J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

Fair enough...

inflatablepets

You know, Now that I look back at it, this place has gone to pot. I was away for a while and it seems like things have gone south.

firestarter810

^^^ cuz people are babies...

I've only been here since mid may and I'm pretty sick of it.
Why can't we have a place where people can get help with problems without getting ridiculed? Why can't people provide that help without being snide and holier than thou? Why do we need mods telling us what we can and can't say? And by that I mean, why can't we be adults so the mods don't have to hand out bans? Why, when you are an ***, can't you just take your punishment without crying about "this mod did me an injustice...what an ***"? Why can't the mods take my advice and just deal with things in private so as not to encourage these fools? Why do mods feel the need to walk around with a big e-****?

Babies... the lot of you...no better than 4th graders.

When I want this kind o behavior, I visit Illstreet. I expect better of RX7Club.

Agent_D

iTrader: (2)

^ agreed

i also agree with you aaron, ive been around since, i believe it was 98 or 99, i was member... i think like 400 something, it was a great forum to be in, nowadays its ****. being here so long i know pretty much who and who doesnt know what their talking about, i always recommend; NZ convertible, Hailers, Icemark and RETed for pretty much all information.

one thing i think needs a VAST improvement is overall support, gxlbiscuit had posted a thread about someone building a bigger hood scoop, he didnt want a bunch of bullshit posted about how people "think" it wasnt going to work, we neither had numbers to prove it worked, but no one had proof that it didnt work either, it was just insisted upon.

no i have not read the rules since my join date 5 or 6 years ago, 99% of the time i can keep my cool, but some things, and users (zero cylinder) anger me, i even wished death upon zero cylinder cause i hate him so much as a forum member, and i havent changed my mind about that either, he is the spawn of satan. and members like him need to have disciplinary action, he has a blatant disrespect for EVERYONE on this forum, posts horrible **** in serious threads; i believe he posted bad stuff about a guy that had a wreck and his very young (only months) old daughter was hurt, about him not knowing how to drive when he clearly had no fault in the accident whatsoever.

i appreciate what youre trying to do, i just believe, sometimes, its done improperly, or gone about the wrong way.

oh, on a note for the newbs with trainee's, i think it would be easiest if there was a newb section, several of us long timers could be assigned (volunteers) to the section, and only people who have been here less than 2 or 3 months can log into it, to keep all junk out of the section, have a password protected area.

iceblue

I can see it now RX7 forum passwords on kazzaa and IRC and alt.cracks

I remember in 1999 when this place was rx7forum.com was black and purple never had sub category rooms and non of this bickering was going on. I do not know how the 3rd and 1st gen sections are doing these days but I think it is up to us not the mods to turn this place around as we are complaining it used to be and take responsibility in our own hands in a mature professional manner.

Help the mods out. If an n00b is saying something stupid address it formally and correct on the forum and communicate with them as a way to provide good NFO over PM. If we do not like there thread then don’t reply. I highly doubt anyone on here ever posts knowing what they have read is incorrect other words they would not post it.

I know I personally have been striving to help n00bs out more lately these past few weeks and give them a quick run down, brief not in-depth and tell them this is covered in the archives. If I know a thread I say this user has posted on this search there name or here is a link to some NFO that may help you on what you want to know. I know this is working b/c I have received tons of PM’s saying thank you from n00bs and how does this sound I found in this thread from searching.

This whole rice VS race deal is getting old too. I see that most of the older members and or members that are seeking high HP cars are against the rice deal and may even take it personally when someone ricers our beloved cars out. This is as well an opinionated argument as to what we or other race style member sees as rice. But honestly it is there car and yours is yours. Maybe we could stop saying go away ricer your stupid get a Honda. If he wants to put a wing and neon’s on let him. If he needs help wiring it lets help him. If they ask for opinions then feel free to give them I hate rice and so on. For the people who ask for opinions stop getting your panty’s in a wad when someone hates your car and says so.

gxlbiscuit

hmmmmmmmmmmm well who put that there ..." If you are going to tell someone to search, do it in a kind and respectful manner. Suggest possible search terms, or post a link to a completed search. Posts containing only "SEARCH!!!", "Search noob!" or variations are unacceptable and will be deleted." you freaking mods snuck that in there when my back was turned..... i would have gotten away with it if it wasnt for those medling MOds!!!!

