Time to change

[sulaco]

Well, i try to express my personal feelings about the forum a bit here.
I am a member for over 2 years now, not very active in writing but i did follow a lot of threads here, even if i didnīt respond to all of em.
Beginning of the year the forum did change in a way of drifting away from the original theme, namely beeing a forum for Omega likers and lovers and became more and more a forum where almost everything was discussed and joked about.
Many of the jokes were hard to follow for me as i am not from the USA and
they were mostly "insider" jokes.
Also many threads were totally lead away from their original intention, they were hijacked.
That was about the time when i decided to step back a bit and read rather then write.
I know that you canīt keep up a lively discussion when there is the 100000th thread about do you like my speedy or which strap will fit, but i really rather answer to these instead of reading funny statements i canīt or wonīt understand.
But i always did like the relaxing atmosphere here, beeing able to discuss also other watch brands and get some help or opinions from you guys.
Thatīs why i will stay here and try to bit more active.

Take care

[Dedalus]

Some interesting points Rene. As a newcomer, even without the language differences, sometimes it has felt awkward trying to contribute to certain threads that were dominated by insider jokes and a relatively small group of members who are abviously quite close.
However, the friendships that these long-time members have with eachother is, I think, one of the great things about this forum (and others on WUS). Apart from the wealth of watch knowledge that abounds in a forum such as this, it's nice to think that one can develop real friendships here.
And finally, given the dramas that seem to be unfolding around here - and I don't claim to know what's actually going down - your response and answer to the current climate is really refreshing and mature.
Cheers,
Jared

PS. I look forward to your contributions.

[NMGE17]

Great post Rene - looking forward to still seeing you here!

Nigel

[odgreen]

Good points.
Have to say that I agree; I have same problem with inside jokes + with language as European + from non-english speaking country.
But after all; this is quite good training for english.

[mondodec]

I think your post speaks to me as well.

I quite enjoy horsing around and am more than partial to a good joke (even borderline, risque, politically incorrect ones), but when I reviewed many of the WUS Omega posts I often found myself having to supress the sense of feeling an outsider.....and I didnt like it.

It's natural for like-minded people to be drawn to like, jocksters included, but what I increasingly sensed was that this forum was getting a bit like a school yard that had been dominated and to an extent taken over by a gang of jocks. Nice blokes, as individuals, but, together, perhaps a bit of an overbearing (?) bunch who were caught up in an entanglement of in-jokes, in-phrases and other group language that only had resonance to those 'In' the know. I'm happy to be 'out' of the know sometimes, but it was getting too frequent for comfort :)

Mind you, the social atmosphere was electric on occasions, but I have to say that I couldn't fathom the membership rules of what appeared to be a fairly elite club within the larger WUS Omega club.

What really concerned me about the activities of the group was observing some newcomers trying to get in on the act and being completely ignored at times. Not always, and to be fair some in-group members responded warmly, but I often noticed the textbook behaviours of an in-group generally ignoring interlopers. On occasions the 'group' engaged in an appalling lack of respect and empathy when a 'straight' post went up. All of a sudden an often genuine inquiry or discussion went off on a totally unrelated tangent of hi-jinks and jock-ularity. This, to me, displayed a fairly serious failure to honour the sensibilities of others.

I know there has been a mass-migration to another site (Classic in-group behaviour of one for all and all for one, no-one taking any responsibility for their part in QTs demise). And having visited it over time as respite for what was going on in this forum, I notice already that in-group dynamics are beginning to emerge. I do hope that the moderator will lay down some rules as he's one of the good guys and deserves respect.

In reference to the banning of QT, I feel that the owners/moderators had no option, because, in my mind, the issue wasnt so much QT (he was simply the catalyst). The issue was what to do when a highly respected forum gets hijacked by an emerging 'in' group that was increasingly getting 'out' of control. Group members were egging each other on and if it wasn't QT who ultimately went right over the top, it would have been someone else. The escalation over time was patently obvious and it was only a matter of when, rather that if, someone was going to do something really, really stupid.

