There is a core group of members on this board that post useful auto related content, a group that are here to socialize, and a small group who pay to advertise here to help support their business and their livelihood. While this board and its members have been great to me, I feel mods/admins could better support paying advertisers in one area.
When a business pays to advertise in the “Forum Sponsors and Advertisers” section I feel that their threads IN THIS SECTION should be kept free of negative comments from others. I feel any replies should be from individuals interested in the parts and/or services the vendor has listed in that thread. This is not the place to critique their business, the parts/services being sold, the pricing, or their haircut. On other larger boards that are run more like a standard business, this results in an immediate ban of anyone involved. There is another section or sections of the board for critique.
Specifically I feel no advertiser has ANY business in another advertiser’s thread (in the advertiser’s forum) unless it’s to say something positive to the thread starter. There should be a clear thumbs up rather than a foggy remark that can be misconstrued. If I’m in General Auto saying the 420A engine is the greatest thing since the mullet feel free to give me a piece of your mind regardless of whether you’re an advertiser or not.
Many boards have a “Parts Review” section and a “Vendor Review” section where those and only those members who have had firsthand dealings with a part or vendor can post their personal experience for others to see. I don’t want to see someone saying their friend had this happen or says this part is great, etc. Feedback can be a wonderful thing, but it’s only beneficial to the members of the board when it’s first hand and accurate. Organizing things this way seems to generate a higher quantity of feedback as well as improving the usefulness of the information.
While our business hasn’t been a target I’m still concerned about the escalation of negativity and drama in general on the board. I’m not talking about someone being a bit rough when they say they don’t like the wheels or paint scheme a member chose. There are people on this board that genuinly seem to hate each other and they want to show it here plus disrupt their business rather than taking it elsewhere. When one fires at the other, eventually some sort of reply is necessary and it starts a cycle. The members most likely to add meaningful content to the board are the least likely to revel in the growing negative atmosphere. As the board shifts further from tech. info, gen. auto info, and meets we will lose more and more of the true auto enthusiasts on the board. I don’t spend my time on myspace, facebook, or the like. I am here because of those enthusiasts and I’d hate to see any of them leave.
-Mike
PS: I love NYSpeed and I’m not suggesting the removal of OT, so don’t get the wrong idea. OT is easy to avoid if you’re not interested, but this drama is entering every part of the board and I feel like I’m going to open a tire review thread only to find fbody drama.
Its funny with all the sponsors on here only 1 has had a real issue.
For example…Newera had a customer come on here and attack them saying they blew up his tranny…They delt with the issue in a mature nature and everything was taken care of.
Another example…Emery asked for some race day between shops…You and Carnut both handled everything with mature responses…not a bunch of BS.
Forum sponsors should have them self to a higher standard. They should understand this since its a business that their live revolves around it.
You get get drawn into highschool battles with customers and other people…Most forum advertisers understand this.
I also dont think its necessary for me to get an email from someone who claims to be nytrus1@yahoo.com linking me to the PMP robbery/Pats rear end thread.
Its uncalled for and not necessary. Its pathetic and not needed. People bitch about threads between members having a problem with each other and those threads get locked or tell the parties to handle it via PMs. The same should apply for businesses.
Sherm I’m glad they were able to work it out and I do hold my business to a very high standard, but I think you’re missing my point. The last thing I want to do is stop people from voicing legitimate concerns about an interaction with a shop or part.
I want to see the advertisers’ threads kept clean and a separate section for reviews. Simple as that. I have had cases where people say a part I’m selling is expensive and you can get the ebay brand version of it for half price yada yada in my thread in the designated Advertiser section and that shouldn’t happen. If you want to discuss whether to buy part X or Y, that’s what General Auto is for. My concern here isn’t just about shops flaming each other.
As far as the general atmosphere goes… I love the people I’ve met through this board and I thoroughly enjoy going to NYSpeed meets whether it be to hang out in a parking lot or at a track day. All this crap on the board is eventually going to spill over into meets if it isn’t cut off. Frankly I’ll never show up to a meet if I have to think about who may get into a fight while I’m trying to hang out and talk cars.
I thought it was pointed out a number of time those came from WNYFbodys old email list.
The Emails are not directed at NYSpeed members…They were directed at WNYFbody people.
I don’t know how you expect NYSpeed to deal with an issue from another forum…you can post whatever on here I think JnJ is even banned from here right now anyways…
I realize members are on both but there is nothing people on here can do about it.
Roger. I’ve seen boards like that as well where you have to PM the seller with any questions rather than posting. I don’t mind posting in the thread as long as it’s to facilitate a sale or get further info on availability, scheduling etc. from the seller. For instance, when I put up a thread about a group tuning session out of the area it helps having people post their availability up etc., rather than everyone having to PM me. Allowing replies can be very beneficial, but only when monitored.
As a business owner it’s best to avoid making waves unless absolutely necessary, but I care enough about this board that I had to say something. Granted I probably would have kept my mouth shut if it hadn’t been for the fbody drama, but that definitely isn’t the only thing I don’t want to see in advertisers’ threads.
the only reason there is fbody drama today is because an fbody advertiser used false and libel comments to foul some peoples’ names. the said person thought he could get away with it because he is an advertiser of this site.
aside from that, i agree with you 100%. i havent seen a problem with any other advertiser here. i’ve had good experiences, whether it be from you (inn tune), hybrid, and others, and will continue to buy from you all. good information is good information. for the most part, 95% of this board can learn from that. i would like to see a showcase of [Bquality[/B] information and builds
Having only dealt with Don in business, But i have talked to a lot of shop owners, Don, Mike, guy from newera sorry forgot your name.
These are all legit guys running a business for enthusiasts by enthusiasts, and I love that, they understand, truely understand what you may or may not need and will steer you in the right direction, not just tell you, this is the best becuase i said so.
So you guys, Inn-tune, Hybrid and New era, get a huge props from me.
In this day and age its hard to find businesses, big or small that are true and to the point of what they do.
Mike, I feel your pain and I understand what you are saying. There is a lot of things that need to be fixed as far as our support for our advertisers (cough cough banners, etc). We would like to keep the lines of communication open for our users to ask questions and such about our advertisers particular business. I am thinking the only real way to address this issue in the short term is to lock the Advertiser’s forum to only advertisers and have users PM with questions. After processing the PM, the adverstiser can post in that thread an answer.
Similar to how the tech forum requires moderator review to start a new thread… I don’t know how the software works, but perhaps any new post not made by an advertiser would require moderator review.
The only catch is that there would have to be a public statement specifying that the moderators are checking for relavence only, to avoid drama to the tune of “oh well he blocked the post because he’s better friends with the other guys.”
Is there a way to give advertisers mod privelages in threads they create in the advertiser’s forum only? We can police our own that way without taxing mods…
If this forum was moderated like most forums, eventually it would loose half the traffic it sees daily.
I agree with Mikes point whole heartily but he should not have had to be the person to point this out.
I dont want to stray away from his main point but this is a good opportunity for you mods to realize how out of control these boards are getting. How welcome do you honestly feel gilrs are here anymore after the last few weeks actions, or more importantly, maybe new members who do have a lot of knowledge to offer but get flamed their first post just because (insert loudmouth member with a high post count here) feels his wheels are “gay?” (which erupts into a huge ordeal that always goes ignored)
Maybe if on the mainpage you restated this forums honest mission, then people would fully understand what they can and cant say and why they are here. OT is great and sadly where I make the majority of my posts but sometimes it gets so ridiculous what people can get away with saying.
