Whats happening with this forum....

[pioneer7]

It seems that over the last year or so What HiFi Forum has gradually lost interest with members often people will ask questions and can wait days for an answer, there does not seemto be What HiFi members getting involved as much as a few months back, it is a shame really may be because there does not seem to be much activity, some members and guests dont bother any more because there is lack of participation.As for reviews that seems to be Ok any product that comes out or is due out is usally put on this site pretty fast. I for one have now found myself spending more time reading another well known forum, not that i am a member cant be arsed with the we no it all atitude and constant back biting, but it is a very imformative site and do have excellent reviews, any way I still frequent these forums, but i just feel that there is not as much participation as there used to be. Just my thoughts...... :silenced:

 

[DocG]

Hi Pioneer7,

I'm pretty new on the forum; just started my first thread recently. It took some days to get a first real reply (thanks again, Coll!) but since then I got some very interesting, revealing reactions. What struck me, was the number of new topics, that pop up every day. I think the 'regulars' just drown in the number of new topics, and can't give genuine comments on every thread. I guess WHF is victim of its own success, so to say...

 

[toyota man]

Hi all I read most of the threads but If I have no knowledge of the equipment or if some one has beet me to it I dont post but I have found good humour and good advice 🙂

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Like Toyota man, I'll only post if I know about the subject, or about Football

There are a lot of regular users of the forum that know far more than me about AV and HiFi, so I usually leave it to them.

I think that some post do not get replies because of the lack of information in the original post, or it's a subject that has been done to death.

It's worth checking through the forum's history to see if the answers to your questions are already there.

 

[fr0g]

I think that some post do not get replies because of the lack of information in the original post, or it's a subject that has been done to death.

It's worth checking through the forum's history to see if the answers to your questions are already there.

Absolutely spot on. Especially questions that first require questions.

 

[pioneer7]

could not agree more, but is does not seem that not to long ago when there would be many members/guests online and the thoughts advice and more important the banter was flooding in, I myself have been away from these forums for a long time, in fact it would not be to long before moderators would have there work cut out trying to keep things in order [all part of the fun] I know things change and not every one has the time. But being a memeber for some time now I have noticed the forum is not what it used to be. May be it needs something to keep the interest going, for example the Apex club is a very popular thread and is constantly being updated with new members giving there thoughts.

So maybe start something similar like HDMI 😛ray: What about the new panasonic VT/GT/ST are there any memebers thinking of getting one of these or have one, Yes I know another forum covers this to death but why can we not have our own thread on this, feed back thoughts problems etc, or for that matter anything A/V.

 

[John Duncan]

Oh I dunno, there are about 50 users signed in at the moment, which isn't bad for 9am on a Saturday, and that usually means about ten times as many people looking at it. I don't have access to analytics any more (which I probably should) but I think traffic and posts are up on the equivalent period last year, so there's still some activity going on ;-)

Maybe I just need to moderate out the arguments a bit more...:-D

 

[The_Lhc]

May be it needs something to keep the interest going, for example the Apex club is a very popular thread and is constantly being updated with new members giving there thoughts.

IMO that's exactly the kind of thread we don't need, exclusive and divisive, even the thread title is setting up a somewhat distasteful "them and us" scenario, if you don't own this kit you can't join in.

You're right that there isn't the same level of interaction from WHF staff as there used to be but of the two main WHF posters one has now left the company and the other appears to have decided he'd like his life back (and I don't blame him, there were times when I wondered when he even slept...). I don't know if the headcount at WHF has been kept the same since Clare left but if not I can imagine that the rest of the crew are somewhat busier than they were before. Mr Clough answers direct questions fairly regularly. I expect Mr Madden would as well, if only posters could shoehorn the word "Wigan" into their questions...

 

[Big Chris]

From my observations, the posts that go unanswered are of the very specific type involving uncommon, expensive or niche products which most of the people here would have had no experience with.

A lot of posters don't help themselves when it comes to asking these kinds of questions, which either warrant a lot of "sorry, never heard that combination" kind of responses in an effort to show that the post isn't being ignored, or they do get ignored, fall to the bottom of the list and the OP believes that nobody cares about his/her query.

Unlike The_Lhc, I don't see 'The Apex Club' type threads as being particularly exclusive or elitist. To continue using the 'Apex' thread as an example, I don't think I've ever looked at any of the posts there, as I'm neither an owner or a prospective owner, but if I were looking to buy the Apex system, I'd be quite interested in any information on the performance, foibles, partnering equipment, etc. that hopefully this thread contains. The flip side of course is that could be a kind of 'ganging up' on any query saying that I (theoretically) was also looking at speaker system X, Y or Z.

 

[The_Lhc]

Unlike The_Lhc, I don't see 'The Apex Club' type threads as being particularly exclusive or elitist. To continue using the 'Apex' thread as an example, I don't think I've ever looked at any of the posts there, as I'm neither an owner or a prospective owner,

Yes that was my main point, by its nature the thread isn't going to be of interest to the majority of members as they don't own the equipment being discussed. I don't see that kind of thread as being the answer to the suggestion that there isn't as much going on in the forum as there used to be (which isn't something I agree with anyway, I think the levels of activity are the same or possibly even more than they used to be, although the quality of the discussions may have dropped somewhat).

 

[chebby]

This is navel gazing.

Want to discuss an interesting subject? Start an interesting thread*.

