Just what?s going on with DMCH?

[DaraSue]

I really want to ask for an invite to that FB group (bc seeing people slag DMCH for the, shall we say, questionable decisions they've been making lately warms the cockles of my cold, black heart and all my irl friends already think I'm too negative) but my pwecious fee-fees would be hurt if I got rejected so I've probably automatically disqualified myself.

[DMC5180]

I really want to ask for an invite to that FB group (bc seeing people slag DMCH for the, shall we say, questionable decisions they've been making lately warms the cockles of my cold, black heart and all my irl friends already think I'm too negative) but my pwecious fee-fees would be hurt if I got rejected so I've probably automatically disqualified myself.

Which FB group are you speaking of? I Joined one awhile back started by Michael. However, I?m just not a FB person. I skim it once in a blue moon but never comment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Victor]

I do not have a Facebook account either, but really appreciate all the technical help from Dave, and from all members as a matter of fact.
Some Delorean Facebook pages are open to public, but most are not.

I wish the Delorean Fanatics page was still open to public, just for entertainment purpose 😂

[DaraSue]

Which FB group are you speaking of? I Joined one awhile back started by Michael. However, I?m just not a FB person. I skim it once in a blue moon but never comment.

The sooper-seekrit one Michael was talking about in his post (which I assume is the new DMCToday clubhouse). It's been at least three years since I've gotten on FB and been in a better mood afterward but the power of DMCH drama compels me...

[DaraSue]

And you know, James and Stephen are people too and I'm not trying to hurt their pwecious fee-fees either. It's not that I dislike them personally or want their business to fail. I think it would be great if they made a ton of money off of all these licensing deals and used the proceeds to get high quality replacement parts made for the cars we all own and (most of the time) love. I just don't see jettisoning the only two franchises I've never heard a bad word about and going all-in on a non-street-legal, unaffordable "new DeLorean" that bears only a passing resemblance to the original and then marketing it via NFT scheme on a buggy website as the path to success and want to bitch about it with other like-minded cynics.

[MrChocky]

I do not have a Facebook account either, but really appreciate all the technical help from Dave, and from all members as a matter of fact.
Some Delorean Facebook pages are open to public, but most are not.

I wish the Delorean Fanatics page was still open to public, just for entertainment purpose 😂

Plenty of entertainment to be had, if you want to join. The problem is the was a vast amount of spam, never
mind all the "regular" off topic posts, so it had to be made private.

[Ron]

I'm one that refuses to join/support mainstream social media platforms.

[Michael]

The sooper-seekrit one Michael was talking about in his post (which I assume is the new DMCToday clubhouse). It's been at least three years since I've gotten on FB and been in a better mood afterward but the power of DMCH drama compels me...

It's a super secret private chat room where only the most respected vendors and top tier members hang out.

[DMCVegas]

I don't do that here anymore...I can't do it without twisting someone's panties up in a knot so they complain to the compassionate mods who will in turn lock the thread to satisfy the hurt widdle feelings of one delicate beta boy.

That is absolutely something I am against. The exceptions would be things like doxing, threats of violence, etc. But otherwise I don't like censorship simply because you disagree with someone. We're going to have opposing viewpoints as is normal, and sometimes we simply need to agree to disagree. And that's ok. Besides, if I know someone is wrong, rather than shut them up I'd rather let them embarrass themselves than silence them to prevent them from doing so. More importantly, what's the worst that can happen? We disagree and instead of complaining I actually consider your viewpoint and change my stance to come around to your way of thinking? Heaven forbid we ever place ourselves into uncomfortable conversations and have our worldviews changed and unite together.

Man, I truly miss your writing (not kidding). Do you have a blog somewhere else?

+ 1 on Dave S' statement...wish Robert would come back (not kidding either) and post again. Add Michael to that list as well.

Mostly I agree (but not always), but both of your writing styles (in perfect English) keep me interested and reading whether I agree or not. It was disappointing that many of the people that make up the DeLorean knowledge base have migrated to FB, because there are many folks left here on Talk that need their expertise, but will not, for a plethora of reasons, join FB.

Thomas

First off, thank you both for the kind words. I actually am humbled and very appreciative of them. Coming from you, Dave, especially so as I have considered you one of my mentors since I first started lurking on the DML back in 1996. Funny enough it has been over a quarter century and we've never met face to face.

