[AT] Best of ATIS? ---The D8 story

charlie hill charliehill at embarqmail.com
Sat May 5 08:27:03 PDT 2012


Charlie V,

you are right and you  are at the same time wrong.  Technically  you are 
right and the subject line should have been changed, although I notice you 
didn't do so.
On the other hand, this list has a reputation among others in the antique 
tractor community as "that list where you have to wear a suit and tie" and 
folks complaining
about minor lapses of etiquette is what gave us that reputation.

I agree that threads get hijacked here.  The same thing happens on all 
blogs.   Complaining and arguing is what drives folks away.  I know your 
comment was meant with
good intent and I took it that way but I have to say my first reaction was 
to just delete the message and go do something else.

Charlie


-----Original Message----- 
From: Charlie V
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2012 9:39 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Best of ATIS? ---The D8 story

I am going to poke my head in the lion's mouth here, but understand
that I am not pointing any fingers or applying any criticism.  This is
purely an observation.

This thread is a good example of what I wish to point out.  Mark
posted a very interesting post to this list.  Now it has become a
whole other topic to the point that when Mark returned with part two
he found it necessary to amend the subject line to differentiate part
two from the new topic his original post has evolved into.  O.K..  It
sure looks like Mike can deal with that, and he did.

Now let us suppose for a minute that this is a post with a how do I
fix my tractor question and started by a new subscriber who may have a
lot of experience at posting to a list or forum.  The first reply post
says something like:  I don't know much about the brakes on that
particular tractor, but it sure has rained a lot here in my neck of
the woods. Reply two comes back with:  You got too much rain?? It is
so dry here in the North that we can't even get a plow point in the
ground. And on and on.

At some fifteen or twenty posts later, we have had a great
conversation but the guy with the brake problem and not a single
helpful answer is scratching his head and thinking what a waste of
time it was to pose the question.  He will probably shop elsewhere
from now on.

Do not misunderstand me.  I enjoy off topic conversations as much or
more than some of the on topic tractor material and have no problem
with it being here.  The various personalities are a big draw and it
becomes like a family over time.  I simply feel that we may be so self
engrossed at times that we are slightly rude and without thinking
about it, hijack topics.

Having said that, we do have some real experts here that totally know
their stuff and are always willing to help out.  For that I say
"THANKS".

Charlie V.

On Sat, May 5, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Mike Sloane <mikesloane at verizon.net> wrote:
> I don't know if I am "typical" of the membership, but I know my messages
> to the list have fallen off over the last several years. I can give you
> several reasons:
>
> When ATIS was created and for several years after, it was virtually the
> ONLY old tractor forum on the internet. Now there are niche lists and
> forums of all kinds, and they tend to attract a good deal of the message
> traffic. I participate on a couple of Cub lists and other Farmall lists,
> as well as Wheelhorse, Struck, Case (garden tractor), etc.
>
> When I retired ten years ago, my "disposable income" was reduced, and,
> while I had plenty of time to spend on old machinery, the money just
> wasn't there to buy more "project tractors".
>
> At the same time, I found that I had more than enough tractors and no
> more room to store them. I now have at least one or more tractors for
> every chore I need to do and a few that just sit in the back of the barn
> and collect dirt. (Fortunately, my neighbor's cats have been keeping the
> mouse population in check, so I don't mind that they call the tractor
> seats their bedrooms.) I would sell some of the "lawn ornaments" (Ford
> 2N, a couple of Cubs, a Farmall Super M, for instance), but the market
> just isn't there these days. Maybe when the market picks up...
>
> Speaking of markets, there just don't seem to be many old tractors for
> sale around here these days, except for some really sorry "ran when
> parked" hulks that have to be dug up. I don't know why that is.
>
> My main towing (and snow plowing) vehicle, an older Ford F350 mason
> dump, finally gave up the ghost and was replaced by a brand new half ton
> Toyota Tundra (my first brand new truck!). And while I love the truck,
> it really isn't suitable for hauling larger tractors. I sold my old
> trailer to a friend. So, unless I hire someone to haul for me, my
> fetching and delivering tractors is no more. (Cecil Monson and I used to
> go on a lot of "road trips, but that ended with his passing.)
>
> So, except for periodic mysterious problems with my existing machines, I
> really don't have much to contribute to the list. But I still very much
> enjoy reading others' messages about their tractor activities.
>
> Mike
>
> On 5/5/2012 7:39 AM, john hall wrote:
>> Charlie, the lists were already split when I joined up and we still got 
>> more
>> traffic than one had time to read. I subscribed to Farmall and ATIS and
>> could barely keep up. We had a great mix of Q&A , restoration stories as
>> well as stories from back in the day when our old iron was new.
>>
>> Unfortunately it seems no one here restores anything and rare is it any 
>> of
>> us need mechanical help.
>>
>> John
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