where has all the real discussion gone?

[thewightstuff]

following on directly from another thread, and indirectly from a few others on here ive been noticing a continual decline in both the quality of discussion and information within these forums, things that were once the attraction of RWG for me. it seems that visits here are more hopeful than enthusiastic anymore and increasingly and repeatedly disappointing

there seems to be a prevailing trend towards a more pi$$ing contest type of posting rather than any real discussion around the accuracy of watches posted from private members. the juxtaposition of this against the heavily critical scrutiny of watches posted by dealers creates an interesting paradox and increasingly a huge fracture in the forum itself.

my own reasons for coming here initially were not only to indulge my watch passion and talk/meet within a like minded community but also to strive to improve both the quality of my work and that of my rep watches. the stream of information around improvements, parts options, fitments, shortcoming and techniques was matched only by the continual education of the subtleties of the watches themselves. learning nuances of the gens and where my own watches fell short helped me to improve them continually as much as i could. the gold standard of any rep is the corresponding gen model and having the light shone by anyone who could pick flaws between or point out what/where to look was always a pleasure for me.

now while as with all communities, not everyone is in sync it seems that increasingly i seem to be more out of step than in while my own outlook doesnt seem to have shifted.

there seems an increasing trend that any observations made regarding accuracy were less and less welcomed and are now either ignored, dismissed or posters austracised and as such posts of this kind are frustratingly but not surprisingly given less.

an example of such is the myriad of posts regarding CG work where the original poster despite their question actually doesnt want anyone to tell them how to improve their CGs. The posts are infact looking for affirmation of their skills and unparalleled accuracy while often flying in the face of such with any response that devaites from this expectation, no matter how sound or how worded is unwelcome and often simply skipped.

it could be argued that such things are bound to become increasingly common, this generation is the most coddled and protected generation the world has ever seen after all however it would seem to me that classing this as such serves nothing.

it seems that many members are less vocal and unfortunately a few are increasingly more vocal without much content. whether this is the cause or as a result is unclear to me however it is widely accepted that by nature forums always drift towards the lowest denominator rather than the higher.

this doesnt meant that theres people here whom i feel are "lowest denominators", the opposite is infact the case however the premise that debate when organised in such a way as an internet forum always slips towards the less meaningful is sadly a sound one i fear.

the outcome regardless is a much less rewarding experience within from my own perspective. i myself find myself choosing not to post in many circumstances where i have information that one would think would be of benfit to the community as a whole and when i do, having to word things so carefully that theres almost no point.

whether there is increased ego coming into play around the community at the expense of or in place of pride i cant say though the presence of any ego whatsoever in a hobby that involves replica watches does give me a wry smile for sure.

hopefully some others have some thoughts on this and some sort of balance can be restored. with luck im not an island in my thinking

Edited May 16, 2007 by thewightstuff

[crystalcranium]

Gee whizz. I'd get a good night's sleep. Like Scarlett said "Tomorrow is another day".

We all need a break sometimes. I'd suggest taking some time off from the boards to see if that changes your perspective. It's been helpful to me when my frustrations begin to well.

[Rxus]

Were all here for the same reason, and with that said we continue to discuss the good, the bad and everything in between that has any relevance to these time pieces we collect.

Everything will slowly change, it will go from good to bad to worst and then right back to good before you know it.

[jfreeman420]

I'm really tired of these posts. It reminds me of the telemarketers I have been hiring in my phone rooms over the last 8 or 10 years:

They start out their first day excited and learn the new deal. For teh first couple of months they do well and make lots of sales and money. After the three month mark they start complaining about how the leads used to be better, the deal sucks this that, everything is wrong except THEM.

Meanwhile everthing is exactly the same and their attitude has changed. maybe it's human psychology that turns routine to appearing stagnant.

I for one think everything here is just as good as it was on the original board RWCC. The only difference is it's better. more posts than ever more watches and more quality and more members.

When you have more posts and more members you are going to have more stuff you don't want to read and you have more to sift through to get to that little nugget that will excite you about visiting that day. Keep everything in perspective.

[Richard Tracy]

It's all in your perspective,... I personally see this board exploding in help

and growth.

[deltatahoe]

i agree with jfreeman and RT....let's take two relatively new members as an example: blackrain and stephane (hey, they rhyme!). both have clearly enjoyed this place and have made conscious efforts to find ways to contribute to the forum in whatever capacity they are capable of doing. these two guys are perfect examples of how this forum is still growing, helping, thriving, whatever. the same could be said of numerous other members, new and old

deltatahoe

[Corgi]

Nobody is forcing you to be here. Don't like it? Leave... it's that simple, my friend.

