Modern Vespa

Would it be worth having a "number of years riding experience" field in each users profile? I was recently in a thread that became a little lively. Both view points debated their sides as well they could. On one side were riders with 100's of thousands of miles experience debating with a rider who, it later turned out, had less than a years experience. That doesn't necessarily make the experienced riders correct or the inexperienced rider wrong but it does put their view points more into perspective.

In this particular thread it hardly mattered a bit what the outcome was. However if the topic was more serious then there's the danger that new riders could be treating as gospel the view points of riders who have less experience than themselves and I think that's quite dangerous.

why not put it in your sig line?

Like this?

My initial thoughts is that this becomes an elitist badge

I think if a newbie talks crap, peer pressure will prevail leading to the right information being communicated

Exactly. Just because You've been riding for awhile doesn't mean you know shit.

You also run the risk you described in the opposite direction. People see this "experience badge" as bible, and just believe whoever has the most "experience" even though they might have no idea what they're talking about.

+1

Coming soon to a thread near you:

"You don't know what you're talking about, you only have xx years of experience and I have twice that!"

"Oh yeh? Well I have three time times as much you, you moron"

I don't know crap about scootering and I even stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.

Years experience doesn't necessarily indicate greater knowledge. Their word isn't necessarily gospel either. We have Wiki Moderators for that.
In fact, some of the most ridiculous, overblown, patently untrue, totally mythological, hyperbolic, misleading and useless information imparted on this forum has come from some of the oldbies. The hot air seems pretty well (if not evenly) distributed among members of all levels of experience.

Newbies seem the least likely to try to impart misleading info, unless you've witnessed otherwise?

Instead, in addition to post count titles, we'll have honorifics based on your chronological MV user number. Everyone from #1-652 will be addressed as "Your Grace," "Honored Sir/Ma'am," or "Scooter Sensei." Everyone from #653 to the newest member will refer to themselves using one of a variety of Chinese honorifics used to indicate lower status and will be addressed simply as "member" by those in the upper 652 echelon.

People would just lie if they wanted to. For all you know, I'm 98 years old.

Experience varies. Everyone 'learns' at a different rate too!

And what is experience? I've been riding for over 20 years and I've never been in a wreck. Some people would claim I'm still a noob since I've never had to feel any pain for the hobby. Some people measure experience in seat time and others in miles traveled. Yet others might judge based on how much you know about tearing things apart and successfully putting them back together.

A lot of times, the noobs are reinventing the wheel, but remind us of things we've forgotten along the way since they're discovering a lot of things for the first time. I find it easy to skip over threads where people are spouting off erroneous information. I might pipe up if I think that bad info might get somebody hurt. And with experience, I think one of the things gained is not caring about how much experience everyone else has That's zen eh?

I understand the frustration of finding out that you've been placing your trust in the hands of a wet-behind-the-ears person, but I don't think any sort of experience-o-meter is going to help out on that front.

No need to feel threatened. It is not a crazy idea to know the source of your information a little more.

I sort of agree with you Mike. Although I don't think it would have helped with your discussion of the previous evening. (it wasn't an argument, or not even a heated debate, it was more of a discussion) Sometimes people disagree, and no amount of discussion can bring two opinions together.

I guess what you are suggesting is kind of what Jess has been trying to achieve with the Karma thing. If the members of MV find your advice helpful and knowledge useful it will become plain for everyone to see.

I for one think you talk alot of sense and I do look out for your posts. But you do not always see things from anothers point of view and this can eventually lead to friction.

Marc

it would just turn into a pissing contest.

A fine example is myself,

I grew up with bikes (although this is my first Vespa), had them around me when I was a kid but I just never got my licence. For over 20 years I thought my shit didn't stink and the sun shone out of my arse when it came to bikes. noone could tell me otherwise. When I finaly got around to getting my licence it came as a shock to learn when an instructor with less "years" experience proved that I did not have a clue and a "know it all" attitude can be really dangerous on the road.

my point is just because you have many years riding bikes does not mean you know everything there is when it comes to bikes. all advice (including here) should be taken with a grain of salt because it might not suit your situation

I agree it's a cool idea. And I don't see why someone who is so inclined couldn't put it in their sig line.

But at the same time, I agree that the number could be faked and misused. Not worth making it an official part of the site, in my opinion, as it would just add wood to the fire in some discussions.

...besides, when people feel their years of experience are relevant, they don't hesitate to post it, from what I've seen

I think the best promotion of knowledge on this site is to encourage a friendly, open, and class-less (not in the fun food-flinging kinda way ) discussion. Seems we should be respected on the merits of our helpful advice, rather than the number of riding jackets we've worn out.

I didn't like the idea of it in the sig line simply cause it would definitely look elitist - I certainly wouldn't feel right putting such info there. I'd also agree that people learn at different rates. How you measure experience is a wild guess, to would it be years ridding, miles ridden, number of crashes (I'd easily come top in that case) or fewest crashes (I'd be bottom). But I'm not trying to provide a rank, I just want to know if someones likely to be talking out there arse or whether through solid experience. I guess it's not such a problem for those with a bit of experience but it could be very useful for those who are new to scooting.

Wouldn't add any value to a post of the overall forum. Some people make the same mistakes over and over for their entire lives and never learn anything new so 50 years experience for one person who repeated what they learned in the first year, over and over, wouldn't be the same as someone who had only had 10 years experience and learned a whole lot with the passing of each progressive year.

one of the worst riders i know - let's call him 'disaster boy' - has been riding since he was about 10 - so over 25 years of experience.... and i use that term loosely. how anyone could rack up that many miles and still be a completely shite rider is a total mystery to me. granted he does smoke quite a bit of ganja but even that doesn't account for his near-miraculous lack of awareness and ability. i don't scare easily but i'm terrified to ride pillion with him - in fact after a particularly hair-raising ride to Cambridge one night i flatly refused to ride with him again, ever, and took the bus back, which put a bit of a strain on our friendship. i'm amazed he's still alive although he has suffered a number of fractures.

anyway, yes - years and miles racked up don't always make for good riders.

I tend to look for a consistency of opinion from a variety of sources. If all the ducks are lining up ...

Perhaps I'll just have to learn to smile and ignore certain creationist style topics.

Regards your friend who crashes all the time - perhaps he's a bit like the character Orr in Catch 22 and just crashes for practise.

Very true.

I invariably write with conviction. Sometimes I have been wrong.

He may not be able to ride himself but he might still know all the talk to pass on. How does that go "those that can do and those that can't teach" or something like that, riding is only one area of many perhaps he is a tire expert, or a body repair expert, seems he would have had enough practice.

To paraphrase an aviation comment on the subject:

Does he have 20 years riding experience, or one year of riding experience repeated 20 times?

Al

i've been racking my brains trying to think of some kind of bike related expertise he possesses, and all i can honestly say is that he looks good in leathers. lovely bloke, but born to take the bus, i'm afraid.

Like mine
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V

well talking out one's "ares" verse "solid experience" is not mutually exclusive.


trust me

I would forget to update it every year. Then no one would take me as seriously as they should.