To answer your question, no, I do not have a blog (though if you're clever enough you can track down my old posts on Jalopnik). My writing has slowed down a great deal. There's a couple of reasons for that. The first being that I changed career fields. Previously I worked in the IT industry which afforded myself a lot of free time to participate in online discussions. My current job doesn't allow for the same free time, let alone constant computer access due to it's physical requirements. I literally went from sitting on my ass 95% of the day to walking an average of nearly 6 miles each day around a property of nearly 80 acres. And that still isn't counting the numerous floors of the towers I regularly ascend and descend. So now I have no time to write at work, and when home I'm usually busy with family and whatnot (which isn't a bad thing, but a whole other story).

The second reason is that I dislike most online communications, and absolutely abhor social media. It is toxic and second only to the intellectual abyss of reality television. If Dante were writing the Divine Comedy today, I'm certain he would include additional levels of Hell to accommodate social media and reality television in his epic poem. Social media is not about connecting people together. It's about people trying to compete for attention in a never ending pageant of pestilential vapid vanity with advertisers trying to capitalize on the jealousy and insecurities of the masses. Celebrity is no longer about being loved but in most cases these days who can be offended first in order to be victim zero. And if you've nothing to be offended by, you can always become offended on behalf of someone else. But I digress... Like I say, social media is all take and no give. I can, and have posted things on Facebook...and no one says a damn thing. It's not that I'm insecure and demand attention, because if that were the case I promise you'd I would have been acting out a long time ago. But if no one is listening, then what's the point of talking? I can think of funny things or have my observations and talk to myself in the car while driving and have the same result with fewer time spend online and less disappointment.

I do plan on returning to college to complete my degree. And both my wife as we as my old English professor have encouraged me to write. I do sometimes journal and I have my sketchbooks for inventions, but I just don't go public with my thoughts anymore. I mean, it used to be that the realm of journalism was a vocation for the select few. Men and women who had the necessary talents and perseverance to forge ahead within their professions and could achieve having a unique voice. I idolize the New Journalism and Gonzo styles of writing from authors such as Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson. After years of having Shakespeare, Jules Verne, and sterile biographies shoved down my throat in school, they were more than a simple breath of fresh air. It was more akin to a baby taking it's first breath. But now in the modern age, everyone has a high definition camera in their pocket with autocorrecting features. Great photos are no longer crafted but merely captured by arbitrary accident. And everyone and his mother (literally mine included as well) is posting opinions online that the hacks have finally drowned out the talent. Even bands can't get a record deal any longer simply because they play well, write well, or even look well. They have to build their own followings on social media and do the marketing work in advance.

I do enjoy being a raconteur, and I've been told that people would love to hear my stories. But I don't know where that audience is, or if they even exist any longer. Once I'm done sorting out all these damn boxes containing years of stuff from 3 different households (sometime next year I reckon) I plan on creating a vlog for the restoration of my car. Not so much for entertainment purposes, but to create a multimedia portfolio of my car. Only took 20 years for the deceased PO's next of kin to finally talk to me, so some of the private text documentation is done. I suppose if that's a success I'll expand upon more writing, but we'll see. I still want to go back and finish my degree. But more importantly, what would people even want to hear me write about?

In the mean time, picture me as I once was, up on the hillsides of the valley, looking down on the city in my DeLorean contemplating life and where to go next...


https://youtu.be/9ErMdrrvKJQ

I still only post technical stuff on TALK. It's a shame a lot of owners don't access it.

I appreciate the work you have done and what you have accomplished for the benefit of the community. I'm glad that TALK is a repository of knowledge thanks to these sort of efforts, as well as a place that can freely exchange ideas to create new solutions for us all.

I do not like Facebook being the preferred choice for such endeavors. I have quite honestly only ever found a handful of useful groups, one of which actually being for DeLorean engine swaps, where the group functions as intended. Sometimes we may not like mods when threads get locked when those of us participating still have something to say and feel like we've been silenced. But I prefer it to the isolated Facebook groups that are just echo chambers of negativity, incubators of intolerance, and crematoriums of basic manners and kind behavior. Obviously not all are this way, but most are.

