What happened to Frenchyd?

bludroptop said:

A young-adult novel written in 1954 titled The Red Car, by Don Stanford had an enormous formative impact on a pre-adolescent Bludroptop.  As such, the character of Frenchy shall forever be associated in my mind with young Hap Adams and his MG TC.

 

Without any justification, I prejudged the subject of this discussion as seeking to appropriate that character's charm and that ticked me off.

 

  

 

 

I need to find and re read that 

rdcyclist said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

I understand what you and Tom are suggesting here but the two strikes and you're out is probably giving more leeway than necessary. When Frenchyd was on point, his posts were a useful addition to the dialogue here. When he was spouting terrifically inaccurate information then he was becoming a net negative. How is someone not knowledgeable about the nuance here going to be able to parse out what's real and what's not? When his anger at those who disagreed with him spilled over he went beyond a net negative and that's why he's gone and should stay that way. IMHO, of course...

I hear what you are saying and I get it.

I just wasn't party to any of the threads where that became a major issue I guess.

stuart in mn said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

rdcyclist said:

In reply to bludroptop :

Ah, yes, The Red Car. I got that book when I was in the fourth or fifth grade and probably read it 10 times as it had a similar effect on my formative years.

At no time would I ever associate the book's character Frenchy with the banned pedant Frenchyd. While they both had firm opinions about things, Frenchy was at least charming. I still have the book and evidently can lay my hands on it quickly. I have several car books from that time and struggle with what to do with them.

There is a copy of that on my bookshelf right next to Patrick O' Connor's Black Tiger series and Henry Gregor Felson's Hot Rod and others. I read them as a kid and kept some of them. I found and re-read some later. I have some good memories of reading these the first time around.

You should add Fast Green Car by W.E. Butterworth to your library.  It came out in 1965.  I read it in the library in elementary school, it was part of my formative interest in sporty cars (the school library also had the Felson series of books which I read multiple times.)  

Ooo another one I need to find. I'll give Frenchy this, I think it was a comment by him in a thread that led me to the Red Car book as I hadn't seen or heard of it before. 

If this is devolving into a car books from your childhood thread (yes please) here's my contribution.

Young kid, parents leave, unfinished kit car in the garage...

Insofar as GRM Frenchy, if the guy would have responded to blatant "dude, just stop" direction he received multiple times, he would still be around. It got to the point of repeated train wrecks of threads. If he could have chilled a bit, great, but when mods told him to chill, he doubled down. 

In reply to Apexcarver :

I remember Fast Green Car. The protagonist was a truck driver at the start of the book and had a tan on his left arm but not his right arm and this was a point of conversation with one of the other characters. Funny the things you remember about a book you haven't seen in over 50 years...

I'll have to find The Car. Sounds ... interesting.

And yes, GRM Frenchyd did not understand when it was time to remove his foot from his throat. His positive contributions were completely overshadowed by the less than optimal interactions and outright falsehoods. Maybe I'm overstating and I'm not a well-known inmate here but that's what I saw.

If you've ever read "best damn garage in town", his posts were kinda like that stream-of-consciousness rambling. 

Interesting and if even half of it was true, he had a hell of a life.

In reply to ShawnG :

I have read that book (s.) I never made the connection,  but yeah, very similar.

Since this has moved to a much more interesting "books from our youth" discussion, I submit:

Re-released later as simply, "The Jeep".  Teenage boy finds Jeep in abandoned barn. Works on it secretly and makes it run. Property and Jeep go up for auction. Teen angst as he realizes he may not get to own the Jeep. Since I liked Jeeps, old barns and daydreamers like myself, this was a favorite of mine. 

kb58 said:

It takes a high level of objectivity to realize that if you keep getting kicked off of forums, maybe it's not everyone else that's the problem. I realize that we all have our own personal dramas, but still...

Totally unrelated to topic at hand, but multiple times on I-95 this weekend I had the same thought about [generally older men, with older wife in passenger seat] screaming and ranting and gesturing and, in one case, using their windshield washer squirters as each person ran up on their ass...all as they camped in the left lane at 67mph when traffic is trying it's damnedest to get around them to at least go the 70mph speed limit.