Start up your own forum if you like...

[robertk]

I think the answer may be.............boredom set in. Too much is too much.

Let's find something else to obsess about.

Meanwhile, were all busy buying new reps.

[ehtolcad]

if you think there is a pissing match going on now, you can only imagine what it used to be like in the days before this board even existed...jetmid anyone? plus too i'm back now so the ratio of logical thought filled posts to irreverent content-less posts is about to plummet.

[Craytonic]

I think a good explination of the "less informative" complaint stems from the fact that when you are new, literally every bit of information on the board you read teaches you something you did not know before. After you read and post for a while, your level of knowledge grows rapidly. However, the amount of information on the forum grows much slower - you are learning what developed over years in a few weeks/months. Thus, you begin to think the board is "less informative" - which really is not the case at all, the body of knowledge is still growing at the same pace or faster. The problem is you already know much of what is know, so each post is less informative in that you are more likely to know what that post teaches, unlike before when it was more likely you would learn from it.

Just my 0.02.

[rek001]

Well, if you think that the real discussion has gone away and the stagnation and pissing matches have seeped in, why don't you try to introduce a new topic?

[ubiquitous]

I must admit... Sometimes I feel a little stagnated; but it's more to do with my general interest in watches than what's going on with the forum. There's always something to discuss, and I do so enjoy posting amongst friends

[TeeJay]

I think a good explination of the "less informative" complaint stems from the fact that when you are new, literally every bit of information on the board you read teaches you something you did not know before. After you read and post for a while, your level of knowledge grows rapidly. However, the amount of information on the forum grows much slower - you are learning what developed over years in a few weeks/months. Thus, you begin to think the board is "less informative" - which really is not the case at all, the body of knowledge is still growing at the same pace or faster. The problem is you already know much of what is know, so each post is less informative in that you are more likely to know what that post teaches, unlike before when it was more likely you would learn from it.

Just my 0.02.

I would agree with that 100% I would say more to clarify why I agree, but I would only be repeating/rehashing what you have already said so well

[plaifender]

following on directly from another thread, and indirectly from a few others on here ive been noticing a continual decline in both the quality of discussion and information within these forums, things that were once the attraction of RWG for me. it seems that visits here are more hopeful than enthusiastic anymore and increasingly and repeatedly disappointing

there seems to be a prevailing trend towards a more pi$$ing contest type of posting rather than any real discussion around the accuracy of watches posted from private members. the juxtaposition of this against the heavily critical scrutiny of watches posted by dealers creates an interesting paradox and increasingly a huge fracture in the forum itself.

ok Man.. Im not into pissing contests, but I do judge people based on their grammar usage. And in the above case,

[cornerstone]

Perhaps all the best discussions are in the VIP area....

[Pugwash]

ok Man.. Im not into pissing contests, but I do judge people based on their grammar usage. And in the above case,

[plaifender]

Absolutely brilliant. You are patently wrong here, and amazingly critical of others' use of adverbs. Adverbs can, as I just demonstrated, be used to modify all manner of sentence parts. Heavily was used to modify 'critical' and not 'scrutiny', by the way. Stop thinking in Latin and start communicating. You're like an audiophile listening to the stereo instead of the music.

"It is like a finger pointing a way to the Moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory."

ps. There are some grammatical corrections up with which I shall not put.

My itch is back... but at least we see the point of this post you made... To [censored] on.

I stand patently corrected... you in fact are right, but in order to avoid akwardness most linguists would tell you that the adverb sounds soo much sweeter when followed by a past participle.... heavily critiqued scrutiny. Commas and elipses are your friend.

[Pugwash]

My itch is back... but at least we see the point of this post you made... To [censored] on.

I stand patently corrected... you in fact are right, but in order to avoid akwardness most linguists would tell you that the adverb sounds soo much sweeter when followed by a past participle.... heavily critiqued scrutiny. Commas and elipses are your friend.

Correct use of ellipsis: space before, three dots, space after. Oh, and two Ls.

Ok, ok ... I'll stop now. I think I've made my point.

The reason there are so many p*ssing contests is precisely for this reason. Someone will take a perfectly decent thread and critique the grammar or spelling of another. This is such bad form, especially on an international forum. It's even worse form when you're wrong, but we'll let that slide for now, shall we?

This is, unfortunately, part and parcel of life on a forum. We're a community and the larger we get, the more likely we are to get threadcrappers, like me for instance, and trolls. The signal-to-noise drops a little and it gets harder to find the meat under all the vegetables. The meat is still there in abundance, but there's a lot more broccoli on the plate, making it appear lesser.

[coolfire]

Correct use of ellipsis: space before, three dots, space after. Oh, and two Ls.

