Where's Garagejournal Going?

[isb cornbinder]

I have hope for GJ as long as its run by Ryan or someone likeminded.

I gave up on many forums because of all the non topic related bs that was allowed.

To me GJ has a good mixture of topics that goes beyond “just” a garage.

The first step toward destroying a forum is to allow religion and, or religion in. I was a member of several forums, for decades. One for for trucks and one for brand specific. One is dead and the other is on the edge of failure.

 

[isb cornbinder]

No offense to anyone here, I love GJ. However if it wasn’t here anymore I’d probably save a lot of money.

"No offence" is often the way some persons start their post that intends to offend. Thankyou for not being that person.

 

[bwringer]

I'm a long-timer on a vintage motorcycle forum, and one of the issues I'm starting to see is that, well, everything has already been asked and answered.

I mean, people do find new creative ways to screw up or misunderstand regularly, but it is slowly getting quieter and quieter over there.

There are many other factors as well, but that's one I honestly never thought I'd see. Someone asks a question, a faint bell rings somewhere in the back of my brain, and sure enough Google turns up an answer on the forum from 2011 or something, likely as not my answer. That's just one vast corpus of specialized knowledge out of thousands or millions.


Another factor is that the owner of the motorcycle forum has made the choice to create a special area for the politically and religiously obsessed to have their say. There's a moderator who's doing a great job (they still have rules...), but basically it's become a bad neighborhood where stupid things happen, the same few morons post the same horrible **** over and over and over, and many have stopped participating because of the hostility in that area that occasionally bleeds out.

What's odd to me is that at least half of the most vile, hateful, and prolific turd disturbers over there don't seem to have ever even owned a motorcycle, and never appear in the motorcycling related areas. Why and how they found a motorcycle forum and decided that it was the place to build their foul, reeking nest and squat in it for hours on end every day, I'll never quite understand. But an alarming portion of the site's traffic is in that area, which is unrelated to motorcycles.

I really don't know where that will end up, but I absolutely agree that the GJ hard line against engaging with or allowing those counterproductive obsessions is the right way to go.

We engage only with healthy obsessions here, like tools, and fast cars, and slow cars, and motorcycles, and machines, gewgaws, gadgets, contraptions and constructions of every sort.

 

[CGarage]

Don't forget the otherside, the posters who have a hissy when an older thread gets necro'd.

Older threads should be allowed to be commented on so information is kept in a concise location and updated over time, and with time.

 

[micromind]

TGJ isn’t going anywhere. I’m one of the very last of the private forum owners and have zero plans to change that. I don’t do this **** for money… If I did, I would have sold long ago.

And for the record, we’ve seen no decline in traffic or posting activity in years… In fact, we‘ve been on a very slow growth trajectory since the emergence of social media. Very slow, but positive.

Thanks.....seriously, thanks.

This is why it's so enjoyable and educational here.

 

[e015475]

TGJ isn’t going anywhere. I’m one of the very last of the private forum owners and have zero plans to change that. I don’t do this **** for money… If I did, I would have sold long ago.

And for the record, we’ve seen no decline in traffic or posting activity in years… In fact, we‘ve been on a very slow growth trajectory since the emergence of social media. Very slow, but positive.

Thanks Ryan - that is encouraging news.

As I 'age out' I've made a deliberate effort to find a good doctor, dentist, financial planner, tax guy that I like, trust and most likely outlive me. The community and knowledge base here is great and I'd hate to loose it. Thanks for the reassurance - your 'recipe' for a great forum is somewhat of an anomaly in social media today.

Looking forward to many more years. Best of luck in all your endeavors.

Thank you,

Phil Dooley
e015475

 

[NUTTSGT]

Older threads should be allowed to be commented on so information is kept in a concise location and updated over time, and with time.

It's allowed here however, there's a couple of issue with "OLD" threads.

Sometime the information that was posted at the time is completely out of date. New posts quote that old information and creates alot of confusion. When that happens, it's best just to close down the old thread and let someone start a new one on the same topic.

Secondly, the old threads seem to get bumped up by spammers, either new ones or with hacked accounts of members no longer active. I can't tell you how many times threads concerning "Autel" have been hacked with spam.

When I see old threads, I moderate them with due regard if needed.

 

[larry4406]

Another forum I frequent it comes up with a pop up box cautioning that you were about to awaken a zombie thread and asked if you really really really want to do that vs starting a new thread.

 

[CGarage]

This is the first I have heard of hacked threads and “Autel” subjects, thank you for the background.

That said, sometimes there are two or three threads from years ago that have great info on the evolution of a product (or idea), and it is really helpful to track the developments from inception.

Good job applying a case-by-case basis to your filtering of these.

