No.
I’m on too many forums and all it took was the FIRST clubrsx jailbait thread to tell me that forum would take up alot of my time, got linked to the SECOND one and promised myself never to return for fear of forums totally enveloping my life.
oh yeah right, they already do envelope your life… CRSX and Shift are the only forums i participate in…and k20a.org ;D
oh yeah and QuickLT1 no problem :lol i thought it was just some normal “hey i got a new car” thread too when i looked at the title and first few posts.
Likewise. Thanks for the read.
It’s completely dead. The only people who post are Mike and the others whom he pays/begs to post. Most of the topics are bland and pointless.
example.) airsoft :wtf camera talk, video games, computer (nothing against photographers or computer guys) but i mean his site is meant to be a car site :confused as Celtic1982Citlec stated in that one arguement thread its a “ghost town” over there
I tried to spice it up by once again humiliating the ever lame Mr. Mike Centola :haha
When his dad kicks your fuckin face in, don’t come crying to me. I’ll say: “I told you so!”. :runaway
LOL “he was pickin on me dad!!!” :ohnoes
Or the people who have something to say, completely independent of anyone else’s opinion or requests.
As for the topics sucking, blame yourselves. It’s only as good as the people who post on there. It’s not like Mike comes up with random shit just to keep everyone entertained, nor should he given the way he’s been treated by the majority of the people posting. I find no reason why everyone should give him the kind of hard time they do, nor do I find reason why they should bring his family into every discussion. It’s incredibly immature and petty and it shows a fundamental lack of respect for good discussion. I really could care less what people think, especially of me, but the majority of people who bitch about problems like a dead message board are the very assholes who made it the way it is. Everything starts out wonderful and everyone loves the place, then it degenerates into a fighting match between members, issues with moderation or features, dumbass posters and lame topics. It’s the same on every board you’ll visit.
I just hope Vlad doesn’t have to eventually put up with the same pathetic bullshit you assholes drag with you to every board you visit.
My .02.
I don’t think the ‘topics sucking’ is our fault at all. We’re not the only ones on that forums as a majority now seem to be from the Rochester area. I’ve done my contributing there, and with how everything is there, I almost feel like asking for a refund on my premium membership. Mike’s an alright guy, but most of the Mike bashing there is only stemming from him and/or his past. You and I both know his father going on there and saying that shit about everyone was totally uncalled for.
To be quite honest, I wouldn’t doubt it if one of the only reasons some people dislike Mike is how AutoFest 07 was cancelled a month prior. I remember a kid coming into JVG looking to buy a shift boot at the last minute for ‘the show at Altamont Fairgrounds’ and I had to tell him how it was cancelled.
It got everyone pissed off. I didn’t care much at all, but I was looking for a good time that AutoFest was.
Blame ourselves? It’s an internet forum, you cant inspire people to make the forum a better place when they have no stake in it. If it sucks, people go somewhere else (prob the reason half of us are here on Shift).
As for bringing up Mike’s dad, they kind of made their own bed with that one. What did everyone expect would happen? The original post by Mike’s dad (the you-all-are-ungrateful-little-bastards!! one) goes back to the same idea: no one gives a shit if a forum sucks, they just leave. How can you demand praise from people when they dont care? There are plenty of forums that are full of good info and hilarious drama out there. People arent going to stick around on the idea of how cool one forum could be when they can go to another that is already that cool.
Or the people who have something to say, completely independent of anyone else’s opinion or requests.
As for the topics sucking, blame yourselves. It’s only as good as the people who post on there. It’s not like Mike comes up with random shit just to keep everyone entertained, nor should he given the way he’s been treated by the majority of the people posting. I find no reason why everyone should give him the kind of hard time they do, nor do I find reason why they should bring his family into every discussion. It’s incredibly immature and petty and it shows a fundamental lack of respect for good discussion. I really could care less what people think, especially of me, but the majority of people who bitch about problems like a dead message board are the very assholes who made it the way it is. Everything starts out wonderful and everyone loves the place, then it degenerates into a fighting match between members, issues with moderation or features, dumbass posters and lame topics. It’s the same on every board you’ll visit.