At a certain point, you'd think that the man staring at a big open lane in front of them, and a train of frustrated cars behind him might realize that the world isn't filled with inconsiderate tailgaters and he's a saint, but instead, maybe he's creating the situation. In one case they had a Mass tag, and we were in VA, and I had to wonder, has this man been screaming into the void of his dashboard for the entire NorthEastern US? When he could have just moved over? I spent a fair amount of time driving just pondering that one guys frustration. 

In reply to a_florida_man :

unfortunately it pretty much became EVERY thread. 

a_florida_man said:

rdcyclist said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

I understand what you and Tom are suggesting here but the two strikes and you're out is probably giving more leeway than necessary. When Frenchyd was on point, his posts were a useful addition to the dialogue here. When he was spouting terrifically inaccurate information then he was becoming a net negative. How is someone not knowledgeable about the nuance here going to be able to parse out what's real and what's not? When his anger at those who disagreed with him spilled over he went beyond a net negative and that's why he's gone and should stay that way. IMHO, of course...

I hear what you are saying and I get it.

I just wasn't party to any of the threads where that became a major issue I guess.

It didn't bother me until he stopped in every EV thread and took a E36 M3. As someone seriously interested in EVs and trying to figure out how to make them work for my situation, he was a major interference in gathering actual information. I don't need someone to suggest I buy a Model 2 when I need a truck. To double down, he had no actual EV experience because he didn't own one. He was just spouting off whatever he read in Elon's last tweet. 

I honestly think he was on some kind of drug or had a drug interaction that was affecting his mental capabilities. I suggested that he check with his doctor several times. 

I'm sorry he couldn't take a hint or even a direct threat but I for one am glad he's no longer on here. He may be a super nice guy in person but he was not a net asset to the forum.

In reply to Spearfishin :

I've always heard, if 1 guy is tailgating you, he's an shiny happy person. If 3 people are tailgating you, you're the shiny happy person. 

I'd much rather see Seth come back vs Frenchy.  Yes, I know Seth wasn't banned, but he stopped hanging out with us and that bums me out.

In reply to Spearfishin :

LOL, it wasn't me! 

bobzilla said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

unfortunately it pretty much became EVERY thread. 

I've resisted posting here because I butted heads with him more than once, but yes, THIS.

Ignoring someone problematic is taking the higher moral path... but when that person just keeps cranking up the volume until he drowns out any chance of reasonable participation, it is no longer a valid option.

He apparently had a very interesting life indeed, and I am willing to take all of his wild claims at face value.

But he also had a firm belief that his own highly idiosyncratic experiences were a universal basis for sound advice, and he repeated them in detail every time there was even the slightest toehold of relevance he could hang on to... even if he had to fabricate the relevance himself.  He was also perfectly willing to toss completely made-up statistics into any argument.

[edit]  Oh, and he was also incapable of chopping out the extra pages of multi-quoted backstory, so it reappeared in every post.

We should let him.......

1. back in cause we're 4 pages deep discussing him.

2. back into this thread only so he can defend himself.

3. back into this thread only so he can defend himself then we get annoyed and kick him out.

the above is all just crazy sarcasm 

Duke said:

Ignoring someone problematic is taking the higher moral path...

I never seemed to have a problem doing it and I've never been one to take the higher moral anything.

Four pages and 90 posts, I think y'all really need to move on

I've really missed him not understanding how EFI works at all and asking the same questions over and over and over again.  Also E85 is GREAT!

The formatting was always weird, as someone who looks at that,  it made my eyes twitch.  

In reply to ShawnG :

Another version of what oil do you recommend 

Apexcarver said:

stuart in mn said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

rdcyclist said:

In reply to bludroptop :

Ah, yes, The Red Car. I got that book when I was in the fourth or fifth grade and probably read it 10 times as it had a similar effect on my formative years.

At no time would I ever associate the book's character Frenchy with the banned pedant Frenchyd. While they both had firm opinions about things, Frenchy was at least charming. I still have the book and evidently can lay my hands on it quickly. I have several car books from that time and struggle with what to do with them.

There is a copy of that on my bookshelf right next to Patrick O' Connor's Black Tiger series and Henry Gregor Felson's Hot Rod and others. I read them as a kid and kept some of them. I found and re-read some later. I have some good memories of reading these the first time around.

You should add Fast Green Car by W.E. Butterworth to your library.  It came out in 1965.  I read it in the library in elementary school, it was part of my formative interest in sporty cars (the school library also had the Felson series of books which I read multiple times.)  

Ooo another one I need to find. I'll give Frenchy this, I think it was a comment by him in a thread that led me to the Red Car book as I hadn't seen or heard of it before. 

If this is devolving into a car books from your childhood thread (yes please) here's my contribution.

Young kid, parents leave, unfinished kit car in the garage...

 

Insofar as GRM Frenchy, if the guy would have responded to blatant "dude, just stop" direction he received multiple times, he would still be around. It got to the point of repeated train wrecks of threads. If he could have chilled a bit, great, but when mods told him to chill, he doubled down. 

I have read The Car. Gary Paulsen wrote a lot of stuff including Winterdance which was turned into the movie, Snowdogs. I can remember a few more writers who did sports car stuff as well and even a story about dirt bikes and motocross racing. I will have to take another look in my library.

Spearfishin said:

kb58 said:

It takes a high level of objectivity to realize that if you keep getting kicked off of forums, maybe it's not everyone else that's the problem. I realize that we all have our own personal dramas, but still...

Totally unrelated to topic at hand, but multiple times on I-95 this weekend I had the same thought about [generally older men, with older wife in passenger seat] screaming and ranting and gesturing and, in one case, using their windshield washer squirters as each person ran up on their ass...all as they camped in the left lane at 67mph when traffic is trying it's damnedest to get around them to at least go the 70mph speed limit.

At a certain point, you'd think that the man staring at a big open lane in front of them, and a train of frustrated cars behind him might realize that the world isn't filled with inconsiderate tailgaters and he's a saint, but instead, maybe he's creating the situation. In one case they had a Mass tag, and we were in VA, and I had to wonder, has this man been screaming into the void of his dashboard for the entire NorthEastern US? When he could have just moved over? I spent a fair amount of time driving just pondering that one guys frustration. 

I just wish I could have the big open lane in front of me instead. 635 was one huge traffic jam today while I was trying to get to work and everybody else was trying to get out of town after watching the eclipse yesterday. 635 is usually 200 cars in front of me, half of which have California, Florida and New Jersey plates sitting at a dead stop during rush hour, or being tailgated at 95 mph by the one guy in a huge pickup who was stuck in traffic for an hour and a half and is now REALLY late for work.

Welcome to Texas.

a_florida_man said:

In reply to Tom1200 :

Me too.

I would be happy to see him back.

Yea, Ill join you guys in this bucket.

I thought he was interesting, and no more different than any of the other people I talk to on the daily. I think the written word just wasnt the preferred conversational format for him. 

Steve_Jones said:

In reply to Spearfishin :

I've always heard, if 1 guy is tailgating you, he's an shiny happy person. If 3 people are tailgating you, you're the shiny happy person. 

Unless you're in the right lane and the next two lanes over are clear.

Unrelated, I hate driving on Cleveland's east side.  5 feet seems to be the accepted following distance.

ShawnG said:

I don't even remember the argument that got him the chop but I'm sure it was EV related. 

I think at one point a GRM employee, maybe Tom, even started a thread about if the forum members were tired of him constantly derailing threads and spreading incorrect information. I think that was the final straw that brought down the ban hammer. 

I know someone said in here said correcting incorrect info with correct info makes you part of the problem, but I disagree. That's been one of my pet peeves ever since I joined z31.com back in like 1998-1999. Having tons of incorrect info posted all over the multiple threads on multiple topics brings the quality of the entire forum down. 

It's also part of the reason Facebook groups replacing forums is terrible. The FB groups are filled with young guys that CONFIDENTLY answer questions with completely incorrect information and then get all pissed off when you show them the correct info. Part of why I spend less and less time on car-related forms and car-related social media. 

#getoffmylawn

In reply to z31maniac :

Freshalloy was kinda bad too.  I recall asking a question about the transmission in my B12 Sentra, and the only reply was some guy saying "u shouldn't shift an automatic manually thats bad for it"