Notice: New member registrations to be disabled 10/21/2016

That was touching. Seriously.

 

When you're at the bottom of a hole, stop digging.

It's infuriating, and I suspect, it's another case of sealioning:

 

Hey Shawn, this has been bothering me. This is not Facebbok or LinkedIn...it feels like you have an agenda with this.

 

Plenty of members here have met each other IRL through meets or have gotten to know each other over time through frequent interaction here and on Changstar. All their posts are searchable. Real name verification does nothing to validate or discredit the opinions and experiences of our senior members. They have nothing to prove to you; it's on every rando and acquaintance (myself included) to prove that they can behave and contribute meaningfully or be quiet and let the grownups talk.

Cutting off the flow is the entire point of disabling registrations. There are enough members who are generating plenty of quality content. We don't need more shitposters, trolls, and spammers.

 

As a new member, I promise I'll STFU. No more posts from me.

 

If you have a good joke to share, feel free.

Music suggestions are always welcome!

 

You ask a question because you want answers. That is the first step to showing you have guts. Much appreciated.

The mission of S.B.A.F. is exactly what you see on the site: impressions, FR-measurements, CSD-measurements, gear discussions and many music discussions or in short to enjoy the audio hobby.

Vision, ask Marvey because well he is the captain, a good captain if you ask me.

 

A forum that I have belonged to for twelve years, and was a mod for a couple of years, is largely travel based. That makes it a honey pot for members of the travel trade. The sign-up section includes a screen in large, red letters, that members of the travel trade may not join. One is forced to wonder if it should include the question can you read? Some don't even bother to employ stealth and deception as they go about promoting their businesses until they are discovered and booted out.

So, putting up stuff and expecting people to read it. Well, good luck with that, but sure, it is worth it even if only because it means nobody can say they weren't told.

 

I was fearful of having new registrations open while people were suggesting that Chord products weren't the best thing EVAH, frankly.. Quite possible that it would have caused an influx of bewildered, angry sock puppets

 

I'd say automatic temporary ban for those who don't introduce themselves within 5 posts or so. Accompanied by a BIG RED BOLD NOTICE of what would happen next... I know Purrin isn't much of a fan of this, but it might prove effective...

 

I vaguely remember some principle of social control: something like do it by opening doors rather than closing them.

The idea translates into only giving access to a limited section of the forum, ie new-member introductions.

Many forums have something like first-five posts moderated before being published. It's an idea, but it it is a lot of work, and probably requires a bigger, busier moderation team from the start.

All of these things move away from friends towards public forum. In the end, Marvey has a right to make his forum the way he wants it, but, in practice, that might come down to manipulation of the force rather than the regular forum "tools."

(I don't have any better answers)

 

I don't see what's so hard about writing a one line intro anyway- hardly needs a massive IQ to do that, rather than go into full "WUT IS DA BEST HEADPHOEN LOLZ" mode right away.

It's like not insta-picking Hanzo- though people do that, too.

 

On one forum to which I belong, people have to apply in writing, stating why they want to join and what they feel they have to offer. It has to make sense, and the writing has to be coherent. And some people try and try and try again!

Is it over the top? Well, I got in before they started all that; I probably wouldn't have bothered otherwise. Does it work? Hmm... sometimes, some of the "applications," anonymised, are shared with senior members, and yes, maybe it does make sense.

And yeah, by the time one gets to this sort of thing, it is not a forum any longer, it is an organisation. With all that is required in the running of one.

 

As a new member, introducing oneself is a good start but it is more important to learn about how SBAF members present their arguments, their shared values and their mutual respect. One can't just bust in here and start posting left, right and centre without understanding the culture of this place, the common aim of sharing our knowledge in a tolerant environment and without really trying to become part of a community of friends.

I learned a lot from notable SBAFers who contributed revelatory posts on headfi few years ago and on Changstar up till it closed. I was not active back then. Over here I eventually decided to contribute to the best of my ability with respect towards other members who are obviously more knowledgeable and can guide me through this experience. As a new member, humility, acklowledging the limitations of one's experience, empathy, a desire to learn and share one's knowledge in a friendly non-condescending manner is essential.

 

It's tons more work on the moderators, but the Steve Hoffman forums don't let your posts show up until you've posted in the Intro post and you have enough "non-sucky" posts under your belt before you're allowed to post freely. It seems a bit more like secret samurai slayings, but it wasn't terrible. I'm ok with the registration being closed as an alternate solution.

 

How big does SBAF need to be? Unlike HF, we are community funded so we don't need to hold companies to 'ransom' with our membership numbers. The conversation here is good, with enough breadth of experience and divergent opinion to keep our hands off each others junk. Non members can still reap the benefits of being here by lurking, without the temptation of going rogue rando and shitting in threads, decreasing S:N.

Recent (and recurrent) history would suggest mo' randos = mo' problems.