OT - GCA Lurkers

[Tony_Muldoon]

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Stylish return Dick. 

Hopefully this version works.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mPb8tb3D6N0

[ward peyronnin]

I am lurking on this thread

[Steve Lang]

It seems GCA, with a small handful of people talking and a lot more listening, is the opposite of social media where there a lot more broadcasting than listening!


As a very rare poster I can confess this site can be a little intimidating for someone that has no professional background in golf.  It can be a little unforgiving at times and unless you spend a lot of time here it’s hard to know what’s already been covered and what hasn’t.  Plus, I tend to be of the view that it’s only worth chiming in when you’ve got a useful contribution to make - ie you’re adding something new to the debate.  Having a high bar for quality of contribution is certainly no bad thing and makes a nice change from social media!

Also advise to do some serious deep diving with the Search function, could be better, but it does work

[Joe Schackman]

It seems GCA, with a small handful of people talking and a lot more listening, is the opposite of social media where there a lot more broadcasting than listening!


As a very rare poster I can confess this site can be a little intimidating for someone that has no professional background in golf.  It can be a little unforgiving at times and unless you spend a lot of time here it’s hard to know what’s already been covered and what hasn’t.  Plus, I tend to be of the view that it’s only worth chiming in when you’ve got a useful contribution to make - ie you’re adding something new to the debate.  Having a high bar for quality of contribution is certainly no bad thing and makes a nice change from social media!

In the same boat. Obviously I'm here for the architecture talk but I end up mostly posting on threads that are pro-golf related or off-topic.  I try to only post if I really feel like I have something worthwhile to add.

[Jeff_Brauer]

It seems GCA, with a small handful of people talking and a lot more listening, is the opposite of social media where there a lot more broadcasting than listening!


As a very rare poster I can confess this site can be a little intimidating for someone that has no professional background in golf.  It can be a little unforgiving at times and unless you spend a lot of time here it’s hard to know what’s already been covered and what hasn’t.  Plus, I tend to be of the view that it’s only worth chiming in when you’ve got a useful contribution to make - ie you’re adding something new to the debate.  Having a high bar for quality of contribution is certainly no bad thing and makes a nice change from social media!

Obviously, you never had a teacher tell you, "There are no dumb questions."  Anyway, maybe my perspective is skewed, but I think the professional architects and supers on this site are pretty gentle with those not in the business.  Anyway, I wouldn't be afraid to fire away with posts until experience told you otherwise!

[Kalen Braley]

It seems GCA, with a small handful of people talking and a lot more listening, is the opposite of social media where there a lot more broadcasting than listening!


As a very rare poster I can confess this site can be a little intimidating for someone that has no professional background in golf.  It can be a little unforgiving at times and unless you spend a lot of time here it’s hard to know what’s already been covered and what hasn’t.  Plus, I tend to be of the view that it’s only worth chiming in when you’ve got a useful contribution to make - ie you’re adding something new to the debate.  Having a high bar for quality of contribution is certainly no bad thing and makes a nice change from social media!

Obviously, you never had a teacher tell you, "There are no dumb questions."  Anyway, maybe my perspective is skewed, but I think the professional architects and supers on this site are pretty gentle with those not in the business.  Anyway, I wouldn't be afraid to fire away with posts until experience told you otherwise!

Jeff,


The corollary to that, which I've seen in my profession that has its fair share of prima donnas:


"There are no dumb questions...only dumb people who ask them!:" 

[Adam Uttley]

It seems GCA, with a small handful of people talking and a lot more listening, is the opposite of social media where there a lot more broadcasting than listening!


As a very rare poster I can confess this site can be a little intimidating for someone that has no professional background in golf.  It can be a little unforgiving at times and unless you spend a lot of time here it’s hard to know what’s already been covered and what hasn’t.  Plus, I tend to be of the view that it’s only worth chiming in when you’ve got a useful contribution to make - ie you’re adding something new to the debate.  Having a high bar for quality of contribution is certainly no bad thing and makes a nice change from social media!

Obviously, you never had a teacher tell you, "There are no dumb questions."  Anyway, maybe my perspective is skewed, but I think the professional architects and supers on this site are pretty gentle with those not in the business.  Anyway, I wouldn't be afraid to fire away with posts until experience told you otherwise!

Thanks Jeff, I shall take this as a permission slip and use liberally!!

[Tony Ristola]

The all-time lurker story... and one of the all-time great GCA posts... the Pizza Man:

