righteous noobies

[Digi7al Trauma]

I like to think of Ratsun as a garage with the door up and the light spilling out down the driveway to the street. You've driven past several times and noticed some rad rides parked out front and there is always something going on inside. Day or night the door is open and great tunes playing along with hammering and drilling and often a bunch of laughter. Every so often there is another smoke/beer break and the guys inside come out front sometimes standing under the door in the rain laughing even harder. They are an interesting mix of ages and there's a nod as you pass. Once you saw one of them leave in one of their unfinished creations. It crab walked sideways as the power came on adding two more lines to the pavement. So one evening you pull in and park at the end of the driveway and slowly walk up to the open door. The garage walls are covered with parts and chrome tools flickering blue white from the mig welder. Beside the door unnoticed in the dark, is a red glowing cigarette. "Beer?" a voice asks, and a hand swings out into the light with an open one....

 

 

 

 

We all started somewhere, less than we are now. Often it's hard to join another herd as the outsider, the unknown, the noob. What exactly is a noob? New or inexperienced? Could be both, could also just be new. All are an unknown quantity and time will tell how well they 'fit'. Those with character shrug off the inevitable noob rite of passage crap and good naturedly hang in there. We have some awesome members here that I've met, some not, that are articulate, focused, (dare I say intense?) Datsun enthusiasts, tempered with just a bit of good humor. A pleasure to talk shop with, and I'm always blown away to find they are often so young.

 

 

 

thats an awesome image there datzenmike. Now all we gotta do is put money together and buy a shop and do that.

[datzenmike]

I went through a phase of finding a noob post and trying to be the first to say SEARCH NOOB!!!, but I noticed sometimes that the question had been asked earlier and I remembered the answer that was given. So I answered and you guessed it, I was wrong and got corrected and started writing things down and trying harder. Slowly built up some small amount of knowledge and if I didn't know the answer would go looking for it. Guess what? It's way more interesting to be able to try to answer a noob question than say SEARCH. Even a wrong answer leads to discussion about the problem and information flows back and forth. Win win for everyone.

[Hardwyre]

What I see a lot of, though, especially on sites like HybridZ, is when someone asks for help, they instantly get jumped on.

Actually I had really good luck on HZ, then again, whenever I asked a question, I gave a full explanation of what the hell was going on, what I had tried, and what I was thinking of trying. I also added pictures and drawings and copious amounts of smileys.

 

A lot of the newbie posts though are like one of the calls I got when I was installing satellites. Some drunk-to-nuts mexican called me up about 9pm "My deeshnet it no work; you come fix?" Dude literally passed out on the phone with me.

 

That's what some of these help request threads are...

 

We shouldn't give noobs handjobs.

I think you just came up with the slogan right there. :)

 

 

 

 

And Mike, always poetic sir. :)

[screamer510]

I'm new-ish. It is hard to find a "niche" in the community, but I believe if I am honest, open, and hard-working, I can fit in here with you all (did I forget thick-skinned?). I did too many bad things to my brain when I was a teen and in my early 20's to be able to remember a lot of the specs, pics, swaps, and general info that lots of you guys do. For all I'm worth, at least I'm not a lurker or troll!

 

I agree with Datzen: help a newbie out, unless it's for something blatant and just generally wrong. Maybe just once, at least.

 

Also, as a teacher, proper spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and grammar add a lot to posts.

 

 

 

 

And the "SEARCH" can be generally hit-or-miss sometimes, at least with me. Should we have a way to tag posts with keywords?

 

 

 

 

Thanks for all the help and fun I've gotten from Ratsun in the past few months. I'm on every chance I get.

[datzenmike]

And the "SEARCH" can be generally hit-or-miss sometimes, at least with me. Should we have a way to tag posts with keywords?

 

Another good point. I see people yell atya noob to search and I've tried it and it sucks. "question must be more than three letters long" WTF ???? Google using the term Ratsun in the question helps.

 

FAQ is bloated and repetitious.

