I should add, like many of us here I've been online since the pre-Internet days. I've been on many forums, and have been super moderator for a few. This is the best forum I've been on. Here's how it can be so much worse elsewhere; 1. Moderators are heavy handed and have obvious biases against certain people. The smart (car) forum was just so awful about this. 2. Forums are little dictatorships, and some mods are quick to ban for the most innocuous disagreement, or the breaking totally unreasonable rules. One forum I was on prevented any mention of the word 'gun' even in the off-topic section. Another discriminated against non-believers openly (off-topic section) but they left pro-religion posts unmolested. Basically, one side could say whatever they wanted, but the opposition was censored. I no longer do off-topic on forums though and prefer to stick to the forum's focus. I save my personal opinions for FB, Reddit, Quora, etc. 3. Another forum had very low standards of writing from its members, but the mods were partially illiterate too and never fixed anything, ever. So, the 'curb appeal' of the forum was just horrid with misspelled thread titles all over the place. Some sites just reek of anti-intellectualism. This site is the opposite of that. 4. Another forum had jerks running it, so all of the leadership jerkiness trickled down to almost every user. Again, this same forum had a very low standard of intelligence or thoughtfulness. This was two motorcycle forums with the dumbest userbases I'd ever seen. Other motorcycle forums I was on (and moderated) were much better and more tightly-knit. 5. Other forums would simply lock threads the minute there was the slightest hint of disagreement. I think I hate this the most. It's one thing if the thread is totally off the rails but mods have to let adults work things out. They will generally work things out given enough time and space. 6. Some forums are SO hypersensitive that any opinion (based in truth or not) that offends the lowest common denominator gets deleted, censored, results in a ban, etc. These forums are useless. In real life, everyone goes through that 'sizing up' phase, especially if you're new to an established group. This is totally normal. 7. And yes if you can survive Reddit then this forum feels like Pleasantville. Reddit is a good litmus test for skin thickness. Anyhoot, this is a great forum. High average intelligence, healthy disagreements with real data, great writing generally that doesn't pain me to read, no strong political bent one way or another making anyone feel overtly unwelcome, awesome investor contributions and insights, good curb appeal, reasonably and diligently moderated but not OVER-moderated. Snark is minimal and flaming is pretty much non-existent. Honestly, it's one of the best forums I've been on, ever. Here's to the Teslarati!
Think the issue is that there are a lot of posts where it's obvious that people don't do very basic research (read the manual). Then you have new posts that claim stuff, then people that have been on here telling them how it works but they have to argue that's not how it works. I don't mine legit questions but most of the posts are complaints about something that other cars don't even offer or it actually operates the same way on other cars and it's like this is the first time they are driving. An example, people complaining about water getting on the side glass when raining and using the wipers.
Thanks for all the comments, I am positively surprised so many of you responded. I have yet to take delivery of my first Tesla in the coming weeks - perhaps I will end up being the salty one
I was going to say the same thing about Reddit. Regardless where I venture, and to what group, forum or social activity on Tesla, I still call TMC home. The backbone of knowledge and most of the time and good reality check. I loved the technical post that really get deep in theory and laws of physics. As a kid that always tore apart toys, I thought I had a good understanding how motors worked but I find there is so much that can be learned here.
I'm more surprised by the number of people who come on here and they expect a "particular answer" to their problem, or they come on here to complain about Tesla and act like we should all apologize for Tesla. NOOB: "my car says needs service... guys, what should I do?" TMC: "take it to service" NOOB:.....dies inside NOOB: My car must be defective, its not getting the range posted TMC: That's not how it works, EPA miles are at 55 mph NOOB: 55 miles per hour! who drives this, that's theft TMC: here's the explanation NOOB: I'm filing a lawsuit. How do I file a class-action lawsuit TMC: 200 downvotes TMC is mild compared to other forums. The annoyances are limited to a few repeat offenders and it is simple to add them to an ignore list. I just checked the "ignored content" on this thread and the nasty comments re-appeared.