The current state of TalkBass

[crispygoat]

I might get bashed for saying so, but here it goes...

I've been noticing the increase of teenagers on TalkBass lately. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against teenagers being members on TalkBass (I am 20 myself). What I've noticed though is that a lot teenagers are giving their input in threads regarding high-end, vintage (and so on) gear, ranging from vintage Ampegs to the latest Fodera; however, when looking at their profile, all they've owned are a couple of Squiers. What bothers me is that these people have no or limited first hand knowledge about what they are commenting on. I don't mind if people paraphrase others' comments, but if somehow they would include the source from where their response comes from, or say something like "from what I've read," or "the general opinion is," or whatever.

So much so that I don't even bother asking questions anymore since most of the time answers come from people who have the same amount of first hand knowledge as I and have read the same threads.

I remember back when I joined TalkBass back in 2006, you're questions would be answers by guys who've owned numerous basses throughout the last 5 decades.

Is it just me? Am I missing something? What do you think?

PS: My intention is not to target teenagers, but in general they are teenagers or young adults. I do understand that some teenagers have owned/ do own quite a few basses and that some older people have limited first hand knowledge too.

[SB Dog]

I agree with most of what you are saying. However, some of these "teenagers" actually do a lot of research on the bass gear in question. For those who I am referring to, your input is greatly appreciated.

An issue I have, does not necessarily include just "teenagers", but the posters who do not perform a search in the archives prior to starting a new topic. Those duplicate threads just burn space and clog up TB.

[TOOL460002]

you know who i hate and why i hate them? hehe...

[Big_Daddy]

I've got nothing against people who post with a lack of information, not at all (you can just skip their posts). Why, I myself am only 18. My issue is with threads that are posted without having done a simple search through the talkbass archives or through Google, or even the help threads that are stickied.

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by Big_Daddy

I've got nothing against people who post with a lack of information, not at all (you can just skip their posts). Why, I myself am only 18. My issue is with threads that are posted without having done a simple search through the talkbass archives or through Google, or even the help threads that are stickied.

Ditto. I take more issue with people posting useless thread than people posting useless misinformation simply because it's usually very easy to tell when someone has no ideas what they're talking about. Also, when that does a occur TB veterns or members that otherwise do have a clue tend to jump in and correct the thread quickly.

[Steve]

It's not just a teenager thing. People are inherently lazy, probably even more so if American. Forming you own opinion takes time, effort and experience. It's far easier to find a pontificated opinion you agree with and mindlessly regurgitate it without any thought as to whether or not it has any validity at all beyond the first glance.

I'm a total newsie. I watch and pay attention to it all. In a political discussion (which ain't happening here) I can tell probably 90% of the time where someone got their opinion. That's almost verbatim what Hannity, Limbaugh, Olbermann, whoever said last Tuesday night, what Jon Stewart said on Thursday, what Carlos Mencia said last year or what George Carlin said 10 years ago.


The moral of that little story is that the only opinion that should matter to you is your own and, if it really matters to you, put forth the time and effort it takes to actually form an opinion. Otherwise really all you're doing is copying off the paper of the guy sitting next to you.

[MJ5150]

Every possible subject about bass has been discussed here from every possible angle. Why would anyone have to ask a question in a thread? I just search for what I want to know.

When I get my results, I go through the thread and only pay attention to comments from people I trust. People like Steve who posted right above me. He knows his stuff, so I pay attention to what he says about gear.

-Mike

[fingerbun]

This would never have happened back in my day!!

At nearly 50 my ideas can be old-fashioned. I think I can learn a thing or two from some of the teenagers who post here.

You receive advice. You filter it.

Shooting the breeze about gear is part of the fun.

[rayzak]

I don't know, I don't mind some of the same ol' P vs. J threads, or... what flats? Or, tube vs solid state, etc. Sure, most of the questions have been answered numerous times, but it sure would be boring around here if people just used the search function for everything.

I do agree with the OP. Not necessarily teenagers, but anyone who bad mouths a company/product that they've never even used, should admit their limited experience with said product and give reasons for liking or disliking something, instead of..... Fender sucks, or Sadowsky's are overpriced, etc. and giving no reasons for the statement.

[MakiSupaStar]

Take some time off. I do it now and then, although not by choice, but it's become routine enough that I find it helps.


No, this doesn't mean I want to be banned again.

[nsureit]

This is an interactive forum. With millions of posts, certainly most every subject has been discussed ad naseum. But I say ask away. Each new inquiry is the start of a new conversation.

In the non-forum world where we live and work every day, every subject imaginable has been discussed thousands of times, plus, we have Google and Bing. Does that mean we should no longer talk to each other?

Conversations are a social interaction. Who cares if the same subject is broached, Old information will be rehashed, but perhaps something new will be contributed by someone.

I know the OP is complaining about troll-like behavior, or at the least some kids speaking out of turn. But, let 'em fire away. They'll expose themselves, anyway.

[RonGillman3]

I'm 18 too, and kind of have to agree with everyone here. IMO, the teenagers who post some of these ridiculous comments, though they may be ridiculous, they do add flavor to the site. Some of them may know what they are talking about, or some of them looked at a Fender picture and decided that it sucked. You just have to learn how to filter it.

[Bongolation]

Most people on Internet gear forums are negligible, period.

This will only get worse. Sorry, but there it is.

A large majority of the people here and on all gear forums are clueless: They don't gig, they don't have a band, they're not seriously recording and they can't play. Never have, never will.

