What is wrong here on NAM
OVERDRIVE
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 7,201
Likes: 8
From: Norfolk, VA
Banned
iTrader: (1)
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,054
Likes: 0
From: As far away from Florida as I can get.
Can you imagine The Lord NOT having a sense of humor? 
P.S. I think we will need a 2 search limit in a 24 hr period.
North American Motoring :: Founder
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 3,070
Likes: 0
From: Colorado
I would really like to see someone try to write a "Dummies" guide for the NAM search engine. I've already outlined my gripes with it here in the thread, but suffice it to say, anyone that's tried to use the search feature here once gets no flack from me if they choose to never use it again.
The big issue is trying to use terms that have three letters or less. Unfortunately a lot of things MINI-related use three letter acronyms....CAI, JCW, MCS, etc. That said search is somewhat of an art form even when using Google. I can generally find what I'm looking for with the NAM search although I may have to think out of the box on what terms to use.
Regardless I know its an issue and all vBulletin sites of NAM's size or bigger suffer from the same thing. I'll continue to watch to see if some of the solutions become viable replacements.
Mark
6th Gear
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,396
Likes: 0
From: H-bar-on-two
Why not just incorporate Google search? Anyone who's so inclined can already do so by just limiting search results to northamericanmotoring.com, anyway. (And it will search on three-letter acronyms. 
)
)
North American Motoring :: Founder
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 3,070
Likes: 0
From: Colorado
I'll look into it and see if its possible to more tightly integrate it in. I've also found some updates on another search effort I've been watching and it might prove to be usable. Before getting into it further I need to finish up some code I'll be releasing on the site.
Mark
Mark
Ok a few things some stemed from this thread, don't want to sound like I'm whinning but I thought I might throw them out on the table for discussion.
Post counts went all over the place
OT:Games-only for game threads that you play in not threads about games, further divdes the OT section up for a section that only holds a handful of threads that really IMO didn't hurt regular OT reading.
Excessive Speed/Stereotypes about cars.....As far as the excessive speed it was suggested here that things be more leaniant, it seems the polar opposite approach has been taken and instead of the community saying thats not what we're about here it became free reign for a lot of people to "preach" and "flame" instead of letting the thread just die on its own. And that sort of welcome by the community seems to have turned people away if not left a sour taste abotu NAM with them. I know its a proverbial line inthe sand that is being adjusted, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it.
Conversley the topic of the MINI being a "gay" car came up, and while this didn't lead to public flaming and the thread carried itself with a steady flowof comment despite a few complaints about a lack of search (basically all from one perosn who kept returning and deleting their posts) the thread was locked (and as best I can tell removed) and this type of thread was banned from further disscusion, if that was the case about every repeat "MINI too small" "radar detector" "driving light" "which pulley/cai/enginemod is best" NAM wouldn't be much longer than the Wikepedia article on the MINI. Whats more the topic itself was handled civily and had a progressing conversation so this was less harmful than the concurrent speeding threads that were left alone but doing more harm to the community.
Ok, it's out there for discussion.
Post counts went all over the place
OT:Games-only for game threads that you play in not threads about games, further divdes the OT section up for a section that only holds a handful of threads that really IMO didn't hurt regular OT reading.
Excessive Speed/Stereotypes about cars.....As far as the excessive speed it was suggested here that things be more leaniant, it seems the polar opposite approach has been taken and instead of the community saying thats not what we're about here it became free reign for a lot of people to "preach" and "flame" instead of letting the thread just die on its own. And that sort of welcome by the community seems to have turned people away if not left a sour taste abotu NAM with them. I know its a proverbial line inthe sand that is being adjusted, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it.
Conversley the topic of the MINI being a "gay" car came up, and while this didn't lead to public flaming and the thread carried itself with a steady flowof comment despite a few complaints about a lack of search (basically all from one perosn who kept returning and deleting their posts) the thread was locked (and as best I can tell removed) and this type of thread was banned from further disscusion, if that was the case about every repeat "MINI too small" "radar detector" "driving light" "which pulley/cai/enginemod is best" NAM wouldn't be much longer than the Wikepedia article on the MINI. Whats more the topic itself was handled civily and had a progressing conversation so this was less harmful than the concurrent speeding threads that were left alone but doing more harm to the community.
Ok, it's out there for discussion.
OVERDRIVE
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 7,201
Likes: 8
From: Norfolk, VA
I agree - if a thread has already gone several pages/days and has remained civil, I don't think it's appropriate to step in and lock/nuke it just because it deals with a topic that's either controversial or has been covered here before.
Likewise, there was a post recently with a link to a Flash-based "political campaign game", where candidates and their staff try to take over the country, "Risk"-style. The thread was immediately locked for "political content".
At the point the thread was locked, there hadn't been the first whiff of political discussion, and the game itself was cute and innocuous. The thread could have easily stayed on the topic of the game itself, possibly being used to coordinate multi-player matches or the like. I felt it was a little heavy-handed to pre-emptively lock it just because the game was a cartoon parody of the primary process.
Likewise, there was a post recently with a link to a Flash-based "political campaign game", where candidates and their staff try to take over the country, "Risk"-style. The thread was immediately locked for "political content".
At the point the thread was locked, there hadn't been the first whiff of political discussion, and the game itself was cute and innocuous. The thread could have easily stayed on the topic of the game itself, possibly being used to coordinate multi-player matches or the like. I felt it was a little heavy-handed to pre-emptively lock it just because the game was a cartoon parody of the primary process.
North American Motoring :: Founder
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 3,070
Likes: 0
From: Colorado
There have been no changes to post counts or post count displays yet. What will likely happen is that post counts will be removed from the general thread/post display and only be found in someone's profile. When I have some time I will implement this.
This was a request from Clover who, obviously, spends a lot of time in OT. As with almost all the other forums on the site we roll out new forums based on requests from the members given consideration with how we would like the site to be organized. This seemed like a reasonable request so it was implemented. Clover is in charge of making to OT:G forum work effectively 
In this thread people felt that in regard to speeding that the mod team was overmoderating when it came to mentions of speed. Frankly I just don't want talk of street racing and illegal driving because besides being a legal problem I end up spending a huge amount of time trying to police it. When the feedback came in asking that the members of the site are perfectly capable of self-moderating this (ie - the community is saying it isn't ok to act this way) I was happy to oblige this.
Again, another case of a huge number of people reporting the post and saying that they had a problem with it. Again, this is a slippery slope. I know it offends some people and others think its funny. Regardless its something that has come up time and time again on the site and it doesn't tend to self-moderate. When moderation intervention is required its very difficult to unwind who started throwing punches first and how each should be dealt with. Given this I felt it was a better option to remove the thread for now.
Since all this feedback has been received we've only issued one warning to a member. There have been no user bans (except for a couple of spammers). Additionally there haven't been nearly the number of reported posts as their had been in the past. I think that is a direct result of the feedback received in this thread.
I know that the site will always have its warts and it won't please everyone. That said I do try to make sure that the greater interest of the site is served and am open to changing things when there is feedback to do so. In the cases mentioned above there doesn't appear to be an easy way to have it both ways when people ask for less hardline moderation and then want hardline moderation in certain cases. Also, with more than 55,000 posts per month there is simply no way that I and the moderators can review every post on the site. The community needs to set some expectations of how users are to interact on the site. When someone isn't aware of those expectations someone should take a little time and care in chatting to them about it. Just a couple seconds of good will can go a long way.
Mark
Excessive Speed/Stereotypes about cars.....As far as the excessive speed it was suggested here that things be more leaniant, it seems the polar opposite approach has been taken and instead of the community saying thats not what we're about here it became free reign for a lot of people to "preach" and "flame" instead of letting the thread just die on its own. And that sort of welcome by the community seems to have turned people away if not left a sour taste abotu NAM with them. I know its a proverbial line inthe sand that is being adjusted, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it.
Conversley the topic of the MINI being a "gay" car came up, and while this didn't lead to public flaming and the thread carried itself with a steady flowof comment despite a few complaints about a lack of search (basically all from one perosn who kept returning and deleting their posts) the thread was locked (and as best I can tell removed) and this type of thread was banned from further disscusion, if that was the case about every repeat "MINI too small" "radar detector" "driving light" "which pulley/cai/enginemod is best" NAM wouldn't be much longer than the Wikepedia article on the MINI. Whats more the topic itself was handled civily and had a progressing conversation so this was less harmful than the concurrent speeding threads that were left alone but doing more harm to the community.
