Will Harris:To anyone reading this, perhaps for the first time and wondering why someone would want to see a thread locked, it's perhaps worth me pointing out a few quirks that the What Hi-Fi forums have aquired over time.
There is a "cool crew". This group of forum members never rock the boat, generally enjoy ganging up on people who disagree with the accepted wisdom, (if WHF's view can be called wisdom - sometimes it can, not in the case of the Oppo Review in my view). You'll also notice that the "cool crew" like to share witty photographs/cartoons to illustrate their points. Sometimes just to reinforce their membership of said crew. It's a fraternity of sorts.
Jebus Will, how long have you been on the internet? I've been using newsgroups and then web forums since about 1992 and you ALWAYS get a core group of posters, who are responsible for probably 75% of all posts, have an opinion on everything, like to lark around with each other (it's called friendship and having a laugh) and yes sometimes appear to be "defending" a point of view that they share rather more vigourously than perhaps they should. It's called human nature, people like to feel accepted, part of a group, it's a tribal thing, an old charter or a tradition or something.
Everybody is the same, whether they'll admit to it or not. I am, even though I try to pretend I'm some arch maverick, ultimately I just want people to like me, even though I secretly mock them from the comfort of my chair sometimes, and you know what Will, so are you, you might not think you're part of the "Cool Crew" here (and you never will be if you don't start spelling it "Kool Krew") but I guarantee there are plenty of people on "the other forum" who think you're part of that forum's "core characters" and I suspect you're probably aware of that and bask in the warmth of that knowledge, just like everybody else would. That isn't a criticism incidentally, like I said, it's human nature.
Fostered by the WHF staff who usually join in.
Why wouldn't they? It's their forum after all, where else are they going to feel so comfortable?
You'll notice that criticism of the WHF accepted wisdom is not appreciated by the above, whether it be founded in fact or in speculation. The cool crew like to defend the WHF staff and pretty much discourage dissent.
That's no different either, every forum I've ever seen that has a founding member or "staff" present has people who agree, almost religiously, with whatever they say. If you think about it that's not particularly surprising. Ask yourself, why did most of the forum members join here? Because they read the magazine and enjoy it; they already held predominately the same opinions as the people who write the magazine, if they didn't they wouldn't be reading the magazine, because they'd disagree with everything that was in it, so it's no big controversy if the members of the forum appear to agree largely with what the magazine staff say, if they didn't they wouldn't hang around.
Indeed you could question why those who consistently disagree with the opinions and reviews of the magazine and staff bother to come here, particularly those whose join, make one post vehemently accuse the magazine of this that and the other and then are never seen again, I just don't get the logic behind that, seems like a monumental waste of time to me, but there you go.
New posters who have been reading may, at certain points be rather nonplussed by some of the ratings or views espoused by the parent publication. I certainly am, a lot of the time.
Well there again, if that's the case, why do you bother hanging around here? One presumes from the above statement that you don't actually buy the magazine (that would be a waste of money as well as time if you disagree with the majority of reviews in it), so what do you gain from being here? Nothing but irritation it would seem, which isn't a good enough reason for me to stick around anywhere.
Please don't be disheartened or put off from posting, whether it be criticism or praise.
This forum is only as good and as useful as the contributions of those that post here and that includes me, the staff, the cool crew and everyone else. We won't always agree, in fact more often than not we don't, but it would be a pretty ineffective forum without a little debate and differences of views.
You're quite right but there's a difference between differing opinions and debate, which are constructive and the kind of groundless accusations that you quite often sling around, they do nothing but annoy people and probably put off a lot of new members.
) and on the thread dedicated to 83/831 I found no evidence of badmouth you refer to.
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