www.avforums.com Reviews 250

I thought hotukdeals.com was bad. This website is run by people who love to troll and cyber bullies and moderators are in on it. I hardly use the website and got attacked by comments from moderators mainly. Then the mod played it like I was the one aggressive when you read their comments you can see they are trolling my post so I have the right to be aggressive but I wasn't. Then I wrote I'm having the feeling replies were harsh to my thread and mods are backing up mods which gives me the feeling mods are dictators like hotukdeals.com mods. Then they took my thread down which shows I obviously hit bull on the head. Then I thought let me check out trustpilot for their reviews. How I wasn't suprised with the same theme of moderators/users cyber bullying. I will list some of the comments said on my thread. *I don't get the point" this was said a few times. If I don't get the point of something I don't say it, I move on. Least not few times. This was done for trolling purposes. Another said "this has nothing to do with av forums" well nor does 95% of the content on that site so this comment is clearly spam as you could write that all over the place. and when I reported as spam guess what the mod said labeling it spam doesn't make it spam. And this is the same mod that has accused me of being aggressive and commented on my thread a few times. There's no decent websites, they all hire children to cut costs so can't expect a moderator to be professional. Btw I use av forums about once every 3 months and this is my experience in that short time. My thread was relating to hotuk mods behaviour and so av forums mods came out defending like I attacked them.

I am absolutely appalled by my experience on this platform. Not only was I subjected to relentless cyberbullying and predatory behavior by other users, but the moderators did absolutely nothing to address the situation. Despite citing multiple incidents with clear evidence, my concerns were ignored, and the toxic behavior was allowed to continue unchecked.

It’s beyond disappointing to see a platform that claims to prioritise user safety fail so miserably in protecting its community. The lack of action from the moderators only emboldened the bullies, making me feel even more vulnerable and targeted.

If you value your mental well-being and safety, I strongly advise against using this platform. There are no safeguards in place to protect users from harassment, and the moderators seem completely indifferent to the harm being caused.

This experience has left me feeling violated and unsupported. I will never use this platform again and would caution others to stay far away.

A cesspit & echo chamber for insecure men with nothing better to do than hate Trump & Elon Musk. Every post reeks of bitterness, as users desperately try to outdo each other with cruel jabs & petty remarks. It’s less of a forum & more of a slimy pit where egos feed off venom, mistaking mockery for meaningful discussion.

The relentless mocking & childish insults towards Trump are non-stop. It’s like a playground of venomous trolls who think their petty taunts are clever. There’s no debate here—just endless sneering from those who’ve made hating Trump their personality. They seem to think anyone who disagrees is a “far-right Trump lover,” but the truth is, some of us see things objectively. These threads are toxic swamps of unnecessary mocking & spite.

If Trump hadn’t won, I don’t know what these bitter trolls would do with their lives. They hate Trump & Musk so much, yet they’re obsessed with them, ranting & drooling over every move. Without Trump & Musk, they’d wallow in their own spite.

This site is more toxic than Twitter, the platform they claim to hate. While they sneer at Twitter for being a cesspit, they’ve created something worse here—a swamp of cruel, slimy attacks. This continues unchecked because the owner, Stuart something-or-other, condones it. I’ve seen him lamenting that an attempt on Trump’s life had missed. This isn’t a neutral platform—it’s a left-leaning pit where hatred thrives.

Allowing this hate speech to continue unchecked is irresponsible & dangerous. The owners have created an environment where venom is normalised. Anyone who challenges this is banned, silencing dissent & ensuring the echo chamber remains. The owners are complicit, protecting a hateful status quo.

Banning users without warning is cowardly control. It’s not about rules—it’s about silencing any opposing viewpoint. Moderators step in with lines like “Hey, cool down now” when someone dares to challenge the mob. Their goal is clear: shut down debate before it upsets the regulars who thrive on this toxicity.

This isn’t moderation; it’s manipulation. Moderators act as gatekeepers, ensuring only the cruelest voices are heard. They’re terrified of upsetting the haters, prioritising their comfort over honest discussion. By banning dissenting users, they turn this site into a slimy pit where cruelty & narrow-mindedness reign supreme.

The moderators are puppets for the left-wing mob. Their “moderation” is a sham, barely hiding their bias. They ban anyone with a differing opinion while coddling the venomous trolls who mock & tear people down without consequence. Innocent users are banned while the real offenders are given free rein.

This isn’t a website—it’s a propaganda pit where cruelty is celebrated, dissent is crushed, & honest discussion is dead. A pathetic excuse for a platform, run by cowards who can’t pretend to uphold fairness.

This site represent themselves as a discussion forum, but in reality the oppressive moderation makes discussion impossible and after being a member for 17 years I’ve now given up and won’t go back.

