We need a grumpy old veteran section

[princelton]

I see it here all the time... A guy ends up at TDIClub either because he has a TDI, or wishes he had a TDI. It goes down like this...
He gets bit hard by the bug... He finds himself thinking about things like bio fuels, and high mpg's, and blowing the doors off of unsuspecting prius'... he googles a couple of his questions and he finds our forum...
Undoubtedly he will search a few of his questions using our state of the art infallible search function and eventually he will join, so he can make his own thread, knowing full well that a forum is a place to meet publicly or assemble for open discussion and that he can ask, and feel safe doing so...
Well....
There are some grumpy old veterans who always seem to yell at this guy, and make him feel unwelcome, it seems every newby only has stupid questions that this mystical yet unobtainable search will fix according to the veterans, but it rarely ever does...
So....
My proposal is that we have a grumpy old veteran section where all you can do is read locked, sticky, and faq topics, and it has all the old posts from today back... the grumpy old veterans can hang there and read the infinate wisdom within, and the rest of us, can use this Forum as designed, as a place to assemble for open discussion....

 

[FL/COtdi]

I wasn't grumpy until I read your post. Im going to report to somebody I know and demand, in a grumpy fashion ggrrrrrrr, that you be taken down a notch. Yeah back to newbie status for you. I might feel better then . . .

 

[thebigarniedog]

I see it here all the time... A guy ends up at TDIClub either because he has a TDI, or wishes he had a TDI. It goes down like this...
He gets bit hard by the bug... He finds himself thinking about things like bio fuels, and high mpg's, and blowing the doors off of unsuspecting prius'... he googles a couple of his questions and he finds our forum...
Undoubtedly he will search a few of his questions using our state of the art infallible search function and eventually he will join, so he can make his own thread, knowing full well that a forum is a place to meet publicly or assemble for open discussion and that he can ask, and feel safe doing so...
Well....
There are some grumpy old veterans who always seem to yell at this guy, and make him feel unwelcome, it seems every newby only has stupid questions that this mystical yet unobtainable search will fix according to the veterans, but it rarely ever does...
So....
My proposal is that we have a grumpy old veteran section where all you can do is read locked, sticky, and faq topics, and it has all the old posts from today back... the grumpy old veterans can hang there and read the infinate wisdom within, and the rest of us, can use this Forum as designed, as a place to assemble for open discussion....

Sorry you feel so cynical about the club after only being here for two months. Most people here truly want to help. Some of that help becomes diluted, however, from repetitve topics that seem required to be posted at least ten times per month:

1. K&N Intakes/CAI Intakes;
2. Best Tune for my car;
3. Best Skidplate for my car;
4. My car is in limp mode, what should I do?
5. My MIL light has been on for a year and now my car runs strangely;
6. I want to delete my catalytic converter;
7. I want to delete my EGR;
8. I want to talk about things on the banned list;
9. I got a speeding ticket, what should I do;
10. I have a problem, lets play 20 questions cause I don't want to tell you about my car to help narrow it down;
11. I bought this part from a site in North Carolina, now my car arsesploded;
12. I like blinding other cars with chinese HID kits in halogen reflector lamps;
13. Best injectors for my car;
14. Which vendor is the bestest;
15. I drive like an idiot and the Pol-ice pick on me;

My favorite example is the diagnosing low power in the A3/B4. Moderator GoFaster wrote an excellent stickie on how to perform this diagnosis, yet no one seems to want to read it. Why? Then you have people who get answers that they don't like and want to argue with the person giving them the correct answer. Why? It boils down to a lack of consideration of other people's time, IMHO and usually results in the person with the answer not wanting to answer the question at all --- which helps no one.

The search key is a valuable resource to find answers to problems. Most members, in an effort to help, will simply remind people that the search key is their friend and the stickies are there for the same purpose. Most people are more then happy to clarify an answer from a prior post in that thread or even a new thread.

So please show some consideration when you ask for help. It is the meaning of the idiom you get more flies with hunny then from vinegar ......

