[avishar]

Ever had trouble explaining to people what is team bhp?

I am student living in a hostel and often my hostel mates would glance at my laptop and being curious would enquire as to what is this site which i seem to be absolutely hooked on to.

Them "kaunsa site hain"?

Me:"Team-bhp a forum for car lovers"

Them: " forum? what do you mean forum?"

Me:"kuch nahi yaar leave it" and i switch it off to save my self from more explanations"

Them:Oh acha like facebook?

To majority of the people forums are an alien concept.Eventually i stopped explaining it to people.
Then this last month when i had gone to attend my first t-bhp meet i had to tell my mom where i was going because it was a highway drive.So again i had to sit and explain it to her.She was quite flabbergasted when she learnt that i was willing to go on a drive in highway with a bunch of people i have never met before.

Her response was "These are all rich people.What will you do there?They will drive fast and will smoke and get drunk!"

[Willeys78]

About u'r situation about convincing your mother about tbhp meet, when your status changes to a more mature situation and you start earning and settles down, things will change. people around you will take you more seriously. In my case even though i'm grown up man living on my own, when i talk about a TBhp meet or something similar, my wife used to stare at me thinking 'am i nuts' to go and meet people whom i never seen! But now she knows what this all about.

Also making people understand blogs or forums is not always easy. Being the members of this wonderful forum most of us update ourselves everyday about each and everything happening in auto industry and still in many occasions i had to listen to stupid comments from my friends or colleagues and kept quiet totally agreeing to them knowing they are wrong.

But the good thing is, still there an ever growing number of people who research almost everything online before making a purchase decision or virtually everything in every day life. Thanks to the growth of technology. Also i feel slowly people who don't know computers and technology will start understand things. I had seen many who knows nothing about todays IT & Technologies (read it as a common villager or someone like that) assuming computers as a big thing and all information is available in it. they don't know how it work, but they believe so because someone in their family or their grand children uses computer and they overhear people talking about it. So lets wish for a technologically advanced India where people understand the value of information through computers and internet.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by avishar

Them "kaunsa site hain"?

Me:"Team-bhp a forum for car lovers"

Them: " forum? what do you mean forum?"

Me:"kuch nahi yaar leave it" and i switch it off to save my self from more explanations"

Them:Oh acha like facebook?

I have tough time everywhere. Recently I took provisional admission in one college. There I met with a person who told me that he has passion for cars. Obviously I informed him about TBHP. The question fired back at me is what is that. I replied that its forum, an automotive forum, very nice and vast.
Now either people are alien about what forum is they think its immoral stuff displayed there. I have faced many people who frown upon forum word. I was given advice not to visit forum as its not good for people of my generation.

In another situation, if I dont give others ( friends, and some times even relatives ) explanation what I was doing or what I love to do on computer they become even more suspicious about my activities.

Best is to avoid giving explanation. I believe that anybody can make mistake or might not be informed, but when people are not ready to learn new thing or accept new things or even understand new things leave it. There is no point in wasting energy behind those people. Its not exactly their fault, but neither are we at fault.

[Jayabusa]

Simply put, you can say it's a place on the 'www' where discussions, primarily about cars & many other aspects of life take place.

[sandeepmdas]

circa 2004. A couple of months after I discovered/joined/got addicted to TBHP:

->> "What is Team-BHP ?"
me: "It's a forum in the internet"
->>

2005 to this morning:

->> "What is Team-BHP ?"
me: "It's website about cars in India"
->>

[Lightening-Fast]

People: What is team-bhp?
Me: If you are buying a car, go visit the website.
End of story. From there on, there is no intervention and we have a newbie

[mallumowgli]

When I first started entering the forum, my wife asked me what it was and patiently listened to what i said. But from then on whenever she sees me switching on my pc, with a resigned smile she says 'oh, you are again going to into t-bhp' and leaves me at that.

[anku94]

Those who know me know not to ask for explanation of stuff from me. I mean, there is a close friend of me whom I keep updated about stuff here, but I'm not sure he understands it. Maybe he's got the habit of nodding his head to everything I say.

[avishar]

Although a large number of people fail to understand what exactly is team bhp,there are many among you who must have guided your friends or relatives to this site to make car buying decisions,ownership details etc.Team bhp has caused a large number of us to shun car magazines and also spurred many newer "Blogs" to come into bieng which avidly follow the car industry.

So has Team bhp really made an impact in society(Like social networking sites do)?
Come to think of it i have never come across any media article about team bhp.Has anything ever been published?

[anku94]

Originally Posted by avishar

Come to think of it i have never come across any media article about team bhp.Has anything ever been published?

There was a clipping somewhere in the forums. Some newspaper in a foreign country, probably. Also, there was something to do with Ford in there. Darn, my memory is lousy.

[mmxylorider]

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

When I first started entering the forum, my wife asked me what it was and patiently listened to what i said. But from then on whenever she sees me switching on my pc, with a resigned smile she says 'oh, you are again going to into t-bhp' and leaves me at that.

same story, different household. However the curiosity was more in terms of what content does this site have? Once shown she was impressed. (In fact have a parenting thread open in another window.)

Same thing at work (a reputed company) - lots of auto enthusiasts, but almost zero awareness of t-bhp. A couple of them have become hooked to the site, probably not members though.

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

I have tough time everywhere. Recently I took provisional admission in one college. There I met with a person who told me that he has passion for cars. Obviously I informed him about TBHP. The question fired back at me is what is that. I replied that its forum, an automotive forum, very nice and vast.
Now either people are alien about what forum is they think its immoral stuff displayed there. I have faced many people who frown upon forum word. I was given advice not to visit forum as its not good for people of my generation.

In another situation, if I dont give others ( friends, and some times even relatives ) explanation what I was doing or what I love to do on computer they become even more suspicious about my activities.

Best is to avoid giving explanation. I believe that anybody can make mistake or might not be informed, but when people are not ready to learn new thing or accept new things or even understand new things leave it. There is no point in wasting energy behind those people. Its not exactly their fault, but neither are we at fault.

If people you meet dont get it, just say "message board"...that might make more sense because thats what forums technically are.

[funkykar]

To Tech savvy people:
Team-Bhp is a virtual community for Automobile Enthusiasts!

For Parents:
The way like minded people meet in a community gathering, say an Apartment Asociation or a Lions Club, Team-Bhp is a community for Automobile Enthusiasts who interact virtually through Internet.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

scene one:

parent: beta, kya kar rahe ho?
beta: team-bhp pe log hu.
parent: ye team-bhp kya hai?
beta: blah, blah, blah, blah.
parent: kuchh kaam dhaam kar, nikamma kahi ka.

scene 2:

parent: beta, kya kar rahe ho?
beta: team-bhp pe log hu.
parent: ye team-bhp kya hai?
beta: share market ki web site hai, paisa kaise kamana sikhate hai.
parent: wah wah beta, lage raho.

[Lightening-Fast]

That was a good one Ashish. Lage raho!