See now, this is what I was talking about earlier. NAM is growing by leaps and bounds..every day. The larger the group, the more the dynamics change...and the rules have to change to fit the dynamics, not the other way around.
The ignore feature has been on this site for as long as I can remember. I don't have anyone on it (not even bamatt) because I choose to stay out of threads that might be problematic for me. For example, you rarely saw me on the old political thread...cuz I knew I could get in deeeep doo-doo there. Same with the PI thread...I don't go there very much. But I made that choice.
Mark, I think it's safe to say that others can do the same...I hope. Everyone's social filter is different...and they're gonna balk if it's dictated. Sociology101

 

NAMBOM?

 

on another forum (one the top 20 in the world in size), we have the 'OT Kill Squad' - call them deputies...not mods, but, umm, I wouldn't want to cross them. They'll have your SSN, your wife's first grade teacher's name and the name of your dog's veterinarian within just a few minutes of being a jerkoff (or streetracing, which is the ultimate sin).

 

I think the mods need to be public so that people can see they way they help people (one of our moderator goals by the way) and they can lead by example. Also, the idea of some anonymous person delivering a call-out just doesn't seem like it would be taken in the same light as if it was someone you see posting on the site all the time.

I'm not trying to nix the idea...just trying to iterate to see if it turns into something that can be actionable.

Mark

 

I think both approaches have their pros and cons. Something you all can discuss in your moderator forum.

 

I could see how a moderator might not want to post as a moderator all the time. I agree with the leading by example and not making the moderators anonymous, but maybe there's a way for a moderator to downshift from "Moderator" to "6th Gear" at will, or just have separate accounts? Post as a mod when you've got your mod hat on, otherwise you're just trying to have a good time like the rest of us.

 

Just some things I found interesting when I checked:

New members since this thread was started: 81

in terms of the number of members visiting the site:
Tuesday was the 4th busiest day in the history of NAM.
Wednesday was the 3rd busiest day
and Monday... that was the 2nd most active day in the 6 year history of NAM.

There are now nearly 3000 members a day visiting NAM and roughly as many if not double that each day that are unregistered.

Not that any of this has to do with "problems" on NAM, but I think it does add some perspective.

 

Good post - I remember few months ago that Chows4Us was looking at the site statistics and found that something like 50% of the registered users had never made a single post, and that even though there were 30k+ members, the vast majority of the posts came from something like 5% of the members.

Are those stats here on the board, or is there a third-party tracking service that monitors NAM? I was curious to see if the stats/ratios had changed since his post.

 

FWIW, that pretty much describes my own activity for the past 6+ months.

 

vBulletin (the software that runs NAM) has a statistics module in the Admin interface. I pulled most of those stats from there.

 

It's very easy to provide a link to some of the more interesting data. like who the top posters are. how many posts a days. Top search engines that sent the user. All kinds of neat stuff can be pulled from those pages.

 

Hmm - I got the impression that this was something Chows found on the site. Here's the link to the post I was talking about.

Of the ~32k registered members (at the time), 72% of them had fewer than 10 posts, and 47% of the registered members hadn't even posted once. Only 10% of the members had post counts greater than 50.

Having big membership numbers is nice, but the truth is, you could probably fit the people that account for 90% of the posts on NAM in a medium-sized restaurant.

(And who registers and never posts??? It's not like you have to register to browse the forums...)

 

I like that Mark is open to ideas.
I'm reassured that there can be reconciliation between parties that have been FAR apart in the past.
I'm fascinated by all the self proclaimed expertise espoused in this thread.
I'm grateful for the willingness of moderators to weather an onslaught of crap for enforcing NAM's rules.
I think that the bad behavior of some vendors that has been challenged on NAM has proven that self policing can work. (ie... LDG).
I think that the 25 or so NAM members commenting in this discussion should remember that we are an insignificant percentage of the membership. As this is a very public thread and all we can muster up in comments is we few, then maybe its not as broken as some think.
There are many things I like here, and many things I go to other MINI related boards for. I like that arrangement.... No offense Mark, but I don't want NAM to be the sole MINI authority.

my .02 cents

 

See my post above - an "insignificant percentage of the membership" is responsible for the vast majority of the discussion on NAM. Most of the "members" either have never posted at all, or they have post counts smaller than their waistband measurement.

So, I don't think you can draw any conclusions about the validity of this thread from the fact that there aren't hundreds of people posting in it.

 

Ah, what do you know? I thought you had no time for this?

