In fact compared to AH pre Pandemic, there was more here of interest to me in 1 or 2 pages of "what's new" content.
Half, or more of the ASR crowd seem to be from everywhere else than N.America. This is partly what drives so much overnight content. And today, during the day, I can walk away for an hour and come back to ZERO posts here and 2-3 pages again, over there.

You know what they don't allow? Politics. Somebody posted about "Chi-Fi" and got warned off hard. The thread is still active and the mods have seemingly stepped in a few time to remind folk to keep it cool. That's the closest thing to politics I've seen, there. ...

On ASR there are reviews published more or less daily, and for a very wide variety of devices. It's amazing that the owner of the site can do so many measurements as well as writing it up, and other members as well makes a number of reviews with measurements.

This, I think, is the base of the member activity on ASR.

 

[panteragstk]

Threads with posters promoting magic cables are not that civil either, and those threads are not even in the SteamVent to begin with.

Agreed. Same attitudes, different topic.

 

[Alex2507]

if you prefer other stomping grounds, no worries.

I'd like it if he stayed.

 

[ryanosaur]

I'd like it if he stayed.

I'm not going anywhere...
Its just the thread I'm done with: I said my piece and shared my thoughts. I still consider AH my home and desire nothing but a strong thriving environment for like minded folk to discuss Audio!

If somebody, anybody, wishes to know more about why I said what I did, you can hit me up over PM and I will gladly discuss thoughts and ideas further.

That said, I'm not the Captain of this boat. The AH Team will do what they feel they need to do to run a hopefully successful business. If my thoughts positively influence a choice they make, cool. If not, still cool.
For me, I get to hang out here with many cool folk and am glad to call many of you Friend in the way of the internet.

Toodeloo!

 

[lovinthehd]

2005 both of you old timers huh. 2005 wasn't a good year for the Gulf States. At least not in terms of storms. Could say not a good year for the whole country. Fuel prices had skyrocketed with 1/4 of the petroleum cut off from those storms. It was really more than that though. But back the threads original agenda. I signed up around 2011-2012. I found this website really by accident. I had just moved into a apartment, had put together a low-budget setup. Two H/K units 3490 two channel and 3600 H/K AVR paired up with Polk monitor 70's and the rest. One sub. Wanted to add a two channel amp, started browsing the internet ran across Gene's website, on his home page ran though the articles and editorials. I did see advertisement off to the side Ads. Read though briefly of Gene's articles. Couldn't stop reading that's how Gene's home page had locked me in. Briefly jumped into some of the forms, wasn't interested in signing up. Back to the home page. Clicked on a Emotive two channel amp article a UPA-2. Liked what I read up on it. Jumped over to Emotiva's website to do more research on that two channel amp. To shorten up my comment post, I went with two UPA-1's to pair up with the H/K 3490.. Wasn't to long after that I decided to sign up in order to participate in the threads. Was interesting to say the least. Once I stated that I was thinking of upgrading my sub, I got hit with criticism sarcasm, belittling my choice of gear. Example: I wouldn't really call what you have a Sub, etc etc. I once posted about THD, and a few other spec's of amps and a different classes of amps. Wasn't long after that, I was singled out by several members. That where as disrespectful as I have ever read on internet. They would post up between each other mocking my comments and posting up criticizing, ridicuing. So Me, being me, decided to use my Cajun humor. Guess some have never had the pleasure of experiencing Cajun humor. I was a Bot, than I was call illiterate, the name game was fun. I could go on and on but it's pointless. It's Not Just the political threads, it's the culture (fold) for the lack of a better word. Ran across that on another websites and forums. Left that website for the very same reason members are dropping off and not participating here. Banning, getting (run)off are what ever. To tell Anyone looking for audio advice, that, (We don't talk about) that here tells me All I need to about a (cult-fold). I had a good laugh about,.. we don't mention Damping Factor. Got hit with so much BS. From your beer is piss. To just about anything else they could think of to chastise and belittle. Some even had the nerve to post of articles of Dr Toole, Really! I've known of him way before this site. Lol . That's about as far back as I can go with the BS from Audio Threads. Never looked into a Steam Vent thread. I was interested in learning more about Audio. Yeah Culture Club.
Like a good standing members stated above in his post, anyone would like to know more of my 1st experience when I joined up 10 years ago or so inbox me. I'll gladly share in more detail what I've learned just from following @gene his articles, his fact finding his, YouTube channel the list is long. Gene's staff is 2nd to none in my book. Shady J, dude dam near can't be beat when it come to his articles, his fact-finding when he gets his hands on Speakers or Sub's.
Again, don't take out of context any, line, paragraph of whatsoever. This isn't a steam vent thread or is my post either just my experience of my first profile 10 years ago or so. Cheers and please enjoy you hobby the way Any of you choose to do so.

How about some paragraphs, Mikey?

 

[NINaudio]

Threads with posters promoting magic cables are not that civil either, and those threads are not even in the SteamVent to begin with.

People promoting magic cables don't deserve civil discourse.

 

[Trell]

People promoting magic cables don't deserve civil discourse.

In my opinion they where not civil to begin with.

 

[Danzilla31]

People promoting magic cables don't deserve civil discourse.

You made me laugh so hard that was awesome! And I agree good sir I agree. Probably why @gene created the steam vent in the first place!

 

[highfigh]

 

[j_garcia]

View attachment 57920

 

[Steve81]

A lot of forums require a premium membership if you want to talk politics. Then those discussions are limited to the politics forum and aren't tolerated anywhere else.

I don’t think this would be such a bad idea personally. While I’m as sick of politics here as anyone, I’d rather it be confined to its own special forum if it’s going to be allowed anyway. Besides, a fresh start means fresh rules. No more free for all, and a healthy dose of moderation could make it workable. Of course, I don’t think Gene actually wants to run a political forum, so there’s that little wrinkle.

 

[Danzilla31]

I don’t think this would be such a bad idea personally. While I’m as sick of politics here as anyone, I’d rather it be confined to its own special forum if it’s going to be allowed anyway. Besides, a fresh start means fresh rules. No more free for all, and a healthy dose of moderation could make it workable. Of course, I don’t think Gene actually wants to run a political forum, so there’s that little wrinkle.

I think this is a great idea as well. If you want to get in the political arena so to speak on this forum you gotta pay to play!

 

[Alex2507]

I don’t think Gene actually wants to run a political forum

Too late ,,,

Everything is political anyway. Medicine, marriage, bathrooms, whether or not you can bring your giraffe on an airplane ... even pissing (stand or sit). Nobody on the right sits. Even the women.