I have been watching the numbers of people looking at SF compared to those looking at AAAC. As I write this post the numbers are more than 2 to 1 in favor of SF. While I have my suspicions about the reasons, I would in interested in hearing your thoughts.
And, what is FNB--chopped liver?
l was only thinking the same thing last night. Some possible reasons:
S.F = better porn, more discussion of shoos, more honest and likable mods, better general section, better sales sections, more varied topics. lt's better overall and more fun.
AAAC = lost it's way abit, too many nerds that get offended too easily, questionable people in power, too serious.
Last edited by The_Shooman (2008-03-04 21:12:16)
I'm sure if J were to read this, he'd be honored to own and operate the lesser of two evils.
Another more, neutral factor is that SF has many more subsidiary fora that have far more and diverse participation than the AAAC fora. My impression is that other than the main Fashion Forum, the Trad Forum and the "Springerchange," the other AAAC fora are pretty moribund most of the time.
I am coming up on five months of self-imposed exile from AAAC. I must say I miss it less and less. Rare is the thread I find informative or of interest, rarer yet the thread I would wish to weigh in on.
I will have to hand it to ol' Cruiser. He has done a remarkable job of lowering the tone of that entire forum and turning into a streetwear forum. When one e-buddy of mine PM'ed Andy to complain about this state of affairs and suggested a separate "Streetwear" forum on the order of SF to accommodate these types, Andy told him to mind his own business. Hitherto, I have regarded Andy as a comparatively benign figure and blamed Pags for the decline of the forum and establishing autocratic rule. Evidently, I seem to have been mistaken in my assessment. Henceforth, I am going eschew terms like "AKAC" or "APAC." It's AAAC! As the saying goes, "a fish rots from the head down."
I wonder if Andy, Pags et al. think they can build the forum membership and attract more advertisers by banning terms like "slob" and "slobwear" and attracting more blue jeans fans. It makes sense when you think about it. There are helluva lot more $$$ in the blue denim market than there are in ascots, pocket squares and such.
Last edited by captainpreppy (2008-03-04 23:16:10)
Let's face it Alexander Kabbaz has F........ AAAC.
RIP "AAAC"
Last edited by The_Shooman (2008-03-05 01:07:49)
Last edited by The_Shooman (2008-03-05 02:05:11)
Last edited by The_Shooman (2008-03-05 04:32:06)
I am hoping the trend is cyclical. In fact, the increasing monopoly over interesting threads that SF has recently begun to enjoy is beginning to annoy the heck out of me. SF is sucking all of the other fora dry and not just AAAC. Even Michael Alden is becoming conspicuous at SF. Dopey has even got that SF at CSE thread going and it is just about overshadowing any CSE threads at AAAC! The rich idle brat pack at SF annoy the heck out of me too. They can be a bit immature.
As for FNB, I like the fact there are seasoned, hard hitting veterans here - sartorially mature and knowledgeable. That fact that AAAC has barred your participation may well have worked against it in the long term. It makes you wonder if it's actually difficult to get a really high post count there without ever putting a foot wrong. Some of the SF crowd on the other hand, have ridiculously high post counts.
I just discovered that JLiboural last posted at AAAC last October! He is posting daily over at SF however. That really is a telling statistic.
Yes, all the old forum stalwarts have fled. Even Will seems to be nowhere in sight and he is meant to be a moderator. I got stuck into a thread on summer fabrics and I got nothing. I only heard the echo of my own voice. It used to be that Will, Manton, Medwards, JLiboural and others would be attracted to it like sharks to red meat.
AAAC really is dying. I thought I was perhaps imagining it but I see that others here have noticed the same thing.
Having someone affiliated with your site boasting about gouging his customers with nonsensical prices of his merchandise shows a lack of respect for the audience. Foisting that individual's former business associate on the audience to sell $10,000 suits, and trying to make the lame case that he's the best fitter in the world, elevates lack of respect to blatant contempt for the audience.
I've definitely noticed this trend. Speaking for myself, I can say that I've made a conscious effort to shift my attention from AAAC to SF over the past year. AAAC has simply gotten too stifling and too boring--it's always tended to be pretentious, but now it's not informative or fun enough to compensate. The Gestapo-style moderation doesn't help. Last month, when my posts on AAAC about my blog update were mysteriously deleted, a discusssion started here questioning why. I announced in that thread that I was in contact with Andy and awaiting his explanation. The next thing you know, I get an e-mail from Andy telling me that I've broken forum rules by criticizing his forum elsewhere on the internet. Sure enough, that's a rule--stupid and arrogant as it might be. When I explained to him that others were already guessing the worst about the deletion of my posts, and that I was actually trying to stay the rumors, he was completely unphased.
This post and this entire thread constitutes a criticism of AAAC. I wonder if they'll ban us for it.
I've never posted nor have a username on AAAC but I used to lurk daily....I dont think I've even gone there in over 6 months
SF has a general appeal. There are tons of users who never (or rarely) post in the clothing forums (MC or SW&D) and spend all their time in the General, Entertainment, CE, Social Life forums. The non-clothing related subforums is probably the biggest asset to SF, esp considering the tremendously varied interests of SFers
but FNB has some amazing content. Easily some of the best threads on certain subjects found anywhere on the internerd
Chums,
Me thinks the shift to SF and FNB owes to the fact that idiots and inane posts are more freely "called out" therein and herein. By banning criticism and critique, ol Andy empowers the idiota to blather on about all manner of nunsuch with impunity. And yet, the idiota are permitted snarky posts like "thats awful." They need more posters like ol iamatt to tell them what idiota they are sometimes.
It is, either that, or the NeoPrep thread .
Cheerio,
Trip
Last edited by Voltaire's Bastard (2008-03-05 20:45:27)
On a positive note, AA's moderators do keep the trains running on time.