Please post your questions to our discussion forum - Don't send them to me in a PM or E-mail...

Please post your questions to our discussion forum - Don't send them to me in a PM or E-mail...

First let me say I feel bad for posting this, but each day I have people who have discovered our forum, read through it, and then decide to personally e-mail me their questions or send them to me via a Private Message.

While I appreciate your trust and the time you take to type and then send me your questions, sending me questions via e-mails or PM's defeats the purpose of the discussion forum.

Besides that, there's only so much typing time in each day. I'm what's called a Long Copy Writer, which is a curse but most people tend to like detailed explanations sharing not only what to do but why you're doing it. That said, there's only so much typing time in each day and typing out detailed answers in a single e-mail or a single PM that only one set of eyeballs is going to see is not a good use of typing time.

My practice when I get an e-mail or PM with questions is to give the Nutshell Version and then kindly ask the person to copy and paste their questions and post them to the forum. It's not that I don't want to answer questions in an e-mail or a PM it's just I type fast and even when I type fast I can't keep up with all the typing requirements on my plate each day as it is.

So please don't take offense if I reply to an e-mail or PM and ask you to post your questions to the forum, it's just a matter of not having enough time in each day to type out answers in e-mails and PM's.

Besides that, we have so many knowledgeable and experienced forum members and when you post your questions to the forum you get an abundant variety of helpful and informative replies from a wide-spectrum of people.

I truly appreciate the trust people place in the Autogeek forum but due to the time it takes to think-out and write specific answers to a wide spectrum of questions, often times that include formatting, as well as including click-able links with pictures, it is impossible to try to answer questions both on the forum and via e-mails and PM's.

Since the forum is the best venue for asking and receiving answers, please if at all possible, post your questions to our discussion forum.

If you're unsure as to where to post your question, most questions can be asked in the Auto Detailing 101 Forum, below is the link to the forum group.

Auto Detailing 101


If you are new to our forum, before you can post a question you must first register with our forum and become a member. There is no cost involved, just a simple form to fill out. I know a lot of "Lurkers" find it easier to simply fire-off an e-mail because they're not a member so they can't post a question without joining the forum but joining is pretty simple and you can confirm yourself and be posting in a matter of minutes.

Click here to register with our forum

If you have any trouble registering with our forum, then you are encouraged to call me while you're behind your computer with the registration screen up and I will help you to successfully register so that you can actively participate on the Autogeek Online Discussion Forum.



Thank you for understanding...


:xyxthumbs:

My PM box is full....

The Private Message system is great for "private messages", but if you have "Questions" on how to detail cars... these are better posted to the public side of the forum.

Then I can chime in with answers and so can so many other forum members.

You actually get more and better answers.

Plus "Typing Time" each day is limited. When I get a Private Message with a dozen questions, some of them which will take time to type out detailed answers with links and pictures, it's really the best leverage of my typing time to answer these question on the public side of this discussion forum and not via the Private Message system.

Thank you for understanding.


:)

***Bump***

Gosh I hate to bump this thread but I simply cannot answer questions sent to me via a Private Message.

I really don't even like making this bump but for some reason, people join our forum and then send their questions to me via the Private Messaging system.

That's a great idea but it completely defeats the purpose of the forum.

If I type out answers in a private message only one set of eyeballs ever sees the information.

If I type out answers on the forum the trend for the last 14 years has been thousands of people read the thread and my guess is benefit from the information exchanged.

I just don't have the typing time to type out detailed answers, which is my style, for one set of eyeballs.

Sorry...

And thank you ahead of time for everyone that reads this into the future and then posts their questions to the forum instead of sending them to me via a PM.


:dblthumb2: :dblthumb2: :dblthumb2:

***Bump***


:buffing:

First let me say....


I love the fact that people trust me enough to send me a private message sharing their detailing project and then asking for advice. Love it.

What I do by instinct is look to see what their post count is? It's almost always zero or 0

A person's post count is displayed under their Avatar or if they don't have an Avatar then it's under their forum nickname. I just took this screenshot and you can see my post count is 32,628

http://www.autogeekonline.net/galler...Post_Count.jpg


So I look under their name and the majority of the time it's 0 and this means they just joined and have not made any posts yet.

This also indicates to me that its VERY possible this is the first time they've joined forum and completely possible they simply don't understand how forums work or how to start a thread let alone where to start a thread.

So they send me an Private Message.


And I understand all of this. Heck I was new to forums too at one time. So I completely understand. But here's the deal... I simply don't have the typing time to type out lengthy, (which means helpful), detailed replies, using the multi-quote formatting feature and include links, pictures and videos for one set of eyeballs. It's not that it's not worth it... as helping others is always worth it... it's just for all the time and work it takes to type out a detailed helpful reply it could be shared on the PUBIC FORUM (not in a private message), where hundreds and thousands and even tens of thousands of people can read the information an be helped by it.


At the time I'm posting this, my article on how to restore antique single stage paint has

247 replies --> this can be considered really high engagement especially when you consider the majority of people on Earth own a car with a basecoat/clearcoat paint system - NOT a single stage paint system.

397,810 Views --> This could be both forum members and LURKERS and that number is getting close to 1/2 a MILLION just to put things in perspective.



Here's a screenshot I just took to show the stats of the how to restore antique single stage paint thread.


http://www.autogeekonline.net/galler...s247reples.jpg


And if you're curious, here's the link to that article,

The Secret to Removing Oxidation and Restoring a Show Car Finish to Antique Single Stage Paints


So here's the point....


If I didn't post that article on the PUBLIC FORUM it would never have these kinds of stats. It would never help hundreds and thousands of people learn how to correctly restore and preserve the antique single stage paint on their special car.


So again... I love that people trust me enough to join our forum and send me a Private Message sharing their detailing project and asking for my advice on how to go about detailing their project... I simply don't have the typing time to type for one set of eyeballs and the the information shared, both the questions and the answers can and will help so many others into the future as the stats for the article above proves.

Make sense?


Now after I click on the [Submit Reply] button I'm going to the in-box in my Private Messages to share the link to this thread with all the people with zero posts that sent me private messages over night asking me for advice for their detailing projects.

I love you guys!


But please, if you sent me a private message, simply go to your "Sent Folder" click on your message. Copy the message and start a new thread with a great title and the paste what you wrote into the message and post it here on the forum.

Then if you want... send me a PM letting me know of your "thread" and I'm more than happy to do my best to type out the most in-depth how-to information to help you through to success in your garage.



Thank you...


Mike Phillips


dblthumb2

And....


If you're reading this thread after I replied to your private message AND you're NEW to discussion forums, that's okay, we were all new at one time.

Below are two articles I wrote to show you with pictures and help you to start your own thread on this forum and to write a GREAT title so you get help from me and all our awesome forum members.



How to start a new thread & How to reply to an existing thread


How to write a good title for your thread


A tip to help yourself get great answers when you start a thread





:xyxthumbs:

PM sent

;)

I actually had this same article on MeguiarsOnline.com when I ran that forum.

Dated July 20th, 2005

Please post your questions to our discussion forum http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/ima...lies/wink2.gif



So it's not like it's a new thing...


:dblthumb2:

***Update***


Today is the first day back after being offline for some vacation time.

Starting out the day catching up with e-mails and Private Messages.


If I reply to your Private Message with a link to this thread, it's just a friendly request to ask you to PLEASE post questions to the forum.

This is why there IS a forum. Otherwise we could shut the forum downs and just set up a link to send me questions. Not a very good leverage of typing time.


Thank you...


:dblthumb2: