So relating that back to this forum. Everyone has a voice and an opinion, but beginners, casual fliers and longtime mr. average builders/fliers would do well to park their ego and use the ratio of ears to mouth before hastily and emotionally responding to the correct and often unfiltered, blunt advice and experience offered by those national/world champion level fliers. Be grateful for the advice they offer before you choose to let your feathers get ruffled.
I was hesitant to say anything, because I am probably the lead a**hole that this started with. However, I can explain pretty much 100% why these posts are the way they are. What will get almost everyone's goat, almost immediately, is seeing someone *posing* as an expert, using their posts for self-promotion, or taking credit for other people's work.
Poseurs - These are guys who pretend to have vast experience and knowledge, but don't. We already know almost everyone with vast experience and knowledge in terms of stunt flying. Maybe there are *a few* people who fly in cow pastures somewhere that are better than Paul Walker and David Fitzgerald put together. I sincerely doubt it, because to achieve that level, you have to - repeat *have to* - compete with other people of equivalent skills. So, while at least for a little while, someone out of nowhere can come in and profess expertise on various topics, and at least be given the benefit of the doubt, they won't be able to fake it for long.
The problem with this not that they don't know very much or even that they know less than they thing. There is no shame whatsoever about not knowing something. In fact, the people who think they know almost everything about this event are the ones who know *nearly nothing*, because people have been doing this for 60+ years at the highest levels haven't mastered it.
I have never and I have rarely if ever seen anyone be looked down upon, denigrated, or in any way picked upon, for simply not knowing something. What is a problem is when they try to use their claimed vast expertise to give obviously incorrect or misguided advice, usually claiming they know better (usually on some topic so basic that the answer is 100% clear), or try to nay-say others with vastly more experience and more correct advice.
Self-promoters - Guys who use their posts or comments to advance their own cause (commercial or otherwise). Stunt's biggest controversies have been over this, dating back to the early 80s. There aren't very many of them, because most people don't want to do this for reasons of propriety, and a few because they know that it won't work. This can be either from the individual themselves (rare) or their "cheering sections", some of whom have NO IDEA what they are talking about and frequently go FAR over the top. You ought to hear some of the commentary from the spectators in the Walker Flyoff, even my little brother could tell it was delusional. Sometimes the cheering sections do the promotion when the individual doesn't even want it, sort of an out-of-control cult.
Claiming credit for something they didn't do - this one is obvious, if someone wants to take unwarranted credit for something they didn't do, say, claiming they were somehow contributing to NATs wins, having invented or discovered something that they did not (sometimes because they don't know better, and sometimes because they want to buff up their own reputation by taking reflected glory, or again, trying to claim greater expertise then they really have.
These are all closely-related issues, and usually result in the naive' or newbies (who understandably might not know who to pay attention to and who are the BS artists) being misdirected. The repeat offenders are quickly-identified, and those are the people you see getting the negative comments. There *is* a tendency to figure that since the hot-shots are hot-shots, it's open season, and almost any level of abuse (like calling them an a**hole - a strictly ad hominem attack with no content or value whatsoever) is OK, they should be able to take it. Of course, many people come in asking questions that they think they already know the answer (frequently from the category of old wives tales and barnyard bullshit that permeates stunt discussions) and get offended when someone says otherwise and wants to argue about it, but that's not a function of internet message boards. It's a function of having guys with a range of skills from nearly zero to guys with 12 National Championships all interacting. It doesn't happen in real life too much, because the beginners and sport fliers are frequently (and unnecessarily) intimidated by the real experts in real life.
People do get a little frustrated when a particular topic has been beaten to absolute death for years/decades, and a new guy comes along, and asks the same thing that was covered in 20 previous threads, but all that will get is "check this thread" or "search for x", maybe a little abrupt, but not deprecating.
I would add that Ken's observation is only partially accurate. To first approximation, I don't and I know most other people don't get spun up over someone who ignores their advice. Expect to see an "I told you so" later, but usually with an explanation of why it works the way it does. Almost everyone does get spun up when their advice is ignored or nay-sayed because of one of poseurs managed to trick the unsuspecting, which more-or-less explains almost every "bad" posts you ever see.
Brett
Topic: I am sick of all the derogatory posts. Are you? (Read 7426 times)