Let's face it, the future of the forum was at stake, and it's worth pondering how many others may have left this forum, and how many other newbies came and went, because of the effectively exclusionist behaviours of one pocket of jocksters.

As I said earlier, I don't believe any of the group in question are anything but good blokes, and I would dearly like to see them come back to this forum as individuals who can share their knowledge in their unique ways with other horological petrol-heads, neophytes, brand lovers et al. But, fellas, please take a couple of seconds to reflect on your own behaviours before you bemoan the 'unfairness' of QT's execution and begin to notice how you all had a hand in his demise by escalating things to the point of them being out of control.

Cheers

Desmond

Well, i try to express my personal feelings about the forum a bit here.
I am a member for over 2 years now, not very active in writing but i did follow a lot of threads here, even if i didnīt respond to all of em.
Beginning of the year the forum did change in a way of drifting away from the original theme, namely beeing a forum for Omega likers and lovers and became more and more a forum where almost everything was discussed and joked about.
Many of the jokes were hard to follow for me as i am not from the USA and
they were mostly "insider" jokes.
Also many threads were totally lead away from their original intention, they were hijacked.
That was about the time when i decided to step back a bit and read rather then write.
I know that you canīt keep up a lively discussion when there is the 100000th thread about do you like my speedy or which strap will fit, but i really rather answer to these instead of reading funny statements i canīt or wonīt understand.
But i always did like the relaxing atmosphere here, beeing able to discuss also other watch brands and get some help or opinions from you guys.
Thatīs why i will stay here and try to bit more active.

Take care

[sulaco]

@desmond,

you are right, i also really donīt want to insult any of the guys that hang around here especially from the group that had grown together here and that is now moving towards the other forum, they really are great guys, but most of the time you were just left at the doorstep because you just couldnīt follow their humor.

I also try to have fun as far as itīs possible for us germans but sometimes you got to stick to the main issue.

[n linsley]

Well, i try to express my personal feelings about the forum a bit here.
I am a member for over 2 years now, not very active in writing but i did follow a lot of threads here, even if i didnīt respond to all of em.
Beginning of the year the forum did change in a way of drifting away from the original theme, namely beeing a forum for Omega likers and lovers and became more and more a forum where almost everything was discussed and joked about.
Many of the jokes were hard to follow for me as i am not from the USA and
they were mostly "insider" jokes.
Also many threads were totally lead away from their original intention, they were hijacked.
That was about the time when i decided to step back a bit and read rather then write.
I know that you canīt keep up a lively discussion when there is the 100000th thread about do you like my speedy or which strap will fit, but i really rather answer to these instead of reading funny statements i canīt or wonīt understand.
But i always did like the relaxing atmosphere here, beeing able to discuss also other watch brands and get some help or opinions from you guys.
Thatīs why i will stay here and try to bit more active.

Take care

My sentiments exactly, you have expressed what i myself have been thinking for the last couple of days. This has for me been a good place to hang out,learn about watches and have fun, and i hope it always will .

Nick.

[Blaise]

Well, i try to express my personal feelings about the forum a bit here.
I am a member for over 2 years now, not very active in writing but i did follow a lot of threads here, even if i didnīt respond to all of em.
Beginning of the year the forum did change in a way of drifting away from the original theme, namely beeing a forum for Omega likers and lovers and became more and more a forum where almost everything was discussed and joked about.
Many of the jokes were hard to follow for me as i am not from the USA and
they were mostly "insider" jokes.
Also many threads were totally lead away from their original intention, they were hijacked.
That was about the time when i decided to step back a bit and read rather then write.
I know that you canīt keep up a lively discussion when there is the 100000th thread about do you like my speedy or which strap will fit, but i really rather answer to these instead of reading funny statements i canīt or wonīt understand.
But i always did like the relaxing atmosphere here, beeing able to discuss also other watch brands and get some help or opinions from you guys.
Thatīs why i will stay here and try to bit more active.

