Is it just me...
- Thread starter Kmpkt
- Start date
OC.net is a bit frustrating. Huge amounts of subforums and it seems like people will just randomly get bored and go post in one which they don't really know much about or have an interest in, just to have something to do. It's too much BS to get to what you want. It's the same reason I don't want to deal with Reddit.
Relevant as always:
The OCN SFF-section seemed a bit slow to me even before SFF Forum started though, I think in part for the reasons @IntoxicatedPuma mentioned.
The OCN SFF-section seemed a bit slow to me even before SFF Forum started though, I think in part for the reasons @IntoxicatedPuma mentioned.
I don't mind OC.net, it's very useful, but it's kind of a info overload. So many threads in so many categories, it's hard to tell what should go in what.
[H] feels like a project case support forum these days, where there is little discussion about other relevant technologies. But this is also due to the SFF subforum being tacked-on, most people not getting SFF at all, very strict project "marketing" rules and some subforums are so filled with trolls, you'd mistake it for Mordor.
Very accurate. Especially in threads about the M1 and A4-SFX, people are just making an account to ask one question they could've found the answer to by searching. Though the rules are more relaxed than on OCN, where they're actually making a fair chunk of money from sponsored builds and artisan sales. It's interesting how different the two forums let indie cases look. On [H], every man and their dog tries to strike gold with something they just threw together with SketchUp without any idea of how to build it, while on OCN it's always a Build Log first and only when someone asks if you're planning to sell you admit to that, just to make sure that the admins won't nuke your thread for advertising.
Additionally, it feels like [H] has an extremely high lurking rate. My poll about the FSP500 now has 54 answers. 1/3rd of those is from [H], 1/3rd from SFN and about 1/5th from OCN. The thread on [H] has the least amount of replies by a large margin, even less than the OCN thread.
On OCN, there are also many separate forums for build logs: "Intel Build Logs", "AMD Build Logs", "Case Mod Work Logs" (which doesn't mean that half of the builds there contain any modding), and of course all the specialty build forums "Servers", "HTPC", "Small Form Factor Systems" and "Silent computing".
Yeah. OCN has way to many sections it can get confusing, though some of those sections are busy enough to warrant separation.
I mainly bailed because of the community, though. It's gotten way too toxic, and any time anything new comes out you always get arguments over why team red/blue/green is better and why you're an idiot for supporting the other team, and even with the large community, people asking questions or seeking advice seem to get passed over in some sections. The SFF section especially has the problem where most of the posting happens in either the case clubs or the few MASSIVE threadnoughts
I mainly bailed because of the community, though. It's gotten way too toxic, and any time anything new comes out you always get arguments over why team red/blue/green is better and why you're an idiot for supporting the other team, and even with the large community, people asking questions or seeking advice seem to get passed over in some sections. The SFF section especially has the problem where most of the posting happens in either the case clubs or the few MASSIVE threadnoughts
I wonder if a forum that grows massive, and tries to be everything to all people in a field, dooms its own community in the long run.
SFF has enough critical mass to sustain a wholly independent, dedicated forum for it (just look at us
). I'd imagine the same must be true of case modders, or gamers, or project creators, or a variety of other groups... If such is the case, perhaps all of those folks would be better served by smaller forums/communities that only focus on niches, rather than one forum that tries to unify everything?
Sub-cultures just don't seem possible on big forums. That's the one thing I think Reddit gets right - each subreddit is structured the same but can feel radically different, and have a very distinct 'feel' in terms of community. With something like HF or OCN, though, it's all the same.
SFF has enough critical mass to sustain a wholly independent, dedicated forum for it (just look at us
). I'd imagine the same must be true of case modders, or gamers, or project creators, or a variety of other groups... If such is the case, perhaps all of those folks would be better served by smaller forums/communities that only focus on niches, rather than one forum that tries to unify everything?Sub-cultures just don't seem possible on big forums. That's the one thing I think Reddit gets right - each subreddit is structured the same but can feel radically different, and have a very distinct 'feel' in terms of community. With something like HF or OCN, though, it's all the same.
