- Joined
- Feb 6, 2006
- Messages
- 10,488
- Reaction score
- 4,134
- Location
- Cape Town, deep in the lentils
- Bike
- KTM 990 Adventure
Prompted by the two recent threads...
Something that bothers me and I’d like to raise it; Why is it that we repeatedly have mechanics, shops and dealers who become members, try to contribute and play the game, but ultimately stop participating or just leave?
They come in here, try to participate, do so for a while but then become the subject of threads with deep criticism of their work or ways. Often the criticism is not without merit, but it seems that even if it isn’t, the shop always pays a far greater price in the end.
Joe Blogs who has the gripe and is not always that clean or clear about their part in it, or worse, is not correct or was at fault escapes mostly scot free.
I think it’s because there is a power imbalance.
There’s a David and Goliath principle at play; It’s a time honoured human truism that speaks to the relationships between the underdog and the giant with all to play on the outcome. Everyone fears Goliath and is rooting for the David. The Goliath loses, of course, because he’s slow, weighed down by the mass of armour and huge sword. However, there is also non-symmetrical weaponry at play - a sling, though seemingly a child’s toy, is a standoff weapon, it’s lethal and delivers a projectile with as much punch as a .45 calibre bullet. An underlying moral is about facing fears and bravery.
In forums, shops are not at all anonymous and they are further weighed down by the rules of social convention being applied differently to them as to individuals; We hold them to a higher expectation than we do to the individual. The shop cannot vent and throw their toys, they can’t get personal and obnoxious without incurring exponentially more social opinion damage by the majority. Worse, shops are immediately seen as wealthy and as having the power. They seems far bigger than the individual. They are never the underdog regardless of the situation.
In forums, the individual is more powerful than the shop. They have that potent weapon of reasonable anonymity, can sling accusations relatively freely and, most of all, leverage the underdog effect.
I’ve yet to see a shop come on here and vent off about a client. It’s for the same reason that your doctor doesn’t sprout off in forums about your medical condition. If either did so, both would immediately have no more clients.
And that’s the nub of it. A forum member can say virtually what they like but a shop will instantly start to lose clients if they did the same. More, a shop, if they get defensive and try to raise objections, just by doing so, are risking losing clients.
There are a few shops in here who consistently fare reasonably well; they are in my opinion, thick-skinned, very good at forum play anyway and are not scared to call out the false accusation. But the vast majority of them are businessmen, spanner swingers and not wordsmiths with high ego strengths. Even if they are in the right, they sometimes clumsily defend themselves and pay a huge price. I know a few personally who just don’t have the required thick enough skin or the skills to joust fairly in forums and hate the place. And we and them are poorer for it.
I don’t know what the solution is, maybe it's just the way of forums and as much as we have the old adage of "buyer beware", there should also be the caveat, "...and in forums, seller beware more!"
Whatever, but it's not that cool at the moment.
Something that bothers me and I’d like to raise it; Why is it that we repeatedly have mechanics, shops and dealers who become members, try to contribute and play the game, but ultimately stop participating or just leave?
They come in here, try to participate, do so for a while but then become the subject of threads with deep criticism of their work or ways. Often the criticism is not without merit, but it seems that even if it isn’t, the shop always pays a far greater price in the end.
Joe Blogs who has the gripe and is not always that clean or clear about their part in it, or worse, is not correct or was at fault escapes mostly scot free.
I think it’s because there is a power imbalance.
There’s a David and Goliath principle at play; It’s a time honoured human truism that speaks to the relationships between the underdog and the giant with all to play on the outcome. Everyone fears Goliath and is rooting for the David. The Goliath loses, of course, because he’s slow, weighed down by the mass of armour and huge sword. However, there is also non-symmetrical weaponry at play - a sling, though seemingly a child’s toy, is a standoff weapon, it’s lethal and delivers a projectile with as much punch as a .45 calibre bullet. An underlying moral is about facing fears and bravery.
In forums, shops are not at all anonymous and they are further weighed down by the rules of social convention being applied differently to them as to individuals; We hold them to a higher expectation than we do to the individual. The shop cannot vent and throw their toys, they can’t get personal and obnoxious without incurring exponentially more social opinion damage by the majority. Worse, shops are immediately seen as wealthy and as having the power. They seems far bigger than the individual. They are never the underdog regardless of the situation.
In forums, the individual is more powerful than the shop. They have that potent weapon of reasonable anonymity, can sling accusations relatively freely and, most of all, leverage the underdog effect.
I’ve yet to see a shop come on here and vent off about a client. It’s for the same reason that your doctor doesn’t sprout off in forums about your medical condition. If either did so, both would immediately have no more clients.
And that’s the nub of it. A forum member can say virtually what they like but a shop will instantly start to lose clients if they did the same. More, a shop, if they get defensive and try to raise objections, just by doing so, are risking losing clients.
There are a few shops in here who consistently fare reasonably well; they are in my opinion, thick-skinned, very good at forum play anyway and are not scared to call out the false accusation. But the vast majority of them are businessmen, spanner swingers and not wordsmiths with high ego strengths. Even if they are in the right, they sometimes clumsily defend themselves and pay a huge price. I know a few personally who just don’t have the required thick enough skin or the skills to joust fairly in forums and hate the place. And we and them are poorer for it.
I don’t know what the solution is, maybe it's just the way of forums and as much as we have the old adage of "buyer beware", there should also be the caveat, "...and in forums, seller beware more!"
Whatever, but it's not that cool at the moment.
