Ha! Thanks, bud.
I just gotta go get some robes and grow my beard out.
…
And gotta find me a mountain to sit on!
Send me thine sour grapes, and from them I shall make wine, and we shall frolic and play mighty bass riffs until we doth pass out!
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Well, that’s as good a plan (or program indeed) as any 
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I’m on TalkBass and find it’s not bad at all. I’ve never had problems with moderators or other members. I’ve posted numerous questions and posts and never had an issue. I’ve also bought quite a few good parts & a bass guitar off TB. No problems. I guess it all depends on what you say and do on there, just like any other forum. Every forum has rules. Simple.
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Become??? Hell, it’s been like that for years already. I’ve never seen such poor moderation anywhere except in a free for all sports forum that allows so much trolling the place is nothing but violent debates and insults.
About five years ago a group of us left TB to begin our own bass forum known as SCTMMC because after creating the most popular thread on TB they shut us down because a handful of members thought we weren’t taking things seriously enough. Are you kidding me? It’s not a seminary or a bible study group. We even have a thread in our forum titled “The Stupidest Post/Thread On Talk Bass” and it’s updated frequently.
TB is bonkers most days. I stick with reading two threads about the gear I play and use it to research other stuff but that’s it. No sense in doing more.
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You’d love our SCTMMC site. We even have a separate thread for those of us who’ve been banned from TB. I’ve been banned twice and consider it an honor. The first time it was intentional on my part. But the second time I re-registered years later after having my account listed as inactive not banned.
The registration was approved and I kept to just those two threads I mentioned above. Then they banned me again for having dual accounts even when one was no longer active and after they approved my registration. One mod will do or say one thing and another something entirely different and the Admin who I’ve also PM’d back and forth with will back them up even when they’re in conflict. I moderate another forum and all I can say is the TB mods are the very worst I’ve ever run into. Tin badge wanna be forum sheriffs.
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And that’s all that should be needed if members treat one another like friends and fellow players. If you wouldn’t say what you just posted to a friend why post it at all. People can disagree and debate without insults. Many of us have doing it over beers for most of our lives so what is it about some forums that turn members into idiots that have to rudely challenge everything?
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You’ve pretty much nailed it. What you describe is precisely the time line of a sports forum I was part of developing around 2004. Ten years later it was turning into just what you describe. I was on staff along with a couple of the other originators. The owner decided he wanted it to grow and began to approve registrations of known trouble makers from other forums and insisted we not ban them. Three of us resigned as mods and within a year one of the bigger fan forums for our team was no more. The trolls and idiots murdered it then went right back to where they cam from having done what they set out to do from the start. It was an exercise in sheer stupidity by the owner.
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I’ve found that if I stick with some of the clubs or research threads regarding a specific piece of gear I’m interested in and don’t engage with others I can get from it what I want. But even that requires bypassing certain post or posters there only to create an argument or push an opinion as if there’s was the only one that counted.
The Fender Cult is strong there too.
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Oh yeah among many others as well. I stick pretty much to the G&L and Genzler Club threads except when I want to research something specific. Then I use the search function to find threads or posts I want to review and call it a day.
Whenever I wander elsewhere I eventually come across a thread or a post that leaves me walking away shaking my head. Some posters are just rude and arrogant. The other issue I have is their moderation sucks and it has for years. It’s inconsistent as all hell to the point where some stuff gets penalized and other stuff just ignored.
It’s kind of shocking it’s still as big a site a it is but there aren’t enough bassists to support multiple sites of that nature I guess. I prefer smaller and friendlier myself.
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Dumb question, why is this forum generally so polite and embracing? What is going one here that isn’t going on elsewhere?
I don’t feel there is heavy moderation at play.
As an aside, I’m a member of the ‘Bass Players’ group on Facebook and find that to be pretty relaxed and good natured. I was just under the impression that, given our roll is to serve the song, we all have a sense of humour and humility 
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I wish there were a synth site like this too. KVR is basically like a more knowledgeable TalkBass for synths. Same egos and attitudes.
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My guess is the number / ratio of beginners?
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Josh attracts a better class of riffraff
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It’s IMHO the fact that this is a forum connected to a beginner course. In “general” forums and groups, many people create an “expert persona” with which they come to those communities; their whole purpose is to convince others that their fake persona is real, and as such these forums and communities are defacto based on lies and deception at their very base, which can never end any different than in a clusterf**k. Here? We’re by definition all somewhere on the spectrum between beginner and badass. It’s a really scary environment for all these internet, armchair experts. Because even if they would be able to convince others about their expertise and knowledge, there’s always the looming question “Why the hell is someone of your skill, expertise, and experience going to a beginner forum to convince everyone around that they are … inexperienced beginners?” And boy, that’s scary for this kind of people. To acknowledge that the only way how to fulfill their inner feeling of superiority, expertise, and achievement is to visit a community where nobody is, by definition, an expert of the same caliber they claim to be.
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Yeah. Real experts help bring people up, not knock them down.
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Very true!
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There’s a phenomenon I’ve noticed across hobbies where people who are really good at something, like the best in the country or the world, are really supportive. They might be so busy bring really good that they don’t have time to interact with many people, but if you’re in line for coffee at an event next to them they’ll be great!
A very vocal and annoying minority who are sort of good at something and need the “I’m closer to LeBron than you are to me” type message are real jerks about anyone who doesn’t know something they think is basic. A lot of the time it’s not even universally applicable and they don’t know enough to know it doesn’t apply there or are wrong for some other reason, but they’re going to be real jerks to anyone they think is less good than they are and they put a real damper on the local scene.
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I think this is very much on point. Josh’s teaching style is very relaxed and aimed at having fun and keeping you playing. I guess the people it appeals to are more or less like that in real life to, laid back and want to have a good time.
This is the only forum I frequent, apart from Reddit’s /bass which I have found is also very nice and friendly. I’m not very active, but people seem to be helpful. I rep the crap out of BB whenever the subject of beginner lessons comes up.
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