I agree completely, doc. Cycles galore -- climatology could no doubt help predict the wind (and there's a lot of it!) here.

It's also true that until MY06, very little was new under the sun. Topics get rehashed because there isn't enough new fodder for discussion. Don't get me wrong; I love this car to death, but there's just not that much difference among MY00 through MY05.

That said, one of the big draws for me, personally, here has been the community engagement, as much as the car conversation. Then again, I'm a pretty big windbag.

 

Dave,

These days I only occassionally check in to the S2000 Talk forum and today is one of them. As I was reading down the subject lines I was thinking the exact same thing. I was impressed to see that after all these many years you were still playing the role of professor and teaching the newbies. My hat is off to you. I think one of the reasons you are still carrying the load is many of us old timers don't look at this forum much anymore. We instead spend our time in the sub-forums, be it racing, vintage, or whatever.

If you do retire IMHO there will be a void that will not be filled.

 

You are one of those forum members who is synonomous with "S2Ki.com". Both of us have witnessed the growth of this site and I consider you to be one of the "family". I've been enriched having had the opportunity to share something common with you (the car and this site).

When I say "retire", I mean that I don't respond to as many questions as I used to. I don't reply to as many PMs as I used to. I don't mind repetitive questions so much as I really dislike "stupid" questions, for which even just a little bit of thought would derive the answer. I don't like it when people PM me with questions they already know are stupid and that's why they don't post them up on the forum. They think they have an exclusive to the answer from me. This is very selfish as the answer would not be seen by others who may also have the same silly question. In PM mode, the answer does not benefit anyone, both those who can obviously see the silliness of the question and those who might actually learn something from it. We've seen this with people like "Road Rage" (the oil guy). He's gotten so many PMs, he's almost completely disappeared from this site. I've even seen a decline in the responses from "Billman" and "Slow". It's not until someone gives really bad advice, that one of us comes forward to set the record straight and this presents a whole other set of problems - offending the one who gave the original advice. Sometimes, it's just not worth it. The smart ones will know the advice sounded odd. The "not so smart" onrs go off with an incorrect outlook on things, sometimes even a dangerous one.

 

Dave, this is a pretty good synopsis of the internet in general. I've been hanging around internet forums since before the web existed (usenet), and it has always been this way. Usenet invented "FAQ"s totry and deal with the problem, but they never work perfectly.

Most people figure (correctly) that it is easier for them to ask their question than it is to search around and find out if their question has already been asked.

In some cases, this problem results in "enforcers". These are people who are willing to flame the living hell out of anyone who asks a stupid question (or worse yet answers one incorrectly). In other cases, some people act as "saints", more or less patiently answering the same questions over and over again.

No one has ever really worked out a solution -- I think because this is just human nature in action.

 

I would disagree. I think the solution is ORGANIZATION of material. Since this is a 'site for profit' I think it's their responsibility to organize it in such a manner that it's easy to find. I will give you one quick example from my own personal files:

ENGINE TIPS

Engine Noise on Start Up: The noise you hear could be

 

No matter how well organized a FAQ is, it is always easier to ask for an answer than it is to look for one.

The only way to make people look for the information is to not answer the question.

 

So true. But then, the site dies. What is really needed are a few good intermediate forum aged people to pick up the torch and help out the new people. This "should" be the cycle of internet life and that's sort of the cycle I tried to get across originally.

 

I think it is possble to organize the information in such a way that it can be easily found and I think the forums is not an ideal medium to do it in precisely because it is conversational and interactive. It's a great way to discuss a situation and find a solution or answer but once we get to that point it's very difficult for people to find that solution after the fact because what you are looking for is an answer to a question and what you get is fragments of a conversation.

Yes it's a for-profit site and that's exactly why producing FAQs and organizing them neatly and making them easy to find is NOT being done by s2ki staff. As confusing as this may seem, s2ki is not in the information business and not only makes no money from concise easy to find information but in fact loses money when information that people want is too easy to find.

If you don't understand s2ki's business model or profit motive then you might think that my offer to have members write-up FAQs in concise, clear and locatable articles and to post them outsode of the forums is little more than an attempt to get content for free that I can then turn around and make money from. You would be completely wrong.

From a pure profit standpoint s2ki makes the highest margins on simple questions that get answered over and over again. To go even further I'll let you in on a secret and tell you that s2ki makes the highest margins not on simple repetative questions but on stupid ones. How and why is my trade secret and I'll leave you to ponder it for yourself.

Condensing and publishing articles on frequent questions is good for the members who don't have to answer those questions millions of times and for everyone else who can find those answers by viewing the fewest possible pages (another clue). It's not good for s2ki but then not everything I do because it makes the most business sense because in the same way that s2ki is more than just a place to get answers to basic car questions to it's members it's more than just a for-profit business to me.

 

Eric,

Thank you for an honest answer. Not being in 'the web site business' I overlooked the forest because of the tree. Let me quess. No doubt in your business it is all about "hits" and "activity", thus the more questions the better and the more opinions and posts the better. And we do want you to stay in business.