Ok, ok ... I'll stop now. I think I've made my point.

The reason there are so many p*ssing contests is precisely for this reason. Someone will take a perfectly decent thread and critique the grammar or spelling of another. This is such bad form, especially on an international forum. It's even worse form when you're wrong, but we'll let that slide for now, shall we?

This is, unfortunately, part and parcel of life on a forum. We're a community and the larger we get, the more likely we are to get threadcrappers, like me for instance, and trolls. The signal-to-noise drops a little and it gets harder to find the meat under all the vegetables. The meat is still there in abundance, but there's a lot more broccoli on the plate, making it appear lesser.

Hmmm... You should see the way TTK uses ellipsis...

Oh, and let's all finish up the broccoli first, eh?? :bleh:

[plaifender]

Correct use of ellipsis: space before, three dots, space after. Oh, and two Ls.

Ok, ok ... I'll stop now. I think I've made my point.

The reason there are so many p*ssing contests is precisely for this reason. Someone will take a perfectly decent thread and critique the grammar or spelling of another. This is such bad form, especially on an international forum. It's even worse form when you're wrong, but we'll let that slide for now, shall we?

This is, unfortunately, part and parcel of life on a forum. We're a community and the larger we get, the more likely we are to get threadcrappers, like me for instance, and trolls. The signal-to-noise drops a little and it gets harder to find the meat under all the vegetables. The meat is still there in abundance, but there's a lot more broccoli on the plate, making it appear lesser.

use of elipses eh? Do you use MLA or APA format in regards to your english sentax?

i love grammar when people post threads knocking the quality and quantity of information on the site....

[Pugwash]

use of elipses{insert comma here} eh? Do you use MLA or APA format in regards to your english sentax?

i love grammar when people post threads knocking the quality and quantity of information on the site....

I use the format that has capitalisation, punctuation and correct spelling.

ps. Why would I use American technical styles when I'm British and the majority of my published work is fiction?

[plaifender]

I use the format that has capitalisation, punctuation and correct spelling.

ps. Why would I use American technical styles when I'm British and the majority of my published work is fiction?

Syntax error in line --- does not appear to be a valid registry path. Line will be ignored.

Error code: 0

Damnit.. i got that blue screen again. must be bad sEntax...

Anyone ever checked their Breitling for incorrect spelling.... In america we spell it BRITELING, or for some, Brightling(even though this spelling is actually the name of a small village and civil parish in the ROTHER district of EAST SUSSEX, ENGLAND). But never Breitling, Brateling or Breightling. those silly swiss don't know anything.

p.p.s. Where has all the real discussion gone?

[Stephane]

i agree with jfreeman and RT....let's take two relatively new members as an example: blackrain and stephane (hey, they rhyme!). both have clearly enjoyed this place and have made conscious efforts to find ways to contribute to the forum in whatever capacity they are capable of doing. these two guys are perfect examples of how this forum is still growing, helping, thriving, whatever. the same could be said of numerous other members, new and old

deltatahoe

Thanks Delta for your compliment. I sincerely appreciate.

This thread might have been opened in a "bad day" by a member being in a "bad mood".

If not, well I have to admit this happens to me sometimes too: getting frustrated that I can't find anything new to read and learn from.

But, if that is the case, I browse a brand area in example and go to the oldest pages to find more topics that I could have missed.

Now, come on guys, let's be fair to this board: everyday there is at least one interresting new thread, isn't it ?

And what to say about all these trades between members ? Isn't that very cool too ?

My personal conclusion regarding RWGII is that in 4 months I learned more about watches than in 40 years.

For this reason, and also for having made new "distant friends" all around the planet, I can only shout BRAVO to RWG, its staff and members.

Cheers

Stephane

[Pugwash]

p.p.s. Where has all the real discussion gone?

It's still here, apart from people can't hear it over the noise of you making a fool of yourself.

[plaifender]

Thanks Delta for your compliment. I sincerely appreciate.

This thread might have been opened in a "bad day" by a member being in a "bad mood".

If not, well I have to admit this happens to me sometimes too: getting frustrated that I can't find anything new to read and learn from.

But, if that is the case, I browse a brand area in example and go to the oldest pages to find more topics that I could have missed.

Now, come on guys, let's be fair to this board: everyday there is at least one interresting new thread, isn't it ?

And what to say about all these trades between members ? Isn't that very cool too ?

My personal conclusion regarding RWGII is that in 4 months I learned more about watches than in 40 years.

For this reason, and also for having made new "distant friends" all around the planet, I can only shout BRAVO to RWG, its staff and members.

Cheers

Stephane

Bien dit! je suis tr