2021 SF Retrospective -or- How did you SF in 2021?

[dieworkwear]

The best way to generate discussion is to give Foo an annual clothing budget and require him to spend it on bespoke makers.

 

[ValidusLA]

Perhaps some of the community has splintered off to PMs and chat. The pandemic's prevention of in-person get-togethers may have decreased some elements of community on the forum as well.

Edit: Definitely @RJman's Swan Songs was a highlight of the year, as was the Secret Santa organized by @Jr Mouse and so wonderfully fulfilled by @Jmr928. Thank you, you three.

Interesting. Do you think it has splintered off because people just don't want to deal w/ critical response? Avoiding trolls? Keep away from the hoi polloi ?

Yes, big shout out to @Jr Mouse for the Secret Santa. After seeing the effort some people went to this year, I'm going to step up my game next year! Also, the end of year ALS Auction is good to see. Its nice that so many forum sponsors have stepped up to support a good cause. More should.

My pet peeve among threads is threads of the form "I want Tiffany quality, but I only want to pay Walmart prices".

Indeed, I agree with this, but I also try to be understanding. It annoys me too, but a lot of people here have a lot more money than others, and certainly more than most of society.

I wonder if this is impacted by StyFo being a top-down chronological message board versus a threaded one. That thread is pretty much the only game in town for cloth discussions, so it can feel like you might be torpedoing someone's ask if you throw in an off-hand reply that causing the discussion to move elsewhere.

Good thought! I have definitely not posted before because I didn't want to derail an ongoing discussion.

 

[ValidusLA]

Imo, the existence of many popular threads on particular sub-topics indicates a certain healthiness of the community and discussion. But like the splintering of media, it has led to silos and echo chambers.

Yes, I think its overall good for people to have different threads to go into for separate things. For example, if someone is trying to figure out if the Vass U last is going to fit them based on their F last fitting or by comparing it to say, their Carmina Rain sizing etc, than it makes sense for there to be discreet places where expertise exists that can maybe answer that question in a useful way.

The problem comes in, I think, in that almost all the brand threads are pretty inured from criticism. Its mostly people posting photos for likes. I'm sometimes amazed when I see a poster in a random thread I've never seen before who has like 1000 posts and 10000 reactions. Then you look into their posting history and they are almost certainly posting in the AE thread all the time.

The best way to generate discussion is to give Foo an annual clothing budget and require him to spend it on bespoke makers.

Unfortunately, I recently purchased Pride in plate rather than opting for Pott 35, and therefore I am a peasant unworthy to discuss w/ him.

But if generates more coat wallet threads, all to the better.

 

[Mirage-]

If one SHOE THREAD isn't enough, we could come up with a more reasonable number still: e.g. 1) bespoke shoes, 2) high-end R2W, 3) entry-level welted shoes. Or something like that. Still more useful than 30 shoe threads imo. People looking for size advice would also find more help than asking in a specific thread brand, though even better than that would be a sort of sizing database where people can insert their size for each relevant last they own.

 

[dieworkwear]

Lord help me if this results in someone starting a general shoe thread that exists in tandem with the already 35 million shoe threads

 

[Mirage-]

Well, you cannot just lament (all over the forum) the current situation, and not want to try to do anything about it...
Not to mention there already is one as @emptym said.

 

[taxgenius]

Lord help me if this results in someone starting a general shoe thread that exists in tandem with the already 35 million shoe threads

We should merge all the current shoes threads into one and then watch from the sidelines with popcorn in hand.

 

[dieworkwear]

We should merge all the current shoes threads into one and then watch from the sidelines with popcorn in hand.

No threads at all. The front page is just one giant CM chat box.

 

[FlyingHorker]

I've been posting and lurking SF and AAAC for 10ish years (dear god).

I've slowly ran out of questions to ask CM that I felt would merit starting a new thread. I was more likely to start a new thread when I wanted to draw lots of attention to myself.

I've noticed I'll get a higher quality/quantity of responses if I post in a corresponding thread that's already established vs. starting a new one.

Well turns out the above is not true, most of the threads I started did get a good amount of quality responses.

 

[ValidusLA]

I've been posting and lurking SF and AAAC for 10ish years (dear god).

I've slowly ran out of questions to ask CM that I felt would merit starting a new thread. I was more likely to start a new thread when I wanted to draw lots of attention to myself.

I've noticed I'll get a higher quality/quantity of responses if I post in a corresponding thread that's already established vs. starting a new one.

Well turns out the above is not true, most of the threads I started did get a good amount of quality responses.

I started a new thread because I had a rather scattershot thing to say that I wasn't sure would fit anywhere.

 

[FlyingHorker]

I started a new thread because I had a rather scattershot thing to say that I wasn't sure would fit anywhere.

Yep, I do that too.

 

[Norwester]

In some of the other forums that I have followed over the years, like Astronomy, or Omega Watches, I noticed that some of the most enthusiastic discussions took place in the "Show Off Your Firearms" thread. I'm not sure if this would fall under CM or SWD, but thought I would toss it out there.

 

[ValidusLA]

In some of the other forums that I have followed over the years, like Astronomy, or Omega Watches, I noticed that some of the most enthusiastic discussions took place in the "Show Off Your Firearms" thread. I'm not sure if this would fall under CM or SWD, but thought I would toss it out there.

I haven't seen a firearms thread here. I fear it would be politicized quickly. Would likely fit best in one of the Culture sections.

I know there are some clay shooters here (myself included).

 

[TexasToast]

I'm very new to SF and CM so I have little to offer except what I've personally experienced. I've done a lot since I've been at SF I've learned that other people can be really critical of CM and you, I've also have been trying to level up my personal sense of style. Ive been to so many up scale men's stores in NYC, I never knew that NYC was really fashion conscious about men's fashion. I know we have the fabric district but that's about it and always thought it was more about women's fashion than men's.

I've gone from crappy Rockport square toed shoes to 3 pairs of Beckett Simonon shoes. I used to buy my shirts at JC Penny now I buy my shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt. I've got a navy shadow stripe mtm suit recently made and my first suit was black from Portabella. I used to wear Jeans, Tees and sneakers to work and leveled that up by wearing casual dress shirts chinos and nice shoes. I know I cant dress like that all the time because I do get dirty at my job I'm in IT but I know I can do it if I want to that's the important thing.

I once hated Biz/Casual but now I embrace it as a possible alternative to suits its been because of what Ive been exposed to on SF. This is how I've spent my time during 2021 at SF what about you.

 

[breakaway01]

My thoughts on segmentation and affiliate threads here. I see two forces at work over the past couple years that have contributed to this. The first is the steady increase of online shopping, and the second is the pandemic limiting access to physical stores. Living in a small Midwest college town where clothes in my size are difficult/impossible to find, I certainly can't complain about the much better options for online purchasing. However, the downside of online clothes shopping is that one tends to look at one item at a time (a pair of shoes, a shirt, a sweater) rather than trying on outfits, as i would in a real clothing store. I was in NYC a few months ago -- my first trip to a large city in over a year -- and it was great to be able to do this again. I'm sure we've all seen posts here that go like, "I just bought this pair of shoes but I don't know what to wear with them -- help!"

I don't know about your experience, but I find that women are more likely than men to try on entire outfits in stores. I do think that there is a general tendency here to think about single items of clothing (or a single pair of shoes) and not about the whole outfit.