rick_tj

Aaron, I have all the respect in the world for you. You were a cool guy to meet and all, but I too must have a few words in this thread. You can't "fix" a forum. Its an impossibility. I tried to do it on the forum I moderate, and it didn't work, at all. Forums, like people, evolve into what its surroundings turn it into. You won't always be able to maintain the same member base. It will constantly be changing. This post is about vehicular forums in particular, FYI. People will buy the car, and most will naturally come across a message board to talk to other owners of that particular car to talk with. This allows our member base to grow. However, sometimes they don't like the car, and sell it. Sometimes they will also leave the board, as the information that is there isn't relevant to them anymore. Sometimes you have an absolute idiot join the board, and post only inflamatory type stuff, of which is no use to anyone. In my personal opinion, restoring a board to where it used to be can't be done. The member base has changed. Especially when you're talking about something like 5 years ago. That's a significant amount of time, and things change with time. I may just be rambling, but hopefully someone understands wtf I'm talking about. I like the forum the way it is. We have new people coming in all the time. I wish they'd use the search function too, it would save a lot of useless clutter in the main. However, I don't think they should be told to search. That accomplishes nothing. What if someone else, a lurker perhaps, has the same problem, and just didn't think to search? By not being rude to the newbie, you might encourage the lurker to join, and then you've got two new people, who have just been helped, with no flaming necessary.

Those are my two Canadian cents. Enjoy
-Rick

1987RX7guy

iTrader: (3)

If noone minds i'd like to take it upon myself to draft a "plan of action" for the "mentor" program?

I already have some ideas that I wish to run by AgentD and you MODs aswell. I think you all could greatly help in developing my ideas to help our new members be productive.

1987RX7guy

iTrader: (3)

I've been working with Ddub with showing him my ideas on how to impliment this program. I believe that it can be done with good strategy and some dedicated volunteers. I've been tinkering around with my OWN forum to see what can be done with PHP forums and I believe it would not be too hard to create a system where new members could be routed through a Mentor/Protoge system to help curb the "newbie" syndrome the FC tech section has contracted.

I have some rather simple images discribing what would be going on and how it would work. Hopefully our moderators and administrators will back us up on this!

If Aaron, Mark, or Ddub are willing to hear my case out seriously i'll be ready to propose it tommorow or the rest of the weekend mostly any time of the day.

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

Mods are doing a great job, think of the bull they have to put up with on this forum day, after day, after day. Stupid questions like "can i turbo my n/a" god i bet Aaron thinks "what have i done" everytime he sees one of those. I guess to get answers around here you have to search, even though someone could easily just tell you. Whatever works i guess. We should have a vote system for banning of members ^_^. Its late, I'm running out of steam. Blah.

firestarter810

^^^ what we should have is common sense.

A noob asks a question, regardless of the topic or content. If you do not like the thread, or do not know the answer, DON'T weigh in? How hard is that? 20 people jumping down his throat because they don't like him painting pink polka dots on his FC or saying "Search Noob" is as much a waste of space as his original question! If you do know the answer, supply it, then kindly tell him how the search function works and be done with it.

No, you're never going to eliminate them all... but you will inform and educate the ones, like me, who really want a smooth running, mature, intelligent forum for answering tech questions. And although you may feel that a question on how to wire neons under the car isn't a tech question vs. turboing your N/A; to the person spending their hard earned money on their/our beloved car, it is just as important and just as valid.

F1blueRx7

iTrader: (5)

Cause kevin has to get his bling bling in to his sig while i'm trying to download my **** AND read the forum. It just doesn't work man.

felixwankel88

ide be in for a n00b mentor plan, just lemme know if u need more people

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

You are teh n00b still! (And I knew you were being sarcastic Aaron, that's why I put the smiley, otherwise I'd of insisted you had a flappy head and various other not so nice things, lol)

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Juet a few quick comments this time:

Most of what is dealt with is already done in private. There is only a small subset of it that the public see. Sometimes warnings and such in public are unavoidable. If a thread is being polluted, EVERYONE needs to know to stop it. Otherwise there is another set of posters that will start all over again.

Mods need to remain visible as well. If people see that the mods are doing their jobs actively, one can hope that these people are smart enough to keep their behaviour in check.

It is not just new users that are guilty of this. Many experienced members post about things they have no clue about. For example, "NA turbo" threads are STILL full of misinformation from people who by now should know better. And I have warned multiple people about posting information that is incorrect, only to have them post it again knowing that they are spreading misinformation. For example, a thread about 6 months ago where one user kept insisting that the brake rotors and hubs are one piece, even after multiple corrections.

Agreed. There's no harm in saying "Now I don't agree with what you're doing, but here's how to do it...". It is frustrating, however, to see 20 posts with "RICE RICE!". And considering that most of these posts come from people who are just trying to "be cool"...Well, you see where I'm going with this...

I do disagree on this based on experience. Years ago, I and a dedicated set of Mods/Admins "fixed" the MP3Car forum. It took hard work, several months and pissed off a lot of people, but it brought the forum back from a cesspool into a useful information source. Unfortunately in the mean time as many of those Mods/Admins left (including me) it has slightly reverted, but it still is better then when we started. The forum on my website has also been consistently useful, and is always a welcoming place because I established a clear no tolerance policy at the very beginning.

Go ahead. Hopefully we can get something that will work...Just exclude software solutions, because it is unlikely that we can get the forum modified.

