I'm having a bit of a quandry here. Next month this site will be 3 years old. For the first couple years I joined with some others to help Brent get the site growing by encouraging each new member who signed in to participate. Some have stuck around (okay, so here might be the place to apologize for encouraging Streets ), some have moved on, and yet others never really got into it. That's how life works. No big deal.

For those first couple years most of the people who stuck around demonstrated a variety of levels of experience. They'd contribute when they felt they had something germain to the thread subject, or they'd lay off if it didn't sync with their experience. Since we're dealing with human nature there were some situations where misunderstandings developed. Silly things were said, occasionally inaccurate info was given, but it usually worked itself out within a post or two. The only moderator we had was Don Meyer, and I don't believe he had to exercise that role very often, if at all. Somehow it seems to have changed in the past year.

Now this isn't really a news flash. Anyone who's spent any time surfing the net knows that trolls, and argumentative people always seem to find their way into each site. Nobody enjoys a lively discussion (call it an argument if you want) more than I do. I prefer it to be with someone who is at least thoughtful, and doesn't end up trying to defend his position by resorting to personal attacks (usually a sign of someone who's point can't be supported by factual data, Lord knows we've had three months of that so far in the political arena). And I've lived long enough to know that not everyone is going to agree with me, I'm wrong sometimes. But you'd better be able to prove it if we engage.

So there's a common thread of thought that keeps popping up over the past year. It's the joker who asks for an opinion, gets it, and then starts attacking the respondents if they don't support his idea. Or maybe it's some sympathetic soul who shares the originators opinon who likewise doesn't like the responses. Invariably, the guy who's dead set on doing whatever it is he wants to do, despite the input, justifies his actions as being "different". See what a MAN he is because he wants to break away from the "cookie cutter" cars, then goes on to describe what he believes are those cookie cutters. In fact, describing them isn't enough, he has to run them down. Now I'm all for creativity, it's fun to do. But in almost every case I'm thinking of here, Mr. "I'm Different" is not being different at all. Sorry guys, buying a cheap car, bomb canning it with flat black paint, and driving it around dirty isn't different. I've seen lots of cars like that in the past few years. It's just another subset of "enthusiasts". You're not really making a counter cultural statement. If you think you are, your life is pretty shallow. If you want to acknowledge that you're paying tribute to a bygone rodding era, or maybe what you perceive as a bygone era, great! But don't believe you're different. In fact, some of us have already been there, done that. In real time!! We've grown past that and CHOOSE not to go there again (BTW that's not me, I've done three primered rods in the last 10 years for what it's worth).

Choosing an off brand car does not qualify as "different" either. Been there, done that, just like a lot (oops, there goes different!) of others here. From the mid '70's to the mid '80's I went through my Hudson period (6 of them, one Studebaker powered-now THAT might be different). That might be weird (if you've never played with a Hornet you won't understand), but it ain't different.

And hacking up a car isn't different either. Many of us here cut our teeth on ruining perfectly good cars in our youth. That's how we earned the experience we try to pass on that you scoff at. Again, this seems to be a quirk of human nature. That's where the old saw "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up" came from.

Being "different" is really hard. There are those who will contend that there aren't really any new ideas around, just ideas you're unaware that other's have had. There's probably a great deal of truth to that. Some of the most creative people in the rod business don't even qualify as "different" in my opinion. The Trepanier's, Foose's, Boyds, Alloway's, et al, are VERY creative, and take their ideas to a finer point than the average rodder. They stand out for their ability to push the concept edge a little further out, but all the while they are working with essentially the same basic automobiles as the majority of the hobby. Their lofty position comes from the high level of execution, the attention to detail, the fine workmanship, and a more finely tuned sense of style and proportion than the mainstream. The guys at the top of that heap engage me by their utilization of "little things" that make up the whole. Their fanatical attention to gaps, hiding wires, sculpted bracketry for mounting ordinary components, and so forth.

Occasionally some rodders will transcend to truely "different". Rick Dobbertin takes a stainless steel milk transport tank and makes the "Dobbertin Surface Orbiter". That's different!! Or Randy Grubb builds the "Blastolene Special" that Leno now owns. That's different!! And I'm sure some of you can think of others. But to use the latest example of this "I'm different" myopia, though it's far from the only example I could use, a '64 Nova with a beam axle front is NOT different! In fact this guy tries to justify his opinion by stating that there is a company making a kit to do the "gasser" front end.................yeah, a sure sign of different THAT is!!!

Like I said in that thread and the other similar ones. You're free to do whatever you want with your car. Just go ahead and do it!! But if opinions are asked for, you're gonna get 'em, and they aren't always going to support your thesis. If you don't like 'em, respectfully disagree, and keep your silly attacks to yourself. If you want to engage in meaningful rod discussion, this is still a good place for that. If you want to pick a fight or crap in someone elses nest...................get lost!!!!!!