Is the Open Discussion Forum worthless?

[Bill Wood]

I am getting more and more discouraged about the tone and language used in this forum. In the history of MercedesShop, we have NEVER had the volume of flaming and personal attacks that I now see in this particular forum.

At this point, I'm about one post away from eliminating this entire forum. It has become more of a liability than a benefit.

The WHOLE REASON MercedesShop was created was to provide a forum where fellow Mercedes owners could learn, share and discuss information related to Mercedes. We would bring Techs and owners together. That's it!
The Open Discussion forum has turned into the Wild West! Many of the discussions that offend Members are ones that have nothing to do with Mercedes.

Should we KILL this forum or try to fix it?

Open Discussion can be pretty fun at times, and it can also be kind of a snake pit.

If people really want to indulge in serious flaming and out-of-control discussions, there's always www.battleboard.org and www.off-topic.net for anyone that's interested.

I say keep it, with tighter controls.

-Sam

[rickg]

I'm about ready to just not come over here anymore, and just stay over in the diesel forum. But I keep hoping people will mellow out.
Maybe a penalty box for those who get to actually making threats to others, or something. Don't know what the answer is. If you do eliminate it, I won't blame you.

[suginami]

I say eliminate it or drastically change it.

The personal attacks have gotten way over the top and the hurt feelings are spilling over into threads on other sub-forums.

Further, I was the victim of an unexpected "out from left field" strange, bizarre, and offensive personal attack in the form of a private message from a fairly newcomer to this site.

I would post it here but it would be too offensive for the good taste of the participants on this site.

If you decide to keep a general open forum, I say limit it to general discussion about Mercedes cars in general that don't require tech help. Or even a forum not limited to Mercedes cars, but just cars in general.

If you notice, there are many posts in the Tech Forum like "should I buy an E320?", or "What to look for in a 400E?", or even the many posts about Mercedes perceived lack of quality or low ranking in JD Power surveys. If you think about it, there's no good sub-forum for these kind of topics.

I think if anyone starts a thread that is non-Mercedes or non-car related, it should be deleted immediately.

I've been a fairly active participant just over a year with well over a thousand posts, and the tone of the forum has plummeted in the last 3-4 weeks.

[Snibble]

I don't think we should eliminate it. I come here to have fun and see whats going on with the other benz owners. We all share stories, come here for a laugh and what not. True, there has been some flaming... but the good things in this forum far out-weighs the bad.

We have people of different backgrounds and sometimes it works to our favor in asking questions about things that don't necessarily deal with our cars. It is useful for some people. Besides, have you noticed that this is the most popular of all the forums? It would be a shame in my oppinion if this fun open discussion board is eliminated.

[Ashman]

I think we should instill a zero tolerance policy.

Any unnecessary comments, flaming, disrespect, or anything else that is offensive to another member, should not be taken lightly.

A temporary ban on members who violate the zero tolerance policy, as a first warning would work well It hink, and a permanent ban if they don't heed the warning given.

I think that open discussion is a good place for members to get to know each other on a more personal level, and for people to post things they find interesting, or discuss things that aren't necesarily mercedes related.

If the concensus is to drop the open forum, I support that.

Alon

[kerry]

I misunderstood the title of the forum. I thought it literally meant ópen''. I did not realize that it was an open discussion about Mercedes. I thought it was the kind of place where people who talk about cars on the other forums could exchange ideas about other topics, kind of like having a few beers with friends after working on the car and discussing current events.
I do think there are a number of personal attacks that seem impolite but there are also interesting exchanges of very divergent opinions. I say keep the forum alive but remind people periodically that politeness is the grease of a smoothly functioning internet community.

[Bear]

I dont post that often here anymore,but still come over often to browse the postings.I noticed recently things are getting way out of hand and find this quite off putting.I've made many friends here and gained some valuable insight to MB's and their workings.But I find the current direction of the open forum is tarnishing this experience.Keep the open forum but police it tighter , if you don't this cancer will spread to the rest of the site.Just my view , you asked.Bear

[Glen]

Bill/all:
The Open Discussion forum has been interesting and informative. It helps us get to know each other better and share bits of our lives outside of our interest in Mercedes vehicles.

