thook

'cause you just gotta make yourself feel better by putting someone else down. you should try it sometime. i mean hey...it's an elitist forum, right?

J.Higgins 

There's no need to jump in someone's butthole because they ask a question. No matter how stupid or redundant we feel a question can be, its an important part of normal living that we are able to ask questions and solve mysteries. Sometimes the stupidest questions can elicit a new response, or a new thought for an old idea, that causes us to look at it in a new light.

The biggest shame here is that this is a forum in which questions can be asked and friendly help can be given, and the people who participate here solely for the purpose to put someone else's ideas in the trashcan should be ashamed of themselves. It does not do BF's reputation any good to have a bunch of alpha-predators in here ready to pounce on someone asking uninformed questions. Its like a hungry dog comes to your doorstep with the hope of getting a scrap, but all you do is give him a kick to the face. How many times is he going to come to your door after that treatment? If people are coming to this forum in search of answers, we owe it to our community here to answer those questions with the utmost care and diligence. Happy question-askers become happy forum-members and paying members. We should foster this attitude here. People aren't born with brains already preprogrammed with bicycle knowledge. It takes years of immersion in this hobby to be even somewhat good at it. I've been doing it since the late 1960's, and I still suck at it, but the one thing I never do is turn someone away who wants to learn.

squirtdad

I think overall posts can get snarky when a persons posts with a pre concieved idea of the response they want and when they don't get that response, they then show no interest in learning and reject solid input.

I see this pattern repeated over and over.

now back to regular programming

J.Higgins 

Good call, Squirty. I totally agree. I notice patterns like this as well. Probably the biggest irritant to readers of this or any forum are people who are basically quite intelligent, who know little-to-nothing about the subject in which they are asking, and like you said, they harbor preconceptions of what they want at the end. When responses don't go their way, they either try - and fail - to clarify, or their lack of understanding causes them to dig a bigger hole. All they wanted was someone to talk to about <insert topic here>, and get some friendly advice, but because they have no idea of how to present their question, the question is flubbed up right from the start, and people jump to conclusions and post an answer before actually finding out anything.

Snarky posters need to realize that this is a place of help and fellowship - not a riding club where the price of admission is a full ensemble of Rapha. Not everyone knows what we are on about in the world of bikes. In fact, we cyclists in general should be a lot kinder to each other for the simple fact that no one else will be. Let's face it. No one cares about bikes like you do, and anyone who doesnt ride is going to care even less. Any short ride in traffic these days will demonstrate my point. So all I'm saying is a little patience goes a long way.

shelbyfv

I'd suggest some respondents above do a little historical research here on BF. Not every "question" is proffered in good faith.

alo

When people put others down, it says a lot more about themselves, than the people they are trying to put down.

alo

There are some here who think everybody should just spend thousands of dollars and buy the ideal bike.

Some either can't afford to, or don't want to, spend a lot, for a whole variety of reasons. People can do all the same things on inexpensive bikes.

thook

isn't it funny pimpman has had the least participation in this "discussion"...haha.

time for another cup of tea. i do hope it works out for him.

csport

Stumbled upon this:

thook

can you believe it? he said "front fork"!!

thook

some of the comments are noteworthy

Koyote

This.

Some posters come here looking for confirmation rather than information. And when they don't get the desired support for their terrible ideas, they double-down.

There's a thread right now on another subforum with an OP who wants advice on avoiding punctures, but won't even consider going tubeless -- which is probably the single best technology for avoiding punctures.