Yes, whenever someone goes on a big upgrade spree, or someone reveals a very expensive system, there is so much fawning that you’d think they were Jesus reincarnate.
Aside from the blokey mutual backslapping threads there are some really good things; the thread on anxiety is hugely helpful to people, as are those offering support and experience, and I’ve had great help in choosing vacuum cleaners and other household appliances. There really is a wealth of knowledge here, with people very happy to help others.
Going back to the original post, there are a good few women here, but they choose not to identify themselves as such. And why should they? Why does it matter? You only have to look at any pictures of people at hifi shows to get an answer to why the Forum is male dominated. Boys and their toys, as the saying goes.
This forum is a kind of online social media yes - forums are typically more topic discussion oriented and typically have a membership system with AUP that is more restrictive - rather than statement, sharing and reply oriented social media platforms which tend to be more open and bound more on legalities of the territories they operate in rather than specific arbitrary rules of discussion, but you control who you share to.
Reddit is a conferencing social media service is an example that spans the two… where you can create your own policies for your own discussion groups.
But to the OP anyone of whatever gender is open to creating a thread in the ‘Lounge’ that they wish within the AUP… but I agree there does appear a low diversity of topics.
I think what is more remarkable is that so many men here contribute to threads about personal issues that affect them or others.
Growing up and throughout much of my working life in mental health I was a rarity outside work, a male who talked about emotions. Over the last 25 years or so there has been a growing number of men who are now discussing their inner world and emotions directly and I think we are seeing this reflected in many of the threads on this forum. I don’t know the percentage of the threads they are but to me, they seem fairly prevalent. I suspect it is because many of the threads that are about sport, booze etc I don’t often engage with and stop following so get a distorted view and maybe this is also true of people who focus on threads on blokey topics.
Interesting - this sea swimming group also has quite a ‘spiritual’ aspect to it as well celebrating full moons and solstices on the often remote Suffolk beaches with large bonfires etc … not that any of that aligns with one gender or the other. I would say this group spawned out of the Bluetits wild swimming organisation several years ago - which is/was a predominately but not exclusively female group.
I like listening to music, especially to a whole live performance, but part of that is often just enjoying the raw sound of the instruments vibrating in a concert space.
To me, Naim is peerless at that aspect of music.
I have no idea whether women and men differ in terms of how they listen.
but tenses
