Plan for Pat Wilson
by Pat Wilson · 03/16/2005 (10:16 am) · 85 comments
Dear Fender,
I recently purchased one of your guitars, an American made Stratocaster (It was red, I like red.) so that me and some friends could make a band. We use Craigs garage because it's the biggest, and since his brother has a drum kit, we figured it would be easier to bring guitars there instead of bringing drums to my place. Anyway, to the point, I am very dissapointed in this guitar because when we tried to play, no loud music came out. Then we learned that we have to buy amps. We can't afford amps, and think that they should be included with the guitar.
This brings me to my second point. We decided that we'd write some music while we waited to get our amps sent to us. Our music is going to be the best ever. Think 50-Cent, mixed with Green Day...only sung like Destiny's Child. We're going to do a remake of "Panama" by Van Halen...only it'll be better. While trying to write the music, we learned that we need to learn how to play chords. This seems like an aweful lot to learn just to make a band. Someone suggested that we start by getting a chord book and doing something easy, but that's stupid because we don't want to play stuff that sounds like that.
Anyway, please get us the amps as soon as possible. We are going to plan out our song, and when we get the amps it will be the best song EVER. Thank you for your time,
-Pat
I recently purchased one of your guitars, an American made Stratocaster (It was red, I like red.) so that me and some friends could make a band. We use Craigs garage because it's the biggest, and since his brother has a drum kit, we figured it would be easier to bring guitars there instead of bringing drums to my place. Anyway, to the point, I am very dissapointed in this guitar because when we tried to play, no loud music came out. Then we learned that we have to buy amps. We can't afford amps, and think that they should be included with the guitar.
This brings me to my second point. We decided that we'd write some music while we waited to get our amps sent to us. Our music is going to be the best ever. Think 50-Cent, mixed with Green Day...only sung like Destiny's Child. We're going to do a remake of "Panama" by Van Halen...only it'll be better. While trying to write the music, we learned that we need to learn how to play chords. This seems like an aweful lot to learn just to make a band. Someone suggested that we start by getting a chord book and doing something easy, but that's stupid because we don't want to play stuff that sounds like that.
Anyway, please get us the amps as soon as possible. We are going to plan out our song, and when we get the amps it will be the best song EVER. Thank you for your time,
-Pat
About the author
#82
You've done that okay?
Okay, now go back and read Joes post again.
You've done that okay?
Okay, now, the best thing you can do to fully understand the situation is go back and read Joes post again.
You've done that okay?
Now... ;)
- Melv.
03/21/2005 (5:39 am)
Can everybody stop and read Joes post again.You've done that okay?
Okay, now go back and read Joes post again.
You've done that okay?
Okay, now, the best thing you can do to fully understand the situation is go back and read Joes post again.
You've done that okay?
Now... ;)
- Melv.
#83
Heh, yes, it was.
I was, wow, incredibly tired at that point. When I read posts I've written during a multi-nighter, I feel like an artist looking at sketches he made when he was drunk. "Where the hell did THAT come from?!?"
I felt like you summed up the problem well -- idiots are the price GG pays for offering a cheap game engine to the masses.
My only contribution was just to remark that I find it surprising -- and, frankly, encouraging! -- that people still have the ability to be hurt or pissed-off by ignorance and stupidity on internet forums. As both a media junkie and longtime forum-flame-aficianado, I have to say that the level of discourse here at GG tends to be about average for a discussion forum chaired by smart people. Part of that might be that the forums here don't feel very "forum-y" -- they just don't have the intuitive feel that I think phpBB and vBulletin have grafted into the consciousness of the net junkies among us.
I really do think that a lot of this could be addressed by using more-intuitive forums. When forums are easier to use and search, they begine to feel more like home, and people are both more willing to use them AND to police them.