 

I guess the best thing in to be as humble as possible, know what you are asking for... I know that sounds contradictory but show you have a grasp on your problem and have researched and taken it as far as your abilities can take yo,u it's just that something is eluding you and need help.

 

Some noobs are like clams and supply no info. "my truck is running like crap what do I do?" Well I should be grateful he said it was a truck. (although it was in the truck section this is more of a confirmation really) After six questions about the carb he lets it slip that it's a Weber! Wonder of wonders at least I didn't ask ten questions first.

[Z chopper]

I totally agree, my point isn't to drive noobies away. Shit, we were all noobies once! And sometimes they really know their stuff. It's the 18yo know it alls i could do without.

 

 

but some of those 18yo know it alls really do know alot look at some of the younger members starting thier build threads at 14-16 years old and blowing our minds. I have assisted in building some killer kustoms in my life but these kids blow me away.

[Str8_69]

Personally i have no problem helping out a noobie if i have the info and they ask nicely but to read some of the attitude thrown around by guy's that joined in Dec last year is a little hard to swallow .

 

 

what i'm tired of is noobs cluttering every thread with useless posts just to get their post count up. Hmmm I wonder how these guys get a 900 post count in two months and contribute nothing productive?

 

 

I don't care if they want to post all over insomniacs, they should just stay out of other Datsun and classified related threads unless they have something worthwhile to say.:rolleyes: /rant

 

 

 

Yep, yep and yup.

[Guest 510kamikazifreak]

Noobs is noobs.. :lol:

I dont have a problem "helping" when they have made an attempt to explain things.also helps if they have done "some" research on their own.

But if one asks, I want a zillion HP out of it can it be done :rolleyes:

Datsuns are as basic as it gets,if you can play with lego you can fix a Datsun :lol:

[HRH]

Ratsun's search function sucks. Search using google, type "Ratsun" at the end of whatever you're searching for. Works ten times better. And it's free!

 

I see MANY MANY people who don't have an ounce of brainpower wanting information spoon fed to them on a daily basis. They call on the phone to my NAPA, asking questions such as, "My car kind of sputters when I get on it but it won't do it if I'm coasting and the left turn signal doesn't come on, but the reverse light does. What could be causing those problems?" :blink: Seriously. I've had people assuming we diagnose car problems over the phone. And god forbid the part they need actually costs money!? ;)

 

It's a sign of the times. As schools got away from teaching vocational aspects and dipshit parents didn't care about teaching the value of preventative maintenance, or any mechanical knowledge in general, we get the end result: Lots of people without the faintest idea of how to go about helping themselves.

 

Fortunately given half a brain, most noobs on here will receive a wonderful education and if they actually listen to the information given (as well as question any free advice from the Internet) they will be pleasantly rewarded with a better life experience and possibly a car that runs!

[Laecaon]

Then I am happy I was rolling 31 inch tires for my dad when I was 4 years old. I am glad oil changes were always a diy thing, brakes too. I am glad I have had some sort of access to tools (really that is a big one, if I dont have some sort of tooling I feel limited in what I can do). That instead of my mom spending money on a professional, she could use that money to buy the supplies/tools and then pay me some, and then I got tools!

 

I think it is largely what kids do when growing up. I was rarely limited in what tools I could use, and my parents practically show cased things I created (even though now I see that, well, they were garbage). Promotion of free thinking, enabling use of tools from an early age, and general allowing of seeing how things are made.

 

"Oh you took apart your alarm clock" -Mom

 

"the speaker wasn't loud enough, so I have this speaker from my sisters radio that I took apart last year" -Me at 11 years old.

 

And yes the search here sucks. But Google doesnt, and makes things super easy, eventually though even when you dont include "ratsun" on the search, it still pulls of ratsun links.

[metalmonkey47]

I've been here a few years, so I guess I've sunk into the community a bit.

 

By all rights though, where it matters I'm still a noob in a lot of ways. I like to learn, because I know one day I'm going to need the knowledge provided.

