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Reliable v enthusiastic but wrong advice on some forums

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Some good thoughts and I'm glad I'm not alone.

I'd be happy to contribute but going back to my "a little knowledge" point it would be more as collaboration than pretending I offer any outright expertise!

Responses are most likely because people on these types of forums are enthusiasts, not technicians.
I think part of the issue is Tesla creates a vacuum that needs to be filled so people fill it for them with all sorts of things, and not helped by Tesla themselves giving different answers to the same question at times. The truth is out there, it's just a case of knowing who to believe.!
 
I feel that most EV forums have the same questions about range and problems drivers are running into time after time. Where Teslas differ is the operating system which is continuously changing and hence confusing. But I would say similar to Apple updates, most new features and tips and tricks are provided by various forums rather than the company themselves.
 
I find the search function on this forum really useful. It’s helped me find answers to quite a few of my questions. Much better than other forum search facilities I’ve encountered. If only it was used more we would have a tidier forum.
The FB page for UK model Y owners has for me been a insight into the car collection experience and how variable it seems to be. Aside from that on FB there are a lot of basic repetitive questions for which answers can often be found in the Tesla Videos.
 
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I don't post much as I'm a subscriber to the "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" and "if you don't know, shut up". I'm not perfect in either regard, but I read a lot of the forums and over the years have built up what I consider a reasonable amount of Tesla knowledge. What I've seen increasingly is just how badly so many questions get answered on other forums, maybe due to the influx of enthusiastic new model 3 owners who don't appreciate the variety of scenarios that might exist across the models, or bring expectation based on how other cars work

Take the various Facebook owners club/group, every question gets about 4 different answers and a whole load of nonsense. Ask a question about charging stopping short and you'll get:
- show %
- its because its cold
- you can go 10 miles after it reaches zero
- does the app keep the car awake?
- #teamblue
- Does the MY have a LFP battery?
- It's because you use Teslafi
- What's an LFP battery?
- After a year mine still shows 293 miles
- It's adjusted to your driving style
- Sentry mode
- Does it matter? There are various influences- last week I had fish and chips there were 30 chips yesterday same shop, same order but I only had 29 chips

Maybe its the moderation on here, maybe it's just people are more informed (and often more informed than Tesla), maybe it's because you don't need to stray far to tap into the worldwide knowledge. What's worrying me even more for new owners is the owners group are running "orientation" sessions for new owners yet the same people running the sessions seem to be riddled with mistakes and misinformation, they must be to let what to me appears to be the wrong answers go unchecked.

To any new owners, would something from here along the lines of common beginner questions or a new owners guide be useful?

And any other suggestions for the most unhelpful but often quoted answers to questions?
RTFM :cool:
 
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And the winner of "Best Comment" goes to...
I find the search function on this forum really useful. It’s helped me find answers to quite a few of my questions. Much better than other forum search facilities I’ve encountered. If only it was used more we would have a tidier forum.
:)

But seriously, you don't even need to use this site's search function. Nine times out of ten just putting your query in google results in a link to answers on this site.
 
And the winner of "Best Comment" goes to...

:)

But seriously, you don't even need to use this site's search function. Nine times out of ten just putting your query in google results in a link to answers on this site.
I was about to say the same but also some of the queries I see on here are instantly answerable on Google anyway. Those annoy me more than the RTFM tbh.
The worst example I recall was the thread started to ask the question "Can I charge a Taycan on the Supercharger network". Which was wrong on several levels. I won't name names but he is still an active member so if this post gets downvoted you will know who it was. :)
 
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I was about to say the same but also some of the queries I see on here are instantly answerable on Google anyway. Those annoy me more than the RTFM tbh.
The worst example I recall was the thread started to ask the question "Can I charge a Taycan on the Supercharger network". Which was wrong on several levels. I won't name names but he is still an active member so if this post gets downvoted you will know who it was. :)
I am not saying that question is appropriate for this forum but that's the kind of question that will be searched in Google and I think this forum has to have a presence on that search - if in the longer term we are all thinking of this forum to be the best for any Tesla related queries. Just to add, I have seen a video of a guy who took a Tesla to a petrol station to fill in - whether that was a fake or real, I don't know. Sometime people buy a car or rent or lease without knowing what they have got in their hands - hybrid, petrol or electric. This forum presence has to be there even for those 'starters'
 
I was about to say the same but also some of the queries I see on here are instantly answerable on Google anyway. Those annoy me more than the RTFM tbh.
The worst example I recall was the thread started to ask the question "Can I charge a Taycan on the Supercharger network". Which was wrong on several levels. I won't name names but he is still an active member so if this post gets downvoted you will know who it was. :)

We all need to be bandwith guardians on this august resource. Shutting down the verbiage that decreases the signal-to-noise ration helps everyone. Extra kudos if done with good humour.
 
