I've been coming here since I was 15, and can undoubtedly say this is the only drum forum that allows the 15-20 crowd an equal say as long as he/she has their act together. Quite often, there are issues in the drum world where there is no ironclad right or wrong, and is deserving of many perspectives where age and experience don't factor in. As someone born into this way of life I understand the musical mentor/ apprentice relationship, and I try to remain respectful of that. But forum culture is supposed to be different. It's an equal playing field, where the slate is wiped clean, primarily because so many do their business as semi anonymous figures capable of reinventing themselves at a drop of a hat, while those of us who use their real names, or are open about who they are, have to tread carefully.
I have visited other forums mostly dominated by older drummers where I could talk like the Dali Lama and still be called an arrogant upstart, who was rude and disrespectful towards his elders, by older drummers who either didn't take the time to actually read my comments, or simply didn't win the debate.
There have been times on other forums, where I questioned the opinion of a well known drummer and was attacked, not for what I wrote, but for not knowing my place. I remember one specific instance where I posted a video, and got a rash/flippant comment from a very famous drummer. Treading as carefully as possible I opened the dialogue by telling him how much I respected him, but could your perspective actually still accept etc etc. Within ten minutes I was wiped out, not by him, but by two falsely protective wing men, who showed up for no other reason than to elevate themselves through association. One of them even tried tried to claim that my use of the word respectfully was insincere. I knew the other guy very well as a struggling 45 year old drummer, who on several ocassions had left troll comments on my youtube account.
Five minutes after that, a very proactive moderator, who is an excellent drummer, but extremely opinionated himself, came on board to proclaim that I had never known my place in the drum world, that my opinions were things I said to elevate myself, that I was defensive, disrespectful, condescending etc, all the while never remotely considering that all the comments leveled in my direction had been all those things and more. I probably showed that alteraction to 20 professional musicians who had never visited a forum in their lives. One of them just laughed and said: They were mad because you were right and they were wrong. Then he googled the phrase passive/aggressive behavior. After that I understood.
Forums are sometimes about the debate as much as anything else. Some can't recognize healthy debate and call it arguing. For many, it's hard for them to accept a younger person's opinion, regardless of its accuracy, while often ignoring the hundreds of times when we willingly accept our errors. People here who have met me in the real world always seem surprised that I'm actually pretty chill. In fact the first thing I always say is Let's not talk about the forums, because I see this stuff as a different world where you exercise different muscles. And unless your comments are just an open flame /a whole other issue/ then it's nothing personal.
When I'm at NAMM for example, I don't want to talk about the Moeller Flame War of 2007. My job there is to network with contacts and sell you a drumstick. I don't take forum culture into every aspect of my life, but you would be surprised at the number of people who do. Not coincidentally most are older guys who still don't get the whole Internet thing because they never grew up with it like we did. And for people like that, you can still love them to death, but they will never understand that you were never really mad or defensive, or how their incorrect perspective had nothing to do with an opinion on a drum forum, that just maybe they got wrong.
When I see the respect given here to MFB, Karl, Britt, Tom G, foursticks and many others from this age range, I know that this is a rare thing on the Internet. And although it doesn't sit well at other places, it seems to work here.