Tell Us Your Stories. We're Waiting... (1 Viewer)

[Jon Asher]

'Maters:

The post from Shannon Timm asking you to essentially report rumors, innuendo and what will quickly degenerate into outright lies will absolutely return what's become a respected web site to the ranks of sites that are widely disrespected and ignored.

Nitromater has gone through numerous incarnations, but it's lowest points came when rumors abounded and those submitting "stories" were literally free to post anything they pleased simply because they didn't have to sign their real names to those posts.

Many members decried the posting of personal attacks, and those will quickly follow the unsubstantiated rumors, because what's to prevent me or anyone else from posting something so outrageously untrue that it results in someone losing a job -- or a sponsorship?

Without a "real" name attached to a posting anyone is literally free to say ANYTHING -- and who's to prove it's not true?

There are certainly a number of drag racing fans out there who care very little about the truth -- but there's an even larger number of fans who care, and care deeply, that the stories they're exposed to are true.

From time to time people on this site have suggested that the site is occasionally monitored by the NHRA, or at least by a number of its employees, and I assure you that's the case. The reason this is so is because NHRA is actually interested in what's being discussed, but they darn sure aren't going to remain interested if this site once again deteriorates into something with zero credibility.

I urge you, in the strongest terms possible, to reject the concept of posting anything to which you're afraid to sign your real name. YOUR NAME in and of itself lends a certain degree of credibility to those posts. Unsigned or anonymous posts do the exact opposite,and will only serve to drive serious drag racing fans away.

Alan Reinhart and I had a couple of interesting conversations regarding Nitromater during the Nationals, and even though we have strongly disagreed on some items that have appeared here in the past, we remain friends, and I'll go way out on a limb and suggest that he would agree with me on this.

Unsubstantiated stories that appear without attribution are going to drive the true drag racing fans away, and that will certainly include me.

If you're not willing to sign your name to a posting, in my view it won't be worth reading, and I damn sure won't respond to one either.

This idea should be dropped, and dropped even before it gets started.

It's a bad idea for Nitromater, and a bad idea for drag racing.

Jon Asher
Senior Editor
CompetitionPlus.com

 

[Sean D, shondoo]

Well, John, I've never been one to start any rumor, whether it be substantiated or not, but I've certainly engaged in controversial topics, even with you. I've been involved in the sport for 20 years and feel I have enough applicable experience to at least chime in.

The bottom line issue I have with your post is that it almost comes across like you're letting a few bad apples spoil the bunch. I'm actually glad to hear that the suits lurk here to see what true drag racing fans feel, but it troubles me to think that knowledgeable folks, both in the sport, and those maybe interested in investing in the sport, aren't intelligent enough to wade through the morons and get to the stuff that has merit. In most cases all you have to do is read the posts of some of these folks, many of which are laced with pi$$ poor grammar, ignorant subject matter and obvious bias. I would think that those types of things alone would throw red flags up to even the least observant.

Does anyone have any actual data on the percentage of posts that would be considered to be violating in the terms you speak of? Like I said before, I almost feel like a few bad apples are spoiling a whole bunch of good ones here on the 'Mater, so if nothing else, I would like to here some of that data.

Not trying to rattle your cage, John, because as a whole, I really enjoy what you do. I'm just defending the good guys (and gals) here on this board.

Sean D