Is ILF too cliquey? Are we pushing people away? BST question

[sears]

every bbs is cliquey and pushes people away

[coldbrightsunlight]

you're a bbs

[Kacey Y]

I was a SysOp on a local BBS for a short time in 1993, when I gave a buddy in high school an old 28.8k dial up modem after we upgraded. THE POWER!

[BetterOffShred]

I miss dialing in to my shell account, and then my PPP account for emails... oh wait no I don't!

[Ugly Nora]

I remember around 1985 playing a MUD called The Proving Grounds. You could only play once a day for 30 minutes (because only 1 person could connect at a time) and the line was pretty much always busy during any normal hours, so I used to wake up at like 3am each nite to play. I recall covering the speaker on the modem with a pillow as to not wake my parents up. Good stuff.

[BetterOffShred]

The old Red Dragon BBS game .. that was good times too

[Kacey Y]

Most of my BBS time was spent waiting for a picture of Stephanie Seymour in a mesh top to load and browsing Doom themed ASCII artwork.

[Ugly Nora]

I would love to play an oldschool MUD again if there were any decent active ones out there. I remember looking into it briefly a few years ago and it didnt really prove fruitful. If anyone has any suggestions lemme know. That's what this forum is about; people helping people.

[Errant Tiger]

Even though I've been on the forum for a long time, I still mostly lurk. That's probably 80% social anxiety (even online). But the other 20% is coming from how tight other users seem to be when you haven't participated much. It's hard to "prove" yourself on a forum where the average user has a lot more knowledge about gear than on other forums. Looking at the front page of general gear right now, there are threads about glitch pedals, pitch shifting delays, bit crushers, ring mods, modular synths, and various other non-mainstream effects. That can be intimidating sometimes. It can be easy to lurk way more than post just because there's always going to be someone more knowledgeable here.
Maybe that doesn't push people away so much as it makes more people lurk for a longer period of time.

This, combined with not really being particularly hip to the ins and outs of etiquette (I deleted this post three times because a: has it been too long since the last post, b: does it even matter what I say, and c: what if people think I'm just trying to make myself look better when I want to B/S/T?). I've also held off on asking some (but not all) gear questions because I don't want to look stupid (again, social anxiety but also maybe climate). I don't know if any of this has to do with ILF in particular or whether it's just me; the only other forum I'm on is the PRF at Electrical Audio, and for some reason I don't think I've felt so anxious over there.

This probably says nothing helpful, but I'm posting it anyway. Thank you for reading.

[gnomethrone]

Dude don't worry about looking stupid. Ask questions. Do a search first and see if there are any recent threads discussing your topic of interest. If not, ask away. People are super knowledgeable and helpful. I ask pretty basic gear questions here because the internet is full of bullshit and its more useful to have a conversation about stuff.

[dubkitty]

yeah, i've never seen anybody get ragged on for asking a "stupid" question. how else are you going to find an answer?

[goroth]

Yeah, asking stupid questions is rad.

You are more likely to get flamed for:
Shilling your stuff
Using ILF as a platform to "build your brand"
Dumb BST posts like "Looking for <hype pedal x>" without actually looking at what people are offering, or just hotlinking to a reverb ad.
Being an asshole is pretty shitty too.
(get it? ho ho ho)

But otherwise

[Errant Tiger]

Thanks to all of you for those replies! Like I said, social anxiety, part of which is that even though I've been owning and operating guitars and stuff for something like 30 years, I really don't know shit about them (similar to how I still have never changed my own oil), and so I feel like there's a basic level of understanding I somehow never acquired. Blah blah blah shame that's why I have a therapist - but as far as ILf goes, I now feel liberated to ask stupid questions!

Also if anyone wants to trade a Keeley Dark Side for my Tuna Melt, hit me up

[Seance]

Using ILF as a platform to "build your brand"

Hmm. This one is a little more nuanced for me.
I think I know what you're talking about. But the
builder forums and the Shark Tank are about 85%
of what I interact with here. And that seems like
people "building their brand". But I guess the diff
is that those people are actively paying into the
site as well as paying in metaphorically and
spiritually into the boners of this place.

[lordgalvar]

Ring mod thread is for everyone!