Yet, in their minds they're obsessed with, for example, some idiotic tone quest in their total absence of any meaningful context in which to even judge tone (live performance or recording), and obsessively look for magical products to make them "awesome" and be like Geddy or Fieldy or Jaco or some other overplaying bass god.

It's ridiculous. They're all enabling each other in this wannabee fantasy circle jerk, obsessing over and cork-sniffing hardware all of which far exceeds their abilities or any legitimate needs to begin with.

I advise young players to avoid gear forums because the experience is that you typically spend a year or two learning everything and then, assuming you're not a complete gristlehead, spend the next couple of years gradually discovering that almost all of it's either outright nonsense or so hopelessly out of perspective with reality as to be meaningless.

By that time, you've either become a part of the bubba team aggressively purveying the received ignorance and screaming down anyone who actually knows what he's talking about ("BURN THE WITCH!") or you've to some extent moved on. Real pros almost always flee within weeks or days unless they're being paid to be here somehow, or are pushing products.

I would say to the OP that I've noticed that the rank stupidity in "Basses" tends to run in three or four month cycles, by some mysterious rhythm. The more technical the forums, the less bubba content.

You have to lower your expectations and define your needs or be driven crazy:

"Will this fit or not? Yes or No?"

"Who has the best deal on ___ this week, and how much?"

"To answer your question, yes it is a fake" (then he buys it anyway).

Sometimes you just have to walk away for a while, or just die of sheer exasperation with these people.

[Stumbo]

Originally Posted by nsureit

This is an interactive forum. With millions of posts, certainly most every subject has been discussed ad naseum. But I say ask away. Each new inquiry is the start of a new conversation.

In the non-forum world where we live and work every day, every subject imaginable has been discussed thousands of times, plus, we have Google and Bing. Does that mean we should no longer talk to each other?

Conversations are a social interaction. Who cares if the same subject is broached, Old information will be rehashed, but perhaps something new will be contributed by someone.

I know the OP is complaining about troll-like behavior, or at the least some kids speaking out of turn. But, let 'em fire away. They'll expose themselves, anyway.

^^This.

Don't forget that TB needs young members to carry on in the future.

Also, I stopped posting "use the search function" in threads because I've used it 100's of times and unless you use the right search term or combination of search terms, many times you don't find what you need(and you waste a lot of time). Especially when attempting to find the most recent posts on a topic. Google doesn't have this feature and the website post is not all that good. I'll put "2011" in a search at least to eliminate some of the old threads but it doesn't allways get you where you want to go.

What I did is to collect links on topics that seem to come up over and over and collect them for future reference. Note: check out the link in my sig. if you haven't already.

Countless times I've referred to my link collection instead of telling someone to use the search. In addition, sometimes I'll do the search for the thread poster since I'm pretty good on search terms and then post the links that I find(whether on TB or the interweb).

Many times I've read posts by newbies and when more experienced TB'rs answer, you can just about see the newbie going through the learning process and if they are open to it and ask good questions, everyone learns.

Kinda like an apprenticeship. Which I think is a good thing.

So, have patience, post what you know and if you read something that bothers you, move on. Attempting to infringe other's freedom of speech is, IMO, not the best method of teaching here on TB or anywhere else.

[MakiSupaStar]

[RonGillman3]

Originally Posted by Stumbo

^^This.

Don't forget that TB needs young members to carry on in the future.

Many times I've read posts by newbies and when more experienced TB'rs answer, you can just about see the newbie going through the learning process and if they are open to it and ask good questions, everyone learns.

Kinda like an apprenticeship. Which I think is a good thing.

So, have patience, post what you know and if you read something that bothers you, move on. Attempting to infringe other's freedom of speech is, IMO, not the best method of teaching here on TB or anywhere else.

This. Very well said, sir.

[Mark Wilson]

Talkbass is the largest web forum dedicated to a single thing apparently.

This is gonna happen.

[Staccato]

Originally Posted by Steve

It's not just a teenager thing. People are inherently lazy, probably even more so if American. Forming you own opinion takes time, effort and experience. It's far easier to find a pontificated opinion you agree with and mindlessly regurgitate it without any thought as to whether or not it has any validity at all beyond the first glance.

I'm a total newsie. I watch and pay attention to it all. In a political discussion (which ain't happening here) I can tell probably 90% of the time where someone got their opinion. That's almost verbatim what Hannity, Limbaugh, Olbermann, whoever said last Tuesday night, what Jon Stewart said on Thursday, what Carlos Mencia said last year or what George Carlin said 10 years ago.


The moral of that little story is that the only opinion that should matter to you is your own and, if it really matters to you, put forth the time and effort it takes to actually form an opinion. Otherwise really all you're doing is copying off the paper of the guy sitting next to you.

As one who too often spends an hour or so reading TB archives on a single topic, there's a wealth of info. under all 3 TB search options. <hint!>

Let's not encourage lazy, and those that call themselves by that word, please don't apply for a job at my company!

[sandmangeck]

Talkbass FTW!

[Mike M.]

One thing I've noticed about Talkbass is that so far (again, so far), regardless of the age groups this forum seems to be the most civil of all the forums that I've past visited. People have been nothing but kind to me here and are more than willing to lend advice. Simply put, this is the only forum that I have in my favorites. I've deleted all the rest of them because of the attitudes.

I'm 57 and I don't care who's here because I feel that I can learn from all ages.

Lets just keep it cool.