There are just too many sponsors peddling their products here because Head-Fi has become the one stop website for them to get current intelligence about market trends and buying patterns. To this day, I am amazed that there has not been much talk by anyone about data mining efforts to sift through all of the threads and replies to find useful information with which to sell even more stuff here. This place is a gold mine and it still is the gold standard for headphone related information.
I am sorry to say this, but I joined Head-Fi two years earlier than it is indicated on my profile. I got fed up with Head-Fi and I asked Jude to delete my account and he complied with my request. Then, I decided to re-join Head-Fi under my real name once again. So, I have been around the block. This is not to say that I necessarily know more than others, but I do know how to research much more effectively when it comes time for me to buy gear. Nowadays, computers have become my obsession because I am a graduate student at New Jersey Institute of Technology while pursuing a Masters of Science in IT Administration & Security degree program. This is why I post so many threads about computer related hardware and software recently.
Head-Fi is doing itself no help by allowing for more sponsors and products to be advertised and sold on the forums. This is the single most hindrance to effective search results. New members with no knowledge deserve our help especially from veteran members like myself. This is not happening as it used to nearly a decade ago when this was a hobbyist website for headphone fanatics because those members that started alongside the nascent days of Head-Fi were already subject matter experts. There were far fewer products available. This place used to have just one forum dedicated to each major component category to serve as a bridge for headphone knowledge and conventional high fidelity components alike. Even veteran members have a hard time making heads out of tails when it comes to sifting through the enormous database of threads and replies about specific products.
There is an onslaught of top of the line headphones that have been recently released for sale to the general public. Few members like myself can truly afford to own the said products. For example, I literally have the money to buy a top of the line Grado PS-1000 headphone and a Sager Notebook NP7280 with all of the upgrade options available right now. I posted two threads about those two products recently to solicit information as I am contemplating purchasing these items. I still have deep reservations about plunking down the money because my experience in both industries has clearly told me that there will always be something better down the road given enough time.
Yet, it was a bear of an effort for me to research almost every thread and reply regarding just these two specific products. As it stands, the search function at Head-Fi is simply not adequate enough to handle complex, nested, and sophisticated search parameters. The other problem is that people throw around terminology without understanding their meaning on these forums. It is confusing as hell and I bet that a lot of members have left because they got turned off by the complexity of doing business here.
So, don't blame the newbies for not searching. The search function simply is an anachronism that needs a major overhaul. I am studying Database Processing and Structured Query Language right now. My mid-term exam is tomorrow at 1:00 PM EST at NJIT. Based upon what I am learning in the course, some of the concepts would go a long way toward improving the search capabilities and make results much more meaningful. However, there are no databases or tables of information because that effort would take a monumental effort to compile that data accurately on an ongoing basis here at Head-Fi. If someone were to come up with a way to incorporate these advanced search capabilities in a manner that is accessible to all of the members, then things will start to improve quite dramatically. Unfortunately, I do not have the knowledge or experience necssary to spearhead such a major undertaking at this moment.
The last thing that I will say for the record is that there is no ranking system for members here based upon their level of expertise. This is another major problem. There are too many newbies that pose like they are experts and the true experts are leaving because they do not want to get sucked into fights with the newbies or the administrative team at Head-Fi. I do not consider myself an expert after staying here as a member at Head-Fi and nobody has told me otherwise either. However, I have tried to contact experts that I thought might reply through private messages only to never hear back from them again. This is problematic as well. When members do not reply to private messages, it is not only irksome, but it represents another change to the forums that has degraded the quality of the threads and replies. This place used to be a venue for fellow Head-Fi members that actually wanted to help other members. This is no longer the case in my experience anymore. Private messaging is an important feature because some people want to be a bit more careful in soliciting information or doing business or striking up friendships. I understand that Head-Fi is not a full-time paying job, but I consider it to be rude when I do choose to send a message to someone only to have it ignored for whatever reasons unbeknownst to me.
There are some days when I dread visiting this website for some of the stated reasons. I have plenty of more gripes that still bother me years after I initially joined almost a decade ago.
The biggest gripe that I have is that people recycle through gear too fast to make an informed judgment call about specific products. Then, time takes its toll and listening notes become antiquated with current trends within our not so niche hobby. Members that have kept their gear for at least one full calendar year are usually much more accurate and their posts are more helpful when other members are contemplating the purchase of the same product. There is a reason why I do not do much business through the Head-Fi system because I did not want to jump on the "who has the latest and greatest" toy bandwagon. Envy is a disease and satisfaction is underestimated on these forums. While there is no obligation to comply with what I say, it calls out suspicion when a member shills for a company or sponsor on a regular basis. I won't name their names, but it is a disturbing trend that has surfaced ever since this forum went commercial years ago.
I still read most of the major high fidelity blogs, magazines, websites, etc. I can say with absolute certainty that they are a much more trustworthy source of information that has helped me to obtain my current reference system that no Head-Fi member could have furnished sufficient information that would persuade me to buy another product. Sure, there are shady professional reviewers from time to time and some magazines have adopted questionable changes that calls their good judgement and ethics into question, but fellow audio writers and their readers take care of its own so to speak. Over here at Head-Fi, such an action will get you banned because civility is political correctedness are the most desireable attributes within this community. This stifles our hobby which has almost always been on shaky ground because traditional audiophiles do not listen to headphones nearly with the same levels of aural bliss as their speakers can provide for them in their homes.
I do not require that you agree with everything that I say now, but this has been a long time coming. At some point in time, our community has to police itself and no changeover to a new forum system can resolve these deeply entrenched problems that never got solved by the staff here at Head-Fi or through another software vendors website and product for bill board bulletin style communications system.