As I have said elsewhere, powersports user forums can aptly be described as teeming pools of self-interest. Communities in which people try to impress each other, often concerning things they actually know little about. Witness how often posters simply copy and paste (often esoteric) information discovered on other websites such as Wikipedia. As if regurgitating blocks of Internet text shows intelligence. Forums can't help but devolve until they are merely venues of one-upmanship. Sort of rabid crowdsourcing for data. As Elon Musk so succinctly pointed out, social media isn't fueled by truth, it's all about click counts. Forums are not only the ultimate vanity press, they're social manipulation.

Several years ago in the course of my instructional designer role, I came upon a significant, amazing piece of information that was, naturally, in addition to being industry impacting, proprietary and copyrighted. A long-time aquaintance insisted (persisted, in fact) that I give him the digital file so he could post it online. I was taken aback. What's this about, I wondered? And I was speechless when he turned shaming and hateful because I opted to not give it to him. Not just mad, but "I'm no longer your friend, go to hell" mad.

Completely aside from the moral and legal considerations, the episode reinforced everything I have long observed about the wickedness that is a part of forum activity. Self-aggrandizement, the morally and psychologically questionable thrill of one-upmanship posting, the desperate, neediness-driven attention-getting--this is what fuels forums. It's a caustic theme that along with other ills defines what goes on there. Can't you see that? Do you really want to support it?

Part 12