Is Maserati a second-class citizen? | Page 5 | FerrariChat

Is Maserati a second-class citizen?

Discussion in 'Maserati' started by awatkins, May 7, 2021.

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  1. staatsof

    staatsof Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    I'm not really understanding the relevance of my being retired?
    I'm just so surprised that so many Maserati owners have professed their feelings of inferiority.
    Biturbo owners I get because so many of the GT elites act like complete snobs about those cars and most of that can be directly traced back to De Tomaso's horrid launch of the car especially here in the USA.

    Maybe they need some Rodney Dangerfield medication ... ;) :p
     
  2. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    Yawn you post 24 hours a day. Also who speaks of inferiority, you keep understanding things upside down and back to front. Read my last post properly.
    Dinner time here over and out.
     
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  3. staatsof

    staatsof Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    OK and for the record I've read them lobster bibs and all LOL. Enjoy dinner.
     
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  4. jimmyb

    jimmyb Formula 3

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    #104 jimmyb, Jun 21, 2021
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2021
    To answer the original thread question:
    "Is Maserati a second class citizen?"
    As someone who has never owned a Maserati, my answer is that I have NEVER considered Maserati a second class citizen. Maserati has had their stumbles, just like EVERY car maker has.
    Maybe some owners need to appreciate their cars MORE and worry about the perception LESS. BTW, the owners seem to have the perception issue, I have never heard anyone talk down Maserati.

    PS. My next door neighbor has a Ghibli and a dear friend has a QP. I think both cars are terrific.
    PSS. The fact that certain Maserati owners won't come to the Maserati section of a Ferrari site absolutely boggles my mind...how old are these guys, 8?
     
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  5. Merak1974

    Merak1974 Formula 3

    Aug 31, 2009
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    Gabriel R.G. Benito
    It is not straightforward that one of the net's key resources on older Maserati cars happens to be a section of a sub-forum in a website dedicated to a rival marque (especially, historically, but perhaps also in the future). It does not take much psychological and sociological insight to understand why.

    However, it happened, much because a sufficient number of very knowledgeable and enthusiastic people chose to use the section as their meeting point. Quality begets quality, and over time the accumulated stock of information in here has become formidable. A path dependence evolves and makes it hard to change course, even if many find the situation somewhat awkward.

    If not outright broken (revolution...), path dependencies are most effectively molded (evolution) by loosing their momentum, dwindle, and eventually vanish. This is what seems to be happening with the Maserati section of the 'other cars' sub-forum of this website.

    For several years now, this site has not been the preferred source of knowledge and discussion for several historical models. The Merak is an example, which I know well and can therefore comment on. Discussions and exchange of knowledge about that model happen now almost entirely in other forums.

    Still, another evolutionary option is to make a real change, to mutate into something different, while preserving what is good, which is our case is a lot. Such changes are always risky, but may be worth the risk.

    Of course, there are additional reasons for lower activity in a forum like this - such as the rise of social media - but, real change seems needed regardless.
     
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  6. thecarnut

    thecarnut F1 Rookie
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    It is not a feeling of inferiority. I have never considered classic Maseratis in any way inferior to Ferrari. Each went after the market with a slightly different focus and both had their successes and failures.
    The question at hand is how the Maserati section of this forum within FerrariChat should be handled so that the Maserati brand is not treated as an "Other Car".

    A proposal I sent to Rob was to redirect the Maserati Chat.com url to this subgroup. That url does nothing today. Also to look at how to tweak the "look and feel" of the subgroup so that it has more of a Maserati feel. For example, when entering the Maserati subgroup the banner would change from "FerrariChat" to "MaseratiChat" but the functionality would remain the same. And the color scheme changes more in tune to the Maserati blue instead of the Ferrari red.

    An analogy is like walking into a Ferrari/Maserati dealership. The Ferrari portion of the store has a different feel than the Maserati portion, yet they share the same receptionist, parts and service department , and management structure.

