[disastermouse]

Quote:

Someone posted about newbies and posting new threads. FYI all new members get a message that, among a bunch of other info, directs them towards the recommendations threads. In the future I hope to set up a newbie forum instead.

A newbie forum with maybe some stickied threads or articles?  And maybe the glossary of head-fi terms?  Could be that new users can't post until they at least click on the stickies...or is that not possible?

 

[Tsujigiri]

Some newbies are going to post strange threads in the main forums no matter how much guidance they're given at the onset. I guess we were all there at one point, and fortunately a good number of new users seem to do a little research before they feel the need to post.

 

[Currawong]

They don't get the message for a few hours after they join (intentionally), so you'll still see quite a few newbie threads for now.

 

[imackler]

I'm sure this would be a programming nightmare:
 
Newbies can only type terms (budget, classical, portable) after they've done a search query with those words! (Not realistic at all, obviously)
 
Or a newbie entrance test: They would only be able to start or post in threads after they pass the test; the right answers would be found through the search function. The test could be automated.
 
Or for the first two weeks of being a headfi member they could only post in the recommendation threads.

 

[Jepu]

Jeez, some posts here make me feel a whole lot less welcome, even if I did not start with the usual "Hey guys which ~$50 gaming headphones should I buy? I like enormous bass a lot!" -first thread. I do like the openness of these forums at least. It'd be a disservice to them if things would go too much towards the direction of shut-in elitism.
 
I've lurked around long enough to say that the most gripes are the same as in with almost any forum for me at least.
- Favoritism
- Post count boosting with short, nigh-meaningless replies
- People who obviously haven't read some of the forum categories/rules
 
In general the head-fi forums seem to be a very nice place for information and guidance regardless of its pretty enormous size though.

 

[chewy4]

I really don't see what's wrong with people making threads asking for recommendations.
 
Having one thread for that becomes too much of a clustered mess IMO. Much harder to search through and follow, not to mention there's going to be a larger amount of people that will be looking at thread titles than there are that look at each post in the recommendations thread.

 

[KamijoIsMyHero]

Or just make a big table of headphones categorized by price and giving a rough summary of the sound signature much like that one custom iem thread somewhere in the portable section, it was a breeze to look at the options and knowing I don't really have to drop a grand just for a custom in ear

 

[areinike]

Sometimes, I find what I need with the smaller threads more quickly .... just sayin'  

 

[TubeStack]

I really don't see what's wrong with people making threads asking for recommendations.

Having one thread for that becomes too much of a clustered mess IMO. Much harder to search through and follow, not to mention there's going to be a larger amount of people that will be looking at thread titles than there are that look at each post in the recommendations thread.

Agreed. I don't see the big deal.

 

[imackler]

Quote:

Agreed. I don't see the big deal.

 
To me, it feels like there is a lot of reduplication happening. There are already recommendation threads. With so many new threads, it gets cluttered. You also often get other new forum users answering instead of ones who have more experience. I think it would be cool to have a forum subsection for recommendation questions where new people can ask to their hearts content. 

 

[TubeStack]

... I think it would be cool to have a forum subsection for recommendation questions where new people can ask to their hearts content. 

Seems like a good idea.

 

[LizardKing1]

Quote:

To me, it feels like there is a lot of reduplication happening. There are already recommendation threads. With so many new threads, it gets cluttered. You also often get other new forum users answering instead of ones who have more experience. I think it would be cool to have a forum subsection for recommendation questions where new people can ask to their hearts content. 

 
Completely agree. I participate in another smaller forum and it's much better to have a single recommendations thread. If someone else creates a new thread they get answered, but they are aso directed to the main thread. It just simplifies things: would you rather have a wallet for every coin you own or gather them all in a single wallet?

 

[dleblanc343]

I think people are making too much of a big deal out of this. You can't avoid idiocy all the time, and it happens literally everywhere. Head-Fi is nowhere near the level of snobbery and ignorance of real life... Fact of the matter, here on Head-Fi, we look for valuable information and most generally try to contribute and be fair with our opinions and our reception of others. 
 
We have the right to agree or disagree with members. If someone seems to overly be praising something with not much foundation, it's simple; disregard his opinion if you feel it does not make sense. Some people will get into quarrels disagreeing with others, and that's what makes the forum bad in their opinions; but they just don't have to get involved.
 
People also need to take into consideration that we have different equipment, tastes in sound and music preferences; there is no ideal image of perfection. Example: If you love the HD800's and someone else praises the LCD3 for instance and diminishes you because of your choice; don't go in for an attack as many do. You just state your preference in sound and clearly explain how yours fit into your system... it's not difficult, and they most likely never heard said headphone in the same circumstances...
 
People need to share information on what they have experienced/own; speculation and having an opinion over specs generally aren't favorable for the members here.

 

[mark_h]

What annoys me is that members don't send all those nasty, space consuming, antiquated old vinyl discs to my very accommodating PO box. 

  Apart form that minor inconvenience I love Head-Fi, subjective hyperbole and all!

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

 
Completely agree. I participate in another smaller forum and it's much better to have a single recommendations thread. If someone else creates a new thread they get answered, but they are aso directed to the main thread. It just simplifies things: would you rather have a wallet for every coin you own or gather them all in a single wallet?

 
More like - would you rather have your coins all combined in one jar, or have each type of coin separated? You know, like any cash register or bank would have.
Quote:

 
To me, it feels like there is a lot of reduplication happening. There are already recommendation threads. With so many new threads, it gets cluttered. You also often get other new forum users answering instead of ones who have more experience. I think it would be cool to have a forum subsection for recommendation questions where new people can ask to their hearts content. 

There's going to be a lot more duplicate questions if everyone posted theirs in one thread IMO. It's a lot harder to search in a thread that doesn't have posts neatly titled with keywords and such.
 
If there was only one recommendations thread...
-Question 1
-Question 2
-Answer to Q1
-Question 3
-Answer to Q2
-Answer  to Q3
-Question 4
-Answer to Q1
-Answer to Q4
-Answer to Q2
etc... It's a mess IMO.
 
With threads you've got all the questions and answers neatly organized...
-Question 1
--Answer to Q1
--Answer to Q1
-Question 2
--Answer to Q2
--Answer to Q2
-Question 3
--Answer to Q3
-Question 4
--Answer to Q4
 
With this method, someone can type a question in the search bar, and if it comes up with any of these threads they can click on it and have a nice summary of all answers.
 
With the recommendation thread method, if somebody happens to search and find a post neatly titled with their summarized question rather than just jumping into details like most do, they need to read all the posts after it to determine which ones are answers to it. Which could possibly be skimming through multiple pages of unrelated stuff. And when do they stop? What if a very useful answer was given 10 pages later? 
 
A subforum might be a good idea. But I would personally go a more innovative route if people think these threads are a problem... Have a recommendation flag for each thread stored in the database. And have a couple of settings for each user allowing them to display only recommendations, all threads, or no recommendations. This allows for us to still have separate amp, DAC , headphone forums rather than either one clustered recommendation forum that pertains to all of them, or doubling the amount of equipment forums(a recommendations sub-forum for each). Probably more work than the head-fi admins want to do though, as I doubt they want to alter the database tables.