Life is good. Hope things are great for you.

It still makes me sad to see how car knowledge is mostly shared through FB groups that suck. They're filled with 10x the egos, bad info that's barely moderated and a complete lack of good write ups like back in the day (At least for the Audi 4.0T community) . This format was prime. I miss vBulletin.

Speed camera pic for attention:

It’s like a giant food court of quick (low value) interactions at a giant corporate mall, instead of individual quality sit-down restaurants. Way more noise than value. But alas, the masses have adopted it, and are glued to it daily.

It’s the same as people buying knock off parts on Amazon for convenience. It’s why shops have such a tough time. There is no thought of supporting enthusiast owned business. No real loyalty or desire to help causes that have long term impacts. It’s all about quick dopamine hits and viral trends.

To be fair, some forums that exist out there are primarily right-wing recruitment centers full of Oakleys and jorts, especially in Raptor circles. Chuds.

LandoAWD said:

To be fair, some forums that exist out there are primarily right-wing recruitment centers full of Oakleys and jorts, especially in Raptor circles. Chuds.

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Yeah, most of the forums (sit-down restaurants) that still exist were acquired by a large corporate network and are usually unmoderated, and many simply lack activity. It's also gotten really tough to interact anywhere without having to deal with all the ideological pissing contests, high horses, and bickering with the culture wars wedge that the masses have embraced. Forums are not immune to that either. At least some forums still try to keep it reigned in.

The good ones that are still around, like this one, are having a tougher time trying to get the addicts to put down the dopamine crack pipe and spend their time in here, interacting and contributing useful content that has made the internet invaluable over the past 25 years. Luckily, we still have a good group here (though I'd love to have more veterans in here participating). Other communities haven't been so lucky.

LandoAWD said:

To be fair, some forums that exist out there are primarily right-wing recruitment centers full of Oakleys and jorts, especially in Raptor circles. Chuds.

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If you think they're bad, you should see the cybertruck forums.

Just an older dude checking in... axles showed up today, flywheel is at the machine shop, a new clutch and we are back to having fun again.

Ludachris said:

Yeah, most of the forums (sit-down restaurants) that still exist were acquired by a large corporate network and are usually unmoderated, and many simply lack activity. It's also gotten really tough to interact anywhere without having to deal with all the ideological pissing contests, high horses, and bickering with the culture wars wedge that the masses have embraced. Forums are not immune to that either. At least some forums still try to keep it reigned in.

The good ones that are still around, like this one, are having a tougher time trying to get the addicts to put down the dopamine crack pipe and spend their time in here, interacting and contributing useful content that has made the internet invaluable over the past 25 years. Luckily, we still have a good group here (though I'd love to have more veterans in here participating). Other communities haven't been so lucky.

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I really f king hate DSM FB pages. It's always people on there talking shit, that have never done a damn thing themselves. I was doing a lot of things they talk about in 2006! Idiots. gets my blood boiling. I refuse to partake in IG and Tiktok...but unfortunately do watch videos there because sometimes that is the only way to consume that information.

definitely nice still having a useful spot for the decade of info, although a lot of it is not as relevant with the newer tech now. Still my first place to search, and try to link back to it when able. Who knows, maybe one day forums will become the new rage again!

TheBrownMike said:

although a lot of it is not as relevant with the newer tech now.

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Not sure what you mean, are you talking about using AI for DSM information?

diambo4life said:

I really f king hate DSM FB pages. It's always people on there talking shit, that have never done a damn thing themselves. I was doing a lot of things they talk about in 2006! Idiots. gets my blood boiling. I refuse to partake in IG and Tiktok...but unfortunately do watch videos there because sometimes that is the only way to consume that information.

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I explained to my late coworkers kid earlier today when he stopped by the shop that a lot of people are culture vultures that only exist in the space to fit in. A lot of those people are are bolt-on bros who’s entire experience in what we call a passion is the same cookie cutter intake, exhaust, downpipe, tune that most in whatever platform they hop to do over and over again. Also the “hot” platform jumpers that only exist to be a relevant then jump ship to the next thing when the views or likes dim. Give me the enthusiast that I know spent way too much time, way too much money on something that most people won’t get in any platform and I know I can have a conversation with them about the love of the game. The game is the money pit and the experience

I opened my first account a year after high school around 2005. Defiant was the one that made me want to sign up...I wonder where he is at, hopefully he is well and still kicking it... Steve also had a lot of interesting posts/replies that I found interesting reading...I believe his profile said that he was a rocket scientist, at the time, from what I remember, might be wrong tho, could have been some else... maybe luv2rally not sure.

I don't really know what happened to my original profile. It somehow got deleted or maybe hacked. I couldn't find it in mid 2010s. I had this other profile that I'm using right now , I think I created it when I couldn't log in into my original one or maybe when I was buying things from the classifieds to ask questions from 2 different profiles to see if the seller is honest or full of BS...but in any case, this profile never got deleted...and I sometimes disappear for 10 years at a time