It becomes impossible to contribute to a site when moderators will demand you state your “qualifications” for expressing an opinion or will issue a thread ban on the spurious grounds that suggesting (in the politics forum) that people are pretending to hold an opinion is “disrespectful to other members and taking rhetoric too far”. I was even given a form of words I had to agree to post to the thread as a condition of the thread ban being lifted. This had nothing to do with any forum rules I had broken, and everything to do with the controlling and oppressive character of certain moderators who are not people who should have been given power over others.

As a technical reference for expertise on AV equipment this site is still useful. As a discussion forum it is completely unusable due entirely to overbearing and aggressive moderators who simply cannot leave members alone to discuss topics within the site rules. Seems I’m not alone in my opinion based on the huge exodus of members.

Seems like the last few contributors have thrown their toys out of their pram. I have been a member of AVF for over 20 years and enjoy the site very much.

You can access a membership that have a vast amount of knowledge on HiFi and Audio Visual. I find the moderators do a good job of running the site and they are in themselves very helpful in pointing out the right section of the forum to post in.

It seems the children are lifting their skirts and stamping their feet because they can't get their own way and it hurts their ego. I don't bother with the politics side of the forum. If the children don't like it then find another politic forum to have tantrums on.

This site has become an utter cesspit, mainly down to the moderators. They do not consistently apply the rules and allow racists and bigots to post, simply because they are their friends.

The senior moderator is by far the worst and clearly was bullied at school and is now taking it out on the site’s users. He should be placed on a register and monitored.

It’s a shame as the site used to be good. But the moderators have ruined it and the atmosphere of the site. Coupled with very little AV content and the site has had its day.

If they spent more time on content and less time bullying users, they might be able to save the site.

This place continues to be a joke...

this has to be the most woke place on the internet - from the ex Digital spy bored sexless housewives who have came along (i.e lucy van pelt), to the crossdressers like 'crashchris', and the autistic bots like 'jurrasicmark' who want to suck all the fun out of conversations.

please avoid if you want your sanity to stay intact

The moderators on this site are very insecure and do not like the least bit of constructive criticism or honest enquiry. I would recommend joining AVSForums, the non-related American forum. Far more freedom of expression over there.

I have been a member for nearly 10 years, and it was once the best AV forum around. Sadly, I now see left-wing members bullying others and shutting down posts in the General Chat political forums. The AV section of the forum has declined significantly. With each passing day, more true AV enthusiasts are leaving. It feels like a far-left cult. Involving politics is a way to undermine something, and that’s exactly what is happening here. Over time, the forum has transformed into the Facebook of older boys. Surprisingly, the owner also engages in political discussions.

Brands should be very cautious about associating themselves with such a divisive organization whose owner appears to disdain half of America for voting for Trump.

I’m amazed that the forum hasn’t faced legal action, given the amount of slander and false information being posted. It’s truly disappointing.

An absolutely pathetic forum, yesterday I joined the forum to read about the experience of users on some electrical items I'm interested in and by chance I stumbled on a F1 thread of which I'm a massive fan. I had a conversation with a certain member who appeared to not agree with my opinion. This morning when I tried to log on I had a message that I was banned and this is their explanation.

"You have been banned for the following reason: We have carefully examined your first contributions and consider that your activities on the forum will continue to have a negative impact on the community. We have therefore banned your account permanently. This decision is final."

How pathetic is this place and who on earth are the moderators, surely they are children or the type of people that get kicks out of flexing the little power they have in life, perhaps this site is run by Keir Starmer?

If you put posters on ignore which is encouraged to avoid angst and moderation. However, in time ignored poster concludes they are ignored because you don't reply. They hassle moderation to bully you... Best way to deal with these situations is get whatever content of use but just run adblockers and such like to avoid being revenue for site as much as possible.

The forums have been going downhill in the last few years. It used to be very good, but now anything which could be seen as supporting a right wing view is banned.

The forum mods have their favourite posters who get a lot of leeway. Their favourites hunt in packs, looking to bully anyone who doesn't follow their worldview. Many seem to be ex-Digital Spy members, extreme in their views.

I'm surprised advertisers want to be associated with Avforums. It's a toxic brand. Private emails have been exchanged with the advertisers, telling them what we think of AVF.

The negative reviews don't lie.

Shame, there are parts of it which are very good, like the technology section, but outside of that is a nightmare of Orwellian proportions.

The problems with this forum are due to the owner with the user name @Stuart Wright, which should not come as a surprise.

He decided to create rules for the conduct of members towards each other, but he also decided to selectively enforce those rules according to what position the posters were taking.

Some blame the moderators, but the moderators are doing the bidding of the owner.

I also get spammed with messages about my ad blocker, but I'll take that over the incredibly intrusive ads that the site plasters all over the place if an ad blocker is not used.

