I have some concerns about the open forum section. I think its a great idea, and should stay, but is giving bogus stats for certain members and should be made into a seperate site.

When I see somebody with thousands of messages, I imagine that this person has been helpful in discussing MB topics and has absorbed information over the years as well. However, many times they have just been running their mouths in the open discussion and may very well know little or nothing about cars. Its wrong to count experience (in the form of # of posts) gained in the open discussion forum as experience in the tech forums. Perhaps the answer is as simple as not counting the posts made in that forum at all!

Also, I couldn't help but notice we lost boneheaddoctor. I don't know what he did in the open discussion forum to deserve it (tho i'm sure he did something!), but I generally found his replies in the tech and diesel forums to be helpful; its unfortunate that his banning in one forum carried over to the other. The seperation of these two forums would prevent things like this from happening...I remember Kirk vinning had some things to add as well, and he is also now banned for running his yap in the open discussion.

Finally, wouldn't it be good to move the vintage forum up to the tech help and diesel forums? The vintage forum is now a full two pages down the list, and will fall further and further behind in posts and community interaction as newbies miss it and post too the tech forum. Eventually, I'm afraid the vintage forum will loose out to other sites on the net that cater to particular older benz models. Over the years people have bled away as these other sites go up...I can imagine a w114/w115 site springing up and taking the last few members from the vintage forum. It needs to be more prominent!

Anyway bill, this really is a fantastic resource for MB users, and truely the only place to go for DIY benz info!


cheers,
dan r.

I'm traveling this week but once I get back to home port I'll see what I can do.

__________________
Bill Wood - Retired Webmaster
My Personal Website
1998 Mercedes E430
2010 Toyota Sequoia
My Photo Albums

Were we suppose to count experience from the number of posts? Who cares who has how many posts? If you need to find info about a problem, then just search for it. Why do you care about numbers? LOL

Sure, its common practice to attribute experience and gravitas based on post count. It happens on many online forums, this one included. Have you read the thread that was counting down to when the diesel guys had more posts than the tech forum?

As a newbie, its a rough way to gauge the advice you are giving-not a final method, but definitely a useful one. Several oil-war threads were ended when larry bible made a single post, but ask yourself why would this happen? I'd say it is because his post count and join date show him to be somebody who has been around this hobby for a while now-he's more likley to know what he's doing than you or I.

Think of it as a handshake in a business deal. It is not a 100% accurate method of judgement, but it is something people rely on, and inflation of it is bad for the community. Not a huge deal, but something to consider.

I'm just gonna discard your comment on 'just do a search.' If we followed that logic, Bill could shut the forum to new posts and save some bandwidth! As you say..."LOL!"

cheers,
dan r.

what's in a number?

__________________
"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

Dan, the post counts don't seem to go up for chit chat on the open forum. It appears they are more determined by posts on various forums. That being the case, I think your issue is already being addressed.

This is just my own observation. Mine don't change with multiple posts to the OD. Besides, reading the posts over several days time will usually give you a pretty clear indication of who knows what they're talking about and who is just BSing.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Ya I see both sides of the thing here and I think OD should be seperated. Frankly I WANT BONEHEAD BACK!!!

He's gotten banned several times and frankly, in the case of a previous ban, I think he was baited by someone who wanted to see him gone.......

He's always got a great twist on things and I respected his opinions, even if his avatar was somewhat offensive to me personally. See, that's the problem, people shouldn't get jerked out of shape by what others say. If you're a real man, when someone calls you a jerk, wimp, etc because of something you believe or feel, you suck it up and take it and not play tattle to papa and ask to have that person sent home..........

But that's my opinion, of which I will not take responsibility for fear of joing BHD in the ranks of the censored!

__________________
-Matt

EPA Section 609 Certified MVAC Technician
-----------------
Oil Burner Kartel Member #10

Ahh the smell of Diesel Fuel, it's like coffee in the morning!

My Car:

1982 300SD Turbo Diesel (231,500 miles!) RIP

1984 300SD Turbo Diesel Custom (235,500 mi on driveline.) - On Road!!

www.icsrepair.com

De8go,

This thread is 6 months old...Bill changed the openforums so the posts no longer count sometime shortly after his post back in feb. Siduri dug the thread back up...


cheers,
dan r.

I know, Dan. I'm a salesman and we are obsessed with numbers.
Dee

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles