The state of this site lately

[Kirby]

One thing I've noticed about hair loss forums is how fast the turnover of members is. Since I started browsing the main three forums in November 2011, there's very few people still around from them in any or all of the forums, apart from a few die-hard veterans like Jacob and Israelite. So many users have just vanished. That's quite different from the other sort of forums I go on, when there's people how have been posting since 2000 or 2003 (depending on the forum), and even longer back if you include following the same people on Usenet. So there's not a lot of community spirit on here or the rival forums.

I have to admit that I gave up regularly reading and browsing this place after a certain DIY experimental treatment was banned from being discussed here. OK, it looks like it didn't work at all for regrowing hair apart from in a couple of freak cases that aren't exactly scientifically verified, but we were giving it a real try as a community, and sharing our experiences as we went along - there was a real sense of camaraderie too, among the arguments, which I haven't seen before or since on any hair loss forum. That was stepped on unfairly, and we had no satisfactory conclusion to the whole issue. There was no harm in us trying, as grown adults, and sharing our (fortunately unsuccessful) results - plus we were using generic products readily available to buy on the Internet, which is a lot better than the goings-on in certain other places where someone pushes expensive black-market chemicals produced in dodgy Chinese labs and distributed through so-called group buys. With that went loads of users who were active and interesting participants to this forum, gone never to be seen again. That was the day when HairLossTalk.com faded into irrelevance.

 

[JimmyJones]

A lot of this is why I don't post much here any more - that and the fact that browsing hairloss sites in general usually makes me feel more depressed and paranoid about things like side effects from finasteride.

It's why I've never bothered to join any other hairloss forums except a small UK forum that I joined before this one, but that's pretty dead now unfortunately. I've already immersed myself too much in the world of male pattern baldness and it usually just makes my life more negative.

This board has major problems and they're not easliy fixable. I've found with internet message boards in general - whatever the subject matter of the board - the best ones get a balance between too few posters with nothing going on, and far too many new posters that swamp a board and cause mayhem. HairLossTalk.com is definitely in the latter category.

there's a huge turnover of posters here - many sign up to ask questions and then leave when they get the answer rather than sticking around to help the community. Veteran posters hear the same questions asked over and over again and no longer have the energy to answer every single question, particularly the many crazy absurd questions - I've never facepalmed as much as I do reading HairLossTalk.com sometimes. I used to always try and correct or query posts that I felt were wrong or ignorant, but now I just can't be bothered. I'm too jaded.

Unfortunately there isn't a new generation of posters that can step up and fill the role of 'mentors'

The result is HairLossTalk.com is divided between acres and acres of threads by newbies that only get few or no responses, turning some forums into a wasteland; and a small group of diehard veterans who stick to their own specific forums and never venture outside - and can you blame them? There's very little sense of community here, and mainly it's to do with the board's size - not physical size, I mean the endless stream of new posters who register and never get involved. I got so dismayed with all of this that I gave up and left for a while. Don't know why I came back really - I must be a masochist :woot:


RE: Rep - I've seen rep systems on other boards and they almost always result in abuse, particularly on a board like this with many childish posters. It probably should be discontinued, but on the other hand don't take it too seriously. It's just a novelty really

The Impact section is very cynical but it allows people to vent their frustrations. I encourage people to make more optimistic threads in there.

Nonetheless, there are defintely some gems in amongst all the excrement - posters like Dr. House are always worth reading. And if you search hard enough you can usually find reasonable and sensible answers to questions.

I second that. Ultimately this forum has been tremendously helpful to me. Forums are usefull as you can find out exactly what works and what doesn't work for male pattern baldness. I think some of you just need to stay away form the Impact section and general discussion section. This is where most of the negativity stems from. The other sections are very informative. I especially enjoy browsing the new research section. If something new comes out you can bet your last dollar it will be posted here.
One negative I find though is a lot of posters on this site seem very ignorant concerning hair transplant and HR. Most hair transplant patients post in hair transplant forums and most hair wearers post in HR forums. It would be nice if we had more hair transplant patients post their experiences here. I might paste some posts from other forums here if that's allowed.

 

[Notcoolanymore]

Depressing.

Add tons of misinformation and daily trolls with full heads of hair and you have yourself a hair loss forum.

 

[DoctorHouse]

Notcoolanymore, enjoyed your call with Spencer. Some day, I need to call in and let Spencer know how much he and I are alike.

 

[Notcoolanymore]

Notcoolanymore, enjoyed your call with Spencer. Some day, I need to call in and let Spencer know how much he and I are alike.

Cool, glad you enjoyed "my story". You should call in. New callers make the show a bit more interesting IMO.

 

[badasshairday]

Surprisingly to me this site is a lot more quiet. I joined back in early 2004 and posted regularly my first year. Then took a break because of my great response to finasteride. Then I came back just for fun to this part of the forum for random topics. Also wanted to see if anything new was on the horizon as well as help newbies. I pretty much stopped visiting in 2007, with only a handful of checks up. Pretty much didn't open this site up in 5-6 years.

 

[Kirby]

This place seems to have no active moderators!

 

[The Far Side]

Yeah, these individuals who bump like 100s of topics with bull**** replies ("Jizz" was it this time?) don't even seem to get banned. I have no idea how Drop Dead Fred managed to get past 300 posts before being dealt with either...

edit: looks like ineedhair and drop dead fred got banned now, the other half of the job is to get rid of their posts :|

 

[badasshairday]

This forum is slow these days. I think it has seen better days several years ago. There just really isn't much new. It's the same questions repeated a million times. THe only new thing is seeing peoples photo progress which is more common now a days with cell phones and photo sharers. Otherwise it is still minoxidil, finasteride, nizoral.

