Why do you think so few 'Pros' frequent the forums?

You are most welcome Mike, thanks for the thanks. I’m really impressed by the responses we’ve had, people have bought up some fantastic reasons that really never even occurred to me. There is definitely a lot to think about…

I have especially taken these points on board:

Because whilst there are plenty of fine points that people brought up that we unfortunately can’t do anything about, the above is something that we can work on as a forum. These points made me realise that really, there are things we can do to enhance the forum experience for all of us, not just with a view to attracting more professionals.

These has hit home with me as something I need to personally work on. I hardly ever post forum topics, I just post on ones that already exist. I think I’ve posted like 5 topics since I joined. :stuck_out_tongue:

So, I’m going to make it a goal to try and get some more in-depth discussion going. If others were able to try and do the same, then great! If we all band together then we may be able to take this forum above and beyond what is currently is.

Unfortunately, I did, and it was a disappointing read. Really, that was an oversight on the part of the OP who didn’t really understand exactly what he was starting. I tend to avoid posting in threads like that since any post, regardless of the content, just pushes it further up the page and adds another log to the fire. When I met Ann was nothing but friendly and civil, so that’s good enough for me.

Still, whilst I can fully understand that Ann personally might not feel particularly welcome here, our female members as a whole are well received. We have a small dedicated group of women on here (TA, Usagi, Abby), and for the most part I’ve seen them treated with respect. I can’t recall a time when someone has personally attacked any of them for being female… although they may be able to recall a time that I’m not aware of.

I genuinely don’t know how you do it. I frequent the CLYW Ask.fm page just to get the inside scoop on anything new, and the idea of answering questions like that all day long seems enough to drive a man to madness. Especially considering that when you give a straight-to-the-point answer to a question that’s already been answered about 5 times that day, people accuse you of being rude. :stuck_out_tongue:

A very fine point, and one that perhaps a person cannot fully understand until it happens to them. It really is the vast minority who are causing any issues, but I guess one personal attack can be enough to hurt someone.

Sometimes I feel like behaviour like this could be challenged better. A while back I posted a rather out-of-line post against a particular forum member, and he PM’ed me calling me out on it. I have to admit, I didn’t fully understand how rude I had been or how wrong I had gotten my facts until I was confronted on it. I apologised to him publicly and personally and I’ve been more careful to avoid jumping to conclusions since.

Now I’m not necessarily saying that every time we see someone post a sarky post at us we bombard them with PM’s saying “COME AT ME BRROOOO”, but I definitely question as to whether someone should be allowed to post numerous rude and sarcastic posts at will without any repercussions whatsoever.


Thank you for all the amazing responses one and all. :slight_smile:

Now, my follow-up question to this is simple:

What can we do better? What practical steps can we take to improve the forum experience here?

I was talking to another board member about that very thread, long before it took the ugliest turn. I decided that I wouldn’t comment until it “went there.” I knew it would though. By the time it did, I had something new to add, and I believed that without it, the thread wouldn’t have the balance it needed.

I agree with this, to a degree. Being attacked for being female has happened, but by the time that becomes a part of the discussion, it’s just a sign that their argument went into the toilet and they’re about to tap out. :wink: I was never attacked by anyone I ever respected, so I have never truly been let down. Those kind of people earn their proper place with me. If I get attacked though, I attack back.

As far as what we can do to make things better, I’m not so sure there is a lot we can do. Unless there is going to be increased moderation, that people don’t want, it’s just the nature of the internet. I believe that, because a lot of the pro players know that, they steer clear. I do report what I see if it looks too crazy.

People just need to consider what the purpose and intent of their post is or will be before posting, as well as if the post will be perceived accurately. If people care enough to make a positive change they will do it one post at a time.

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Moderate a new users’ first 5 posts so they don’t appear immediately. It blocks all spam, and allows the moderators to help users out of the public eye while keeping the forum from being clogged with the same questions over and over. I know this is a hard job for moderators and I don’t envy them one bit :wink:

Only 2 people are saying here bad an all of the others are defending her sa that’s a good thing I think?

It only takes one bad apple.

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They are because of their fans not fans are because of them.

Its a sport people are in to it that’s why there are contest and that’s why they are so it should be their job to be active between fans.

Now all the players are mature people so they can see that is a immature kid ranting about us and this is a mature person talking about us.

Its not that if they join forums they need response for all posts but there are some good posts too here.

Like here are 10 to 12 professionals who put their point on things.

They can talk about trick concepts elements talking about their designs their mindsets.

