A Few Thoughts About The Online Forums

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by zeehag

when i started this stuff, it was done, not squawked about.
there were some few books i didnt read, there were neighbors with info--they were interesting, and some info sticks... but there was no interweb facilitation and whiners club.
then there became interwebzzz. some forums/fora were designed with like mineded souls in mind. cars--hay i got one-- meet folks in similar mindsets.
and then there are sailing forums. now we find many questions never before dreamed up.
used to be one walked docks to find boats and spoke with the folks on docks about said boats. now folks query up in forums.
we have turned from going and doing to sitting and squawking.
quite a change.
i prefer the doing part, but we in port repairing, so.......
and occasionally, someone like minaret adds a wonderful bit of info for repairing a boat correctly.
and then there is jeff hartjoy. wow. he did it.
this i can get behind. and with.

I'm in your corner on this one. In the past if you wanted to gain knowledge you had to make an investment in time and energy. This had the effect of removing many of the people that were simply
dreamers without even a slight sprinkle of doer in them. Now a days we have many folks that are very good on the internet and are Google experts but have little real sailing knowledge and they come off as experts.,
Change is inevitable!

[Pelagic]

Hi sneuman....good to hear from you again

If i remember correctly..... you once gave me good personal advice on my introduction to Gout.... and somehow discussing that with a fellow sailor, made it more easier to digest and control from a sailors' perspective.

My point is.... that while "hot topics" like guns & anchors act like beans at a cowboy's campfire..... Offering a flatulence of competitive noise that is unattractive

It is the small gems of sharing that makes these forums worth reading, when looking for a virtual buddy to either help, or be helped.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

It is the small gems of sharing that makes these forums worth reading, when looking for a virtual buddy to either help, or be helped.

So true.

If you take anchors guns politics BWB and religion out, then there are valid questions with reasonable answers.

Isn't that the purpose of these forums to begin with?

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

So true.

If you take anchors guns politics BWB and religion out, then there are valid questions with reasonable answers.

Isn't that the purpose of these forums to begin with?

Now don't forget Climate change.

[vjm]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Well you're not alone. I'm surprised I didn't see this thread earlier. Only one line that I disagree with..."To land lubbers, it probably seems like an exceedingly naive query. Indeed, it seems so to most sailors, too".I think a strong majority of CF members are armchair, non sailboat owners. They develop a sense of self importance through a forum. The whole situation is harmless however as I would assume 99% of "I'm going to buy a sailboat and sail around the world with my family", never get the boat.
I've been tempted to print on this forum exactly what you stated on your blog. I never thought of doing it the way you had, on your blog and should have.
Further back in my blog, I did however, map out a path for people to buy an inexpensive vessel and go sailing now. Adventures of Joli' Elle: What you really need to go cruising Or Is this love or boat envy
However, I doubt one new comer found it inspiring.
You were spot on about the "gun thing" and the country that perpetuates it.
I appreciate your starting the thread...CS

This was a wonderful post, and I really enjoyed it. Just bought my first pocket cruiser and trying to get her splashed ASAP. I very much appreciated the advice to get 50% there and shove off, there will always be 50% to complete. Good stuff, and thank you.

[SSgtPitt]

Snueman, a well written blog and thanks for posting it. I also was in the "landlubber to sailer" quandry a couple of years ago. My post "50 and Shoving Off" started like so many others; what boat do i buy, what do i do, how do i get started? I think Zeehag helped a little, she seems very ..... down to earth.
Luckily I had CF and many of it's members that steered me in the right direction. I bought a boat first then learned the fundamentals of sailing and am now in the process of learning and repairing the boat and cruising CF asking questions about guns, food, repairs, money etc etc. I'm an American, a Marine, a sometimes hunter and I still waffle on having a firearm on board. It's not my business to convince a person one way or another. I just don't want to end up in a foreign jail.
If it wasn't for the forums, many of us would never have the opportunity to realize our dream of sailing to foreign lands. We're commited to shoving away within two years but also realize that life is not a straight path.....we'll do the best we can.
During this learning process i've had the full pendulem swing of responses. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth. The extreme responces to some of the postings should just be ignored. Who needs the grief.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Now don't forget Climate change.

Climate change is a religion.

Forums are places for open discussion and discussion implies a right to express an opinion on a subject.

[cabo_sailor]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Climate change is a religion.

Forums are places for open discussion and discussion implies a right to express an opinion on a subject.

