With registrations now back on line we've had a huge tidal wave of fresh faces on our humble forum... great to see and welcome, one and all, to our wee family of VW diesel lovers.
I thought I'd post a few random hints to help the newer members get up to speed as quick as possible on our weird corner of the interwebs... hopefully others will chime in as well with stuff they wish they knew back in the early days.
Hint 1: (the most important hint) We value "respect" highly in these parts. Respect for everyone's knowledge and experience, respect for other points of view, respect for all ages/genders/backgrounds, respect that on the interwebs no one knows when you're serious or kidding, respect for folks who have had a bad day.
Hint 2: For the most part folks call it as they see it and don't chat just to hear themselves natter. So if you've asked a question and don't get many responses it probably means no one really knows the answer. Posts like "Huh... 10 views and no answers?" generally result in even less responses.
Hint 3: We tend to fall all over ourselves to help those who help themselves. This means posts like "Tell me everything I need to know about adding more power to my diesel and hurry up" will generally fall on deaf ears... where as posts like "I've read about a couple of options for adding power and still don't understand how the governor mod works" will usually get all kinds of air time.
Along this same theme...the bible in these parts is the Bentley service manual. Having one in your garage is a *great* way to help yourself.
Yea verily!!!
Hint 4: The FAQ section is a *really* good read. Probably 75% of the most common questions are answered there, already, ready to go with no muss or fuss. By happy coincidence these are the exact same 75% of the questions most everyone is *so* tired of discussing... please, save us all from extreme boredom!
Hint 5: The search tool is pretty good and will generally get you another 20% of your answers... these cars have been around a long time and chances are whatever you're facing has been faced before.
Hint 6: The forum is divided into strange sub-sections, mostly for historical reasons, and mostly self-explanatory with a couple of exceptions:
- We reserve the FAQ specifically for *answers* to commonly asked questions
- Discussion specific to the IDI engine goes in the IDI section.
- Likewise, discussion specific to the TDI engine goes in the TDI section.
Otherwise, use your best judgment.
Hint 7: Please please pretty please post back when you solve a problem or figure something out...it's how we all learn from each other.
Hint 8: At the end of the day this is just about cars and engines... have fun and don't take it all too seriously. There's a ton of knowledge here... dig in and contribute as you can.
Hint 9: Unless otherwise stated, you posts are your posts to modify as needed. We all would appriciate to leave the posts that are helpful to the community here, but it is not required at this time.
Hint 10: If you want to say something please remember it is a family forum. Please do not post things that are generally offensive to Grandmothers and Children.
Anything important I missed, anybody?