[Kirosia]

And some people simply don't care. I've probably misused the numerous "yours/its/etc" more than I can count, but people get my point anyway. Minor spelling/grammar doesn't make someone's comments less valid. (you'd be surprised how many people think others are below them just because they don't use complicated terminology in their writings) It's bull. You can have a good intelligent conversation with basic words. (for the most part)

Though I too am not fond of leet or whatever talk. Not the one-word stuff, but a whole paragraph in nerd-vernacular.

 

[nabwong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teerawit y4 4nd 1t'5 b3773r 7h4n 7yp1ng l1k3 7h15.

I'm not sure whether i should be happy or sad that i can read that.

 

[skyline889]

Quote:

Originally Posted by F1GTR Sure they can, they just don't seem to be able to type it out and/or converse it too well because public and private education is **** compared to what it used to be twenty years ago. I'm sorry if my opinion is blunt; but, I just have a lack of patience for reading through spelling and grammatical crap which equals the "younger generation" interweb speak. How do people get past the age of 12 without knowing the difference between your and you're? No, I'm not directing this at you. Just the massload of newcomers that seem to all share these same characteristics hence my opinionated comment earlier. If you don't like it that is completely fine but that doesn't mean it isn't true.

I don't know if I'm entitled to an opinion in this thread, being that I'm sixteen and a relatively new member to this community however, it bothers me too when people enter comments and don't bother to capitalize and be punctual with their grammar.

Being part of the "younger" generation I find it offensive to be categorized under the "I-Fi" generation. I still lust after high end audio components, I love vintage Stereo/Quadraphonic gear, and would choose a dedicated vinyl or CD rig over a computer based one in an instant. Unfortunately at the moment, my funds don't allow for this and after my home CD player broke, the easiest way to allow me to stil listen to relatively high quality audio was running my Zen Vision in to my home setup. I realize that this is not the best way to run things but it's better than having no music at all, or running straight out of my sound card un-amped. I in no way, lust after an Ipod and have no desire to own one again however, short of carrying a ten pound brick of a CD player around, portable hard drive players are the easiest way for me to enjoy quality music on the go and I don't think I should be condemned for it.

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFF Don't get me wrong, I agree but I feel most people (not headfiers) don't know this. It used to be that kids would lust after the Stereo Component System their father/uncle/friend owned. Now it the exact opposite - older people are lusting after the iPod w/stock buds. I have seen this countless times with friends of mine.

Lurking under the vintage Tower of Power is the heart of a crappy Dell computer pumping out tunes at a compression only an ipod could love. But no one seems to mind - I know I don't!

 

[Comfy]

Yeah, Head-Fi has changed. It used to be an inclusive, welcoming place for high-end newbies. Audiophilia is pretty elitistic and exclusive already, so it was nice to find a place to get started with it. Many people, like myself, come here to find a replacement for their iBuds, and then get hooked to good sound once they experience it for the first time.

Cutting the wings of newcomers like this is definitely counterproductive for the community. IMHO.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comfy Yeah, Head-Fi has changed. It used to be an inclusive, welcoming place for high-end newbies. Audiophilia is pretty elitistic and exclusive already, so it was nice to find a place to get started with it. Many people, like myself, come here to find a replacement for their iBuds, and then get hooked to good sound once they experience it for the first time. Cutting the wings of newcomers like this is definitely counterproductive for the community. IMHO.

I don't get it... who's cutting the wings of newcomers?

When someone posts an obvious newcomer thread (not bothering to use search, etc) I generally still help them... because it just feels good to me to share knowledge. I always try to warmly welcome newcomers as well.

This forum probably has the lowest percentage of nasty "use-search-or-die" replies of any forum I've been on, IMO it's definitely (still) friendly toward newcomers. Speaking for myself, I greatly prefer newcomers with honest questions to know-it-all egocentric old timers who never stop trying to advertise how cool they are because they own some expensive piece of gear.

 

[Comfy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch I don't get it... who's cutting the wings of newcomers? When someone posts an obvious newcomer thread (not bothering to use search, etc) I generally still help them... because it just feels good to me to share knowledge. I always try to warmly welcome newcomers as well. This forum probably has the lowest percentage of nasty "use-search-or-die" replies of any forum I've been on, IMO it's definitely (still) friendly toward newcomers. Speaking for myself, I greatly prefer newcomers with honest questions to know-it-all egocentric old timers who never stop trying to advertise how cool they are because they own some expensive piece of gear.

No one is actually cutting the wings of newcomers yet, but if feel that threads like this one are hardly welcoming if someone new stumbles across them. Head-Fi is the most polite internet community I've ever seen, and I would like it to remain that way.

 

[smeggy]

I concur. As someone who was into Hi-Fi from my early teens I think it's good the youngsters are into it. I would have loved to have a resource like this at that time, one that welcomed me into the fold despite my age and undoubtedly low end gear. My father got me interested in Hi-Fi and it never left me. I hope the younger generations always feel welcome here as they are no less valuable to the community than us older ones. Our experiences are all different and that variety is what makes forums interesting.

 

[Wmcmanus]

I think, as Jude and some others have said, that there will always be new blood and people's interest fades in and out. When you're in the "midst" of the action at a place like Head-Fi either because you're learning a lot (as a newbie) or are sharing a lot (in terms of giving advice once you have some experience), then you tend to identify with a lot of different people and take an active interest in what is happening in the threads.