While as a geologist I disagree with you're first statement. (Wait a min, after cogitating a moment. I believe you to be correct in both statements). Without a science background and access to a few terabytes of data, yeah climate change does come down to religion for a lot of folk.

I heartily concur with your second statement.

Rich


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[barnakiel]

Yep. Well written up.

As I came to CF from the other end of the spectrum (we sailed, extensively, before I started reading&writing here) I can imagine some things are a big surprise to anybody who participated in a forum up first, and expected CRUISING to be anything like READING AND WRITING ABOUT CRUISING.

Talking about sex and having sex are two different things too. Why expect cruising, sailing, (you name it) to be any different.

I bet the same 'shock' awaits anyone else who mistakes the finger for the moon.

Writing and reading is not doing. It is just a pastime for those who have been and those who would be.

b.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Yep. Well written up.

As I came to CF from the other end of the spectrum (we sailed, extensively, before I started reading&writing here) I can imagine some things are a big surprise to anybody who participated in a forum up first, and expected CRUISING to be anything like READING AND WRITING ABOUT CRUISING.

Talking about sex and having sex are two different things too. Why expect cruising, sailing, (you name it) to be any different.

I bet the same 'shock' awaits anyone else who mistakes the finger for the moon.

Writing and reading is not doing. It is just a pastime for those who have been and those who would be.

b.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^+1,000

And after a reasonably short period of time, one "gets to know" that who participate on this or any other forum about any subject, and eventually builds a certain trust in certain respondents based on both their clarity of expression / ability to write and share information.

And also those who don't.

It's like any other form of communication. Ever go to a meeting?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

.

I bet the same 'shock' awaits anyone else who mistakes the finger for the moon.

Writing and reading is not doing. It is just a pastime for those who have been and those who would be.

b.

I don't know what that finger and moon thing means, but my butt got a worried feeling reading it.

Books, I hate it when people always want to quote something they read in a 30 year old book.

[SV THIRD DAY]

What I find Hilarious is a thread about online forums to complain about them posted where....on an online forum. And that my friends is call Irony, but it's also instructive of something else. If a complaint is said to oneself or on ones own blog was it ever really said if not linked to or posted on Social Media or an online forum?

Does a tree really fall in a forest if no one is there to see it?
Is a Joke funny if only you laugh?

In an all about me world and society, does anyone really "go cruising" without a blog/website/FakeBook or snapchat to publicize it?

[Pelagic]

I think the litmus test on participating on CF is to ask yourself:
HAVE I EVER CHANGED MY MIND OR ATTITUDE after reading someone's opinion on a sailing topic?

I think the answer is obvious, but the value of it, is really up to the individual.

[Island Time O25]

11-12 years ago I was a semi-dreamer. I was a member of a local sailing club and at the same time was more or less looking for my own boat. One boat that I looked at and started seriously considering had very little info about it online so I joined a small owners forum for that particular brand. That little forum helped me tremendously to transition to an owner status although only a year into ownership I probably knew more about my boat than the majority of that forum members knew about theirs, as many of them were for many years "just a season away from splashing" their boats.

I was a member there for 6-7 years and some guys who were 5 years into a refit when I joined were still putzing around when I left, trying to make their boat perfect before splashing her. Later on I figured out that these people had no desire whatsoever to actually sail their boats but probably used them to hide from their spouses and responsibilities.

I remember how aghast some of those "permanent tinkerers" reacted to the pics of my boat in the water - "you splashed her in THAT condition?" Meanwhile my little 27 footer, which I picked up for $400 and splashed her a year later, gave me 5 fun seasons of sailing, surviving a nasty encounter with rocks unscathed and other fun happenings, eventually being sold for $1,100 to a happy camper who used her as his post-divorce summer housing.

Now, had I followed the advice of the majority of members on that forum, I'd still be in the "getting ready to splash her next season" stage.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

Now, had I followed the advice of the majority of members on that forum, I'd still be in the "getting ready to splash her next season" stage.

That is perhaps one of the best lessons I have seen on CF in months.
There are still people I see posting as forum experts that were there back in 2006 when we bought our first boat, outfitted her and cast off on a 4yr cruise of Mexico. The exerts at the time said we wouldn't last a season. Then when we returned to the States those same experts said we would never survive living on a mooring ball in Morro Bay, CA. 4 years later the experts have several thousands more posts and here we are. I'll admit it...I enjoying poking them everyone and a while...just for fun....