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Other This site is much better than Something Awful.

Discussion in 'General' started by Colonel Sanders, 12 Apr 2019.

  1. Colonel Sanders

    Colonel Sanders Minimodder

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    I hope this is not a repeat, if anything I think I may have seen this topic on here years ago. Actually, I know this is not a repeat since it is my own personal way to praise bit-tech.

    Here is the booring emo-stuff you can skip if you want to: The first forum I ever visited was PCMech, this was about 20 years ago and PCMech had virtually no PC modding content. They were a very straight forward, plain style of build saying things like "do not water cool or your Thunderbird Athlon will melt" which was sound advice at the time but kinda booring. Then I saw a video where someone made a haphazard box out of aluminum foil and used a Thunderbird Athlon to fry the egg, it was a dangerous and stupid "CPU cooler" but it was also hilarious and different. Somewhere along the lines I found bit-tech where I thoroughly enjoyed builds made by Zap-Wizard and I was intrigued because it seemed like every single build here was using some sort of water cooling loop. Then I made a mistake, I went to the serious section and I read a couple political threads. I posted in the political threads, I didn't just "touch the poop" I practically swam in it. I think it was around this time, about 2007, that I ponied up $10 for a Something Awful account. I loved Something Awful because the community was tremendously large and there are long threads on almost every topic imaginable, and there were even a lot of funny stories.

    This is where I attack Something Awful: I never really posted, I mostly just read the threads and lurked. I asked a question "what is the best type of glue for an unknown plastic, I want to reinforce a screw inside a laptop". The first response I got was "maybe epoxy putty" the next half dozen replies were "you're stupid, time is money and your wasting time so go buy a new laptop". The next replies were "this is dangerous and stupid and your going to break your laptop", this was before I even explained what was broken, where it was broken, why it was broken or anything. I asked why using epoxy on plastic was bad and they just kept saying "time is money buy a new laptop", one poster eventually replied "epoxy will conduct electricity and melt" (the repair was NOT near a hot part or near anything conductive). In the end I went to the store, bought a $5 tube of epoxy putty and the repair has been performing fantastically for two months. The next post I made in a completely different section of the website, I asked if I could prevent Chrome from installing ad-ons because I suspected my wife accidentally installed an annoying ad-on. Another user went crazy and blew up on me insisting that I absolutely needed to get a separate windows account or separate PC and that I was stupid, my wife was stupid, my marriage was going to fail, and my PC was at risk. By god I can share my bed, my shower, and my bank account with my wife but sharing thy precious PC with my wife is just unacceptable. One poster even requested I get my wife an account so they could ask her about how stupid I am. After a dozen forum posts of basically just calling me an idiot, eventually a goon posted a way to prevent the installation of ad-ons. To this day, I am still married, my PC is still virus free, Chrome is still adware free, and my wife and I still share one user account. To an extent, I messed up because I participated in the arguments, I asked why epoxy was bad, I said "a user account is smart, but it doesn't stop the install of ad-ons" I even tired to admit defeat and said if I could not block extensions I would accept the risks and continue as normal.

    Here is the good stuff: What I am trying to say is at Something Awful, I feel there is a wealth of knowledge surrounded by a cloud of elitism and disrespect. I feel anytime you post on SA, you have to prepare yourself for an onslaught of goons questioning everything you post. If I ask on SA "How do I use a Robertson screw driver?" the response WILL be "you are too stupid just give up" and if I post the same question here I think the response would be "insert the tip into the screw and twist". I have made only a couple posts since coming back to bit-tech, one reply was contradictory but still friendly. In a different thread, I asked a somewhat newbie question about water cooling, instead of "just Google it" I got a genuine response which lead to me figuring out the right keywords to go to Google and get the answer I needed. This might (or might not) come as a surprise to some people, but Google kinda sucks these days. When I tried searching for DIY water cooling I was only flooded with ads for AIO units or how to install an AIO cooler, I could not find anything about how to actually build a custom loop.

