Derby Talk Traffic

General topics of interest to racers and race coordinators alike.
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Sparky
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Derby Talk Traffic

Post by Sparky »

I am curious. Starting with my observation that this year's forum posting traffic seems to be down this year vs last year this time. I wonder why. Perhaps the question goes to those that have stuck with the board through the whole year (I tend to be a seasonal participant). I ask for your comments to my theories.

1. DerbyTalk findings has hit law of diminishing returns, meaning there are just not a lot of new things to discuss that have not already been discussed. Newbies who ask questions that have already been asked are banished to the search function.

2. Most people come to the board for a specific purpose. They have learned what they wanted to know and left.

3. PWD popularity is decreasing

4. Other?

5. All nonsense - board traffic is as high as it has ever been.


Any takers?
ExtremePWD
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Re: Derby Talk Traffic

Post by ExtremePWD »

I believe that #1 is the top reason. The core of information already posted to DerbyTalk covers a fairly broad range of topics in, at times, excruciating detail. There will continue to be new ideas, new products and special situations that need discussion but I would expect the true technical contributions to be significantly reduced from last year.
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earnhardtjunkie
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Re: Derby Talk Traffic

Post by earnhardtjunkie »

Without attempting to bore you all to saw dust let me say that I had no idea there was a forum such as this or Sites like it that is available for research and development of what amounts to a 50 cent piece of wood. It wasn't until I stumbled on Maximum Velocity that I found the link to this Site. In my off time here in Iraq, I have spent hours researching sites and put together "the black book" as we now call it, full of neat little stories, pictures of interesting cars and hints for legal but faster cars.

I'll bite on your questions/concerns.... :wink:

1. I'm a newbie and I can almost bet the farm I might ask a redundant question from time to time. I give the search function a spin from time to time but if it's been covered and the search doesn't pick it up.. I apologize ahead of time.

2. You may be right but for the most part, a lot of Sites are that way; nature of the beast I guess.

3. I don't think so...... if it does die down it's our own fault. What I see is Scouting in General taking a hit with new memebers, at least in my area at home. And with efforst like these.... I don't see it. http://www.timothycup.com/index.html

4. ?

5. With me being new to the Site I don't see it but if I were to use an example of one thread that is, this would be one. :mrgreen:

Pinewood struck a cord with me a while ago when my oldest son (now going for Eagle) was a Tiger and up through Cub's, we always had a blast and I was and probably still am to some degree guilty of being "too" involved with the designing and constrcution, so sue me. My 9 year old has this year and 2 more Pinewoods to go and we have a 2 year old future Pine-Head coming up the ranks too.

When my oldest and I sat and took our first look at a block of wood, 4 nails and 4 plastic tires, I have to admit..... I was just as excited as he was, man I felt like a kid again. My Ego told me that we automatically had the advantage seeing as I built and drove "real" stock cars for years with a good amount of success; "Hang on to that Tiger hat son, we are going to smoke 'em. We'll do this and that to make it slick, put this here and that there, we'll take the springs out of a ink pen and........ wait, what this paper.. RULES?" Back to square one.

Together we have built some pretty good little racers, always winning best design or best paint and never finishing off the podium. It wasn't until I found this site did I know that weight placement made that much of a difference, quite the science in these little beasts. I have researched things until my eyes are bleeding and actually finding the end of the internet, not once but twice. Blind luck and team work got us this far.

Although my oldest and I will be competing against each other in the Outlaw open Class, the 9 year old can't wait to get his hands on "the black book" and I can't wait to show them the PP Slide Stan Pope sent me.

PWD decreasing????????? Not if we have anything to do with it. 8)
"You win some, lose some, and wreck some."........Dale Earnhardt
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Big Dirt
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Re: Derby Talk Traffic

Post by Big Dirt »

earnhardtjunkie, while i sat and read your post i thought we were the same person living in differnt parts of the country.LOL. with a dirt background i thought about springs, shocks, liftbars.... but then i found ther are rules. I still smile when i think about it. :lol:
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earnhardtjunkie
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Re: Derby Talk Traffic

Post by earnhardtjunkie »

The boys and I are anxious to try out those tools we got from Max V and put into practice some of the ideas and tips I found in here.

We bought several official BSA kits for R&D, money well spent if we're learning something.

I bought a couple kits for myself for "Show and Go" Outlaw Class to goof around with, If I have time on this R&R, I'd like to try something in the with a suspension but I'm afrain I'll run out of time this go around.
"You win some, lose some, and wreck some."........Dale Earnhardt
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gpraceman
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Re: Derby Talk Traffic

Post by gpraceman »

I haven't really jumped in on this until now. Are the number of posts down from last year? Probably. Is traffic down from last year. Definitely not :!: It is increasing as more people hear about Derby Talk and use it as a resource for building their cars or running their race. I am not so concerned that Derby Talk will just fade away.

I think there is a lot more to cover in the planning, preps and running of the race than we have already here. I would like to see more race coordinators join Derby Talk and share their questions, ideas and experience. Building a car may not be the easiest thing, but I think putting on a good race is even harder, so a race coordinator needs as much help as they can get.

I would also like to see members do some actual scientific testing of various performance factors and report their findings here. We've had some, but there are so many things that can be tested and then discussed.

For Newbies, I don't want to just banish them to the search feature. I would like them to use it to reduce the number of duplicate threads/posts, but if a member cannot easily find an answer, then I have no problem with them posting a question that may have already been covered. This can actually lead to some new insights as people responding may come at the issue from a different angle.
Randy Lisano
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Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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MathGuy
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Re: Derby Talk Traffic

Post by MathGuy »

As someone that posted last year quite often, I am not posting as much for two reasons.

1. I did learn allot during last season.
but...

2. I was to be the derby chairman this year for our cub scout pack, but our pack event coordinator (Without consulting the derby chairmen (me).) moved the derby from the weekend that we had agreed upon in our summer events planning to a weekend that my wife had planned and booked a extended family reunion weekend at an out of town resort. :wall: That originally planned weekend wasn't possible at the school, hard to get too upset at a fellow volunteer getting things done.

Thus my 2.00 posts per day last year alone is driving down the counts. :D
Fun for one, Fun for all.
Rob D
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Re: Derby Talk Traffic

Post by clemsontigerfanatic »

I'd like to see more links to this site on other web pages(namely the Ultimate Pinewood Derby Page).

We had a "workshop" last night.
All it was was a trial run against other kids at a pack meeting. No scales.
The pack leader did go over some tips.
The race is not for another month.

Several cars did'nt even make it to the finish line.

There are about 40 kids in our pack. I'd say at least half the kids and parents are clueless.

I dont think enough people know about this website.
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