If you find yourself as being the smartest person within your group of friends, then it's time to find some new friends. We should always strive to challenges ourselves to be better and to do better. We either get validation or correction and those help us along the way.

Which is why I posted in this thread in the first place. I've nothing against DMCH, save for their PR department at times that don't think things such as that email blast all the way through. But then again I'm a threadkiller. I try to lay out my argument first, anticipate my challenges, and either thwart them in advance or ponder upon them to see if my POV may in fact be wrong. Lots of work goes into writings such as this. They aren't just on-the-fly streams of consciousness. So when I see errors in something I'm passionate about, which in this case I felt was someone trying to invalidate my choices with my car, let alone try and dominate the marque once again, then I'm going to respond.

And that is one of the core reasons I've drifted away from the DeLorean community. So many people are vying for control and trying to dominate it all. Everyone seems to always want to dominate the community and claim ownership of it. No, this isn't something unique to the DeLorean marque alone. This seems to happen with EVERY car club, group, whatever out there. But it keeps happening here too. We've got the big players like Ed Bernstein back in his day with the blacklisting, instilling of divisiveness, price fixing, and even harassment. I'm sure he'd have loved Facebook. But he's not the only one whose done this, and others continue to do it now. Even I was guilty of it. Thought I could help shape the club and quickly discovered what a fool's errand that was. I know that it still seems that way when I complain about people who keep their cars original, but that's because the people I complain about do it for the wrong reasons. If keeping an old radio because you love driving a time capsule is your thing and that makes you happy, do your thing. But if you're really wanting a modern stereo system but are fearful to do it because you're concerned it's going to somehow "violate" the car and make it less of a DeLorean, OR you're fearful that others will criticize you, I want you to lose that anxiety is all.

Otherwise I also get bored at car shows. It just seems like DeLorean owners want to talk about anything BUT their damn cars. Your last vacations? Your house? Your stock portfolio? Politics? I don't give a shit. If you've ever met me in person, you know I ask the same question: Why did you buy your car? What made you want to own a DeLorean? I'm fascinated by the passions of people, and the reasons behind what they do. But when I'm at a DeLorean event, I want to stay focused on DeLoreans. If I wanted to hear about vacations I'd be at a goddamed timeshare sales pitch listening to chucklefucks puke sales scripts at me. As such if I do arrive somewhere I'm hidden in the corner. Admittedly the onus of that is indeed upon myself. I can't blame others for not having the exact same interests as I do. But damn, it feels like going to a whorehouse where the only workers in the bedrooms are AmWay salesmen. Not what I expected and I feel tricked. And if someone does talk to me, sometimes it feels more like to pick my brain to get something from me, and as soon as I have nothing to offer they leave.

I don't care if people don't like DMCH for whatever reason. That's fine. But reading about private Facebook groups to where people have a desire to commiserate and shit talk about them or others? This community still doesn't gel with me. I'm not cool with that. There's too much negativity and not enough encouragement. Which again, that's on me than you all.

When men get to my age, or really years before, we tend not to have friends any more. Which is as accurate of a description of myself as it is normal for most men. As my wife said to me, I just need to find my people. Whoever those people are, whatever that shared interest is, I've no idea. I'm still looking. But on it's face the DeLorean community doesn't really look like it's for me any longer. Again, I'll check in later since this is, well, the only community I've known for now most of my life. Rest assured I'm not angry. People change, and perhaps the problem is that I have changed too much to relate to most people on here now. We'll see. But this song, and well, damn near the entire album related to me with my hobby here.

https://youtu.be/e5nOxc-p-eM

Best of luck to everyone. Especially in being kind and supportive of one another. Music helps me allot to relax, meditate, and contemplate. So here, have another that had coincidentally queued up on my playlist to close out this post.

https://youtu.be/9u9ymiSmtXY

[DaraSue]

As one of the people who just wants to talk shit in private comms, is it productive? On a grand scale, no. On a personal level? Sometimes you just have to vent about stuff that pisses you off before your head explodes, and after over a decade of new cars and new parts that have been promised but never delivered, I think a lot of us are just at that point with DMCH, especially with some of the stuff they've been doing lately that's come off as overtly hostile toward the community. When there's nothing you can constructively do to change a situation but it still sucks, sometimes you just want to screech to somebody who gets it.

Serenity now...

(insanity later lol)