:word:
i dont feel any disconnection at all.
people are taking this way too seriously. i think that there has been a bit of overmoderation in the trader forum, but thats my opinion. i know that i have viewed fs threads a lot less lately as a result, but i still enjoy the forum as a whole.
honestly, this whole thing is just blown out of proportion. it all seems very trivial to me.
my 2 cents.
brosef: it’s Winter time. :lol:
But, yea.
obviously parking lots are usually lame meets nowadays, but pretty much everyone used to chill back in the day in some way or another…isn’t that how this got started after all?
:word:
that was the point i was making… kinda round about i guess.
some of us have gotten old, and like to hang out and wash our meds down with a couple of beers… but there are still a lot of younger members joining all the time, and hanging out in parking lots. to me, and apparently darkkstar thats lame, but to them its a way to kill time.
i think onyx is try to point that out. most of the mods do not go to meets. why? because i can hang out in MY garage, wrench, and drink beers with the forums geriatrics. personally i like X’s garage. he has that fancy floor.
I feel like the second option is just what the board was going for all along so I vote that. Keep the OT in the OT section and I’m happy. I think it has a place.
Permabans only if someone is really begging for it. At that point it’s a matter of trusting the mods and I’m fine with that.
Okay, I agree with what you are saying, but it’s those reasons that should help us stop being so “disconnected.” While everyone may not be at the same meets, and we don’t all get together and know everyone intimately, it’s safe to assume that a majority of the new members have SOME automotive interests.
SHIT.
I think I just argued against my “cruelty to noobs” preference.
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 and 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?
i edited and added some comments to the bottom of that.
i shoudl say that i dont have any issue with the moderation of NYspeed, i think this place is great and i consider it a home away from home… but what happened with teh classifieds is a step in the wrong direction imho.
there are moderators issuing temp bans on users on SON for posting off-topic in the classifieds. i see that as still being offensive but at least on the surface the classifieds are still functioning well.
the for-sale section is very often a back-bone of a forum… i know that on the biggest 240sx forums the most active sections are the for sale sections and the activity in those sections is indicative of how healthy a forum is in the long term.
Alot of the brand equity of a forum is developed through a healthy classifieds base because it contributes to all other functions of a forum.
I think the forum is fine, maybe it can use alittle fine tuning but nothing perfect and theres way too much going on here to be bothered. Most people on here are pretty cool, ive gotten to know a bunch and have no problems with anyone on here.
That’s only part of it, and I wish you guys could see past the whole “mods should go to meets” aspect for just a sec.
This site keeps gowing, expanding and evolving while the moderators become more distant from the members. The mods have to stay active in the community in order to keep up with the changes. A part of that is going to the meets, but there has to be an effort by the mods to want to be part of the community before there can be any discussion of how else to keep them connected. Some of the mods don’t even post or contribute to this forum on a monthly basis let alone show up at events where the members are.
+1
bing thanks for taking the time to contribute all that. I only know how to be a hilarious post whore, never modded anything, so I’m watching this thread closely to make sure I at least know what people want. Thanks dude.
Even I agree with bing this time.
Just a few of my thoughts:
NYSpeed is a location based automotive forum.
This being said, it will never be as Automotive focused as many would like, since it will never be specific enough. If I own a RX-7 and need advice - it is much more likely that I will be going to the RX-7 or at least Mazda forums for advice.
NYSpeed is a community of people based out of the Buffalo area who share a common interest - Cars/Driving/Speed/Performance.
I think the direction that this place started to take in the last year is the best way it could go. NYSpeed needs to be (and already is) a community, where anyone can talk about anything, but will cater to the single common interest in many different ways.
The shows, track days, meets are the best thing thats happened to this place in the last year and I think that the more we can do in terms of these things, the better.
Most forums will run themselves with very little moderation if left alone.
Over-moderation just amplifies most situations.
