Possible emerging trends on Forum?

[Malcolm]

At the risk of being flamed (nomex on!) I believe I have noticed two distinct trends emerging on the forum, neither massively distasteful to me personally but perhaps worthy of pointing out to others so that people can form their own opinions. And I expect to get some flack for doing this but hey ho there you go!

Firstly I have seen a few claims made by manufacturers, supplies and service providers that to me with my 17 years of GT40 replica world experience seem just a bit too full of BS. I am not going to name names as this is not intended as an expose but a plea to manufacturers, suppliers and service providers whoever they are and wherever they are to be as honest as they can be about their products and or services. My concern is that newbie’s or naïve owners may fall foul of these claims and buy a product that doesn’t quite meet their expectations in terms of quality, delivery and back up. There is a lot of great stuff out there for us all to play with and 99% of it can stand up proud and hold its own in a competitive market. That final 1% (or whatever exact percentage it really is) should not be over sold.

The second trend is on the humorous front. Or what some find not so funny. Certainly I think some jokes, stories, postings are crap and or in bad taste. And some see my postings that way to, I am sure. However the vast majority are great, keep putting them up! But the trend I see is one that where the joke/posting is a bit closer to home we do get more indignant about it. Maybe rightly so? Maybe not? Is it right to have a laugh at a terrorist blowing himself up by mistake (a video link was posted quite some time back) any more or less than a posting that tried to inject some humour about the RF fiasco? Anyone who gets a kick out of watching any person die, be they the bad guys or not, is sick in the head to me. There are lots of jokes/stories posted involving far away countries and stereotypes as well as those closer to home. But why be more upset over the close to home ones? We moan about the world having gone too PC. Are we being hypocritical in our own reactions? What I find amusing is that when a controversial posting is put up, those that don’t like it, post replies so it stays at the top of the page. If it was ignored then it would drop out of sight quite quickly, the poster would spot that because no one replied to their thread, it might have been in poor taste so may learn to adjust their postings accordingly!

Let’s see how long this thread hangs around for!!!!! 

[Iron Sheik]

Dear Malcolm, I usually respond to posts that are distasteful and ignorant

However, this is one time that I find myself responding (as hard as it is for me) to A post that is neither distasteful nor ignorant. As you "English" say "Spot on, chap".

[Bill D]

I'm just going to get some popcorn, kickback, and watch

[JimmyMac]

Malcolm
OK, Here is my opinion to open the shooting feste.

Feedback : Buyers, sellers & Vendors - Move to GT40 Market Place.
Vendor and Manufacturers Announcements - Move to GT40 Market Place.
How To Articles - Waste of front page space and duplication - What's wrong with GT40 Technical Forums ?
The New Ford GT - move it out of General Discussions (anywhere please)
Sports/GT Racers, Can Am etc - should be in the paddock where it originally started.
GT40 Media Centre - Move to Miscellaneous with the Paddock.
The Paddock - Enough said by me elsewhere new rules are required.

Add more switches so I can turn a lot of this noise off.

[Ron Earp]

Not sure I agree with all of JimmyMac's suggestions but I do agree with one - the How To articles take up too much space. They are very useful, but I need to figure out how they can be controlled like they are, but be integrated into the other technical forums that they essentially follow. Will work on that one for sure.

[Howard Jones]

Malcom, Ron, The two areas that I think might warrant discussion are deeply held non-automotive political opinions that pretty much are guaranteed to piss off other people and excessive nudity.

There are so many political and sex related web-sites and so few GT40 sites that maybe we would be in the long run better off remaining focused on our common love of these great cars.

I don't mean to say that pictures of lovely ladies or political comments that are in context with this site should be out of bounds. God knows I love a nice rack or a good political joke from time to time but mean or nasty doesn't really do much to enhance our GT40 web site experience.

So far things have been in bounds most of the time. I kinda like it that way even if I have been a little hard on the other end of the political spectrum from time to time.

Please don't think I would favor censorship of anything other than outrageous content. I will leave the definitions up to others. I only offer my opinion.

[SteveB]

Originally Posted by Howard Jones

There are so many political and sex related web-sites and so few GT40 sites that maybe we would be in the long run better off remaining focused on our common love of these great cars.

Well said. A little more GT40 focus please, to avoid 'Forum drift'



Steve

[Iron Sheik]

Ronald the Moderator Man,

The Paddock section of this Forum is by far ,,"My favorite" section. Get rid of IT, and you will get rid of Iron Sheik

Don't get me wrong, I like GT40 stuff,,,but, in another 5 years it will be as exciting as my Cobra was, NOT

I must humbly admit, If I were to find a car today that has more bling than my GT40 (and I can afford it), I would get rid of it in a heart beat (perhaps a modern version of battmobile?!).

