www.avforums.com Reviews 250

The mods are little Hitlers who can't handle the slightest criticism of their bullying behaviour. The site is a joke. Stay well clear.

Good forum with plenty good contributors, but over-moderated and badly moderated.

Rules only apply to some.
If you post in the forums and do not fit the group think be ready to be rounded on and then banned.

The site in many respects is very good and a four. Problems start appearing when you get to the forums. You have ask yourself why allow people to voice their opinions if you’re then going to heavily sensor what posted, makes no sense

My recent introduction to AVForums as a new member has left me with mixed feelings about the platform's moderation practices, particularly in relation to a moderator named IG.

Shortly after joining, I encountered a situation where IG's approach to maintaining thread topics appeared excessively rigid. A minor tangent had emerged within a discussion, and rather than gently guiding the conversation back on track, IG chose to issue severe warnings and bans. Intrigued by this approach, I expressed my concern about the heavy-handed actions and the absence of prior warnings for minor deviations.

Regrettably, my attempt to engage in a respectful discussion about moderation was met with an immediate ban from the platform.

This encounter made me question the platform's commitment to fostering a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere for newcomers like myself. It's disheartening when a platform that should encourage diverse viewpoints and open discussions instead stifles them through fear of retaliation.

As a new member, I believe it's crucial for a forum to promote a sense of community, where moderators act as facilitators rather than enforcers. The incident with IG's actions suggests a lack of transparency and a reluctance to address concerns, which is discouraging for someone looking to engage in meaningful conversations.

In conclusion, my early experience with AVForums and IG's moderation tactics has raised concerns about the platform's commitment to nurturing a positive environment for new members. As someone who was excited to join a community of tech enthusiasts, I hope that AVForums can reevaluate it's moderation team and it's approach towards newcomers, I truly cannot recommend this site.

I have been viewing the forums and have been an active member on there for only a few months, yet I am appalled at the site’s witch hunt on the football player Mason Greenwood. This is obviously a well publicised case where all charges have been dropped, however I was astonished to read the comments which have been allowed to stand in the thread in General Chat entitled “Famous people being charged with offences, and then charges dropped”. This soon turned into a mass pile on from many members - including a moderator - concerning the player, with many comments being potentially libellous and or bordering on that; and those comments being allowed to stand. The moderator Iron Giant quite rightly closed the thread. However I then noticed that the member “RichP” reignited this discussion in the Politics forum within the thread “Violence Against Women And Girls”, and the accusations and presumptions start all over again. I understand the background of the case but at the end of the day all charges were dropped and in the eyes of the law the player is an innocent man. It seems however that people not happy with this are allowed to post their opinions with impunity. I have taken it upon myself to contact the legal team at the club in order for them to take a view on this as I feel that the continued witch hunt against this player, across numerous threads, by certain members is something which should not be allowed to stand. Hopefully they will contact the site owner in order for these sweeping comments and allegations to be removed and to not be allowed to happen in the future. Yet again, another example of the minority being allowed to post what they want, against who they want. In this day and age this should not be allowed to happen.

I have been following these trust pilot reviews for a few months and I feel that the reviews are totally just.

I used to go on avforums all the time and the main reason I stopped was Irongiant. It became totally pointless posting as if he disagreed / didn’t like you he would either edit / delete your post or belittle you in front of the other members. He took all the fun out of posting, if you didn’t conform, you were not welcome.

I agree a couple of these reviews are from the same person but several hundred? Of course not! N.B. This is my first review.

Also if you don’t think they are true just go to avforums and look at Irongiant’s posting history / style. It is EXACTLY what people are saying here, he is a bully 100%. He also surrounds himself with other bullies and lets them break the rules.

Those that say he is a good guy are blind, look at his posts, look at his interactions. You wouldn’t treat strangers like that! This place is billed as a friendly forum where cliques are not permitted (direct quote from the site owner)!

IG is a decent guy and fair moderator , NOT a bully

The only bully on here is the one who is obsessed with bringing the AV Forums down and stalking IG on here with some nasty false accusations, which some have thankfully been taken down.

This type of trolling is not only horrible, it is shamefully dangerous

Clearly hell bent on revenge after getting banned from the forums

They post similar stuff on another forum under different names in the same type of style

Trustpilot, please be wary of this as they are bound to keep coming back under different guises with their eye watering bitter vengeance

This is a site that:

- Hosted a discussion where men could post fantasies about punching women in the face.
- Is hosting a particularly nasty thread about Katie Price.
- Displays racism, homophobia and misogyny.
- Allows distasteful descriptions of public figures.
- Has (seemingly) used bullying that has resulted in a member suffering mental health issues.

Enough is enough now.

I've tipped off 'The Center For Countering Digital Hate' who have replied with alarm regarding avforums and their behaviour, particularly the misogyny and bullying.

Let's hope the site owner finally puts his house in order?

I've never seen anything more ironic or anyone lacking in self-awareness more than than Rusty Giant complaining about TP moderation standards. You couldn't make it up.

