I decided to check out all the "other" forums

Here is my biased report ~

hdforums-dotcom/ charges its members to join and get a real membership
you can get a free one but with "limitations" on where you can go... seems f'd up to me...

hdtalking-dotcom
this place wouldn't let me sign up without my parents permission... hMMMM but they're dead...

harley-davidsonforums-dotcom
joined up and made my first post, lets see if anyone over there welcomes me like i welcome the newbs here.
Funny thing, the registration return email address was for somewhere else... hmmm

v-twinforum-dotcom
server had a brain fart and stopped working, I'll have to try back later i guess...

So out of 4 hopefuls,
I got to register to 1 and so far no body even said hi pal.

I'm starting to like this forum even more and I didn't think that could happen.
anybody else have a forum? Cause the others kinda suck.
HRF I think i love you

You sure picked some weinners. HD Forum sux,HDTalking sux,VTwin sux..juries still out on HD motorcycle forum. The definition for sucking is heavy handed and selective censoring. The multi bike forums are the worst. Even though they have a section for HD's.....HD bashing is allowed but metric bashing is not. So far TMF,MU and MF are that way.

Try hdherd.com

HRF only knock is its not heavily trafficked and thats frustrating at times.

I don't go to any other bike forums, either. LOL, got myself banned from the XL forum! I think the problem there was that I actually owned a Sportster--or any bike--and actually rode the thing!

Being retired gives me enough time to read an immediate 'real time' flow of answers coupled with the emotion of the moment. Granted, I love that. Real debates from real bikers. The problem is that you cannot build an entire forum on one sole aspect of motorcycling. The guys have to ride, and either fix their own bikes or know enough nomenclature about their own bike to translate the issue to a competent mechanic.

(Before the flames, let me state that I don't own a diagnostic computer or a dynomometer, myself. New motorcycle CPUs need service like any other component. Each year I can do less and less, but then, then applies to my truck and my lap-top, as well. I can service loose bolts, trace oil leaks and detail a bike with proper cleaners and cloths. Most guys now cannot.)

You mentioned one specific forum. Their moderator is Madison guy, and I know him and ride with him occasionally. His guess is that 30% of the 'bikers' do not actually own a bike--any bike, of any make.

Tourist I've lost track of he forums I've been banned from...which blows my mind given the so called freedom of the open road mentality and bikers being blah blah blah......

The lifestyle is infiltrated by f'ing posers I tell you and they can't handle the truth! Either that or the politically correct crowd has infiltrated the lifestyle? And it is a lifestyle not just a hobby or another toy but a way of life for many.

1st buy a Harley
2nd ride it
3rd ride it far and long
4th manage to somehow keep one a lifetime thru lifesa trials and tribulations
5th at least know the basics(oil,filter,plus etc..)
6th meet and maintain friendships with said/same other riders thru a lifetime of trials and tribulations
7th stay alive while doing 1-6
8th most importantly...pay it foreward

I gotta ask you guys to clarify some thing for me?
"f'ing posers" gets thrown around and what it means in real words to you so I can understand it.

Knowing that ALL are welcome here, and there are many levels to motorcycling, what differentiates someone that always wanted a Harley, comes to the forum to get a little knowledge and start the process of #1-8 from a "f'ing poser"?

We all started somewhere, for me it was 1968 when I decided I wanted an Electaglide with all my heart, I was 8 years old, and forums didn't exist. Now anyone can forum up and get involved but I would have had a broken heart if some one called me a P.O.S.er just cause I wasn't up to their level yet.
IMHO, a little discretion will go a long way getting our members back and new ones involved.
Talk of ass kicking bar brawls and prospects might be a little intimidating to the 99%'s
granted I don't care what your colors are, we are all brothers in the wind and I treat everyone like that
but most aren't like me - afflicted with the "Warrior Gene". Talk of clubs and enforcers seems to send them running and for good cause - they are and will always be scared of that life. Still they have tall tales to tell and deserve a stool next to us to soak up our experiences and for us to see things through the eyes of a wide eyed kid again.

Well, as far as forums go, a poser is just a guy without a bike that just shoots off his mouth. He pretends to be a biker, but usually his responses and jargon are "half a bubble off plumb." I usually ask these guys if I should change out the 'mousetrap' on my Sportster to a copper one, or the cheaper resin kind. I've one guy answer that question...

In real life, I think we meet more dentists and insurance salesmen. You know the type, brand new road clothes, fresh ink and a pristine 883 with about twenty total miles on it. Calls me 'bro' and dazzles me with tales of the road. Kills the engine in the parking lot letting out the clutch.

