But of the main forums this is the one I feel least welcome in, so I don’t jump in much.
Can you elaborate on this?
Sure- though I had to chuckle at the ironic timing of making a post that included that point only to find such nice comments waiting as soon as I hit “submit”.
In short, the first four pages of this thread generally reflect why I don’t come here more often. The pages since have made this the best experience I’ve ever had here, and illustrate why I prefer to work more on the consumer-oriented side of the industry and movement. Unfortunately, even after I’ve jumped into the conversation, my prior experience here tended to look more like those first four pages.
Sure we're a tough crowd, but don't you enjoy a challenge?
I’m here, aren’t I?
I don't have thousands of posts on Seeking Alpha battling John Petersen and his minions because they are nice to me :wink:
No kidding!
But it’s not a “nice to me” thing at all- there are lots of forums where folks aren't nice to me. I’m all for debating ideas and opinions and disagreeing about different things. As others have noted, I try to be a pretty straight shooter, I have an irreverent and sarcastic streak (as anyone who follows me on Twitter knows!) and can certainly give as good as I get. I love engaging on the actual topic of EVs and everything related to that.
What gets old is the assignment of motivations and biases without talking to me about it, and often even after I’ve explained. It’s not thin skin, and there’s no hurt feelings. But having to repeatedly go down the “I’m not anti-Tesla” or “I’m not permanently corrupted by having consumed GM’s kool-aid 20 years ago just because I don’t think the Volt sucks” paths gets...tiring. As does spending 4x as long on posts here being so incredibly careful about every single word choice to try to keep criticisms of whatever I say on the actual content and not the semantics. For whatever reason I've had to do more of it in this forum (in the threads or by PM) than any other, and after a while I choose to spend the energy in other ways.
I figure if you say something some of us disagree with and we start bashing you you'll eventually find out and stop in to defend yourself. :smile:
Sometimes...other times I don’t come across it until way after the fact. But- and I know it’s a novel idea
- someone could just ask me what I meant or to clarify something before the chelsea bashing starts.
Part of the reason I didn’t know about the article or quote is because
not a single person mentioned it to me, via any communications channel (which could be because the article itself didn't get as much attention as the others on the topic, or the quote didn't rub others as wrong). Anyone simply sending me an email or tweet or whatever along the lines of “wtf was up with that quote?” (see? you don't even have to be nice to me! :wink: ) would have gotten you all some clarification a whole lot sooner. And I’m not exactly hard to find...
The not welcome part is that Chelsea appears pro-EV but not Tesla > Leaf > iMiev > whatever else. She will treat each separately against her idea of the perfect car, but not go through the ups and downs of Yay-Tesla and Boo-Bad-News on Tesla.
Actually, that’s just it- I don’t think there is a “perfect” EV, esp at this stage, just as there’s no single gas car for everyone. There are things I like and don't like about each, though think that as a first generation it's really a pretty good bunch. And I actually prefer the ups and downs rather than expectations that I love everything Tesla does just because it’s Tesla, or hate GM’s choices merely because it’s GM. I think most of these companies have made good choices- either for that company and/or in the larger picture - and all have made mistakes. And there are some subjects (like charging) where I see both in the same path. I like the details. But I am also interested in the big picture of getting EVs on the road, and can see where a choice that may be right for an individual company may not help that bigger picture, or where individual companies- or the community - compromising helps that picture. It’s entirely that company’s right to make each choice, but I see it from both points of view.