Lessons Learned
I’ve said this before: it has been a true privilege to share this podium with Steven. He’s a consumate professional and as generous a person as you’ll find. You, the readers, have also been a great source of enjoyable interaction over the past couple of years.
To say I’ve enjoyed writing on TS would be a vast understatement. It’s been an incredible learning experience, too. I’ve learned that:
1. Writing a blog like this is tremendous amount of work. There are the occasional posts that take only a few minutes to write, but the posts that Steven cranks out in a single day would take me three or four hours in many cases. Keeping the site running, upgrading software and etc. adds even more time. How much, I wouldn’t know, but I’m sure that it’s substantial.
2. The amount of spam that comes into a site like this is unreal. As of this writing, the spam control software in use on this site has filtered over 300,000 spammer comments since it was last reset sometime in the middle of last year (if memory serves). That’s about 25,000 spam coments per month/800 per day. Phenominal. Selling pornography and providing prescription drugs illegally must really pay.
3. Some days it’s hard to write publicly and face the criticsm from all comers. Anything that you work on this much becomes personal. It’s just that simple. You post something knowing that you’ve not made it perfect; after all, that’s the nature of the blog. Get it finished and post already! If we could polish the writing each time, we’d have only one or two posts every couple of days.
4. GM/Saab have a lot of great people working to make Saab a success. They can’t and won’t always be right, but they are trying. There are days that I know that the anti-GM sentiment gets to them. As the chief GM apologist, I’ll say that I think that Saab is in pretty good hands with GM as owner. Do I wish that Saab could have gone it alone? Absolutely. Do I wish that GM had done some things differently? Sure. However, Saab made a lot of mistakes when they were independent, too. The next time that you lament GM ownership, give a little grace.
5. People are people no matter where they live.
6. Put your good tires on the rear axle.
7. When an Australian says “arvo”, he’s talking about the afternoon. When he calls someone a “hoon” that isn’t a good thing.
I’ll miss this site. That’s for sure.
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amen…
Wow… Basically, for the first time in over three years, I didn’t check TS for like 24 hours because of work and other stuff. This is indeed sad news, and there is not much to ad to what other already said. The prospect of not having my breakfast together with TS in the morning is weird…
Eggs: I’m not anti GM, but I’m not pro either.
I’ve liked Saab since they were a marque and now they are just a brand and there’s a huge chasm in between.
I wasn’t sure if GM was the ‘right’ buyer for Saab, but they could’ve fallen into worse hands or ceased to exist at all. I was hesitant about the NG900 when it arrived, but I gave GM the benefit of the doubt and I think the NG900 eventually matured into a very resonable car.
In the nineties whilst Saab was still partly independent, there seemed to be great hope and this even continued for a while after GM bought the rest of it, with some great concepts and ideas being displayed. But this was followed by a period of stale nothingness with so much potential being lost by the wayside.
If you read my little contribution to TS last week, you’d know my feelings. Yes I do think it’s likely that Saab will sold, but no I don’t think that’s definite. If Saab were sold 2 or 3 years ago it would’ve been a disaster, but now there’s hope and potential again. If you ask me does GM have an agenda for Saab? I’d say definitely.
I was preparing to write some more for TS and if you guys can use some contributions some time, just let me know. I only work part time (freelance) and have too much time on my hands sometimes.
Perhaps a Phoenix will rise from the ashes of TrollhattanSaab. I truly hope so, but just don’t make it a Dodge!
Eggs,
Thanks for all your words and efforts here which I have enjoyed so much.
I guess things change and the world revolves.
It all proves that it the NOW that is the thing, yesterday and tomorrow - nah - now is the thing.
Best wishes
Lance
Hey Eggs,
Great work on all you did for this site. Your efforts were certainly appreciated and I will miss the guest commentaries.
Take care.
Not sure where to post it, it might even have been said already. But GM finally sees the light and is seriously considering to “unload” HUMMER to a lucky buyer. Unfortunately, in this market I can’t see anyone, or any company stupid enough to purchase such a monster.
So Eggs, I agree with your #4. Saab couldn’t have come here on its own, it’s just the era we live in.