Many of you don't know but I'm just a contributing photographer and make take the time to make most of the forum posts for cncpics.com.
Lately there has been a lot of bad behavior at Cars and Coffee Irvine. Most of the bad behavior seems to come from those drivers of mostly stock late model vehicles, which might be at home at your regular summer car shows, but are not really that special to show off at Cars and Coffee. These people seem to feel entitled to show off their cars and become offended when one suggests that they park their cars in the clearly marked exhibitor area.
Max the owner of the site, the one who keeps cncpics.com up and running for your viewing pressure wrote this letter:
Quote:
For some time I have had a nagging doubt that posting the photographs from Cars and Coffee each week is contributing to the degradation of the event.
In the last few years the event has seen a considerable drop-off in quality with a corresponding increase in the number of late model Mustangs, Corvettes, Porsches, BMW's and the like.
Last week as I left the parking lot, I exited behind a minty Aston Martin DB5 that had not managed to get a show spot.
It occurs to me that many late-model cars have now become fixtures.
We barely bother to photograph these regular attendees, very few people will find a photograph of, say, a Mustang GT with chrome wheels very interesting. Except the owner, obviously.
I would estimate that each week something close to half of the cars in the show lot could be swapped out with something more interesting that was bumped to the public parking structure.
The other observation that I would like to make is that those that bring late-model, frankly fairly dull cars, are often the ones that make the most trouble, the ones that ignore the organizers and the ones that leave with the most, erm, enthusiasm and almost always they are the loudest and most aggressive.
Coincidence ?
Maybe.
Of course if the driver of the beautiful DB5 had got there earlier, he/she would have been able to show his car.
Also, of course, had the drivers of the Macy cars been a tad realistic regarding the showability of their cars, then there would not have been an issue.
So, what to do ?
Linda, our organizer and greeter, tries to direct people to the public parking lot, but is often ignored or abused. This is pathetic behavior. But it does highlight the issue, I watched a 330i driver flip her off and then hurtle into the show lot for suggesting that his car would be more at home in the public lot for example.
Again, what can we do ?
cncpics.com served a couple of million images last month.
Are we perpetuating the problem with the publicity that we give it.
This is not a comfortable thought, I am a car nut and I love to take photographs of cars.
cncpics.com has never, ever, made a dime nor do I want t to. I have personally worn out a couple of shutter buttons (seriously) and invested in additional hardware specifically for cncpics. The traumas that we have had with hosting services that cannot handle the traffic has be expensive to resolve too.
I started the site a few years ago, specifically so that I could share the event with friends in the UK. I had no idea that within a few years it would be serving a couple of million images each month.
Nor that I would be fretting that I am somehow responsible for drawing the people that are wrecking the event.
Should I simply close cncpics.com and thus reduce the exposure that the event has significantly.
Maybe leave this open letter on the single page ?
Or what should we do ?
I am honestly looking for inspiration !
Thoughts ?
Max
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This past weekend we had three especially bad incidents. The first was with the guys in this Camaro who refused to accept the fact that the lot was closed. First they got confrontational with Freeman Thomas. They said their friend was reserving a spot for them and that they should be let in. First and foremost reserving a spot for a friend is strongly frowned upon at Cars and Coffee. It completely goes against the spirit of the event. Display parking is not to be reserved and it is there for the taking to whomever shows up first. Then there was the owner of a Lexus LX470 who also became irate when he was told that there was no more parking, that the lot was full. He claimed to see a bunch of spots and proceeded into the lot even though we tried to stop him. He proceeded to circle the lot for 20 mins until he found someone leaving. He was then asked to leave and again he refused to do so. At this point Camaro guy came right over and voiced his opinion once again.
The last person to be a bad apple was the driver of a trike thing. He did a burn out right at the exit and unfortunately the police officer who serves as security wasn't in his unit at the time to fine him. Steve, one of the other photography contributors, and I stepped in front of his vehicle and gave him a mouthful.
These bad apples are endangering the event.
Please help us keep these people from ruining this unique event.
Thanks,
-Leo
Cliff notes: Bad Apples contributing to the degradation of the event. Website contributing? Shut down site?