Are RV forums dying?

But I don't want a dually

If ya don't want to read about Walmart, don't open the thread.

Most members are helpful and sincere.
That's why I keep checking in.

Although I still find the board informative and am able to make a contribution once in a while I hesitate to comment on anything having to do with certain topics, weight, towing capacity, travelling to certain areas and a bunch of others. Those topics will get you ridiculed by the old school crowd in a heart beat. I'm not sure if its just that a certain generation was brought up with bad manners and no respect for others or their opinions or maybe this forum just attracts a certain geezer mentality that is just a bad representation of the older age group. Whatever it is, many of the RVers in the 40's to 50's age group that I have directed to the forum are appalled at the disrespectful, sometimes downright racist overtones of the members on this forum. Bring up how something is done in another country (Mexico, any where in Europe, Canada, Latin America in general) and you soon get a supremacist attitude of slamming how it is done in anywhere but the USA.

We hang around because we have made some good friends here but we get tired of the WASPY mono culture of the forum members. RVing is a world wide activity, maybe not in every country but in a lot of them. Why are the threads limited to English speakers, This is a north american based forum. There are literally 10's of millions of Spanish and french speaking people on this continent, many who are RVers. Everybody would benefit from being exposed to languages other than their mother tongue. Not too mention it would attract oversees RVers encouraging both cultural and technical exchange.

And if you work in the RV industry, (Angela and I both do) its best to keep your mouth shut about it as then the insults get real personal. :)

We still enjoy the board and the good outweighs the bad.

I learned on irv2 that you don't "debate" the old-timers with lots of posts. You get banned.:h

I'm a member of a gun forum. Being new to rifles, I had a negligent discharge, IN THE HANGAR. Without going in to details, no harm was done. I've NEVER seen anyone on marlinowners.com get hateful or nasty with anybody.
I felt SO guilty and embarrassed, but I told my story on that forum. Not one single person told me how stupid I was, or flamed me in any way. But instead, it brought out a lot of "well, let me tell you what I did once" stories. One of the moderators even brought it back to life after it sort of "died out" for a while for the safety reminder to us all.

Anyway, I told this on irv2 because I got flamed for something (don't even remember what now)so petty it was stupid. I got harsh email/warning from one of the moderators. A couple months ago, I got permanatly banned for a "religious, derogatory" remark. I got the email warning, when I asked about it, I just got banned.:)
I still go there once in a while as a guest, to read some of the comedy.

I'd like to see more data. The chart appears to be rvnet as a search term. This may or may not correspond to traffic. I link directly to it through a bookmark. Also there is no values for the scale of the chart other than the timeline. I did quick search (lol) on google to see if any more data was freely available and came up a blank.

Maybe the forum is aging out.. I see some of the problems mentioned (treatment of newbies esp) , but lots of good info here. Hope this or something like it continues.

I still think forum software which allows a thumbs up on helpful posts is beneficial.

I have been on the forums for about 16 years now. I have noticed that hyper electronics has replaced what at one time was guys helping each other with the 454's and 460's, handling characteristics of the coaches, how to correct handling problems. Slides were not even heard of yet, so there was a lot of Mods talked about to gain a little more storage etc. Every one really tried to help the other guy get his trip in. I am not faulting any one, it is what it is; a different world. Newer more sophisticated equipment, electronics and wizardry took the place of nuts and bolts (get her down the road) RV'g and camping.

Gene&Ginny wrote:

holstein13 wrote:
Seems to me we get less and less participation in this forum each year:...

I wonder, 5 pages in under 5 hours. :h

x2

I think the forum seems quite alive. And this thread is going guns!

I used to ask for advise on this forum but now I just go to my nearest CW and ask a salesman. They have all the answers.:@

holstein13 wrote:
Seems to me we get less and less participation in this forum each year:...

I wonder, 5 pages in under 5 hours. :h

nevadanick wrote:
Too much censorship here as far as i am concerned.

well, you could always start your own forum and be a laissez-faire owner.

I just wish the abusers would quit abusing posters.....