Rather quiet at the moment

Tough life chaps out here in St Lucia.

See ya soon  

I'm on my hols as well. Be back soon 

Back from my hols as well now.  I see it has been very quiet here so us old coots have been waiting for the kids to go back to school before venturing out into the big wide world 

Haven't logged on to the forum for a couple of days due to illness, so apologies if anyone has missed me.

I agree Trev, but there are several facets to this. Let me explain . . . . . .

A quick scan at other forums also shows a big lull in the posting rates, so Cable Junction is not alone in having a reduced traffic flow currently.

On the one hand, I would love to dramatically increase the membership (But we seem to have a fair crop of regular lurkers lol) but how and where to attract them from? I really don't want to recruit from existing hi-fi forums, unless the candidates go through a fairly rigorous selection process which I am loathe to implement. I have been a member of a number of well known forums which began with all the right intentions, but over time have morphed into bear pits where only the brave of heart and tough of skin dare to post, otherwise ridicule and humiliation is the order of the day. For example, the Hifiwigwam began by disaffection with Hifi Choice, mainly because of incessant down time which went on for days sometimes. The "Wam" in those early days a great place to be with useful and beneficial exchanges of ideas the daily grist, that was until the cliques began to form and the in crowd then dominated, resulting in only the select few being invited into the private area reserved for them, which the rest of the membership is excluded from. The language became appalling, with F and C words found in almost every post. The subject of cables was freely discussed without animosity, but now it is a taboo subject unless you wish to incur the wrath of many. The Art of Sound is also not the forum it once was and the owner has a serious personal issue to resolve otherwise that one too will implode before long. Many of the respected long standing members are leaving in a steady stream. The Audio Standard has become a shadow of AOS with former members escaping from AOS to replicate the same bad traits as the forum they had just abandoned One of our members "Ninanina" is a member of AOS and her postings take a heck of a bashing on AOS, yet here she would be accepted for who she is, so I don't know why she still frequents a forum where they ridicule her constantly

The forum ethos in the "Welcome section" here makes it perfectly and abundantly clear that these behaviours will not be tolerated here, so if anyone finds offence in that statement then it has probably pricked their conscience so should seek that kind of sport and entertainment elsewhere, whereas the genuine enthusiast remains rather sanguine about that bold statement. I would rather have a small membership that enters into the true spirit of the hobby, than thousands of gobshites "blessing" us with their wisdoms and squabbling endlessly amongst themselves.

As I understand it Trev, your good self has perhaps benefited in a small way from some of the advice from fellow enthusiasts on this forum and you too are making a positive contribution as well and long may that continue

What I need to do is strike the motherlode of like-minded individuals out there who want their say and also make their own positive contribution towards fellow enthusiasts and to avoid importing the kind of people who like nothing more than to argue for argue's sake. How I am going to achieve that is no small or easy task, so I would welcome any suggestions.

+1 from me too.

I still frequent one other forum at the moment and even that one has it's own set of issues just lately 

I might add a link to Cable Junction in my signature, because most of the members are decent people and it's only the few argumentative ones that spoil it.  If you need to check out any that join, then PM me Rob to help you weed out the "undesirables"