Since all this feedback has been received we've only issued one warning to a member. There have been no user bans (except for a couple of spammers). Additionally there haven't been nearly the number of reported posts as their had been in the past. I think that is a direct result of the feedback received in this thread.
I know that the site will always have its warts and it won't please everyone. That said I do try to make sure that the greater interest of the site is served and am open to changing things when there is feedback to do so. In the cases mentioned above there doesn't appear to be an easy way to have it both ways when people ask for less hardline moderation and then want hardline moderation in certain cases. Also, with more than 55,000 posts per month there is simply no way that I and the moderators can review every post on the site. The community needs to set some expectations of how users are to interact on the site. When someone isn't aware of those expectations someone should take a little time and care in chatting to them about it. Just a couple seconds of good will can go a long way.
Mark
Ok, well I posted this in another thread in this forum and was ignored, but I'd like some feedback on my thoughts...
I've noticed over the last few months that there are moderators and admins falling into the standard posting category, and at the same time one half moderator has been added. NOT saying it is at all related to IB but it is something that will need to be addressed since before the upper echelon started fading there was already a tone of "need more help moderating but unable to bring it about" IMO how the moderation situation goes is going to have a larger effect on things than who is doing server maintenance.
North American Motoring :: Founder
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 3,070
Likes: 0
From: Colorado
If I'm missing your point please let me know and I'll try to address it the best that I can.
As for your previous post being ignored I apologize for that. Its nearly impossible for me to read each of the nearly 55,000 posts that make it onto the site each month
Mark
I would really like to see someone try to write a "Dummies" guide for the NAM search engine. I've already outlined my gripes with it here in the thread, but suffice it to say, anyone that's tried to use the search feature here once gets no flack from me if they choose to never use it again.
6th Gear
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 2,881
Likes: 6
I agree on the search engine problem. I don't know what the deal is with it. I can search for threads I know have keywords in them that I posted or started and it can't find them. It doesn't always do that but the majority of the time I search for something I give up and find it myself.
Did you know that you can use Google to search NAM and get a more refined result?
I find that the search facility provided is excellent at searching for single words. However it does not provide the sophistication of tools like Google for searching for exact phrases.
To get this sophistication do this:
Open Googles advanced page:
The first section of this page is shaded blue, and contains the following items:
with all of the words
with the exact phrase
with at least one of the words
without the words
You can add words to varying degrees of sophistication for your search.
This is the important bit!
Just below this blue shaded area there is another section, go to the fifth item down in this section which is:"Domain" also make sure "Only" is selected. In the next text box (to the right of Only) place the domain you want to search in, this case you want to search the Access Forum so place in this box the following:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums
I find that the search facility provided is excellent at searching for single words. However it does not provide the sophistication of tools like Google for searching for exact phrases.
To get this sophistication do this:
Open Googles advanced page:
The first section of this page is shaded blue, and contains the following items:
with all of the words
with the exact phrase
with at least one of the words
without the words
You can add words to varying degrees of sophistication for your search.
This is the important bit!
Just below this blue shaded area there is another section, go to the fifth item down in this section which is:"Domain" also make sure "Only" is selected. In the next text box (to the right of Only) place the domain you want to search in, this case you want to search the Access Forum so place in this box the following:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums
3rd Gear
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 151
Likes: 0
From: Australia
I havn't read all the posts in this thread so im sorry if this has already been mentioned but i believe a lot could be gained by removing the 'posts count' as a lot of people seem to post just to get their post count up while not actually contributing anything.
Secondly & even more importantly i believe a lot could be gained by removing the '1st Gear-6th Gear' status as this definitely creates discrimination & victimisation towards new members.
Just a couple of ideas that may be worth consideration, please don't start flaming me because i am not from the US or in 6th Gear.
Secondly & even more importantly i believe a lot could be gained by removing the '1st Gear-6th Gear' status as this definitely creates discrimination & victimisation towards new members.
