Gonna have to call you on this one, Phil. You comments here, intentioned or not, are so hypocritical as to be laughable.
You berate others for what you perceive as them using this platform
"not for people to provide meaningful advice, but for people to demonstrate how much better they are than inexperienced people who, because of their inexperience, can't possibly know what they know or do what they do," and you berate them by using the
same exact methods you are berating them for.
"And while I have engaged in the sidetracked, off topic debates as much as anyone, I have also tried to provide not just advice, but specific, actionable advice that newbies can actually use."
If you'd have left it alone right there, it would have been excellent advice to others on this forum, as specific, actionable advice is generally sorely lacking here (for many reasons, not the least of which is everyone's situation is different). But you couldn't leave well enough alone. You had to take it from simple, sound advice, right to how you're better than others
because you give out such advice.
I don't say, find a good fleet owner (like others say). I name good fleet owners to talk to. (therefor I'm better)
I don't say have a written business plan (like others say), I write a step-by-step series that tells readers exactly how to create one. (therefor I'm better)
I don't say have a good load acceptance and relocation strategy, (like others say) I share, with great detail, the specific strategy Diane and I use. (yet by your own admission, what works for you is not likely to work for others)
Taking such pains to demonstrate that your particular brand of experienced advice is superior to the experienced advice of others is nothing more than an attempt to elevate yourself above the common expediter folk. Just because others on here do not share you passions for the waxing poetic of pedantic prose on point, and will allow a conversational thread to evolve, i.e.,
"inability to stay focused on a topic," as if you have the ability we others lack, does not make anyone less important or inferior to you in any way whatsoever, particularly when you engage in the very sidetracked, off-topic debates that you abhor so soundly.
"Sadly, every time I do, the predictable few jump in to either change the subject or make me wrong."
That ought to tell you something. When you write from the point-of-view of superiority, or to put a finer point on it, of writing from the point-of-view of
having to be superior, the reactions are going to be predictable, because it comes off as snooty and snobbish. If you don't believe me, go back through your posts and count up how many times you go out of your way, utterly off-topic and without need, to point out how you are not just a truck driver, but an elite, highly credentialed White Glove expediter, with an elite of the elite truck (excuse me, I mean
unit, not a truck), even better equipped than many of those run-o-the-mill
normal White Glove trucks.
On a side note, you have everything else in your sig, except the White Glove part. Interesting. Since you use it as often as you do in your postings, one has to wonder why your sig doesn't indicate White Glove. Is it because in a sig it would have less impact, less importance, than when used strategically within your posts? Or is it merely a case of "White Glove" not fitting into the visual aesthetics of the layout? Interesting, either way.
This is merely an observation and should not be construed as an attack. Far from it. This community, like all others, is made up of individuals, and you're one of them that helps keep the community what is it, alive and well. Far be it from me to suggest you change your style of writing or not show pride in what you do or the carrier you run for. My only suggestion is to scale back the feigning of shock when predictable reactions occur. And, don't berate people using the same methods to berate them that you are berating them for. That's it.
