I've had something typed into this box since the day you asked the question, but I hesitate to post it because it's beating a dead horse from me, it's an unpopular view, and I recognize that I may be wrong. Since this has semi-swerved back toward legitimate feedback, though, what the hell:
My problem has always been Vanilla. I've never had a "social media" account because I much prefer forums for online interaction. Sure, half my posts here are met with a "tl;dr" or "fuck off, Tequilla," but only half the time... Point is, forums are my jam, and I post on a lot of them. This one has to be my least favorite from a software experience standpoint. Every time Vanilla touches the code (and why, exactly, are they even doing that in the first place?), they seem to break something or add a "feature" that sucks. It's been at least a year now that clicking on a link brings you do a goddamned splash page telling you, "Hey, guess what links do: They take you to a different page! Good luck, and rep the north!" As of about two weeks ago, I'm going to post this, and it'll take me back to the parent page, where I'll see that there's a new post in this thread: the one I just posted. "Chins are not working, and Vanilla's been notified. We'll get them back next month."
All of this in the most expensive forum software that has ever existed, when there are alternatives that work and are literally free. It's such a weird value proposition to me, and I've said this before. The end result is that we have to raise nearly $10K to stay above water every year, which, divided by the number of people who see that kind of value in the place, puts the price pretty high. As high as a MotoGP streaming subscription, for instance, which is crazy when you consider what they are relatively.
We've been over this before, and I understand the counterarguments: People like Vanilla (familiarity?), Stalin wants to be jacking to Korean girls fishing on YouTube and not configuring and updating forum software all the time, etc. There's also a part of me that thinks maybe the high barrier of entry (without being a freeloader) is a good thing, as this place isn't for everyone.
It wouldn't be fair to point out what I don't like without pointing out the positive as well, so I'm going to somewhat counter @Canadawg's criticism: Although he's right that this isn't necessarily the place you want to go if you want to have a good ol' Huskie football circle jerk, it's pretty much the only place you can go where you can be honest about how badly the coaches suck or how much of a pussy Asa Turner is or how rad it is that Myles Gaskin fucked a girl so hard she shit herself. I don't come here for Husky football because I don't care that much anymore. I come here for the same reason people who quit smoking like hanging out in smokey bars: I've been to the Tug, so I want all of you to die painfully, but damn it if I don't appreciate you all for being willing to laugh at wheelchair jokes in a time where nothing's allowed to be funny anymore.
Anyway, that's all I got.
