It starts with guns and an interest or love of the shooting sports, of course.  

You're either new to black rifles, or an old pro.   You pick up a computer and it comes with an internet trial, or you can access from work, and before you know it you're on the "intarweb."

At some point, you see an link to AR15.COM or one of its mirrors.

For me, it was a link posted on Instapundit, who sent his readers to the forums here to read stories about LEO's profiling AR owners in connection with the DC sniper shootings.

You might browse for a while as an anonymous guest, just lurking and reading.  You come to find that some of the folks are pretty knowledgable about the stuff you care about, and the personalities begin to be apparent.  You find that appreciation of guns, gun rights, shooting and the like tends to foster certain viewpoints and thought processes that you like and enjoy.  You realize that the folks in shooting, especially "EBR's" are like kindered souls.

Sooner or later you want to ask a question, so you sign up for the "freebie" account and post.  You interact with the people here, and before you know it you can count some of them as "friends" -- at least so far as it goes on the internet.  

You begin to visit the site everyday.  You find that your friends here, the ones that drew you into the site in the first place, provide quick links to exactly the news stories you're interested in, and that their commentary on the stories are pretty cool too.   You don't really come to post your stuff, although you do.   Instead, the "draw" to the site is the content posted by the others, especially the folks who are interesting enough to have personalities that shine through even by way of text posts on a message board.  

You eventually feel bad about leaching off of all the content provided by the stellar members and cough up some cash in order to get your "very own" avitar and to access the restricted areas.  You're a little put off by the fact that the restricted area consists largely of a string of BOTD threads, troll pointers, and "just like G.D." stuff, but you're feeling a part of the community.

You look forward to the more interesting members' posts.  Maybe they're talking about things the way you do, or maybe they've got another viewpoint they're expressing in a way you hadn't considered before, but perhaps should have.   Maybe they have certain trademarks, anything from as inane as referring to one's self in the third-person, to inserting a witty parenthetical into a sig line, to posting kick ass gun photos, to shooting stuff and posting the results.

Eventually, some of those folks move on.  

Sometimes they bow out.

Others are forced out.  

The content doesn't seem the same to you anymore.  The threads keep popping up, and you chuckle and wonder:   "Heh, thus and so would have had something to say about that."

Some topics that resulted in very long, extremely enlightening debates when you were here before now get locked because of thread stomping, or changes in moderation that make even clear rhetorical hyperbole into verbotten topics.  You pine for the days when you could have a serious bit of correspondence on a topic without the threat of a lock, etc.   You've had one or more good threads trashed, not only locking them down, but deleted to the trash so you can't even copy and paste the text of some of the better analysis to your hard drive or whatever.

Enough of this and, at some point, you find yourself questioning the signal to noise raitio.  

The place isn't the one you felt compelled to join anymore.  Its got more trolls, infighting, and some of the things that once cemented people together -- i.e., the expiration of the AWB or the election seasons, aren't rising above the dreck so much anymore.  

The content you came for, that you coughed up money to read and contribute to, is not the same anymore.

And, so, you stop posting as well.

That's how it goes.  Some stay, others leave, and new folks join.  

You can learn a lot in any community -- yes, even in a discussion forum --, but an important lesson is when to move on.  

Best regards, everyone.  

On with the show.

Well said.


When come back, bring sgtar15.

Well said, except you missed the part about withdrawal symptoms appearing 3-4 days without Arfcom.

This place has truly changed from what it once was. In time all great things must end..

It is truly sad....

Great post.....but there is one part I need to add.....

For those that came here for firearm specific related information, it still exists, just not in GD.
I fell into the 'life cycle' but I know when its time to bow out of GD for a while and get back to basics. There are a lot of excellent forums here, without the bullshit, posturing, and attention whore trolls. The technical forums here remain second to none.

GD has become a joke.
Team isnt much better.
The pit....well, let just say I never knew how tough the Internet made people.

The site is still a great place for information, and I still learn something new when I post / read in the technical forums. GD is basically a soap opera, and as long as it isnt taken seriously, its fine. When it becomes personal, perhaps its time to admit that the Internet is not real life. (at least it shouldnt be)

So are you leaving too?

wow, that was the most depressing post ever

(I guess I must be in one of the earlier stages still )

Stuff it in the AROCK and post Infidels!

I've burned out on ARFCOM a couple of times, but I still come back.


I was a Gold member quite a while ago, but not currently and I haven't been for a while. I might chip in a little and pick it back up again.

Then you finally see the precise wisdom of the number 87!

Quoted: nice rant, we are a product victim of our own success. with 78000+/- members staff had to make some concessions cop out to make the site freindly to all cater to the lowest common denominator. This pisses off the old timers that remember the good old days. i miss them as well. that said i will happily trade the good old days for the good this site has done the shoting community at large. the only thing that i feel has changed is the "family". It seems to me that a great deal of the "family" is still here, they're just drowned out by the cacophony of squalling trolls. it used to be you could count on 99% of the members to be decent honorable people. Those days are sadly gone. This percentage has gone down due to the 78,000 +/- new members that register just long enough to troll General Discussion and hawk their crap on the Equipment Exchange. I remember traveling around and ALWAYS having a freindly face and offer of places to stay and range time no matter where i went. It still exists but as with any large community we have our share of assholes. Couldn't have said it better myself; in fact, some of those assholes are quite highly-regarded here and some even seem to have their own fan clubs.

I have been a member at several forums over the years and there are (with the exception of the die hards) many similarities to what you've posted...

Found Arfcom: WOW look at everything! Ammo forum! Survival! News in GD! It's all here!

