The Hamb is a very popular Traditional Hot Rod forum site. As said before it really is a great site full of great tips and ideas. Lots of good people there too. However, they think they only like traditional cars. Cars built exactly like they were back in the day. If you have the wrong tires, or the wrong brakes, or the wrong anything else, you may get slammed by the bunch. From the post I have seen, if one guy comes out and says something bad, then several more pile on. Like a bunch of sheep. Seems to me it is better to be open minded and ready to apply modern ideas to old style hot rods, or better yet, build something out of your head, instead of trying to make an exact copy of what someone did years ago.
The term "Rat Rod" was first used as a slam, by the wax and polish guys, to describe the unfinished but driving cars that tend to stay that way. Or the thrown together, low dollar cars that were made just to drive, and would never get a finish. Then, somehow, the Rat Rod term was also used for the unsafe junk that was poorly built. Some people connect Rat Rod with any one of the above. The Hamb seems to connect it mostly to the last one.
I don't hold it against them. Because the ones that attack are really the ones who refuse to see anything but what they want to see. Followers, who can't think for themselves.
There are so many people on the Hamb that you can't generalize and say they are a bunch of closed minded turds. In fact there are many people just like us there, who love motorized anything, and take in as much as they can about hotrods!