    I think I am going to enjoy bit-tech far more than Something Awful. I like the fact that I can actually post questions here and get a useful response. I like reading posts where users actually say "thanks XXX you were helpful", I especially like when users say "thanks, English is not my first language and you were helpful". I used to not think much about those replies, but after seeing SA and how bit-tech compares, those kind of replies really mean a lot in my opinion.

    Also, if my posting etiquette and sense of humor comes across as just plain strange and weird to some people here, I put 70% blame on myself, 29% on SA, and 1% on whatever the current moon phase is.
     
    Last edited: 12 Apr 2019
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  2. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    That was good ol' Troubadour on The Overclocking Store's forum. I remember, 'cos I was a mod at the time. Bunch of 2p coins as a heatspreader and a tinfoil box so the egg didn't leak all over the motherboard.
     
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  3. Zoon

    Zoon Hunting Wabbits since the 80s

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    When those forums started to get flooded, I re-hosted the page on my own website for years. I should've put some ads on it: would've been a millionaire.

    Also: Trubador ripped me off for £190 on a CPU purchase he never actually refunded me for after sending the wrong item.
     
  4. The_Crapman

    The_Crapman World's worst stuntman. Lover of bit-tech

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    Good old BT. The good folks here never cease to amaze me with their kindness, even though I'm an annoying sarcy twonk. Ha ha
     
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  5. MightyBenihana

    MightyBenihana Do or do not, there is no try

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    The problem with 'just google it' is that someone actually has to post something of worth for google to be useful. If no one ever does that then 'just google it' is a waste of time. I find when I suggest something someone who knows more can actually help me understand something better too.
     
  6. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    You're being very kind to yourself mate :)
     
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  7. The_Crapman

    The_Crapman World's worst stuntman. Lover of bit-tech

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    :hehe:
     
  8. Arboreal

    Arboreal Keeper of the Electric Currants

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    Welcome Colonel, glad you've been made welcome here. I've been on 8 years, and it's my daily site to visit and see what's going on and catch up with the funny, annoying and knowledgeable folk on here.
     
  9. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    So, in order, that's Dan, me and... erm, who the hell is knowledgeable around here? Oh, Gareth, I s'pose, even if we have to help him with his grammar n stuff.

    BTW, I don't mean Dan is funny, he's just a bit.. well, you know... funny
     
  10. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    The bugger. Probably a little late to threaten him with a ban...
     
  11. Zoon

    Zoon Hunting Wabbits since the 80s

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    I ended up reporting it to the police but it went nowhere.
     
  12. kim

    kim hardware addict

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    strolling among pages on my "saturday morning visit" to Bittech, my eye caught Colonel sander's post title "BT is much better than something awful"...of course, as a French, I didn't know "something awful" was a site (I payed a visit since :grin:), anyway I just read your post and wanted to praise Bittech my way as well, because I've been posting in many French sites for years, particulary in PC related websites, and here, if we have also this kind of disrespectuous replies from times to times, the worst is the total lack of activity :sigh:
    like I already mentioned, 80% of my posts are just without any replies, I try to be precise and explain things properly and correctly, I feel like my posts are just annoyances as it's a bit long to read and requires a little intellectual effort :naughty:... I can notice views, but it looks like no one cares about or wants to waste a minut to write something...:oldconfused:... and I don't speak about modding :hehe:, yet, we have some good modders here, but there's nothing compared to bittech, and I don't really find an active PC/modding community :sad:... well, there was one correct site to be honest, and we were a small team posting and trying to help others, and make it alive, but it's closed for weeks now...
    So finally, after beeing just a lurker on BT for years, hunting the amazing project logs section, I started to interract, and I realised that I could find an audience and intelligent replies, a wealth of knowledge as you said, but without disrespect or elitism, and IMO, Bittech is much better than anything else :grin:
     
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  13. adidan

    adidan Guesswork is still work

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    * sticks up middle and 6th finger in Dave's general direction *

    Nice to see some new faces, welcome @Colonel Sanders and a belated welcome to @kim (even though i've posted in your thread not sure I ever said hi :happy:)
     
  14. kim

    kim hardware addict

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    Thanks for your wellcome Adidan, well...:grin:, you posted a positive encouragement in my thread and it was like a welcoming comment, so...fine with me :grin:
     
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