1987RX7guy

iTrader: (3)

Well unfortunately I was basing my approach moderately to heavily on the capabilities of a forum like this. My own PHP forum has the capacity to create permissions for specific sections and groups with group "mods" which would have worked idealy imo.


If we won't be able to even do that, which was a simple task that I researched in around 30 or so minutes, then I don't see why you all are even trying, honestly. I know its a "big" task to ask the admins for stuff but if it is for the better of the forum I would think the admins would back it up. Can't we just bug merciless till he helps us?


The tasks to modify the FC section would take probably somewhere around 30-60 minutes given we have all the start-up group info(name/description/mentor) and Sub-section tittle/permissions. From there the "group" moderators/mentors could add/remove people from their own group so this would take the work load off of the admins once the initial work is done.

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

Way too much work for something that really won't do much. If you go specifically giving n00bs off to mentors, mentors are obviously going to have some that they dislike/don't want to help/etc, and remove them from their group, and ontop of that having to go through a mentor to post/whatever will delay their ability to get help on a problem they have considering nobody's online 24/7, and all sorts of other reasons that I'm too lazy to get into.

1987RX7guy

iTrader: (3)

Simple problems like that would be solved easily.


* We shouldn't have mentors that have very little knowledge which is why the section mods should evaluate the volunteers so that we don't have people that have no business guiding and teaching other members doing so.

* Rocoarse against a-hole mentors would be as simple as pm'ing tech section mods, mentor section mod, or other mentors. Thats plenty of avenues to keep people from being treated unfairly.


* This setup would do A LOT trolls and spamers that sign up just to post insults and start flame wars would be instandly deterred because of the time I would be proposing as the "protoge" period.

* People that don't know which section to find out where to get brackets for V8's would be guided by a mentor towards the appropriate forum "other engine conversion" rather than have them post here and all us diehard rotarheads get our panties in a bunch.

* A newbie would still get HELPED with their problems BY the mentor(s) as part of the program. But the mentor should help in a fashion that promotes selfreliance on the forum and not result in the "spoon feed me please" threads we see often.

* Groups could be setup with one or more mentors having a group of say 15 or 20 protoge's so that if one specific mentor is not online another may be able to help with an emergency situation.


"A lot of work" is hardly what I would call it. An hour's worth of work tops I would say given we don't have like 50 mentor groups to assign.

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

Which involves constant admin/mod supervision, gives too much responsibility to the 'selected' mentors, all because you guys can't deal with a couple of stupid threads that happen to take 2 hours for a mod to notice and move?

1987RX7guy

iTrader: (3)

Thats the whole point. I personally see several threads go unnoticed by mods for the entire day. Mods are on whenever they can not ALL day.

The evaluation of mentors by mods at the initial point is there so that less supervision is needed. If I have trouble with a mod I pm an admin. An Admin doesn't have to supervise the specific mod i'm having a problem with, I can go above that mod's head if he's being problematic with me and then the admin invsetigates as needed, not 24/7


The mods cannot go deleting every thread that is a re-post or every thread that is crap simply because three guys doesn't cut it for this section.

If a group of selected volunteers is willing to help the mods by taking say a week or two weeks with a new member that wants to be in the tech section and say curb the "spoon feed me" threads by say 50 or 70%(hypothetically) it would lessen their work load by a great deal.

The forum as a whole would be essentialy filterd of the stereotype "search" threads you normally find when trying to do your OWN search for something. This service in itself would be great in improving the efficiency of the forum as a tool to provide accurate and easy to find information to new rotary enthusiasts.


I still say its well worth the effort.

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

Get more mods... Problem solved.

gxlbiscuit

well here is how i think you guys should keep it simple......... have a mentor list sticky with AIM/yahoo names on it.... have the forum send an automatic email that just says do you still want to be a mentor every few months. people that have some question can IM.... i wouldnt have a problem answerin questions via AIM. just my half a penny

1987RX7guy

iTrader: (3)

I rather like the idea of a "staging" area for new members opposed to just the "throw more men at it" approach.


Having an area like this would be more likely to teach newbies than deleting/editing/moving their threads. We would be getting a more filtered flow of members in the tech section, that I think is a better result than just moderator actions mentioned above.

1987RX7guy

iTrader: (3)

Yeah this was one of the earlier ideas i had. But I personally like the "groups" setup that a forum can create. Its a more structured setup and organized in a way that MODs and Admins CAN oversee, from time to time, the job that mentor's are doing.

Also having a mentor/protoge sub-section would provide an archived message list that protoge's could come back to if needed rather than having to save all their IM conversations or having to re-ask a mentor.

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

It still requires too much work and effort by everbody for something that's really not a problem. Who cares if someone posts a spam thread and it makes it's way to the 3rd page before a mod gets to it? It doesn't cause you physical pain or do much of anything to bother anybody...