Psychology

The modern age has presented an interesting opportunity to the car enthusiast with some time on their hands who is willing to search for information online (not all are). Unlike magazines, they can specify the content they want to read and they can often interact with that content in ways otherwise unavailable.

Photo: EVE Online

But that doesn't change the human condition, for good and bad. The more you read, the more you realize that commenters (and blog/forum/etc. staff, for that matter) are unwilling to really think about what they're writing. What comes out is mostly generic and so formulaic that you could roll a dice and pick one of the few responses.

With our pals over at Bothell Crocs, we wondered if we could come up with a list of typical comments that offered insight to mind of the online car enthusiast. Without further ado, here's what we came up with. We feel that you can go to just about any online car enthusiast resource that allows commenting and you'll see one of these.

1. Reminiscence (positive or negative)
2. "This is the best/worst car ever because...."
3. Data dump for no reason ("In fact, stoopid, this car had 329 horsepower NOT 328 like you wrote, ya idiot.")
4. Hazing or concurring with post or previous comment
5. "My (acquaintance) had one of these..."
6. What you wrote was offensive.  I’m never coming here again (this is the first time I’ve ever posted and I’ve never contributed anything).
7. I don’t care about this post, but here is a link to something I found/care about, isn’t it cool?

Can you think of any others?