But life tends to interfere, and the same people you might remember from the "good old days" when you were a more active member have since drifted off and involved themselves in different things. So if you don't keep up with Head-Fi week in and week out, you won't be as chummy with as many of the frequent posters as you used to be. Almost by definition, you'll then begin to see the threads themselves as less interesting, especially the ones started by unfamiliar people. Let's face it, what we all tend to do is to glance here and glance there when browsing Head-Fi. Thus it's easy to miss some very interesting threads that deal with substantial topics if the main participants in those threads are mostly folks with low post counts that we're not very familiar with. Same thing happens at Audiogon and Audio Asylum.

The other thing that happens after a while is that (for most people anyway), their systems start to settle in and this takes them out of the "gear search" phase. At that point, they've read as much as they're interested in reading and have participated in one too many "gear" oriented threads and thus begin to develop a "Haven't we discussed this before?" attitude.

Sometimes taking a mini vacation from the forums helps to renew my interest but I find that if I'm not catching up with Head-Fi every now and then (like at least once per week) then suddenly it all seems irrelevant. But the minute I get back up to speed with the main threads that have popped up in the meantime, I start to get involved again.

 

[Ferbose]

Most people aren't born into the hobby of audio.
We all had to start from something, somewhere.
People without experience in hi-end audio invariably start by asking funny questions and making arbitrary choices.
It is a good sign, because it means hi-end is drawing new blood in, instead of dying out.

Take me for example, the first time I went into an hi-fi store, an Usher storefront in Taiwan (now you can see their speakers winning audio-magazine awards at CES), I asked why there is no equalizer in their demo system. Yeah, that was pretty dumb, but at least I knew equalizers existed.
Those Usher speakers are great bang-for-buck for their prices in Taiwan (about half of their MSRP in US).
I ended up owning a pair of their cheapest bookshelf speakers and amplifier, and it blew away a several-times-more-expensive Kenwood system my parents bought. That's how I started my hi-fi journey.

When I first auditioned K501 and HD580 at their respective dealers in Taiwan, I used my Kenwood PCDP to drive them. Only K501 can be driven by my PCDP, so I bought it over HD580 (hilarious, wasn't it?). If head-fi had existed back then, I sure would have gotten better advices.

When I first came to head-fi I got bitterly attacked in my first (or second?) post for recommending a DAC in a CD player advice thread. I did not realize people looking for CD players weren't considering DAC and vice versa.

You see, even after nearly 1000 pretty serious and sincere posts about audio stuff on head-fi, I am probably still saying pretty stupid things in the eyes of the truly learned. But I feel I have learned a lot, and made my system much closer to my ideal.

Since head-fi's discussions of components invariably rank high in Google search results, more and more audio newbies are going to flood head-fi. Maybe we can have a "for-newbie" section, or we may not need one--I don't know. But head-fi should pride itself in being a portal to the wonderful world of hi-end audio. Without head-fi, how are audio novices, regardless of age, going to discover what headphones can really do, and get honest, non-arrogant and non-ignorant opinions about other components like DAC, CD players, tweaks and so much more?

 

[Edwood]

Head-fi has changed in that it has grown.

And with any growths, especially fast ones, there are growing pains. Sure some people outgrow and move on, but many still remain.

When the social aspect is taken into consideration with Meets and such (like the Nat'l Meet this weekend), it really takes it to the next level.

Speaking of the Nat'l Meet, I have to goto sleep. Heheh, have a plane to catch tomorrow.

-Ed

 

[scrypt]

I don't know how the rest of you broads feel, but it seems to me our discussion would be less poodle-yankingly familiar if it avoided the pitfalls of previous threads on the same theme:

What if we didn't resort to complaints about age differences when assessing the quality of Head-fi's content over time? After all, I don't post tearful laments about the decline of literacy on Head-fi and then rant about those horrible gang-violence-prone adolescents with their shocking omissions of possessives in thread titles (Head-Fi[']s Changed). A Hank more civility might be nice, but ageism is irrelevant, din ye t'ink? (Of course, this will all change when Jude opens his exclusive adults-only high-end audio country club.)

LFF's observations about the iPod's impact on high-rear audio seem valid, but the issue of younger members polluting the intellectual gene pool is a scarlet herring -- just ask members like Eric343, who, if I'm not mistaken, joined at around sixteen and promptly became "the E in META," thus proving his command of vowels.

Nor am I fond of the ageist posts of certain younger members, in which older members are characterized as "hippies" (particularly when a number of them seem to be conservative veterans who would like to see environmentalists crushed by manatees), "gents" (condescension is so attractive) or "fat" (an even more useful observation concerning members' content than fixating on their age: "I might be opining about equipment I've never heard, but you, madam, should take better care of yourself!").

To conclude (snore), I feel this discussion would be more orangeful if we chose not to fixate on age. Let this post, with its relentless fixation on not being fixated, serve as a warning: Bounty hunting is wrong.

 

[imho]

[size=large]Change- for the better- is ALWAYS good! [/size] (see my signature)

 

[bobbyk]

The man who stands still will never move forward!

If we went back a centuary or so we would all have gramophones. Argh!

So let's be thankfull for evolution.

 

[wali]

In real life people usually hangout with people of the same age group, and that's not possible on the internet.