i wasn’t in the first wave of fixed.org.au users. probably closer to second wave. you guys were probably all here watching as me and a bunch of other noobs came through and made this place our own. and eventually a whole bunch of you left and didn’t come back. a similar process is occurring right now - a bunch of new folks are coming through, with their own sets of values and ideas, and older folks (like me, i guess) are finding these values and ideas in opposition to theirs.
my question for those of you who remain is this: did it piss you off back then, when each new wave came through, as much as it pisses me off right now? and, more to the point, how are you still here? have you had to step back from the site every now and then? stop going to rides and alleycats? this site has given me a lot over the past three or four years - i’ve met (and continue to meet) a heap of rad folks, done a bunch of awesome rides, and had a lot of lolz. i’m not sure i want to give that up, but at the same time, i’m not sure if i can handle the difference between ideologies any more. hence this thread. any input you have would be much appreciated.
it’s actually the way the old ‘view recent posts’ function used to display individual posts, where now it displays topics. I don’t get sidelined by off topic discussions and antics in threads, because i don’t bother to open them.
I agree with LAM, I used to hit recent posts and scan through, now I do the same and ignore topics that I might not be interested in. Of course back in 2005/6/7…even 08 you could often read an entire days posts in the evening.
That aside, I agree with snowflake & nickj. A lot of the other ‘old guard’ have disappeared entirely (omar, ndf, soblue, etc etc) others show up very rarely (tomacropod, lats…)
(I also never thought that an Oz fixed forum would survive when I heard about it way back when!)
Despite being relatively new even i feel a little jaded at the influx of recent posts and posters. I think, if anything, its a generational gap. A lot of the new guys, from what i can tell are quite young. I don’t know. I heart you guys.
Disillusionment follows mandatory minimum posts for trading access. It’s a strange rule that I haven’t seen on any other fora that pisses off noobs and old timers alike. Was there a problem with lurkers sniping sales off more regular posters?
I think old school posters have a level of cynicism towards noobs and you can see it in some of the one line responses to legitimate/semi legitimate questions being posted.
For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for the way I shamed the forum in my first 24 hours back in January with 11 posts. However being 25 I’m not young like a lot of the muppets that joined recently. Still no excuse for shit behaviour…
I still enjoy the forum- the whole evolution of ‘fixed gear culture’ interests me for some reason…
At the end of the day, if you take away the aerospokes, coloured B43’s and Miche Supertype seatposts, it’s still a bunch of decent people just wanting to ride around.
But rocking up to the Wednesday night ride like I did last week certainly feels a lot different than it used to…
+1 what LAM says about the recent posts system. I used to love seeing all the random new posts, rather than just the titles.
Out of interest Brendan, can you be more specific about what annoys you about the latest wave of people ie: level of noobishness, reason for getting into fixed etc?
IMHO, I also think the 25 post rule has increased the level of rubbish here, and I reckon having a sub-forum containing a bunch of threads for noobs (on tyre choice, building a fixie etc, I mentioned this elsewhere) would at least allow those new around here to sit back, read and absorb before making constructive comments, rather than incentivising people to spam.
on another forum i’m on both of these points are seen daily.
trading access is granted after 3 months, or you get ‘repped’ enough to be granted access. Rep is gained normally by the posting of technical knowledge or general help in well structured and coherent posts.
this is done to limit ppl signing up and selling goods strait up, without offering anything to the community. i’d say it works well, as it helps keep down the incidents of non shipping and dodgy payments from those just interested in peddling wares. doing it this way means there’s no need for minimum # of posts which does stop the spamming, but it can also mean someone just signs up, waits 3 months, then gets access to the trading system.
as for the legit/semi-legit questions, the search function will answer +85% of these questions. again, on another forum the same 2/3 questions are asked weekly, if not twice a week. this specific info is all written up in a FAQ file, which also has links to specific threads reguarding the qeustions and their answers.
in my eyes, it does come down to the generation gap, however few years it might be. while i might be considered both young and a noob, before i hit the submit post i always think ‘is this post going to add to or prompt positive discussion’. sounds wanky sure, but i believe it helps keep the raff out and other onside.
and like LAM said earlier, i’ve filtered what i read on other forums because it’s the same old squabble from newbies week-in week-out, which you just get used to glancing at the title and/or OP and dismiss it. only if there’s a post by an old guard will i consider opening the thread for a look. while i might not be getting 100% out of the forum, i stay interested to log-in each day and see whats happening.
apologies for the long post, morning coffee arrived
$0.02 (inc GST)
dF
^^^^ what RTP said is exactly like our FAQ section. it puts the bleeding obvious (to everyone else) questions separately to help newbies out, (will hopefully) stop them from starting new threads about the same thing and keep some of their early posts away from the bulk of the tech/help threads.
the other thing which i see here is the mods appear to be happy and helpful around the forum. they use their power as it should, smiting those whos fingers fire before their brains. i can’t think of how to word my other bit…something about community for all, not just those up top.
