What 'happened' to Golf Wrx forums?

[Metro07]

I'll give ya'll a bit of feed back from a newbie here. I got back into golf 5 or 6 months ago after not playing for 15 or so years and never went to forums back then. I started coming here more frequently after I had a topic deleted on another site because it was "political". They said it was against their guidelines even though it wasn't written anywhere, the owner said "we've talked about it many times and made it known" LOL LOL LOL OK, sorry I wasn't around for those discussions. Oh well, that's fine it's their site they make the rules, I got my money back and haven't been back. I come here, this place has the same rule about politics but it is clearly stated. OK no politics which to me is odd, I consider these places, especially the "19th hole" or "clubhouse" sections to be like a bar where everyone would hang out a bullxxxx after a round etc. People talk about politics, while they're playing, or just hanging out after playing or just hanging out.

 

The problem with this place? It's boring. The other site was boring too, hell, golf is boring, but this place is even more boring. I scroll through the topics and often never find anything interesting enough to click on. 

 

Also, this site needs a "recent posts" section that shows the most recent active threads. That is simple.

 

That's about it, golf is boring but this place is like golf on Xanax.

[deadsolid...shank]

I think we need another “Jeans on course” thread. I remember that one getting awfully nasty. 

[nsxguy]

1 hour ago, Metro07 said:

 

The problem with this place? It's boring. The other site was boring too, hell, golf is boring, but this place is even more boring. I scroll through the topics and often never find anything interesting enough to click on. 

 

Also, this site needs a "recent posts" section that shows the most recent active threads. That is simple.

 

That's about it, golf is boring but this place is like golf on Xanax.

 

https://forums.golfwrx.com/discover/unread/

 

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by nsxguy

[Hawkeye77]

1 minute ago, nsxguy said:

 

https://forums.golfwrx.com/discover/unread/

 

 

But that list is boring!

[phizzy30]

On 11/23/2020 at 8:47 AM, MtlJeff said:

I wonder if there is any data to support the diminished participation. If there is i don't see why the owners would share it but i guess it's one of those things where it would be interesting to know. 

 

Ironically, this is probably as civil as the site has ever been. I've been here a while and it always seemed like there were some GolfWRX wars going on. The most passionate anyone seems to get is over "blades vs cavities" and that's something we've always had and is pretty tame by comparison. In the old days the OEM trips, Scratch Golf and Tiger threads got downright hostile. It was like opening scene of "Gangs of New York" in here at times

 

So it's kind of weird that everywhere else on the internet is probably worse...but WRX seems better to me

 

Maybe it's because some posters are gone. Or it's a perfect storm of Tiger not being as much of a factor, and we no longer do divisive things like the trips 

Yeah I remember those days.  I haven't been active in these forums for over 5 years(joined in 2009) and just recently decided to come back.  It's a lot quieter for sure.  Not sure if I like it or not yet, but I've noticed some of the old timers are still around(pepper, mtljeff, nsxguy, greg, and bladehunter) but there are quite a few newer members as well.  Can someone in the loop explain to me what these updates entailed besides a different user interface? 

Edited November 25, 2020 by phizzy30

[Titleist99]

Trolling again.....they can't help themselves....

[Steele47]

5 hours ago, Titleist99 said:

The problem with this golf board is that the biggest troll, doesn't know he's a troll. He chases away new posters with his snarky comment. The moderators are enablers and let him get away with. That will be the demise of this golf forum.

 

Hmmm...  I have my suspicions.

[Metro07]

1 hour ago, nsxguy said:

 

https://forums.golfwrx.com/discover/unread/

 

 

Thank You!! I saw the unread content and thought it would be every single post I haven't clicked on not sorted by time. I guess if I wasn't a moron I would have just checked it out. 

[grm24]

3 hours ago, Titleist99 said:

Trolling again.....they can't help themselves....

Pot meet kettle. 

[BlackDiamondPar5]

8 hours ago, deadsolid...shank said:

I think we need another “Jeans on course” thread. I remember that one getting awfully nasty. 

Or hat on or off in the grill room thread. 🙂

[chipa]

I've been a member of a few forums over the years and things there come and go as new members join and older ones leave.

 

I see the real challenge for forums is for moderators to keep thing is check w/o banning productive members for inconsequential stuff. The problem arises is that moderators generally are volunteers with very little free time and as a rule have very little patience with what they seem as insubordinate behavior even though the offending poster may have not really crossed the line.

