I've enjoyed MacRumors for many, many years mostly as a casual reader, a lurker I suppose; however, the past couple years or so and especially the past year alone, the negativity and attitudes here are not those of people interested in Apple at all, and reminds me very much of some of the most toxic social networks. What happened? Is this a reflection of the state of the world lately, has it been infiltrated by bots, is it trolling for clicks and arguments? It's just really bizarre to me.
If it's not spammers, bots, and trolls, if you are a real person regularly posting negativity and snarky remarks, why? I truly want to understand where you're coming from. Perhaps even more, why are you here? If you dislike Apple so much, and you have no interest in Apple products, developments and Mac rumors in general, if it all pisses you off and is just garbage, why are you here?
As
@russell_314 rightly remarks, if the site consisted solely of those who adored Apple (and there were posts that approached hagiography when the late Mr Jobs was still in the land of the living, something which I, personally, was less than enamoured of) it would be exceedingly boring.
There are those who hate Apple, and there are those who fell into the category of uncritical admirers.
For what it is worth, I do not hold a brief for either category of poster, and tend to give their contributions a wide berth.
I suppose you might argue I've just done it myself, with my first post, but it's become so toxic lately that as much as I used to enjoy MacRumors, I find myself reluctant to visit and peruse, but I don't want to walk away just yet.
I will say (and
@russell_314 has already pointed this out), this is an unusual subject matter to write about as a first post, in both tone and content.
Instead, I wanted to raise the question with hope of understanding and maybe, just maybe, seeing if others feel the same and maybe we can sway the community in some positive way to change because it just seems to get worse and worse, and I don't want to see it go the way of other social media platforms and forums.
Assuming that what you have writen is accurate - and it is not entirely wrong - I would argue that there are a number of reasons for this:
1. As others have pointed out, online debates and discussions have become more robust, more heated, more intemperate in tone, and an etiquette has yet to evole to deal with that.
2. Unfortunately, controversy - and heated exchanges - do drive internet traffic; at the end of the day, most such platforms are private businesses, and tend to welcome the sort of online engagement that will serve to increase online traffic (and revenue).
3. However, refining our focus to matters relating to Apple:
Remember, when this site started, Apple was a niche company, a company that had a small slice of the computing market, but which produced gorgeous computers, expensive and exquisitely designed computers that were a fusion of tech design perfection, a perfection where form and function fused flawlessly and worked brilliantly.
Apple also had superb customer service.
Above all, their PR was also excellent, and their advertising encouraged people to think - or to want to believe - that owning an Apple computer made them part of an esoteric elite, people with taste yet fully integrated into - and functioning in - the new tech world.
Thus, it should come as small surprise that some of the early Apple enthusiasts were somewhat evangelical in their admiration for all things Apple.
And many of the early members of this forum came from such a world.
4. That is no longer the case.
These days, Apple (since Apple released the iPhone, the Apple watch and so on) is a massive global enterprise, an enormously wealthy and successful multi-national company - with a degree of wealth that easily exceeds that of most nation states on the planet - which can afford to continue with its computing arm as a loss-leader, but a company where the manufacture of computers is no longer its main commercial, let alone tech, interest.
Owning an Apple product no longer marks you out as someone with taste who buys elegantly designed expensive products that appeal to a small (but informed) demographic.
5. Thus, I think that what you describe as the "negativity" of some posters may derive from this.
While some on the forum are anti-Apple, I think that others are disappointed (and frustrated) that Apple has little interest (not the way it used to, with a delight in design) in designing cutting edge revolutionary tech products (such as the original MacBookAir, which absolutely blew me away when I first laid eyes on it, and, also I must admit, the original iPhone, which revolutionised phone design to the extent that the then market leader, Nokia, was terminally damaged because they failed to anticipate this), and I suspect that some of this negativity may flow from that.
However, Apple no longer needs to be a tech revolutionary; nowadays, their business and commercial needs drive them in a different direction, and, moreover, they no longer have any need to nurture those who had originally bought Apple products and somehow came to invest some sense of their own identity through their ownership of Apple devices.
