To all the new guys to the forum and league racing here at NPWDRL, welcome to the best source for pinewood derby help, products, and information. I have been a member of this forum for January 2012. I quickly realized that I knew a lot less than I thought I did after I began reading the posts and then sent a car in to a race. After a pure butt whooping in league racing, I thought I would not ever do that again. But when I saw the opportunity for the Team Series last year, I jumped in and was able to learn a lot from my teammates. That experience and the knowledge I gained from it, along with the thousands of posts that I read gave me the confidence to try league racing again this year. I have been logging into the forum every day since mid-January and I can see the excitement and member list growing each week. With all the new guys joining, I thought I would pass along some advice. I am not a pro and to be honest I have not posted much at all on this forum. However, I think this could be helpful to the new guys. Below is my suggest list of “DO”s and “DON’T”s about posting on this forum. Hope this helps.
Do:
- Search the forum for answers to your questions before you post them. Most questions have been answered at least once in the past and it helps the Pros and Moderators/Administrators if they don’t have to repeat themselves every other week with the same questions.
- Ask specific questions including as much details a possible when you do decide to post a question. Generic, broad scope questions end up going in at least 2 different directions before your questions are answered.
- Thank the other members for their responses and respect their answers. Remember that they have the experience at this level.
- Enjoy the experience. This hobby is really fun and unique from any other form of racing so learn from your mistakes and keep setting personal goals.
Don’t:
- Rebuttal or post responses to your own questions that seem to disregard helpful suggestions and answers given by others. I have not seen one time that someone offers another person help by purposely giving wrong/false information.
- Expect others to give you all the details of their prep process and other details of building a winning car. Some things are just better left to trial and error and more practice.
- Think you can read all the post of this site and build a winning car on your first attempt. (this one got me)
Again, I am not a pro. I am no expert. I am learning each time I build a car and want to see this league continue to grow and succeed. John works very hard to keep this league going and it shows in everything he does. Along with his group of volunteers the league races at NPWDRL are by far the best of any league out there. Thank you John for your hard work. And thank you to everyone that helps John with the races each month.
Do:
- Search the forum for answers to your questions before you post them. Most questions have been answered at least once in the past and it helps the Pros and Moderators/Administrators if they don’t have to repeat themselves every other week with the same questions.
- Ask specific questions including as much details a possible when you do decide to post a question. Generic, broad scope questions end up going in at least 2 different directions before your questions are answered.
- Thank the other members for their responses and respect their answers. Remember that they have the experience at this level.
- Enjoy the experience. This hobby is really fun and unique from any other form of racing so learn from your mistakes and keep setting personal goals.
Don’t:
- Rebuttal or post responses to your own questions that seem to disregard helpful suggestions and answers given by others. I have not seen one time that someone offers another person help by purposely giving wrong/false information.
- Expect others to give you all the details of their prep process and other details of building a winning car. Some things are just better left to trial and error and more practice.
- Think you can read all the post of this site and build a winning car on your first attempt. (this one got me)
Again, I am not a pro. I am no expert. I am learning each time I build a car and want to see this league continue to grow and succeed. John works very hard to keep this league going and it shows in everything he does. Along with his group of volunteers the league races at NPWDRL are by far the best of any league out there. Thank you John for your hard work. And thank you to everyone that helps John with the races each month.
