Topic: Did everyone die?

[blackdiamond]

The off road forums are being replaced by Facebook groups. I’m a member of a 4Runner group that mostly a bunch of 5th Gen owners with the Classic Jeep elitist attitude. The other is just an off road group for everyone. Both seem to have a lot of active members that regularly get together. I just lurk...

[Gnarly4X]

I dont think paying for site access is going to help the lack of use issue.

My point about paid membership is not to promote use, actually it may dissuade use.  Without a site to visit - use is irrelevant.

Privacy is an issue for me.  FB, Twitter, Google, Microsoft have all got their greedy hooks into us.  We are being manipulated and monitored.  I don't know how well Big Mike and Marlin keep our membership information private, but some posts here can be found with a 10 second search on Google.

I have a FB and Twitter account but I don't post on them.

I don't know what the company does for advertising, but I assume this forum here is a form of marketing and advertising for Marlin Crawler's business - like "work of mouth".  The more activity on the form theoretically generates more business.

The forum has another benefit for the business.... it has a "customer support" function.  Customer Support by most sales-driven companies can be a significant cost... technology, personnel, and time.  The forum, by it's nature to share information, lots and lots of "technical support" and questions about Marlin's products can be found right here.... usually in great detail.

Right now, according to Users Online, there are 4 Users online and 456 Guests.  So just because "members" are not visiting the site, 100 times more guests are!!

Gnarls.

[Cheesemaker]

The local forum (Nwwheelers) used to be awesome. Lots of builds, wheeling reports, info about local trail conditions, great place to buy/sell, etc. Over time lack of posts got to the point the owner decided it wasnt worth the time/cost to maintain a board only few people where posting on. He sold the sight and whithin a few weeks the new owner was talking about shutting the place down. The site is still up but it is a ghost town, one or two posts a week.

I used to go there, but I got tired of the buddy system.  I felt like an outsider, and was snubbed because of it.   

But the greatest Topic ever posted was on there.  The "Great Debate" on placement of the disposable Toilet Seat Cover on the Toilet seat!! 

[LittleSteve]

I think the forums will come back. I've come back
Got so tired of the vacuous inane questions that keep getting asked because people are too lazy to do research and read documentation.

I see "clubs" on Farcebook. They are not really clubs, if they were really clubs they would have organised meet ups, trips, events, competitions etc.
This usually requires someone to organise things such as insurance, licences, land use fees etc which in turn requires fees to be paid and subsequently entails a membership fee and then when events go ahead a signing on fee/entry fee.
Clubs usually have a committee:- Chairman, Secretary, Child Protection Officer, Competition Officer and so on and so forth.

I have held several positions within club committees with several responsibilities.

Because you have a group with 6 Likes from people you neither know nor have met does not make it a club.

Conversely I know actual clubs with low attendance numbers because they wont run a website and the only advertising they do is on Facebook and as we know if you don't pay FB wont show anything to anyone.

[toyodaaddict]

I used to go there, but I got tired of the buddy system.  I felt like an outsider, and was snubbed because of it.   

But the greatest Topic ever posted was on there.  The "Great Debate" on placement of the disposable Toilet Seat Cover on the Toilet seat!! 

I know what you mean, so many of the guys there new each other outside the forum, sometimes I felt like I was butting into a private conversation. I still really liked the place though.

[toyodaaddict]

I think the forums will come back. I've come back
Got so tired of the vacuous inane questions that keep getting asked because people are too lazy to do research and read documentation.

I see "clubs" on Farcebook. They are not really clubs, if they were really clubs they would have organised meet ups, trips, events, competitions etc.
This usually requires someone to organise things such as insurance, licences, land use fees etc which in turn requires fees to be paid and subsequently entails a membership fee and then when events go ahead a signing on fee/entry fee.
Clubs usually have a committee:- Chairman, Secretary, Child Protection Officer, Competition Officer and so on and so forth.

I have held several positions within club committees with several responsibilities.

Because you have a group with 6 Likes from people you neither know nor have met does not make it a club.

Conversely I know actual clubs with low attendance numbers because they wont run a website and the only advertising they do is on Facebook and as we know if you don't pay FB wont show anything to anyone.

Does facebook have documented tech and build threads like we have here? I thought facebook pages where kinda like the shout box, just a scrolling page of posts that get buried in the depths as you make new posts?
Oh, and good to have you back 

[toyodaaddict]

My point about paid membership is not to promote use, actually it may dissuade use.  Without a site to visit - use is irrelevant.

Privacy is an issue for me.  FB, Twitter, Google, Microsoft have all got their greedy hooks into us.  We are being manipulated and monitored.  I don't know how well Big Mike and Marlin keep our membership information private, but some posts here can be found with a 10 second search on Google.

I have a FB and Twitter account but I don't post on them.

I don't know what the company does for advertising, but I assume this forum here is a form of marketing and advertising for Marlin Crawler's business - like "work of mouth".  The more activity on the form theoretically generates more business.

The forum has another benefit for the business.... it has a "customer support" function.  Customer Support by most sales-driven companies can be a significant cost... technology, personnel, and time.  The forum, by it's nature to share information, lots and lots of "technical support" and questions about Marlin's products can be found right here.... usually in great detail.

Right now, according to Users Online, there are 4 Users online and 456 Guests.  So just because "members" are not visiting the site, 100 times more guests are!!

Gnarls.

My wallet is definitely lighter because of this forum and my truck is better for it. I have two fat folders of marlin crawler receipts that I try not to look at    .

 Heck, I might still be running stock steering and those s#!t pro comp springs if it wasnt for the forums. My Dad taught me basic auto maintenance but everything past that is self taught, mostly from reading the forums. I remember getting my first car (83 Toyota carolla) and trying to memorize names of parts, like the distributor    .

If the forum died and the only way to access it was to pay a fee I'd do it, just to use the old tech, kinda like a shop manual. I'd be surprised if to many others would be interested in that though. Hopefully build threads, new tech and regular users will make a comeback. People will have to go somewhere for tech when facebook bans everyone, they ban gas engines, and we're all forced to swap electric motors into our old tin cans  . Hopefully someone's getting on that by the way. They can call it the 22MCRE-lectric 

[LittleSteve]

Ive been reading through a really old thread (comparatively) (2010)
The guys were really close knit and were using the forum as a messaging service, organising wheeling trips for the coming weekend, organising going round to help each other out and having the banter of a good group of friends.
Something we should really, if we wish the forum to survive, be striving to do again.

Edit: interesting to see how some things have changed, some things have not.
Longfield... Swallowed by The Dark Lord.
Inchworm...Swallowed by Low Range..
Downey....Man down.
etc...

[H8PVMNT]

 I think everyone get's their dopamine fix from twitter, facebook, tiktok, instagram, big brother, the chinese communist party and all that other h0mo stuff now.  Put down your all day suckers and contribute here!  I should talk, I do almost nothing here now.  I got really busy at work.

Let's try to post some cool thing Toyota or wheeling related once a month and try to help somebody with a part every so often.

[46&2]

Forum activity has really slowed across the board. Pretty much any forum I've been a member of for the last 1-2 decades is dwindling to minimal activity.

I've been on FB for a while. I don't really like it, I will always prefer the BB forum style environment. FB groups and FB in general leave a lot to be desired.

Anyway, I've been returning to forums as I get fed up with the popular media types. But the majority are mostly dead.

I have lots of Marlin and PBB friends on FB. If you want to find me just send me a message here (for anyone I accidently left behind 

[Lewis Hein]

I think everyone get's their dopamine fix from twitter, facebook, tiktok, instagram, big brother, the chinese communist party and all that other h0mo stuff now.  Put down your all day suckers and contribute here!  I should talk, I do almost nothing here now.  I got really busy at work.

Let's try to post some cool thing Toyota or wheeling related once a month and try to help somebody with a part every so often.

I get my dopamine fix from working six days a week and swapping engines in the dead of winter to save money . Not much time left for hanging out on forums.

[H8PVMNT]

I get my dopamine fix from working six days a week and swapping engines in the dead of winter to save money . Not much time left for hanging out on forums.

This is why we get along.

[blackdiamond]

This is why we get along.

But can you agree on what an appropriate temperature is in the dead of winter. Something like the mid 60s, right?

[Lewis Hein]

But can you agree on what an appropriate temperature is in the dead of winter. Something like the mid 60s, right?

As long as it's in the mid-60s below zero

[Cheesemaker]

Yeah, its been too busy for me, and too cold to work on my truck.  We are just starting to get better weather, and slowing down in the work area.  Been working 2 jobs for quite some time, and the second job is slowing down.  Goodie for me.  I'll finally get to the wrenching. 

[idishert]

Most are into Facebook Groups.

[blackdiamond]

Gnarls, the sound from a good vintage system and vinyl is huge, vs the new digital systems.  The older amps/receivers sound much different than the new electronics.  I have my uncles Sansui AU11000 amp, and the matching TU9900 tuner, and it sounds so much warmer and not so tinny. 

And then the CD vs Vinyl is a huge difference.  Vinyl was the last form of music that the sound was produced with physical recordings.  Everything now is magnetic, or digital.  And the sound replication isn't equal.  Like listening to an artist live, vs a recording.  It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. 

If I were you, I would get your old system looked at by a professional, and get it running. 

