Well as a newbie to the forum I came here looking for technical help and also wanting to check out the trading section. I have since really enjoyed the restoration threads and reading those have given me the confidence to think about doing one myself when I can find the right pin. I wouldn't attempt it tho without knowing I could come back here throughout the process and pick the brains of the generous and experienced members who share their knowledge.
So when I login I check the trading section first then the restoration thread.
As for the General Section, let me start by saying what I don't like about Pinside (I will relate it back to this forum). On pinside you have people that seem to want to be a celebrity amongst the forum, they have a character or persona that they seem to love to play. They thrive on being known. Little men playing games on the internet if you ask me. So I have to say I don't see Pinside as a very friendly site for people to post on as you get clowns that just rip into them for having a different opinion. Similarly, people seem to talk down or completely ignore you if you don't have the same level of expertise or knowledge on something when it comes to technical stuff and finding/fixing faults. It also seems very clicky Fortunately I don't see much of this on here which is what has kept me logging in and checking the site out. The General Section does suffer on the odd occasion from the above scenario, but nothing significant or continual which is good.
On a separate note I have to say as a newbie it took me so long to find all the sections on the forum. I honestly posted in a section once then it took me ages to find it again next time I logged in. there are so many sub forums, I started to try and count them once and I think I lost count after 30. There were subforum inside subsections inside subsections.
But in summary I really like the forum and it would be a shame if people with a wealth of knowledge leave it. Certainly from my selfish perspective as someone that wants to learn more, I would hate to see them go. Even with all the new pins and progress happening in pinball, the fact is they always bloody breakdown and get hammered so we are always going to need good technical and restoration threads regardless of where Stern, JJP et al take the hobby. So I hope this site can continue to be a wealth of knowledge in that area.