 

[Souzafone]

This thread sucks.

 

[nate379]

Prolly cause finding stuff on here at times is like trying to find a hot chick at a Weight Watchers meeting.

My favorite example is the diagnosing low power in the A3/B4. Moderator GoFaster wrote an excellent stickie on how to perform this diagnosis, yet no one seems to want to read it. Why?

.

 

[thebigarniedog]

Prolly cause finding stuff on here at times is like trying to find a hot chick at a Weight Watchers meeting.

Yep, that's a toughie ........

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=tdiclub:+diagnosing+limp+mode+

 

[TDIMeister]

Prolly cause finding stuff on here at times is like trying to find a hot chick at a Weight Watchers meeting.

Then the problem is not that you're looking for a hot chick but you're doing at a Weight Watcher's meeting. Go to the right place for the activity. This can be looked upon in two ways:
1) Go to the right forum. I have particular experience with this as moderator of the News section. 95% of new threads are from newbies who evidently post in the first forum that meets their eyes reading down the index page, when the post should go to TDI 101 or somewhere else. Or people interpret "TDI News/Tech" to mean that their buying a new TDI qualifies as "News", or looking to buy a timing belt kit qualifies as "Tech".
2) Go to another website. If you want to talk about 19" chromed spinner wheels and put a 4" drop suspension, you will find a more receptive audience at VWVortex. If you want comrades to merely pat your back and give you kudos for doing a single-tank WVO conversion, there are much better websites for that too other than here. If you want advice and a detailed how-to on how to defeat your emission control system, move along, nothing to find here.

Yes, I guess being here for 12 years makes me one of the grumpy ones.

P.S.: Good list, Arnie.

 

[TDIMeister]

One other thing: Get with the times. You Google the day's news, weather, sports scores, stock prices, how to make a tuna-and-KD casserole, your horoscope, phase of the moon, directions to your Aunt Edna's place for this weekend. Point is, you already search for everything else; do the same in the forums.

 

[GoFaster]

[veteran rant]

I don't know how many times I've FELT LIKE, but resisted, saying any of the following. So, with the opportunity to state it here in perhaps a lighter tone, here goes.

1. RTFM. Do you know what it means? The answer to your question is right there in the flippin' owner's book, clear as day.

2. You are driving a g*dd**n 13 year old car. Everything that is possible to do has already been done and discussed to death nine ways to Sunday in the forums already. SEARCH. Even the most trivial search - or even a look through the last week's thread titles, would have answered this question without creating yet ANOTHER thread about the same thing again.

3. You are trying to do what, without benefit of reading the factory service manual?

4. And by attempting to save $2 by doing whatever you are trying to do, you are risking HOW much because you don't know whether it's any good or not?

And that's on top of TDImeister's point ...

5. SEARCH!!!

[/veteran rant]

 

[GoFaster]

By the way, it could be worse. On another internet forum, the topic of discussion is a particular Honda motorcycle which ceased being manufactured years ago. There is a big banner in some of the forum sections "Before you start a new thread ... Everything that you could possibly want to do this bike, has already been done. Search the forums before you start a new thread. If you start a new thread, and the topic has already been discussed to death, you WILL be killed with fire."

 

[TDIMeister]

Geez GoFaster, by your particular grumpiness today, I would have sworn that you're at home sick in bed or something. Oh wait, you are! Get well soon!

Oh and to the OP: "We need a grumpy old veteran section". Thanks, this is IT!

 

[GoFaster]

LOL, true enough. I'm sick of being sick in bed, so I'm sick while typing at the computer instead.

 

[DSLFAN]

I find what I need just fine when I research this site! But I had to spend more than 10 minutes to do so. I have 26 sites bookmarked just for VW forums and vendors, 53 for Datsun/Nissan sites, 20 for Chevy/El Caminos, and 39 for diesels. You have to expend effort to achieve results, just sayin'

 

[40X40]

Wonder of wonders, if you correct, instruct or try to help some of these people they think they have been yelled at even when you use the most neutral, emotionless words/phrasing you can think of.

