Why the Hostility and Apathy?

Ball busting and sarcasm are just free services most NESers provide.... I've met several in person and they've all been good people. If you don't have thick enough skin you better stay lurking in the background until you toughen up!
 
I’m still relatively new around here, so I don’t have as broad a picture as most. With that said, this is no different than any other forum I’ve been on.
There’s always jerks out there. There’s also a plethora of great people with useful advice. People sending tiny knives to tiny people. People willing to meet strangers at gun clubs for possible sponsorship. Heck, that silly zombie scenario thread just kept on rolling, even if it was absurd, it was fun.

This is, of course, a giant echo chamber. Many discussions lean heavily in one direction. This I learned early on.

Some threads are dumpster fires from the get go. I’m pretty sure this is universal, at least if you’ve ever spent any time on Reddit.

Lurk and search. Ask thoughtful questions with at least an emoticon of forethought, and you will typically be handily rewarded.
There are plenty of good people out there, so long as you’re a decent person yourself.
 
I find the witty repartee on the forums interesting. I am getting fed up with the idiots who respond to classified listings and try an haggle over $25 for an $800 gun or ask questions that are already specified in the listing.
 
This place has been a fluff palace for a while now. Back when I joined there were a few members here that would have really got your panties bunched. Most have moved on after things got strict here with ban hammer working overtime.
Look back into some of the old AK build threads and you will learn a shit-ton about Kalashnikov variants while having your delicate trigger tickled.
Some of the group buy threads (winter 80% + Micheal JR Quentin defense ) will show you how hostile things used to be.
 
I think most of it stems from our need to vent somehow. Society has been actively removing some choice ways of venting. As well as actively programing us to tend towards a calm Utopia of consumeristic blandness.

Even foods chosen and stocked by grocery stores are involved here.

But it's also not a huge conspiracy. It's just transnational progressivism. (A social construction. Not a grand hoax.)

Are there large groups probably taking advantage of it? Yes absolutely!

Are we spiteful and sometimes just plain angry at posters because we happen to just be fscking angry most of the time? Yes to that too.

We probably would do better as a forum if we took a deep breath and focused on the front sight. This forum is just like a pistol in some ways. It's a tool in the tool box.

This particular tool; If we spend too much of our energy trying to drive it with our thumbs, the barrel is just gonna oscillate all around.

That being said, it's also the responsibility of any forum to educate it's members about basics. Like the search feature.

Ibtl.
 
I don't need to make excuses, i'm a naturally cranky, ball bustin' new England born and raised nes member. and besides, I got my ass chewed when I came onboard. I didn't cry, I jumped back in with a vengeance. I just can't be a love everyone type of guy, not my nature. you should see me on a bad day. that's why god invented the ignore button.
 
New Quote:
New England humor, at least good, traditional, working class New England humor, is very dry, sarcastic, and offensive. Dry, sarcastic, and offensive humor does not translate well online.
C. Stockwell

I've seen responses which seemed funny/sarcastic, yet were interpreted by others as mean spirited or argumentative. Without tonation and facial expression, it is hard to know. Some go to great lengths to ensure responses are softened or clearly mark them as 'Sarcasm'. Others do not.
 
As much garbage as there is on here sometimes, there's also a ton of knowledge that you can really learn from so just put some people on your ignore list. I have about 30 raging morons and blabbering idiots on mine and it makes the forum much more pleasant to read.
 
Some go to great lengths to ensure responses are softened or clearly mark them as 'Sarcasm'. Others do not.
I don't but sometime will use the smiley face or the laughing guy, but as I said above, no excuses, no apologies for my dry wit. my dad had it also, he was a funny bastard. from what I've read, dry humor is a characteristic of the English/celtic culture. we got a lot of 'em around the boston area.
 
To a Mainer, a flatlander is someone who isn't from Mass or NH.
So one of my ancestors was an early settler in a small town in Maine. Eventually during the Industrial Revolution the fam moved to Haverhill and made shoes, but the land and the structures stayed in the family, unoccupied. The family cemetery has tombstones bearing the family name going back to the 1700's.When my dad retired he built a nice house in the upper pasture and lived out his life there. In order to pick up his mail a couple three times a week he would go to the post mistresses house, walk through her kitchen where the local gang hung out to the room where "PO boxes" were. After he'd been there for nearly 20 years he told me he felt like he'd finally arrived. Upon walking through the kitchen one of the old geezers at the kitchen table had finally given him a nod of recognition.
 
I have also observed that the hostility, mostly in General and Off Topic, has increased in the last few years. It caused me and several of my shooting friends to take a step back. Many are still here or have returned, but participate much less.

I have no evidence, but suspect when the forum was smaller, more posters had met each other in meat-space.

I also suspect forum culture has changed across the internet. Not much call for 10,000 words on machining a rifle receiver when a youtube video (like and subscribe!) will serve.

NES is a (mostly) safe place where people who like guns and care about their freedom can hang out with others who share those values. I've seen the forum change to mostly off topic and general topics. You can only have the same gun conversations so many times and as you mentioned there is a ton of information out there and also in this forum.

I used to belong to a couple of wilderness/bushcraft sites. You can only see so many threads about how somebody carved a spoon our of a stick and not be bored to death.

There are always going to be jerks. Yet even the biggest a$$holes on the forum can come up with some good arguments or comments about current events. I have also seen a lot of people here pull together when someone is in need.

People can always just avoid the threads they aren't interested in.
 
NES is a (mostly) safe place where people who like guns and care about their freedom can hang out with others who share those values. I've seen the forum change to mostly off topic and general topics. You can only have the same gun conversations so many times and as you mentioned there is a ton of information out there and also in this forum.

I used to belong to a couple of wilderness/bushcraft sites. You can only see so many threads about how somebody carved a spoon our of a stick and not be bored to death.

There are always going to be jerks. Yet even the biggest a$$holes on the forum can come up with some good arguments or comments about current events. I have also seen a lot of people here pull together when someone is in need.

People can always just avoid the threads they aren't interested in.

You nailed it. The build discussions and can I carry here conversations have mostly been had already. When someone asks a question, sometimes they get whacked over the head, sometimes they get an answer and sometimes they get a link to click on.

I've been here about five years I think including lurking. I used to see people tearing each other to shreds but now it's more conversational. I'm good with that. Let people score their petty victories for the day somewhere else.
 
As much garbage as there is on here sometimes, there's also a ton of knowledge that you can really learn from so just put some people on your ignore list. I have about 30 raging morons and blabbering idiots on mine and it makes the forum much more pleasant to read.

It's just as well you won't be reading this then as you're usually the first dude to call the thought police and the waaambulance.
 
As much garbage as there is on here sometimes, there's also a ton of knowledge that you can really learn from so just put some people on your ignore list. I have about 30 raging morons and blabbering idiots on mine and it makes the forum much more pleasant to read.
About 30? For real? I am on more than a dozen sites, I have never put anyone on ignore. If you got about 30 just here then perhaps you may want to consider that Internet Posting may not be right for you.
 
It's just as well you won't be reading this then as you're usually the first dude to call the thought police and the waaambulance.
This. He self-identifies as easily offended.
It's cute how many posts you devote to me but I don't think about you at all so I prefer not to read your endless posts about me.
 
At NES it boils down to two things.
You are either the Mentos... or the coke.

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