Its a serious shame communities where straight up information was once shared before everyone became a commercialization are now being simply bought and changed into what a marketing "insight" sees as successful.
Everyone wants to suffocate and have 20 hands in 20 cookie jars, and unfortunately the community(the people who really benefit from the info everyone shares) is who suffers. I can't even begin to estimate how many times I have read people buying a product on a person's (perhaps shill-worthy) recommendation only to be disappointed..
Things that some people are mentioning, are the reasons I left, then came back, then left AGAIN, and am now back..
..also interesting to note that certain situations require 'the right person' to talk about or use before a product gets any sort of forum "play". BFWD was "meh no thanks" to many people years ago and all of a sudden a ridiculous resurgence of it being touted as "ze best" in many arsenals... Its still the same immiscible oily sealant with a pretty good look, just different mouths speaking about it.
All these forums back in early 00's went from being everyone trying to improve and help everyone else, to literal storefronts and "affiliated" information regurgitation(which only affects those who rely on "help" to decide on a product) from actual, factual, applied experience.
