Basic manners

[diffwhine]

Very refreshing to see this post and the supportive comments. I am quite active on this forum as well as the Land Rover Series One Club and the Land Rover Series 2 Club. These are the only forums I have any interest in being involved in. I feel that with over 30 years active experience working on Land Rovers in now 137 different countries both for and with Land Rover, that this is one area where I have something to offer in terms of experience and practical advice.

One thing I get a great deal of satisfaction from is helping people. If I know something, and it will help another forum member to avoid the mistakes I've made over the years, then I will happily provide information or advice if I am able to. In my experience some forums are better than others in terms of gratitude for advice or help given and I reckon about 50% of advice given results in a positive message of thanks. In most cases, its noticeable that the thanks tends to come from active club members as opposed to wider forum users.

When its clear that the OP has not bothered to do any proper groundwork or used available resources, I tend to step back rather than try and chase them for more information. As Clive says, it just wastes my time and is hardly going to elicit a favourable response. Maybe because I am a bit selective about when and where to comment or respond, I've generally being lucky with getting thanks for help provided. What I have noticed and very much appreciated is that although there may be no written thanks, several times recently I've met other club members face to face who have nearly always thanked me for my contributions to the forums. That's enough for me!