Forum Etiquette Maybe

[Spdracr39]

OK so I am sure I'm not the only one but over the course of my rv adventure I have owned a TT, a 5'er, and now a DP. I am a reasonably intelligent guy and learn fast even if just from reading here. As is common I start my morning reading the new posts from across all the specific forums and try to provide insight and gain knowledge no matter in which "brand" the question was posted. Many times I don't really notice the specific forum the question was posted in if I feel like I have information that could be helpful. I am aware and and accepting that sometimes I am wrong and that sometimes those that are wrong won't accept it so I just provide what I know and carry on. Recently though I received a private message from someone telling me I was "disingenuous" for posting a suggestion in the apparently very special "Alpine" forum. His comment was that basically their units are special and no general information applies so I should not post there since I don't own one. Am I stepping over the line by trying to provide help to those in "brand" forums that I do not own? I know sometimes there a brand specific items that I have no idea on so I don't have any valuable input and don't attempt to provide any. But really, I can't post about a door stop because Alpines are "special ?"

[Russ Silber]

Originally Posted by spdracr39

OK so I am sure I'm not the only one but over the course of my rv adventure I have owned a TT, a 5'er, and now a DP. I am a reasonably intelligent guy and learn fast even if just from reading here. As is common I start my morning reading the new posts from across all the specific forums and try to provide insight and gain knowledge no matter in which "brand" the question was posted. Many times I don't really notice the specific forum the question was posted in if I feel like I have information that could be helpful. I am aware and and accepting that sometimes I am wrong and that sometimes those that are wrong won't accept it so I just provide what I know and carry on. Recently though I received a private message from someone telling me I was "disingenuous" for posting a suggestion in the apparently very special "Alpine" forum. His comment was that basically their units are special and no general information applies so I should not post there since I don't own one. Am I stepping over the line by trying to provide help to those in "brand" forums that I do not own? I know sometimes there a brand specific items that I have no idea on so I don't have any valuable input and don't attempt to provide any. But really, I can't post about a door stop because Alpines are "special ?"

Those of us who are perfect are particularly annoyed by those that think they are.[emoji28] [emoji12]

[Bigd9]

Funny, a while back I also received a message telling me the same thing! I felt it was just one rude owner and not indicative of the brand or other owners.

[Airboss68]

Am I stepping over the line by trying to provide help to those in "brand" forums that I do not own?

Absolutely not.

If you still have the PM I would copy and paste it as a quote to the Alpine forum (including the user name of the sender) so all the Alpine owners can see who is trying to stifle potentially helpful input on their problems.

All coaches, TTs, fivers, etc. are specialty items but they all have many common systems.

[Waiter21]

Am I stepping over the line by trying to provide help to those in "brand" forums that I do not own?

I received one of these PM several years ago. I found it very condescending and insulting.. I polity wrote a response that said "thank you for your opinion". I then flipped him off and in my mind told him to go pound sand.. Funny thing, I havn't seen that person posting up here in a couple years.

I own an old Fleetwood Southwind. I often look at the National and the Coachman forums, as I often see questions that I can provide information about.

Thank you for posting your assistance, regardless of what you own.

[UTTransplant]

The only time I get irritated with someone posting in the brand forums I frequent is when the issue is so obviously unrelated. For example, I saw a bunch of motorhome folks responding to a travel trailer leveling question saying how they did it with air leveling. Definitely not helpful, but I just sighed and went on. I certainly didn’t think it required a scolding PM. I would just blissfully ignore the scolder, though I might forward the PM to an administrator if it moved into the harassment arena.

[ThePowells]

OP,
Naaaah.
As you can tell, we have a Thor Class C and it is our first RV. We went into this adventure with our sights set on starting with a 5er TH. We went to the show and found the near perfect Class C as to our wants, and the perfect 5er, except for the garage was too short, "BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE" (as in infomercial) the sales ferret said they had our perfect 5er w/ the longer garage at the sales lot, but refused to call to make sure that someone would be there to show us the "perfect"one. We went back and bought this one.

