Boatnerd Forums

An enthusiast forum about shipping related affairs, mainly focused on great lakes operations.

Unfortunately it is also run by shadowy mods, who do not operate with any transparency. They don't explain their actions. Posts and topics vanish for nothing. Criticism is dismissed without further regard. Nepotism apparently runs rampant as certain people (ie their chums) are given a free pass to be rude assholes to others, while any attempt by others to engage with those individuals just disappears. It's not even clear who the mods are, or how many of them exist.

Then there's the userbase. Which isn't as horrible as some forums. But there is a minority present, who make the forums an unfriendly environment. They can be mean spirited, rude and condescending to others - especially people new to the hobby - who they have also been seen to openly loathe. Worst of all, instead of politely correcting and offering their unique insights, they will instead assassinate any posts they don't deem worthy, by getting the complicit mods to delete them, even though there was no reason they should've been deleted at all. The worst of these people, seem to be people from the industry, or who were in the industry and now have nothing better to do with their lives.

All in all. Things are unlikely to change here. Save yourself the aggravation and just go to one of the Facebook groups instead.

Bob joined the Boatnerd Forums, only to be viciously and condescendingly attacked for his enthusiasm.

Jeff made a speculative post in the Boatnerd Forums only to have his post mysteriously deleted for no reason.