Please cut out the political chatter

[redneck]

Originally Posted by redneck

It’s hard to disassociate politics from many of the subjects we discuss here in the forum.

Examples.

Climate change.

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

That is science.

So there was nothing political about the Paris Accord ?




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[redpoint5]

Science is a method of explaining the past and speculating about the future, not a position itself. If we are talking about values at all, by definition it's not science.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I'm glad you didn't. (But I suspect we've quietly lost a number of members for exactly that reason, and it's why Tim & I agree it's time to clamp down on the threads that tend to bring out uncivility & partisan potshots.)

I have wondered if there's a prototypical "arc" of interest/excitement/abandonment for long-time forum members.

My interest waxes & wanes with how much I drive (which is almost nil lately), but always spikes again when I get a different car (ie. my parade of winter beaters).

I still clearly remember back in the day how astonished I was to see how well pulse & glide worked; it seemed so counter-intuitive.

I had the same experience with P&G, and with EOC and clutch starts at speed... I could not believe it. What has been best for me is general auto repair learning, a little aerodynamics learning, and a variety of other small skills. I now do all maintinence of three old ICE engines in the driveway, one of them with my daughter, training her, a budding aerospace engineer entering a very competitive program for it this fall... I credit much of the learning under all that--most of it--to this forum or inspiration from this forum. She wrote about my modding and our trips to Bonneville and El Mirage and our work on her car together for her college entrance essays.

Originally Posted by redpoint5

The rate of learning certainly slows down, as I knew hardly anything when I joined the forum. New information for me is so slow that other topics of interest occupy my time. I enjoy the members here more than other forums, so that's where I prefer to discuss things.

I'll probably slow down my participation here as I shift to other forums.

My next vehicle is probably going to be an EV, and I'll have little motivation to ecomod it. At minimum, every vehicle going forward is going to be a plug-in hybrid. The Rav4 Prime looks like a winner. I'd have little interest in modifying it.

Finally, the main vehicle I drive is a company car, so there's no modifying that in any permanent way, and they pay for the fuel.

Your knowledge and contributions for others engaged in modding or hypermiling would always be welcomed here, I am sure. I certainly would be glad to see ya coming back.

I have had the same experience with the learning curve. But I have a ton more to learn, so... this is among my best places for much of it (by far one of the best, alongside endless sphrere, which I rarely participate on).

[redneck]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I'm glad you didn't. (But I suspect we've quietly lost a number of members for exactly that reason, and it's why Tim & I agree it's time to clamp down on the threads that tend to bring out uncivility & partisan potshots.)

I have wondered if there's a prototypical "arc" of interest/excitement/abandonment for long-time forum members.

My interest waxes & wanes with how much I drive (which is almost nil lately), but always spikes again when I get a different car (ie. my parade of winter beaters).

I still clearly remember back in the day how astonished I was to see how well pulse & glide worked; it seemed so counter-intuitive.

I doubt many (any) people left because of the bickering. It’s more like fuel is cheap and abundant at the moment. If and when fuel spikes, (and it will) new and old members will flock back.

As for the bickering.

If one doesn’t care for a particular thread or subject matter, there’s a simple solution every forum member or guest possesses and that would be...

Don’t click on it.




Having said that, this is your website your rules.




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[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

I have had the same experience with the learning curve. But I have a ton more to learn, so... this is among my best places for much of it (by far one of the best, alongside endless sphrere, which I rarely participate on).

I should clarify, I don't mean to imply that I've learned anywhere near to everything that I can, only that the low hanging fruit of knowledge has been harvested and expanding my understanding comes at an ever increasing investment of time as the subjects become more complex.

While topics such as aerodynamics interest me, pretty much all topics interest me, so I'm unwilling to invest the time to learn everything there is to know on a single subject. I guess I'm a bit lazy plucking the low hanging fruit from as many topics as I can.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

She wrote about my modding and our trips to Bonneville and El Mirage and our work on her car together for her college entrance essays.

That is fantastic. I'm envious that she was/is interested in learning from you.

I've tried to foster interest / be available for the young uns in my extended family for car maintenance/repair. I figure it's especially important for the ones who are choosing jobs/careers that may not pay a lot. (Being able to minimize vehicle expenses being key for financial security.)

Some success there.

[samwichse]

Originally Posted by redneck

I doubt many (any) people left because of the bickering. It’s more like fuel is cheap and abundant at the moment. If and when fuel spikes, (and it will) new and old members will flock back.

As for the bickering.

If one doesn’t care for a particular thread or subject matter, there’s a simple solution every forum member or guest possesses and that would be...

Don’t click on it.

I did. It's been seeping into every thread. I've barely looked at this site in months, but this thread gives me hope that maybe things will return to a time when it wasn't ok to thread crap everything with politics.

[NeilBlanchard]

Originally Posted by redneck

So there was nothing political about the Paris Accord ?


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That is a response to the science of climate change.

[MetroMPG]

Enough!

[oil pan 4]

I like to think of science as being able to accurately model reality and make predictions with that modeling.
Some branches of science do this really well by submitting reproducible peer reviewed studies, others not so much.