Hi Folks,

Is it just me or are the threads getting increasingly argumentative, snarky and convoluted? When I started with BF a few years ago, members were friendly, courteous and helpful.

Recently, we’ve had rambling threads about inconsequential subjects. Seven pages ragging on a member because he was putting his “trophy bike” in storage. Another four pages on the accuracy of tire gauges. And so forth.

Are other members sensing this? Could it be just the stress of the times?

Regards,

Van

Maybe some of it is due to stress from recent events, but no it isnt new.

1- its a forum. Its a place where anonymity allows some to feel emboldened in their responses compared to in person discussions.
2- its always been snarky in some subforums. An example is that mods will openly mock and joke about posters from the past and infamous threads from the past.
3- its an elitist sport. Even in a relatively supportive social site like BF, those who feed into the elitism narrative will express that in posts.

Perhaps it was before my time, but I have always seen "colourful" discussions for the inane subjects. If there is one thing the internet has shown us, is that if anybody is perceived as incorrect in facts, tech, opinion or even the time of day, the community will be sure to let that member know.

No. It just is.

There is always the fredly-fred-fred asking some inane sumthin' or other & the 7 page thread that originated because of an obtuse misunderstanding of this or that.

I, myself made a comment once about it being harder to keep a high average heart rate when you get fitter because your heart rate recovers much quicker when you are fit & you have achieved the adaption necessary to meet a particular performance level. Pages & pages it lasted about all sorts of minutia regarding ATP & mitochondria, et. al...Blah, blah.

Welcome to teh internets.

snarky and convoluted are bike forum staples, and are to be expected

Unfortunately it seems this is the way on internet forums. Lots of self declared experts and people looking to score points. This was reason I left Bike Radar forum (UK based forum). It got very snarky and petty and ultimately not a place worth visiting. This site seems better but I have seen several threads where everyone is convinced THEY are right and only them.

Seems about the same to me since I've been here off and on since 2002. A microcosm of the real world. I like to think of like Thanksgiving with the family every day.

That one made my day!

"It's Five O' Clock Somewhere"

If this goes 7 pages with posters telling you you're wrong, then you're right.

It's the internet. I stay away from Facebook because the most benign post ends up with someone starting an argument. As a bit of a Fred on a somewhat Freddy bike who is somewhere between roadie and commuter, I try my best to be neutral, and realise that 1. I will be 'attacked' at some point 2. Just because I am right doesn't mean I am not wrong at the same time (or vise versa) and 3. It is quite easy to misinterpret any post or reply. I cannot always determine tone, sarcasm or the person's ability to transcribe their exact emotion into print.

Yes, and have noticed also that threads seem to be morphing into a different topic than what they started out to be (and I just did it--damn!!)

Having been relatively active on multiple forums, I've found BikeForum.net to be better than most in terms of snarky, useless, and derogatory comments. I personally feel like it is a sign of the times in that the way people act on forums when they feel 'anonymous' is a reflection of who they really are as a person. I'd find it hard to believe that a super friendly, super helpful person in real life would suddenly become an Internet ******* like a lot of forum posters are.

I try to make my comments remotely useful and avoid bad mouthing other users, even when they attack me for no good reason.

I've only been here a few weeks and it quickly became obvious to me this is the most snarky and condescending forum I've ever seen.

NO, YOU'RE INCREASINGLY ARGUMENTATIVE, SNARKY AND CONVOLUTED! NO, YOU'RE RAMBLING AND INCONSEQUENTIAL!
WE'RE ALL STILL FRIENDLY, COURTEOUS AND HELPFUL...YOU JERK!

(And now, because it is an internet forum, I'd better add **humor** here at the bottom.)

IMO, I think some of what you are seeing are non-serious responses to the trolls who are allowed to ply their trade on this site because they tiptoe inside the boundaries of the rules and create site traffic, which, in turn, drives ad rates. Some of you who have been around long enough and are very active might know what I mean.

Yep. The forum is frustratingly tolerant of trolls and socks. In all fairness, the mods often remind us that they don't have time to read every post As a result they miss nuance and can't readily categorize a poster as a sock or troll when it's obvious to folks who follow the forum regularly. I've been beat on enough to know this will not change. If someone is concerned that the replies to a post seem exceptionally snarky, check the posting history of the OP.

With a very small asterisk at the side, every internet forum is the same*:
1. You will have a small core group of members that have been on it for a long time, some for a really long time. They've seen every question asked a hundred times.
2. You will inevitably have a contingent of guys who just want to troll every thread. Some are very "good" at it... some are not.
3. You will have a steady/surging influx of noobs, who either come armed with earnest inquiry, or are cast-outs from other forums #2 , because they aren't very good at it.
4. You will have bots and spammers.

Group 3 will either transition into a 1, or a 2, or leave altogether. Sadly, disappearing as quickly as they appeared is the most common.
This is the fourth (maybe fifth?) forum I've moderated on since I joined my first forum, oh... yeesh, over 20 years ago? In that time, I have arrived at my First Rule of Forums:

All forums become the same, because whenever you gather together people of similar interests, they will argue.

*The exception is a Gran Turismo Online Racing forum I joined around 2000-- long, long before online racing actually existed.
We raced by gentleman's rules, and it was the most laid-back and cooperative forum I've ever known. It exists now only in the Internet Archive.

I think constructive opposition is helpful sometimes. I also think there are those that are just looking to start something. The latter just needs to be ignored. Cyclists are no exception and there are plenty of us that like to present an opposing view. I like history books and one of my favorites is a book about Abraham Lincoln's cabinet , called "Team of Rivals" it is about this very topic. Joe joesvintageroadbikes.wordpress

That, and people tend to be more thin- skinned and easily offended these days.. I’m into bikes, mostly CV, but others too, basically just use the forums to mine information, and possibly help out, if it’s something I’m familiar with. I don’t really care how the information is presented, or manner. I find it hard to be offended by someone I never met, or know personally. Why would their opinion matter to me. Lots of good stuff here, take what you need, and ignore the rest.
Tim

There's an extended "winter" effect, w/ folks cooped up & more time to post, but otherwise same-same, IMO.

I think of it as basically group entertainment, so a certain amount of pot-stirring is wanted to have something to read and post about.

Some people come here looking for information, some for entertainment, some to share, some to preach, some to piss off others. Same as in other forums.

Dial it up to 400 and Drope the Hamer (still funny after all these years )

Depending on the topic, there appears to be differing kinds of antagonism displayed, although I don't think it's as bad as I've seen in a lot of other forums. I actually think the mods have gotten a bit better about reining in some of the cheap-shot trolls--there seemed to be a form of a troll post that would always survive where a person would say something really nasty against unidentified posters or a poster on the thread, but it would be very obvious if read in context who the troll was insulting. Those don't seem to be tolerated much anymore.

One type of poster responsible for a lot of the nastiness (and I won't name examples--we know who they are) is the self-appointed guru. That person will have decided they know the one true way to do something or all things, and if you dare suggest that either a) what they're advocating doesn't work for you or b) something else works for you, they will immediately get personally insulting, condescending and immediately launch into a canned 3 paragraph essay that they've probably posted versions of at least 5 times that month. Sometimes, what they're posting even has something to do with bikes.

TBH, the stuff that really makes me mad enough to react is usually someone posting as advice stuff that I think is discouraging and/or misleading to newbies. Stuff like "no pain, no gain" or you can't really ride until you have about $5k invested in kit.