Like when I had a misfire on a cylinder and a spark plug test light telling me there was no spark on a cylinder?

Then Mike telling me that those test lights dont work and saying I needed a compression test?

So I go rent a tester, do the compression test and it is normal.

Then I check the continuity on the plug wire, and there is none.

Swap the wire and everything is fine.

So basically, the test light told me exactly what I needed to know, while Mike has me do extraneous testing for no reason.

And when I call him out on it he throws a hissy fit more or less saying Im an idiot.

Clearly, he is blameless

 

Or when you prove he's wrong, so he PMs you threatening to ban you? Yea, good guy though.

 

its funny, I have been on automotive forums for close to two decades. Ever since usenet and NNTP and rec.autos.* were around and this is fairly typical.

I did not happen to overlap with Disco Mike much during my landrover ownership checking in on landroverforums, but in many forums I've frequented, there was always the same pattern of someone who starts super-helpful, a prolific poster answering round the clock, maybe becomes admin, and eventually starts getting more and more impatient ("what do you mean you don't believe me?") and the finally leaves the forum in a huff. ("that'll show them"). Forum lives on.

Rifledriver on ferrarichat.com comes to mind.

 

I sensed some sarcasm in your statement but wasn't sure as I had not had any first hand experience. I had seen a thread were he threatened to delete the thread because the poster was asking redundant questions, which I thought was a bit harsh.

 

I think you have to be able to take advice with a grain of salt. I mean, he gave a lot of advice for free and I can see how you could get sick of being called out for just trying to help.

The best thing you can do is get the rave manual and sit down and read about the various systems and how they work to diagnose it yourself. i think it takes some time to get to that point though. Usually you just start out by panicing, assuming it's going to cost a ton, and drop a question to see if anyone can help you fix it for free or $10.

Maybe it was just me though. i can see how this process would get tiresome for the guys who have the most knowledge.

 

Glad to see I'm not the only one who got one of those after proving him wrong about something (I even cited the page and paragraph in the RAVE).

Maybe he's busy dealing with the avalanche of calls he asked for over the years.

 

at least he warned you..

 

Nobody's perfect, well I know I'm far from it. It's easy to be harsh on the net because we are protected by a layer of anonymity and distance. But I know that people like Disco Mike are exactly the same in person as on the forums. They always speak their mind, which I think is a huge quality, even though sometime you don't like what they are saying or the way they are saying it.

Every forum is different, and this one is not too bad. Some like the Vortex forum for VW enthusiasts, you'll get you head torn off your shoulders for the slightest mistake. Others, like the ST-Owners forum, people are always really friendly and helpful.

I find that helping someone even if the question is stupid is good for the community in the long term. Often people with lots of experience would have a lot more influence and respect if they could remain polite and helpful at all times.

 

With DM, It wasnt about not liking his message or the way he said it. It was about him being an obtuse, stubborn SOB.

I know Im not perfect and, when shown examples of my idiocy, I will own up to it most, if not all, of the time.

DM thought/thinks he is the definitive source on all things Rover.

If someone dared question his delicate genius, he would get butt-hurt.

If someone gave actual proof of the inaccuracies of his advice, he would go into fire-breathing mode ala ZG and RacerX.

 

True...