www.avforums.com Reviews 250

I've been a member for a few years now, and really enjoy the variety of topics that are covered.

I'm a 2ch hi-fi enthusiast who also loves headphones. However I also game on PC, and have a slight interest in politics, current affairs and motoring.

This forum caters for all, and the moderation seems fair and just from my perspective.

It's a shame to think that because some don't agree with a certain stance they come here to post a negative review.

Discussion on the forum is engaging and allows different viewpoints which is why I enjoy visiting them. It would be a shame to see this change because a few members cannot behave, or disagree with a certain stance.

The forum owner has apparently decided to close the Russia and Covid sections of the forum. His reason is that they cause toxicity and negative attention to be drawn to the forum.

However, the fact is that these problems have been caused by the policies put in place by the very same forum owner, and he's now wondering how this happened and what to do about it, which is both amusing and ironic.

In the sections in question, he put in place policies which prevented members stating certain opinions and taking certain positions. He also made it open season on aggressive attacks and bullying directed towards those whose stated views were deemed at odds with the forum position, and the moderation policy was to allow these attacks and abuse in clear contravention of the core forum rules.

It should therefore be no surprise that this treatment would result in a toxic effect, which would be manifest somewhere like Trustpilot since it was impossible to do so on the forum.

The forum owner has only himself to blame for the situation he finds himself in, along with those moderators willing to enforce his policies.

This is a great AV forum with informed and up to date information.
Its also got an excellent set of general interest, and politics forums - which cover important current issues well , in a friendly way, with some very well informed posters who choose to post here from a good range of viewpoints. It works well- because unlike the newspaper equivalents, the questions, debates new information, and arguments don't get lost in hundreds or thousands of comments. Its also effectively lightly moderated - so that the few with rigid extreme views are not allowed to try and shut arguments down .
The price of ensuring a positive , productive debate, may be that some of those intolerant souls with strong views, may pop in sites like this to protest that the majority, or reality, may not agree with them.....

Awful biased moderation regarding Russia/Ukraine and Palestine/Israel. Moderators clearly have an Israel and Ukraine opinion that neither can do any wrong whatsoever and any dissent is crushed with either a ban or a shadow ban denying the right of reply. Same goes for opinion re Corbyn and the anti semitism accusations, honest discussion will lead to a ban.

The site continues to be be a very friendly and useful site. Sam has posted several inaccurate reviews in one of which he has threatened actual bodily harm and contains extremely bad language. I am surprised that this has been allowed here.

Have been visiting this forum for many years and find it one of the most knowledgable forums, tech and advice wise. Also find the politics and general chat forums extremely interesting, with very intelligent, considered and humorous opinions. Great to visit a forum which reflects the majority of my opinions and those of my family’s and friend’s :)

Divisive forums, heavy handed mods. It is not a nice place to be.

The war threads are a disgrace. The sight is audio visual but the posts that are allowed to posted on the war are a disgrace. As usual on the threads there there are several posters who try to take over every thread no matter the subject and bully anybody who doesnt agree with them The loss of life on both sides is terrible but the way they glorify any deaths is obscene. The endless send in Nato posts and the desire to see western powers lose people in a war between none nato countries is really poor. Of course Putin is is a maniac but to many posters advocate death and destruction. They post is social media posts are actually what is happening and critisize UK gov endlessly. Only a small fraction of the arms being provided is in the public domain yet they post as if they know everything. The war thread detracts from the point of the website and the owner needs to shut down the war threads. If you make any point that doesn't fit in with the agenda there you get banned straight away.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The owner of the site made a thread denouncing Trustpilot, and is the sort of man to make fake 5 star counter reviews by himself or his cronies.

My thread was about an ambiguous advert by the cable company QED and regarded a cable I already own from them. He said my thread was also ambiguous and is a non-starter hearing what others have to say without proof. The moderator would rather show no mercy and make you feel tiny or inept, that is for definite. He also confused (or chose to translate) my feelings of worry as slander against QED. Since it's obvious they want companies and advertisers to feel safe on their platform. Pathetic. People showing worry, wanting assurances or practicing caution with brands or products it seems will lead to staff trying to find a way to ridicule you. So much for seeking some help on an AV forum for AV guidance ey?

However I have seen it on many audio forums, people working at an audiophile product company chiming in, someone who is intimate with a company knowing the score, someone who owns said product and knows for sure on it, as they are technical themselves. Etc. Or maybe others could interpret the advert better than I. Or offer more technical insight into cable design etc. So I thought, why not, and uploaded the thread anyway whilst I wait for the email from QED, if it would ever come that is. So the thread was also a sort of insurance in that scenario as well, that could lend some form of assurances if the email from QED never came. As some form of assurances is better than me alone wondering.

So there you go. Oh and the admin was hot to protect the moderator. And other non-staff people were also somewhat keen to sling mud.

What a nice place. Not.

Care for posters is if you care for their need to keep words sweet on potential advertisers. It's how the place is ran. Of course, this is enforced and so in this way the moderators feather the avforums.com owner's financial nest. So do expect the owner or admin to come to a moderator's rescue like a fiery vile greedy beast. This dogged truth is something they try to gloss over with professionalism throughout the website, but the stench is still there. They can try as hard as they want but the ugliness of the characters who have been selected to run the show and the vile owner fail everytime.

Hey, if you like consumerism to high heavens and talk of brands a lot, speak of love for them then you won't end up scathed and people/staff will have fun with you!

As for advertisers beware, you don't want your products to be associated and framed in a website that is draped in greed, unnecessarily tight conversation control and moderation abuse. It doesn't look good for your image.

A lovely place right? No. Avoid it. Protect your dignity. That's the message here.