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It does seem a thing that some people prefer to spend a minute composing a question and then have to wait an indeterminant amount of time to get a collection of answers, not all of which agree or correct, when 30 seconds typing an abridged version of the question into google would give instant closure.

I've been thinking of the challenge to give shot sharp advice, what about 5 bullet points on each topic? Really drive the thinking to cut to the minimum you need to know to cut out the fluff.

An example:

Rapid Charging Etiquette
  • Never leave a car on a rapid when not charging
  • Higher states of charge result in much slower charging speeds, only charge to the level you need
  • Any car that can plug into a rapid is entitled to use it
  • Plugshare, zapmap and abetterrouteplanner all help locate suitable chargers
  • How fast you can charge varies, not all chargers are the same speed
 
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tl;dr You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

When I was moderating I tried various approaches. I found that most stickies and wiki's (the excellent supercharging wiki maintained by @CMc1 and @cezdoc being pretty much an exception) didn't get read so I stopped bothering to maintain them. The 2021 new owners thread suffered from poor timing as it coincided with the Freemont to China transition. Wiki's have a problem on this forum as there is no way to limit who has access which can result in conflicts in updates and it ultimately comes down to a moderator to sort out the mess. Likewise stickies are not perfect either as too many (especially when not within the organic posts) are glossed over and you end up with some important info in stickies that might be better served in the organic posts if you could ensure that they could self maintain themselves on the first organic page or so of threads to remain useful/visible - not so easy with the cyclic nature of Tesla ordering/releases/features etc as things become highly active, then less so, then active again.

The best approach that I found was actively moving threads to a selection of threads on similar topic but it took a lot of time and effort, and wasn't always possible, especially with fast moving threads or when people post multiple questions and/or OT comments/questions in the same post. Plus some users took great exception at having their posts moderated and can get quite personal with attacks on moderators - something that many do not get to see.

Another thing that seems to work well initially are community posted links back to existing similar threads, but it doesn't take long before that link is swamped by more answers by which time you then have multiple active threads on the similar topic. But at least the poster got their question answered and hopefully will know that another thread with probably a more thorough discussion exists although not always as current as things do change over time so its a trade off between stale information and another thread - as most people only seem to read the tail end of long threads and they are clearly dated its normally pretty easy to track when data in a thread has become stale especially as its easy to search a single thread and filter by post age.

As well as OT/multiple question threads, another issue are threads with vague or clickbait titles that give no indication as to the real contents for those scanning or searching. I always tried to gives titles some sense, but again, a lot of time and effort. Likewise tagging threads too to make them more search friendly.

Threadloom search in particular (iirc its not the default and other search engines are available too) is very powerful especially if you roughly know what you are looking for. Its easy to narrow a search scope to a particular sub forum or even a single thread. But even still, its not going to be 100% and requires a little effort which at the end of the day, all the while there is an active community willing to answer, its easier to simply repeat the same questions and comments no matter how easy it is to find the answer elsewhere or in another thread or even in the same post.

I even started to curate a list of typical questions with links to the active threads on the subject, but the list got so long it ceased to be useful and remains a hidden thread on here somewhere.

Unfortunately, this takes a lot of effort from a small group of people. When I was planning to stop moderating I made sure that I would be replaced by at least two others that were UK subforum regulars - very few takers at the time to the shout, but if anyone is still interested, I am sure the current mods would welcome more hands if you asked them.
 
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I like the idea of this and thought of doing a "welcome to winter" guide. The problem is though, no matter where you put it, people won't use it. The front page is awash with sticky threads, but still we get questions such as "how can I contact Tesla". Every car comes with a manual but people don't think to look in there first. Even when you start a new thread suggested threads pop up, but people ignore that too. There are also a number of users (42 I think ;) ) that insist on a new thread for every thought they have. So it'll be quite a challenge to get people to read the beginners guide.

The mods do a great job of bringing the threads together and its one of the reasons I like this forum. Keeps a good the signal to noise ratio as someone on here once said.

I read slashdot for years, in part because of the karma system that let me easily filter for the best posts in a thread and skip the rest.
 
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