Those were not fine and well presented advice. They were nothing but outdated guess’s and very seldom had anything to do with modern vehicles.
So, telling people how he fixes a 50+ year old RWD Ford pickup wasn’t helpful to someone whose modern FWD compact sedan with fuel injection, CVT, ABS, and electronic ignition is experiencing problems?
Not to continue this but I have said before just stick around until you get the answer you want. If there are 20 comments, likely they will have opposite answers. Who is right? Who knows? Sure some will provide outside evidence to support their opinion, but it is after all their exoeriential opinion. A poster is a little naive thinking they will get a definitive answer in many cases.
Now if they have a question on what the noise could be etc. they will get a whole bunch of possibilities with the end result likely being take it to a shop. I remember the radio show “ask the lawyer”. It didn’t last long because about every answer was to consult a lawyer. Sure it’s nice if someone can provide a picture or part number to resolve the issue but that doesn’t happen much. We just give our opinions such as is it ok to leave my car at th3 shop for a month?
They stop visiting this forum. After receiving 20 replies about the good old days, they likely conclude that there won’t be any help from Car Talk. Future replies go into the spam folder.
Sure, but there is a time and place for everything. Some of the regular forum members start threads about unimportant matters, a good place for coffee shop banter. CapriRacer didn’t start the discussion about new marketing standards for tires to discuss bias ply tires or visits to other countries.
…Be patient and get past the 20 replies about army life 50 years ago and the Studebaker sidetrack. After the discussions get hijacked, people with repair experience loose interest and stop following the discussion.
I do that often, but in a polite fashion. There is a lot of information in owner’s manuals that casual visitors here might not be aware of, especially in the newer War and Peace sized volumes.
That’s probably directed at me. I post car related links to encourage discussions on a low volume day. If you aren’t interested, just move on. Eventually there will be an interesting problem for you to solve. There are threads that I don’t care for and I ignore them.
Frankly, people stop for many reasons. Since I have been here there are people who pose questions and never return even though there are numerous helpful on topic responses. The reason why people don’t return will always be speculative.
I frequent a number of sites of various interests including cars, boats, motorcycles etc. If you’ve spent more than 20 seconds on chat boards, you know there are always the unhelpful, off topic posts you need to wade through to get to answers. It’s certainly not unique to this site. In fact, the number of sites that stay on-topic for the entire thread I can count on maybe one finger. That site is tightly regulated with an almost gestapo like oversight. It’s not a site for novice people to visit.
My opinion.
1). With the show being long gone from radion, who hears of this site?
2). After the “ask someone” site was hacked, we no longer get questions from there. Though those rarely provided adequate information about their vehicle and would not respond to questions.
Before I found this site via Mr Google, I had never heard of car complaints nor the radio show…
I think the some of the fall off happened from all the belittling almost every new member gets, I even delt with it some at 1st, but I have thick skin…
Potential new members most likely normally look through the site for answers 1st, or just in general and see how some members treat other members… Once they read a few threads with some of what is said and or in a negative or sarcastic way, then they decide to move on… Getting off topic before the issue is solved doesn’t help either, and yes I can get off topic also… But I almost always try to help the OP 1st, but once it goes off topic for many post, it is all but useless to further try to help someone due to it getting lost in all the BS…
I never thought the ( Ask someone who has one ) was a worthwhile site.
There might be some confusion concerning the topic categories. There is both repair and mantenance and general discussion. The others are hardly ever used. If a member is only interested in repairs, they may be seeing posts on general discussion and become irritated at what seems off topic comments. I have mine set to see all of them, never discerning the difference. After a while they all blend together. Just saying it might be frustrating if all you want to see is repairs.
I don’t know which would be patch panel welding but it ought to fit somewhere. Also while small engines is a prohibited topic, similar issues can be seen with the current state of car engines and why they are failing. Could be regulations, gas, manufacturing issues, and so on. Current turbo 4 cyl engine failures are not just a repair topic. So loosen up a little I guess.
I think that may be one reason people don’t return. They come here asking questions and the answers they get here may be correct or helpful, but not what they want to hear. Then they take their confirmation bias elsewhere and get what they’re looking for.
I wasn’t referring to those threads in a negative way. There should be a place for people to share experiences and ideas, but visitors don’t start threads to seed a chat session about yard work and Studebakers.
On another forum I visit, 2/3 of the threads are of a “clubhouse” nature where people chat about their personal interests. They don’t befoul every automotive focused thread on that forum; the moderators don’t allow it.
They receive replies via email and reply via email. When the first 5 replies are questions like “did you get a pre-purchase inspection?” or “is this a new problem?”, I don’t expect them to return. Real mechanics focus on the problem.
It could have been had it been set up differently. Ninety-nine percent, or so it seemed, of the questions posed were so incomplete they were impossible to answer.
Well, I have been on this site since its inception. Like many others over the years, I initially spent many hours of my time replying to inquiries in great detail only to be met with either silence or “I already tried that”. After enough instances of this, you stop investing so much time and ask simple questions to gauge whether or not the OP is serious and invested. When you don’t even get a response to a simple inquiry, it seems like a waste to invest more time.
Many inquiries are of a nature where they expect it is a simple explanation- change this or wiggle that. When they find out is is more involved and might have to invest some time or resources into it, they are either incapable or unwilling to go further and just disappear.
We have even gotten those “questions” directly on this site. Were you around when a woman from Maine posted the following?
My check engine light on my Suzuki has been on for 16 years.
What’s wrong with it?
Attempts to elicit more information led to nothing… except for some hostility from her.
Some of those posters thought they were entering a chat session like the pop-up assistant at a car dealer or retailer site. Rather than being greeted and forgiven, they faced a “What the he.ll is wrong with you” reception.
Carolyn asked that we not respond to aswoo threads before she could recategorize or delete them. Sure, some of replied early but with real conversation, not “use your warranty”.
I would like to see survey responses to “How was your first Car Talk experience?” 
For being a disliked category, aswoo kept a dozen forum members busy each day. Should have been handled better, everyone is a participant.
Ask Someone Who Owns One (aswoo)…
Nevada was referring to Volvo’s post…
At least I googled it, and even google couldn’t figure it out.
Now you know why I H A T E acronyms so much.
