Other forums - value and/or issues

[Bigdog425]

I love LRH and it is my primary "go to" place for most things hunting and shooting. I am a member of a few other sites, e.g. Benchrest Central, and while not as active in those, I have always felt welcome and experienced reasonable responses/dialog even where opinions differ.
Recently had a surprising experience with another site where I signed up because I wanted to purchase something posted in their classifieds. This site (like some others) has a minimum membership time period and minimum post requirement before one can buy/sell in their classifieds or contact members directly.
I made an innocuous post about the rules and how IMHO they limited value to sellers and buyers even though they may help limit scammers. The responses I received from many "senior members" and directly from an administrator were shockingly unprofessional. Some examples include: "if you don't like the rules go elsewhere", "sissy" (yeah that one was super mature), "can't we automatically eliminate such comments from new users" (uhh then how would one ever become a experienced member), and the piece de resistance (because I mentioned the item in which I had interest) "…cool, I have been wanting one of those and I am a senior member so I will go buy it before you".
Not looking to name and shame specifically, but interested to hear if others on this great site have had similar unwelcoming, experiences and how you dealt with them, i.e. did you fight back, keep your head down and stay quiet or leave entirely…talking about an overall site, not an isolated bad user.
Again, grateful for LRH and my shock to such negative experience elsewhere is in part due to such positive experience here.
Cheers

 

[JimFromTN]

Its why I paid the membership on here this year and will continue to do so.

 

[dfanonymous]

The thing about posting your "IMHO" on the internet is you will get other peoples HO's.

Doesn't matter where you are. There's always 2 sides to everything… you don't walk into a strangers house and start telling them how they should arrange their furniture or how to raise they're kids right?

If you did, what would you expect to happen to you?

 

[P7M13]

Forums ebb and flow. Too bad you had a bad experience.
However, their house, their rules.
I left The Hide back before it was sold the first time because I was less relaxed after visiting each time.
No one needs to get jumped, though. Kind of like a first date, you learned quickly what the partner would be like. Good lesson there.
Easy to say, "sayonara, mo'fo'." to something like that.

 

[ShtrRdy]

When I join a discussion forum I think of it as me visiting someone else's home/store and anide by there rules. I don't join up and criticize their rules.

 

[Bob Wright]

Texting and talking face to face can be 2 entirely different experiences. A text message can be written poorly and misunderstood then that's where the smoke starts. It all boils down to stating facts as much as possible and not going after someone personally if they overreact. It's a tough world. Your words stay out there forever.
I don't get involved in threads I know little about, but either thoroughly read or stay out of it.

 

[West Calamus]

That's the good think about LRH for the most part, it is a very inviting crowd for all levels of experience . If someone starts dogging some one for asking a simple question that does not have a lot of knowledge the more experience members kind of put the harassers back in line. Only a few LRH members I block their content on because of arrogant attitude and geographical superiority and that is the beauty of how this site is set up and Len never lets anything get too far out of hand. Some of the older forms seem to have good content early on then the little chics develop and seem to take over and the forum content becomes just a one up contest.

 

[brcfo_outdoors]

I think the best forums are niche/specific forums. You get people focused on that one topic who share similar goals, motivations, and problems. When things start to get more generic you attract people from different interests who feel the need to state their opinions or up their post counts even when they have nothing valuable or constructive to add to a conversation. I am also over on Calguns due to the misfortune of living in that state and have resigned myself to only selling items on there which I cannot sell on other platforms. Too much riff raff, ego, and sheer stupidity which results in extra rules and regulations. I agree, LRH is my go to. There are a couple people on here I don't care for, but for the most part everyone is humble and professional.

 

[Deleted member 48126]

Sounds like you tried joining accurate shooter!!

Tell a gold member over there to quit sounding like a communist and watch the thread burn to the ground.