    After some thought, subdividing the contents within this subgroup would be a big mistake. We will never reach a consensus and I do not see the benefits since so much stuff overlaps.

    Let's keep an open mind and take baby steps. Just having MaseratiChat.com link to this will make it easier to tell people how to reach us.

    Ivan
     
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  7. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    I shall henceforth call you Bib-Bob;-)
     
  8. staatsof

    staatsof Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    #108 staatsof, Jun 22, 2021
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2021
    Nice concise statement of what you want. So the primary problem is loss of identity right?

    Do you expect to then see it separated from all the other forums within the Ferrarichat website or is the idea to just have the Maseratichat link direct you the Maserati sub forum already here?
    I ask because you should take a look at how the Lamborghini separation was handled. The loss of the regional sub forums would be a shame IMHO. Regional car events are rarely Maserati only.
    There's also the Technical section where having a lot of people with multiple marques let's people cross pollinate quite easily.

    It sounds like you're asking for a completely new website independent from Fchat?
     
  9. staatsof

    staatsof Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    There is/was a famous seafood restaurant in Boston that serves traditional lobsters not the Red Lobster crap and I have donned a bib there.
    At home Lobster and crab are dived up and cracked in the kitchen so no bibs required ...
     
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  10. thecarnut

    thecarnut F1 Rookie
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    What I am proposing is exactly the opposite of a new website. Everything I am proposing is within the existing FerrariChat forum.

    Let me try again to explain it ... it really is not that hard.

    1. Link the MaseratiChat.com url to this subgroup (this is really easy to do and I've done on my website).
    2. Tweak the "look and feel" of the subgroup so that it has a Maserati theme (ie; change the banner name from FerrariChat to MaseratiChat)

    All other functionality (regional car events, Ferrari subgroups, etc) stay as is. You can continue to use your current method to access this subgroup. Adding the MaseratiChat.com url should help attract new users as it should make it easier to find us. I say "should" because it all depends how that url is promoted and if it appears towards the top of search engines.

    Let's take a baby step and see if we like it. If for some reason we were not to like it it would just as easy to undo the changes.

    Ivan
     
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  11. staatsof

    staatsof Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    You're asking him to put a Maseratichat face on the entire Ferrarichat forum if you come into the website via the Maseratichat URL. That might be a large undertaking to have it work right and I'm not talking about the relatively simple URL redirect. It's always knowing how you arrived there so that you have the right face on. But run it by Rob who really has to run it by the owners. They might object to this if Ferrari folks get their noses out of joint.
     
  12. thecarnut

    thecarnut F1 Rookie
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    Bob,

    You and i are having a really hard time communicating :) I never said to change the banner to MaseratiChat throughout the whole forum., only when you enter the Maserati subgroup.

    Ivan
     
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  13. staatsof

    staatsof Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    You're not describing how this would work very well then. I did this for a living quite successfully, so I'm trying to envision what the "Maserati" forum page would look like.
    Why don't you do a mockup of what it would look like.?

    This how you described it.

    2. Tweak the "look and feel" of the subgroup so that it has a Maserati theme (ie; change the banner name from FerrariChat to MaseratiChat)

    All other functionality (regional car events, Ferrari subgroups, etc) stay as is. You can continue to use your current method to access this subgroup. Adding the MaseratiChat.com url should help attract new users as it should make it easier to find us. I say "should" because it all depends how that url is promoted and if it appears towards the top of search engines.
     
  14. italiancars

    italiancars F1 Rookie

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    Like everyone else I was going to post some thoughts on a new layout for “Maserati Chat”.

    But then realized that if I did and it was accepted I would be unable to ***** and complain about Maserati being a “Second Class Citizen”. I could no longer be offended, take a Xanax and run to my Safe Space because I was triggered. :cool:
     
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  15. 71Satisfaction

    71Satisfaction Formula 3

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    ..and your computer can let you design your browser's opening page to a 'tile' of your favorite sites, the titles of which you designate yourself.

    Mine is simply "Maserati", and I am here with one click.

    "This is the way".
    LOL,
    - Art
     
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