Do people tire of audio forums?

.....I have been on this site for nearly 24 years and yes it has changed and not due to nostalgia or sentimentality as was noted. The sellers, buyers and dealers as well as Audiogon have changed as it is now more a transactional thing in this hobby. I still have fun ...... 

@garebear Dude, everything has changed.

@garebear To me, it’s interesting that the climate around here kind of reflects the changes going on in the world. I know it does here in the US.

Perhaps we should ask ourselves, are we part of the solution or part of the problem?

In regards to people taking it personal when someone doesn’t actually take their well intentioned and well informed advice personally, I say: have any of you folks ever raised a human being before? Dude, get over it.

Life is too short to get wound up over somethiing as menial as that.

For that matter, perhaps a little further down the road after they’ve spent way too much chasing tha dream, I think is the way we say it, they’ll finally figure it out. With your helpful input. 

Kind of like, when you raise a human.

I’m a long time member and I was a Lurker for many years before I ever actively participated only to discover that it’s a blast. But it sure as hell wouldn’t be if I put myself thru that kind of torture.

Someone said, years ago, I think I’ve heard this a couple of times: How, the roles we play around here, or the way our personality is reflected is similar to the clique we were a part of in high school. That that’s the way things tend to play out around here.

I would tend to agree.

There are members here who I've found to be not only consistently helpful but unfailingly patient, kind and generous. They are the reason I continue to participate. There are others I do my best to ignore. 

Political diatribes and personal attacks severely try my patience but they do not keep me from abandoning the forum. 

Reading posts asking such questions as "What is the best DAC"? by people who apparently opt to ignore the search feature gets tiresome but I don't imagine such posts will stop appearing any time soon. 

For me, the positives of Audiogon forums outweigh the negatives.  

I've tried other audio forums but the level of participation has been much, much lower than on Audiogon, so I haven't stuck with them. 

To me, the question is more than just loss of interest in audio fora but engagement in the hobbyist aspects themselves. Long before the Internet, I had periods of intense involvement in the hobby, through such things as the NY Audio Society (or whatever it was called- the original publisher of The Audio Voice). A bunch of characters, some reviewers, ardent hobbyists, record collectors. Great fun.

Yet I went through periods where I didn’t even set up a system (though I kept the gear and all the records). It isn’t that I lost interest, but had other things, including work, that took most of my time and energy.

Once the Internet emerged, I got involved in it first as a lawyer- it was largely bulletin boards on fairly bandwidth limited ISP intermediaries. You’d read threads in a string. Over the years, I did some behind the scenes work for one hobbyist board (not audio) and a ton of work on Internet related litigation.

My experience also led me to get involved as a participant in a variety of boards, involving audio, cars, motorcycles, and other hobbyist interests. What I saw over the long haul was that participants change, old members drop off for any number of reasons, new participants join and the culture changes- not making a value judgment on that- it’s the nature of the beast. The topics change too as different technologies come into play- look how much bandwidth is now devoted to "streaming."

I think when you are in acquisition and evaluation mode, you are more likely to engage. At a certain point, at least for me, I’ve seen a lot of the same questions arise and don’t feel compelled to chime in; the topics are usually well covered. It isn’t exactly "lack of interest" but more where I think I can contribute something of value.

The social aspect of the fora also mark a change from the old days and I’m not sure we can go back-- there was something special about in person group listening sessions. Yeah, not all of it was serious and productive- a fair about of kibitzing, record swaps and just plain socializing. In some ways I miss that.

But the Internet opened up the whole world to us-- from record shopping worldwide, to communicating with groups of audiophiles from all over.

Trade-offs to be sure. I’m now about 53 years deep into this hobby and seem way more comfortable not knowing all the answers. So I still visit, still peruse the threads and chime in when I find it appropriate.

I have made many friends over the years through various hobbyist fora and for that I’m grateful even in cases where I no longer actively participate in a particular forum.