Internet: Apparently it IS serious business

Ah, the winds of change.

Specifically, the winds of change here at Cadillac Forums.

Since there's a lot of new(ish) members here that might be reading this, a little context is needed for this blog to make sense. (On a side note, I've never written a "blog" before, so excuse me if I ramble).

I joined the site in 2004 when I bought my '05 STS. I had lurked here for a while, enjoying reading threads from some funny guys like BlitZer, CVP33 and Urbanski. There wasn't much action in the STS section, so I tended to hang around in the CTS-V section and chat it up with my fellow "car guys" (as opposed to the mothballs in STS). About a year later, I dumped the STS for a 2004 CTS-V and immediately started modding the hell out of it. During that period, I accrued about 10,000 posts talking about mods, helping other members, participating in goof off threads and general asshattery in my free time. I've met some great people here, some of whom have left the fold and not returned, but that's life- people sell their cars and stop posting here.

The last few months however, have been a completely different animal here on CF. For some reason, be it the average age of the latest crop of V owners or perhaps the departure of some of our "Elder Statesmen", the forums have really degenerated into a big bitch fest. It's not just a few people, either- it's 95% of the forum.

You've got people whining about noobs not using the search, but let's be honest here: If you deleted all the threads in CTS-V that have already been covered in the past (diff fixes, FG2s, Subwoofer installation, alignment, tuning, dyno results, clutch spacers, etc), the forum would be EMPTY. From time to time, it's nice to have a fresh conversation about an old topic instead of dragging out the thread from 2 years ago.

Then there's the people who can't take the slightest bit of a joke. Noobs calling the older members assholes, fags, dicks, etc, for making a funny comment in their thread or even slightly disagreeing with their idea. "DO not pollute my thread- this is SRS BSNS!!" Lighten up noob, and remember that the older members are the ones who have collected all the information you now reap the benefits of by plunking down the cash and sweat to test out these mods back when they were new. Guys like HeavyMetals and CVP33 were tinkering with Vs and figuring out how to improve them while you were in High School driving your Civic. Be appreciative.

Then there's the older members who have elevated themselves to God-Like status because of their massive post count or contributions to the forum. As I said above, we all appreciate you, but it doesn't give you the right to post 800 pictures of half naked chicks (not that I don't like half naked chicks, but come on...) or worse- ruin every thread with stupid comments that cross the line of being slightly on topic ribbing and are just disruptive. All three of these personalities combined have made the CTS-V forum an absolute train wreck to read, so I basically just ignore it now. No big deal though, because it's just an Internet forum. Right?

Apparently not. Some people are reacting to these changes in ways I can't begin to understand. I just chalk it up to "The times they are a changin'", but some people are going NUTS- leaving the forums in a huff, taking it on themselves to police the place to their own standards, or even worse: Turning on old friends here and suddenly acting like assholes.

INTERNET: SRS BSNS

Don't all of us have enough crap in our "real" lives that we don't need to create more on the Internet? And if we do come across a comment or thread we don't like, why can't we just ignore it instead of being the person who ignites today's forum shitstorm? Why does it even matter? Is a joke that some faceless person made about your spelling really going to ruin your life? The same goes for the guy who disagrees with your taste in lambo doors- is it really worth freaking out, calling them a "hater" and creating a national crisis because someone has different taste than you? It's an Internet forum, people- not the end of the world.

To paraphrase Rodney King: "Can't we *ouch!*......all just *ouch!*........get along?"