grahamc Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 They provide some intro blurb and we have a vote. I've not been able to bring myself to vote on the Replikit thread for two reasons: 1) Although they're building a 'factory', what does this mean. Are they qualified in body work skills? What is their background? 7 years experience sounds good - but in what. Is this combined experience between workers (that old trick)? Can they financially support 100% happy guarantees? etc 2) Should we allow copyright breaches that could affect current traders who sell the official merchandise? 3) I refuse to read the rest of that thread for fear of being unfairly swayed by personal opinions. I dunno how I would proceed with the whole process, it's worked pretty well up until now really. Unless you give people a chance we could be missing out. Are we just being too serious about it all? Trader comes along, seems ok, rips someone off, goodbye trader. It's a fairly simple plan. I know what you mean. I have not voted on that trader either. Cant seem to make my mind up. But we do have other traders that deal with replicas. If they are only building a factory now, how did they get their 7 years experience? There was also mention that they were using an eastern manufacturer (I believe), which leads me to believe that they are more box pushers... with some experience. For example we leave it as is, and every year we have 10 members getting shafted. If we can introduce some rules/policies that stop 2 out of 10 members from getting shafted, then lets do it. Especially if they are newbies... The grumpier old gits shoul know better...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mawby Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 But do agree with what you are saying about checks on traders. What are the current steps taken by the mods when a new traders wants to join through to when they actually get their trader status?See here. To be honest no checks would have stopped TF from joining. They had a very good reputation when they joined. The only way to stamp out bad traders quickly is for members to use the disputes forum more. It's difficult as a moderator to publically say "We've binned of this trader because they are bad" if the people telling us they are bad are not willing to go public about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazboy Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 I guess a rather large problem is the "am I the only one" syndrome when you've had a shit experience with a trader yet from what you can see on the forums is 100% positive opinions & experiences. With so many people cheerleading just who would you PM to ask if a trader screwed them over too? It wasn't until Pig's dispute that it was a widely accepted view that Turbofit were cowboys, yes a select few had made up their minds after seeing Tom's car (either in person or via pictures) but the fanboys vastly outnumbered those who criticised Turbofits work at the time. Also factor in that people wanted TF to fix their fuck-ups so weren't prepared to publicly slate TF until after their cars were fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamc Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 See here. To be honest no checks would have stopped TF from joining. They had a very good reputation when they joined. The only way to stamp out bad traders quickly is for members to use the disputes forum more. It's difficult as a moderator to publically say "We've binned of this trader because they are bad" if the people telling us they are bad are not willing to go public about it. I agree, they did seem (my opinion, from what I had seen and been told) pretty good, even at the time when I went to them... I guess a rather large problem is the "am I the only one" syndrome when you've had a shit experience with a trader yet from what you can see on the forums is 100% positive opinions & experiences. With so many people cheerleading just who would you PM to ask if a trader screwed them over too? It wasn't until Pig's dispute that it was a widely accepted view that Turbofit were cowboys, yes a select few had made up their minds after seeing Tom's car (either in person or via pictures) but the fanboys vastly outnumbered those who criticised Turbofits work at the time. Also factor in that people wanted TF to fix their fuck-ups so weren't prepared to publicly slate TF until after their cars were fixed. good point. I had been discussing with one of the mods up until then. Just seems strange, that everyone else is so happy with their... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr keef Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 everyone has to start somewhere including tuners/traders...there will be many young chris wilsons out there now doing amazing things on cars..i believe in giving people a chance,any garage can put a clutch in a supra,service a supe,etc etc but we are talking fitting single turbo kits etc...if i walked into my local toyota or any local garage and with a single turbo kit and a box full of hoses/injectors/dump valves/ecu etc etc etc they would tell me to fek off...turbofit had many people happy with there work from day one,many people who had gripes with there work kept quiet for different reasons,but i doubt there are well established people out there who have done great work with an excellent reputation on supras that are not known by the members on this forum..i do agree that using broom handles and wood screws etc is just bang out of order.But there will come a time when someone comes on this forum and is unknown or is even knocked back by this forum and turns out to be great at what they do,but if another tuner comes along,that the forum members arnt happy with,lets hope it comes out in the wash a lot faster than this one did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Thing is, generally the trader outsources the work, so their in no position to advise on rebuilds e.t.c other than to plug their own products, But some of the traders on here have a very good background knowledge of the supra, which can be more beneficial than taking advice from a mechanic who has never worked on a sup at times. On the other hand some of the work I've seen from traders(even on here) confirms that they are not always technically apt I quite agree! the definitions and reputations of Traders/Tuners is all a matter of perception/opinion, some gain reputation from solid consistent standard of work/service, although they may not have a thorough technical background. And some are firmly grounded in technical ability, and give freely of advice based on this! However it doesn't automatically mean that they should be considered to be never wrong, or that their opinion is always 100% correct! IMO people place to much blind faith in the "guru" status. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muffleman Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkey Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Then just have a title that simply says "Technical". None of the people having this "title" will be rated. It'll simply serve as a guide for members: "It's worth asking .. xyz." It should be obvious to the member, that the advice received is simply an opinion and should only be regarded as that. Other clubs have a similar way of labling where the skills in the membership are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazboy Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Then just have a title that simply says "Technical". None of the people having this "title" will be rated. It'll simply serve as a guide for members: "It's worth asking .. xyz." It should be obvious to the member, that the advice received is simply an opinion and should only be regarded as that. Other clubs have a similar way of labling where the skills in the membership are. But who, and how do you acknowledge to be technicaly proficient (and unbiases for that matter) to be awarded this title? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkey Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 But who, and how do you acknowledge to be technicaly proficient (and unbiases for that matter) to be awarded this title? Ian C is the tech mod. He'll have a good idea who's who around here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Harwood Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Chantelle is registered on another forum which displays what 'section' the user is most prevalent in. For example, I'm fairly is you were to check Ian C. most of his posts would be in Technical. This 'could' work. I also don't want people thinking that I'm always right either. I'm not. I remember a post a little whle back where someone asked if going BPU would shorted the engines life expectancy. I replied 'no' as it's been proven that BPU Supras done properly are generally just as reliable as stock ones. However, Jake replies saying that 'yes, it would shorten the engines life, as any modification to up the power over stock, will have a knock on effect'. Obviously Jake was right, I was wrong.... Can't be perfect all the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaz1 Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Chantelle is registered on another forum which displays what 'section' the user is most prevalent in. For example, I'm fairly is you were to check Ian C. most of his posts would be in Technical. This 'could' work. I also don't want people thinking that I'm always right either. I'm not. I remember a post a little whle back where someone asked if going BPU would shorted the engines life expectancy. I replied 'no' as it's been proven that BPU Supras done properly are generally just as reliable as stock ones. However, Jake replies saying that 'yes, it would shorten the engines life, as any modification to up the power over stock, will have a knock on effect'. Obviously Jake was right, I was wrong.... Can't be perfect all the time well even i knew that:rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkey Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 I also don't want people thinking that I'm always right either. I'm not. As you say nobody is infallable. People should bear that in mind. But - this would be any easy way to sift through the techie crap that washes through here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 But who, and how do you acknowledge to be technicaly proficient (and unbiases for that matter) to be awarded this title? Nail > Head Based on the tech info passed down to the forum from certain mods in the past I'm not sure I'd be happy for them to be the ones deciding who knows what. So how do you learn who the experts are? You do some work yourself, you read up on things that you want to know about from reliable sources, books exist as well as the Internet. Then you ask questions here or search the archives, look to the people who seem to consistently offer sound advice based on a good tech knowledge rather than adjusting their recommendations on stock levels. Unfortunately a lot of members are too worried to speak up about poor service and many of the established traders threaten legal action when people do, iTrader isn't used enough and the dispute resolution forum tends to be a last resort rather somewhere to get a good picture of how our members and traders resolve issues. Sadly at the end of the day people are their own worst enemies and no amount of policing, forum tools or assigned ranks will help that. Even now it's clear that certain high profile members are going to follow certain disgraced traders to their new employers, no doubt they will also continue to praise those people for fixing the issues they caused earlier while gaining kudos for breaking yet another poorly built / installed / sprayed component. Humans are fickle beasts sadly, sometimes they have to learn their lesson the hard way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivan Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Easy solution. The tech gurus themselves decide who is a tech guru. Obviously in conjunction with the mods to ensure that there's no personal vetoing due to feuds etc. And it would help if we get rid of the "knowledgable" tag under peoples names when they reach a certain amount of posts. Just because you post a lot doesn't mean any of it makes sense. One forum I'm on has a status of "Contributor". Almost a mod but with no modding powers if you see what I mean. Everyone knows that they're the guys who help people the most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobSheffield Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 And it would help if we get rid of the "knowledgable" tag under peoples names when they reach a certain amount of posts. Just because you post a lot doesn't mean any of it makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbeh Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Michael summed it up best. First do your own reseach, as much as you can, into any technical topic, then come asking for advice. Same when searching for cars to buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaz1 Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 i agree i have expert under mine:rlol: i even have had pms asking me questions:D easy ones no probs like how to start a supra are no problems, anything more i send them to the real experts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamc Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Easy solution. The tech gurus themselves decide who is a tech guru. Obviously in conjunction with the mods to ensure that there's no personal vetoing due to feuds etc. And it would help if we get rid of the "knowledgable" tag under peoples names when they reach a certain amount of posts. Just because you post a lot doesn't mean any of it makes sense. One forum I'm on has a status of "Contributor". Almost a mod but with no modding powers if you see what I mean. Everyone knows that they're the guys who help people the most. Ok heres how we decide on the gurus: We give them a shell, and parts, then get the other gurus to approve, then they are in. Then we sell the car on for a profit. i agree i have expert under mine:rlol: i even have had pms asking me questions:D easy ones no probs like how to start a supra are no problems, anything more i send them to the real experts Yeah I got that as well... so funny everytime I read that... And the likes of havard should never get that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mawby Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 OK user titles changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamc Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 OK user titles changed. I was wondering who changed mine to "I post too much", but I do agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mawby Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 I've changed that one again. I have to remember some people don't have a sense of humour and might think they're being picked on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivan Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Hey, I made a sensible suggestion that got acted on. WooHoo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaz1 Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 Hey, I made a sensible suggestion that got acted on. WooHoo. SO IT WAS YOU:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaz1 Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 I've changed that one again. I have to remember some people don't have a sense of humour and might think they're being picked on. just for that i will not be doing a "i have reached 5000 posts" thread:p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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