Mark,the reason you get posts like this is the fact that people are people with individual personalities. Not everyone is going to do the same things the same way. Moving the OFf Topic is your choice (it is your site) but the only way to solve this issue without ticking off your site population is have the MODERATORS do their jobs. Each thread on your site has moderators assinged to it but very rarely do we ever see them do anything to rude or otherwise tasteless posts.

On the flip side, I believe one of the the reasons you have such a great and popular site is the simple fact of Off Topic. Please do not go further down the path and remove this item. While I love getting all the technical info about my car from this site I've made friends here because I got to know them in off topic, not the other forums.

_________________

Member #47

2002 Dark Silver Mini S white roof and mirrors with Premium and Sport pkgs.
He has come and his name is MINI ME

 

>>
>>I'm leaving this post in to point out exactly what type of problems we have been having on the site lately. This thread is in regard to a change that was made to the site and the forum is for Site feedback...help me understand why this type of post is occurring....
>>
>>If you can't contribute to the post then don't reply.
>>
>>Thanks!
>>
>>Mark

Sorry Mark,
I didn't mean to offend or take away from your point. As I mentioned in OT, I actually think it's a good idea to kinda put the OT forum a little "behind the scenes". Just injecting some humor into a subject a lot of us are very passionate about.

_________________

 

>>Even I haven't been posting much in OT lately. I've been in MINI Talk more. :smile:
>>>>>>>

There's the reason!

 

>>Mark,the reason you get posts like this is the fact that people are people with individual personalities. Not everyone is going to do the same things the same way.

Agreed..in fact I have a very thick skin and posts like this don't offend me. That said I DO end up having to spend significant time answering emails on why people are offended by this when I could be doing work to further improve the site. From the very beginnning we have had posting guidelines in place to let people know what is acceptable and what is not. The above post, based on the posting guidelines is not acceptable. Furthermore it doesn't have anything to do with my original post and is addressing some other person in the thread...its not necessary. Take it offline into the PM system.

All that I'm asking is that people keep in mind the posting guidelines each and every time they post.

>>Moving the OFf Topic is your choice (it is your site) but the only way to solve this issue without ticking off your >>site population is have the MODERATORS do their jobs. Each thread on your site has moderators assinged to it but >>very rarely do we ever see them do anything to rude or otherwise tasteless posts.

I totally agree with this. To date we've tried to give people plenty of latitude across the whole site...now that the limits have been tested I'll be making some changes on the moderator side as well. I do ask though that everyone assist in policing the site. In the next version of the site you will be able to report a thread that is questionable to a moderator in just one click. That should assist in resolving the problem.

>>
>>On the flip side, I believe one of the the reasons you have such a great and popular site is the simple fact of Off Topic. Please do not go further down the path and remove this item. While I love getting all the technical info about my car from this site I've made friends here because I got to know them in off topic, not the other forums.

I agree with this as well. Off-topic was originally put in place to provide an area to get to know people outside the confines of MINI-related discussion. I believe it has served this purpose well. That said, there have been some posting issues (again...outside of the published site guidelines) of late that have tainted this forum. I want the current OT forum and all the other forums to adhere to the same standards.

Personally I would be open to creating a membership-only OT forum so that you have to be a member to view (this would be done with our next site version) so that it could be a little more "open" than the current site posting guidelines allow. Essentially I don't want the casual visitor, vendor, and respresentative of BMW/MINI coming to the site and being able to access easily the discussions in OT that I've seen in the last few weeks as I believe it hurts the credibility of the site...and drives members away. With some that is a private, members only forum, you would know what to expect going into the forum.

I want to reiterate one more time...I don't wish to remove OT from the site as I believe it has built a lot of community. I do want to emphasize that, for the time being, with the current site design, that the site posting guidelines be honored.

Thanks!

Mark

>>
>>_________________
>>
>>Member #47
>>
>> 2002 Dark Silver Mini S white roof and mirrors with Premium and Sport pkgs.
>>He has come and his name is MINI ME

 

Mark,
Serious suggestion here. Another site I frequent only makes their "off topic" forum visible to logged in users. This way, visitors can't see the Off Topic forum in the drop down list or anywhere else unless they are logged in.

doable?

 

In recent months, I've seen the post count of some members leap beyond 1K very very fast. Many of these members rarely contribute anything but emoticons and nonsense like what is seen on page 1 of this thread. I spend way too much time weeding through smiley face posts just to get to real information. This kind of O.T. behavior has spilled all over MCO.

I support the move to put O.T. in the background. I also would support eliminating the ranking by # of posts per gear. While the intention was good, it has created a foolish competition, whereby someone is judged by the number of posts on the site. There are some members that regularly contribute volumes of helpful information and opinions, yet their post count is minimal compared to others that contribute fluff, fluff and more fluff........I've had enough of wasted bandwidth and wasted time.

 

[puts on flame suit]

Sorry, but there really has to be some more self-control put forth, and more emphasis put on clean posting of actual content. I would point you to the post-fluffing-chocolate-counting-grudge-matching silliness as an example of a general lack of O.T. content. Some claim that its humor. I personally think that is a cop-out and believe it's mindless bandwidth filler when there are 40+ pages of 4 word long posts. There are some people that are almost exclusively posting just to that one thread, and not even venturing out to the rest of O.T. let alone the rest of the site. I don't see how a sense of community grows from extremely brief and formulaic replies to just one particular post. I like today's change, but there needs to be a similar change in posting habits to go with these more structural changes to the site. O.T should be a supplement to the MINI forums, not a substitute for them.

my $0.02004567 (adjusted for inflation)

[/puts on flame suit]

_________________

 

I think it's all Grudge Match backlash!!!!


