I've been using this site since 2016 (albeit not a frequent poster) and it's a shame to see how it's gone downhill with the wealth of info on here.
1000x this. I've only been here three years and the quality has absolutely
plummeted in that time. People used to come here with really good questions pertaining to pretty complex gremlins, asked by people who already tried fixing it to the best of their abilities, whittled down common denominators and exhausted their options over the course of a month.
But that's hardly the case these days. Now the front page is constantly filled with posts along the lines of
"where do I buy a 74 bulb" or the classic
"my car is making a weird noise, any suggestions are appreciated"; The latter are difficult to deal with because typically they're not mechanically inclined/car savvy so it takes a dozen posts to weasel out some very limited information before you get a slight idea of what's going on - while with the former you can't help but wonder if they're actually gonna bother to do what you suggest if they couldn't sacrifice such a small amount of effort from the start. Especially if it's something that could've been answered with a single, 30-second google search.
The other thing that blows my mind are the sheer number of threads made by people simply not willing to try what they're asking. And I don't mean a project like a Dana-300 swap that doesn't play out and now you're down 3 weeks and $2500 - it'll be stuff like
"I was looking at my 4Runner today and I realized it would be possible to get into the driver's seat from the passenger side if I crawl over the center console. Anybody ever try this? Can it be done?"; Extremely obvious stuff that poses no risk or investment, where they could've answered their own question if all they did was get up and go to their garage - but instead of taking the few minutes out of their day to try it, they find it better to post it online then sit around for a day or two until someone else chimes in. THEN they'll go try. It just makes no sense?? Worst of all, very frequently I'll see someone at their wits end ask for help about a gremlin they've been fighting for a few weeks, but they get drowned out by these nonsense threads being bumped.
I don't mean to imply that the forum should have some form of gatekeeping, that everyone should have the answers to everything before making an account, or that the only posts that should be allowed are ones worthy of a 4 page discussion; nor do I mean to come off as high-and-mighty like some lord or authority on post quality. But I do believe in the saying
"act like you want the help" and I believe it says a lot when people ask for strangers to put forth more effort than they themselves could bother. I'm positive these are not suddenly new issues and they certainly persisted before 2020, but when you compare stuff from even 5 years ago to now it really seems like less and less users see this as a forum, and rather more of a personal team of mechanics where they can get a free diagnosis without leaving their home, let alone contributing anything to the site. I often wonder how many actually do the work themselves, or if they simply take our comments to the mechanic and go
"I need you to fix this thing"
