Other sites being what they are still don’t have the volume and the knee slapping humor that some of our “customers” put in their posts (whether intended or not).
I found the “wrench” site to be more of a ‘boys’ club. Fun to visit but very predictable.
coughYarisladycough
I believe that I had a number of inoffensive posts flagged. I would say that I “know”, but apparently someone was offended by minor irritations. I just shake my head and wonder what some folks are thinking. Flagging posts says at least as much about the censor as the censored.
I remember one of the first was when T&R asked for help naming their TV show. I suggested “Two Chumps Garage” in homage to their “Stump the Chumps” segment. Flagged. Some people just don’t get it.
Hey, watch what you say about my girlfriend! ;D
How would I know, had been away from this forum for 4-5 months, came back a week ago and that is because I am in the market for used SUV and wanna see what is going on. I am tempted to post my test drive results with each SUV but feel it is very individualized.
For me the forum lost its buzz when they “upgraded” it to the new format, but I kept visiting for a while. I still appreciate the help here, but tend to agree that sometimes the repeat questions gets on my nerves, you know the ones with the CEL on for a year that have a misfire for a long time and then get ticked when the car stops running.
Have to visit the other forum too I guess.
Too bad they couldn’t sticky a few posts; “My **** requires 91 octane, can I use 87?”, “Am I saving gas by putting my car in neutral?”, “My 15 year old car has 349564689459087 miles on it, should I change my timing belt?”, “My CEL has been blinking for the past 3 days and the car won’t go any faster than 10mph,what’s wrong with it?”
That site seems to have some problems right now. I can’t logon there, it won’t let me, and the password recovery thing has an error pop up on it
The site works ok, it is your issue. you may have missed all the firefox and ad blocker recommendations,
It’s all up to date and I tried it with ad blocker plus disabled, but it still wouldn’t work. It would work in IE though.
AND of course the ever popular…“When should I change my oil”? There are REGULARS on the forum that still entertain that question and it still results in a big debate. I would get tired of typing the same thing day after day, just refer them to the search function and let them read.
transman
I try to be patient with the common, frequent, and sometimes ignorant posts we get on here, and can really tell when some of the others are getting burned out on such questions. I can’t blame them for getting tired of seeing the same thing over and over, but I also think it can leave the OP confused and with a bad taste in their mouth about the site and forum if they get a response like: “Good grief! Doesn’t anybody know what an OWNER’S MANUAL is anymore?” Unfortunately, to a lot of people a car is just an appliance, albeit a really expensive one. A toaster also comes with an owner’s manual, but few people read it. I come here because it’s fun, free, and I like to help people, even if they just need a simple education on where they can learn everything they will ever need to know about their car.
Your post brings up another issue. When I was a kid, 30+ yrs ago, if I got anything new, like a radio or tape player, I would read the manual cover to cover and even then save it somewhere because I knew I might have to refer to it. Nowadays with PC’s and i everythings, you just turn them on and expect to be walked through the process. Maybe cars should go that route too. Other than the engine oil life monitors, they should have a pop up screen for all sorts of “updates” needed. Apparently nobody bothers with the manual because of that expectation.
5 pages(in english anyways) versus 500+ pages for the car’s OM. I like the idea that I can download a PDF of my car’s OM and maintenance schedule from Mazda’s website, then use the search function within to find those particular pages.
A site that pays for good advice is great as long as it doesn’t charge for bad advice. If I were charged for the bad advice I’ve given on this board, I would be broke. Fortunately the advice I have given is worth what the OP pays for it, so we all break even.