Membership is free and I think I'd been registered for around ten years. I was moderately active in posting on the forum for movies and electronics stuff, until yesterday I was banned. A thread I'd created about 4K physical media mysteriously vanished after being active for perhaps a fortnight, and no reason or explanation was given for the thread being unceremoniously erased. Understandably I was more than a little peeved about this happening capriciously and without notification, and so I created another post to bemoan this happening. Shortly thereafter a moderator appeared and issued a formal warning quick sharp, and before I knew it I was banned. Talk about being overly sensitive and utterly humourless. I don't know who that moderator is, but he clearly gets off on the power trip. About ten years without and prior problems of warnings, now a permanent ban, not even a temporary ban/suspension.

Can be a decent place, but spoiled by the forum owner who is rather paranoid.
I know that several years ago, members' private messages were monitored by moderators, using key word searches, including the owner's name and user name. I don't know if this is still the case, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Stuart is humourless, paranoid and has a God complex and would do well to sort out what is inside his head, rather than waste money on hair transplants.

I revisited the forums to see if the forum owner's post for tolerance of differing opinions had shown any effect.

I found the actual owner of the forum is actually at least or more intolerant of differing political or financial opinions than his followers...

Sadly the politics and general chat sections have actually, (and unbelievably) gone from bad to worse.

Unless that is, you are a radical Left leaning member, an unswerving supporter of The Ukraine with no nuance to be uttered whatsoever, are willing to march in step with the youth movement's support of Palestine, which most couldn't even find on a map, or like to have an avatar of an elderly looking man dressed in a mini skirt, fishnet tights and school age girl's white knee socks.

If you stray from anything other than abject hive mind about such matters you are likely to be banned in the first few weeks at best.

Those few that try to dare to wander from the track do so as if walking barefoot on broken glass, their fear and constraint palpable and somewhat pitiable.

Toxic, plagued with bitter single mothers, the feckless and workshy, those jealous of deserved or historical wealth or position, and those embracing the new bad back, "mental health issues", the place is choc a bloc with those swirling in a cess pit of their own idle and envious making.

Trustpilot got a handle on the bent reviews, but the most ironic thing is a thread entitled "What unpopular or controversial opinions do you have?" where the thread creator is banned and indeed any post that doesn't meet the popular Trotskyist, globalist, anti conservative mind set will see you packed off with neither an explanation of why nor or a farewell.

If I were an advertiser I would be concerned forum reviews of my products would be seen as being as bent as the reviews from many in "high ranking", but in reality self aggrandising places on the forum attempted to bamboozle Trustpilot with.

No signs of improvement, just a further decline into uncontrolled piteous school boy toilet humour and banality.

Avoid unless you seek conversation with mainly vexatious fellow dullards.

Been a member for near on 20 years, was the best AV forum around. Sadly all I see now is left wing members bullying members shutting down posts in the GC political forums. The vile post about members of Parliament (they can't even use there correct name, made up names like school kids). It's like a far left cult. Seen people try and put there central/right side across and before you know it there post have been reported and deleted. Then your accused of being xenophobic/Racist/Far Right .The left wing cult on that forum is shocking. I'm amazed it hasn't been shut down from legal action as there's so much slander false information/accusations posted. Such a shame. Will not be going back like many long term standing members. The digital spy members have ruined digital spy, causing there GC/political forums to be closed there. Now they've gone to an AV Forum and ruined that.

The Politics section is now the same lefty echo chamber that the Digital Spy one became. If your political opinion is right of centre don’t bother as you’ll soon be banned.

Almost immediately after joing this forum I soon discovered that with my political views that are to the centre were going to be the end of me. Within a day or two I was being censored and warned by the mods just for stating my opinion. It is clearly a liberal echo chamber and woe betide anyone who dare upset the apple cart. Steven, a senior mod, is a jumped up little Hitler who let's posters who he is mates with get away with trolling and attacking other members whilst he smugly does nothing. I have spoken to many members on there who have stated that the moderators are incompetent bullies.

The forums are a joke. Signed up to get into some Politics discussion, and you have to be approved. You can't just sign up, and start a thread or make an opinon on some political issue. With this, I opened a thread in the General Discussion, enquring about how to get 'entry'into the Politics thread. I half hearted joked was it being 'gate keeped' by the ex Digital Spy Politics forum users who moved over there, when the latter forum closed. With this, I got a message from AV Forums moderator, saying that since my remark could 'offend something', am banned!!! What a joke of a website. Who is going to be offended by that.p

The politics is a closed shop, some posters all the time. Check them out, they look like party representatives, chewing the fat between them.

As I said, joke of a website, ran by people who don't like democratic and different opinons. Ordinary, normal people not allowed.