*Not claiming to be a practitioner of my own advice, but - usually - people who start interesting threads get interesting responses.

 

[plastic penguin]

May be it needs something to keep the interest going, for example the Apex club is a very popular thread and is constantly being updated with new members giving there thoughts.

IMO that's exactly the kind of thread we don't need, exclusive and divisive, even the thread title is setting up a somewhat distasteful "them and us" scenario, if you don't own this kit you can't join in.

You're right that there isn't the same level of interaction from WHF staff as there used to be but of the two main WHF posters one has now left the company and the other appears to have decided he'd like his life back (and I don't blame him, there were times when I wondered when he even slept...). I don't know if the headcount at WHF has been kept the same since Clare left but if not I can imagine that the rest of the crew are somewhat busier than they were before. Mr Clough answers direct questions fairly regularly. I expect Mr Madden would as well, if only posters could shoehorn the word "Wigan" into their questions...

Think it's fair to say that all posters come to their natural end. Can't envisage Chebby, you or me being around in 5 years time. A number of newer members don't put adequate info when they post, so end up asking two or three additional questions before help can be had. The main reason why I've posted so much recently is because I've aquired a new toy.

Correct about niche threads, but that's always been the case... instead I prefer to relax with a large glass of Martinez and lemonade 🙂 than to get involved with subject I know nowt about.

 

[chebby]

Think it's fair to say that all posters come to their natural end.

This one did...

 

[The_Lhc]

Think it's fair to say that all posters come to their natural end.

Bit morbid PP!

Can't envisage Chebby, you or me being around in 5 years time.

Hmm, we've managed about 4 years each so far. I don't know, depends where I am by that time, can't see much changing but who knows. It's entirely possible that magazine might not exist in 5 years, given the way the medium is going.

Correct about niche threads, but that's always been the case... instead I prefer to relax with a large glass of Martinez and lemonade 🙂 than to get involved with subject I know nowt about.

I don't offer advice unless I'm very confident about what I'm saying (which isn't a particularly broad field), but I tend to read most threads, at least at the start to see if they're interesting. I generally only go back if a thread goes on for a long time just to see what all the fuss is about.

 

[pioneer7]

The thought of them and us never crossed my mind, I used the Panasonic Tvs as an example really , interestingly this 1-thread has had 13 replys which is great even though it is not a paticular A/V Topic but does make pretty good reading even though its only peoples opinions I do agree people do move on and i suspect time can be an issue to some, my thoughts were not a moan more that it is a shame that the forum was not as it used to be...

O well how about I start some thing that might be interest to most members/guests lets say HDMI what is the best cable out there and does it really make a difference :help:

 

[Alec]

I have no idea what the Apex Club is, nor did i know it had a thread of its own, until just now.

I dunno what you do. Some don't like the idea of stickys to tell newcomers how to go about asking for advice as it can be off-putting, but maybe its an idea...?

I advise where I can but am not particularly into learning lots of technical stuff which I don't, personally, need to know (until i do 😉 ) and my knowledge and experience are very limited, despite my post count. Often, th ebest I can do is give someone a start.

 

[The_Lhc]

I dunno what you do. Some don't like the idea of stickys to tell newcomers how to go about asking for advice as it can be off-putting, but maybe its an idea...?

I think there's a couple of subjects that could do with them. I don't see why any one would see them as off-putting, I can imagine there's quite a few lurkers out there that would grateful to get an answer to their question without having to unmask themselves.

 

[Paul.]

Why not have a new members sub category? Stick the welcome thread in there, along with a couple of bi amp or biwire / plugging a stereo amp in to an av amp/ nas basics threads so they are easy to find for new members?

 

[Xanderzdad]

Now that's a good idea.

 

[AlmaataKZ]

Why not have a new members sub category? Stick the welcome thread in there, along with a couple of bi amp or biwire / plugging a stereo amp in to an av amp/ nas basics threads so they are easy to find for new members?

as well as:

- how to calculate the necessary diameter of speaker wire depending on distance and power handling

- how to connect two pairs of amps to one pair of speakers

- what is active/passive/powered speaker, amp or pre-amp, streamer or server

- how to chose screen size depending on viewing distance, resolution (and throw for projectors)

etc

An FAQ, really. In general, make basic but thorough educational content present and easily accessible on the site.

 

[Alec]

And a precis of the arguments about some of th emore controversial subjects, perhaps?

Sorry, I'm not volunteering.

 

[John Duncan]

And a precis of the arguments about some of th emore controversial subjects, perhaps?

Sorry, I'm not volunteering.

See I tried that with my 13-point manifesto. And still they argued the toss...

 

[Alec]

And a precis of the arguments about some of th emore controversial subjects, perhaps?

Sorry, I'm not volunteering.

See I tried that with my 13-point manifesto. And still they argued the toss...

No. You didn't. And that's still boring.

 

[Dave_]

Stickies are a good idea in principle, but a complete waste of time IME*, as people don't bother to read them (much like house rules people agree to when they sign up to fora)

* As a mod/admin of sat forums, who's written tutorials/guides in the past, only to find members starting threads directly under the sticky thread asking for the very same info as covered in the tutorial/guides |(

 

[John Duncan]

And a precis of the arguments about some of th emore controversial subjects, perhaps?

Sorry, I'm not volunteering.

See I tried that with my 13-point manifesto. And still they argued the toss...

No. You didn't. And that's still boring.

Yes I did. My life would be so much easier if everybody just got on.