Internet, good or bad for pool?

ShootingArts

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Silver Member
Another thread started me thinking about this. Trying to do something new and different I decided to start a new thread instead of hijacking that one.

Some folks think the internet is great for pool, some think it has done more harm than good. Looking at the overall game and sport, not just what it has done for you personally, has the internet been good or bad for pool?

Hu
 
The internet has to be good for pool. Actually, it's a MUST since TV thumbs its nose at pool.

Don't know how one can say it's bad.

Dave

Gotta love TAR, OTR, etc. Thank God for the internet.
 
double edged sword

Upsides and downsides.

But since it brings information and opportunity to the masses in ways nothing else can, which IMO is the #1 block on the pyriamid, then it gets more people to the table.

It sucks for me on one huge level though, because no one wants to tangle with me anymore. People keep whining that KoolKat kooled their jets. :rolleyes:



"Knock knock"

"who's there?"

"AZB, you've been clocked going 20 dimes over the speed limit."


:smile:
 
Iternet

Its killed a lot of action for sure, but you can find tournaments you may not have been aware of. Live streaming is great. You get pool news a lot faster than you used to. In the past the Mags were 3 months behind in what happened. For me it has been a good thing.:smile:
 
It's a great thing for sure. The only thing it's bad for is road players that want to stay undercover. Nowadays an unknown hustler can get their picture taken on a camera phone without being aware of it and have it posted here on this board.
 
I would never have gotten a custom cue if it weren't for AZ. :D
Love the Buy/Sell section.
 
I think it's been HORRIBLE for pool, at least my pool. I have lost WAY too much money in the last couple of weeks, and the only thing I can think to blame is the internet. It sure as HELL can't be my stroke. That's as SWEET as ever! IMHO!:eek:
 
Ding, we have a subject I give a @#$% about!

The internet and forums such as this are one of the new generations tools in gaining information in a convenient format most certainly. Information that would have taken years to acquire and put into use prior to the present day is now at the fingertips of all players interested in enhancing their knowledge and exponentially increasing their experience within the game without putting the time in on the tables. I can go on the net and learn just about any diamond/kicking systems there are in a matter of one weekend and then put those skills in action within a week and be lightyears ahead of my also beginning peers. Therefore it is a very powerful tool for the skill set of the current up and coming players. Most of us who started playing before this era, IMO, are pretty jealous of the way we had to pry information from the dead hands of those who came before us and it kinda pisses us off to see some young hotshot with an attitude who's game is growing by leaps and bounds because of the availability of knowledge that we had to pay our dues to get our paws on! That's just my own aging grumpiness talkin' though! LOL

The aspects related to matching up are unfortunate in this era of convenient information though. You see it all the time. The young sharpshooter snaps a photo of the incoming road player via his cell phone and sends it to his whole pool playing address book and says, "Hey, you know this guy"? He'll have a line on the dude in a matter of minutes and someone is going to be out a pretty penny or a couple teeth due to it. Examine it from all aspects and you either love it or hate it, but there isn't many who stand on the fencepost on the issue. What ever happened to steppin' up and playin' a man without seein' his resume and checkin' his profile on AZBilliards or any other website if he's listed? I see it as the draining of the games spirit in some respects so I consider it a negative aspect.

As far as pure information for the masses, I see it as a great thing! It's great to be able to look up tournament results within a day of the event's completion and see how the pros or just one of your buddies did! With the introduction of online streaming in the pool community I can now view others playing across the country or show off my own locals to the public eye as well. Very entertaining and very good for the game I believe.

After lookin' at the points I've posted here I can see how some would say that I'm contradicting myself by saying some things are good and some are bad and you'd be right. I'm all for many aspects of this information era, but I believe some things go too far as well. The question is, where do you draw the line? In all actuallity there is no line anymore and those things that I disagree with will only become more readily apparent in the future as more technology becomes more convenient and is placed within the all powerful cell phones that we all have become attached to so rapidly. I have an iPhone myself and am definately spoiled as to how much information I can have on the screen in a matter of minutes so nothing seems to amaze me anymore.

Well, I'm not dead yet and I'm still a young man at 37! Thankfully, I still have an open mind and I continue learning everyday I play. So rather than complain about the disparities between my generation of pool players and those coming up now, I guess I'll just go pull up those kickshot diagrams again and increase my knowledge some more.

The one thing that can't be taught is experience and that only comes through placing yourself in the fire of competition and trying to survive. The ol' guard has that for now, but boy are those kids hungry for action...

Until we meet again....see ya down the road...
 
Think about this for a second...

Without the internet, where, or how, else could we find out whether more pool players favor a dime-shaped or a nickel-shaped tip.

HELL YES it's good for pool. :rolleyes:
 
SpiderWebComm said:
The internet has to be good for pool. Actually, it's a MUST since TV thumbs its nose at pool.

Don't know how one can say it's bad.