 

[Dave455]

An interesting, and thought provoking, thread.

Although hard to quantify, I thought I’d noticed a slight shift over the last couple of years.

The answer, of course, is for members who are concerned to try and contribute interesting threads. Write as you would a short magazine article, and include pictures.

I’ve been grateful for the depth of knowledge here on several occasions, and have found information that would be almost unobtainable elsewhere.

 

[whateg01]

Just had an "interaction" with a member on another forum last week and thought of this thread. I've been watching several threads where this other member has been belittling other members for, as an example, asking questions but not providing all the necessary details. Instead of just asking for the details, he berated the other user for not knowing he needed to provide more.

 

[theoldwizard1]

No offense to anyone here, I love GJ. However if it wasn’t here anymore I’d probably save a lot of money.

I'm old. You can't take it with you and there is still plenty left for the kids and grandkids.

 

[Boogerman]

I'm old. You can't take it with you and there is still plenty left for the kids and grandkids.

Splurge, buy yourself a nice MAC or Snap-on item to used instead of the old time craftsman you're plodding around with! I'd recommend a ratcheting screwdriver from SO, or a F80 flex head long ratchet. Or a set of full polish extra long pattern MAC wrenches. As an old guy, I really appreciate the extra leverage on the long wrenches and the long ratchet!

 

[cannuck]

Ryan is doing a fantastic job of keeping this place in line, alive and well. Great range of people with huge experience and expertise but most of all a generally VERY respectful attitudes.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Splurge, buy yourself a nice MAC or Snap-on item to used instead of the old time craftsman you're plodding around with!

I have been "plodding along" with these for 40-50 years. I don't have that many left. I would rather splurge on some quality battery powered tools.

Shiny "quality" hand tools don't make you a better mechanic.

 

[nadogail]

Garage Journal has become my significant social connection to like minded people.

 

[Boogerman]

I have been "plodding along" with these for 40-50 years. I don't have that many left. I would rather splurge on some quality battery powered tools.

Shiny "quality" hand tools don't make you a better mechanic.

Yes, if you don't even have basics like cordless tools, you're best off buying those. It's not about being a better mechanic and using crude tools to prove a point; good tools are about making it faster, easier, and more enjoyable to do the jobs. That's what's splurging is about; not about buying basics to do the jobs. Some people never get to the point where they spend money to make their life more enjoyable, they agonize over spending money just to get the basics.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'm old. You can't take it with you and there is still plenty left for the kids and grandkids.

That is why I say build the garage now. Enjoy it now and for the rest of your life. Save the money while putting it to use rather than paying someone else because you don't have the space.

Better than most other things, it's a place to just go relax, wether working, cleaning or just staring at the walls.

 

[rd65]

This is by far the best forum I am a member of. I belong to a couple Miata groups, one is pretty good, the turbo forum is full of asshats and know-it-alls (who forgot that they asked a question or two before). The Ford truck group, FTE, is pretty good with tons of knowledge on older rigs but post numbers seem to have really declined in the last couple of years. I will say that even the worst forum is better than almost any FB group as far as questions and knowledge go.

 

[thingfixer]

I said the word forum to a 19 year old kid the other day at work and he had no clue what that was. It kinda threw me off that he didn’t know but I guess that’s the new normal. I rarely ever check Facebook unless I get a notification or something like that I’d much rather be here and other forums where ee don’t have to worry about certain types of posts.

This style of forum has mostly died out online. I used to post on sports discussion forums and most of them had fizzled out and died altogether by circa 2012. I think this one has survived as long as it has because it's usually among the top results any time you google something about tools.

Most of the sort of discussion that goes on here has migrated over to reddit so far as I can tell, which is a shame IMO since you can't really have a prolonged discussion on that platform, where threads usually have a life of 2, maybe 3 days.

 

[Bennylava]

This style of forum has mostly died out online. I used to post on sports discussion forums and most of them had fizzled out and died altogether by circa 2012. I think this one has survived as long as it has because it's usually among the top results any time you google something about tools.

Most of the sort of discussion that goes on here has migrated over to reddit so far as I can tell, which is a shame IMO since you can't really have a prolonged discussion on that platform, where threads usually have a life of 2, maybe 3 days.

I think this thread runs counter to that. Lots of replies in this thread to simply to talk about a forum, which isn't even the meat and potatoes of the forum, which is garage related stuff.

The advantages that forums have over facebook and reddit are numerous, not the least of which is that you can barely talk there. If you make one slip they'll ban you. Say something only vaguely political and if it's not towing their party line, you're out.

Some people think that shouldn't come up or shouldn't be an issue, but it's a necessity. For example on this forum, a frequent discussion is china and U.S manufacturing of our good old tools being outsourced.