Richard,
Thanks for taking the time and articulating more clearly.
My concern isn’t about using the forum to communicate negative feedback about businesses in our sport. If someone has an issue and wishes to communicate a bad experience, given the tiny nature of the global karting community, our forum is indeed a powerful megaphone.
James, Tj and the rest of us strive to keep this a place that is welcoming and helpful to all racers, from all walks of life, etc. We jealously protect that as somehow, we have managed to keep this a positive and civil place. No politics, religion, etc. This is why ask for people to use their real names.
It’s a tiny world we participate in, and beefs, though rare, can be discussed here. What I found problematic with the post I deleted was the initial assertion about the character of the individuals involved without context as to why you are so cheesed off at them, and the one sided nature of that single post.
I too had a shit experience with another well known industry insider that compelled me to bring my beef public, so I know what you are feeling. I also recognize that in my case, part of the reason I had a negative experience I that I reacted badly, and probably it was easier to hide from crazy Dom than work out the issue.
I am not refuting anything you said or devaluing your complaint. I just want future versions of using the forum in this manner to be carefully considered in how it’s done. These sort of complaints need to be made with much more information being offered about the nature of what went wrong and also must consider the other guys position. Then, we as a community can and will listen and absorb and even, perhaps, be able to corroborate (or refute) your experience.
I do see that you have another post that puts meat on the bone, # Factory Karts Ripped Me Off!
and that’s much more in the spirit of what we are about. I just didn’t like this one post, on its own, with zero context, being not only accusatory but also directly accusing someone of being bad peoples. That may be the case, but if that’s what we are gonna say, we gotta lead the horse (KP community) to the water in a more circumspect and thoughtful manner.
Maybe another way to approach this was “Am I being screwed? Here’s an experience I have had and I wanted to share it because it flies in the face of the reputation of the provider and I expected different… here’s what happened, what’s your take?.. Is it me or has anyone else experienced similar, and if so, were you able to get it resolved… yadda, yadda etc.” The less nuclear option still gets your point across, and engages us in useful conversation, which, either way, would lead to some insights.
I hope you understand that I’m not reacting because they are a well known racing family with lots of industry connections, I don’t know them at all and likely won’t ever cross paths, so it’s not that at all. It’s about keeping the forums a place where we present our best selves when it’s hard to do so.
Welcome to the community and hope you get it resolved and that others here who know more can be helpful. I also hope unlike me, you don’t end up just giving the damn kart to some kid out of sheer frustration so at least someone can find joy in something that is cursed to you.
Oh and if you are being screwed, this clip comes to mind in terms of how to maximize your messaging efforts:
