The more we have this new website up and running, the more it gets like a …… oh no! blog!!!
Yes, I keep adding things and it is really neat to be able to offer comments about CCSCC things more often then when the AUSPUFF comes out. I have several things to say in this posting:
We have had some really great events! HISCC held a wonderful event at Rantoul that we all enjoyed. It was so much fun! A great course and we came in by the north gate again. While that is nice, it may not happen again this year, as the area we normally pit in and the grid area are narrow enough that there is not much we can do with them. Just some sort of slalom or chicane and then a turn around. But it does allow us to make the course on the main part of the site more flexible. The last two events we have had there we have had a LLOONNGG sweeper coming out of the old grid area and that is fun!
Our next event is at Parkland College in northwest Champaign this coming Sunday and Monday, Labor Day Weekend. All proceeds go to our Parkland Scholarship fund and we continue to add to it. We fund one to three scholarships of $750 each for worthy Parkland auto programs. It is a great cause, a great course and a fun day. Plan on showing up and making some runs….
I don’t like online forums. Why? Because everyone is an expert. You know no one personally, so are tempted to say things you wouldn’t say over the phone, in an email or in person. You don’t have to read a long thread to have an ill-informed opinion. And it is impersonal to an extreme.
I got my first taste in the TVR forums. People were asking legitimate questions and then the experts would argue about the answer, giving the person who needed an answer no single answer, but conflicting answers. I remember one person described how to replace the clutch in a 280i. What he described wouldn’t work. How do I know? I had tried it! So I asked him if he had done that. He said ‘No, but a friend had.’ Yeah. I had an imaginary friend when I was 2 years old. I don’t quote him…. But when I described how I actually got it to work, I was attacked by the ‘expert’ who had never done it. That is a big problem about forums. How do you really know who to listen to?
But the biggest problem is the temptation to post a message without thinking. How many times do we see posts that are attacking someone or not well thought out? I think most of the time. It is so easy. You don’t have to sit back and think about your answer. You don’t have to think about what you say and how it could influence you or a group you belong to. Most people on a forum wouldn’t know you if you walked past you in the street. That is why I really dislike forums.
Next time you post, stop and think. My father was a Rotarian and they had something called “the Four-Way Test”
Of the things we think, say or do
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Perhaps the old man’s service club had it right! If we all followed the Rotary Club’s “Four-Way Test”, we would make even online forums worthwhile.