Heh, just to be clear, I also autocross the hell out of my car and went to my first HPDE this year (loved it), so I don't want to be pigeon-holed as a drag racer. However, being new to the non-linear racing this year, I did no more than get a set of R-comps to aid in my handling, so I have almost _0_ knowledge of suspension/handling mods, which is where your input (and those of others like yourself) would be extremely helpful when providing a write-up related to "first mods" and such. For some, the best "first mods" may be a set of race rims/race tires, -2* of camber, and a super-light titanium cat-back for SCCA A-stock competition. For others, it will be tbe/mbc+gauge/jdm mr dv/flash for less than $1500 to get 300whp overnight.

 

And this is a surprise? Anyway...

Hey Smoggie, I'll sign up. My car is a veritable mish-mosh of parts. You'd figure the Buschur/Vishnu parts would have attacked each other by now.

Let's see, I have parts from Works, RNR, Vishnu, AMS, Buschur, and Nisei. Does that qualify me for unbiased?

 

I like the idea of not rep'ing the brand or shop that you like the best, and seperating the faxs from the BS through sience, not opinion.

 

I'm interested...

 

Point taken. You guys can come up with whatever way to rank yourselves however you want. Other forums have those little green boxes, whatever, it doesn't matter much to me. I go by the actual content of whoever posts rather then what is written in red under their name, or how many posts they have, how long they've been with the forum, etc. I don't expect a guru's post to show up in a thread entitled: "Should I get an Evo RS or a Bentley Continental GT? Hurry up guys, I need it by tongiht!!!" or "which would win in a race: a 400whp Evo or a 500whp Civic?"
To me, those types of posts should be closed before they get bumped over and over again because of ridicule. When it is a legitimate discussion, I do see Guru posts.

 

i also think warrtalon should be the #1 guy in this crew. he is part of evoM in a way that no one else does. I love scrolling down and seeing warrtalons name and preparing to read a post. guy makes me smile every day.

 

i've read alot of what you guys have been posting and the type of information you will/are putting out is exactly what i've been looking for. I would suggest you get your own forum like the vendors which is where most of your collective information can be found. That way you can make it easier for the end user to find the information he wants/needs instead of searching thru hundreds of topics to see what the truth squad thought about something. I'm a sucker and an impulse buyer on top of that but money is money and its not easy to come by. I would definetly love to find out some information about said product before i send money over the line only to regret it later on. I really wish you guys the best of luck

 

To be honest this sqaud is a cool idea in regards to the concept, but wouldn't be needed if members would use the SEARCH function a lot more. I don't know how many times in the last 2 weeks I have seen new threads on how to hook up a wideband, AIT sensor, or MAP sensor to an AEM EMS.

 

These types of posts don't bother me in the slightest, because ATLEAST the person is asking a question about something that is in my mind VERY technical. If you read other car forums, engine management and wideband AFR are things that people "want" to do, but never really seem to.

I'd answer 100 different wideband questions to get rid of 1 "WHaT InTaKe is Teh bets!?!?".

On a sidenote, I would kill 1000 kittens to get people to stop using "ur" instead of you're or your. That's a completely different subject all around however.

 

just catching up with this thread, and i think it's a noble idea fraught with complications- but the above post addresses many of the problems. i was thinking this as i read through the thread- in order to have credibility, the people on the 'squad really need to be nominated/elected/approved for the role, say, based on a review of their posting history.

my take is this: formalize the goals, formalize the process used to achieve those goals, re-evaluate constantly, to ensure that the goals are being met, and adjust as needed.

sound complicated? it is, kinda. here's a good starting point:

http://www.archives.gov/national-arc...ranscript.html

... and yeah, establishing credibility is a big job.

any skepticism aside, for a group like this to exist outside the formal management structure of the site is not that much of a stretch- any citizen oversight commitee or neighborhood watch is formed the same way.

i think the cause is important, even if i have my doubts that it can be pulled off here. for my part, i'd like to offer my help:

Proposed Goals of EvoM TruthSquad Commitee:

1) To be an authoritative source of Technical Information on this site.
2) To maintain financial and political independence from site vendors.
3) To maintain standards of conduct and communication which suitably represent the finest of our membership.

