The replies to bearing debates, grails, colorways, BST, drops, etc. are always very numerous and very passionate but the replies to the Introduce Yourself thread and notes indicating “this is the first time(———-) has posted let’s welcome them” are tepid and very unenthusiastic at best and many times ignored. Once in awhile there will be chatter about how to grow the community and that gets many, many more responses than having a newcomer to the community actually show up. In my opinion, newcomers ought to be overwhelmed with notes of welcome, encouragement, support, offers of advice, suggestions, or just enthusiasm for having joined us here.
I don’t really give a rip about your grail, favorite colorway, new $200 yoyo, or having 30 of the same yoyo if you can’t welcome a newcomer. Is this forum a community or a walled compound where newcomers are merely tolerated?
Hello,
I am responding to this as a newcomer to this forum, I joined a couple of weeks ago.
I was amazed from the very start as to how welcoming it was.
I only have motorcycle chopper forums to compare to and they are mostly horrible.
Very clicky and exclusive. If you as a question like, what size jet is best for this air filter.
The replies are usually. 'that has been covered before neub, learn to use the search function!"
So my first post on here I was actually expecting to get grief.
To my suprise everyone has been very nice.
I read a thread the other day, that started to stray into an argument, but people we still respectful.
It was amazing, I was expecting it to devolve into a flame war.
Like I said, I am new here, and there may be room for improvement, but I have found it to be a really nice place to hang out and learn.
As well as having “famous” people from the yoyo community, actually liking and answering posts is the best!
Thanks
Rob.
I see the op point for sure, I know I personally don’t spend much time in the welcome post but I do really try to respond and be encouraging on the “new player trying to learn” style posts.
Thank you for helping people out! I know most of us have jobs and lots of responsibilities and aren’t scrolling topics every 20 minutes. I missed a first time poster last night but try to keep up on that type of that thing and feel bad if I miss someone’s first post. The smallest gesture can draw someone in or the lack thereof can unintentionally push them away.
I feel the same as @Canspin65. I’m not one to introduce but there has been nothing but helpful people and to me that means more than just saying hello. I think the general feel of the community is extremely welcoming vs almost any other. While it’s sad the tread isn’t as active I haven’t noticed anyone being ignored or treated poorly especially if they are new. This seems to be a very wholesome community even if the red carpet isn’t rolled out for everyone.
Honestly this is about as friendly as forums get. As someone who has been a new user on many different forums, it is as much up to you to put yourself out there to be a person to interact with than it is up to the regulars to make them feel comfortable. I have yet to see the gate-keeper type regulars on this forum at all, which to me is as good enough a welcome as something that I could force out.
I am here to discuss yoyo and have general convos with like-minds. I admit that I don’t think I ever even opened the ‘Introduce Yourself’ thread once, nor have I on other forums. Imo it is kind of a superfluous thread and you should be introducing yourself to the community by actively engaging in the discussions in active threads (no offense to people who use it, but it’s not for me).
I think the proof of a good neighbor isn’t how many cookies they bring over after your moving van drives off; rather it’s if they stop in
to help when your basement is flooding or they ended up grabbing your mail for you without you asking when you took a business trip.
From that measure, I think this Forum is doing alright. Sure - we can always be more civil and even more friendly. But it’s also ok to celebrate what we have, which is pretty sweet
I will agree with Chris overall as well as parts of the replies. I, personally, was treated pretty well when I joined this crew but I have seen more than a few new folks ignored (or nearly so) when asking a question or seeking help. More than once I’ve seen a newcomer get damn near roasted (Recall that kid that a bunch of people accused of being a shill when he did a review, ended up posting a photo with his tag on it, etc. - can’t say I have seen him around recently).
This community may be friendly overall and better than many/most other hobby forums. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be even better.
Edit: I will admit that I can do better in this regard. I often scroll past a lot of stuff - including the “Introduce Yourself” thread to get to where I intend to go.
I’ve been here for about 10 years now and will have to say, it is just as relaxed here today as it was 10 years ago. I actually don’t really recall seeing any real friction between members here which is great! Everyone had been supportive and helpful to the newbies which is what we need for this hobby.
I think that this makes a lot of sense. I remember being a bit intimidated by the people talking about spending $200+ on yoyo or collectors talking about rare editions when I got to this forum as a beginner. Me with my first $15 yoyo thought that I knew nothing about the hobby compared to everyone else.
But there were plenty of people here that talked about other stuff of course, which is why I stayed.
But there does seem to have been a demographic shift here on the forums. Its mostly adult collectors now. Which is fine, I’ve been enjoying the idea of collecting more valuable yoyos as well. But I can understand how that would seem like a bit of a barrier to those who are just starting to learn unresponsive tricks with a magicyoyo and want some people to talk to about it. When I first joined, if all everyone talked about here was Black Bip Bops, Grails, and 2007 run 888s, I would dismiss it as a community that I would never understand and probably move on to Instagram.
Which is what I think is happening a lot.
But we’re all really good and welcoming people here. I know most of you personally, and you’re great friends. But it can be really intimidating to come here with little yoyo knowledge and try and talk yoyos with people who get so specific about brands, colors, and what year/country a yoyo was made in.
This is not a rant against collectors, as I have done in the past (after all, I am rapidly becoming one myself ), but I think that it is important to keep in mind where this forum is going and what’s happening to all the new blood, where all the new players are going, and why that is.
I’m not exactly sure how to change this. But I am doing what I can with the tutorials and such that I have been making of late. My hope is to encourage as many people as possible here to experience the joy of learning new tricks. Hopefully that can help more yoyoers that are learning how stick around here. This is such a great forum community, and I’d like to see it grow.
Damn, I think you nailed it. Overall this forum is centered around collecting and casual play more than trick learning. Also as far as modern social media is concerned, forums aren’t popular.
there are LOTS of lurkers on here, registered and not, that span a variety of demographics… there’s a lot of good info on here for everyone, which i’m grateful for… as well as the people. i think cats on here are pretty great…
Yoyoing is a niche hobby and few who try it stick with it. Forums like this one tend to coalesce into the folks who have stuck around for the long haul, and so by their very nature they are highly experienced and weighed down with large(-ish) collections. Conversation will naturally reflect the interests and experience-level of said population.
However, I have found that in any community of sufficient size there are always folks who enjoy being ambassadors of the hobby and make the extra effort to reach out to newcomers and help them become experienced hobbyists. But like any hobby, a newcomer will find it necessary to navigate the sea of experts, old-timers, and hot-shots and find their place within the community.
Fortunately, this community is very welcoming, especially to anyone who shows a genuine interest in yoyoing.
I’ve been here just over a year and still consider myself a newbie. Lately I have not posted much and to be honest, when I come to the forum main page and 80 percent of the posts are BST I frequently just move on. I get tired of having to wade through all of the BST posts to find interesting topics. If I ignore newbies and the questions I am sorry. It is the grumpy old man syndrome taking over and getting frustrated at all of the BST noise. I really wish there was a way to turn off BST and leave the other forums on, or an “everything but BST” option. Then I would be more attentive to the other posts.
At the top of the main forum page is a sort selection
[ Latest ]
[ New ]
[ Unread ]
[ Categories ]
[ Top ]
[ My Posts ]
Choose “Categories” and each forum section is listed separately. Making it look like most forums before discourse came along to change the forum world.
j/K
), but I think that it is important to keep in mind where this forum is going and what’s happening to all the new blood, where all the new players are going, and why that is.
hat tip to 
