[quote]EmilyQ wrote:
I think what many of you forget is that people inclined to athletics of one sort or another share traits in common. We tend to be goal-oriented, competitive, driven people who like to play hard with our bodies. My husband went to college on an athletic scholarship. Tennis, he was state-ranked. When he was deeply involved in martial arts he won trophies at that. Now he’s lifting weights. Maybe he’ll never be huge. Maybe he’ll never be hardcore. But you know, maybe he will. You don’t know who today’s “I just want some definition” people will be tomorrow. Everyone started somewhere. Even Professor X. (I guess. He may have been born big, I don’t know.)[/quote]
No one here has a problem with athletes coming to the site. And good for your husband getting a scholarship and all. But I bet he does not come on to the site and down play others goals or accomplishments. That is where the problem is with others that come here. They do.
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Since January of this year, I’ve ordered three times from Biotest. Between us we’re spending what I calculate to be $2.33 a day on it. Last time we ordered we read through the product list and debated whether we might want anything else. Eventually, we probably will. Not right now, though, because right now we’re focused on the $.79/lb we’re having to pay to keep up with his rapidly expanding capacity (and desire) to lift more weight.[/quote]
Well it does not just take the spending of money to get what you want here – if it did the average of $6.33 per day I have spent for the past 5+ years should go some where - don’t ya think?
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I don’t post in the bodybuilding forums unless to “good job” someone who’s caught my eye or aroused my sympathies. I’m a beginner, so have nothing to add, and I’m competent at finding the information I need when I have a question. I read, I forward articles to my husband, and I participate in the light forums. And I buy product.
I think I probably represent a solid success to the developers of Testosterone Nation online. They built a website that attracted a reader who then became a customer.
I think many of you confuse this place with a storefront. In which case, it’s really, really good to have dedicated customers. Hardcore is best in that setting, no question. But T-Nation is more like a mall, I think. The message boards are the mall itself. Anyone can come in and hang out. But it’s the people shopping in the stores that provide the funds to support the mall. If potential shoppers are limited to certain areas of the mall they may never even enter the store. Had I been somehow consigned to a general fitness area, I’d have simply continued what I was doing previously. And my husband’s elbows would never have made that weird popping sound that started us thinking about fish oil…
I think another thing to bear in mind is that message boards have a natural ebb and flow. The virtual community is like any other. People move. People have fusses and fights and declare the whole thing ruined and leave. That’s just natural.[/quote]
I really don’t think we are all that confused as you think. I think the newbies are confused by what they see and read. At one time this was a very HardCore site, that is why I started reading, posting and yes buying products. I liked the fact that I had people to talk to that did not think I was a freak because I wanted to squat heavy as a female. Well it has come full circle. There are fewer and fewer females or males on here that lift heavy or have any goals other than to look good nekid. Not that it is a bad or wrong goal, but neither is mine, Prof X’s, Trib or any one else who’s goal it is to put on size and train hard core.