Hate for T-Nation

I don’t understand this thread.

“Other people don’t like all the same stuff I do. Why don’t they? SO IRRATIONAL”

Can you think of any internet site, hobby, sport, or literally anything in the entire world that doesn’t have haters?

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Good point - portable devices and the ability to post a quick reply (usually nothing more than a witty comeback) while sitting at a stop light or on the shitter or between sets at the gym has certainly a negative effect on the quality of posts

i dont think you understood my original question.

i dont care if people dont like the site. people reject facts all the time.

What i find confusing is the “T-nation sucks but its authors are great” attitude. What a website with out its authors? You really cant separate the two, so how can you hate one but like the other.

I’ve kind of had my question answered - people think its eliteist and dont like seeing advertisements.

but these same people will pay for muscle and fiction magazine where literally every other page is an advertisement and the articles and information is the same as t-nation but just a few month behind.

I think that any site that is constantly putting up articles from a multitude of authors is going to have a steady rate of “good” and “bad” information. Some authors might be worth listening to when they discuss mobility work but not so much how to look like a bodybuilder, while others are more “kind of well versed, but not always the best individual to listen to” in several different areas. Of course who you are as a trainer is going to affect how you interpret a lot of the writing on any site.

I look back at some of the old articles I had printed out almost a decade ago and laugh at the notion that I thought it was a genius idea being presented. Obviously being a newb vs being an experienced trainer is going to have a huge impact on the glasses you’re looking through.

And yes, in an always present need to stay current, you’re going to have authors putting out information that is debatable on whether it’s truly useful (credible) or just nonsense/rambling to get people talking.

S

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I’ve read maybe 2 or 3 articles on here in the last year. And I’m on this site every day of the week. So I would say the authorship on here is not essential to the site for many. Yes, I can separate the 2, because if the articles disappeared entirely, it would not affect how often I logged on here one bit. I think my sentiment is probably common among advanced lifters as well. After a certain point, every new article looks like an article I’ve seen before. Very few articles present ideas or concepts I’m less familiar with. I do read those.

Stu’s point is spot on. 10 years ago, I read every single article that was posted on here. I came to this site EXCLUSIVELY for the articles. And I got so much out of it. And I’m sure plenty of people log on here daily to read the articles now. But for non-article readers, I can absolutely see why someone would say ‘yea the authors are great, I just don’t give a fuck about the articles.’ I mostly agree with that sentiment.

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The only conclusion I can come to is that some people like to have something to talk shit about so they can look cool. It’s a sadly common phenomenon, and it’s only going to get worse. Fortunately, I don’t really care. I mean, I’m a busy guy. I run my own business, I do karate and lift, and I also write and make art. I prefer to spend any spare time drinking, attempting to fornicate and socialising on the internet and elsewhere rather than persecuting cretins. Idiocy is its own punishment.

I distinguish between the forums and the website. Just like I distinguish
between the store and the website.

If they are a non article reader how can they make any valid judgement of
the website?

Kinda rhetorical at this point. People are going to do what people do.

Der_steppenwolf agreed. These days it is cooler to mock things than do
anything productive. Basically just teenage posturing.

Like you said idiocy is it’s in punishment. And never argue with a fool,
they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

LOLOLOLOLOL ok dude. So 2/3 of the website isn’t actually part of the website. got it.

That’s an absurd qualifier to begin with, but if I accept it, it totally changes the discussion. Then all it becomes is ‘do you like the articles on the site that is TNation,’ not ‘do you like TNation’? The website is equal parts articles, forum, and store. Just because the article section is Tnation-generated, and the content is entirely controlled by Tnation editors, doesn’t mean it’s any more or less essential to the ‘TNation website’ than the rest of it.

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In the 13 years I’ve followed T-Nation I have a half dozen posts. I don’t
follow the forum.

When judging the quality of information on a website I do not include the
forum…for the reasons displayed here.

And actually, being controlled by the editors does make it more essential.
Without the articles it would not exist. The same cannot be said for the
forums. Quality of T-nations articles cannot be judged by the opinions of
some bosuball using beachbody.com fanatic/planet fitness lifetime member
who participates in the forums.

Accurate, but forums tend to be judged more on the hivemind of the forum rather than the lone rantings of a lunatic. And despite how well educated a forum populace might be, they all tend to start gravitating toward the same median simply as a result of how the internet functions.

A general philosophy will get established and adopted because it is what is preached by the most successful/prolific posters. This philosophy will then get adopted by the junior members, who parrot it simply as a means to ALSO appear successful and keep them out of the limelight. Anyone who voices an opinion outside of this tends to get railroaded by said junior members, who are looking to establish themselves higher in the pecking order. This repeats to the point that forums become something of an echo chamber, and an outsider can grasp the thoughts OF said echo chamber.

Every forum I have been to has done this, and even t-nation is guilty. I happen to like the echo chamber that is here, but I’m not going to lie; I greatly enjoyed the conflict that used to exist. T-nation actually ran a LONG time with a large conflict between core members, and it was fascinating to observe.

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Dude, you’re not cut out for this. Go eat a cheeseburger.

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I believe it was hamburgers.

And sometimes, he wasn’t wrong about that, haha.

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Ya, I think you’re right. Who eats plain hamburgers anyway… It’s no wonder X took so much heat, lol.

Once, I was walking into the bathroom at some bar. At the time, I was one of those fat guy, perma bulkers. I passed some huge dude coming out as I was going in.

He said, “You couldn’t eat another hamburger!”

I didn’t know what to do.

97>half dozen.

Darn it. I’ll never be part of the over 200 lb. club. :anguished:

I forgot to count this thread =P

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I actually always have a tab open in my browser to the Forums because it’s where I’ve found my enjoyment of the site to really stem from. Yes, I will on occasion check the articles on the main page (usually because someone shoots me a text saying “have you read this?!” -lol), but at risk of sounding old and jaded (or possibly older and wiser?) not too many of them resonate with me for any number of reasons.

Like P3nisher pointed out, the authors of the articles as well as the forum posters will always bring different opinions to the table. The difference, is that in a forum, you can get a nice back and forth discussion, while an article usually presupposes that the author is an unquestionable expert on the topic being discussed and isn’t usually available for Q&A, let alone to be called out on inaccuracies by others.

S

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People hate on everything. Look at Facebook - it’s a hodgepodge of people’s babies and silver bullets from Deepthroat. Barf. It’s the reality. I like this site, I buy products when I can from Biotest, I use insight from the great articles, I recommend articles when others ask questions…