 

True, but you still have to register to do a few other things too, like view a gallery, or send a PM.

I'm quite sure there are a lot of people who use PMs but choose not to post.

 

Don't make me take a renewed interest in it.

 

Don't make me buy another T-Shirt.

 

Sounds like a deal to me.

 

Is it just me or has the tone shifted from "whats wrong?" to "Mark needs more help"?

There is a growing dynamic, with rapid growth last summer and a steady growth with the advent of the R56. MINI community and NAM alike. Some post some veiw some do a mix (I know I'm reading far more than I post on).

My first reaction to this thread was "why would someone ask what is wrong with NAM nothing is wrong here" and I thought about it for a day then came back with the attitude of if NAM itself could be better here is where I'd look to see improvement.

It seems there were judgements naturally open to monday morning quarterbacking, but beyond that I wonder just what people want changed and what does that mean as far as implementation.

Do Moderators want to be able to wear different hats? Do people really want moderators to do so? Should the bar of expectations be set higher for those in 6th gear as more frequent posters, should they be expected to set an example? Is there more that needs to be common understanding amongst people here and have more golden rule respect, less enforcement (practice, fear of andneed for) from moderators?

 

I havn't seen you around in a while dave

 

I troll here rather than actively participate in discussions (except for a few exceptions of exceptional boredome or outrage) which is uncommon for me on forums. I typically like to debate and such but on here feel that there is a bit too much backlash for toeing the line, it's just an uncomfortable feeling that's either developed in the last year or so or that I've begun to notice as I've read more.

On other sites I typically quickly rack up posts, and without useless BS spamming, and often become a moderator (and on one occassion was appointed admin of the site) as far as member behavior NAM seems somewhat average conduct wise although there are distinct sub-groups in the community that tend to create friction. It's pretty difficult once these form to maintain a smooth running site as the moderators start to fall-into these sub-groups. I've found that over-moderation early on can be beneficial to prevent these and maintain a site with a core group of good members and a lot of well behaved trolls. I presonally have a bad habit (or maybe good) of doing complete background checks on new members, just to see who they really are and what they do on other forums. Fortuneately people use the same unique screenname on multiple forums and a quick Google search turns up a lot of useful warnings (go ahead, I dare you to search Deviant), I also search their email-address in MySpace and it gives me even more good info. Usually in about five minutes I can have a small life story of any potential problem member and then send them a very scary PM at the first sign of trouble.

As far as usage it seems that it not uncommon to have people who sign up then never return or sign up and only post a greeting. Some of the mods can sometimes track these people as they sign-up, look around the site, use all the features once, then never return again. The site just didn't hold their interest, it's human nature.

On the topic of anonymous moderators, I have to disagree with that idea. Moderators are people too but they must set the example for the site and be willing to take some of the negative consequences that come with that role. You can't make everyone happy all the time but generally if you're an honest and fair moderator, you're accepted by the other members in discussion and not discriminated against. It's not easy but it's the nature of the internet.

Earlier systems of punishment were discussed, I've found that temporary bans are the best for simple offenses and permanently banning people has fallen out of favor as it seems to only encourage problem members to re-register and create new problems, rather than straighten up and become active members of the community.

I really think it's just the sites rapid growth and the communities rapid change (as used MINI prices drop you'll find a different type of member joining) and this is normal of any site. After a while either the site will settle into a general reflection of the average MINI owner, or a tipping point will be reached and dramatic changes will occur on the site, moving it in a completely new direction that better reflects it's owner's goals of the site.

 

If NAM ever became so Big Brother-esque to use an email address given at sign up to perform searches on people I would want no part of it whatsoever. Just reading that gave me the creeps

 

Wow! Catching up with this thread has been most interesting. I prefer to be one of the NAM Yippies, vis a vis this thread. Seriousness always needs to be reminded of just where they are. That said, good job at seriousness, folks. Although I do find it absurd that someone would accuse someone else with the loggin NAMe "70sLiesureSuit" or some such, of being sexist. I say bring on the wet T-shirts (Tuner Shirts).

Sociologically speaking, society will out. The idea that only a small number of the members are active is, like, how things work. What I've absorbed is that "What's wrong on NAM" is what's right. Serious consideration of the question. Respect for what's said. Tolerance of fools like me.

Hey, this could be a fun place!

 

I definitely agree with you. The thing is, I don't think you'd necessarily *know* about it before hand, not if you had just found the site. :/