I've noticed that a whole bunch of people who used to post helpful stuff many times a day have just given up and let the clueless run wild......

Perhaps Mr. Potter can be of some help here....
~ PANTIES! UN-BUNCH! ~
~ FOETUS! MATURUM! ~

LOL

Bill

 

[glitdi]

Some of that help becomes diluted, however, from repetitve topics that seem required to be posted at least ten times per month:

1. K&N Intakes/CAI Intakes;
2. Best Tune for my car;
3. Best Skidplate for my car;
4. My car is in limp mode, what should I do?
5. My MIL light has been on for a year and now my car runs strangely;
6. I want to delete my catalytic converter;
7. I want to delete my EGR;
8. I want to talk about things on the banned list;
9. I got a speeding ticket, what should I do;
10. I have a problem, lets play 20 questions cause I don't want to tell you about my car to help narrow it down;
11. I bought this part from a site in North Carolina, now my car arsesploded;
12. I like blinding other cars with chinese HID kits in halogen reflector lamps;
13. Best injectors for my car;
14. Which vendor is the bestest;
15. I drive like an idiot and the Pol-ice pick on me;

Arnie if I could fit this in my sig line without stemming another useless thread on the length of Signatures and starting another debate in this section I would.
On second thought I am a little bored... maybee...and while I am on the subject....
poke the bear a little...

 

[princelton]

pokepokepoke lol now that you guys are busy here, I am going to go post some annoying newby questions somewhere! lolol no really, I am glad to read alot of the above... I am sometimes quite sarcastic to get my point across, and I am glad to get a discussion going! As fas as annoying topics go, I can totally get that... maybe the forum could have permissions where you cant get in the area where the big kids play till you have so many posts... I don't think that tdiclub is broken or anything, I just see a fair amount of newb bashing... and I myself lurked for 4-5 months for joining mostly because of this, and I have quit many others for the same... there is no such as a stupid question is how I was raised is all... and being mean to someone just cause they may be asking a question that they have no idea has been beat to death, well... that person may have the idea that triggers the flux capasitor to be invented, and the just left... well.. you get my point... as far as the search function... I am a good searcher, I have even read the google search tips a dozen or more times...
I have searched for (for example)
timing interval
timing belt replacement interval
ALH timing belt replacement interval
tensioner replacement
how often should I change timing belt 99.5 jetta?
tdi timing belt how often?
and after all of these, and reading the forum for months, I just found out the real skinny last week, when buying my kit I read boraparts.com and it was all right there in a few paragraphs....
oh, and fl/cotdi u seem a bit tense... maybe you should try yoga!

 

[bam_bam_dip]

This thread sux.............PISS OFF princelton. I AM the epitome of a grumpy veteran, hence my first post in over a year.

You're from OR,...........?????

What have you done with/to Whitedog?

 

[princelton]

ahhh, love thy neighbor unless "enter convenient reason here" gotcha...
Yes, I am from Ore-GUN....
white-who???

 

[FL/COtdi]

In my searching of old posts I believe Whitedog was a cool member from back in the day.

 

[40X40]

ahhh, love thy neighbor unless "enter convenient reason here" gotcha...
Yes, I am from Ore-GUN....
white-who???

Umm, Dude.

Bam Bam was making a joke (I got it, but I am a grown man.) There was no reason for you to pull the lame 'Love thy neighbor' bit.

We need a Punk ass(CSB!) Whiney(You're MEAN!) Flunky(6th grade was the best 3 years of my life!) Spoiled child(Not my fault!) section.

Whitedog is a member who has been absent for a while and he always did well by the membership.

Bill

 

[thebigarniedog]

pokepokepoke lol now that you guys are busy here, I am going to go post some annoying newby questions somewhere! .......

ahhh, love thy neighbor unless "enter convenient reason here" gotcha...
Yes, I am from Ore-GUN....
white-who???

Yeah, you are off to a great start