Sorry, but I don't post much in the other forums because I know diddly-squat about cars. So, I only lurk the Mini Talk forum and don't go to the others at all. I use the OT forum to interact with the fun MINI people. I can't contribute much to discussions about ricers because I still don't entirely understand what one is. And I have no idea what makes a MINI run, except for my foot going down on the gas. So for me, MCO is more of a fun place to chat with people than a site to discuss a car. I like seeing pictures of MINIs as much as the next guy, but they all start to look the same after a while.

What I did was change my bookmark to take me directly to the OT forum. That way, I still have one-click access, and can then go lurk the other forums as desired.

I think that "must be logged in to see the OT forum" is a great idea, I also have seen that done on other sites.

 

Bah, Dave, I think you have post-count jealousy!

 

Dave, I agree with your assessment of the OT posts (particularly the grudge match thing

 

Mark, Dave and others...

Here's my take on OT and on-line posting in general.

There's many people here who've developed relationships (both in person and just online). Therefor you'll get banter back and forth between them. Just like you saw with Red and Sam earlier in this thread. Right or wrong, this type of banter shows that the MCO is developing relationships between fellow MINI owners.

As far as fluff, everyone's life has "fluff" in it. Water cooler talk at the office, or emailed jokes thru the company, chatting with the neighbor about the weather, talking about the latest sitcom with the grocery store check out clerk. It's everywhere and you cannot hide from it.

In regards to post with just emoticons, sometimes those are the most telling posts about a person and what they're feeling. Sure, there's other times where it was pointless. But take for example a stand-up comic. The comic books date for live performances so he can guage how good his/her jokes go over . They get immediate feedback as to what works and what doesn't. I think the same thing goes for on-line communities as well. People share with others what is acceptable and not acceptable by telling them so online. Sometimes it can be a .

In regards to posts with only two or three words. That just comes down to the fact that some people are naturally verbose while others are not. Sometimes it is a time issue when a person is on their break from work and needs to get involved in some discussions, but doesn't have the finger speed to write a book on it.

Take a look at my posts for a second. Some are short and to the point with just a couple of words or emoticons; other posts are long winded. There's posts in most every forum, some are fluff and others are informative. Some are technical in nature, some are opinions being shared, others are organizational in nature (like the coordination of fun-runs and get-togethers), then there's all the questions being asked just for the sake of information gathering. I couldn't image what it'd be like without the fluff.

I like the idea of the OT being hidden. It will definately clean up the site's overall presence. It already has. But, as some have pointed out in this thread, don't get rid of it. There's still good use for it.

I also suggest that objectionable posts be taken care of quickly. Or posts that are in the wrong area being moved to the proper area.


*this is something I just thought of...haven't put much thought into it* I've noticed the MINI Talk has become a catch-all rather than independant forum. Maybe MINI Talk should be removed and then the posts might actually go into the forum where they belong?

 

Thanks for making the changes. Change is good. Change means growth.

Starting in May, there has been so many posts about nothing that I too have found it hard to wade through it all to find threads about important things. Hatefull threads were started just to upset people. Sorry but this is not a talk radio show where the host gets to say outrageous things and then let the audience react to it. I didn't like the way threads were started just to get reactions from people. It was upsetting.

I know of forums (MINI2) where the OT threads do not count toward your post count. They are only for people to discuss TV shows, the weather, husbands and wives, food, pets, music, etc... so why should those posts count? -- Mark, you may wish to concider this as well.

Again, from one of the old people here, I appreciate a stop to seeing all the posts from kids out of school and bored for the summer. Thanks!!!

 

Mark... You know that I love it here, and would miss it if something happened, but this is what I was talking about way back when when I said that I felt that MCO's makeup seems to be slowly changing... the great part of Online Messageboards, is for us old timers (in computer years, not people years) it's a way to get back to the old BBS feeling of community, and is a great way to spread information, and have some fun. But the problem with online messageboards is because they are not as restricted as the old BBSes, a lot of times they start to fall into a chaotic mish mosh... after a while the louder and more abrasive people chase away the others. But just keep on top of things (like you're doing) and it will even out again...

Rocketboy_X

 

>>Thanks Red03MiniS!


you are very welcome
if you feel personally that i am such a bad person on this site (like u have said personal things to me on other threads), why dont you personally make a petition to ban me

_________________
RYAN Z.
Originally said by OmToast "I love red! Red everything: lipstick, shoes, hair... red03miniS..."
Originally said by shaskan
I think you have become the official "search function ****"

 

>>The O.T. posts still show up in the Pulse and also in the drop-down forum jump menu.<<

Today the OT threads aren't even showing up in the Pulse! This seems a little extreme. :???:

 

oops! Sorry about that. In trying to figure out what was slowing page load I started experimenting with the pulse to see how I could get it to run faster and accidently released one of the hacks I had done....which cut off off-topic. Give me a couple of minutes and it will again include OT. Again, sorry for the goof up.

Mark

>>>>The O.T. posts still show up in the Pulse and also in the drop-down forum jump menu.<<
>>
>>Today the OT threads aren't even showing up in the Pulse! This seems a little extreme. :???:

 

No problem Mark, and thanks for responding. :smile: I was hoping it wasn't a new "policy" change... Sounds like the site has been under the knife quite a bit lately to remedy the slowness problem. Very much appreciated!

 

The Pulse should be fully operational again and a little bit faster than before. Let me know if you see any more strangeness out of the Pulse (still working on other parts of the site). Thanks!

Mark

 

OT is a waste of bandwidth. Excellent change.