no general discussion for all gens so figured id post it on here..
so having been back on the rotary scene after having disappeared for several years...
finding that most folks that ive come across recently with rotaries seems to have left the forums entirely and have moved over to FB..
is this the new trend.. last encounter with several owners admittedly said they don't frequent the forums anymore..
one even went as far as saying that its become more of an information archive moreso than it is anything else...
noticing that most if not all of the meets are rarely posted on forums as well..
are the forums becoming the 'ol big list...


meh

 

Owners have sold the car And moved on to other platforms. Not everyone wants to wrench more than drive.

I come on the forum for info and parts and see other build threads. Social media has definately taken over.

Up until recently, every single part I bought for my car was either locally or on here. But I'm part of two whats app messaging groups. I found parts there.

The forum certainly isn't the same as it was 10 years ago. I came back after about 8 years away, the lounge sucks now.

 

Please tell me more about these whatsapp groups. Any FD specific whatsapp groups? How do I get invited?

 

Nothing official. It's just a bunch of us local guys that decided to create groups since alot of them don't use the forums.

I'm sure locally you guys could do the same as well. Since I live in Toronto, there isn't alot of Rx7 owners say compared to a city like LA or Miami etc.

 

Oooh I see, I thought it was more like a large US/North America whatsapp group for buying and selling. Which would be cool, but those group chats usually end up being ridiculous real fast

 

Any group chat with more than 10 ppl will get annoying real fast, I never use FB or any social media, only forums.

 

I've noticed the shift as well. The other forum I'm on is just about dead now. Just a few years ago it was live and wild with new accounts being made regularly. It's unfortunate that this is happening since forums are such a diamond mine of information. It's absolutely insane the amount of information on this forum alone. Years and years of knowledge and innovation. That fb group stuff is super lame. I gave it a shot and was a major disappointment. The percentage of idiots to not idiots is very high. It's a melting pot of ignorance and arguments. There's no discussion going on there. Everyone knows everything, no one is ever wrong and anything being sold is worth 95% of its weight in adamantium+shipping+paypal fees.

Maybe it's the new generation that sees the ease of use and the immediate gratification of "likes" and comments. Using the forum requires some patience. That trait is being lost with the new generation. I am grateful that the people that still use the forums are here. There are some juggernauts that still frequent rx7club and other forums. Not sure where I'd be without this forum or any of the other forums I use.

 

We are talking about the same idiots on FB that post "Looking for an FD" but don't list a price or location..etc They are lazy... don't like to read, search or put forth any real effort to do anything.

With that said... I created a local FB page for my FD buddies. It is easy to communicate with everyone that way.

 

I started on the Big List in about '95 or so, before I even bought my first RX-7. I was a regular on that and the TeamFC3S mailling list.

I distinctly remember when the forum got going. It was mainly kids and idiots. Myself and my friends made fun of the idiots on the forum. Over time, the smart people started to migrate over and the intelligence level started rising.

The new social media is a good way to post pictures, maybe post a "WHAT WRONG WITH CAR IT BROKED" and get a response, but long, intelligent discussion is REALLY hard to do. Not to mention typing more than a paragraph or two on a phone keyboard with 2 fingers is SOO slow. I type around 80 WPM on a regular keyboard .

Hopefully someone finds/invents the happy medium for car discussion on a cell phone. I know some of the other car forums use Tapatalk which is supposed to be pretty cool. Also, internet forums are some SERIOUSLY old technology - this forum is damn near the same as it was 15 years ago with a few minor tweaks.

Dale

 

This phenomenon happened with ALL the car enthusiast groups back in the early 2000s. I was in the DSM community at the time and our mailing list was known as the place where the real experts were hanging out, while all the kiddies were giving each other shitty advice on the forums.

Things are obviously quite different these days!

 

Lollolololllol oh yes.... those are the main bulk of people in those groups. Also what dale said, "what thing this is? It broke" or "I got 1000$, what's out there?"

 

I joined the Big List back in 1996 when I first got on a computer. I prefer the forum so that you can search things. The mailing lists and now the newer social media site make it difficult to capture useful info. As Dale mentioned, at this point new social media is full of idiots now giving out horrible advice - hopefully that will evolve like the others did.

 

I'd venture to say that it is utterly laziness and the fact that almost all discussions end in flame wars and banning on the forum. Looking through old threads I notice a lot of banned headlines over usernames of people I used to respect.

Even now, you see new users who post questions that have been answered decades ago without searching and continue to do so with each and every question they have. It's not like the FD came out last year it's a 24 year old car for Christ sake, almost everything you can think of has been done just need to search for it. I loved how Mahjik would use to link everyone to their repeated noon questions.

Or you get these know it all's who have no respect for another person's opinion or their accomplishments or achievements and talk down to senior members. I think back in the day everyone talked softly and carried a big stick. Now everyone is a keyboard warrior, who cares what they post on an internet forum.

Why post info to share when someone just ends up being flamed?

 

I don't have high expectations from FB groups. Its crazy how people are more serious and genuine behind a made up forum username, but on facebook using their real names they tend to act as idiots.

Buying and selling is also less sketchy on the forum where you can see someones forum background, iTrader ratings, how long they have been a member etc etc.

 

This about sums it up for me.
And a reason I try to patronize the vendors/sponsors whenever possible.

 

i think of the three, List, forum, and FB groups, i prefer the forum, its searchable, and just seems to be a better format for information.

as a sidebar, i troll the FB FB group. there was a big argument about how high a P port needs to idle, and i posted a short vid of mine idling at 900rpm, which is where the competition manual tells you to set it. i was a little teed off because i actually lost the argument, and apparently my car idling at 900rpm since 2008 either didn't happen, or its broken or something.

so i post videos of it idling at 900rpm, brap brap, and say my 82 Rx7 doesn't idle right, help, and get told to change all kinds of parts/check all manner of things on the car. nobody ever thinks its ported.

 

considering all NSU production rotaries were peripheral ported, and Mazda licensed the technology from NSU, it's not surprising that you can idle pretty well at < 1000rpm.

 

After reading this I decided to check a local auto enthusiast FB page and proceeded to have a good laugh. These are the first few posts from this morning:

-If anyone has any burnout vids from this weekend share away
-Throwing subs in the rear seat of the BMW.
-Car runs and drives needs muffler has 334000km 500firm pm for detsils
-May consider trades for truck.. preveribly chevys.. let me see what you got..
-$1000 to spend whats out there, (Cars/Trucks) comment or PM ME
-Just seeing what offers there is for trades on my wheels
-Anyone get some nice pictures of this **** at the (local car show)?
-Who has a amp for sale?
-Cops at (local car show) bitching bout the donuts lol ... We tried to get him to do a burn out
-My homie Justin and I were out and about in (local city) this weekend in our jettas. Did anyone happen to get any pics of our **** mobiles? Just curious is all
-What's out there for below 1500 (picture of $50 bills)

 

i would have thought that as well, but the internet tells me a PP idles at 3,000rpm and makes no power at all until like 9,000, and then it blows up or something. the zomg is implied.

 

Well said.

I personally think the FB groups are a **** show and a waste of time in general. I'll pop over there once in a while, but one thing I don't like is that there is absolutely zero accountability, and no sense of hierarchy at all. People just argue and **** on each other, and there's no good way to discern who has real knowledge over the guys with a half a brain. No sense of community at all--- frankly, I think it showcases much of what's wrong with our society in america in 2017.

 

I tried out FB groups for a bit when I became active again after being away from the forum for a few years and yeah, I wasn't impressed at all.

I didn't see anything special partwise that wasn't already here and not organized well. I second on what Rich said - no hierarchy or status to rely on separating the people with actual info versus just noise.

While I'm sad about the decline of forums in general, this one will never outlive its usefulness. I'll continue coming back even if it's dead and only archived.

Maybe some enterprising app developer will combine the social media aspect of FB/Instagram with the structured organization and community of a web forum. Looks like a gap within enthusiast web culture that could be catered to?

 

It's such a weird thing, right?

On Facebook, people can see who you are... your family, your hometown, your high school - but are rude as ****.

On here, I'm only a angry looking cartoon rotor and you're a rotor in a housing... but people are soooo much nicer. It really baffles me.

Not to mention, the level and quality of discourse is so much higher here... plus, being searchable makes the forums just a trove of information.

That all said, Facebook *does* serve as a pretty good marketplace. I've bought and sold things there pretty consistently.

 

My guess is, in the context of a forum, all you have is your handle and your rep. And, with a certain degree of anonymity there's no incentive to puff your feathers out.

Plus facebook is a throwaway culture. It's an incredible machine that turns ordinary people into worthless asshats. There's no humanity to it. Everyone is an omniscient rockstar on permanent vacation.

 

Truer words have never been spoken about Facebook than this.

 

Just like any tool, it's only as useful as the person using it is competent. With fb, there's a lot of people that use it for measuring dicks and a lot of other people that use it for sharing life events and keeping in touch with friends and family. My "friends list" is small and is exclusive to those I actually know in life. I'm on and few fb groups but those are small too. It seems as though there's an issue with the social side of society where strangers have to "puff their feathers" to each other. There's no way to verify what someone does and doesn't know so as long as they sound somewhat credible then I think they're ok with saying what they want. I think this may be part of the problem. If you notice, you'll never see any of that bullshit in smaller groups, it's only in the big public ones.