Still plenty of interesting stuff, but it's hidden in a lot of crap. Some of the crap's quite funny, but some of it's getting old... and there is an awful lot of it. I don't think you'll ever get away from it, because internet. There will always be posts which are just rubbish, and there will always be posts which start interesting and get hijacked (the Red Sea crossing thread being a case in point - could have been an interesting discussion on what went wrong, and what safety measures are sensible on long, solo kite trips, but turned into a shouting competition).

A couple of suggestions for our esteemed host:

1. Subdivide the "Kitesurfing" board, and moderate the board more actively so that topics end up in appropriate locations. For example, the ongoing helmet discussions can live in a "safety" section, PKRA news can go in a "Competitive" section, "Most Sexy" in an OT section, and so on. That might discourage some of the hijacking, and reduce the number of posts on worthwhile issues by posters who aren't really interested in the issue under discussion.
2. Get rid of all but the most basic smilies (say, ). The basic ones are useful for clarifying the tone of your post, but the rest are just a waste of bandwidth.

It's hijacks that keep most threads interesting... I always looked at forums as a pub discussion, not a debating society meeting.

I agree, Peter.
I used to log into the forum at least every second day some years back, now it's every second week, where I crawl through 95% useless topics.

Probably two reasons for that:
a) Kitesurfing has evolved a lot, not that many new / interesting things to discuss
b) we have progressed a lot, so for us topics that are still relevant for a newbie are just very stale...

What I also see is that there are not that many experts / designers participating anymore, which is a real pitty... (thankfully there are still some exceptions, Bill as an example)

Not sure what to do about it...

TOBY?????

I was just thinking the opposite
We need more variety of them
To express ourselves without so may words

+10 for SupaEz!!!! We need more Icons. We need a GRILL icon!

Just think if there were only ONE kite brand? What would we have to talk about???? What if there were only ONE flavor doughnut!!!!

I really thought multiple would not be necessary.
I was pulling the leg of those who suggested there were too many irrelevant topics.
Heaven forbid! The SEXY KITE PICTURE topic is sacred.

so what are you, an idiot triplets over-fascinated by animated emoticons and female nudity?

now that is the smashing "news"...

How do you know there is female nudity in SEXY KITE PICTURE?
How many of the 3 000 000 + views were yours, wanker?

Apparently your're more than a lurker, you are an active poster. Did you post this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoeoBaPb8Nc

Aren't you contributing here to "flood the forum with useless nonsense posts"?

Need I say you obviously completely missed the point if you had bothered to read my original comment...

The biggest news soap opera in kiting has been censured. Embarrassing from all sides involved! Move right along - nothing to see here.