I have written elsewhere about the toxic, incestuous nature of motorcycle user forums. Recently another user forum decided to make me persona non grata. Was it because I espoused technical ideas contrary to the accepted norm? Nope. Surprisingly, they allowed me a byline and even though I slaughtered a few technical sacred cows in it over a period of several years, that wasn't what turned them against me. But the forum was skeptical of everything I wrote. Did they cancel me because I defamed their "favored son" on the forum, a self-proclaimed expert and an advertiser of long standing? No, actually I scrupulously avoided doing that on the forum. But not on my website. When the forum admin found out that several years before I had written a critical review of this person's work, at his request by the way, that's when I was sanctioned. Do you understand what this says about the inner workings of user forums? Why I call them incestuous and toxic?

And this is the way in every powersports forum. Rebuke instead of rebuttal. Shame instead of objective debate. Oligarchy instead of democracy. Do not touch the sacred cow.

Part 11