Ive been noticing it for a while now, the quality of posts has dropped quite significantly since the start of 2019. This forum has always been a place that had a higher signal to noise ratio than TOS but more TOS quality posts have been creeping in. Could it just be me? Well Ive PM’ed quite a few senior members and asked the same question and they’ve noticed it too. More than half the threads in AR general and AR technical are more appropriate to the new shooters forum or are easily answered with a google search. Im getting more and more jaded with the troll quality posts and frankly its just easier to troll them back. Nearly all of the SMEs are gone and the flow of good information has nearly stopped. Its been a slow decline buts its been glaringly obvious since the start of 2019, this place is now just TOS with less members.
Why don’t you and the senior members you’ve polled contribute some higher quality posts/content?
Lead by example.
Because threads with the following titles:
“I shot my 6920 today. Ran great.”
“I didn’t buy a new gun today because I have a Colt 6920 and Glock 19 and they both work well.”
“I added an optic to my AR and it was a quality rifle so everything worked well”
…would receive no replies.
I think what OP is describing is the forum’s rush to participate in stupid threads while the more technical ones go with just a few replies. Not too many are going to be able to discuss IR lasers and the benefits and ways of passive NV use.
But everyone wants to justify that their Holosun is just as good as an Aimpoint.
Very true. I go back and forth between trolling the posts and not having the energy to respond to the same question, again.
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I agree with the OP generally. The General Discussion threads lately have seemed pretty awful to read too, so that does set a lot of the mood on the forum.
I’d like to see more threads about actually gaining skill with these guns. I get the feeling that the majority of posters talk a big game about “running a gun hard” and all that but in reality most go shoot a few standing groups at 25yd indoors and then take some really nice photos of their gun in the yard or garage floor looking all used, or super clean in a makeshift home studio with all the right lighting.
I realize there is a large contingent now who only can shoot at 25yd indoor ranges so even some skill talk about how to get the most out of that setup with a carbine would be cool. Someone could figure out what field expedient positions could be used at the indoor range, etc. Maybe even “postal matches” where guys run drills and post their times and targets, if everyone could be honest about it.
The same could be done with carry pistols too.
I really enjoy the AR Photos thread and from time to time I’ll start back and the beginning and work my way through to now. The transition has been from actually working/training carbines at the beginning to what is mostly high end Instagram studio quality photos of guns now.
A neat thread would be “Tell Me About Your Gun” with photos. The poster would have to walk through each aftermarket piece and explain why that part was chosen and how it works for that particular shooter in the field. Accompanying photos of shooting location (terrain, etc.) would be cool, and of course only guns that have been shot a bunch would be allowed.
I don’t know - I’m not through my first cup of coffee so this post is probably incoherent.
The technical nature of articles on M4C are THE best on the internet, and invite the member to read, mark, and inwardly digest them, before asking… “less than informed” questions. Other than an introduction, I’m not sure I posted anything my first 6 mos. as a member - I had so much to READ!
I’m not an operator - not police - never even peeled potatoes at Ft. Dix. I’m lowly, lowly, private citizen - but I wanted to own better gear than UTG, shoot better than gangstaz at a rapper’s funeral, & own better rifles, than the righthand side of “The Chart.” Working firsthand with Jay Cunningham and Grant through the PA/OH/WV study group was more important (MY initially bad skills & gear notwithstanding) than being a keyboard kommando, and M4C provides that kind of interaction, for members who WANT to take advantage of it.
I’m still a Grade ‘A’ smartass, & I chime in on “General Discussion” appropriately. :rolleyes: But at 0.83 posts per day after 11 years, I mostly STILL read the technical discussions, & ACT on it accordingly.
But if you want to come in and brag about how great your Del-ton rifle and Hi-Point pistol are, after firing a mag through each… well… folks here CAN fix that (if you’re willing to learn that it NEEDS fixing). Or we’ll all get a good laugh out of watching you take enough rope to hang yourself, before Iraqgunz removes our entertainment for the day.
My point was that it’s up to us members to raise the bar. That can be easier said than done especially for new shooters that are strictly brand focused on what’s the best (whatever) without any context or understanding. Hashing out the same stuff/beating a dead horses gets old. Then you’ve also got guys that can afford the best of the best that rave on how inferior other stuff is with zero actual experience other than being brand snobs. As far as technical information there’s way too many industry secrets to even have a deep discussion.
I think your second point definitely touches on something that has lead to a decrease in forum traffic. It seems like you see people asking a question, then someone jumps on him in an reply and says it’s been asked before. Then they post links, tell the original poster to do a search or lock the thread, or often some combination of all that.