Proposed membership process:

1) Prospective Squad members must be nominated and approved.
1a) Nomination may be made by any EvoM member. Members may nominate themselves.
1b) Nomination shall include the submission of a post history, for squad review.
1c) Approval shall be given by the current team members, in the form of a vote.

2) Approval is based on meeting certain basic criteria, and a review of post history.
2a) Nominee should not have any financial ties to any site vendor.
2b) Nominee shall have demonstrated history of competent technical understanding (possibly graded by level?), and sound advice disbursal.
2c) Nominee shall have demonstrated history of good conduct toward fellow members. at least to a point

3) Review is conducted by current sqad members, via PM(?).
3a) The Review Process is used to make the case, discuss any concerns, conduct any research needed to qualify or reject a nominee.
3b) The Squad may include the nominee in the discussion, but is not required to.

4) When review is complete to the satisfaction of the squad members, a vote is taken.
4a) Vote is via PM, sent to squad chair.
4b) Results are sent back to squad members to verify, and announced to Nominee.



... it's a start, at least. as usual, the thread has moved on since i began this, but hopefully it's got some value.

this process could be applied by the current members to each other to get off on the right foot, and just to test the method.

even if deemed workable, this process should be reviewed and refined as the need arises.

does this help?

 

I think something that wouldn't be a bad idea would be to build another forum, that posting would be limited to the people chosen. People who wrench their own cars, people who have expirience dealing with various shops, people like Warrtalon who go 12s with virtually no mods.

The problem that lies with this however, is that traffic may not flow to the site, due to it being outside of the Evolutionm community. Basically the evom community just needs cleaned up and better moderation. No offense, but the moderators here are less then desirable in my opinion. Some of them don't even drive Evo's.

People like Malibu Jack should be moderators here. People with the know how and the reputation to back it up. It seems like the moderators here are moderators because they were here early on, and posted a lot. This is strictly speculation from my point though.

I would love to be a part of something like the Truth Squad, I'm not sure if I have the background to back it up though.

 

It may be a very technical question, but if it has been answered many times as well as documented with Pics then use the search function. Just like many people have reviews on exhaust's, intakes, manifold's which are opinionated and can be found with a search as well.

 

...and in order to test the process i've proposed,

i'd like to nominate myself for consideration.

here is my post history:

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/se...archid=1746863


i'm not a mod guru, i'm not working at the level many are at around here, but i've tried to dispense the knowledge i have come by (mainly playing with chassis setup), as well as common sense, which sometimes is lacking around here.

if the squad used a level system, say 1-5, to rate technical experience of it's members, i feel i'd be about a 2.

thanks for your consideration, i'm happy to answer any questions.

...and whether i make the squad or not, i'm happy to discuss logistics. it's a vital consideration here.

 

that's the thing, i'm not sure a heavy tech background is required, but showing the ability to kick an issue upstream - to *escalate*, when faced with a question that's out of ones league, rather then spout BS- is pretty common in any tech support envorinment.

warrtalon already alluded to this- not everyone on the team has to be an uber-guru, there are plenty of n00b questions to go around, really. but establishing some sort of hierarchy- an escalation path- is probably required to do so.

edit: so really, i guess, what you are certifying by anoiting members in this club, is not so much that "this person knows more than anyone else", it's "this person is comitted to giving you an answer you can trust to be correct, either personally or by referral to another person who has made the same commitment."

see the difference?

 

I think it is a great idea! We have way to many people posting about a part, settings, and anything else you can imagine based of the old "but my dads friend from work knew a guy who used that and it blew up his engine". Problem is most of the time they just say..."don't use that it will blow up your engine" and nobody has any idea (unless you search that persons posts) whether the person really knows what they are talking about. We do need some people to help keep posts that are harmful to others in line, if you guys want me in I would be happy to help.