Where Have the Good Threads Gone? CPF Kinda Boring Lately?

[Chauncey Gardiner]

Necessity is the mother of invention.

When you have a company, i.e. Four Sevens, selling a light like the Quark Tactical QT2L-X that produces 780 OTF lumens for one minute then 390 lumens for almost two hours, toss in a very cool UI, provide a ten year warranty, then sell it for about $75.....that removes the necessity for a lot of inventors.

~ Chance

 

[scout24]

Well, I put up a McG Mule thread in LED lighting thinking it would stay there and get some positive exposure instead of preaching to the choir... It was moved but maybe some more stories of use will be posted!

 

[Stress_Test]

I'm working on a little discussion myself to hopefully get the ball rolling, but I probably won't be able to finish and post it until later tonight. Nothing spectacular, just something that I hope will provide the necessary nudge, so y'all bear with me till then and then see what you think!

 

[moldyoldy]

Forgive the temerity of an very retired geek providing a couple Pfennig of opinion from a very tangential viewpoint.

Every business or hobby or technology goes thru a lifecycle. A simple approach would be to suggest a growth phase, a 'flat-and-level' phase, and a declining phase.

I myself cycled thru those phases with many avocations and am now leaving the steady-state phase with flashlights. As I left any specific personal interest, I divested myself of nearly all of the paraphenalia and memberships from that interest. I figuratively and literally left. Time to move on. Change is endemic to life. Personal interests are limited by perceived disposable income/resources and living conditions. Nevertheless, each endeavour provided a valuable education - all of which was stored in to what the Russian language refers to as 'old baggage' to be used to understand new technology and concepts. Remember CompuServe, GEnie, Hayes Smartmodems at 1200 baud, ASCII text progressively scrolling thru line by line on a green screen?

In the business world, many entrepeneurs are able to start a company, but cannot easily transition to the steady-state mode of running a company. They are idea people, not managers. There are some rarities such as Kelly Johnson (w/Ben Rich) of the Skunk Works whose pinnacle of success was the awe-inspiring and still unsurpassed SR-71 Blackbird. Then there are the managers who can perform superbly at management, but have difficulty with significant growth/expansion/change. Finally there are those managers who preside over the decline of a business in to insignificance and bankruptcy. Mismatch of the person and the business phase is a recipe for deterioration. Many hobby forums and boards follow the same lifecycle.

Historically some hobby forums do last longer than others. That is a complement to the sysops, administrators and moderators who douse the incipient flame wars and explosive topics. Yes, some of the oldies fade away, even admins & moderators, because of their own changing interests, yet the BBS/forum survives. Running a volunteer service is not easy!

To propagate any volunteer organization the members need to help the newbies! Answer their questions and provide references so that they can understand further. The newbie often has no historical perspective and is baffled by the terminology and technology. ie: CPF educated me that there was something better than flashlights from REI and Target.

There are 3 phases of progressing maturity: Dependence, Independence, and Interdependence. At the highest level of maturity, we give up some of our independence to become interdependent. Thereby the greater entity grows beyond any level we could have achieved by ourselves or by pushing our own agenda.

 

[Kestrel]

[...] Where are the discussions of the old classic lights, neat LEGOs, high quality lights that really give you satisfaction every time you pull them out, or stories of actually using lights and such? Am I missing the good stuff somewhere or does the discussion just seem very superficial and consumerist lately?

Here you go, nbp. :wave:

I had been meaning to post the following thread for a while now, but reading your thread this morning motiviated me enough to finally get around to doing the writeup.
Low light / Night fire training class

I have a couple more thoughts to contribute to this thread of yours but I'll have to post later - I've been writing for a while now.
Best regards,

 

[residue]

There is... they made a CPF adventure forum at some point a little while back... BUT, it hasn't seen much activity. In my humble opinion, it was made entirely too broad; it has half a dozen topic subforums. I kind of doubt it was needed in the first place. I'd say anything posted there should've been going in the Cafe to begin with.

I wasn't aware of the adventure forum. I looked through the posts and most are about travel or activity tips. I would probably agree that there are too many subforums there right now. I'd prefer to see a board (in CPF proper) called Flashlight Stories. Let carrot moderate and encourage people to post about how they used their illumination tools to help others or experience something new. Skip the "I created a flashaholic with my 1000 lumen pocket rocket" crowd unless they have something humorous or profound to share. The technology has improved but people are so caught up with specs and collecting shiny trophies.