I just hope Vlad doesn’t have to eventually put up with the same pathetic bullshit you assholes drag with you to every board you visit.
My .02.
[/quote]
so what, do you and mike 
?
I don’t think any of us ‘assholes’ “drag pathetic bullshit” with us :confused
And Vlad shouldn’t receive the shit mike does because he’s not asking for money and promoting ‘upgrading’ accounts. Vlad’s nice enough to provide a forum that we can do all the shit you can’t do unless your a premium member over on rspeed, nor is he taking ‘donations’ a.k.a help mike fund his forum. Then to have his dad go on and make comments :wtf that’s real grown up and professional of mike :
Just to clarify, if money ever comes in quesiton of members, that is a problem and if the owner of the site is losing money, it is NOT the members fault.
A person choses to create their own site, they accept full responsibility on any money that it’s going to take to keep it running, and they should be prepared for it being a failure, more so than a success.
This site is costing me money, the paper is costing me big money, and the contests cost me money too. I make a hell of a lot less money than Mike, have my own things problems and projects going on (which would have been finished by now if not for Shift518), but I chose this and there is nobody to blame but me. I’m hoping it will become more succesful and I will hopefully sometime break even on an issue of the paper. Next issue is being a little late because I have court fees, business taxes to pay, tuition, books, loans and debts to pay, but I’ll still put it out ASAP.
I do not take donations, charge for the site, the paper, Shift518 Event reminders etc. It might be stupid, it might be the only way to succeed. Only time will tell. I do not even have advertising on the website even though it gets decent traffic.
The only means of me making any profit at the moment is “SnapSHOTS” which as of yet to make a dime or even have enough visitors.
I try to accomplish this all on 10$ an hour working full time while going to school too. My other project (meandesigns) was very well made by Mike for a very decent average price, and I was happy with it. But when Mike asked me to pay extra 50$ to advertise for a Shift518 Freeze your nuts off meet, I took that personal.
I do not have a problem with Mike, and he’s a cool guy, I just didn’t like the way he was doing things, so I made them to my liking in my own way.
My .02cents. Money should never be a cause for behavior. It’s good behavior that should be rewarded with money.
That’s exactly the kind of logic that makes forums suck to begin with.
Who DOES have a stake in it then? The mods? No.
The ONLY people who ever have a stake in a messageboard are the members themselves. If you think that’s wrong, ask yourself what you’d do if Vlad came on here tomorrow and said the board would have to close down due to server traffic being too high, legal issues, time/money constraints or some other reason.
I’d guarantee some of you would think about taking action, which means that you DO have a stake in it.
Go ahead with the gay comments. It illustrates the lack of maturity I’m talking about. Apparently nobody here can diverge from the common mob mentality without taking serious heat. You’re ALL responsible for EVERYTHING you say on a messageboard. That also means you’re all responsible for everything you DON’T say. If you choose not to post on a board, that’s one less person contributing. Multiply that enough times and add a mentality about a board being “gay” or “boring” and of course i’ts going to fail. It’s going to fail because a messageboard is an online bucket to dump your thoughts into. If you don’t have any or refuse to contribute any, guess what. It’s empty. That decision is made by nobody else except each and every one of YOU individually. Man up and accept fucking responsibility already. You want to post tech articles and lots of awesome pictures on rspeed? Nobody’s stopping you. In fact the members who PAID actually get UNLIMITED image hosting to put whatever they want, including movies. I don’t find that such a bad deal, given that the bandwidth costs ultimately come out of one man’s pocket. That’s something that people conveniently forget, everytime they bitch about how membership costs money.
You say you won’t be that way to Vlad, I don’t believe any of you. You chime in and sing the party line beautifully about how it’s a wonderful place and moderation is nice and there’s no money involved, but guess what. Eventually costs add up and Vlad may have every right to ASK FOR DONATIONS, even mention them in some threads in the way of “memberships” or member perks. I feel sorry for him when he does, because after seeing what’s happened on several boards, I can damn near guarantee you’ll treat him the same sorry shit way you’ve all treated everyone else.
None of you fuckers are worth it, either.
