So you're new here...
(A Primer For Surviving Your First Days At Tennesspeed)


The joys of being new: Everyone is watching you, waiting to see what sort of person you're going to be. You want to make a name for yourself, but what do you post? How much attitude should you show? Are you going to be mercilessly hazed by veteran members?

Panic sets in.

The truth of the matter is that you should just be yourself. There is no need to feel the pressure to impress anyone. We were all new here at one point too, so we remember what it was like even if only vaguely. The more low key you are, the better things will go for you.

Tennesspeed has [rightfully] earned a reputation for not tolerating a lot of nonsense from new members. You will find that most of the regulars here are college-aged young adults or middle-aged people with jobs, families and responsibilities. That means the norm here is for people to be squared away and grown up or at least act like it. We don't tolerate immature, wreckless, disrespectful or illegal behavior from our members and we expect you to conduct yourself maturely and not embarrass yourself or the rest of us by acting like an idiot. Show some respect to the Tennesspeed community and don't be that guy.



Your first posts...

The best approach to take with your first posts is to just introduce yourself. Tell the rest of us about your vehicles, what brought you here, where you live, where you "are in life" (married, student, father, mother, military, kids, job, etc.) and stuff like that. The basics that you'd tell about yourself if you had just shown up at a chapter meeting of the local car club and were asked to stand up and tell folks about yourself.



Getting to know the community...

Spend your first visits with us reading. The search feature is your friend for basic questions. This forum has been around since 2002 and, barring a few times when old threads were purged for one reason or another, searching will show you things that go back to the beginning.

Initially reading more than you post will also help you get a feel for the spirit of things around here, and how the members get along with each other. It's a good way to get a feel for the community and not completely expose yourself as a newbie. Not that we don't like newbies; it's just that sometimes it's good to blend in for a little while.



When it's time to participate...

We want you to fit in as much as you do, so just be yourself and have fun.

One last helpful tip: Remember that the written word doesn't always easily convey attitudes, so make use of the smilies to put a little more emotion into things that might be accidentally misread.


Enjoy!