Matthew, my take on it is that the greatest amount of damage is being done by irresponsible postings from three specific mind-sets:
1) Those with the misfortune to have acquired below-par cameras (they don't have to be total lemons to qualify) and who won't give the time of day to those whose equal but opposite fortune has landed them a good copy.
2) Those who own cameras that perform very well and who won't give the time of day to those with legitimate problems.
3) Those who assume that a casual but
general sounding reference to either "side" of an issue is intended (note,
intended ) as a categorical, unbending assertion that
all copies of the camera behave either this way or that way.
There's a further trait here that operates as a corollary of mind-set (3), and it's one that insists on ascribing
motive or
intent to what is, if read literally, a merely narrative word, phrase or sentence, extending to the very raison d'être for an entire given post.
There is some (if limited) excuse for instances of the first scenario, but only through allowing for the inevitable dismay at having spent a lot of money on faulty equipment, and due recognition of the emotions that this reality arouses.
There is NO excuse for either of the other positions. These three cancers of denial and intolerance are precisely what we saw with Sony BFS, DLSS and HAF errors, and in the Canon camp with 10D front/back AF problems which, though far from universal, were widespread enough to prove they weren't happening in people's imaginations -- individual or collective.
One would have thought that the STF might have learned from the 10D focus epic. It was by far the worst display of abusive intolerance over a real camera problem that I can recall seeing in the equipment brand forums.
Until the F828 came along.
By way of only one example, I see many responses to the recent thread started by Todd Meyers as a very sad commentary of this forum, driven almost entirely by (2) and (3), above. At its worst, it sprouted a sub-thread attacking somebody else that was illogical, accusatory, and downright ugly beyond belief.
Todd did his darnedest, over and over again, to indicate how he'd
wanted to love the F828, and had tried to give it every possible chance -- on the available evidence -- to prove itself a worthy contender for his next purchase. He finally turned away from it only with reluctance and regret.
Most importantly, NOWHERE did he go out of his way to brand
all F828s as rubbish, or as anything else. All he really did was offer the contention that the F828 in its current state of development represents too much of a gamble to justify his custom. Perhaps his fatal mistake was to include the words "provocative" and "advice" in his opening subject line when he intended nothing more than a personal narrative. An unwisely chosen initial subject line can ruin the best-intentioned thread, because that's what every new arrival sees first.
For anyone to have got on Todd's case as an F828 "trasher" on the basis of his sentiments in that thread -- and many did -- was a pitiful indictment of this forum. Mindless intolerance, cynicism at its worst, discarded logic... it was all there.
Ulysses has an uncanny ability to pour oil on troubled waters in threads like that without causing secondary offence. I can't pretend to match him there. There's a few heads I really feel like banging together in this current climate, and they're to be found on both sides of the hardware war ("debate" would be an absurd euphemism for the way much of it's being conducted).
Time to ask ourselves, again, what we're here for, what it might have been that used to hallmark the STF as a singularly harmonious forum, what has changed, and why. And to do this while some of its previously unique appeal is left.
Mike
I've had all I can take.
Every other thread here is someone bashing the 828. Well you've
completely ruined STF and the DP Review forums for me. You win.
I'm out of here. I can't deal with your hateful negativity any
more. It's a camera that has nasty PF in some conditions, and
therefore you decide to destroy a forum and a community over it.
What the h*ll is wrong with you people?
All of you who delight in trashing Sony, the 828, 2/3" sensors, and
anyone who uses an 828, congratulations to you. You beat me.
Phil Askey, if you read this message, the trash needs to be taken out.
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