Only comment I’m going to make on that is…
< Dosn’t believe in donations :ninja
Edit: Actually there a few more comments…
I do not have the right to ask for anything of my members. Everytime somebody posts something or makes a new thread, I’m grateful for the contribution. I understand a little about business (being a major and having two DBA’s) and one thing I believe in, is that a business has to be grateful for the customers not the other way around. A store that’s going out of business because of the lack of customers dosn’t have the right to start charging the regulars more for their food and telling them that, now they can keep eating here because that way they can stay open. No, those customers will leave, because it is no longer the cheap local diner they liked to go to. You just took away the only thing that attracted you to them.
I do agree with a lot of comments you’re making Eric, but we got different outlooks on how Business should be run. I’m not my way is the best or even right, but it’s the way it’s going and hopefully it will get somewhere.
I’m sure it will, Vlad. You know I wish you the best. My feeling is there’s a difference between a forum and a business. If you’re selling stuff online here, sure. I can see how you’d say their concerns come first. The thing is neither you nor Mike are charging people to use the forums. Sure, donations are encouraged and Mike happens to put packages for people who donate. Maybe he could’ve called it “Benefactor” or “Sponsor”, but it’s all the same. You contribute a little, he sends shit, just like PBS does on their annual drives.
The thing that gets me though is when people claim no responsibility for the CONTENT of a messageboard. Who makes up the content then, aliens? A board doesn’t generate stuff by itself. Members are RESPONSIBLE for what they say, they’re held responsible by moderators and in the end, if they choose not to post, that’s their decision. Every person that vacates a messageboard is one less poster. That’s less content being added. To me, there’s no right for someone to turn around and blame the board [which is just a computer box], the owner or the mods. It’s the same as the newspaper. You don’t get people writing editorials, you don’t have an edition. They may not be paid to write, but they still contribute and if they suddenly stop contributing, you’ve got no paper at all. It would be silly of them to turn around then and say “the paper sucks” or “it’s boring.” Of COURSE it is, assholes. You fucking torpedoed whatever chances it had.
I know this has nothing to do with, RSPEED anymore but i too have been given the boot for telling someone NICELY :ninja that the sr20det wasnt a usdm motor in the 240sx hence the 240= 2.4L
Or the people who have something to say, completely independent of anyone else’s opinion or requests.
As for the topics sucking, blame yourselves. It’s only as good as the people who post on there. It’s not like Mike comes up with random shit just to keep everyone entertained, nor should he given the way he’s been treated by the majority of the people posting. I find no reason why everyone should give him the kind of hard time they do, nor do I find reason why they should bring his family into every discussion. It’s incredibly immature and petty and it shows a fundamental lack of respect for good discussion. I really could care less what people think, especially of me, but the majority of people who bitch about problems like a dead message board are the very assholes who made it the way it is. Everything starts out wonderful and everyone loves the place, then it degenerates into a fighting match between members, issues with moderation or features, dumbass posters and lame topics. It’s the same on every board you’ll visit.
I just hope Vlad doesn’t have to eventually put up with the same pathetic bullshit you assholes drag with you to every board you visit.
My .02.
[/quote]
I am out of it today but this seems to be directed at me. To be honest, I have made my efforts on that forum but disagree with many of his decisions.
I’ve said my opinion on it and don’t really care to dive in it again. His forum is going down the shitter so I’ll just wait and see what comes of it.
Good post.
On the same token, my rent is due. You fucking non-caring bitches better come up with $2000 or my daddy is going to come kick your ass. Somehow, that logic doesn’t work even if asked nicely. In the end, I’ll go wherever I want to go and fund anything I want to fund. Also, to be clear, none of you are responsible for my rent. I choose to live here. I choose to sign the contract. It’s my responsibility.
That’s not the way it works, and spreading the word isnt going to change the world.
Members dont care about a forum and have no desire to improve it. That’s the way it works. You can fight the system or go enjoy another forums. The rest of us choose the latter.
Also, to go along with Shawn’s post, you cant guilt trip members into caring about the site and the owner’s plight of filling it with activity. You have to give them a reason to come there.