Soo a few days ago(last friday actually) I has an earache looked at. I am a cochlear implant recipient and my ear had been earaching on and off for a week! SOO that was a PROBLEM!  Anywho, the doctor sent me to the ER because they had an ear-nose-throat doc on call.... i was sent home in like 4 hours after I had arrived whith a prescription for amoxicillin. that is all.

Whoa, what an ear infection.  I hope all is well for you.

And we needed to know this because….. ?

You wanna know why people are dropping like flies from this site???

Because of silly attention seeking topics like this. I don’t mean any disrespect but I really couldn’t care less that you’ve had an ear infection and I’m pretty sure many people here will agree.  you are still alive it wasn’t life threatening and that’s the important thing.

The off topic section and some of the utter tripe that gets posted in here is the BIGGEST reason everyone is leaving LG. And the admins as much respect as I have for them, need to pull their fingers out of their backsides and cull this crap.

I think very highly of this site. But I fear we’re losing the battle. This is a lighting site and the MOST ACTIVE part of it is this bloody offtopic forum full of absolute (...).

Sadly this is true, look at the forum stats - the off topic forum is the second most active.
It isn't a social media site and while it is good to share other hobbies some of us may have and to get to know each other, it becomes a problem if that starts to overtake the the core purpose of the site.

Perhaps we should consider locking the off topic side of the site for a while to try and steer the forum back on track?

The subject of lighting technology is fading further into the background.
There is no longer any desire to write another article on lighting topics.

I’m with Beta 5 let’s lock it down As a trial

@lightsofpahrump
That is an interesting experience, I myself have never been to the ER but my brother has, but it has always been for nuisance things like that fortunately.

@Danny
In a forum, people have the opportunities to share things that some may care about and others not so much. This applies to me with the Wanted section and Dating & Specifications section, neither of which interest me at all (purely a personal preference). What I do to fix this is just not looking that them. If I know I am going to be bored or unsatisfied by what I see in a particular section of a forum, I simply won't check it.

Whether you choose to lock it down or just not check it, the outcome is the same. Judging by the fact that some people enjoy this section of the forum, I would personally suggest just not checking it, that way everyone gets what they want.

I will be completely honest I don't completely understand your viewpoint, do clarify if I am misunderstanding you.

@Beta 5
I just checked the stats and you are right! I was not expecting to see that. Of course the core purpose of this site is lighting, but like I said with Danny just because other non-lighting topics exist on the site doesn't mean you have to read them if you are uninterested.

As to "steering back on track", I think we currently have a decently steady flow of lighting related content, and I personally doubt restricting off-topic content is going to change that for the better.

@Olav
I politely disagree with that. We are getting plenty of new members lately, and they seem to be asking good questions and trying to learn more about lighting. Some are met with knowledgeable people that don't have the means or the intent to share their knowledge, and that is unfortunate, but they are trying. People still have interest in my opinion.

@Multisubject i respect your opinion and the fact you like this part of the forum, thanks for your reply. However this part of the forum does need to be cleared out. IMHO there is a lot of depressing content here that can be seen by everyone. Lots of topics need to go, whilst others can be useful (rarely). But I know from speaking with members over the last couple of years that this part of the forum is the main thing pushing members away along with the lack of interaction on photo comments etc causing members to leave, or abandon their accounts. I knew 90% of members here by about 2012/13 after I joined in 2011… I now know maybe 3 or 4 as the rest have all gotten fed up and disappeared. I just want the best for this site.

I do agree with danny here, I've been to the ER many times, last saturday even, after breaking my wrist, I don't expect anyone to give a f, just as I wouldn't if some stranger did so themself.

Locking off topic for a bit seems like a good idea.

Funny thing is, the number of registered members keeps going up, but none of them are active!

@Danny
I do agree that some topics should be deleted, however I can't think of any topics that haven't been deleted yet that should be. Whenever things invariably get heated, those topics should be locked, but I don't think full-on deletion is always necessary. Exactly what kind of topics are you talking about? "Depressing" is definitely a large category, I am sure lots of things can potentially fall into that depending on what you mean.

For example, Maxim's "RCM442, why?" topic did have some rough spots, but I think it fizzled out reasonably, and looking back at it can be useful to understand the opinion of other users on this site. As an example of a thread that was relatively inactive, my topic about microwave torches has only two comments (really only one since one of the replies is from me). But in my opinion valuable insight was provided from the one person who commented, and deletion would cause more harm than good.

And yeah I do think the attitude here is pretty complain-y, but I don't think that's anything new, and people are going to complain somewhere wether we like it or not. Maybe these typoes of complaining topics should be banned, but that might cause more controversy and member departures than it is worth.

As with people leaving because of this section, I am not sure where I stand on that. A reason I have heard is "negativity", but again I am not sure what they are referring to because that is a very broad descriptor. Not sure about the lack of comments on photos either, I know that the general quality of uploads has dropped but the people still uploading good stuff should still be getting good comments, but they might not be.

No matter the amount of complaining or negativity that may be present here, I can't imagine it possibly affecting me so much as to want to leave the site. Of course there were some members who had half the LG population turn against them, but I think it is pretty easy to prevent that from happening by just using respectful language and not trying to stir the pot, which most people do with some inevitable exceptions of course. It is sort of a mystery to me to be honest. Maybe some people are here just to watch LG burn to the ground lol

@Baked bagel 11
What exactly is the aim of wanting this section locked? I just can't draw a connection between locking the off-topic section and making the site better, that's all.

And yes the majority of new members who join seem to be inactive, but we are gaining active members slowly but surely, I forget the username but I think in november/december of 2025 we got one that seems promising. One is not great, but better than nothing of course.

Most of the members that leave seem to have always mentioned the off topic section growing out, or just having plain dumb topics, and that taking the interest away from lighting related topics. I can understand, and I could live without the off topic section.

I made this suggestion and while it had people agreeing with my post, nothing has happened since then...

I'm okay with an off-topic section, but it should be hidden away just like the gallery one for people who don't want to see those posts.

Some of you might find this useful - ignoring boards.

At this point the only reason I am still on LG is drama like this lol
My interest in lighting has turned into a broader interest for electrical engineering and electronics (but let’s face it, it was pretty much already like this, but I have learned a lot of useful information here and playing with lighting in general though)
I still like a collection of the big glowing things because I just find them cool, and I pretty much use LED and boring fluorescent exclusively.

@Multisubject the problem I see and everyone else I’ve spoken to sees is that this section is getting abused. It should be for discussing other hobbies, etc. but it’s getting used just for people to attention seek, vent, and talk rubbish.  It’s getting used more like a social media update on people’s life section. I won’t name other topics as not to cause issues but if you don’t see the problem, I really cannot understand how. However that’s your opinion on it, and you’re welcome to that.