I've been lurking here for a while and posting a little more often but sometime last week, I screwed up my bookmarks and switched this and the dealmac forum.

I clicked on autopilot and ran across this post: [forums.dealmac.com]


I too used to frequent this forum and I can tell you a lot has changed. I was the mac wizard, now, not being too familiar with Linux and being in the pc world for a few years I am having a tougher time. I used to get about 10 times the response. For all you fairly newish people, let me tell you, you would ask a question and in minutes you would have a bunch of answers and sometimes your question might spark a fun (or heated) debate or go off on a tangent.

Seems that your lucky if you get a single response in a day.

Not being familiar with the dynamics on this forum anymore, I'm not sure what happened.

I wonder if some of the people who stayed behind after the exodus let people know where everybody went?

Should somebody go over there and tell those two guys to ask over here???

Send 'em a PM. Mentioning this OWC forum in a post there used to get you banned, at least it would back after the Great Schism.

leave our card.

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I used to let people know over at DM when they asked where everyone went to, just have not kept up on it the last couple years. At least they dropped the URL rewrite from the forum code that used to change any link pointing over to here. I don't think they even bother to ban anyone for mentioning here anymore. I still usually check the DM forum every day or two and occasionally post, but can sometimes go several days without noticing that I have not looked at DM.

Would point out that the original poster did get his question answered so that thread is not as useless as suggested by the one quote.

That said, I haven't thought to go back in a long time.

i've forgotten why we all left - why did we leave??

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We left because they categorized everything too much. Balkanization is the term. It broke the flow of the community.

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mattkime
i've forgotten why we all left - why did we leave??

Because it was run by a business and the users were never consulted before sweeping changes were made. So we all chose to move to a forum run by a business instead of community-owned options that were set up.

A bunch of us were banned in one fell swoop one day.
Stupid and petty.

Balkanization

The only banning I remember had to do with people who tried to direct others to this forum.

The main reason was that we all tuned in one day to find the forum, which had been divided into "dealmac" and a very sleepy "dealnews" forum suddenly as it appears now.
Snapshot:
[web.archive.org]
This was a group that would freak out at minor changes, so there was a major freak-out.

What I'm left wondering... certainly BLM/whoever tried hard to stop the exodus.... but in the end... are they happier not to have the headaches?

Ok, I just had to click DealNews on the Wayback archive for old times sake and check some prices...

Only REAL shocker I could find so far was this one...

Panasonic 8x DVD-/+RW, DVD-RAM IDE for $192 shipped 5:00 am
ESBuy.com offers the OEM Panasonic SW-9573-C 8x DVD-RW/DVD+RW/DVD-RAM IDE drive for $192, the lowest price we've seen. In a FireWire/USB 2.0 enclosure with Mac and PC burning software, it costs $292. Shipping is free. The drive supports DVD-RAM burning at 5x (with or without cartridges), DVD-R/+R at 8x, DVD-/+RW at 4x, CD-R at 24x, and 16x CD-RW.

Wow - like $9.99 for a refurb now @ Microcenter...
Refurb DVD IDE Drive

I paid $650 for my Yamaha 2x CD burner back in the day.

Macworld Expo special. $100 bucks off.

$400 (or was it $450?) for the 4X Yamaha CD burner in APS SCSI case... then $299 for the 8X Yamaha SCSI CD burner I tossed into a 2 bay enclosure w/ a 2GB Quantum SCSI HDD... all still working, but best usage is as paperweights and doorstops.


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Sometimes it is what it is...
and then there's times when it's really better.



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Headaches ?

If you look at google search ratins, mrf regularly tops out on page #1 (below the paid ads.. bastiches) when a weird technical mac question appears. I've been directed to it on occasion.

The phorum, and the collective expertise (and amusement) that's generated here actually does 'pull' a bit towards our beloved sponsor's site.

The DM phorum does the same. FWIW, the DM Phorum was actually the start of the DM site back in the late 1990's. All deals were simply those we posted, discussed, and then went "Woo !". The current model of submit / edit / publicise was the result of some silliness, but then the monetization of the site (rightfully so... I'm always happy to see some college kids start a business from their hobby).

Unfortunately the phorum became a bit of a confusion for the DM folks, and they decided to categorize it. And that categorization broke the flow and the 'feel' of the community.

If you look at the old phorum... I've got "Last Post". So technically I was the last one out of the old phorum. I haven't gone back in a while, it's VERY quiet. Except on the political side, and that's mostly a couple of the old characters riding around on their tricycles and throwing mud and poop at each other.

There were some consistently vile participants over there as well. Who needs it? "Throwing poop" would be a kind characterization of their posts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2012 09:18AM by ka jowct.

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ka jowct
There were some consistently vile participants over there as well. Who needs it? "Throwing poop" would be a kind characterization of their posts.

That's my recollection, as well.

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cbelt3
If you look at the old phorum... I've got "Last Post". So technically I was the last one out of the old phorum. I haven't gone back in a while, it's VERY quiet. Except on the political side, and that's mostly a couple of the old characters riding around on their tricycles and throwing mud and poop at each other.

LOL@ work here, you've captured the ethos over there with whimsical accuracy.

I used to go over there well after the interregnum and post but I removed it from my daily bookmark list about 6 months ago haven't been back.

I was back there a few months ago asking a simple question and received nothing but baiting and nasty grams. Populated by a bunch of jerks now (IMHO). Left and never looking back - I used to appreciate DM but wouldn't use them for anything now.

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cbelt3

If you look at the old phorum... I've got "Last Post". So technically I was the last one out of the old phorum. I haven't gone back in a while, it's VERY quiet. Except on the political side, and that's mostly a couple of the old characters riding around on their tricycles and throwing mud and poop at each other.

And, your post was on my topic (Attic ladder hardware).

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DavidS

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cbelt3

If you look at the old phorum... I've got "Last Post". So technically I was the last one out of the old phorum. I haven't gone back in a while, it's VERY quiet. Except on the political side, and that's mostly a couple of the old characters riding around on their tricycles and throwing mud and poop at each other.

And, your post was on my topic (Attic ladder hardware).

I want to thank both of you for finally taking responsiblity for the distruction of that community.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.