I would prefer we try to fix it, however, I realize this means that someone will have to spend considerable time moderating and
I doubt you have any extra time for this!

With 10,000 plus members, it's clear we cannot self-moderate, there's just too many personalities.

I think it's also clear that we cannot rely on one person to moderate a forum as "wild" as this one can be. I'd like to offer a possible solution. I think we need a handful of member volunteers to act as a unified moderator for this forum. In addition, this "moderator group" should be anonymous to protect moderators from being directly flamed.

What do you think?

[Palangi]

This forum serves a usefull purpose, and I would hate to see it eliminated. That being said, it needs to be kept under control much more tightly than it has been. Maybe there could be a box at the top of the page with some clear "rules of conduct". I like the idea of a "penalty box" for those who step outside the boundaries of conduct. For serious violators or repeat violators, moderators should absolutely kick them off, permanently if necessary. That goes for all forums, not just Open Discussion.

Again, I would point out that this forum serves a usefull purpose, and that hundreds of members use it without any problems whatsoever. The recent problems have been the due to a very small handfull of members (some new, some not so new) running wild because there has been no penalty for bad behavior.

[Ken300D]

We have a number of new members who belong on the Yahoo bulletin boards with their posts - not here.

I say eliminate any non-Mercedes forum if it is taking the time of the Webmaster. And I would be in favor of something other than automatic user registration - or some way to flag repeated re-registration attempts from the same Internet domain. The same troublemakers keep coming back after being booted, and there is some indication of people keeping multiple registrations to stir up the flame pot.

Your REAL customers of MercedesShop are being chased away.

ELIMINATE what must cause 90% of the workload, and none of the valuable content.

Ken300D

If it's bringing money to FastLane or MB Autowerks keep it, if not bye bye.

Whoops Ken hit it while I was typing DITTO!

[ymsin]

I once asked if the Open forum was limited to the discussion about "anything you want to here including cars other than Mercedes". I observed that it was more of a social forum than talking of other cars.

See: Lets have a Social Forum

Since then, I have observed too that this was one Open forum that promoted more than just cars. It also promoted members to know members on a more personal level. It meant making Benzes and their owners more familiar with one's habit and pesonality - something which mechanics would not comprehend coming from an engine.

True, we have our differences. But such differences do exist in other forums too, regardless of whether its in the Diesel/Tech etc.

The key issue is self-censorship where we ought to know better than to write of derogatory, personal insults, profanities and so forth. Opinions will always be attacked, but why compromise your dignity with such personal slurs? Perhaps we could agree to disagree without getting too personal.

Eliminating this forum would mean members becoming more and more mechanical about the Benz, when the whole attitude should be devoted on how the Benz has also changed one's out look of life, and how other members could possibily enrich it.

We often drive in the Benz and when looking at something totally Un-Benz related, e.g. Guiness Stout, - we think of Kuan. Sometimes, we see other things that we talked of on this forum that we think of Scott, John, Ashman, for instance. Indeed, if it was not for the openess of this forum, Swanee's parents may not have met John and Leise in person!

Such are the issue and policies confronting the Webmaster and its Administrators. There are bound to be distractors, but never let a minority wipe out the majority's passion for flexing beyond the Benz issue.

I think I may have said enough.

May 2003 bring more wisdom to everyone than a barrel of wine would.

[chowpit]

I say keep the forum "open". I have learned a lot about fellow forum members (pets crossing the rainbow bridge, what our PC rooms look like, etc.) that otherwise wouldn't be discussed in other forums on this site. I really enjoy all facets of this site. I am a MBCA member and their tech forum can't hold a candle to this one.

Because of this forum I was recently able to enlighten members of the "dark side" of the mechanic profession. Some may or may not agree with but, that's not the point here anyway.

IMO it is the moderator's job to moderate. A simple solution is for the moderator to lock down any inflammatory threads before they get too far out of control and issue a warning to those involved. If the offender's do not correct their behavior, kick'em out.

Oh yeah, use those damn emoticons!!

[engatwork]

My vote is to get rid of it.