Joined for AV advice, not much help there despite some "glowing" reviews here.

But I fell afoul of the Lifestyle subforum clique.
A group that never post outside of Politics and General.
Remarkably toxic, even by anonymous internet forums.

So I quit, and then the racist and abusive emails started.
Certain members seemed annoyed I had left, that I wasn’t responding to their baiting and abuse.
They wanted the last word.
Someone, either the site owner or moderators have given my email address to certain members.

Just to be clear, I DID NOT GIVE AVFORUMS PERMISSION TO CONTACT ME OR PASS MY ADDRESS ON TO OTHERS.

But they seem in thrall to certain posters, when I complained I was told “these are trusted members”.
Trusted members?
Wow.
Even forwarding the emails made no difference, they took the members side and had the nerve to state I deserved the abuse.
I must have done something to deserve it.
So join at your own risk.
AVForums will pass personal information with the intent of its members harassing you.

Great site for info on various tech and a good and active forum for general subjects.

This can be a very useful place to get tech reviews and advice and they do a fantastic podcast.

However…

I would advise caution when using the forums for other things such as politics. The threads often seem to turn into arguments and unfortunately, opinions that go against popular consensus often result in bans or suspensions.

Perceived favourites of mods gang up on posters they don’t agree with and it can become thoroughly unpleasant, more akin to playground bullying than adults having an informed debate.

I would add that I am an active member and have been for a few years and have not been on the receiving end of some of the poorer behaviour but it is certainly a shame to see. The reviews and podcast remain brilliant though.

I notice that the forum owner has had a lengthy and pitiful whinge about trustpilot in their general chat section.

Instead of addressing the issues, he just moans about them being raised.

I hear that he hates the politics section and would love to close it down, but he's reliant on the ad revenue it generates.

Much of the criticism is due to the hilarious pet sections relating to Covid and Russia, where he has designated certain allowed and disallowed opinions, and pet moderators to enforce them.

It really isn’t difficult to work out why the forum and its staff attract so much ridicule and derision

Dave that is a bad joke the forum is not a supporter. The monk villain has hundreds of disinformation posts and you say they are deleted, a lie. His accomplices have hundreds of posts and not deleted, a lie. Fake opponents and fake moderators make stupid points and support his are not deleted, a lie. If they did not delete all Russian agents posts and the fake opponents they polish Putin shoes. Fake opponents and Siberian moderators say Monk here Monk there Monk everywhere. Rasputin laughs.

Not even useful for AV reviews these days.

Increasingly, this site is merely an advertising platform where the product reviews are essentially paid advertising and visitors are constantly hit with intrusive ads, pop ups and Javascript attacks

How come a hi-fi forum is propagating extreme and dangerous ideas? As per many reviews below, it's evident that it's one-sided.

So why would it be extreme and dangerous exactly? Because it's big and influential and allows no dissent from the owner's agenda. But lots of websites and forums are similar, are they not? No, and here's why:

AVForums appears to be a discussion board, which it is for the audio/visual content - but not for politics or other contentious issues. But you wouldn't necessarily know that straight away. So you'd treat it like any other general content forum, see the views expressed, and perhaps be influenced by the weight of views that you see.

So with Covid, for example - eveyone seems to be on board with the official narrative. Try and point out anything remotely questioning the narrative, even in an innocuous and non-assertive way and your post will be removed. That's dangerous because a) 'innocent' readers will be left with the impression that they are out of step with the general population, and b) won't be in possession of facts which could prevent them making a life-changing (or life-ending) decision.

This wouldn't be the case with The Guardian or the Socialist Worker - you expect bias. But not on a hi-fi forum. So you'd have no reason to believe that there would be a biased agenda.

We have to get our information from somewhere, and the direct experiences of others as expressed in open internet discussion forums have become one important means of communicating. Trustpilot is another. These types of entity are generally expected to be what they purport to be, and so readers might easily be lulled into a false perception regarding others' views on certain topics if there is no indication of there being a political bias.

What are made to appear to be the views and opinions of a general audience are the views and opinions approved of by one man. He's entitled to run his site however he wants, but the politics section can't fairly be classed as a discussion board or forum. It's a champagne socialist's propaganda rag.

Thanks for your cancel culture bid to turn Trustpilot into the same sort of echo chamber you and people who share your views have turned AVF into.

Maybe I'm wrong, but not once have I noticed you contributing to any discussion relating to audio visual equipment. You only appear in the political threads where your participation appears to consist of a lot of concurring emojis and the occasional comment.

With that in mind, how can you honestly believe reviews about what AV Forums has become are any less relevant than those about what AV Forums purports to be?

Maybe AV Forums needs to look into the relevance of subject matter being 'discussed' there based on what it defines itself as?

Seems hilarious that so many are complaining about a small section of the AVF website, when the point of this site is to advise on Audio and Visual equipment, something they do well.
Preventing lies being spread about vaccines (amongst other issues), has triggered these to offer irrelevant one star reviews, which have nothing to do with the main purpose of AVF. - Maybe Trustpilot need to look into their reviewing system, which currently allows irrelevant reviews to be posted. If this post is irrelevant under such rules then so be it.

Honoured to be part of a forum where such known celebs as iron giant and richp are members. The amount of mentions they get here I feel like I'm part of something special, the Kardashian's of the av world!

Keep it up boys, trustpilot legends!

Very good technical reviews, balanced film/tv reviews. The forums overall are well behaved but they have major issues in the general chat area which in parts is out of control. Moderation is not balanced leaning heavily to pretty much anything left wing with many members seemingly there to just argue, bully and 'cancel' any member who has their own opinion and some moderators jump in stoking the flames. To retain credibility AVF needs to either get some new moderators or shut down the general chat section completely.