Vaya con Dios Amigos

[fisheater]

I received a PM yesterday, which I opened today, telling me my friends were gone from the forum. I attempted to send a PM to a friend from the site, whom I believed could be in that category and he is no longer a member. I have not checked beyond that, but I believe those members with deactivated after their name may be actually deactivated.
I will miss them. One of those guys and I talked about meeting to ski. I just didn’t make it to his home turf.
I will not question the owner of the house of where I am a guest. The owner solely determines what is best for his house.
If you are going to miss these guys, please go ahead and post here and let them know.
If you are happy they are gone, please be a gentleman and let those of us that wish them well to do so.
Peace guys

[CwmRaider]

I miss how this forum was last year until Grim Surfer started relieving himself in the communal porridge pot with self-percieved illuminated knowledge about physics, starting today's trend. And yes I do think that the "deactivated" means that they cannot post.
I hope this forum will recover some attractiveness when the snow falls and people start skiing again. I got a lot of useful information here, upon which I built my own experiences which I like to share, yet I hope that I never excessively force my opinion on others.
Hope the fish catching is good this year Bob. I don't have time for much fishing but got a few good meals of own caught lake trout, cod and pollock.
Peace

[telerat]

I just stopped visiting this forum frequently as the signal to noise ratio is too low. It is sad to see good people leave, but it is fully understandable.

[JackO]

The signal to noise comment seems very apt.

I’m not a frequent contributor here; I find more use out of the other forum. Regardless, the level of discourse here has clearly fallen. And the moderator's reaction to that is very interesting. It is nothing short of a purge of dissenting voices. Which I think is a shame. It appears like Johnny is gone - his profile doesn't exist anymore. Maybe Johnny and Manny are one in the same. But it doesn’t really matter. I think the issue - while not being that large universally - is bigger than that.

To be honest, I don’t particularly like forums. Like we've seen here it can bring the worst out of people. By its nature it is a weak discussion; it is essentially people talking anonymously and doing very little listening. I have even seen that in myself occasionally. Toxicity is always close at hand. But I like writing, and I love telemark skiing. So here I am.

But back to the larger issue: we often don't have other options of communication in telemark. You can’t typically go into a ski shop and get great information. There’s little info transmission on tele on the internet besides a very small amount of marketing, and some interesting but often contentless social media. Mostly, you can’t always talk face-to-face with someone about free-heel skiing. Thus we find ourselves here.

The information conduit in telemark doesn’t work very well. For some reason the latest in gear and culture doesn't flow through the community strongly. The biggest hurdle here might simply be how small and esoteric free-heel, downhill skiing is. Which is certainly part of its allure. But finding information on our sport - tapping into the knowledge transmission - is nonetheless difficult. And without it movement forward stagnates. My misgivings about forums in general aside, they are necessary in our sport. I first came to here as an eager but ignorant telemark skier. Over time I came to discover the modern vanguard in free-heel skiing. And I only happened upon that pulse because of these forums and those who contribute to them. I'm sure I am not alone.

So these places have an outsized importance to our turn, and the diminishment of these sites hurts the communication in telemark at large. As these places dwindle, the future of telemark becomes a little more fraught. If we want the sport to grow, if you want the sport to thrive, I think these places need to operate in a stronger fashion. Or we need to work towards alternatives. Because what's happened here shows this particular site is most likely destined to being either a dissonant, cacophonous wilderness or a one-party echo chamber - both fates of irrelevance.

Perhaps that queues the deactivation of my account as well, which would frankly be for the best. Vaya con dios indeed.

[Musk Ox]

Oh shit, who left?

[spopepro]

Those are some good words JackO. Thanks.

The major trouble with web2.0 is that you're dependent on a benevolent dictator. Whether it's a forum, insta, facebook, reddit, X nee twitter, discord, or whatever the kids move to next it seems the rug pull is always looming. In this forum's case it has always been first and foremost for the entertainment of Johnny. At times that was *great* as he was excited about new gear, new ways (and very old ways) of skiing, and all kinds of interesting stuff that blurred the lines of how the industry at large categorized the experiences they wanted to sell. His ski reviews and candor, while sometimes a bit... extra... really made this place what it was (for better for many including me, worse for others who dismissed it as an XC forum). But it appears that maybe he has now tired of it, or maybe the entertainment took on other forms. And it does feel like an outsized loss (potentially... we shall see where this road goes in time.)

[phoenix]

As I said in the other "I'm Done" thread, I find it sad if long standing regulars bail and we're left to watch one antagonist pervade the forum. I haven't come across any "deactivated" names yet, though it does appear lowangle al has left, whether by choice or by Johnny's flip out.
The site is in a decline as far as quality goes, already; if the trend continues it will be largely a stage for ill intentioned agitated egos to play in. Which seems to be the intention of the primary offender (not debatable, the offenses are quite clearly intentional).Won't really have a lot to do with the skiing experience.

[Montana St Alum]

I'm not happy that anyone feels compelled to leave, but I'm not surprised. It took an abrupt downturn, that's for sure.

[Stephen]

What’s going on back there?
.

[mca80]

One, remember that it's still summer in the northern hemisphere. Two, Johnny's username no longer exists so he probably isn't getting any of this. Three, given all this, if useful forum interaction is to persist, I am reminded of @fisheater saying, when lots of bickering was occurring, albeit paraphrasing, that people need to self-moderate. As others have pointed out, an ignore function exists, but one can also simply choose to not respond to shit that one finds useless or antagonostic or trolling or whatnot. Not ideal, but maybe signal-noise ratio corrects itself once skiing is back in our routine activities.