Let me see if I can sort some of this out.
The thread is supposed to be a place where people feel safe posting footage because the comments made a useful and polite, constructive and diplomatic. There have been many threads where TTD members posted footage and got some excellent comments but also some wild comments that were just counterproductive, sometimes even injurious.
When a person has done the hard work it takes to get to a decent level and is a mature adult, often they will have an understanding of the broader spectrum or realities for young and adult club level table tennis players. But, in my opinion, maturity, emotional maturity, would be more important for this thread than other things.
The people who are commenting in the thread, most of them I know them fairly well, or, through the years, I have seen how they comment when someone posts footage in other threads.
Many of them are fairly high level players. But they also have all posted footage of themselves. So, other people can see who it is that is trying to help them and what their standard of play is. I think this is important in a few ways. First, someone who has posted footage is more likely to comment constructively and compassionately to someone else posting footage. This is not always the case. But having posted footage makes it more likely.
The other reason is, if you are giving people advice, the people you are giving advice should be able to see who it is that is giving the advice and how they actually play.
NextLevel can tell you some stories about, when he was not at the level he is today, trying to take advice from people who were presenting that they knew what they were talking about and him messing up his shoulder or other things. And then he saw those people play and realized they really did not know what they were talking about and were pretending to be at a level they were not because the internet can provide a certain degree of anonymity.
So, there are lots of people who like EmRatThich and find what he offers very valuable. And I am fine with that. But if you only know ERT from the internet, you have never seen him play. You have never seen him coaching. You have never seen the success of any of the people he actually coaches in real life. Some people like that. I don't want this thread to have that. I want you to see and know who is giving you advice from this thread.
Back in February Maurice made a comment that I thought was good. I told him, send me a private message and we will see if we can make it so you can give advice on the thread. He sent me a PM saying he was happy I was going to let him post on the thread. And I replied, that if he did want that, what he should do first was post footage of himself either playing a match or training and put it on the thread.
I guess he chose not to do that. And it is a shame because I thought his advice was good regardless of what level he thinks he is. But I would not think it was fair to let him comment on people's footage without posting some footage of himself. And, if he still does want to be able to comment and give advice in this thread, all he has to do is post footage so I can see and decide if he should be allowed to give constructive advice. He has had some very good coaching.
And as far as Table Tennis Tony.....he is a coach for a very long time. It would be great if he can be part of this thread. But I also know he is very busy. And, perhaps, a high level professional coach does not want to be giving away all the information for free.
What guys like NextLevel and NDH and Brs and Ritchey and Der_Echte are doing when they comment here, it takes a lot of time, it takes a broad perspective on TT, and, it is not easy to see and have the incites these guys are offering up. So, I for one, really appreciate all the time and effort they have put into this thread.