Dave

Gotta love TAR, OTR, etc. Thank God for the internet.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you are even talking about. There are so many niche special interest alternative sports that are not Football, baseball, basketball, or hockey, yet you can always find trick shots, womens tournaments, men on classic ESPN, etc.

Pool is very well represented on television, IMO.
 
Good - Information is Power

Think of a question you've had about any aspect pool. Without the internet, how would you answer it? Would you expend the effort to go to the library or call somebody up? Are you sure you even know anybody who has the answer?

I found AZB and other forums when I was getting back into the game a few years ago. I can't imagine how I'd ever know as much about billiard products, players, strategy, lore, culture, or anything else if not for the internet. If you can't find the answer, there probably isn't one.

And as for the effect on action, the only people who are hurt are the ones who are trying to hide their speed. For them I have no sympathy.
 
The internet has been very positive. Where else can you read about 3-cushion in the US of A? No matches on YouTube?
 
i'd say for myself its a good thing!!!!!

I mean if AZB wasnt online, I wouldnt have met someone who we ended up becomming really good friends.

If it wasnt for the info about pool tournaments, I probably wouldnt have gone to half of the ones, i have.....

I'd probably never of heard of half the cue's and wouldnt have bought a Gilbert,,,,, or a couple BHQ cues, either.....

Now as for roadies and guys like that, yea i think it has probably hurt thier game more cuz you cant go anywhere with out someone asking " who's this guy " on here... When said guy is running over everyone in thier local pool hall.

I think the internet is a good thing for pool, because you can advertise tournaments and get the word out to alot more people.
 
I think it's terrible for pool. Instead of me being able to finish my work early and sneak off to the pool hall for a few hours, I end up trolling post after post, or watching some recorded video's of people playing the game and then I end up having to work late. :mad:

But in all seriousness the internet has accelerated the learnings of pool to more and more people. You can learn shots, ask questions, find a place to play, people to match-up with, who the pro's actually are, advertise rooms and tournaments, all for free and at the tip of your fingertips.

The fact that it hurt the road-players is a good thing for pool IMO. Road players coming and robbing tournaments and taking the locals money is one of the many things wrong with pool. On the other side of the coin, the people that are still getting dupped by road players and matching up bad are most likely not using the internet like us AZB junkies.
 
interesting

So far I seem to be the only one that thinks the internet may do more harm than good for pool. One reason for my thoughts being different is I am looking at the internet as a whole and pool as a whole.

Some of the negatives I see are being able to gamble on poker and various games without leaving home, just playing interactive games and with other players without leaving home, and the time lost messing around on the internet when without the internet pool players might be in the pool hall. Along the same line of thought, how many youngsters never find pool that might have otherwise because they keep their noses glued to a computer monitor?

The internet definitely gives us more access to pool knowledge and more information about coming events. I often had big events within less than 20 miles of me and never knew about them in the seventies and eighties. More information about coming events is good and I don't see that being able to pull information about road players off of the internet is really unfair. Most of the road players are working off of prior information about the local players so what is so bad about leveling the playing field and having information about the road player too?

My thought is that the internet might be bad for pool for the same reason casinos are terrible for horse racing. The internet gives people much more convenient access to many things they once went to the pool hall for: Competition, gambling, information, socializing, all of this can be done without going to the pool hall now and I am none too sure that this hasn't done more harm than the good that having more knowledge about how to play and coming events has done.

Hu
 
I believe the Internet is bad for the survival of pool as I used to know it. Neighborhood pool rooms, a gathering place for the regulars, seem to be nonexistent in my area today.

Just like the Internet is causing the elimination of newspapers, the Internet has done some damage to pool room businesses, I think.

There will be a day when there won't be a need for newspapers. I hope that never happens to the pool rooms. :frown:
 
no idea

KoolKat9Lives said:
Interesting aspect Hu.

Anyone have some #'s on 'net poker participation?

I've got enuf crutches, so I hadn't ever logged onto a poker site, or bought an Xbox/PS3.
Click to expand...

I don't know what the total number is but it is huge. The real question is how many of them would play pool if they weren't playing poker? I do know that quite a few on this forum play poker much more because of internet poker than they would if it wasn't available and of course there was often a poker game in the pool room too. We have also lost some pretty good pool players to poker when they found out there was more money to be made playing poker. I don't think poker would be nearly as big without the internet providing an entry point.

Hu
 
70% good: The information and shared knowledge is great for generating interest. Good for giving custom cue makers a cheap way to show off their talent (but also increases their competition). There is stiff price competition for equipment. Margins must be razor thin. (Good for players, bad for merchants.)

30% bad: Brick and mortar stores that sell pool equipment have difficulty competing with online sales: unreported sales tax and free shipping and all that. This makes it more and more difficult to put your hands on and try a variety of pool cues locally. More merchandise will be sold by sight instead of by feel. Easier to be disappointed with what you order.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top