RCgroups members hostility

[Tactical Ex]

I went to test out my FPV gear a few days ago and to my surprise there was another guy out on the field flying his plane. I usually fly alone, and don't belong to a club so this was quite a welcomed surprise to me. I watched him fly for a bit and then we took turns and chatting in between flights. He was a very welcoming guy and has been in the hobby for decades and wanted to educate me on all the stuff (which I welcome) he thought I should know (Maybe I have a noobish look to me). Anyways, I promote FT whenever possible so I mentioned how great a community is on the forum and how much I have learned from it and benefitted from it. At this point his face turned and I could see the eyebrows furl behind the shades he wore , then he said "I'm part of the original community, do you know what that is?" I answered RCGroups and he said "Yep" as if FT forums was encroaching on internet territory reserved for rcgroups and its loyal members. His whole demeanor did a 180 at this, it was so weird.

I know RCgroups gets a bad rep, maybe deservedly, but I had no idea that the members of it could harbor such animosity towards another forum group. Has anyone else experienced friction like this? I'm not talking about your experience ON rcgroups but your experience in person, talking about rcgroups and flite test.

 

[Tritium]

RC Groups reminds me of gang rivalry behavior patterns more than anything. Unfortunately so do most of our government employees (read that Legislators, not talking about you FM)

Thurmond

 

[Mid7night]

That's really sad, but I would be careful to jump to lumping the entire forum community into one bag based on a few hot-spot encounters. There are obnoxious people everywhere - they don't represent the whole.

I came from RCGroups, and I'm still active there, and there are even several threads in the Foamy section highlighting FT builds. My "Metal Mustang" has been pretty well received wherever I share it.

I'd really hate to see the forums descend to a rivalry - there's more than enough space in the hobby for both. A guy who thinks he represents the whole of RCGroups as "the original community" is a little deluded in his own right anwyay. There are plenty of free-flight sites that would beg to differ.

Stay classy all, and I do mean ALL, wherever you post!

 

[RoyBro]

Reminds me of the Mac / Windows / Linux rivalry. Except dumber. I mean, how many of us frequent both Flite Test AND RCGroups?

I mostly lurk on RCGroups, though.

 

[Tactical Ex]

That's really sad, but I would be careful to jump to lumping the entire forum community into one bag based on a few hot-spot encounters. There are obnoxious people everywhere - they don't represent the whole.

...

Stay classy all, and I do mean ALL, wherever you post!

I am not making any generalizations so I hope I don't come off that way. Don't get me wrong, this guy was very nice for the majority of the time, what I want to focus on was that it only seemed that FT and rcgroups was a sore spot for him.

 

[Tritium]

Ask him what issues he has with FliteTest is the best way to get to the bottom of things.

Thurmond

 

[RAM]

I have read posts in this forum that were very helpful and they were from rcgroups guys who came over here to comment and share ideas and links back to the rcgroups website. Rusty Mustard comes to mind but I'm sure there are more.

Maybe he was just poking fun at your noobness . This site (flitetest) prides itself on getting people into the hobby. FliteTest is the reason my son and I took up the hobby recently. They deserve a lot of credit for making the hobby entry level friendly. Most of the stuff I read on rcgroups goes right over my head for now and that's ok, I'm just starting out. If rcgroups is the original then they should be proud. I wouldn't take it as a personal attack, just a guy who is proud of his heritage.

 

[ViperTech]

I have a friend that I built a Bloody wonder for and he took it to the local club and got the "Oh is that one of those FT foam board things?" He is a balsa and premade plane guy.
He was polite and said yes, then flew it, and handed it over to the guy and said try it. The guy now wants one! He is in love with it!
I guess people just think one thing is better than another with out ever really giving it a chance, I have even seen this between depron and DTFB builders...Just crazy!

 

[Balu]

Yeah. "original community"... Does he know there was a time before the World Wide Web? Where newsgroups like rec.models.rc.air were the place to discuss things? =)

 

[FlyingMonkey]

"I'm part of the original community, do you know what that is?"

I know RCgroups gets a bad rep, maybe deservedly, but I had no idea that the members of it could harbor such animosity towards another forum group. Has anyone else experienced friction like this? I'm not talking about your experience ON rcgroups but your experience in person, talking about rcgroups and flite test.

