The Inside Loop - 2008/04
Editor's note
This month we are presenting a guest column by AMA's technical director, Greg Hahn.
Whatever happened to the saying, "If you have nothing good to say, then say nothing at all"? I remember growing up in Middle America during the ’60s and hearing that very thing often from my mother, who tried to impress on me that there’s no good in negative reinforcement.
In small towns like mine, a small tidbit of gossip would soon snowball into an unending megastory fit for a Spielberg blockbuster. The only positive about gossip was that it had to be done by word of mouth and often face to face, which promoted social interaction.
In today’s Internet environment, gossip — or what I like to call "pseudofacts" — can be passed and discussed between people who have never met and probably never will meet face to face. With that in mind, pseudofacts are not only bad but can become downright dangerous.
The social interaction involved with passing gossip gave it at least a small amount of implied accountability. Nowadays, without that feature, the sky’s the limit. You never know what the person you passed the pseudofact to might end up doing with it. In the absence of that accountability, things can get destructive in a real hurry.
Much of what is written on the modeling Web definitely fits into the category of pseudofact. That may not be where it starts, but 25 pages of posts later the real facts and issues have essentially disappeared.
What began as a simple question posted by a newcomer, or a service bulletin posted by a manufacturer, soon became the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, complete with scarf and hat, towering over Gotham. Considering how the modeling Web took the recent manufacturing problems with both Spektrum and Futaba FASST spread-spectrum systems and turned them into fairy tales of doom and gloom, I’m surprised anyone is still willing to commit a model to the air.
If a newcomer to our hobby were to log on and read a few threads prior to either purchasing equipment or flying for the first time, he or she would probably end up going fishing. If you were to read many of the threads and accept them as fact, success in this hobby would sound difficult at best and often impossible.
If we are ever going to grow this hobby, we desperately need to attract more young people and keep them interested and focused once they make the initial effort. It’s up to experienced modelers to help promote success in newcomers — not drown them in negativity and gloom.
To Web crawlers and other bottom feeders
The "gotcha" attitude of many on the Web nowadays needs to stop — and stop now! If everyone in the hobby understood just how small a speck we are in the real world of manufacturing, they’d no doubt be more careful when it comes to slamming the manufacturers of hobby products and blowing issues way out of proportion. Most do not realize how easy it would be for Futaba or JR to one day stop making equipment for our hobby use. The attitude we display and the lack of patience when problems arise are a great burden on everyone involved.
How much will it take for Futaba, JR, Hobbico, or Horizon to finally stop dealing with hobbyists because it isn’t worth the hassle? No one really knows where that point is, but do we wish to test those waters? I hope not; I happen to enjoy this hobby and I know I’m not alone. Of course, it is human nature to make sure the minority ruins it for the majority!
Next time you’re on the Web and getting ready to jump in on a thread, stop and think about what you are doing; make sure you consider the bigger picture. Ask yourself:
- Are you helping or hurting?
- Are you promoting or aggravating?
- Are you sure you know what you’re talking about?
- Do you really have the facts?
If you can’t instantly answer all of those questions, then it’s best to leave your two cents in your pocket.
As a reminder, there should be a header at the top of every thread page that reads: "If you have nothing else better to do, don’t do it here!" MA
— Greg Hahn
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