He's literally 80-90% of the reasons why AVF gets reviewed so frequently here, why AVF reputation is in the toilet, why advertisers and industry insiders are giving direct feedback to Stuart that the site is "too political"

You would think jeopardising the future of the site would be a wake up call, but nah.

It's funny how Rusty can respond to some reviews, but ask him why he gave very lenient treatment to a repeated user of racial slurs and he'll either ignore it or misrepresent your question as an accusation of racism against him.

Again more hypocrisy, seeing how frequently he falsely accuses others of racism.

I would happily bet everything I own on an audit of every single disciplinary action IG has ever dished out to decide whether they were deserved.

I wonder if he would do the same, or his legion of defenders would.

The ongoing problem is that the moderators post in the threads in a way that prohibits others from expressing their opinions.

The owner posted a strong but un-evidenced opinion that discredited David Grusch on UAPs. This is despite the fact that Congress took his testimony seriously, even a progressive member.

Similarly on the Elon Musk thread, you can't say anything nice about him, regardless of the fact that Tesla stock is up, Starlink is successful and the forum X is way outpacing Threads. Calling Musk a grifter/ con artist is the accepted format and the moderator encourages it.

It has been said before that moderators are not there to control the narrative.

A few weeks ago, my wife left a review on here regarding what had happened to a family member after they were bullied on AVForums. I'm not going to go into that again. What you have to understand is that my wifes sister was also a member of digital spies forum. The bullying she encountered was across both platforms from some of the same people. So my wife left a review on TP about digital spies. Digital spies and AVF are both responsible for a serious mental health episode of a vulnerable woman.

Dave... aka IG has been triggered by this again.

You, and others on your site were directly responsible for the bullying of a woman that led to a serious mental health episode. Not ONCE have you taken any responsibility for that, or offered an apology. You stated in a previous TP review that "they could have come to me." The issue with that is that YOU were the main perpertrator of the bullying. And it's also putting yourself forward as someone who can deal with someone else's mental health issues. Know your place. You're a poor moderator of a very nasty internet forum. Your opinion of yourself and what you're capable of is a fantasy. You're a sad old man who lives in a bubble of sanctimony and over inflated self-esteem. Essentially, you're a nobody who thinks he's somebody. The truth is you're a washed-up failure who tries to attain the power and authority they've always craved in real life, but never possessed, via a particularly grubby and insignificant corner of the internet. You are a bully. You created a situation that will come back to haunt you and your site. You have no idea of the coming consequences of your actions. My wife has made it her duty to expose people like you. And with every response you post on here, you expose yourself even further. People are working hard to glean information that will ultimately shame and embarrass you. There's already enough, but the case has to be completely irrefutable. It's getting there and you're doing everything to make that easier. You're going to be held to account in a major and very public way, very soon. The advertisers who fund your site will leave in their droves. Even those who defend you will have to admit they were wrong. It's not just you and your site that will be exposed for the bullying that goes on in some of the lesser known corners of the internet. You're just a part of the problem.

I am a current member of AVforums, have been for many years. Always tried to keep out of the political threads, on looking in a Coutts Bank and Nigel Farage thread I'm appalled at the bullying that's allowed to go on now on this forum. Not only that thread but by the looks most political threads. I'm amazed the owner Stuart W allows this, how would the forum owner stand legally with some of the vile things posted. The Katie Price thread is pure hatred to this women, she's far from perfect but this is pure slander. The main bullies in most threads seem to be the likes of weaviemx5/richp007/krish and possibly the most sad and vile person Derek S-H. It's such a shame, a once excellent forum is now in the gutter and it has nothing to do with the Audio Visual what the forum was set up for.

Just for context I am a banned member of AVforums. The reason given for my banning was “you are clearly unhappy on this site”. Which to be fair was correct, I’d already started the process to leave and have my personal data taken down, so it wasn’t really a problem. My username on there was Istan05. Why am I giving this detail? Well, it’s to counteract all the posts about 1 star reviews on here being from anonymous crackpots and right wingers.

Now that’s out of the way….when are AVForums going to realise that the problem isn’t the members, isn’t the rules, but is in fact a small number of extremely unbalanced moderators not treating everyone fairly and the same?

I still pop into the forums probably every other week to see what’s being said and I happened to check on here today. Call me sad, that’s up to you.

I was very interested in the whistleblower post and the post about mental health and saw other reviews talking about a thread that the site owner had put up about the politics forums. I had a read. Interesting stuff. I was particularly drawn to a moderator (Irongiant) who was brushing the whistleblower and mental health reviews off. They used the “if they had a problem they could have come to me” line or something very similar. Well I’m here to say that’s not correct.

My experience with this particular moderator is different to what they are trying to get everyone to believe. On one occasion on a thread they said to all posters “can we please move on and discuss something else” fair enough I think we’d all agree. However there were multiple issues at the time being discussed. I replied in the thread and asked which topic to move on from. Instant ban. No conversation, no reason at for the ban. In the end I had to go through hoops to ask them why I’d been banned for a simple question. Turns out they though I was being sarcastic. This is one example of a moderator jumping in two feet, with no conversation or communication and immediately assuming something about a member.