[Hawkeye77]

50 minutes ago, BlackDiamondPar5 said:

Or hat on or off in the grill room thread. 🙂

Heck, I’ve seen all sorts of lines drawn in the sand over not taking off a cap at the end of a round. Imagine wearing jeans, not tucking in your shirt, keeping your hat on as you say “nice round, I enjoyed it” and then wearing your hat into the bar for a post-round beverage - some heads are exploding!

[braincramp52]

40 minutes ago, Hawkeye77 said:

Heck, I’ve seen all sorts of lines drawn in the sand over not taking off a cap at the end of a round. Imagine wearing jeans, not tucking in your shirt, keeping your hat on as you say “nice round, I enjoyed it” and then wearing your hat into the bar for a post-round beverage - some heads are exploding!

 

Damn! You just described me! I do keep my shirt tucked in though so I'm a middle class scumbag.😆

[Hawkeye77]

Just now, braincramp52 said:

 

Damn! You just described me! I do keep my shirt tucked in though so I'm a middle class scumbag.😆

As I've said before, and not kidding, lol, when I wear jeans (usually early, early spring and cool weather in the fall) I ALWAYS tuck in my shirt - I mean really, you have to look good in your jeans! When I'm wearing my cargo shorts (90% of my golf) - almost never tuck in my shirt.  If I happen to play somewhere where the standards require something different, I go with whatever they are and no problem.  So many bigger issues in the world, like turn down the damn music! 😉

[deadsolid...shank]

7 minutes ago, braincramp52 said:

 

Damn! You just described me! I do keep my shirt tucked in though so I'm a middle class scumbag.😆

Likewise for me.  Although I’m still aspiring to reach middle class......or any class at all for that matter. 

Edited November 25, 2020 by deadsolid...shank

[Sean2]

21 hours ago, Warrior42111 said:

that's exactly why, keyboard warriors

Exactly. They hide behind the anonymity of their computers and say things they would never say in person. That goes to show the content of their character as well. It doesn't take much to show a little kindness and respect, even if you disagree with someone. 

 

Trolls are best ignored. If I run across one, I decline to engage as it only adds fuel to the fire...no matter how tempting it may be. Because no matter what you say, it won't change the mind of the troll, so there isn't much point in saying anything. 

 

ps: this is a great forum for all things golf, I can't think of a better one. Sometimes the mods can get a bit heavy-handed, for example restricting Covid discussions...which has and does impact our golf...but overall the best place for getting info and discussing golf.

Edited November 25, 2020 by Sean2

[Ruleschamp]

Many who exited were largely the ones who were being spiffed, in one form or another, from OEM's of equipment, training aids, etc......to basically shill their products without disclosing any ties.  Most of those posters are now at another forum, shilling away.    It's always easy to spot them.    It's been comical watching one in particular who started in the early 1990s at the old equipment forum on AOL, through the three popular ones in the early 2000s, then transition through here, and now is shilling at his newest location, always denying any connection.    Always keep one eye open when you read reviews in any forum, whether golf, auto, audio or any other.

[Hawkeye77]

On 11/23/2020 at 9:07 AM, Hstead said:

The instruction forum used to be great, and now it sucks.  The moderators ran too many off over stupid crap.

It's definitely different.  I agree with you, but there also were a very few persistent posters who were there for no other reason than to troll things just to stir things up, rip into instructors and people on here with knowledge who posted there quite a bit and got tired of being baited, or in some cases much worse, and frankly I think not addressing some of those particular folks sooner caused some really good instructors to simply quit posting rather than deal with the frustration (or got baited and responded with justification and paid too heavy a price) so we've definitely lost input and points of view that had value. There's always the fine line of input vs. promotion and sponsorship issues I figure are the province of the owners, but none of the instructors I'm thinking of ever crossed that line, again IMO. 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Hawkeye77

[BlackDiamondPar5]

Definitely seems slower on the forums these days for reasons already mentioned.

• The Botched Upgrade can't be overstated.  It's great now but recovery from the damage will take a while.
• Tiger and all associated controversy.  This is HUGE-- debates about will he win again or not, debates about morality, fun banter between haters vs fanboys is all pretty much gone.
• Heavy handed moderating drove away/banned some funny characters.  Remember GatorMD???...LOL!!!  Lets face it amusing controversy drives viewers and posting.
• Moderating which prohibited any controversial topics about players and their personal lives. 
• Definitely covid malaise--- I know my life is more boring right now which translates into less to talk about.  

