# Purely for Curiosity

**URL:** <https://forums.speedlife.net/t/purely-for-curiosity/41788>\
**Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic\
**Created:** [January 13, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/purely-for-curiosity/41788 "2008-01-13T22:14:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 56

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**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 9:18am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/purely-for-curiosity/41788/56 "2008-01-14T09:18:37Z")

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> [@bing](#):
>
> Havent read any commments but i will post my own.
> 
> When developing a strategy for the direction of a forum there is one thing that must be considered first and foremost:
> 
> “why do people come here?”
> 
> No one comes here because of strict rules, no one comes here for a locked classifieds forum, no one comes her to be obligated to maintain a dedicted technical section and to address tech issues for people.
> 
> 100% of the people on this forum and almost all other car forums are here for recreational purposes.
> 
> recreational including social, casual research, keeping up to date on things, to buy and sell the occasional item.
> 
> When moderation goes beyond and tries to develop firm policies and procedures by which the membership must follow you compromise the very value that the forum provides in a people’s daily lives.
> 
> if i wanted rules and structure i would stay at work all day.
> 
> if i wanted to read directions and make sure that everything i post or reply to lies within strict guidelines i would go to law school…
> 
> Eliminating as much e-moderation as possible is absolutely necessary for the long term supremacy of a forum over it’s competitors.
> 
> The end-goals of 90% of moderation are achievable through social means.
> 
> If you dont want people to low-ball or smack talk in the classfieds you simply ostracize the offenders.
> 
> You either ignore them, or refuse to sell to them, deny them access to sections of events on said grounds or moderate that individual specifically as a last resort.
> 
> –
> 
> I’ve had to fight several schools of thought on various forums and i’ve seen forums die from over-management. I’ve also watched fellow-management attempt ludicrous ideas only to watch them fail miserably… so badly in fact that the politicians behind them end up on the outside of a community.
> 
> NYspeed is a testament to how the management is not in control of the community, the community is self-governing no matter what the moderation or ownership thinks. If it wasn’t, this would still be UBRF and son240sx would still be .ca and not .org.
> 
> both [nyspeed.com](http://nyspeed.com) and [son240sx.org](http://son240sx.org) are proof positive that you can simply take a community with you when it is mis-managed… and since there are no contracts to bind the userbase, the most important thing is relationships and reputation (trust). Over-moderation amongst peers can only compromise those relationahips and that trust… it cannot make it stronger because there is implicit mis-trust in all moderation.
> 
> Forum management is often a micro-cosm of real regional politics… maybe real politicians think they are actually doing the right thing too?

we don’t always see eye to eye, but I agree with you 110%

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