Its not that there’s a looking for help recommendations post they don’t have to post on that they can talk about things they like.

But it’s their choice.

But companies can say to players to be active here.

Now Yoyofactory YoYoJam clyw and few companies representatives are here.

Now you thinking of buying a high end Japan metal but there are no representatives here.

And there there are new made Companies here they are here active between community.

So my choice will be to buy from a Company that’s active between the COMMUNITY.

Refer to my new post.

Player’s are mature.

Remember that YYE is a retailer, though. Many players are loyal not only to their sponsors, but to particular retailers. JD Steel, Vilmos Kiss, Shinya Kido… these are people who are not necessarily against traffic here (they’re probably all very friendly with one another!) but shouldn’t be expected to go out of their way to drive traffic here.

Those are some exclusions but many players are not.

I think this theory is totally wrong if applied here.
Its like seeing half glass full half empty.

I mean all people are writing novel long posts to defend a player they love like when they know that the specific player is not even going to read it.

The front 2 pages of the general forum are typically filled with the same terrible threads, written by a different author who doesn’t know how to use the search feature. When I say terrible, I mean one of the following:

  • any stupid obviously subjective question regarding gear (string, bearing, pads, whatever)
  • any stupid obviously subjective question about colorways
  • any stupid obviously subjective question about the best yoyo
  • customer service related questions that should never be posted on the forum
  • barely legible blog post by a child
  • BLAH BLAH YETI BLAH BLAH BLAH
  • CLYW IS DA BEST HERPADERPA BLAH BLAH
  • YYF IS BAD MADE IN CHINA IS BAD
  • DID SOMEONE SAY YETI?

There are also some non-terrible threads that can be interesting to read or fun to participate in, but none of them do anything to make you better at yoyoing and are just a time sink.

The YYE forum is largely designed to give people who are likely to buy from YYE a place to congregate and chat. Top tier “professional” yoyo players probably have 1-2 yoyo models that they regularly throw in preparation for competitions that they got from their sponsor, they probably don’t care what color the yoyo is, they are probably using whatever the stock response is, the stock bearing and the same type string that they probably already own 100s of that they have probably used for years. If I was in that boat, I would probably rarely/never come on YYE either unless I had some sort of agenda like promoting my sponsor or signature yoyo.

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I just like to think that everyone forgot their passwords.

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its a conspiracy… a wave of mass amnesia forced hundreds of professionals to forget their passwords to yoyoexpert… this action left hundreds of helpless forum members without a mentor thus dooming the community to a slow death…

and that my friends is my brain on caffeine… COFFEEE!!!

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I agree that pros don’t want to come here for small talk about yoyos and meaningless conversations about equipment and opinions.

I know I post a great deal of fluffy crap in these forums that is small talk, but I have reason to.

I am simply the only person my age that lives within a thousand kilometers of me that yoyos. It’s all I’ve got. I also subject the other players on my team to a lot of discussion about yoyos and I think they put up with me well. :slight_smile:

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And as has been said before, contrary to the opinions of many forum dwellers, forums are not the center of the universe for a vast number of people.

I posted daily from 05-2010 on both YYN and another forum(wont mention since it is another stores forum).

I come here every now and then pretty much just to feel the nostalgia of going to a yoyo forum haha, here are some of the reasons I don’t use the forum as much anymore.

  1. I’ve made so many friends in yoyoing through the years that I’d rather just talk to them through facebook or skype instead of going to the forum.

  2. Most people on the forums are mostly interested in yoyos, not yoyo tricks.

  3. Back in the day I would watch every single video posted on the forums. Now I just go through #trickcircle on instagram and see stuff shared on facebook.

  4. Messagebox full of “when is Yeti coming out?”,“can I buy a puffin from you” and other fan mail can get a bit overwhelming.

  5. I have a full-time job running a pizza restaurant working 200+hours a month and spend most of my free time yoyoing, watching a little anime and meeting friends. So yeah I don’t have as much times for forums.

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sorry to hijack again… but palli has a pizza place?.. if this is true i must go. he is one of the few people i like on the clyw team.

anyway my now that i think of it the fanmail could get a little intense… the clyw fanboys sometimes are much more then a roving pack of yoniverous animals waiting for the next yeti release, which seems to never happen. the yyf fanclub isn’t much better, but at least their favorite yoyos usually make constant releases.

@alecto I’m not the owner but I am a store manager of one of the biggest Dominos in the world. Icelandic people actually eat the most pizza per capita in the world…

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do you make deliveries to new York state…