Whatever happened to this place?

I have no idea if this is true for the warrior forum, but one thing I've observed in online forums generally is that people tend to get nostalgic for the good old days, when in reality the past wasn't that far removed from the present. I've experienced this myself and I suspect that there is some sort of natural human tendency to do this.

BUY MY STUFF ... Ha Ha lol Very good... That's what I was talking about when I started the thread ... btw when did newbies become noobies?

A forum, like a place, is what you make of it.

Some people even make time spent in prison beneficial. O. Henry used his time as a guest of the government to become a prolific writer.

People use a forum in different ways, and as you become more experienced, the way you view and use it changes. Things that wowed you when you were an IM tenderfoot now make you think "just more recycled info".

Perhaps there are more less useful threads/posts these days but does that necessarily have to be a bad thing?

One of the most important things we have to learn is discernment.

What is good? What is bad? What is useful? What is real, hard-won experience and what is someone just spouting a clueless opinion? It can take years to develop your critical faculties to a decent level.

Instead of commenting on the poor quality of the threads, think about what it is that makes them poor and how they could be made more useful. Writing an eyecatching thread title is an artform, as is finding a topic that taps into the zeitgeist of the forum.

Having said that, participating in a forum is not all about getting the most read or most popular thread.

I have posted some threads that I knew were not going to get many eyeballs, but were useful pieces of information for those who cared to check it out. (On the other hand, some offbeat "fluff" threads have taken off with pages of comments. Go figure!).

Here's something that might help this discussion. It's my recollection of my Warrior Forum usage (and like most recollections it's subjective, selective and probably not what really happened).

August 2006: signed up for Warrior Forum. Found it completely daunting and didn't come back for 6 months. Signed up under an anonymous username because I didn't want the scammers to 'get me'.

Spring 2007: started to lurk and do occasional posts. Got slammed for a couple of pompous "I'm a newbie so I know it all" posts. Was convinced the old hands hated me. Almost everything posted here was a revelation.

Summer 2007: went through "I hate gurus" phase and became convinced they had ruined my life. Spending too much time on the forum and too little time developing a business. Was a buyer and not a seller.

Autumn 2007: started to understand how the forum worked. Changed to my real name. Got involved in some of the banter. Still spending too much time lurking. Wife gives me bollocking "Get off that bloody Warrior Forum and do some work!" Spending way too much on WSOs and the latest system without any idea how I was going to use them.

Winter 2007: started planning my first WSO. Kept putting it off because I wanted it to be great. (finally did it one year later). Personally, I blame Paul Myers for the delay because when he was selling great stuff for $27 how could I justify charging the same for something of mine?

Spring 2008: got sick of IM and the forum and spent little time there. The good thing was I cut back my spending to just the essentials.

Summer/Autumn 2008: the big change to the new forum and member moderation. A time of great excitement and big highs and lows. Lots of great threads (quite a few sadly deleted) and polarisation of members. Felt sad and that the WF was facing its demise. PM'ed Paul Myers with my concerns and he replied pretty much what he said here - it's cyclical and normal. Gave up visiting the WSO forum.

December 2008: did my first WSO (Christmas PLR) and it slowly dawned on me that I actually wasn't interested in doing WSO's or PLR. I was doing it because other people were.

Spring 2009: Spending very little time on the WF. Finally acted on what I already knew. It was a time drain. Maximum half an hour a day here to check out anything interesting and post something only if it adds to the thread. Noticed a few other formally very active people were doing the same. Maybe they, too were spending more time on their business.

Summer 2009: Now very clear about what I want to do and where I am going. I also am not afraid to speak my mind on the forum. Before I would think, "I don't want to alienate possible JV partners". Now it doesn't concern me. I am who I am and people can take me or leave me.

Martin

Paul,

You squashed my first post a couple of years ago... I didn't understand why, and still dont... and it caused me to not post again until just recently...

However, a couple of years later, after having read some of your own posts, I have come to admire you alot and understand that your job is hard, and some of the complexities that it represents... Sometimes innocent people get deleted because they just don't know how to approach the forum, and they have to learn. Sometimes the hard way because alot is at stake.

For instance, I know there are good buyers in Nigeria, but I stopped answering their buyers requests because it's too hard to distinguish a good one from a bad one, and for the sake of my clients it's unfortunately (for the good ones) better to be safe than sorry.

I appreciate you and your position. I know that the warrior forum is the best on the planet, people tend to conduct themselves more professionally here...if you dont believe me, go check DP.

There is a reason, it's because the moderators have trained these people to be professional or go to the kiddie forums where you belong.

John

Hi,

The yaysayers won.

This is the prize. Enjoy.

Bye!

Martin, The difference between a complete newbie and an old hand is that first sentence.

That post may be the best description of the process people go through who end up getting a lot from this forum, or pretty much any other. Anyone who's new and reading this thread, go back and re-read Martin's post a few times. Think about the steps he describes. It will save you months, maybe years, of frustration.

John, That is the ultimate goal. Nicely put.

I think one of the hardest things for a lot of people to appreciate when they're new and enthusiastic is that the moderators don't delete posts for fun. They're looking at the balance and, as you say, there are a lot of things that go into that which even a lot of experienced folks don't know about. There's a lot of that.

And any moderator will make mistakes. The goal there is to keep the damage from those mistakes to a minimum. This is one of the reasons that anonymous posters tend to get hit harder. It's tough to do a lot of damage to fictional entities.

TomG,

That's always an interesting thing. I've seen long-term members send out articles to their subscribers recommending the place, along with comments about it being a good source of business, and generate the flood that way, too.

Cycles. It all runs in cycles. They're really only a "problem" for folks that haven't been around long enough to recognize them.


Paul