I feel like pumping the Penny-Arcade Artist's Corner forum here, as they have had analagous problems -- the barrier to entry THERE is considerably lower, as all you (or your parents :P) need to afford is a scanner for your art. Yet the level of discourse there -- and the amazing, confounding, stupefying level of improvement that various members of that forum have made in the level of their art, and the helpfulness of the moderators and other skilled artists towards those who really want to learn (including some amazing paintovers) -- remains high-quality. I think it's mostly attributable to
a) having plenty of secondary outlets for more casual discussion, so that mods have a place to move topics if necessary,
b) having a distinct, recognizable, immediately-familiar, forum-like forum (not to mention one which makes the most of your screen real estate)
c) not having forum threads be most easily accessed by clicking a sidebar link on the front page (this seems to hurt more than help -- a 'Forums' link to the index that people open in a new tab or something might be more beneficial, or at least let moderators chose which topics they want to show up on the front-page links)
d) selecting mods often by their level of passion on the subject discussed in the forum as well as their level of activity in that forum (in addition to other factors)
e) having, relative to the amount of traffic (for skills-oriented or on-topic forums) a lot of moderators
But, yeah, mostly it just seems like if the forums are given a little more focus as an independent entity they would thrive more. Really, for people who have the engine, right now it seems like IRC is the default method of shooting the crapola; every time the torque bug bites me and I want to learn something or kick ideas around, I know that the best bet is to head to IRC, and I think that's a shame! Not that IRC isn't great, but forums ought to be better, and allow material to be refined over time and accessible.
03/27/2005 (6:23 pm)
Charlie -Heh, yes, it was.
I was, wow, incredibly tired at that point. When I read posts I've written during a multi-nighter, I feel like an artist looking at sketches he made when he was drunk. "Where the hell did THAT come from?!?"
I felt like you summed up the problem well -- idiots are the price GG pays for offering a cheap game engine to the masses.
My only contribution was just to remark that I find it surprising -- and, frankly, encouraging! -- that people still have the ability to be hurt or pissed-off by ignorance and stupidity on internet forums. As both a media junkie and longtime forum-flame-aficianado, I have to say that the level of discourse here at GG tends to be about average for a discussion forum chaired by smart people. Part of that might be that the forums here don't feel very "forum-y" -- they just don't have the intuitive feel that I think phpBB and vBulletin have grafted into the consciousness of the net junkies among us.
I really do think that a lot of this could be addressed by using more-intuitive forums. When forums are easier to use and search, they begine to feel more like home, and people are both more willing to use them AND to police them.
I feel like pumping the Penny-Arcade Artist's Corner forum here, as they have had analagous problems -- the barrier to entry THERE is considerably lower, as all you (or your parents :P) need to afford is a scanner for your art. Yet the level of discourse there -- and the amazing, confounding, stupefying level of improvement that various members of that forum have made in the level of their art, and the helpfulness of the moderators and other skilled artists towards those who really want to learn (including some amazing paintovers) -- remains high-quality. I think it's mostly attributable to
a) having plenty of secondary outlets for more casual discussion, so that mods have a place to move topics if necessary,
b) having a distinct, recognizable, immediately-familiar, forum-like forum (not to mention one which makes the most of your screen real estate)
c) not having forum threads be most easily accessed by clicking a sidebar link on the front page (this seems to hurt more than help -- a 'Forums' link to the index that people open in a new tab or something might be more beneficial, or at least let moderators chose which topics they want to show up on the front-page links)
d) selecting mods often by their level of passion on the subject discussed in the forum as well as their level of activity in that forum (in addition to other factors)
e) having, relative to the amount of traffic (for skills-oriented or on-topic forums) a lot of moderators
But, yeah, mostly it just seems like if the forums are given a little more focus as an independent entity they would thrive more. Really, for people who have the engine, right now it seems like IRC is the default method of shooting the crapola; every time the torque bug bites me and I want to learn something or kick ideas around, I know that the best bet is to head to IRC, and I think that's a shame! Not that IRC isn't great, but forums ought to be better, and allow material to be refined over time and accessible.
#84
It's possible that I'm wrong, or that GG would benefit from leading things towards a discussion community, but a couple of times above you mentioned "a lot of moderators", and that isn't the modus operandi GG has shown to be interesting in the past--that may change, but it puts a lot more community management responsibility on GG than they may be interested in taking on.
03/28/2005 (10:39 am)
@Luc: I can't argue with any of your statements at all, but I would suggest that the ideas make a ton of sense for forums that are designed to be a discussion community--however, the TGE forums are more directed at being a research and customer support community.It's possible that I'm wrong, or that GG would benefit from leading things towards a discussion community, but a couple of times above you mentioned "a lot of moderators", and that isn't the modus operandi GG has shown to be interesting in the past--that may change, but it puts a lot more community management responsibility on GG than they may be interested in taking on.
#85
08/04/2008 (9:43 pm)
Nurse, cut the meds for the Wilson patient 
Torque Owner Charlie Malbaurn