On another occasion a member told another poster “you can stick your opinion up your a*se”.(the same member called Muji was in that thread created to discuss the state of the politics forums talking about how members should behave. I did laugh. I wonder if he would receive a yellow card under the new system? Probably not) Now this is a clear breach of rule 1. I wasn’t bothered at the time because it wasn’t directed at me. But this member was allowed to continue to post without any sanction. It was a long-standing member (as I was btw) so maybe the rules don’t apply to him. When I was banned again, without again any communication at all, I brought this up with Irongiant as it was far worse than what I had said. He refused to answer why even though that rule was broken that member was not banned but I was. In fact he refused to answer any of my concerns. He had also refused to give me a reason for my ban, even when asked. Why is this moderator not evenly applying rules? As I said to him, I’m fine being called out, but I expect fairness and communication.

For him to say on that thread he’d take things seriously or take concerns and listen is just utter bull. Also the process on there if you have a problem with a moderator or a decision is to go to them yourselves. I have escalated something before and was shot down in that process by another moderator. It’s a closed shop and if you do have serious issues or questions certain moderators will not take them seriously and will stick up for each other. There are other examples I could give.

In terms of complaints about names given out on here, then if it was real names and addresses I could understand but it’s a username. Complete overreaction and if the sites own safeguarding isn’t up to scratch if you do have issues then what other way can people voice concerns?

Also there’s a lot of talk about trust pilot and that it doesn’t matter. Well if it doesn’t matter why are AVforums having to create threads to discuss the politics forum off the back of these reviews? And why are they having to change their sanction system? I’d call that a win for trust pilot reviews.

I’d say to new members, if you like tech advice definitely go on there and take a look some very good stuff. If you want to use the forums and have a discussion, don’t bother. You won’t be welcomed, it’s like an echo chamber and if you dare have a different opinion you won’t be protected. Like I said I’m not right wing or a crackpot and I wasn’t.

Finally to the whistleblower thank you. I did reflect and think multiple times on whether I was the problem. Your review helped. Also to the poster who’s sister wasn’t protected I hope you are ok and I hope you get the outcome you want.

When are they going to realise that a small number of moderators are the problem and is it a coincidence one moderator is mentioned the most? Happy to discuss.

It seems the owner is willing to let his site continue to be disparaged because he’s too pig headed to believe that any of his mods can be wrong. The way he gives Steven carte blanche to bully members and be condescending and dictatorial is incredible. I’m amazed he’s willing to let his business die on that particular hill. If I was a potential advertiser I’d be reading these reviews and thinking “no thank you very much”

Laughing at the recent review by “Bloater”. The member in question, who had asked not to be replied to, regularly posts wind up antagonistic type posts at about clubs other than his beloved LFC, and - if challenged - then hides behind saying he will not respond to such posters. The football forums is awash with LFC supporting members who cry troll or wum at the drop of a hat when someone offers a counter opinion. And they are backed by LFC supporting moderators - one of whom he even had “LFC” in his username before he dropped that when he came a mod in the football forum. The LFC fans, on the whole, say they want discussion but they actually only want discussion when it is pro LFC. If it isn’t, they bleat. As is their nature.

Claimed their profile.... Then unclaimed it.

Someone literally denied being the owner of this s***show...... That tells you all you need to know.

I stopped posting a couple of years ago around lockdown time when all the antivaxers and covid conspiracy believers went crazy over there plus the political threads just went into meltdown so I've moved on.

I looked at the site last week after a friend of mine told me to take a look at a thread started by the site owner which I did.

This was a great forum, excellent reviews of all things audio-visual plus film and show reviews but some threads in the political section are vile.

The owner has two issues he needs to address, one is poor/biased moderation, some of the mods like Steven and IronGiant allow some members to get away with insulting other members with impunity. The second issue is the influx of new members in 2021 when digital spy shut down certain area's of the site after allowing it to get completely out of control and a core of offenders from there turned up at AVF; massive mistake allowing them in; these toxic members changed the whole tone of AVF and without banning dozens of members the site will continue to fail.

I won't be going back until the site is sorted out, its such a shame that AVF the once great resource that it was has turned out this way but I wish it well for the future and hope its problems are addressed.

Top notch moderation.
Moderator states that two members in the Football threads should ignore each other(Official request on the forum).
Two years later one of the members is still responding to and baiting the other member and even states on the forum that a moderator had advised them to respond to the other member.
Other member responds today stating the reason why they do not respond and that post is removed(with a warning PM probably).
Politics forum is the same, trolls and master baiters are allowed to continue whilst others are warned/banned.
My second decade as a member and I am disgusted by the staff reactions.

Look at the state of these mentalists writing one star reviews in pure desperation; attempting to be right about something for once in their sad, vacuous lives

They were asked to leave the best party ever and now that they've gone they're saying they didn't want to be there all along.

But they can't stop talking about it.

Absolute melts.