This shaming factor is not just a disboards thing. I don't know about you all, but I'm on forums about many different subjects. This shaming happens everywhere. On every forum there is a group of 20-30 regulars who have answered the same questions a thousand times, and if you come in new and say something not researched for hours, days or months first, you'll get slammed. It has to do with being anonymous and not having a vested interest in real social interaction with someone you'll never know. If this was in person, and someone bought a new car and brought it up at work, the first response would not be... A) did you overpay, B) you should have saved by researching for 6 months first, and C) return it now and buy (whatever) instead or you've made a bad financial decision and wasted money, sucks to be you. Those conversations do not happen because it would kill any future social interaction, and you have/want to interact with them. People would be like oh that's awesome, tell me about the features, what you love, how does it drive, how excited were your kids, etc. It's understood that they made a financial decision that they were comfortable with. You would think the same thing would happen in a forum about vacations... someone buys direct, likes their purchase, is happy with their purchase, comes out to the forums to share their enjoyment of being in the club, and should find high fives and stories about something we all love, but instead they're told some nasty stuff and they leave.