jimlab

Is the main problem, in my opinion. If there were some way to limit the number of posts a user could make in the lounge or difference of opinion forum in one day, that might make people think before using them up on worthless topics or simply to post *****. I can name several total wastes of bandwidth including Makenzie71, Manntis, Sterling, Amur_, and Erk. Why should they be allowed to burn up a huge amount of the available bandwidth just because they're bored and have nothing better to do than live in the lounge?

Second, no images should be able to be attached in the lounge. Save the images for the tech forums and for sale section. I don't know where Amur_ got the idea that he was a "Chop Masta", but overlaying text on an image does not constitute Photoshop skills. It's bad enough that half a page or more of each issue of RX Tuner is wasted on his crap, but he's attached 100s of images in the lounge over the last couple years, I'm sure.

Personally, I'm just sick and ******* tired of not being able to post an image or having posts time out because the server is constantly bogged.

dubulup

a couple years ago this forum was a lot better...now I don't bother reading threads started by people I haven't heard of (or have repect for).

Another couple years these cars will be harder to maintain (age of everything) and hopefully rare enough that they will sell for a highier price than "$7k with blown core" <--total of eleven grand and that is a deadly weapon for a kid.

I vote for a "private/elite/veteran" (whatever) section that you need to be invited into or show proof of ownership <---how, don't know?

rxrotary2_7

another one of these threads?
yeah it does get very annoying. and i have suguested an "upper level" section for a long time. its not gonna happen....
I do think Jim is right about "chop masta" and *crew*, and the image attatchments.

Scrapiron7

I pretty much just stay out of the 3rd gen section anymore these days. Too many posts are the "I'm 16 and just got my FD and can drive mad tight yo" style. The amount of technical questions and knowledge is steadily slowing

Insurace crap, which BoV is loudest and age threads do NOT belong in the 3rd gen tech section.

rxrotary2_7

one thing i am glad to see has not gone on lately is the "$100 to whoever can answer my question and fix my car over the internet" threads.... i racked up a few hundred and was never paid.

Scrapiron7

Also, I think there should be a dedicated photo's forum for people posting pics of there car just because they cleaned it or put new wheels on. I know I am guilty of this as well, but really that doesn't belong in the 3rd gen tech section either.

obviousboy

i know honda-tech.com
which is the largest car forum i know of (75000 members i think) will not let you post until after 15 days or something.

Well that sucks but I think what would really help is a Noob Section. This is the section you can post in durring your first 2 weeks of trial. After that welcome aboard

MrDizzy

Ive been reding this forum for one and a half year (since i got my FD) but just resently joined due to i think i could contribute a little.

My suggestion is that the gen sections are splitted in two parts to sort out alittle of the noice.

One general part where posts are more like they are now(since i have no hope people will get better and first use search, then search, and then maybe post new thread)

And

One tech part where post should be more like "this is how i solved this problem"

That and more moderation on moving topics to correct sections.

SlingShotRX7

oh GEESUS another one of these THREADS..

Talk about the POT calling the KETTLE BLACK..

Practice what you preach you HOLY righteous ONES.

1st of all. I am tired of all you Harvard Grads and english
majors treating this forum as if it was english class.

2nd of all. THIS is the INTERNET. stop WHINING.
(wonder who is gonna be the first one to CRY about
my Capital letters.)

I been on this forum for a long time, now. I have seen
alot of people come and go and etc.. And one point
or another ALL of us were NEWBIES.

For all you cry babies. If you don't like what you see
stop crying about it and Go to the NEXT thread..

Tired of all these perfect people taking up bandwidth
with tired old boring threads like THIS one.
Funny how some of the ones that WHINING.
don't have anything good to contribute anyways..

my .02cents

jimlab

Which wasn't worth ****... go play in the lounge where you belong.

Jim Swantko

LOL - well said!

Jason

iTrader: (5)

Im all for making some changes to the forum if it will help weed out the crap.

One thing I thought about doing is creating a "General Tech Section" subforum in the 3rd gen section. All tech questions will be placed in there. Everything else 3rd gen related can stay in the main section.

Jason

jpandes

Why don't we all use the "rate this thread" feature and have the Mods quickly delete the low rated threads FAST. Or simply just have the Mods delete the crap as it shows up.

rxrotary2_7

mods dont get paid to do this. i'll be damned if i am going to move any thread that isnt rated. i bet people wouldnt rate the threads anyway.... bad suguestion IMO. but thanks for at least caring enough to try.

jimlab

Well, let's talk about posting pictures.

I haven't been able to successfully post a picture in weeks now, and even text-only posts have been timing out occasionally, often resulting in double posts, even when I check to see if the post actually went through and wait several minutes before resubmitting specifically to avoid that.

When images were able to be posted, the wait was extreme while the server mulled through every image ever posted (I assume) checking for duplicates. I understand that this keeps the number of images down somewhat, but so many have been posted that if the server is at all busy, a post with an image attachment will often time out.

That would be fine... if the image wasn't uploaded when the post fails. But more often than not, trying to resubmit results in a message that <image>.jpg has already been posted in <null> thread, which of course is not accessible, because the post it is apparently attached to doesn't even exist. This results in an orphaned image that no one can use, and you're either forced to resize/rename the image and try again, host it yourself, or give up.

Bottom line, a picture is worth a thousand words... in the tech forums. Pictures of someone's supposed-girlfriend's cleavage or Amur_'s latest "owned" masterpiece and the other horseshit that goes on in the lounge not only make the problem worse by tying up server resources with off-topic threads, but add to the mess by contributing dozens of images that hardly ever get reused and serve no purpose beyond the moment.

