Some recent issues...

[WestCoastSVX]

Sorry this is soooo long, I have been thinking a lot about this and I know others have too, so it might be worthwhile...

Let me start by saying I am writing this as objectively as I can. A lot of this may not be my opinion as a member of this family for 3 years, but I'm kind of in a transition period in my life and am trying to look at things from different perspectives. So some of this is hard for me to write, some of it may even be promoting ideas that would disrupt an atmosphere here that I have grown to love. I therefore post the following, reluctantly, but in good conscience...

There's been a lot of talk about off topic posts. Especially when a new member joined and posted nothing but stories that had no mention of the SVX. It was more complicated than that because the first couple of stories were extremely offensive, and the rest that weren't deleted were still on the edge. But let's take a step back and think about the situation in a slightly different light. Let's assume a new member came out of nowhere and posted some car stories that had no mention of the SVX, were written poorly, and no one here really enjoyed. But, they contained nothing even close to offensive or against any of the Terms of Service one agrees to when becoming a new member. What then?

Technically in that situation the member would be posting within our current guidelines by not posting anything offensive. But it would certainly be against the belief held by many of us that most posts should be related to the SVX, especially when someone first joins to get to know the group. Not to mention there are several self professed "grammar nazis" here that admit they prefer to read posts in near perfect English. But what I'm getting at is there is nothing in our Terms of Service that says a post has to relate to the SVX or be written perfectly.

So should we amend our Terms of Service to reflect this criteria? Most members here, old and new, post within these unwritten "guidelines" and no one has a problem with them. But there have been quite a few... situations... in the last year or so. And there will only be more in the future as the demographic of SVX owners continues to evolve.

Let's face it, the majority of our "prominent" members here could be described as: white male, over 40, conservative. And a lot of us that don't fit that demographic fit at least part of it, or get along very well with those that do. Especially those that have been here a very long time. For instance, there's a couple long time members here that are younger than 25, and probably not very conservative when it comes to religion and politics. But they have been part of this family for a long time, from back when it was primarily "all about the SVX", and made solid relationships before any differences in non-SVX areas of their lives came to light. They are also mature enough to discuss any differences in a constructive way and remain friends with all involved. But we have to face it that there is a new group coming in more and more, and they are not going to think like us. They are going to pick up that 92 SVX for $3000 instead of the Civic, because the SVX looks cool to them. Then they are going to "rice" the heck out of it. It's a tragedy, but in the end, no matter how special I believe the SVX to be, it is still a circa 1990's Japanese car. It's not a '57 Chevy or '65 Mustang. It is not a Corvette. In the end it will not be a "gentleman's collector car" as those are. Sure, in the hearts of some of us it will be. Earl, Larry, and Randy will probably keep their collections until they die. Others will keep their one SVX pristine likewise. Heck, maybe in another 40 years one in mint stock condition may be worth a little something. But you'll never see a group of them in big parade driven by a bunch of older men. They'll never be accepted at a true restricted classic car show. It's an import and after 10 years imports are considered either beaters or something for the kids with less money to rice up. Yeah, I don't agree with this philosophy, but I think this is the dominent philosophy in America. It really pains me to say this about the SVX especially, considering what it is, but like I said I'm just trying to be objective. If you want my opinion, there still isn't much on the road as good as the SVX for an overall package, and I plan to keep mine as long as possible.

So what was I saying? Oh yeah... the demographic of membership here is slowly going to shift, and we are going to be forced out of our comfort zone a little. So far, for the most part the newer members figure out how things work here. That is, for the most part they work exactly how our more prominent older generation wants them to. Again, this really has nothing at all to do with age, it is just about how people act and think.

Here's some examples, see how you react to these. Remember, in "real life" I'm actually along the lines of the more conservative folks. I'm just trying to play devil's advocate to get some objective thinking going....

A new member joins, never introduces themself, but just starts posting random, non SVX things that are not offensive. Do you start to post replies, asking why they are doing this; do you post more aggressive replies; do you simply ignore any post started by them; ignore the member entirely; or push to get them banned? Please don't think back to the "Blue" situation, it is based on that but that guy WAS offensive. This is theoretical.

At some point, maybe in a post asking for good thoughts for some situation, a member posts something like, "I will pray to satan for you". What would you do? Yeah, I know it is far fetched and has never happened, but I guess it could. There have been situations where someone has said religion should be illegal and the like, but I didn't use those situations because it could be argued the intent of those may be against the TOS. But if someone honestly worships the devil as their religion and is bold enough to state it, would they not have the same rights as the rest of us that so often have posted "you're in my prayers" or "I'm a Christian". I don't know, that is tricky, I know I would have a hard time dealing with that one.

A new member joins and posts pictures of their SVX they have modified extensively. They are pretty proud of it and have spent a lot of time and money on making it just what they have dreamed of. But the car is ugly as sin. How do you reply to that post? Some of us would be downright crass and rude. Some would post their opinion, trying to sound diplomatic, but still letting it be known they did not approve of it being done to an SVX. Put yourself in the owner's shoes. He made a car HE thought was cool. Do you gain anything by cutting him down? Does the good name of the SVX gain anything by you telling him that the SVX was perfect in stock form and he's committed sacrilege? The answer is NO, the damage has already been done. That is one less stock SVX on the road that might make yours more valuable some day and that is one more SVX owner that thinks the organized SVX world is a bunch of old snobs. My mother (and I think almost everyone's mother) used to say, "If you can't say anything nice..." you know the rest. If the guy never asked for an opinion, don't give one unless you really dig his ride. If he does ask for opinions and you don't like it, just say something like, "It's not my cup of tea, but those wheels are pretty nice," or maybe just don't post at all.

Last example: someone writes a post more than 3 sentences long. Do you read it?

Thank you to anyone that has read all of this, these are just some of the things I've been thinking about over the last couple months since I think of these forums as an important part of my life. It feels good to finally get some of it out in the open, and hopefully there will be some good constructive discussion around it. I hope that no one takes offense to any of this or feels they are being targetted, these are my thoughts and observations on the forums as a whole, there is no one person that stands out in any of this. I also hope that the many of you I consider friends that have known me a long time are not put off by this, I would hope you know me and know where I'm coming from with this. I have just tried to put myself in some other shoes to look at everything from outside my comfort zone.

Thank you for your time.