Just a couple of ideas that may be worth consideration, please don't start flaming me because i am not from the US or in 6th Gear.
6th Gear
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 2,881
Likes: 6
I havn't read all the posts in this thread so im sorry if this has already been mentioned but i believe a lot could be gained by removing the 'posts count' as a lot of people seem to post just to get their post count up while not actually contributing anything.
Secondly & even more importantly i believe a lot could be gained by removing the '1st Gear-6th Gear' status as this definitely creates discrimination & victimisation towards new members.
Just a couple of ideas that may be worth consideration, please don't start flaming me because i am not from the US or in 6th Gear.
Secondly & even more importantly i believe a lot could be gained by removing the '1st Gear-6th Gear' status as this definitely creates discrimination & victimisation towards new members.
Just a couple of ideas that may be worth consideration, please don't start flaming me because i am not from the US or in 6th Gear.
Like all things...
it is abused. While I too really don't see the reason that many want to inflate the post count, it does provide a rough guide to the eye of the amount of time invested in participating here. Sure there's a bit of "noob" scorn or artificial respect for those with high numbers of posts, but overall, it seems to me it's more value than problem. What I'd love to see (that would be impossible) is a content filter on post count, so all the "Good morning!" like posts didn't count (somewhat sarcastic suggestion) but it would also be nice if there were a way for long timers to earn some more gallery space. I'm maxed out and have pretty much given up on posting more photos or how tos.
Oh well, yet another thing in life that isn't perfect. Pretty much like everything else!
MAtt
Oh well, yet another thing in life that isn't perfect. Pretty much like everything else!
MAtt
Vendor & Moderator :: MINI Camera and Video & c3 club forum
iTrader: (6)
Actually the simplest way is go to google.com
In the search box type your keywords to search for and follow it with
"site:northamericanmotoring.com" without the quotes and you're done.
ex. jetblack mini cooper site:northamericanmotoring.com
Takes all of 5 seconds to find anything on NAM. The downside is that I don't think you can filter it to find posts only in the R56 forum, etc... can you???
In the search box type your keywords to search for and follow it with
"site:northamericanmotoring.com" without the quotes and you're done.
ex. jetblack mini cooper site:northamericanmotoring.com
Takes all of 5 seconds to find anything on NAM. The downside is that I don't think you can filter it to find posts only in the R56 forum, etc... can you???
Did you know that you can use Google to search NAM and get a more refined result?
I find that the search facility provided is excellent at searching for single words. However it does not provide the sophistication of tools like Google for searching for exact phrases.
To get this sophistication do this:
Open Googles advanced page:
The first section of this page is shaded blue, and contains the following items:
with all of the words
with the exact phrase
with at least one of the words
without the words
You can add words to varying degrees of sophistication for your search.
This is the important bit!
Just below this blue shaded area there is another section, go to the fifth item down in this section which is:"Domain" also make sure "Only" is selected. In the next text box (to the right of Only) place the domain you want to search in, this case you want to search the Access Forum so place in this box the following:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums
I find that the search facility provided is excellent at searching for single words. However it does not provide the sophistication of tools like Google for searching for exact phrases.
To get this sophistication do this:
Open Googles advanced page:
The first section of this page is shaded blue, and contains the following items:
with all of the words
with the exact phrase
with at least one of the words
without the words
You can add words to varying degrees of sophistication for your search.
This is the important bit!
Just below this blue shaded area there is another section, go to the fifth item down in this section which is:"Domain" also make sure "Only" is selected. In the next text box (to the right of Only) place the domain you want to search in, this case you want to search the Access Forum so place in this box the following:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums
Nor do I think you can have it just list the threads....
so it's not a cure all. But it's a better search than the native function. Seems like we're somewhat damned either way!
Matt
Matt
North American Motoring :: Founder
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 3,070
Likes: 0
From: Colorado
Click here for the search feedback thread
Mark
more appropriate here....about the Sam debacle.
and this is different how from the last time you asked him not to? come on Mark...this guy is bad for your business and forum but then you already know this.
and this is different how from the last time you asked him not to? come on Mark...this guy is bad for your business and forum but then you already know this.