If the people killing time in the lounge aren't paying for their bandwidth, why should they be allowed to impact the rest of the forum for their own amusement? Disabling attachments in the lounge and difference of opinion forums and forcing them to host their own files would cut down on the problem somewhat, but someone needs to go through and delete a lot of the single-use images that have been attached to speed things up a bit when posting new images.

Second, it would be nice if there were an easy way to access previously attached images by adding functionality to the search feature. If I could more easily track down a post in which I or someone else attached a specific image, it could be reused instead of requiring a new one to be uploaded because you can't locate it. Right now I'm using a word .doc to keep track of the images that I've posted, just in case I need to find them again, but I didn't start that until recently, so there are many that I've missed, and that doesn't help me find images that others have posted.

That goes for the orphaned images mentioned above too. If the image actually posted, it would be nice to be able to access it without having to rename and try again with <image>2.jpg, <image>3.jpg and so on, which wastes resources. We've got several dedicated photo galleries already. What about having one where you can find or search for images that have been attached to posts in the other forums?

Tech threads should be able to have images attached because you can't rely on hosting. I've had two shot out from under me so far, and all of those images are now red Xs. I'm currently hosting a couple dozen images for How-Tos (a few of which have been archived) because I wasn't able to get an image to upload due to server load. If I remove those images from my own server, those threads are now half-worthless. I say half because my descriptions are pretty good, but the pictures really make all the difference in helping other people understand what you're talking about.

For Sale threads, on the other hand, are usually one-shot deals. Most people won't re-use those images later, especially after the item is sold. I can see justification for disabling attachments in those forums as well. If they want to sell something, they can find a way to host the picture themselves, or just send pictures to interested parties by e-mail. I've posted a few pictures myself in the for sale forum, but they have been ones that I've intended to and have reused in other threads for the most part. Any picture that's just related to an item being sold I'll host myself, or won't post a picture at all.

Anyway, that's my 6¢ worth. Fix the attachment problem and I'll be happy for awhile.

rxrotary2_7

agreed.

diablone

iTrader: (2)

With what Jimlab has said just above, and the grace period between signing up and posting, I think those two changes would help alot. I'm glad to see that both moderators and admins are acknowledging the problem.

dclin

iTrader: (4)

I would pay for the privilege/bandwidth to post pictures- say $10 one time fee, or whatever. I'm willing to bet that it would weed out the rejects really quickly. Those that really have a need to post pictures (for tech support, or to truly share) shouldn't mind the token cost.

Shinobi-X

I agree. Aside from actual issues being raised, much of these complaints are about things that rival pop-up ads and junk mail in annoyance- its the nature of the internet. Just like I can filter those two out though, I don't pay much attention to some of the minor things written on the forum.

Jason,
I think thats a pretty good idea. In a sense, thats what Mahjik does, but I think your idea would futher help to direct people to the more specific post they respectively come here to read.



Do you belive in Mahjik?

SNracing

i definatly agree w/ you shinobi-x, mahjik does an awesome job of fining threads where people just needed to search for something that has been covered many times and closes the thread. i think everyone should thank mahjik for his hard work. searching for a specific topic can sometimes be a pita but somehow he always finds what everyone is looking for. you da man mahjik!

diablone

iTrader: (2)

It would be nice if some posts were deleted rather than just locked. Sometimes I'll search, and I'll find more locked threads telling to search than I find real threads on the topic.

Obviously some are better locked than deleted, but if a post only tells a person to search or is just mindless dribble, it's not very helpful to have that as a search result.

clayne

Geez. Come on! Forest for the trees...

Mahjik's job is not to go and SEARCH threads for other people who should have done the SEARCH in the first place.

For every time Mahjik quickly provides them what they were looking for - is yet another time that same person will rely on Mahjik, without being proactive, and coontinue to repeat the same behaviour.

Shinobi-X

I think the greater purpose behind Mahjiks method, is to quickly close the thread, while not alienating the member themself. People who are told to "do a search" sometimes run into the same problems that diablone outlined. I for one have run into this problem as well.

Either way, with Mahjiks method, the threads that do need to remain open will perpetuate themselves as worthy topics of discussion. How effective this method is, I don't know (and of course its arguable), but until we have something else available, I'd say it works. If Jason does indeed put his idea and a few others into practice, hopefully Mahjik won't have to do this as often as he does.

jimlab

Bad analogy. Pop-ups and junk mail are annoying, but don't keep you from getting things done. If all we were talking about was the number of off-topic posts and there was no impact, the answer would be simple; just don't read them.

The noise we're talking about is more like spyware. It keeps accumulating and slowing down your system more and more until you do something about it. All the "pop-ups" and "junk mail" have a direct and very noticeable affect on everyone.

Don't believe me? Let's shut down the lounge and difference of opinion forum for a couple days and see what affect that has on the speed of the forum.

As much as I like him, I think he's an enabler. It's a proven fact that people don't learn from having their work done for them. Mahjik is the net for people too stupid or too lazy to do their own thinking.

clayne

"As much as I like him, I think he's an enabler. It's a proven fact that people don't learn from having their work done for them. Mahjik is the net for people too stupid or too lazy to do their own thinking."

Exactly. (nor do I think he is a bad guy or anything, just that that searching and cut/pasting of links he does for others consistently IS enabling)

Why should we be a board for idiots?

I really do not see the reason to be interested in quantity of members. We should be interested in QUALITY.