Anyone use the Pearl Drummers' Forum website regularly?

Bad Tempered Clavier

Silver Member
About a year ago I was looking to get rid of an old Pearl Export and I trawled the internet looking for advice on how much it might be worth. Pearl USA has a support forum so I joined up in order to find what I needed. I've dipped in and out of it ever since and though I never used drum forums much before I picked up a few good tips and found that some of the people who frequent the site are very knowledgeable about drums.

Unfortunately one recent stumbling block for me has been the behaviour of one their moderators. If you've ever been there you'll know the one I mean: he's been there seemingly since the beginning of time and is very proud of the fact that he's notched up something like 25,000 posts. Despite the fact he clearly knows a great deal about drums he tends to use this as well as his belief that he is an expert on pretty much everything else as an excuse to rampage around the threads barking belligerently at anyone who disagrees with him and even goading them to contradict him. Of course, all of the walks of life that he has excelled in are the rough-and-tumble macho pursuits that real men engage in - i.e. the military, firearms, hunting, firefighting, train-driving: engaging in discourse with him is like talking to a cross between GI Joe and Glenn Beck.

I have no problem with this person having his say on whatever the topic of the day is but what I find distasteful is the fact that he accepts no responsibility for his position as moderator or even acknowledges that such a position is any different to any regular user. He often says things like "I tell it like it is", which to me sounds like shorthand for "I am a complete sociopath" and the other day slapped down another forum member who accused him of poor moderation by saying that he as a moderator was as subject to the rules of the forum as anyone else and as his posts are never censored or deleted he therefore could not be justly accused of stepping outside of those rules. All of this ignores the fact that the job of deciding what does and does not constitute an infraction of said rules relies solely on the interpretation of those rules by - guess who - the moderators: and there isn't a chance that any of the other moderators are going to shut this guy up as he's practically part of the furniture. This was in a non-drum thread that, given the subject concerned armed robbery, inevitably had a lot of political content (something which is supposed to be against their rules) yet he felt free to spew his political views all over the place without any regard for the brazen hypocrisy he displayed by threatening to ban other members for posting political content.

Obviously, it would be no loss to ignore the parts of the forum which don't deal with drums, but because he sticks his nose into almost every other part that is about drums as well he is all over the site like a rash. As I said, I never used forums much before last year and I have come here to find a bit of peace and so far have found people to be a lot more courteous; is this guy typical of internet forums? Am I being naive to expect better from those who have been put in charge of what others can and cannot say?
 
Are you referring to Slipknot1? I've never found him to be anything but helpful and knowledgeable. Yeah, he has his opinions and he isn't afraid to voice them, but considering that the Pearl Drummers Forum is full of some pretty obnoxious people at times, he's still very tame compared to many users. In addition to that, he actually knows what he's talking about most of the time. A large part of the userbase there are guys who like having opinions, but who have very little experience to back them up.

If you're referring to someone else, I guess I must have missed something.

In any case, coming here to speak badly of other forums won't be looked upon too kindly, I fear. Forum wars are often very nasty, and always completely unecessary. I suggest that if a moderator ruins the experience of a forum, just leave and find another place to hang out.
 
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I go there almost every day because I recently bought a Pearl drum set. I have not noticed what you mentionned. Peace and goodwill.
 
Hey BTC--first, welcome.

Other than it being linked to something, I haven't even looked around Pearl's forum.

I've heard other complaints about that forum, and it's been said that if you hint at negative remarks to Pearl gear, you're shot down in flames.
I guess if you went and said "I bought a Pearl "___" and it blew chunks" and didn't say why, or say it nicer and was just an idiot, you could get some flack haha!
That goes with anything though.

Don't know if it's true in every case, but since I don't use Pearl drums, I haven't bothered either.

I like it here, and the people are nice, knowledgeable, and have a nice mix of backgrounds and views on things.

I'm also on the Sabian site (and it's great, and friendly), but it's not as active a forum as Drummerworld is.

I can't recall hearing rumblings about mods here.
Most "disagreements" here are pretty friendly, and only a few threads have gotten testy--mainly non-drum gear related.

I wouldn't have the patience to say active on a forum where someone like your example moderator invoked his views over everything people say.
When it comes to gear, what I use would not work for most people--and a lot of people wouldn't even want to consider using some of the stuff I do, but it works for me, and that's all that matters.
If someone started ragging on me for it, I wouldn't "participate" anymore.
25K posts means you need a real life to me, unless it's your 9-5 job.....and a site doesn't grow, or stay good if people are driven away.
 
Haven't spent much time on the Pearl forum, but I was a member of another forum where the moderators were all into every thread. I didn't like that. Your experience with that moderator doesn't make me want to go there.