Happy Thanksgiving. 

[braincramp52]

I think I've just gotten bored with people asking to pick a golf club out for them.

[BlackDiamondPar5]

On 11/23/2020 at 2:26 PM, MtlJeff said:

 

Maybe 5-9 years ago , that time frame was when it got bad. It started out as such a great thing, the OEMs would give us regular schmucks a chance to visit their sites and get fit for like 4000$ worth of stuff, and write reviews about it on the site, document the trips etc....was pretty cool and OEMs were a bit looser with the marketing dollars back then

 

But it quickly soured, many of the guys who would go on these trips started dominating threads, taking offense to any negative feedback on the equipment, posting in any thread about that OEM that their stuff was indisputably better etc...In many cases to posters who didn't know they had gone on trips and gotten free stuff etc... There started being considerable backlash. 

 

Furthermore, there started being just embarrassing levels of jockeying and sucking up to go on these things. 

 

Full disclosure, i went on one right at the end and by then even the OEM (Callaway) was almost encouraging us to write some bad stuff about them just so we didn't come off as so biased LOL

 

lastly, i don't blame the owners or mods at all. It was the members that ruined it for everyone

Holy crap!  How did I miss out on all that?  Would love to hear the details--- A great topic for a new thread.  Oh wait, would probably get shutdown 🤣

Edited November 25, 2020 by BlackDiamondPar5

[deadsolid...shank]

57 minutes ago, BlackDiamondPar5 said:

Definitely seems slower on the forums these days for reasons already mentioned.

• The Botched Upgrade can't be overstated.  It's great now but recovery from the damage will take a while.
• Tiger and all associated controversy.  This is HUGE-- debates about will he win again or not, debates about morality, fun banter between haters vs fanboys is all pretty much gone.
• Heavy handed moderating drove away/banned some funny characters.  Remember GatorMD???...LOL!!!  Lets face it amusing controversy drives viewers and posting.
• Moderating which prohibited any controversial topics about players and their personal lives. 
• Definitely covid malaise--- I know my life is more boring right now which translates into less to talk about.  

Happy Thanksgiving. 

I agree BD. I really think Tiger is a bigger part of it than people think. Just like the situation we see on the courses. When Tiger was out for a while, it seemed like there were fewer casual players. I believe it would have been noticeable again this season if COVID hadn’t driven every Tom, Dick, and Harry to the course. Tiger really drives the game in my opinion. Still to this day, there are a number of posters who only surface here when there is a Tiger story. I would wager that for a couple of them, at least 95% of their posts are in Tiger related. 

[TLUBulldogGolf]

Honestly I didn't even know about the contention surrounding the trips and I've been here a while. Always wanted to go on one, I did hit on a couple giveaways so I can't complain.

 

Seems like a lot of really good posters may have just had life take over or got sick of things. The instruction forum used to have some great discussion. For myself, between the upgrade and life changes I didn't have the time or desire to frequent the site as much as I used to. I've been more active recently but it's definitely quieter. Based on how long my rounds are taking I think everyone is out playing.

 

I would also add that you can get what WRX seemed to have more exclusively at one time from other sources now. There are multiple accounts on twitter posting new equipment showing up on tour. They don't compare to the level of bag pics you get here but that could be some of it.

[Titleist99]

16 hours ago, Metro07 said:

I'll give ya'll a bit of feed back from a newbie here. I got back into golf 5 or 6 months ago after not playing for 15 or so years and never went to forums back then. I started coming here more frequently after I had a topic deleted on another site because it was "political". They said it was against their guidelines even though it wasn't written anywhere, the owner said "we've talked about it many times and made it known" LOL LOL LOL OK, sorry I wasn't around for those discussions. Oh well, that's fine it's their site they make the rules, I got my money back and haven't been back. I come here, this place has the same rule about politics but it is clearly stated. OK no politics which to me is odd, I consider these places, especially the "19th hole" or "clubhouse" sections to be like a bar where everyone would hang out a bullxxxx after a round etc. People talk about politics, while they're playing, or just hanging out after playing or just hanging out.

 

The problem with this place? It's boring. The other site was boring too, hell, golf is boring, but this place is even more boring. I scroll through the topics and often never find anything interesting enough to click on. 

