Forum Changes: New Forum for Politics and Religion

[Wayne 962]

I've received several complaints recently about the OD forum here. I'm going to make some changes. On the Pelican forums, I created a separate Politics and Religion forum to separate the topics, and that has worked very, very well since 2008.

Needless to say, some changes will be made. Firstly, there is a new forum for Politics and Religion topics only. If you post in the main forum when you should be posting in the politics and religion subforums, then you will be warned and/or suspended from posting in OD for a short period of time. Other changes will be more subtle, but they will lend themselves towards a more harmonious gathering here.

Please join me in doing your part to clean up the OD forum. I will also be extremely disappointed if this post deteriorates into negativity as well.

The new forum can be found here:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/open-discussion-politics-religion/

This worked very, very well on the Pelican forums - it made the OD forum there fun to look at again - filled with interesting stories and the such, without all of the irritation of politics, etc. I suspect with a little bit of effort, this will have a very similar positive effect.

Thanks for your assistance,

-Wayne

[Air&Road]

Thanks Wayne!

I hope we can get some really good car discussions going in the non politic forum to prime the pump. I look forward to talking about cars and planes without being attacked.

I am assuming that OD can be used for discussion of anything other than politics and religion, and not limited to auto related subjects.

Thanks for providing this for us and I hope it makes it easier and not harder for the moderators.

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by Air&Road

Thanks Wayne!
I am assuming that OD can be used for discussion of anything other than politics and religion, and not limited to auto related subjects.

Yes, that's correct.

Thanks for providing this for us and I hope it makes it easier and not harder for the moderators.

Should be easier, based upon my past experience with this. I've also installed the same "helper" script here that I use on the Pelican forums that runs every five minutes and automatically moves threads with certain keywords in the title (like Clinton, Obama, CNBC, etc.). That little bit of automation helps a lot.

-Wayne

[chilcutt]

Will you have a separate moderator for this new venue ? How will it be moderated..loose or tight ? Or, will it be based on a Wild West style ? Is the rating "R"..or "PG"?

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by chilcutt

Will you have a separate moderator for this new venue ? How will it be moderated..loose or tight ? Or, will it be based on a Wild West style ? Is the rating "R"..or "PG"?

The Pelican forum is loosely moderated, although the the forum is still rated at PG-13. That is absolutely necessary to avoid having the site flagged as not-safe-for-work and/or by outside censor firms like McAfee that tend to block sites based upon "mature content".

-Wayne

[Dudesky]

Originally Posted by chilcutt

Will you have a separate moderator for this new venue ? How will it be moderated..loose or tight ? Or, will it be based on a Wild West style ? Is the rating "R"..or "PG"?

Funny you should ask.....LOL

[Skid Row Joe]

I'm in!

[cmac2012]

This is the setup used at Bimmerfest and it works pretty well.

[Stretch]

I hope this works - if it does it will be a great improvement

[JimFreeh]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

The Pelican forum is loosely moderated, although the the forum is still rated at PG-13. That is absolutely necessary to avoid having the site flagged as not-safe-for-work and/or by outside censor firms like McAfee that tend to block sites based upon "mature content".

-Wayne

I'm sure a lot of us wouldn't want THAT to happen.

Jim

[JB3]

this is an excellent idea, in other forums i have seen this method, its extremely effective.

[layback40]

Great move Wayne!
Sub forums have worked before. The alt fuels forum in Diesel discussion was a good move back before your time. I hope this sub-forum works as well.

[SwampYankee]

Sounds like a plan!

[Shortsguy1]

Wayne:
I don't have a strong opinion about the change to OD, but I am not a fan of the other changes. PP has too much information for all those new subforums to be visible from the entrance page. Each state should be at some sub-level and not visible from the first landing page. It has made the entrance page unwieldy, especially on portable devices with small screens (and small fonts). It is harder to find the classifieds (for instance) now that they are SOOOOO far down the front page. I always preferred PP to Benz World because PP has fewer categories. This means that I can learn more stuff in one subforum. But the new changes have made PP visually quite similar to BW.

I didn't know this thread existed, so I mentioned most of this here:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/general-feedback/357140-do-you-like-new-initial-thread-page.html#post3355471

[MS Fowler]

Wayne,
I
Really appreciate being able to post on religion and politics. Thanks for continuing that option.