H&H magazine about forums: the good, the bad and the ugly!

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H&H magazine is writiting a feature on equestrian forums and we want to hear your stories. What do you see as the main benefits of forums? And what worries you?

Have you had any particularly good or bad forum experiences, either on HHO or elsewhere? Have you followed bad advice, or discovered that someone was not who they claimed to be? Perhaps you have made a friend for life who you now meet up with on a regular basis, or have received wonderful advice and support - let us know!

Please email H&H freelance writer victoriacmarston@gmail.com with a brief outline of your thoughts or experiences and a contact number if you are happy to be included in the article.
 
As a male I find the soapbox forum very interesting as it is full of female topics and views which I never get to hear from females when face to face :D
 
Did you see the Truth or Dare thread ROG? That really will open your eyes!!

The good things about forums is that you can meet some interesting people and hear different views. You can have a laugh as well.

The bad is that (on this forum) people can be quick to judge, a lot of people don't read a thread properly then get annoyed when an OP (understandably) gets frustrated with repeating themselves all the time, also it is a bit like a school playground with people 'ganging up' against another poster.
 
I've have some really good horsey friends through the forum, that live at the other end of the country, and I eventually met them face to face at Burghley this year. Oh, and the viewing on a weekend is usually allot more entertaining than anything on the TV, although I have received good advice, after the usual, it's in pain, teeth, back, saddle, take it's shoes off response :D
 
Ha ha ha :D what concerns me about this forum is that the troll-bot (real person who is a bit thick? Who knows) is able to post 10 times about their wonderful shoes, and on the 10th time on a thread by admin :D
 
Forums are a great source of information whether that be the latest bargain in boots on a website or a supplement or device to sort out a problem.
Some advice is laughable and yes there are some characters on them - but that makes for half the entertainment!
 
Met some good people from here, never really asked for advice. Some absolute headcases and muppets too ;)

But I find this forum a much easier place to exist than car forums. They are much harder to survive in.
 
It makes me giggle that when you see the top 5 topics in the printed mag on letter page it's never the actual top 5 ... as usually too much argy bargy and defamation to be referenced:)

The advice of this forum is great, with some really experienced folk. However there are a few folk who seem to lie in wait for newbies to get something wrong and then pounce on them - fortunately the minority.
 
Hi everyone,

I'm the journalist writing the feature, so thank you for all your input so far. I have indeed been trawling threads, which have been both inspirational and as entertaining as ever...!

I've come across loads of really positive stuff, as expected, and will be in touch with some of you soon for more details. I've also got a couple of examples from other forums of bullying, or people never even getting around to posting as they were too intimidated by what they saw.

One thing I could really do with an example of, as we all know it happens, is someone pretending to be something or someone that they weren't. Has this happened to any of you, or can you remember any cases of it happening on here to someone else?

Thank you again for all your help,

V
 
lots of good advice on here, its nice to hear that others have the same problems especially with the horses health...makes you feel less alone with the problem.

there are a few posters who can be quite abrupt and rude and i always avoid threads where they are posting as i like to enjoy the forum ....which on the whole. i do....:D
 
I had a huge amount of "the kindness of strangers" on Arabian Lines' T&C forum when I was having a seriously bad time at work, and rapidly losing the plot big time. It really made a difference to have my cyber friends checking in on AL everyday to see how I was. When I went silent for a while, they noticed and wanted to know why. Guardian Angels, and my surrogate family. The "real" one isn't available, due to death and illness.
I think it is a mixture of knowing the posters have a love and understanding of Arabian horses, so there is a base of similiarity in the type of person that one is communicating with, and the relatively neutral nature of the internet, which frees up the usual social constraints and pretence that everything is just fine, thanks.
 
Victoria Marston said:
Hi everyone,
One thing I could really do with an example of, as we all know it happens, is someone pretending to be something or someone that they weren't. Has this happened to any of you, or can you remember any cases of it happening on here to someone else?
V
Click to expand...

Wasn't there someone on here who pretended to be in a really bad accident? And it turned out they'd made the whole thing up.
 
I haven't found a greater source of information, experience and knowledge from such a diverse group. It has been so useful in bringing on my youngster on a wide variety of topics.


There is also a vast amount of entertainment!
 
Lots of good people on here that offer good advice and support when it's really needed.

Forums are a good place to do research and lets face it, although there are some real head cases and nasty posters at times, no-one quite understands a horsey person, like another horsey person as unfortunatley, the rest of the world out there thinks we are just bonkers.........and maybe we are?!
 