Then you enter the silvered age, when everything is new and good and cool and wow! You soak up a TON of info and ignore the lame stuff. This can last a long time or not, it all depends.

Then you're an old timer and eventually you say "I'm not coming back any more because it's not like it used to be"

Then you go away.

Morals of the story? 1: it's the same way on any site. 2: (the tough part) you probably won't be missed 3: It's not worth getting that upset over. Things change. Roll with it or else you'll find yourself thinking about something someone posted at night. (Have I done this? Yes. Then I realized that "it's just the Internet")

This is the same at every forum that caters to enthusiasts I've ever seen. Home theater, hockey and jersey collecting, you name it. People are passionate about their online lives just as they are their meatspace lives. And this is a great place, too - if I can contribute even a fraction of what the "big guys" (I won't name names but they've been very influential) do (and I'm not talking about jokes), I will feel like I've done a good job.

meh. Worth what you paid, thanks for reading.  

The AR15 Technical Forums are the best in the world.

Quoted: i disagree. the "family" is gone. i now have more reason to distrust a member than to trust them. i have seen damn fine people held in high esteem here turn into complete shitbags on more than one occasion. The trust for me has been killed.

Just because someone joined in August 2005 doesn't automatically make them an idiot. Everyone has to start at one post sometime. And here on the 'net we have only words to judge someone by- those words are what represent us. So it should be pretty easy to weed out the wheat from the chaff. As for people held in high esteem falling from grace- I've seen that too, just recently in fact. Again as bad as it sounds, that could happen anywhere. Even in real life- ever have a friend flake out on you? I have. And I don't talk to them anymore.

i still enjoy the site and beleive in what the avillas have created here.  the problems we have are small in the grand scheme of things. All places on the net have members that come and go. People change, sites change, the wolrd goes on.

Spot on.

For me, like most things in life, ARFCOM is a product of what I put into it.  While I don't troll, I can be a smartass at times, I think most of us are that way.  But I do make honest efforts to contribute where I can.  Personal responsibility is key.  Treat others the way you would like to be treated and things should be fine.

This site is like America.  Anyone can come here and become a citizen.  Because of that, we get the worlds poor, hungry and oppressed.  In that lot you will find many good and decent people.  Doctors, rocket scientists, carpenters and laborers.  Additionally, you will get terrorists and asshats.  Fortunately the former outnumber the latter.  For the latter, we have mods and staff who do a bang up job at keeping the rif raf (no not you raf) to a minimum.  It all has to do with percentages.  If one in ten is a troll, then 10 percent of the membership will likely be trolls.  Multiply that out to 77,000 members and it makes their job much more difficult.

The trolls are everywhere and they'll always come back.  This place is and always was what you make of it.  Nothing more, nothing less.

You can go from being semi-interested in firearms to someone who feels like they belong to a family of people in a short time.  I consider many here as friends, even though I've never looked them in the eye or shook (shaken?) their hand (many others here I have met).  The more personal you make this place the more likely you are to get upset over the petty issues and trolls.  

A lot of good people post here and the people who run it do a great job given the amount of grief they receive by people who believe that they are somehow being treated unfairly.

To those people I say - Reality is an "off button" away.  

You know you're a true arfcommer when you masturbate to one of the "Women" shooters here!  Many of which are LotBoy's troll accounts!

Quoted: You know you're a true arfcommer when you masturbate to one of the "Women" shooters here!  Many of which are LotBoy's troll accounts!

I guess I am not a true ARFCOM'er then.  Guess I never will be, I don't lust after married women or those with the last name of ".jpg"

I found this place when I was shopping for my first AR. Came here... opened my first thread... here and asked a whole lot of questions for about a week or so. Figured out what I wanted, got it, and I think I might hve repeated the process on my follow-up accessory purchases.

Then I dropped off for a while. I think I came back when I was scope shopping a year or more later. While I was going through that process I started reading GD posts, started using the search tool and got frustrated with the time limit on using the search. That's what prompted me to make a "donation".

After that I got hooked on the GD and have been on here consistently since then.

Now, it's all about upping my post count like every long term member.

Quoted: Now, it's all about upping my post count like every long term member.

+1

Quoted: Quoted: Now, it's all about upping my post count like every long term member. +1

+1

Who would do such a thing?

Quoted: You look forward to the more interesting members' posts.  Maybe they're talking about things the way you do, or maybe they've got another viewpoint they're expressing in a way you hadn't considered before, but perhaps should have.   Maybe they have certain trademarks, anything from as inane as referring to one's self in the third-person, to inserting a witty parenthetical into a sig line, to posting kick ass gun photos, to shooting stuff and posting the results.

Looks like that's where I'm at.  Looks like it's all downhill from here.


Vulcan94

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Now, it's all about upping my post count like every long term member. +1 +1 Who would do such a thing?

Not me

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Now, it's all about upping my post count like every long term member. +1 +1 Who would do such a thing? Not me

Me NEITHER!!!  I am too respectable of a guy to participate in such nonsense!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Now, it's all about upping my post count like every long term member. +1 +1 Who would do such a thing? Not me Me NEITHER!!!  I am too respectable of a guy to participate in such nonsense!

not me

The internet has changed a lot. Remember freenets? Heck, the first computer I got online with was a Mac Plus...

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Now, it's all about upping my post count like every long term member. +1 +1 Who would do such a thing? Not me Me NEITHER!!!  I am too respectable of a guy to participate in such nonsense! not me

What is wrong with you people, posting just to raise your counts? That's insane!

anyone have any idea why sgt left and where he is posting at?

no "+1" threads.