It sounds like a case of tribalism. You insulted his tribe. Up until that point you were a neutral that posed no threat. You then identified yourself as part of a community, a "rival" community obviously by his reaction. It's a symptom of the "sports team mentality" that has gripped so many of us these days. If you're not with us, you're against us.

The only friction I've encountered was back in their early days (all three years ago) when they were working with HobbyKing. Small hobby shops were not too pleased with Flite Test because they were promoting what they saw as the enemy, the international online vendors.

 

[frogman]

Reminds me of the Mac / Windows / Linux rivalry. Except dumber. I mean, how many of us frequent both Flite Test AND RCGroups?

I mostly lurk on RCGroups, though.

Yes but I frequent both forums (FT more lately) but I won't touch a Mac. I don't allow them in my house....and I'm a media professional. Guess I'm that guy from RC Groups in the computer world. :black_eyed:

 

[Epitaph]

I've not had too much of a problem on RCGroups, but I have found in general, especially when starting a new post, if your post count isn't above a certain minimum then they just downright ignore you.

They mostly think they are the elite in this world and that no one should dare even speak to them... Yes they have some great mods for both planes and transmitters, amongst other things on that forum, but I would be interested to know when someone will actually decide to post the mod that shows how they can remove the stick they have rammed firmly up their backsides, because they are about as flexible as a length of "two-by-four" with it!

 

[whiskeyjack]

I'm not sure why buddy was so offended, our own Josh Bixler is a member or was a member on RCGroups, handle "Crazy Christian". Well at least that part hasn't changed, God bless I'm. WJ.

 

[Freaky_1]

lol Epitaph!

 

[avian]

I got a completely different welcome posting my project here on Flitetest compared to the same post on RC groups. Here there were no arrogance or condescending remarks anywhere. The only problem I have here is that I need my first project post (New guys corner) moved over to my chosen project Category (Mad scratch builders).

 

[SlingShot]

Tribalism. Pre-judgment of things one doesn't know about. Nerds with their egos bruised or feelings hurt. Perhaps an incentive based bias (the mom and pop hobby shop). I think you guys have the "problem" surrounded.

By all means ask your flying buddy what he doesn't like.You're likely to end up with a convert.

Edit: LOL. This is old.

 

[Daniel Kezar]

haha yeah i noticed that a lot of the ft forum threads are old and haven't been posted in for 4 years or more. i kinda like it. its like an exclusive community. only hardcore fans and real rc addicts can be found here.

 

[thenated0g]

I think the "problem" with rcgroups is it has the most members and so you get more of the "internet" in to it than flitetest forums. Flitetest is a very focused group whereas rcgroups has a LOT of different interests. I usually go to rcgroups for very specific information on builds but do my build logs and stuff on flitetest. I think there is also a different culture on rcgroups in a lot of areas, not all. People like to post factual information about why their way is better than the way you are doing it whereas flitetest is much more of a understanding place, in that everyone has certain steps on learning and making mistakes and your way of doing things is just that, your way, not the best or only way and we all like and appreciate the different ways we are all doing things.

I have also tried posting a few things in other forums and found similar issues. Flitetest forums is pretty unique.

 

[nhk750]

Never had any issues with RCG, everyone is really friendly. The problem I have, being a hardcore balsa builder now, is finding a good forum for my extensive build threads. It would be nice to get more feedback and advice geared towards building balsa airplanes. Once you get into balsa, you will find it hard to go back...

 

[willsonman]

While there are select few who really dive into the balsa arena, those who are here are quite active and will lend a voice when needed.

Being a long-time RC Groupy, there are inherent differences in the communities that have been outlined above. More often than not, those in the FT community are more open to new things and new ways of doing those things. Moreover, those in the FT community are more apt to share that knowledge and discuss it with an open mind.

These are just my personal observations but I should also note that I have never once had a bad experience with RCG. I have made some exceptional digital friends over there and been apart of some fantastic builds. I will also say that I've been able to personally interact with Jim Bourke over RealFlight subjects and he is a fine gentleman that is respectful. His business decision to sell RCG is his own and I applaud his efforts to grown this hobby to something bigger than itself over the evolution of the internet.