Mini Rant

[Ian C]

Cor blimey. What a storm in a teacup.

 

I dunno if you are going to bother reading this or not, but I hope you do as I can sense now it's going to be a long post

 

Number one. When talking tech to someone you don't know, it's difficult-to-impossible to judge both their tech knowledge and their ability to pick up tech knowledge (I'm talking about Supra specifics here, people can be a whiz in many areas classed as techie, like electronics, computers, audio/visual stuff etc and not necessarily be wired up to get heavily into cars). It's age, gender, race, and upbringing-independant.

 

This means that when you reply to a tech question you've got to try and judge the level of response based on what the person already knows. And you don't know what they already know - often the only pointer you have is the question and how it was asked. So sometimes you can misjudge, and it goes both ways - a 'simple' answer may be considered patronising.

 

When this happens it is up to the person asking the question to indicate that the response was above or below their expectations.

If you have a problem with admitting you haven't a clue what someone is talking about because it's gone over your head then that is indeed your problem.

If you explain quite cheerfully that you don't know what someone is talking about and they give you grief over it then that is their (and a tech moderator's) problem.

 

Number two. Threads can be interesting to many people and yes they can sometimes explode into a huge in-depth tech discussion. I can understand how this can be intimidated perhaps, but there is no reason to choke off a good discussion. If it bothers the thread starter then they can say so and the thread will be split off into the original request and the tech discussion with no problem or fallout, and the thread starter is always within their rights to tell us to get back on-topic

 

Number three. If you don't get a reply or the reply you wanted, that probably means either no-one knows the answer, or anyone who does know the answer hasn't read it yet. It doesn't mean someone knows the answer but can't be arsed to tell you. Feel free to bump it after a couple of days but don't do the 20-minute strop like some people have in the past as it annoys me

 

Number four. I'd like to think that all the people who contribute to tech do it because they like helping people out. If people want to show off there is always off-topic and the multimedia section However, you have to help us to help you. That can include typing coherently, but it also includes giving as much info as you can. There is nothing more annoying than taking the time and effort of typing in a big list of things to test and getting the response "yeah I did all that" Say what you've observed and what you've tried and what the results were. If you've got a misfire, don't just post "I've got a misfire what's the problem", say something like "I've got a misfire when I'm booting it, it's really harsh and only seems to do it when I'm in 4th gear and above".

 

So there you go. Ask the questions. Don't be offended if your question gets booted out to Supra Chat if I don't consider it to be tech - it's not personal. Getting your chat thread poached to tech should be considered an honour It's probably happened less than ten times in four years. If answers are over your head say so and people will respond accordingly - people aren't psychic. And if anyone gives you grief (unjustly ) then report the post. Just don't mount an intercooler outside your car.

 

-Ian

[Ian R]

My take is if you ask a technical question then expect a technical answer. It doesn't hurt to learn a bit about your car, I have since owning mine.

If someone says "your ICV is sticking" and you don't know what it is let alone where it is ask. Someone will be happy to tell you.

A couple of questions to avoid are:

 

Where's my Turbo's ??

Whats the RED BUTTON do ??

 

avoid them you should be okay

[Thorin]

It'll be the flux capacitor.

[Pete]

 

 

You are aware of Ben's 'testicular torpescence syndrome' medical problem, right?

 

PMSL!

 

I had to look that up.

Main Entry: laziness

Part of Speech: noun

Definition: unwillingness

[Henk]

I find that much on the forum is over my head technically but I do three things:

 

1.) Whenever I post a techie question I include in my post the fact I am a "Mechanical Virgin" / "Electrical Virgin" (It sets the scene for the respondents)

 

2.) I Forum FAQ / Google / MSN Search all the acronyms first when I don't get it.

 

3.) I PM the respondent if it still does not make sense.

 

Trust me, I am the least car technical person here but it does not make me feel inferior, I believe I am a geek in my chosen profession and can be superior in that

 

Most of all..... I don't take it personally! (Well not publicly )

[Alex]

Blimey...you ask a question, we ask for more info...you can't be arsed to get said info and have a go at us for not writing out every single thing that could be wrong...sounds fair.

[JustGav]

Another situation and this is not directed at you either... is that a few people when asking for help take every answer as an attack at their integrity... the injector thread for instance http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=90486&highlight=no1_boyracer

 

I think sadly due to the level of some of the members, that people are reluctant to help or do unintentionally talk down because of the crap that has happened. Sometimes the shit filter doesn't work...