My main forums are General, Class A, Class C, and MH General. I pop into Toads / towing, and Entegra. Rarely do I hit the others, including Thor. I hit the Class A since many of the Class A's have the same systems, plus my familiarity with big trucks. I hit Entegra as that is going to be our next and last (hopefully) last coach and I get a ton of info there. I take some hits from the anti-Thor crowd, and hits from the four downers as tow dollies seem to be lower form of species, but never for posting comments in the Class A section, and have been very openly welcomed by the Entegra group, both on the forum and in person at Tampa in January. The only real ( I want to say "push back" but that doesn't seem quite right) is on the Entegra forum when some other group owners seem to use every opportunity to opine on their coach's superiority, but never on the forum have I seen any Entegra owner trash, belittle, or in any way inpune any other brand owner.

The bottom line is that ALL RV's have systems in common. Maybe I'm wrong about the Alpine as I don't know that I've ever seen one and maybe every item on an Alpine is proprietary to Alpine. I wouldn't worry about it a whole lot, just as I don't worry about those who want to trash my Thor having never owned one.



As Paul Harvey used to say, GOOD DAY!

[twinboat]

I have also be chastised for not owning an Alpine, while posting to help with troubleshooting problems on them.
Are they really that different ?

That gives me cause for thought. When they need to take it to a shop for repairs, do they require the mechanics own one ? Good luck there.

I have been skipping over some of the Alpine fourm posts, just to avoid any backlash.

[egwilly]

My question is who told that guy he is in charge of the Alpine forum?

Tell him to voice his concerns to the forum admin.....he is not the gate keeper!

[Buzzcut]

IMHO, a person should not be so shallow minded in thinking that valuable information can not be gained from others just because they don’t have the same type of rig that you have. At times there may be specific answers that only a specific type coach owner can help with but most times that’s not the case. Allowing yourself to get upset where you need to send PM’s to posters concerning the worthiness of their response is utterly rediculous.
I’ve been camping for 35+ years and have owned pop-ups, trailers, 5th wheels, and a DP coach and if I think I can help someone who posts an inquiry, then I’ll give a response. I’ve learned that way and helped that way. Isn’t that why we read these forums?

[CLIFFTALL]

Our Community Rules apply to all sections of our forum and that includes PM’s. There is a red triangle ( see screenshot below ) that you can select to report these rude PM’s.

We’ll handle it from there. All members of iRV2 can post in any section of our forum.
Cliff

[Gary RVRoamer]

My experience with brand-related forums is that many of the brand owners will post their every question there, either because they are avid about the brand or they simply don't know what, if anything, may be unique to it.



Like you, I've occasionally been advised, nicely or not, that only brand owners should reply. I have enough experience with RVs that I'm confident my answer was applicable, so I either ignore the complaint or just say that I believe my response was helpful.


Nowadays, enough people own RVs and participate in these forums such that you are going to meet every possible kind of person, whether cordial or rude, open or self-centered, smart or dumb, experienced or novice. You just have to roll with the punches.

[carl.swoyer]

Originally Posted by spdracr39

OK so I am sure I'm not the only one but over the course of my rv adventure I have owned a TT, a 5'er, and now a DP. I am a reasonably intelligent guy and learn fast even if just from reading here. As is common I start my morning reading the new posts from across all the specific forums and try to provide insight and gain knowledge no matter in which "brand" the question was posted. Many times I don't really notice the specific forum the question was posted in if I feel like I have information that could be helpful. I am aware and and accepting that sometimes I am wrong and that sometimes those that are wrong won't accept it so I just provide what I know and carry on. Recently though I received a private message from someone telling me I was "disingenuous" for posting a suggestion in the apparently very special "Alpine" forum. His comment was that basically their units are special and no general information applies so I should not post there since I don't own one. Am I stepping over the line by trying to provide help to those in "brand" forums that I do not own? I know sometimes there a brand specific items that I have no idea on so I don't have any valuable input and don't attempt to provide any. But really, I can't post about a door stop because Alpines are "special ?"

Snarky folks are annoying [emoji20][emoji41][emoji4]

[96 Wideglide]

Originally Posted by twinboat

I have also be chastised for not owning an Alpine, while posting to help with troubleshooting problems on them.
Are they really that different ?

Only thing I can think of is the air/ hyd brakes!