I just finished reading the new sticky of psychology 101, how to think like a tuner and was informed, educated, and sadly, appalled. Not appalled by what he had to say, but at what happened a mere day or so after it was posted. I'm here, with my newbian not yet premium self, to shed some light on a subject, that perhaps, has gone unnoticed by the JBO masses. All who dare read on for my own brand of psychology. The kind of psychology that makes you go "Yea wtf is that guy thinking?"
Read on for Sticky Psychology 101.
First point I must make. This is in no how, shape, or forms an attack on slowolej. I think his title to the thread was a bit dramatic, but to each their own, right?
As stated previously, I still classify myself as a “newbie” in all realms of cars, but I bet I know more about quite a few car subjects than some “newbies.” Digressing, I have to also defend myself when I make this post in the fact that I am not a life newbie, nor am I ignorant or blind to the things around me, and thusly, I feel compelled to make this thread in the hopes of change and betterment for all who flock to these digital info-fields. I was going to just throw together a nice couple paragraph rant about the sticky system being ridiculous, but slowly I discovered myself writing a freaking dissertation on the subject at hand. And so, as stated in the rules, which I have read, my thoughts will be well conceived and thought out instead of just blurting out the first thing that upsets me.
Another point that must be made is that, my ideas are just one man’s. I wish I could have all the answers and knew how to write the code so that this site had an edit button and I could fix the search button to filter to exactly what you meant by the term “bolt on” but I cannot.
I suppose the first issue to discuss is “What is a sticky?” Well, im glad you asked Billy. Exactly what constitutes the validity in making a thread a sticky? I believe it was some 25 pages of replies to the HP Tuners FAQ before it became, or had a sticky incarnation made of the subject. Then there is the sticky of the day, which took a mere 24 hours plus to get on the board as a sticky, but much like Bush winning the election even though he didn’t have the popular vote, that particular thread had very few replies. So, as a member of the JBO, should I trudge through 25pages of half sentence and one word replies to find the single answer I am looking for about the HPTuners software? Yes, I think if the information is important enough to you, you need to spend the time looking. Then, ask the question, as a human being, in this day of technology, should I have to blind myself on my PC screen while idiots flame each other for 2 and a half pages while the answer I seek is on page 22 of 25? No is the answer.
The easy thing to do is ask the moderators what they are thinking? In the “GO GO GO” category alone, there are now 6 stickies in performance, 3 in suspension, 3 in N2O, 5 in boost, 1 in racing, and none in transmission. None, zero, zilch in the subject that has been around for probably more than 100 years longer than any supercharger or NAWS setup. Nothing to tell you how to tell if you have a 3 or 4 speed auto transmission or if you have the Getrag or isuzue. Those are in newbie stickies I believe. But wait, even a simple “FAQ” about tranny pricing would cut down a ton of threads in transmission forum.
This brings us to our next subject of debate. Those that bitch instead of help. Regardless if you spent 12 months sitting in the shadows reading and searching everything before any of you made your first post, that does not mean that is the most ideal thing to do, or most beneficial. If us tuners were people who wanted to wait, or simply get stuff that’s already there, we would all save our money and go buy an SRT-4 or something else turbo’d and with more horsepower to start, we wouldn’t modify our cars at all, and that is a statement that I think shakes the foundation of what this forum stands for to the core. Read it over a couple of times, it makes sense if you think about it. Do not turn the thread that I posted into a flame war or a battle for the first position to reply and say “search.”
If you know there have been other threads on the subject, technology hasn’t changed in our cars that greatly over the past 10 years even so I can almost guarantee that %90 of all subjects have already been covered in this forum already, then its safe to say that u probably have read something on the subject and could just as easily contribute that to the person instead of textually back handing them. A simple “I think Madjack could help” would be of much better assistance.
Back to another previous point. If we make more stickies on subjects people actually need info on, instead of things like the aforementioned psychology, that would cut down the number of “newbie” threads correct? Most likely, or one would hope. This is no guarantee, but would more than likely lead to simple “FAQ” or “STICKY” flame posts to those “newbies” who don’t read at all or thoroughly enough of the stickies. But the real point is, do the moderators and the JBO really want less newbie threads and threads in general? A few simple FAQS and stickies in the transmission forum may post enough info to make the whole forum itself not be a necessity and could be grouped with performance. Again, is this what we want? Doubtful, and thusly causes a divergence between what the members that complain about newbies not searching and moderators who need people to post in the forums to keep it alive(I suppose).
“Riley is sounds like your talking out of your ass here.” Well yea, psychology isn’t really an exact science (to me anyways). It changes and meshes with the situation. Some people aren’t just depressed, but have seasonal depression. More on that point. A simple sticky, by nature, stays atop the thread list for all to see and have its information bestowed upon. That does not mean that it couldn’t go up there for say, 18 months, and if the threads about the subject(s) disappeared, one could even remove the sticky and simply place it in the archives. Now I live in Western Pennsylvania and a lot of the stuff we do and my school does doesn’t make sense, but that doesn’t keep people from bringing up the fact that it would make a lot more sense to do it another way.
So, bottom line, here we go. Why are we adding stickies like slowolej’s to probably the most heavily trafficked forum on this site, when every other thread is a contest to see who can type "Search!" first or later if the thread is bumped at all, one of the "veterans" of this site start an all out bitch off about the subject? As I paste this into the new post screen, I wonder if I should click the email me replies button. Hmm, what kind of response will I get? Will the people who actually read this just simply revert back to telling me to EFF off or something of that nature? Or will it be taken to heart by some, and not by others, and even better by those who should notice it? Or will it simply fall on deaf ears and be moved to another forum for it to die a slow and meaningless death…