At least that's what would interest me...

 

[ValentineTech]

I've followed CPF on and off for years and only recently have I really attempted to make it past the probationary period. I have to agree as an observer more than a participant. Though I do agree with several of this thread's points, people aren't doing their research, they're mobile and they have too much of a consumerist slant. I've collected, built and tinkered for a long time without having to BUY every five minutes. I remember the first time I realized I could change the lamp on my Surefire and it was all downhill from there. Cheers, I don't know I think this was an interesting conversation, maybe there just needs to be an Old School area.

 

[harro]

Remember when the ' Motorcar ' first appeared ( I don't personally !!!!!!!! ). It had four wheels and an engine and something to sit on. Yeah, not a lot has changed. Sure its evolved and improved etc, but its still four wheels and an engine and somewhere to sit.
Things may have stagnated a bit, but that's where members can help, eg; maybe a subforum in 'discussion' for, say, photo's of beamshots. Doesn't have to be the latest and greatest torches, just personal beamshots and a small explanation ( torch, lms, distance etc ) of whats happening, not a full on specs and numbers count or appraisal of the torch.
Anyhoooo...... just my thoughts,
Mike.

 

[StarHalo]

Those fellow regulars whom I've seen change, none were for the better.

Well at some point you grow out of randomly posting pictures of women out of context.

I'll let you know when I get there.

*And I'll let you know when it ever becomes acceptable... *hint* - don't hold your breath... :ironic: ~Greta

 

[Stress_Test]

LMAO @ StarHalo!! Just don't get carried away!


Well anyhow, I've gone and posted up my own thread here in the Cafe to throw down the gauntlet and hopefully start bringing some of the glory days fun back to CPF. Since there are apparently a number of us of the same mindset, let's make something happen here!

 

[Monocrom]

Well at some point you grow out of randomly posting pictures of women out of context.

I'll let you know when I get there.

Please do... I'll likely log off of CPF for the last time after getting that PM.

Screw change, I prefer great topics and out of context pics. of lovely women from members who stay the same.:grouphug:

 

[Walterk]

I still play around, and still keep posting reports of my projects.
It helps that I have fun in documenting with pictures and some writing.
Soometimes I think a lot of people are helpful, but most just read and shrug their shoulders.
But this place is where I have most of my projects posted, so I keep them together.
Browsing the forum at times, keeping up with new technology.
Maybe led is just getting normal so there is less excitement, everything is already explored and done by now?

 

[TIP AND RING]

I have found the lights that have solved 99% of my illumination needs and wants. That said, I still love CPF and still find it one of the most interesting forums on the web. The mods do a wonderful job of keeping a plethora of strong and unique personalities from turning a inch into a yard, so to speak. Often times I think that familiarity does breed contempt. I believe some folks spend entirely too much of this limited lifetime on the web. From what CPF was to what it currently has become is a nice compromise considering the quick growth of both the industry and the forum

 

[StarHalo]

Sometimes it's best to stay where you are.

 

[nbp]

Always good for a laugh, my friend.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

^
^
I watched it ten times, laughed out loud every time.

Gunna give the dive a 5.3 but a solid 10 for humor.

~ C.G.

 

[Monocrom]

A perfect illustration... er... video of what I mean. Nicely done.

 

[AZPops]

I think we should ask ourselves, .............. Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, ....... What was the question again?

 

[Cataract]

I've been thinking for almost a year now that I am bored with the lack of interesting threads. Ironically (putting on fire suit, armor and autonomous breathing apparatus) you guys are making this thread boring as well by over analyzing the possible whys and by enumerating your personal interests. Before you all throw massive hard objects at me, I'd just like to say this is probably the reason threads are not as interesting as they used to be: the essence tends to get lost in either overly profound analytical comments or semi-digressions. Also, the regrouping of many interesting subjects into "fetish" topic threads has diminished the diversity in the approach of a lot of interesting things. I think we used to start another thread rather than join other conversations when the sense of the subject was different enough to justify a separate thread. Why don't we all just start learning how to start interesting threads? (well, that will need some practice, but how else to fix this?) I'll just retreat behind that brick wall, now...

 

[DUQ]

*And I'll let you know when it ever becomes acceptable... *hint* - don't hold your breath... :ironic: ~Greta

:tinfoil: I feel like the walls have ears :sweat: