Culture of Wireless Advisor vs. Howard

:lol:

And bobolito's response is:

He sings a song about Mini-Me....

"Mini-Me, you complete me!"...j/k :smilebig:

 

What the are threadjacking and postwhoring, sounds serious... are they fatal?

 

:browani: :biggrin:

 

I had a bad experience lately on HoFo that makes me appreciate WA that much more. I rank the forums in decreasing quality: WA, HoFo, Phonescoop, UseNet (the latter admittedly mostly because it's typically riddled with spam). I don't really "know" anyone here since I'm pretty new, but the interactions I've had have been helpful, intelligent, and well-thought-out. But being a member of all of them (and knowing how to search) makes it pretty easy to find information very quickly.

 

While I somewhat agree with the general gist of your message, I think the comparison is "apples and oranges." WA has high S/N ratio - people don't (usually) post responses unless they have something useful to say. HoFo has a high level of information content because of the sheer number of posters but then again has relatively poor S/N ratio because of the number of people there who are immature and act like little kids and the moderators don't do anything to keep things moving along. Phonescoop is very good for official information, phone technical information etc. - I use it more as a reference for wireless news and handset hardware descriptions. Usenet is useful for getting specific information - there are some very knowledgeable people who inhabit the alt.cellular newsgroups but like you mentioned, you need to be able to navigate through the spam, crosspostings and other stuff. This is true of any unmoderated forum.

I regularly read all 4 - horses for courses, I say.

 

Well, you pretty much said what I was thinking, but "better". I think we agree more than your first line implies.

 

Being a bit more realistic, if WA grows to the size of HoFo, I can see how it will be much harder to moderate, hence the lower "S/N Ratio" you see at HoFo today. However, the content quality depends a lot on well the Mods are selected. If you select good mods, then obviously the environment will be better under control.

 

The only mods I ever see do anything are the Sprint ones, bobolito, and Frail (though he hasn't been around as much it seems)

 

Maybe it's time Howards replaces some of their mods who are inactive and/or not doing the job well? I know in the past they have changed mods on some of the forums for those reasons.

 

I began my Cell Phone Forum experienced by larking on the usenet forums(way too cluttered and spammed); then settled on HoFo(Good ppl and info, but I agree it does have the culture of a typical High School). But while I usually don't post a lot on here, I always go through the WA forums once a day. You guys have good info, and we can be mature and educated in how we articulate questions.(Yeah you're never gonna see language like that from me on HOFO since most of the ppl there don't know what "articulate" means;-)) But the one thing about WA I respect a ton? Larry is accessiable, while Howard is like the big CEO that's un-accessible, either by PM or e-mail. Granted Howard is getting his new wireless magazine Mobilelaunch off the ground(www.mobilelaunch.com to subscribe and find out more), but still is it so much for Howard to say hi and be a part of the community like Larry is over here?

 

I visit Hofo to say hi to some of the members there but not so much to post anything overthere, there's always someone trying to start a flame war that it feels like you just walked into an oven, here at WA i feel more at home, it's like a family atmosphere here seeing the regulars frequently logged on as well as the newbies becoming regulars, and when one is not around is nice to find PM's from friends asking if things are ok, that's a good sign and it makes one want to stay here at home more often....