 

[Kirby]

All of the hair loss forums are in decline. It's (IMO) because of the last of progress with new treatments - when I started to look at hair loss forums 3 years ago, once I'd gotten my Basic Training (an explanation of the Big 3, and finding out about the existence of dutasteride and RU), it was hard not to notice the buzz about what could be coming out in future, Histogen, Replicel, etc, then there was the thing about PGD2 and PGE2, all keeping places like this and HLH and BTT all active and positive. Now, it looks like finasteride is the 'end of history' of hair loss treatments, it's just so depressing and people have become negative or just stopped posting.

 

[Quantum Cat]

I second that. Ultimately this forum has been tremendously helpful to me. Forums are usefull as you can find out exactly what works and what doesn't work for male pattern baldness. I think some of you just need to stay away form the Impact section and general discussion section. This is where most of the negativity stems from. The other sections are very informative. I especially enjoy browsing the new research section. If something new comes out you can bet your last dollar it will be posted here.
One negative I find though is a lot of posters on this site seem very ignorant concerning hair transplant and HR. Most hair transplant patients post in hair transplant forums and most hair wearers post in HR forums. It would be nice if we had more hair transplant patients post their experiences here. I might paste some posts from other forums here if that's allowed.

this board's never been very big on discussions of transplants/hair systems. Not sure why. maybe the transplant forum could be supplemented with some more subforums.

I would like to see more people with good knowledge of hair systems/pieces and concealers post here. Well there was that guy HairPieceMan - but I think he got trolled off the board

 

[Notcoolanymore]

I would like to see more people with good knowledge of hair systems/pieces and concealers post here. Well there was that guy HairPieceMan - but I think he got trolled off the board

I would also like to see the transplant and hair systems sections with more activity. I think the main problem with those solutions is that at the end of the day most guys will not accept anything less than a full head of their own hair. A transplant will not accomplish this unless you are a very early norwood and you are just looking to fill in your hair line. If you are a diffuse balder(like I am) or have lost large amounts of hair a transplant can definitely make you look better, but your styling options will be severely limited. It's the same thing with hair pieces. Yeah they can look good, but they will never be our own hair. Not to mention the problem of integrating a new hair piece into your life. Most guys want to conceal the fact that they are wearing hair and how do you keep it a secret if you go from NW6 on Friday to NW1 by Monday? I haven't even gone in to the price and other obstacles. With that being said, as bad as those solutions may be, they are worth considering if your only other option is not living your life.

 

[Mach]

Go to my history 3 post ago. I asked a simple question and I got to pages of guys playing grab ***.

Any way lets start a paid section to weed out the trolls. $50 a year. The section will have 4 categories. Beginners, treatments, success, and rants. Keep it simple. Oh maybe a meeting section so we could meet get drunk and yell at hot women or NW1 guys. It'll be great.

 

[Notcoolanymore]

Any way lets start a paid section to weed out the trolls. $50 a year. The section will have 4 categories. Beginners, treatments, success, and rants. Keep it simple. Oh maybe a meeting section so we could meet get drunk and yell at hot women or NW1 guys. It'll be great.

I would be cool with this, but I don't think there was be enough paying members. That section would be as dead as the womens hair loss section.

 

[maher]

This site has definitely seen better days. When someone writes something like this:

keeping my rep for now

...when someone is reluctant to share his opinion due to fact that he may receive bad reputation, that's the indicator it has gone to ****.

 

[SayifDoit]

Forums seem fine to me. Maybe its my total ignorance when it comes to 'trolls', but I simply don't see them. Quite a few good interesting topics/posts on occasion everyday that keep me coming back.

 

[Notcoolanymore]

Different opinions are a great thing. Makes the forum much more entertaining. Misinformation on the other hand is just wrong. I wont say that I haven't gave neg rep because somebody offended me, but for the most part I give neg rep to the guys that purposely misguide people looking for help. Whether we want to realize this or not, hundreds(maybe more?) of guys come to this site every day looking for answers or guidance on what to do about their hair loss. We should be more responsible about the recommendations that we give. I am not going to list all the bogus treatments, but when you have guys recommending that I wash my hair and face with piss every morning and claim that will grow my hair back, I'm sorry, but that guy deserves some red bars.

 

[maher]

Forums seem fine to me. Maybe its my total ignorance when it comes to 'trolls', but I simply don't see them. Quite a few good interesting topics/posts on occasion everyday that keep me coming back.

I've been on/off this forum since 2006. And believe me, last 2 years have been the lowest points of this forum.

- - - Updated - - -

Different opinions are a great thing. Makes the forum much more entertaining. Misinformation on the other hand is just wrong. I wont say that I haven't gave neg rep because somebody offended me, but for the most part I give neg rep to the guys that purposely misguide people looking for help. Whether we want to realize this or not, hundreds(maybe more?) of guys come to this site every day looking for answers or guidance on what to do about their hair loss. We should be more responsible about the recommendations that we give. I am not going to list all the bogus treatments, but when you have guys recommending that I wash my hair and face with piss every morning and claim that will grow my hair back, I'm sorry, but that guy deserves some red bars.

Its pretty clear, when you enter this forum, that BIG3 is a precedent..and thats OK. But if someone is unwilling to jump on big 3, there is always the alternative treatments section where people should be able to discuss freely, without being bullied or mistreated in any way. These "treatments" are not founded on evidence gathered using the scientific method and thats the concept everyone here should be familiar with by now.

If some noob is stupid enought to soak his scalp with piss, fine by me- I put my trust in Darwin this time.

 

[SayifDoit]

Maher that's coming from you.:jump:
A blight on these forums hahaha.

 

[Quantum Cat]

I've been on/off this forum since 2006. And believe me, last 2 years have been the lowest points of this forum.
.

I agree. Since right around November 2012 in fact.....