Post #56261 by TheMuggler on Wed, Oct 22, 2003 10:43 AM

Back in the Yahoo days (I joined the same day as bigbrotiki, not that it matters but you asked for "old-timers" opinions), I think it was all about discovery -- for the first time we could connect with other tiki obsessives who weren't our neighbors. We had much to tell and show -- "local" mugs, regional tiki locations, histories, etc. Sven's book had just come out so there was tons of great new info to be found. Everyone was just a TC member -- no "Tiki Centralites," "Tiki Socialites," "Honorable Tiki Contributors," or special tiki agents for that matter -- there were no TC "celebrities" so the community was much looser and freer.

Newbies were not just tolerated but embraced.

Now we have all these forums, so many more people, and the newbie questions are not as easy to deal with because we've seen the same discussions over and over and over again. We have a photo gallery of mugs with tons of pictures and documentation. Before, when a mug would pop up on eBay, we would have an investigation, now when someone posts a question, we just point to the various other spent threads, or the picture gallery.

Most of the major tiki locations still open have been scouted out -- hell, we have a BOOK for them.

We have two authoritative polynesian cocktail books. We now have a book devoted to tiki collectables. I'm sure more are on the way.

I wouldn't suggest the topic has been exhausted, as I don't believe that's the case, but after a while, we get "comfortable" with TC.

I do think the politics and religion arguments, and then the banning of those topics caused a bit of a rift that hasn't fully healed. Stifling conversation, even off topic conversation is bound to have other repercussions (which is one reason I had suggested the forum for way off-topic posts).

I do think that if we are going to have forum police shout down every newbie with an FAQ or eBay seller who wanders in to drop a pitch, then the side effect to that is people feel like they can't be as free and open with their discussions.

But these things all have a way of working themselves out in the end. After all, that's what makes it a community.