Now, don't get me wrong, I was lucky being folded into the bike world. I'll be the first one to admit that I was a stupid, loud mouth newb. I always say that I was not a biker when I patched, but I sure was one when I went inactive. I use the skills living in the company of real men every day. And I believe the biggest mistake we make with boys is not offering them a rite of passage or a mentor. You have kids who just mimic biker movies, and have no idea about things like keeping your word, or standing shoulder to shoulder.

In many ways I am not a biker now. I do not live much of the lifestyle and I ride alone more than I ride in a pack. However, a few years back the then prez of our club, Harpo, asked me and several other old graybeards to come back, full patch. His reason? Too many newbs, too little respect and knowledge.

So a poser is a pretender, but a mouthy newb is just as bad. Why can't a newb just admit to being a newb as say, "I don't know." I'd help that guy all day long. For example, did you see the way a potential new member talked to us, well, especially me? Guess what would have happened to a prospect.

BTW, I think I've been banned fourteen times. Usually on my 'conduct.' My attitude was 'frak 'em.' I think the reason I made it here was that this forum stands for the things I was banned for in other places. To me, that's a good thing.

I quoted the "Whole" post because I couldn't agree with it more.
WE see through the same eyes, feel the same dis-respects, and have the same expectations from our members.

For us, we are the mentors both in life and cyber space. As a mentor It Is Our Duty to remember back to the days before we became the Men we Are to help our junior/younger/less experienced members rise up through the various levels we have passed through. Keeping in mind - A disrespect from someone that doesn't know any better might not be an actual disrespect but lack of experience. Still they have to learn that won't fly and won't be tolerated either. If they do it a second time - then we tap 'em on the nose, but we have to show them respect is earned and what is right from wrong - the rules of being a biker, biker etiquette.

Remember 99% of the people in life and in cyber space don't have a clue, patience with them is the best way to get the next generation pointed in the right direction.
A poser can become an ally with a little education.

Well, I guess that's the modern way, but my original prez came within a red pubic hair of kicking my ass--in the parking lot of our favorite bar, with all of the members watching. Forty one years ago, and I still remember the dressing down I got.

Yes, we can change. I did. When I went inactive it was the same man who suggested I get to keep my colors.

This is why I believe in stern, hard guidelines for newbs. The very nature of throwing a leg o'er means that the newb is probably a Type-T personality like the rest of us. Show him a weak hand and he assumes his conduct bears no consequence.

The biggest complaint I get from the remaining 'old guard' is that present day newbs are both mouthy and clueless.

I feel your prez was right, and that's what I'm talking about.
I didn't mean be soft on them.

As you post Tourist your words strike me as reflections of a past club member in good standings and limited encourgement for future Harely owner ideology. And there lies the difference...99.9% of all forums are for riders not patch hlders or aspiring patch holders. And the fact that someone comes on here and owns and rides a Harley-Davidson is epic and extremely commendable under the peer pressure for young riders especially, to go metric,best bang for your buck, better horse power to price ratio blah blah blah....... Harley's f'ing rule,period! And said newbie HD rider owner should be nurtured and gently encouraged and not lambased using tenured and narrow criteria such as patch holder expectations.

Do you know how much Harleys are despised by the metric, non Harley riding crowd...I'll tell you...tons! So much so that multi bike forums are a lie, a facade of equality. Oh you'll get a tolerant metric rider here and there, they are the extreme minority.All multi bike forums allow HD bashing but does not tolerate metric bashing because metric riders ultimately have Harley envy...why do you think they buy shadows and deck them out to look like Harleys...really. Met6ric riders are so jealous of Harley Davidson it kills them.

HD bashing on multibike forums is a subtle observation but one that I have seen and experienced first hand to be true on every so called metric bike forum I've participated on. A multi bike forum is as real as saying all season tires or one bike being a show bike and a every day use bike....just isn't real.

So, if anyone, no matter how negatively perceived, shows up on a HD forum owning a HD, he/she should be embraced first that he/she has good taste in motorcycles, welcomed with patience and applauded for acting on his good taste in motorcycles.

Comparing every HD rider to the club scale of acceptability is wrong,unfair and leaves little wiggle room for personal road worthy growth.

Now go to the HA,Bandito's,Pagans,AOA, and other such web sites and wade in there with your view and see how that goes. And that has been by and large part of your forum assimilating issues because the folks here and other such HD forums, to them your speaking japanese but why I ultimately liked you. I get what your saying,I also underdstand why others don't and why you need to acquire a modicum of sensitvity to that as well.

How am I doing?