I don't know if any of you are familiar with PS Audio or their recording label Octave Records or not.  PS Audio is a high end audio company and Octave Records is uses DSD for their recording and mastering.  The most recent albums that I've gotten from them came with an SACD and a second disk to download high resolution files from.  They also recently released vinyl for two of their recent albums.  One of the owners (and founder) has a daily "Ask Paul" video where he answers audio related questions and I recently saw one where he essentially said if you make a digital recording from vinyl (there are turntables with USB outputs) the digital recording will sound "the same".  He attributes the difference in sound between digital and vinyl to be more about the mastering and the constraints of each medium.  As an example, vinyl has a dynamic range of about 60-70 dB while CDs are about 100 dB and SACDs are even higher.  If you master a recording for SACD it couldn't go directly onto vinyl without compressing it in some way.  One way is to simply bring the top and bottom closer together (bad in his opinion) and another is to only bring up the bottom (good in his opinion).  The result is that the low level music becomes more prominent in the recording and since this includes harmonics it can make the music sound more warm.

I emailed PS Audio yesterday and suggested that since they have mastered specifically for SACD (and standard CD) and also for vinyl they should make a digital copy of the vinyl master available.  It would allow people to make a comparison between digital and vinyl using the same master.  It would also allow people to compare digital mastered for digital sounds like compared to digital mastered for vinyl.  They responded favorably, so it'll be interesting to see if they make one available at some point.

I recently rolled some Mullard tubes into my amplifier and it made a world of difference.  I didn't realize how big of a difference rolling tubes could make as the improvement wasn't unlike getting a completely new amplifier.  The result was a much more detailed sound while also being much less harsh/smooth which normally are two attributes that are mutually exclusive.  I guess the downside is that tubes don't last forever and I may not be able to duplicate the sounds when the times comes since these tubes are from 1956.  The thought of tube rolling with a full tube amplifier where there are a lot more tubes and the expected life of the power tubes is less is daunting, but I'm sure the resulting sound could be astounding resulting in similar joy as owning a set of "true" 37 inch tires LOL...

[sirdeuce]

Oh yeah, PS Audio has some good equipment. Wish I could afford some of their equipment. Enjoy Pauls YouTube bits for sure.

[blackdiamond]

Oh yeah, PS Audio has some good equipment. Wish I could afford some of their equipment. Enjoy Pauls YouTube bits for sure.

I'd love to visit PS Audio and Music Room 1 at some point.  The Stellar Gain Cell DAC was the piece of gear that most interested me as it could be both a DAC and preamplifier, but when I discovered it is a "chip DAC" with a Class D amplifier it became less appealing.  I do appreciate the quality of the Octave Records albums that I have.

I think my favorite Ask Paul is one where he admits that he's never really heard a difference with interconnects.  This is entertaining to me because the PS Audio website has some "Paul's Picks" that are package deals with amplifiers and interconnects and the cost of the interconnects goes up with the amplifier cost.  I do understand that it's just marketing, but had to laugh...

[sirdeuce]

I just want to hear the IRS Vs! Absolutely fantastic speakers! I had a set of IRS speakers, lost them trying to save my house after  the '08 crash. Mac C28, MC 2300, and those IRS speakers, Never a dull day! Today, Hafler 110 pre and 220 amp driving CV AT15s. Like going from drinkin Dom to drinking Coors.

[blackdiamond]

I just want to hear the IRS Vs! Absolutely fantastic speakers! I had a set of IRS speakers, lost them trying to save my house after  the '08 crash. Mac C28, MC 2300, and those IRS speakers, Never a dull day! Today, Hafler 110 pre and 220 amp driving CV AT15s. Like going from drinkin Dom to drinking Coors.

That’s really unfortunate to have to give up that level of gear for sure.  The IRS V speakers look to be a once-in-lifetime opportunity to own.

[sirdeuce]

IRS Vs are a once in a lifetime experience!

[blackdiamond]

IRS Vs are a once in a lifetime experience!

How did you get your hands on them in the first place?

[sirdeuce]

The set I had was one of the first sets available, picked them up used and in need of some repair. They're gone, but I'd like to find a set of the 4.5 version. Until I fix the CS3007s I have in the other room I'm stuck with the Vegas.

[Gnarly4X]

May those IRS V speakers rest in peace. 

R.I.P
IRS V Speakers

Gnarls.

[sirdeuce]

May those IRS V speakers rest in peace. 

R.I.P
IRS V Speakers

Gnarls.

IRS Vs were a very limited run and most are still in service. No R.I.P., resurrect, refubish, restore! Gotta keep the fantastic engineering feats alive! Like a million mile capable vehicle that we have all come to know and love.