[Sandy]

Originally Posted by Ron Earp

Not sure I agree with all of JimmyMac's suggestions but I do agree with one - the How To articles take up too much space. They are very useful, but I need to figure out how they can be controlled like they are, but be integrated into the other technical forums that they essentially follow. Will work on that one for sure.

I like this idea better, they are too static and are more difficult to make comments on. It almost feels like projects should be live like Wiki's allow, not sure if one could be set up, but it might be a better way to go. I do like the projects but seems like it will become static.

Sandy

[David Morton]

Tantamount to censorship.
That's for the weak and feeble minded. (IMHO)
Use the ignore facility if necessary.

[Ron Earp]

Never fear Iron Sheik, there will be no changes that will drive you away....the paddock will stay for sure, but we might try to do better on organization as JimmyMac suggested

[Mike]

Concur with David. Paddock = "anything goes", so enter at your own risk. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, it's when they try to impose their opinion on everyone else that problems arise. Sure, there are boundaries, but who gets to decide?
How about the moderator? Ron does a fine job.
Everyone else, simple solution, don't click on topics you find questionable. I don't care for some of the stuff that gets posted, but hey, that's my problem. Where does it say "I" get to tell "you" what I like or don't like...and vice versa?

[Joe T]

Originally Posted by mikegaan

Concur with David. Paddock = "anything goes", so enter at your own risk. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, it's when they try to impose their opinion on everyone else that problems arise. Sure, there are boundaries, but who gets to decide?
How about the moderator? Ron does a fine job.
Everyone else, simple solution, don't click on topics you find questionable. I don't care for some of the stuff that gets posted, but hey, that's my problem. Where does it say "I" get to tell "you" what I like or don't like...and vice versa?

Mmm sort of true, but I suppose you have to ask why have a paddock type area on a pretty specific forum?
Why fill a forum area with idle banter and not just focus on the the main reason for having a GT40 forum, there are loads of other forums where you can rant off about politics or religion with all the other "nothing better to do with my time" numpties..
It all takes up server space, and means data searches have to troll through all the irrelevent crap.

I am not talking about censorship,
Censorship is the suppression or deletion of material which may be considered objectionable, harmful or sensitive, as determined by a censor.
If there was no paddock area there would be nothing to censor IMHO.

That should do it................ wheres my nomex.

Joe T

[Mike]

Taking up server space and heavy duty data searches are valid points, although that's not what I gathered was the point from the starting thread. Re. 'why have a Paddock section', perhaps its because a lot of the car enthusiasts here aren't really into web surfing and searching out/getting on to the untold number of forums out there. I, for one, definitely do not web surf or belong to any other forums, so the Paddock makes for interesting and varied reading when I do get on line. If we kept it to GT-40s only, we could also get rid of the Sports/GT Racer, Can Am etc. section.
Perhaps a) Ron could count the number of members who participate in the Paddock to see if it's only a few marginally interested GT-40 guys/exceptions, and b) take a vote and see just how many people would prefer to not have it?

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

Originally Posted by Joe T

Mmm sort of true, but I suppose you have to ask why have a paddock type area on a pretty specific forum?

Many people consider other members of the forum as friends, mentors, advisors sort of like an extended family and I don't talk only about one subject to my friends, if I think I have something of interest, or possibly amusing to say, I'll say it. Not everyone will find it funny, or possibly even interesting but it all adds the the spice of life in my eyes. I know I don't read 'EVERY' post on the forum but I do look at most, esp if they are getting a lot of hits. If there was a particular thread or section I did not want to read, I'd ignore it. Hell you can even edit your profile to exclude sections from your own viewing portfolio if they bother you that much.

Originally Posted by Joe T

If there was no paddock area there would be nothing to censor IMHO.

That should do it................ wheres my nomex.

Joe T

Nice concept, but would'nt work I feel. One thing the paddock enables is for people to vent and let off steam about other matters/affairs, whatever the subject (within reason) and the generally excellent signal to noise ratio is maintained on the other forum sections by the membership's own good self-discipline. We have not had many occasions where people have had to be warned or banned and of those that have, not having a paddock would have made no difference at all.

Again, anyone who does not want to either read or post items in the paddock, doesn't have to. (Including this one..)

[David Morton]

Does all the back slapping, fantastic job, way to go, How do you make it look so bright, absolutely stupid questions that can be answered by a 2 year old take up server space as well Joe? I'm sure it does but Ron hasn't
made any comments about it and though it really pisses me off, I don't say anything about it.
Right - back to work.....

[Russ Noble]

Originally Posted by David Morton

and though it really pisses me off, I don't say anything about it.

Sorry David, but you just did......

[RichardH]

Originally Posted by David Morton

Does all the absolutely stupid questions that can be answered by a 2 year old take up server space as well

The problem with dumb/stupid questions is that they are only dumb an stoopid to those that know the answer! The way to increase ones knowledge is to