There's something that happens a lot on forums that raises the hair on the back of my neck. If someone asks for advice or comments, some resident experts feel like their answers are commands and anyone who hesitates or tries to understand the "why" is an ungrateful POS that shouldn't ask if they're not going to slavishly follow the advice or comments. The difference between asking for advice or opinions and "tell me what to do" is too subtle for some of these guys.
Some doctors have the same approach. When a therapy had to be selected for cancer treatment, and I was going to participate heavily in the choosing the therapy and its side effects, one doc responded with "I think I know more about this disease than you do." and passed me off to a younger doc in the same clinic. So be it. I'm going to live with the side effects and I'm going to be heavily involved in the decisions.
Getting back to the forums, experts do sometimes disagree and maybe the most recent advice appears to conflict with advice from other experts. Or, maybe the guy asking the question wants to understand some "why" behind the choices. Or, maybe he has a misconception that needs to be straightened out. I feel like the guy spending the money should understand WHY he's choosing one thing over another.
I don't know why they react that way. Ego? Unsure of their answers and can't defend them? Just not articulate enough to explain it? Whatever the cause it TICKS ME OFF!
I'm venting here because it doesn't happen here. Saying something on the forums where it does happen would just cause a tsunami of more of the same. If you read this far, thanks for listening.
Another Pet Peeve
Moderators: MostMint, wxo, Fred32v, Basement Paul, ttamrettus
Another Pet Peeve
Maverick
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Basement Paul
- Posts: 3383
- Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2005 9:27 pm
- Location: In the dirt.
Re: Another Pet Peeve
I can't believe you would ask SUCH STUPID QUESTIONS HERE!!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU????? Sorry, just wanted you to feel welcome...
For some reason there are car guys out there that can't be wrong... ever. I stopped posting on those specialty sites because of just that. I will surf through the idiocy sometimes to help me find answers hoping someone else has already asked the question, but no more participation for me. It's too annoying dealing with the know-it-alls.
Good luck,
-BP
For some reason there are car guys out there that can't be wrong... ever. I stopped posting on those specialty sites because of just that. I will surf through the idiocy sometimes to help me find answers hoping someone else has already asked the question, but no more participation for me. It's too annoying dealing with the know-it-alls.
Good luck,
-BP
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Blue_69_malibu
- Posts: 370
- Joined: Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:40 am
- Location: Avon, OH
Re: Another Pet Peeve
It happens on Chevelles.com and the O Gauge Train Forum that I partake in as well...all the time.
You end up with Posters with different views/opinions on topics that they are all very passionate about. Perhaps too passionate about b/c they end up arguing with people that they have a lot in common with or share very similiar interests with.
You end up with Posters with different views/opinions on topics that they are all very passionate about. Perhaps too passionate about b/c they end up arguing with people that they have a lot in common with or share very similiar interests with.
Re: Another Pet Peeve
You've been to the same web sites!!I can't believe you would ask SUCH STUPID QUESTIONS HERE!!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU????? Sorry, just wanted you to feel welcome...
Maverick
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Racin'Jacin
- Posts: 354
- Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:01 pm
Re: Another Pet Peeve
I especially like it when they "berate" me for not supplying all the facts...but when you go back and reread what I wrote I actually DID write what they said I left out. All told their response post adds NOTHING to the discussion - it's like they want to seem all knowing - but don't know - so they have to "blame" me for supposedly leaving out the details. Sometimes it's pretty funny. Just the other day I wrote a post about raising the roof on my stick built garage - I specifically stated I had rafters. I had several responses - including "would really help if we knew the construction type" keep in mind I also had pictures of the outside. One poster even said - are you sure you have rafters sounds like it is trusses? Well since I personally built the 32x32 attached garage behind it and by "personally built" meaning my hammer, my saw, my nails- YES I do know the difference between a rafter and a truss. Why do we have to go down so many rabbit holes ?
Question:
My car with a stock 1967 V8 Chevy is idling poorly. What should I check first?
Answer:
Is it a Big Block or Small block?
What color paint has it got?
Does it have headers?
How many doors?
Is there a sun roof?
Power windows?
So many people think if you ask a question you must be a nitwit. Mostly I am just looking for someone who has done it before me to save me some grief. Example: I wanted to sleeve some wheel cylinders and asked for advice in how to do it. What I got was 20 answers telling me where they take theirs to be done. Yeah that's great, but I made it clear it was something I wanted to try myself. In the end I didn't get one single useful tidbit. Which honestly wasn't a huge problem, but would have been nice. Instead I learned the hard way and would do it differently if I had to do it again. The biggest thing was chucking it up - the cast surface sucks - to do it again I would clamp on a split collar to the seal surfaces since those are machined - way easier to keep it trued up. THAT was the kind of advice I was looking for, but never got. Sometimes we just got to learn things the hard way - that's OK too.
Dr's are tough - so many are so full of themselves it ain't even funny.
Oh well my rants gone on WAY too long!!!!!
Jacin
Question:
My car with a stock 1967 V8 Chevy is idling poorly. What should I check first?
Answer:
Is it a Big Block or Small block?
What color paint has it got?
Does it have headers?
How many doors?
Is there a sun roof?
Power windows?
So many people think if you ask a question you must be a nitwit. Mostly I am just looking for someone who has done it before me to save me some grief. Example: I wanted to sleeve some wheel cylinders and asked for advice in how to do it. What I got was 20 answers telling me where they take theirs to be done. Yeah that's great, but I made it clear it was something I wanted to try myself. In the end I didn't get one single useful tidbit. Which honestly wasn't a huge problem, but would have been nice. Instead I learned the hard way and would do it differently if I had to do it again. The biggest thing was chucking it up - the cast surface sucks - to do it again I would clamp on a split collar to the seal surfaces since those are machined - way easier to keep it trued up. THAT was the kind of advice I was looking for, but never got. Sometimes we just got to learn things the hard way - that's OK too.
Dr's are tough - so many are so full of themselves it ain't even funny.
Oh well my rants gone on WAY too long!!!!!
Jacin
Re: Another Pet Peeve
If everybody did everything the same as the last guy, there would be no such thing
as innovation. Think of guys who were some of the early guys in racing.... If they had
all listened to the guys who were "experts" before them, the world of racing would
not be anywhere it is today. The coolest thing happens when you are able to do something
on your own that goes against what an expert "says" to do and it turns out better than
they would've done it. I don't necessarily want my project to be a clone of someone else's,
I want it to be MINE, and that's why I do it that way. My Corvette has stock manifolds,
exhaust pipes, factory parts not aftermarket, stock wheels... etc., because I want it to
"look" that way and "be" that way. The "experts" would put headers and huge pipes, and
so on and so forth so it can be "the best." I understand that it can be faster or better doing
it another way, but I did "my" car the way "I" wanted it. That's what makes it "mine." The
guys on the forums feel the same way, but, as Jacin said, all want you to do what they did,
because that is best way for them. You are allowed to do things your own way, because that
is what makes you an individual, and your project "your project." Like someone else said above,
just use the forums to give yourself some hints about what to do and do your own thing.
Chances are the "experts" aren't really smarter than you are, they've just copied what someone
else before you did.
GM
as innovation. Think of guys who were some of the early guys in racing.... If they had
all listened to the guys who were "experts" before them, the world of racing would
not be anywhere it is today. The coolest thing happens when you are able to do something
on your own that goes against what an expert "says" to do and it turns out better than
they would've done it. I don't necessarily want my project to be a clone of someone else's,
I want it to be MINE, and that's why I do it that way. My Corvette has stock manifolds,
exhaust pipes, factory parts not aftermarket, stock wheels... etc., because I want it to
"look" that way and "be" that way. The "experts" would put headers and huge pipes, and
so on and so forth so it can be "the best." I understand that it can be faster or better doing
it another way, but I did "my" car the way "I" wanted it. That's what makes it "mine." The
guys on the forums feel the same way, but, as Jacin said, all want you to do what they did,
because that is best way for them. You are allowed to do things your own way, because that
is what makes you an individual, and your project "your project." Like someone else said above,
just use the forums to give yourself some hints about what to do and do your own thing.
Chances are the "experts" aren't really smarter than you are, they've just copied what someone
else before you did.
GM
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TireSmoker
- Site Admin
- Posts: 2443
- Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2005 1:45 pm
- Location: roaming the Matrix
- Contact:
Re: Another Pet Peeve
I see this on chevelles.com all the time and it makes me insane. Reading comprehension is terrible.Racin'Jacin wrote:I especially like it when they "berate" me for not supplying all the facts...but when you go back and reread what I wrote I actually DID write what they said I left out. All told their response post adds NOTHING to the discussion - it's like they want to seem all knowing - but don't know - so they have to "blame" me for supposedly leaving out the details.
I love all the forums online, they're really valuable tools. But you really have to sort through a lot of sh*t to find the nugget of gold you're looking for. It's not much different really than talking to guys in the staging lanes. There are some guys that actually know what they're talking about, and then there's everyone else who read something about it once, but will pass themselves off as experts. You quickly learn who is who.
-Dave