It’s one thing if people are trying to be helpful. But most of the time, I think the people replying with those type of replies are trying to make themselves look smart by trying to make the original poster feel stupid.
I never really understood that. It’s completely reasonable for different people to have the same question. It’s also completely reasonable for experts to change their minds on some subject, new products come out, changes in a product occur, etc.
Joe Mamma
That was basically my demise. I used to participate a lot more frequently here but many of the topics became somewhat monotonous.
That and there’s a small group of members whose posts became increasingly annoying AF to read. They kinda ruined the place for me, and I would imagine others as well.
Awwww!
There are is shit being posted today in 2019 that Ive never seen even in the mid 2000’s post sunset ban era when ARs started becoming a thing. For example, are you telling me people today, with the wonders of the internet, someone doesnt know where to buy gas rings.
Im happy to answer newbie questions because everyone was a newbie at one point. But if you make a thread asking a question that you didnt even take the effort to put into a Google search before hand, you have no place in making that thread.
Theres a huge difference between “Which gas rings should I buy?” vs "So I looked on the internet and heard about one piece rings, are one piece rings better than regular gas rings, what makes gas rings quality? Is there a specific metal they use?
And then make a follow up post of how “I think my gas rings are too tight?” Did you even shoot the ****ing gun first? Why are we accepting this post quality?
Maybe this person is one of those millennial snow flakes that cant do anything for themselves like figure out how to buy gas rings.
Yeah agreed. I wish we had one screenshot of the old orange search button and one of Google’s search bar. Either one of those two images would be a valid response to at least a quarter of new posts here.
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This isn’t necessarily exclusive to M4C, as tech forums on the whole have been dying on the vine for at least 5-10yrs now as non tech social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter replace the older tech generation folks (folks 30yrs old and up) that posted up all the organized, researched, and vetted topics on forums. Folks younger than 30yrs old by in large just don’t have the attention span, and patience to learn in depth about tech aspects to a subject. They’re all about the glamor shots, and talking points.
Secondly, a continually fresh crop of arrogant, ignorant, and overall childish new members join these forums every year, and ultimately 5yrs ago or more, the true SMEs finally had enough of trolls and idiots shitposting, and diluting the quality of their treads.
Molon is the classic example of this, and I saw it happen to him here, and on TOS. I still remember one of the tech threads that was the straw that broke Molon’s back. It was barrel break in thread where he posted numerous scientific posts including bore scope pictures illustrating his point, only to be called dumb, and a ton of other nonsense stuff from folks that had no real clue wtf they were talking about, or who they were calling out.
People create tech treads for free, and usually at siginifcant expense in both time, and money. Then they post them up, only to have ignorant members overly critique the articles, and SMEs…with most times the critiquing being totally wrong.
There is only so much that can be said about guns.
He had some fantastic posts. Doc Roberts too.
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Would you like to hazard a guess on how many people post in the training AAR threads? It’s a positive integer between 0 and 5.
I attend 6-8 training classes a year. I stopped doing AAR’s years ago because there was zero discussion about them.
Tom Givens posts a link to his newsletter here every month. It’s gold - very, very valuable info. Guess how much discussion there is that thread?
But by golly, we have a never ending supply of threads to police in General Discussion… sigh.
Dang - I see where you just took away our .40 bear penetration entertainment. :jester:
Many years ago I belonged to a forum where people used to complain about General Discussion all the time to the point that the people who ran the forum decided to get rid of it.
One day they either removed it or made it restricted access (I can’t remember which).
Their membership “who’s online” count plunged and they reinstated it shortly thereafter.
The thing is, they left it off the forum long enough that a ton of those members went off to other forums and never came back. That left the original board a cricket-chirping experience from then on.
Just sayin’…
Too many threads get locked because the subjects have been discussed before. I don’t think a new thread on a subject is bad. I sense that some people get tired of the heavy handed moderation and don’t bother. I see no problem letting an old topic be re-hashed in a new thread. Experience and knowledge change.
I’ve personally wanted to put in my 2 cents on a thread… only to find it locked. It’s not like there’s a swarm of traffic here these days.
Im not sure what so special about the GD that keep members. Maybe I dont spend enough time in GD to know what really goes on here but knowing about GDs in general, there is no such thing as “high quality” posts in any GD forum, its just an amalgamation on people’s opinions.
Its better to bump an old thread, it shows the poster actually looked for information on their own and are posting to seek clarification or updates on an old topic. Rather than post 1 line facebookesq “What is M4Cs opinion on X”