I would say that this forum is lightly moderated - at least as mod participation in threads goes. There are trolls on any forum and when they appear on this one they usually get the ban hammer before too long. Of the half-dozen forums I've either lurked on or participated in, this one is by far my favorite.
 
As I currently don't own any Pearl drums, I've never really posted on their forum.

But I am a moderator on another (non-music related) forum. And I can say it's a pretty thankless job.

You don't get paid, but people expect you to be on the ready 24-7.

If you deleted a few questionable posts, the complain box fills up with accusations you're over moderating. If you leave those posts go, the complaint box fills up with accusations that you're not doing your job and letting people get away with too much. It doesn't matter how you handle any situation, someone is going to complain you didn't do it the way they would have done it.

And some think moderators aren't supposed to have opinions, or should only be posting things that are 100% supportive of everything. Well, sorry, we're people to. We wouldn't be moderators if we didn't have a vested interest in the topics the forum covers.

So I have no idea about this person you're talking about. I have no idea if he's the nicest guy ever or a complete rear end.

But think about it from the mod's point of view: He puts in a lot of hours, gets no pay, and someone is always complaining about him and calling him names, because he either did too much or not enough, and there is no middle ground that will please everyone. And now here you are on another forum posting complaints about him.

How would you feel if someone went to different sites and complained about you?

And the other thing is, if you don't like the way a particular topic is being discussed, then don't discuss it. Move on to the next thread. Their site, like this one, has hundreds of threads. Not every thread is interesting or going in a direction I feel like taking part of. So, click, on to the next discussion.
 
I'm a member of the PDF as well. I've never had a problem with Slipknot1 personally but i understand where your comeing from and your not the first person to complain about him. I don't post there anymore, not because of anyone there but because this forum IMO has better people with much more professional opinions on drums and music period.

I say if your not happy there find another forum that you think you can fit in and have fun. Whatever the case may be, good luck to ya and welcome to DW!
 
coming here to speak badly of other forums won't be looked upon too kindly, I fear. Forum wars are often very nasty, and always completely unecessary. I suggest that if a moderator ruins the experience of a forum, just leave and find another place to hang out.

I can say it's a pretty thankless job [. . .] How would you feel if someone went to different sites and complained about you?

I don't want to start a fight with anyone - quite the opposite; the Pearl Forum itself is often frequented by people who are very helpful and informative and I include the moderator in question amongst these people. However, as I alluded to, I am perhaps not as savvy with internet forums (of any kind) as some and as such I wasn't sure what to make of this person's general demeanour.

The only reason I wanted to ask about this on this forum was to see if either

(a) this kind of carrying on is the accepted norm on the web and as such I should shut up and deal with it (or indeed move along), or
(b) this kind of behaviour is not what people expect and any members from here who were likely to have been there and witnessed it could recognise some of what I described.

I would have posed this question on their own forum but doubtless it would have descended into some kind of slanging match and that doesn't help anyone. It is not my intention to defame anyone over something as innocuous as a chat forum, I just reached the point where I felt that if this was the accepted way of conducting oneself on that site then I'd do well to look elsewhere.
 
I don't want to start a fight with anyone - quite the opposite; the Pearl Forum itself is often frequented by people who are very helpful and informative and I include the moderator in question amongst these people. However, as I alluded to, I am perhaps not as savvy with internet forums (of any kind) as some and as such I wasn't sure what to make of this person's general demeanour.

The only reason I wanted to ask about this on this forum was to see if either

(a) this kind of carrying on is the accepted norm on the web and as such I should shut up and deal with it (or indeed move along), or
(b) this kind of behaviour is not what people expect and any members from here who were likely to have been there and witnessed it could recognise some of what I described.

I would have posed this question on their own forum but doubtless it would have descended into some kind of slanging match and that doesn't help anyone. It is not my intention to defame anyone over something as innocuous as a chat forum, I just reached the point where I felt that if this was the accepted way of conducting oneself on that site then I'd do well to look elsewhere.


Slip comes off to some as arrogant. No question. He is dry, opinionated and rarely displays a sense of humor. No question. He is also a very experienced drum tech and every other tech likely. If you get upset with him just call him on it privately or publicly in a civilized fashion and work it out, or don't. We had a minor issue and it was settled quickly and quietly but publicly. And it may happen again. No biggy.
I am a Pearl guy and I think it's fantastic to have such a resource as the Pearl forum. It is pretty much unprecedented in drumming far as I know. You don't need Pearl drums to participate at all and everybody enjoys discussion and pics of other brands.
I have actually found this site to be moderately Pearl unfriendly but that may just be my perception after visiting the wildly Pearl friendly PDF. I enjoy it anyway and have learned tons of stuff from both sites.
Remember at the PDF you not only get Slip, who by the way always gives out proper advise, but you get Al Percival and Gene Okamodo. Both great helpful Pearl guys.
 
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