I visit regularly TID, MOL, Autopia, DB, and DW. I enjoy all of them. MOL remains my sentimental favorite. It's almost family. But it does seem in recent months to have been overwhelmed by young guys who know no more about detailing than I do (and I know zilch!). I'm not sure what can be done about that. Hopefully Mike Stoops will be able to turn things around. I suspect that if I were to cut down the frequency of my posting on MOL the overall quality of the forum would increase exponentially. For the forum's welfare, I am considering this alternative.
I agree with all the comments about AutoGeek. It really is a commercial forum whose sole purpose is to hawk products sold by AutoGeek. And of course, why shouldn't that be its purpose, since AutoGeek is footing the forum bills? The same might be said of MOL, yet the spirit of the two forums are very different. Thanks to the presence of Mike Phillips over the years, whose mantra "Find something you like and use it often" has sunk deep into the MOL consciousness, MOL has successfully avoided the bashing of non-Meguiar's products. The forum exists not so much to sell Meguiar's products as to instruct folks in their proper use. Not so at AutoGeek, unfortunately. Perhaps things will start to change there once Mike Phillips gets settled. Perhaps. But one thing for sure, AutoGeek is a successful enterprise. Those guys know how to sell their products, and they have developed a strong customer base. They are the gorilla in the American detailing garage.
TID has become my second favorite forum. It's a small community with some knowledgeable detailers. It is commercially sponsored and thus exists to promote products sold by Proper Auto Care, but so far it has avoided the kind of crass commercialism that sometimes characterizes AG. The TID employees who post here do not sound like sideshow barkers. This is a thin and difficult line to walk. It would be easy to get seduced by the dark side. I like TID a lot.
Detailing Bliss is an enjoyable, congenial forum. Nice guys. I love their love for Swissvax and Zymol products. For some reason, though, I have never felt quite at home at DB. I don't know why. Everyone has always been exceptionally polite to me, and one of their members even sent me some samples of various waxes when I first started to post there. I am still waiting for the right time to apply Vintage to my Luthien.
Detailing World is consistently excellent as a forum with some very knowledgeable and intelligent detailers. Where else but on DW can one find a scientifically informed thread on wax thickness? The contributions of Dave McLean (Dave KG) and Dom Colbeck (Dodo Factory) are particularly insightful. And I love the British wit. But I find the number of postings overwhelming. I just can't keep up with everything. The site simply has too much traffic.
Autopia remains, in my opinion, the place to go for the highest level of detailing expertise. I do not post there very much, for the obvious reason that I have nothing to contribute. I go there to listen and learn. But I will never be an Autopian. I'm just not serious enough about detailing. For me, detailing is a game and hobby, not a religion.
Cheers,
Al
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