One user pretended to be in a road accident (Dunroamin) and still pops up, another pretended to have died and as mentioned there were some fake triplets. Sadly a lot of those threads have been removed.
A while back a few forumers shared a name/password and all posted under the name of the same 'character'.
Also a few less savoury, stalkery incidents.
I approached a forumer at a show after recognising her pony from a pic on here and we have become good friends.

Here's a good one!!
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=9795380#post9795380
 
CaveCanem said:
One user pretended to be in a road accident (Dunroamin) and still pops up, another pretended to have died and as mentioned there were some fake triplets. Sadly a lot of those threads have been removed.
A while back a few forumers shared a name/password and all posted under the name of the same 'character'.
Also a few less savoury, stalkery incidents.
I approached a forumer at a show after recognising her pony from a pic on here and we have become good friends.

Here's a good one!!
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=9795380#post9795380
Click to expand...

That link is GOLD (if absolutely terrifying) - thank you so much CaveCanem!
 
A lot of bullying takes place on the forum. Ganging up or whatever you want to call it. Some of the worst threads get removed, so you won't find those in here to reference.

A while ago, a young poster posted an experience about their horse bolting. It was very obvious case of bolting. Some posters said to shoot the animal immediately, others verbally attacked the OP viciously. It was awful.
I PM'ed the OP, and advised not to bother going back to the thread, as people were obviously launching a very hurtful attack.
It turned out the OP was a 13 yr old, and had innocently wanted some advice on what had been a very frightening experience. I was shocked that people had been so callous, and really upset this youngster who thought some helpful advice might come out of this forum. Shame on the posters who attacked this young person, and advised to shoot the horse. It was very hurtful for this 13yr old child.
 
The good. Source of fun, entertainment and support. I have found the vet element on HHO a godsend to get additional information from. Its an excellent way to check out credentials of dealers, saddler etc as well. Granted we don't post the details publicly but if you put up a request, you will always get responses. Bad? posters who think that their opinion is fact and nothing shall deviate from it. Tend to ignore those now. Ugly. As said previously, when someone doesn't actually read the first post properly and then wades in. First rule of using a forum should be 100%.. if you would not say it face to face then do NOT write in a post. You could also add sad to the list. People (such as in your gold post) who create an entire identity or story to get attention and that is actually pretty sad. I wonder on what is lacking in their own life that they do this but whatever it is, they can't be happy. There are some incredibly narrow minded people who post but that is more than balanced out by people who are knowledgeable, and are very generous with their time and take care to reply.
 
The good of Forums is that there are plenty of genuine, very experienced and helpful people who offer support, practical help and the benefit of their experience without ramming it down peoples throats.

The downside of Forums is it allows people relative anonymity so some trolls use them to wind people up, bully people and generally cause mayhem.

There are certainly a fair few users of Forums who are not anything like they purport to be in Forum World. Quietly amusing when you know them in real life most of the time, sometimes quite worrying when you see people getting suckered in by them.

On the whole though my personal belief is that Forums are a good place if you have the hide of a rhino and can smell BS from ten paces!
 
I've had to toughen up a bit because I value the good advice I get here and that means you have to open yourself up for a bit of a kicking sometimes. The trick is to Just not to acknowledge the nasty stuff and nicely thank people for the good stuff.


I do also think PapaFrita's Rollup Rollup thread should be compulsory reading before joining the forum though. ;)

http://origin-forums.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=411596
 
This is another goodun' http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=505889&page


I think also if you look at this thread http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=496472&highlight=Tankey you will see a tiny part of the darn right wonderful things that happen on this forum it's not only a place for questions about horses, management and training, but also for friendships to form, advice sought on all manner of things, jokes shared, tears shed but most of all support for each other. Yes of course there are crazy and narky people and even the downright wierd but when things are tough, whether sat up in the dark with a colicing horse, money worries, family problems, personal problems even in the darkest hours the 'silent watches of the night' there is always someone on here online ready to lend an ear, reply with some advice or just a kind word or two. :)
 
Polotash said:
That's the one I was going to mention too! She nicked the pics from a Dutch website I seem to recall!
Click to expand...

For a "good" story someone posted a pic of a horse they'd had in whilst it was a baby, and found it's new owner via HHO several years later. I can't remember the poster but it was only 2-3 weeks ago and the horse was a big grey called Silver.
 
That link is fab cc. It's quite easy to have a false persona, after all I'm actually Carl hester, but my in depth persona stops anyone finding me out! Honestly though, I think unless you rarely post, keeping up a fake character would be too exhausting, apart from being pointless.
 
Dear all,

I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your input - the feature is now done (breathes big sigh of relief) and you really were a great help.

Thanks again,

V
 
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