Originally posted by house There's no doubt brand loyalist are doing Pentax no favours. The problem with having to zelaeaous fans was even mentioned by a Pentax high up in one of those rare interviews.
With respect, it's not about brand loyalists but forum loyalists.
I hope I speak for most members when I say folks here want to enjoy these forums as a brand-specific and - mostly - brand-positive social facility.
A good friend of mine PM'd me some weeks back asking if I was OK, because my level of posting in the forums had really tailed off in recent months (with the exception of moderating posts, though even those were somewhat less frequent). One of the reasons I gave him for my reduced involvement was, and I quote precisely, "
I'm weary of trying to re-balance brand-negative posts and threads". I still feel that way.
If I want to read folks venting about how badly Pentax is doing, how it missed the boat on mirrorless, how much better other brands are, how few new lenses Pentax has, how noisy they are due to screw drive, how this lens is far cheaper on other mounts than K-mount, how bad the marketing or servicing is, how my chosen brand is doomed to failure etc., I can join a non-brand-specific forum like DPR. Heck, it's almost a sport over there.
I expect some level of
constructive brand criticism here, of course, but non-constructive griping and venting about the same old issues and personal frustrations time and again helps no-one. It's really tiresome and frustrating - especially since we can't do anything to help. I don't think a week goes by without at least one such post, often more. If I went to a local weekly camera club meeting and there were two or three guys who always had some derisory comments to make about my chosen gear, I'd probably decide that wasn't the club for me.
Furthermore, as I've posted many times, every brand-negative thread and post in these forums is visible not just to our entire community, but everyone else on the web shooting or considering shooting Pentax, some of whom will be inexperienced and/or impressionable. Such posts come up in search engine results. Now, if these posts are constructive discussions, that's fine - but if it's just people venting or repeatedly knocking the brand, it does Pentax no good whatsoever.
We're mostly realists here, I think... Few are so brand-loyal that they wouldn't admit Ricoh and the current state of the Pentax brand has some issues. As I said in a previous post, we've heard all of the criticisms before, and would even acknowledge some of them. That, in spite of them, we continue to choose to shoot Pentax, and choose to socialise in a brand-specific forum site, should demonstrate to anyone that we're more-or-less happy with our gear and supportive of the brand. We're mostly a friendly and accepting place, too. We try to help folks that need assistance and those who are frustrated with technical or user-related issues with their equipment. But we can't help when someone's just ranting or bad-mouthing the brand... and we're not therapists being paid to listen quietly while someone throws tantrums and vents their frustration.
For the record, I'm not a brand loyalist. I shoot Pentax because it suits me to do so. I like how the equipment is built, how it operates, I like the image quality from the raw files, the lenses, what it cost(s) me to build up, maintain and expand my kit as necessary, and - importantly - the support and camaraderie here on PentaxForums. I'm here for friendship, to help people, to learn and discuss useful and interesting stuff, and - in some small way - to promote the brand in the interests of its longevity (since that serves all of us well). After four years of moderating here, there isn't a weakness in Ricoh and/or Pentax you could raise that I haven't heard before numerous times - and I've heard them more than enough by now, frankly. If others would prefer we allow free-for-all venting, ranting and criticism of Pentax in these forums without pushing back on that, it's not the place for me any more - and that would sadden me greatly.