Take care

Being a non-American (if I may call myself this ugly name) I totally agree what you say René. Sometimes I also had problems understanding those jokes (even though I was brought up in a family full of English speakers, and lived in English speaking countries my self, further more I'm studying English at the university ).

I only joined in April this year, and at first it looked like a cool place to hang out, but as I visited more often I realized that sometimes people use this forum as private place where they can hang around with their close friends (I mean 2-3 people) posting to each other like they were talking MSN. This is not bad, but I thought why would I join this obvious private conversation (or why would someone bring this out to a public forum expropriating the forum, in a way) so some times I stayed away from these threads...and WUS as well.

I liked threads about other members' cars, jobs, favorite cologne etc. (it gave something different, something fresh in this forum), but the main thing we are here is watches, and Omega particularly. When I could, I always helped other members seeking for info about their watches or anything, however I could understand that some guys left this place because they were fed up all the "look at my PO" or "new speedy owner" threads that came up 3-4 times a day. This is part of this forum, I understand that (I can imagine how great pleasure is for one when he receives his dream watch after months/years of saving and that he wants everybody i this world to know it)...but still.

QT's (and this is the last time I'm dealing with this issue) act and his permanent ban was the last drop in the cup for many people (I don't know what was his comment and I don't really care about it, since I don't know the background) regarding one specific moderator. I don't want to comment on this moderator, since personally I never had a problem with him, but many people did.

So all the above things added up in many guys and felt that it's time for them to leave. Some even felt pique, felt that they were offended, some just followed the "leaders" some just got fed up with this BS...Me, I also signed up to the other place, because I'd like to keep in touch with some of them, and found that other place fun too (so far...) but also going to stay here to contribute as I did during my 6 months.

So, just like René, I'll try to be more active and help WUSOF stay as relaxing and informative as it used to be back in the days Not to foget that we still have some veterans around here, and 2 great moderators!!!

Thanks for reading guys, and thanks René for the thread!!:thanks

Blaise

Ps: I think this was my longest comment ever

[Ozz]

Very well said guys

[OnTimeGabe]

René, that was an excellent post and I thank you for writing it. I think it's never good for a forum when a relatively small group of members start to use it a their personal chat room. Whether they intend to or not, it creates an atmosphere can be unwelcoming. There are many people who feel that the inside jokes and thread-jacking had reached the breaking point on the OF. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't make friends and bonds here. I've met many, many great people on WUS, and sometimes we exchange a few personal words between ourselves in a thread. Nothing wrong with that. But when wide swaths of the conversation deviate from the theme of the forum, it makes you question why some people are here. I also like OT posts, as we all have outside lives and aren't simply defined by our watch collections. But again, they must fall within the rules of WUS and be made in such a way that all members feel they are welcome to participate. I should also note that Watchuseek has the Cafe and Public Forum, where friends are encouraged to gather and discuss all manner of topics that might not fit in on a watch forum.

And let me assure you that as a native English speaker, I 'got' many of the jokes, and you weren't missing much IMHO. Honestly, I stopped regularly visiting the forum a while ago due to the climate here, and I am much looking forward to spending time here again.

One last point I'd like to make is about the assertion made elsewhere that somehow those that left have taken all the good Omega knowledge with them. That's just silly in my opinion. There are some of the most knowledgeable Omega enthusiasts you'll ever find right here on this forum, starting with Joe and Eric. And I see many of the others still posting here today. We never want to see members leave, and I sincerely hope that we'll see some of those guys return in the future. But Watchuseek has been around for over a decade, and it's bigger than any member(s), or moderators for that matter. Things may be a bit rocky in the short term, but the best way to move forward is for everyone to chip in and contribute good discussions to the forum.