 

Also, this site needs a "recent posts" section that shows the most recent active threads. That is simple.

 

That's about it, golf is boring but this place is like golf on Xanax.

It's boring because you have a certain group of poster who decide who post and what to post. If they don't like the subject they wreck the thread. simple as that.

[Hawkeye77]

5 hours ago, deadsolid...shank said:

I agree BD. I really think Tiger is a bigger part of it than people think. Just like the situation we see on the courses. When Tiger was out for a while, it seemed like there were fewer casual players. I believe it would have been noticeable again this season if COVID hadn’t driven every Tom, Dick, and Harry to the course. Tiger really drives the game in my opinion. Still to this day, there are a number of posters who only surface here when there is a Tiger story. I would wager that for a couple of them, at least 95% of their posts are in Tiger related. 

Tiger = huge. I joined because there was better info on here about clubs, shafts, etc. but it was around the time of Tiger’s Thanksgiving incident and it was THE front page here and topics were rampant, lol. Tiger has driven Tour Talk since then, whether he’s up to something, or Brandel was talking smack about him, or he had another injury or coach, and on and on. Nature of the beast. Still remember the junior high then high school Elculver kid (so he eventually revealed) who was all Tiger all the time - actually pretty cute and funny in his passion but sometimes liked to dish it out but couldn’t take it and had some timeouts. The time he said his parents weren’t letting him in the forums had me laughing pretty hard. Ended up liking the kid. 
 

Oh well, plenty of topics still being discussed all the time but COVID a big factor as well for sure. 
 

Bryson wins again or gains 25 pounds the place will go nuts. 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Hawkeye77

[nichho]

As an example of how it can go wrong, there used to be a poster who put his heart and sole into producing a thread each week for that weeks PGA Tour event. If I remember correctly his name was Keanu and he provided a wealth of information about the field, the course and a ton of supplementary information.

Two posters did a real job on him, basically harassing him to the point where he left. His last post named the two posters and explained why he felt the need to leave. Never been seen since.

The board lost an asset, the other two are still here.

[Titleist99]

5 minutes ago, nichho said:

As an example of how it can go wrong, there used to be a poster who put his heart and sole into producing a thread each week for that weeks PGA Tour event. If I remember correctly his name was Keanu and he provided a wealth of information about the field, the course and a ton of supplementary information.

Two posters did a real job on him, basically harassing him to the point where he left. His last post named the two posters and explained why he felt the need to leave. Never been seen since.

The board lost an asset, the other two are still here.

Dollar to a doughnut said thread wreckers are amongst us now......

[MtlJeff]

6 hours ago, BlackDiamondPar5 said:

Holy crap!  How did I miss out on all that?  Would love to hear the details--- A great topic for a new thread.  Oh wait, would probably get shutdown 🤣

 

PM me, there are some epic stories

[MtlJeff]

10 hours ago, BlackDiamondPar5 said:

Or hat on or off in the grill room thread. 🙂

 

I was always a sucker for the Scratch golf threads. The apex of which featured two people arguing over whether a japanese club forger was alive or dead. 

[MtlJeff]

I will say i've gotten to know some of the moderators over the years. A couple of them very well through emails, and then others in person through the GolfWRX events and such. They all the say the same thing and that is that it's a very thankless job and is very difficult

 

They were not getting paid at all for many years and i don't know if they are now (i'm guessing no). The main perks being equipment giveaways and stuff. But you'd have like 2 guys on voluntary duty, who have families and etc...not getting paid. You can't really expect these guys to be super active at policing thousands of users. Mostly they are responding to posts that have been "flagged". If you don't flag a post, even a bad one can stay up for hours or days

 

And what would we rather? A site where guys post worse stuff? I'd rather err on the side of keeping things more civil. I can't even count how many times i've seen someone crying in the feedback threads about how they'd been over-moderated. Since i'm a pretty active user many of the times i saw the posts before they were deleted (again another thing, its VERY easy to say you've been treated harshly when your most offensive posts have been deleted and there's zero evidence)...And in a lot of the cases it's like, yeah you did kinda deserve it. Maybe next time just dont hurl personal insults at people

 

FWIW, i have been warned here before and when it happened i didn't think i deserved it. But thinking back i have said things other times where i probably did deserve it and skated

 

But yeah, i've been warned once in like 12 years, and i don't feel like there's all these things i've wanted to say but couldn't.