I was kinda thinking about the whole spotting scene and I think I know why it died out:

The whole car spotting thing was happening around 2005ish. This was back when the flashiest exotics you could get was the new Bugatti Veyron, Murcielago, etc. However, these cars were few and far between. 2009 was when The Great Recession hit. My uncle recalled going down West Putnam Avenue and seeing the Miller Motorcars lot flooded with other people's cars for sale because they had lost money in the stock market, like a lot of it. This made supercars even rarer to see. It was really around this time where spotting really took off and if you found a Lambo or something, you were considered a god.

Now, it's 2016. We have multiple supercars like the Huayra, P1, F12tdf, Aventador SV, and so forth. These cars aren't so rarely seen anymore as the economy is picking up (well by that I mean the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer). This means that supercars will pop up more often. This leads to certain cars not being so rare anymore, thus this takes away the incentive of spotting. The cars just aren't as special as they used to be anymore.

Another factor is the rise of Instagram. Instagram has led to the worst cancer I have ever seen. Almost all of the popular car spotters on Instagram are egotistical little shits who only care about followers and don't actually care about the cars themselves. It has also gotten way too out of hand in terms of finding the cars, likes, and followers. While me and my dad were driving to Miller Motorcars one day last year, somebody literally leaped out in front of our car on West Putnam Avenue (a four-lane highway with two lanes on each side) just to get a photo of an SLS Black Series driving by and we were inches away from almost hitting him. There's also people out there who stalk a car for 45 minutes down a highway just for pictures (you all know what I'm referring to).

Car-spotting has gone from being a fun hobby that people can enjoy to another "who has the biggest dick" contest. People need to chill out. It's only cars.

I've only done this once, but when I post the car I did it for I think it will be a bit more justified (although I didn't stalk it for 45 minutes).

Anyway, I agree with everything you said up there. I'm not trying to derail the forum from its original topic, but I would like to also add something that doesn't directly relate to spotting but is still something that I think is becoming an issue. This crash was the first one that really brought up the Mustang stereotype, and it was at a show 5 minutes from my house. It was supposed to be a good show that was going to pick up in the next few editions, and they cancelled it after the first one because of that. Since then, there have been several other car show crashes, the most serious one being where a Koenigsegg injured at least 10 people when it hopped a guardrail and hit spectators. This is because owners are trying to show off, which is only because there are tons of people waiting for them to do something when they are leaving. And there's only people there waiting for cars to leave because they most likely found out on Instagram then DM'd a friend, and that friend DM'd another friend, etc. (this is how it went for the show where that first Mustang crash happened), which all ties back to what Jason said.

And also, on my Instagram I do post simply for enjoyment of sharing what I find with others, not for likes or followers.

In my opinion it's the YouTube video spotters that have caused spotting to get a bad name the most. Those well known people who made it a job instead of a hobby and act like they're gods because of it. I'm not gonna list names but I think we all know the people I'm talking about.

But I totally agree with you on the rest of the post.

Although I'm definitely guilty of jumping out of and in front of cars for spotting and have also followed exotics for long periods of time taking photos while driving. Can't say I'm the safest of spotters.

What are you talking about? The show-offy people are nothing new. They've been doing that for years. They've been around since I started really caring about cars in probably 2012. A lot of the videos on the crash compilations are several years old. Speaking of which, that Koenigsegg crash was in 2013 lol.

There always have been and always will be people who feel the need to compensate for their inadequacies. The only reason it's becoming such a big topic now is because of the internet and the ease of capturing and sharing the videos of these crashes.

I feel like it's not just the YouTube and IG spotters, but the "iPhoneographers" and other people at car meets now. It was painful to go to a show such as Exotics on Cannery Row and see people following every slightly special car like zombies. Crowds of people following and blocking cars so thick the cars can't even move: that's what's killing it. I remember hearing about one of the people at I think it was Car Week 2014 with a gray LaFerrari who was too terrified to drive it because he knew he'd be mobbed by spotters. The collective idea that this short of BS is okay is really doing a lot to destroy spotting as a whole it seems.

I personally feel like there is no problem having a swarm of car spotters taking photos of your car. But when they won't let you move because they want more shots that's a different story.

It's like that at C&C now. Took me like five minutes to drive down one row looking for a parking spot because nobody would get out of the way.

Taking pictures isn't the issue. However, these spotters block traffic, cause ridiculous congestion, and just make things dangerous overall for themselves and those driving cars in the area. They have to catch every little car, every little rev, so much so to the point that it just becomes ridiculous and a nuisance.

That's true but I've mainly only noticed it this year because of how many events it has impacted in my area. They cancelled the one with that first Mustang crash, Supercar Saturdays now has to put cones up at the exit with police watch after they had to ban a guy with a widebody GT-R when he slid and almost injured 10-15 people, and a Shelby Mustang drifted across three lanes and jumped a curb at what I would call the best annual event in Illinois.

I just wish Flickr was still a thing. You could practically post anything you want on there and nobody would unfollow you. Once you posted something they liked they would just favorite it and maybe comment on it. It seems like with Instagram every time I post a classic car that I personally like, I lose like five followers and then I don't gain any until I post a hypercar. It's sad.

I mean it is. I thought the whole point of posting this stuff wasn't likes and favorites, but just to share it with people. If the people unfollow you for posting a classic car, then they probably weren't worth having as followers anyway.

This is why I just have a personal account on IG and don't bother with car sh*t. Car people on Instagram are generally the worst, lol.

I'm honestly considering going back to Flickr. There's too much bullshit on Instagram. I keep getting trolled and harassed by a bunch of douchebag Northeast photographers and I don't need that. Plus square-cropping and saving pictures on my phone is a pain in the ass and I love seeing the high resolution pictures on Flickr. Problem is most people nowadays can't be bothered to go on a computer to look at pictures anymore so they go on their phones instead.

What do you do when it comes to posting photos?

I mean really the main reason to have a car Instagram in my opinion is to connect with owners and people who have similar interests unless they're D-bags. I wouldn't be shooting an Aventador SV and 458 soon if I didn't have my account on there and certainly wouldn't know some of the people I do now. But yeah I hate it when people unfollow simply because you're posting stuff they don't like.

I mean I say just post on IG and don't care about the likes. And just ignore the trolls or delete/block them. Honestly the few times I've posted computer photos I've just emailed them to myself or used a file sharing service.

I just post stuff about what I'm doing. Sometimes it's cars, stuff from my rail journey to CA for Car Week, scenery, occasionally some hobbies. Just random stuff I feel like sharing. Nothing particular but it certainly shows the things I'm interested and the stuff I do.