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This Forum Sucks
Actually all forums of this type are pretty lousy in one respect. Unless and until we learn how to read a person’s facial expressions or body language over a forum we really have a difficult time communicating.
For relative newcomers this forum really sucks because like all forums there is a mix of old timers and newbies, and the newbies don’t know how to take some of the remarks from old timers. In fact it can be intimidating and scary. Those of us who have gotten to know each other via our posts or meeting and socializing at rallies get to know when someone is teasing, kidding or perfectly serious. But a newcomer reading the same posts doesn’t yet know who to believe, who is kidding, or if advice is any good at all.
For all of you out there who may be intimidated or who may think your comments and remarks and questions are not welcome, here are a few facts that might help. First, there is not a single soul on this or any other forum that started out knowing everything. In fact when it comes to Prevost coaches there is not a single owner who wasn’t overwhelmed when he first got his coach. So as a newcomer think about this for a moment…..we who offer comments and advice often got our education via the school of hard knocks. The longer we own our coaches the smarter we get, and all that wisdom often came very expensively.
When we who have information and knowledge to share it is not because we want to show off or intimidate the person asking the question, it is because we really don’t want folks to learn stuff the way most of us did. We take no pleasure in seeing others in a world of hurt so advice is almost always given to prevent unpleasant experiences.
This is not to say this site does not have its cast of characters. And those whackos that spend time here can convey the impression they are going to go out of their way to pick on you or ridicule you. Not true. In fact when you actually meet these people you will find they are actually pretty decent folks except for one or two grumpy ones.
If you really want to get the most out of Prevost Community ignore the whackos, and jump right in with questions, comments and opinions. We all rarely agree, we all might respond, but one thing is we will never knowingly treat someone with disrespect, or make fun of them. BTW, this site is really fun because of the whackos, but if you or anyone is in trouble it is almost impossible to overstate the help and support this group will offer . We really do get serious when necessary and will offer all kinds of help. You will get picked on if you drag a Hummer with its brakes on and you flat spot the tires, or if you forget to release the steering wheel and scrub the sides right off the toad tires. Or block a four lane highway, or any of the other things our members seem to delight in discussing.
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19 Replies
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no dumb Question except the one not ask!
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Jon’s feet stink.
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Tom won’t let his beloved have slides.
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Even Limey’s are made to feel welcome. Mind you, we get charged double dues!
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Tom is picking on me again.
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I think it would be very helpful if Jon would list the names of the “whackos” on the forum.
Does anybody know how to spell “Wehrenberg?”
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Your dues just doubled.
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Jon has just never learned how to be politically correct … and that’s probably a good thing!
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Speaking of Wacko’s…
I was driving north from Vonore toward Knoxville a year or two ago and a guy pull up beside me flashing his lights and waving me over to the side of the road. I am in my bus, so finding a place to pull over is tricky. I manage to pull over and get out thinking I had a blowout, had forgot to put the toad in neutral or was dragging a dead body.
The guy has stopped and is coming toward me with a big smile on his face. I am sure he noticed the look of panic on my face and assures me the bus and car are fine. Turns out he recognized my bus and knows my name. What in the world?
It ended up being a real nice guy and his wife from Knoxville. I could tell he was cool and an early techie adapter. He was carrying the early Apple Flip Phone.
Not all Wacko’s are as Wacko as they first appear!
Davy
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Well his wife was nice, anyway.
What’s with all the concern about my phone? Now even men of the cloth are on me about it. I’d protest, but I think I am outnumbered here in the asylum.
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Jon,
I read a rumor that Motorola is coming back out with a new razor flip phone. You may be one of the only people who held out just long enough for nostalgia to kick in just like tie die t-shirts and mullets 🙂
I feel stupid asking questions here, but I also know my experience hasn’t been dealing with a commercial vehicle and a rolling house. Now if I had to develop a software to move data back and forth between a server and a device or manage a team of engineers to develop that system then I probably wouldn’t feel so ignorant and come here looking for advice, guidance and assistance.
Ive learned in my life two ways. Doing and reading. Both have lead to failure but reading how to do something first has lead to less expensive and less overall failure. So I will ask and read and hopefully do it right the first time or at least not do it so wrong that it costs me a lot of money (Hmm, I think my first marriage was a learning by doing?).
Since I know I don’t know what I don’t know, I take the good with the not perfect and read the important bits and let the personalities out of it. I know if I had taken a lot of the advice posted on this forum, I probably wouldn’t have ended up with my coach. Sure it’s cost me more in the end, but then as we go through it, the coach is a very well known coach to us know. We didn’t have documentation so I spent the past 2.5 years making that documentation and bringing the coach up to date.
I see other coaches in the same vintage as ours going for the same price I paid for ours 2.5 years ago. And I know for a fact that those are not at the same level of freshness as our is now. So it makes me feel good that in the end I have a coach that I know very well and I can trust. Even a coach with full records doesn’t mean you really know how the work was done so there is a level of unknown still there.
I guess what I am saying is if you are going to buy a coach use these forums as a tool. You will never find the perfect coach at the perfect price. But the information here will at least make you an informed buyer who knows the risks and potentials after the purchase. And if that’s all you come away with, then that’s enough.
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When I bought the first coach in 1990 the internet was not in widespread use and there were no flip phones. That should put things in perspective.
But I think at that time I knew enough from my aviation experience to know I didn’t know anything and to have my coach inspected before money changed hands. Today we all have access to unlimited information and help from others, yet here we are 26 years later and only a few new owners have takien advantage of all the information and collected knowledge sites like this one have available.
So it is not uncommon for people to get in trouble, stumble upon this site as a potential resource, and post a question. By that time they might feel ashamed because they think they should know about their coach, or maybe they think they should have caught the problem before buying the coach, or maybe we appear to know so much we intimidate people. Whatever the reason I would really like to see people interested in a Prevost spend some time acquiring some knowledge, that will not only help them find the right coach, but will help them understanding it better when they do get one.
But as I said originally this forum sucks because even a casual reading of what is posted here gets scary. It seems like all we talk about are problems. And when folks ask for a diagnosis of the problems we tend to ask hard questions trying to zero in on the issue. I am of two positions on this. I think questions should be on the forum because our entire membership will benefit. But I also know, and have done so, that some conversations need to be private, not because we are discussing personal stuff, but because I don’t want there to be unrelated comments that might be more appropriate for a different conversion or model year. Those tend to confuse. Then there is the matter of sometimes we find the owner was the guilty party and created his own problem and it does nobody any good to open someone up for criticism while he is attempting to fix a problem.
If someone is new, whether as an owner or potential owner my free advice to make this forum suck less is to ask questions. A lot of questions. We all benefit greatly when we are all communicating. For every one participating in the forum there are likely 50 or 100 that read the forum , but never post. They benefit from questions they should have asked but didn’t. Those who answer questions often have to think hard about an answer so it usually adds to their knowledge.
I said it before but it needs repeating……Tom and I are on this site quite a few hours per day. We will not allow anyone to be abused. And we are very pleased to deal with such a large group that has such respect for one another. Perhaps it is because we all were newbies, and because we all know how hard it is to communicate on a forum.
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I like your phone, Jon, and your forum! Both function as they should even when easily misunderstood.
Davy
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I like my phone. I turn it on when I want to make a call. I turn it off when I am done. No camera, voice mail, text and best of all, I never get phone calls on it.
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4 new tires 4 new flat spots 😀 What can I say
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