 

 

I've asked a few simple questions about issues and applied what I've learned to everyday life @ AZ. It's fun baffling the old guys that think they know everything. lolol

 

 

More then anything, I like to learn. I find that I learn best when I'm interested in the subject at hand. Datsun's are VERY easy for me to learn about for that particular reason.

 

 

 

 

 

I'll never ask for help unless I'm concerned about an issue or haven't been able to solve it myself.

Edited February 2, 2012 by metalmonkey47

[metalmonkey47]

I see MANY MANY people who don't have an ounce of brainpower wanting information spoon fed to them on a daily basis. They call on the phone to my NAPA, asking questions such as, "My car kind of sputters when I get on it but it won't do it if I'm coasting and the left turn signal doesn't come on, but the reverse light does. What could be causing those problems?" :blink: Seriously. I've had people assuming we diagnose car problems over the phone. And god forbid the part they need actually costs money!? ;)

 

HOLY CRAP HRH. I thought that was just Autozone

 

Off topic but funny..

 

I had a lady call the other day desperate for help. I asked her what happened and she told me her distributor cap and rotor button (I hate when people say that) both broke and asked what I would suggest........ It was so hard not to be an all out dick. She was a nice lady but come on.... replace them!

[HRH]

Brothers in arms, man, brothers in arms! :D Parts guys unite!

[Ratty260z]

Reminds me when I worked at discount tire and we would have someone come in for a free air check and they would want to do it themselves but it's against company policy since it's a liability and they would flip out get pissed and leave. :D just because we couldn't let them physically do it or when their tires were over ten years old god forbid.

 

"sorry sir we can't check your air your tires are over ten years old." "why the he'll not?!?" "because sir they could explode and cause damage or injury to you and your car or me if I'm filling them up" "well Fuck you guy's I'm never coming here again!"

 

We had a tire explode just sitting next to the showroom no one touched it and it took out half the wall.

 

Or the classic do you guy's change oil here? Can you check my motor? it's ticking and I deliver pizza to you guys all the time

[metalmonkey47]

We had a tire explode just sitting next to the showroom no one touched it and it took out half the wall.

 

Uhh... my right front tire has a date code of late 80's. No cracking at all

[Ratty260z]

Uhh... my right front tire has a date code of late 80's. No cracking at all

 

Does it have the 3 digit DOT? I've personally only seen early 90's tires at the most it depends on how the tires were treated too the compound hardens over time and can start to crack or you get ozone cracking just depends on the tire. I remember forgetting to look because a tire would look brand new then notice it was too old, happened a lot on older cars that would come out of storage. RV's were always a special treat....

 

The department of transportation is the one that stresses to get new tires every 10 years for safety reasons.

[Ratty260z]

Woops

[metalmonkey47]

Does it have the 3 digit DOT? I've personally only seen early 90's tires at the most it depends on how the tires were treated too the compound hardens over time and can start to crack or you get ozone cracking just depends on the tire. I remember forgetting to look because a tire would look brand new then notice it was too old, happened a lot on older cars that would come out of storage. RV's were always a special treat....

 

The department of transportation is the one that stresses to get new tires every 10 years for safety reasons.

 

Honestly, I'm not 100%. All I know is that I've been driving short miles back and forth on them the last few days. They're on 521 steelies I got. Putting new tires on in a few days

[RAlly_DatoB210]

I will admit my noobery some of my first posts were pipe smoke like can you bolt a ka24de head onto an l20b bottom end? Logic was there and I searched it even on google. I knew there was a lineage between the l series z series and single cam ka. But that post still makes me feel like a derp because it was the I want my slow car to be a spaceship. Now I just lurk on insomniacs and wish I had a datsun. I'm still a nooby derp noob but if I can help Or apply some knowledge i always provide it.

[Dirk Diggler]

Anyone know how big of wheels I can get on my 510 with 4 coils cut from the springs?

[datzenmike]

I see what you did there....