The lurking audience of GCA.com may be much greater than we think,and the "diversity" of that group is astounding!Getting them to participate is entirely another matter.<P>Last night we had a few friends over and my wife called and ordered some pizzas.When the delivery guy showed up,my wife went to pay him and he asked If "THE" ED Baker lived here? My wife said, "I don't know about "THE" Ed Baker,but I am married to Ed Baker. The guy says " Does he write about golf courses on the internet"? With that my wife drags the guy out to the pool area and announces " Oh Sweetheart","The Pizza man wants to talk to you about golf courses!"<P>My friends went in to hysterics.<P>The Pizza man(somewhat embarrassed) then comes over to the side of the pool,takes off his hat,shakes my hand,and proceeds to tell me "how much he enjoys reading all the golf course stuff,that you and your friends write about on Golf Club Atlas!"<P>I politely explain that ANYBODY can post on GCA,and other than Ran and M.W. Burrows I really hadn't met any other of the contributors.<P>The Pizza man says," Yeah,but you guys really know what you're talking about and you are all educated," and launches in to a "Who's Who" of regular GCA posters,TEPaul,Mike Cirba,Pat Mucci,Tom MacWood,Tommy N.,Dan King,and Ran.<P>Now I'm getting a little nervous,the guy then pulls out a felt tipped pen and asks me to sign his hat!... My friends again convulse in laughter!<P>Now I figure one of my friends is pulling a practical joke,so I sign the guys hat,he shakes my hand again and says "wait 'til I show the guys in the tuesday night league this!" Again my friends convulse.Pizza man leaves.<P>For the next hour, I try and see which one of my friends set this up.Everybody swears they had nothing to do with it,I am now more concerned than amused.Jesus,what if the guy scans my signature or something.<P>I get dressed and drive down to the Pizza place.I ask to talk to the delivery man,he appears from the back room and says "Hi Mr. Baker,was there a problem with your order?"I say, no the order was fine, but I was curious which one of my friends "set me up?"He replies,"What do you mean,set you up?"I said,"it isn't everyday that somebody comes to my house and asks for my autograph."Pizza man says,I didn't mean to bother you sir,but Mrs. Baker did ask me to come out to meet you."<P>Now the poor guy is clearly embarrassed,(so am I)and I realize he was sincere.I ask where he plays and he responds with the name of one of the local munis. I ask how he got interested in golf course architecture and he responds " I was a firemen for 35 years and I used to caddy on off days at all the great courses in the area,and got to play a lot of them on Mondays!" After playing them for a number of years I realized that a lot of them were Donald Ross designs and I started reading about him.My grandson got me a computer after my wife died and I spent a lot of time learning how to use it, and I found Golfclubatlas by accident one day looking for something on Donald Ross on the internet."<P>Much to the chagrin of his boss,we spent the next ten minutes discussing some of the Ross courses he had played,what he liked about them,ect.<P>I asked why he wanted my autograph?" So the guys in the league,will believe that I actually met one of the guys that writes on the site."<P>I said," Why don't you and your friends post something if you are interested in GCA to that degree?" <P>"We can't write like you guys and we don't know enough.We are all just working guys that like golf and great courses." We all have learned a lot!<P>I spent the next five minutes trying to persuade this very nice man(whose name I now know and will play golf with next week)that the only "qualifications" needed to participate on here was a love of golf architecture and an opinion.<P>Are we that intimidating or elitest in our presentations? I'll bet there are a lot more "Pizza Men" out there that share our passion,but are timid to post. Why is That?<P>

Ben, this is indeed an all-time thread. You should read it.

I have numerous times, wanted to see if people were paying attention.  Some of us believe in the after life     



Hard to believe that thread was almost 4 years ago.

Pizzaman became a good friend and I had the pleasure of playing golf with him dozens of times over the next few years.
He loved Whitinsville a great 9 hole Ross track.

The world lost a good man in October of 2003.

He never could bring himself to post, but remained a regular lurker.

I persistently kept asking him to post until during a round at Mt. Pleasant in Boylston Ma. he turned to me and said, " you know Eddie, if I post under my real name I'll embarrass myself because I can't write like I think, if I post under Pizzaman then I'll never live up to the myth." With that he walked to his ball and said, "Did you ever notice how a lot of Ross cross bunkers are a longer carry to clear on the slice side?"

I hope he's playing all the Ross courses now and hitting soft draws.  I miss him.

Complications from diabetes, he was 71. He was already starting to lose the feel in his hands and feet from neuropathy.
When we played in the fall, he would carry one of those butane hand warmers with him, "helped his putting" he said.

Interestingly enough he took the Pizza job to fill his evenings after his wife had passed only 6 months after he had retired or I never would have met him. He was a career fire fighter and one of those "salt of the earth" instantly likeable people that are oh so rare. He was so sincere and self effacing that it took quite awhile to figure out that he really wasn't putting you on, yet he still had a good sense of humor.

I took him to Myopia once and we parked in that little upper lot by the stables. He took one look at the horses being groomed and led out for exercise, the stately old clubhouse, and he wouldn't get out of the car until I produced our host who assured him that he was indeed a legitimate guest for the day. Some where on the front nine we saw one of the grounds crew guys driving one of those utility carts and I looked at him and said, " Oh Jesus, we're in trouble now, here comes the superintendent to throw us out!" Well, he turned white and started dancing around like a boxer ducking hooks, he didn't know which way to go, I thought our host was going to get a hernia he laughed so hard. It was hilarious, and after he calmed down he laughed right along with us, just a great guy. He loved the stories about Leeds putting the bed sheets down to add bunkers to the landing areas after the early opens up there.

I met a lot of his friends too, and they eventually let me fill in if they had a no show on Tuesday nights, I was honored, and had an absolute blast every time.

[Lou_Duran]

I suspect that there are many multiples of lurkers for every poster.  And there are downsides.


There was a move years ago to have most DG members post under their real name.  The thinking was that posters would think twice before lobbing bombs if they were identified.  The result, IMO, has been only partially successful.  I know several industry people who have value to add here but don't because of the blow back and less than civil discourse.


Another problem which I just encountered today came via a mysterious text recommending a rain suit with a link to a website.  It started with "Dear Lou, I hope all is well .....".  It didn't identify the sender and the phone number was not in my directory, so I did a reverse phone lookup and found that the text came from a number assigned to several individuals with Asian surnames in Chicago.  I happened to know of the merchant and the item the text recommended was not offered in its website.  A phishing attack?  Who knows?  I may be paranoid, but there are a lot more people who know of me by virtue of being on this site than I know about them, and God knows that there is no shortage of nuts in this world.