The problem might be that most of those groups are extremely large to begin with, so you'd have to go even lower down. Like, JRPG enthusiasts, racing gamers. That's the sort of level I believe we're in. We're not just case-modders/PC-enthusiasts, we're SFF PC enthusiasts. I'd even go as far as to say that most of those forums already exist, we just don't know about them because they are so focused on their niche. I had no idea deskthority and geekhack were a thing until I've gotten into mechanical keyboards myself and now I know those are pretty huge communities. A lot of people will feel the same when they discover SFN.
Not only that, they also allow you to create a new subreddit if you feel it's needed. That way the community decides how far they want to split/specialise themselves, which is similar to how a part of the community (i.e. you, you sexy bastards
) created this forum anew because they felt the niche was underrepresented.
OCN introduced me to the crazy world of PC case modding (when the modding contests were still a regular thing), so I came for the sweet looking mods and builds, and eventually stayed for the watercooling and SFF builds. I became a more frequent visitor in the SFF forum and while OCN is vast and fragmented of a community, and probably not even the best concentrated effort of case modding (bit-tech probably does that better) they do indeed have a ton of different areas of expertise in different areas. Despite that I was able to focus only on a few sub-forums. Yeah I stay far from the toxicity that is the new GPU launch threads.
Projects like Compact Splash and the Prodigy owners thread got me started looking into SFF PCs, so at least it was a nice gateway into that community. Then I became a regular visitor to their SFF sub-forum but eventually found something lacking there too.
My main gripe with it. Not enough variety. I wanted to see more unique build logs in that section, but most of it has been question threads or "xxxxxxx case owners club" threads. It's really too niche for OCN.
[H] has a good presence of SFF support I think, a lot of crowdsourcing/marketing going there for unique cases, but still it can feel slow at times. But these forums right here appear to be what I've been looking for and I think there is still a lot of people who don't know about them that can help spread awareness to. I see the DIY-er spirit being strong here, especially when you consider the custom case section is more active than the regular build logs section.
A side note, I find it interesting that SFF forums has taken top spot on google for search over the other kind of SFF community, Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
Projects like Compact Splash and the Prodigy owners thread got me started looking into SFF PCs, so at least it was a nice gateway into that community. Then I became a regular visitor to their SFF sub-forum but eventually found something lacking there too.
My main gripe with it. Not enough variety. I wanted to see more unique build logs in that section, but most of it has been question threads or "xxxxxxx case owners club" threads. It's really too niche for OCN.
[H] has a good presence of SFF support I think, a lot of crowdsourcing/marketing going there for unique cases, but still it can feel slow at times. But these forums right here appear to be what I've been looking for and I think there is still a lot of people who don't know about them that can help spread awareness to. I see the DIY-er spirit being strong here, especially when you consider the custom case section is more active than the regular build logs section.
A side note, I find it interesting that SFF forums has taken top spot on google for search over the other kind of SFF community, Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
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In the mid term future I plan on bringing mod of the month/year style contests to SFFn, as I am still a modder at heart. Don't tell PlayfulPhoenix or Aibophobia!
All I'm going to say (because I don't really belong in this thread) was that 90% of the reason I joined this forum in particular (instead of the others) was because this one was smaller and more concentrated to what I was looking for.
The other 10% was a "fuck-it" decision.
I had no idea there was a forum for "keyboard enthusiasts"...
Until thirty seconds ago I didn't know there was such thing as a keyboard enthusiast.
The other 10% was a "fuck-it" decision.
I had no idea there was a forum for "keyboard enthusiasts"...
Until thirty seconds ago I didn't know there was such thing as a keyboard enthusiast.
Oh, you're in for a shock then
I have one customer at work who owns 10-20 mechanical keyboards of various switch types, form factors, and vintage.
Yeah, not only is there a keyboard enthusiast forum, there's three major English ones with varying degrees of internecine drama. (aforementioned Deskthority & Geekhack as well as r/mechanicalkeyboards). I believe there's some fairly sizable Korean & Chinese ones as well.
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