Social observation.

[Rawze]

This is not really related, but among the topic of "Social observation". Here is mine for the day...


(speaking in general, not towards anyone in particular) ..


I think many on here will will find that my forum is mostly full of the more serious truck (ISX) owners who for some unknown reason can tolerate all my ranting against going fast, marketed bulls$#T, and the all mighty cow-boy attitude I hate about trucking. This place is not like other forums like TTR where there is mostly CB-radio style bulls#T company drivers (or half-assed wannabe owner-ops) who ask the very stupid questions like where to put your oil, and rant about crap they step in and blame every problem on everyone but the person in the mirror.

I tell others - There be sharks in these waters, hope you brought your shark cage...


I will call out all that market brainwashed crap and rant again drivers who have that diseased trucker cow-boy-ish outlaw attitude go faster, need more power stuff real fast. No money or profit in that ego or in that bottle of chrome polish,.. none whatsoever.

I have always been this way, and am quick to call it. -- There are a lot of reasons I have been kicked off every other forum out there on the Internet, because I am not afraid to post what i have found, be it right, wrong or in between. I post and make articles to provoke thought and get those gears moving in everyone head.

Actual thought and free thinking is something not taught in school anymore, and that is shameful, but also another subject.

Instead of humbly going away, and be defeated / what I say filtered,... Like a dumb sh#t, I refused and made me a whole forum from scratch on the server sitting right here between my legs as I sit here and type to post my thoughts. - I figured that no one can stop me from voicing my opinions, thought, rants, attitudes, etc. if I owned it, and no one whatsoever has to join me. -- At last i had a place of my own that did not have a bunch of flashy rules that went against actual information and objective thinking. Some place not flooded with advertisers who's feelings would get hurt when I gave an objective opinion.

This forum sat empty ... sitting there quietly ... I hardly ever checked it, no one was on it, so I ignored it for a couple months completely.

To my surprise, it had been taken over completely by Chineese, russian, and African spam bots and had about 50,000 advertising posts for everything one could think of. It was flooded completely with crap. -- Another failed exdperiment,... but then again ... Hmmm... I wonder...

I started writing my own security BOT (automated script for the server) to monitor and suede off all the advertisers and other spam bots and went to war with them. That was kinda fun actually. I added in checks for all the known flaws in the forum software and added in a bunch of some "gotcha's" for those who try stupid shi#t like trying to hack it or access the admin section.

Needless to say, a few thousand lines of code (days) later, all the relentless spamming stopped. I knew then that i had a solid forum that could be used for discussing trucks and other related stuff i have interests in.

The forum was again void and silence shadowed over it. -- It was empty once again and stayed that way. The spammers could not get in.

Another week or 2 went by and then one,.. two,.. and a few others from over on TTR, DG, and other places that had found the articles that I had posted over there, then followed me and my little forum experiment over here.

I had been railroaded off there and just about all of what I have posted over on TTR has been deleted or heavily edited by the Admins (though they deny it), and they went out of their way to tell me I can't speak poorly about products that rip off truck owners, or delete companies that butcher your ECM and leave your engine in ruins (those crooks are everywhere).

Other Auto forums have railroaded me off since because they ...

* Want to control and limit the amount of information available, so that people are left with only just enough info to get started, then forcing them to pay for the more detailed info by their controlling members. -- I.E. charging money for info that was once posted on the site for free by railroading off members that post it, cleaning up the forum/deleting parts of their info (or files) then later, charging money for it. -- WHAT A SCAM! (and it is rampid on forums).

* Forums that don't want people's customers to know enough or have enough info about what they do to be able to call out mistakes, poor quality, or simply bad workmanship.

* Forums that get paid by sponsors and companies to advertise and/or promote/have members write good things about their stuff, that railroad off and hide/limit the info about those people who have a different perspective, view, point out flaws, etc.

- There are various other reasons I don't post on other forums because of similar results.

> The Internet and forums, blogs, etc. in particular are a battleground with 2 sides of a coin. Those who want to provide information to others,.. and those who take it down and/or want to later control/limit it for profitable purposes.

On the one side, there are those who genuinely want to share their information and what they have learned, good, bad and otherwise. I am one of those people, and i am not afraid to call out BS when I see it, even if I am mistaken. I figure that even if I am wrong,.. someone else will come along and provide a counter-point or correction, and BOTH people will learn from it.

On the other, there is those who want to limit information so that it can be controlled and/or its use sold for a profit. There are plenty of crooks for example who will control or gain reputation, pay, etc. and become a moderator or controlling member of a forum where people will post good information and/or files about a subject. Once they have everything they need for exploiting that info, they will then set out to destroy or limit all the easy-access sources by railroading off members, then quickly covering the trail by editing the forum heavily and making it look like it never happened.

When the smoke clears, there is now this innocent looking forum with lots of memebers who appear to be mostly in the dark, begging for info that the "ehemm" higher ranking members can provide freely, and make themselves look like they are the "experts",.. -- but if you want more-- it comes at a price.

In the end, no matter how you look at it,.. forums, website, books, documents, or otherwise,... It is the CONTROL and LIMIT of useful information and experiences, good, bad, or in between, that is what is at stake. -- This has been the battle since the written word has existed and I don't agree with it. Not one bit. One side says the info about something should be free,.. and the other side says that people should have to pay the one(s) who have that info for its use.

Gen-X ( early 1970's - late 1980's) people seem to mostly be in the age range where this battle began to explode into cyberspace and all hell broke loose. Suddenly there is the answer to every question your brain might have ever pondered,.. and the idea that a millions of others may have had about it. -- but still the battle goes on, only there is profit in it now, and crooks are abound.

I tell everyone to Beware where you choose to hang out and what you write or share on a forum, and BEWARE what you choose to share with the world... Someone somewhere WILL praise you for it,.. and someone ELSE will hold it against you and hate you for it. -- That is the only thing I know for sure, but at least this place has some measure of control against such rotten acts of trickery on holding back information for the purpose of profit. I figure if someone thinks it is worth contributing towards in general, then they will participate in some manner to help it stay alive, or add to it by contributing their own experiences and information to go along with it. Everyone gains from doing this.

Just my thoughts for the day on "Social observation", nothing more.