Popularity of car forums diminishing?

[Ali Al-Chalabi]

Originally Posted by GottaDiesel

Censorship -- as soon as people have to think twice about clicking submit the community falls apart. It has been my experience since my days of running a BBS on my C-64 that this is how it works.

You start a community around a common bond. In our case, The Benz. Then you wander to the "social area" -- In this case the OD. From there you talk and you build a "bond" with like-minded people, and the community goes and grows from there.

As soon as you start censoring and banning people for moronic reasons it has a HUGE effect. People start to think twice about posting things that they want to for fear of being banned, etc. At that point, people start to look to other venues to socialize at the "cyber" (I hate that word) level.

There have been many stories and links that I would have loved to share here, and many of them would have made great conversation by both like and unlike minded folks here... but after the Bus Driver bull***** that I had to deal with... no thanks.

IMHO,

Pete

This forum has always been one of the more civilized bulletin boards on the internet. I like the moderation on here, as there are other places for people to flamebait and hurl insults at each other.

When Mshop was started, there wasn't even an open discussion.

[rickg]

Originally Posted by GermanStar

I bet a sticky complainer's list thread would slow it down some.

We could catagorize and number them. then when you wanted to rant about how stupid Bush is, you could just say "Bush #12", or how much Kerry reminds you of Fred Munster it'd be "Kerry #5".
Think of all the typing it'd save!

[Zeus]

Originally Posted by Ali Al-Chalabi

When Mshop was started, there wasn't even an open discussion.

True, and I think Ashman suggested OD. I miss many of the early regulars - JCE, ebennz (Peter), etc. Good times!

[Ali Al-Chalabi]

And who could forget longston, dlswnfrd, and of course Benzmac.

[rickg]

Where's Spock, bardii, Tank.......................

[GottaDiesel]

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Yeah well maybe if you guys didn't run and complain when you got your feelings hurt we wouldn't have needed to take some of the actions that we did.

Besides I give you guys a lot of latitude.

I think you are just getting tired of talking about the same stuff again and again. How many times can you talk about how much you hate Bush?

I wouldn't have a problem with the "run and complain" poker if the game was played on a level field. But it isn't.

[chowpit]

People just don't know how to carry on a good healthy debate while maintaining respect for one another. Members have come here just to force their opinoins down other's throats and flame those who disagree all because they are too narrow-minded to see that they might be wrong.
Just my two cents...............then again I could be wrong.

[Azimyth]

Originally Posted by GottaDiesel

I wouldn't have a problem with the "run and complain" poker if the game was played on a level field. But it isn't.

You mean there are affirmative action moaner quotas? Well, here's a Kerry #5 for you

[Hatterasguy]

I miss the old days as well. It seemed like their were a lot of good threads every day on OD. I pretty much just skim over them. You can only take so much of the US sucks and Bush is stupid crap before your head explodes.


Now lets number the sayings to save bandwith.

For example insted of typing liberals are commies, type #3. I think we could make up a chart and get threads to this point.


2,3,5,6,7,8 See look at all the space saved!

[GermanStar]

Originally Posted by w126

The good old days were pre 9/11.

More specifically, pre-Iraq. I think we were all pretty much pulling in the same direction in regard to 9/11...

[John Doe]

[QUOTE=Hatterasguy]Yeah well maybe if you guys didn't run and complain when you got your feelings hurt we wouldn't have needed to take some of the actions that we did. [QUOTE]

Oh God, I hope the Cheney thread really wasn't closed yesterday because of the admitted tattling???

There have only been a dozen (or less) out of thousands of members banned. I don't think that has affected the forum. I agree that it is the repetition, not the censorship.

[Botnst]

[QUOTE=John Doe][QUOTE=Hatterasguy]Yeah well maybe if you guys didn't run and complain when you got your feelings hurt we wouldn't have needed to take some of the actions that we did.

Oh God, I hope the Cheney thread really wasn't closed yesterday because of the admitted tattling???

There have only been a dozen (or less) out of thousands of members banned. I don't think that has affected the forum. I agree that it is the repetition, not the censorship.

Would you mind repeating that?

Bard ii

Originally Posted by Zeus

True, and I think Ashman suggested OD. I miss many of the early regulars - JCE, ebennz (Peter), etc. Good times!

Back then you could post a picture of your family without fear of whacko's. The forum hasn't changed it is the people. When you look back at how good it was then all you have to do is look at the additions to see why it went bad.

[Botnst]

When I first started brewing beer I really enjoyed it and thought it would be fun to find other brewers and learn from them and drink lots of good beer. So I found a local club and they made great beer. Every one of them. And they were extraordinarily dedicated and knowledgeable. In fact, they were so dedicated and knowledgeable that they were kind of snobby. I mean, I was and am happy with using malt extracts and dry malt while they believed taht malting your own barley was the only good beer. I'll say that their beer was bar far the best I'd ever tasted so I don't doubt the truth of what they said. But they were snobs and not really interested in welcoming somebody new who was obviously unsophisticated in palate and dedication.

I think there maybe a danger of some of that attitude on car fora. What do we do whenever a newbie shows up with a question? Most of the time we welcome them and answer their question, introduce ourselves and then ask them if they've used the search function. Sometimes we aren't that considerate.

For what it's worth.

Bot

[GermanStar]

I'll never forget that 16 yo girl who got raked over the coals for announcing that she was a girl a few months back. Of course, then I recall that she attacked me for doing nothing but defending her. So, I guess she had it coming after all.

Anyways, you're right Bot -- not a lot of newcomers check in here. And that's partly a strength and part of the problem. The stability here is wonderful, but the lack of fresh ideas makes it seem a bit ho-hum at times.