>>I too dont see what Team Mighty Miniz has to do with this other than Doug started the team. We dont make money off anything. Its a car club. If thats the case all sponsorships and car club logos should be removed from sigs.<<

Ants, now your sig-line is basically an ad for a commercial website, "MightyMiniz Inn." All the other commercial banners are paid for by vendors. You wouldn't expect to see me post at MINI2 and have a link to MCO in my sigline, would you? Please change your sigline to reflect Mark's site guidelines.

 

Not trying to be cute here - but should all sigs now be devoid of words / interest unless one is an MCO sponsor?

 

Actually Clo, my signature doesnt link to any website. There is no address on it, if you click it nothing happens. Its a car club I belong to. Also please address me using PM, this method of addressing me on the forum is not within site guidlines.

 

Mark, I know your decision was not without a great amount of thought and consideration for both the individuals involved as well as the rest of the community here, and I stand by your decision to protect your business as well as the commmunity at large.

The community of friends that I have gotten to know here at MCO is much more valuable to me than the automobile parked in my driveway, and I just want to let you know that I will do my best to keep MCO the special place it has always been for me.

I know you will receive a certain amount of flak for your decision, and perhaps a very few members will choose to leave MCO and check into a different and much smaller "inn" where there are no guidelines to regulate posting behavior. That will be their choice to make, but in the end, MCO will always remain the #1 place for MINI enthusiasts everywhere to find the answers, share our knowledge, and have some silly fun at the same time.

Motor on!

 

I am not to clear on the whole advertising bit either. I have the "double M star logo" in my sig because I am part of a group. Showing people that I am a part of it. I do not post nonsense about the group, it is just there to signify my affiliation with it. As for the "m7" logo in my signature, it is there because I am sponsored by them. SHowing people that I use his products. It is jsut the same as the people who list their mods in their signatures. The people/groups I represent in my signature do not make/lose money by me doing this. I am not being paid to do it either.

I can sort of agree with limiting the amount of stuff that people post. I thought it was getting a little crazy to be honest. I do think however that banning these people from the site is a bit harsh. I do not know the whole history of this incident, but I believe a total ban from the site is not what should be done. Don't forget, this is a "Community" for MINI owners and enthusiasts.

 

I am going to refrain from posting any further in this thread. I come to MCO to share info about I car that me and other owners have in common, and to talk about fun stuff in off topic. Its meant to be a fun escape from real life, not to engage in drama. There is enough of that in real life. Good luck with site enforcements and please do delete the post counts.

_________________

 

>>I actually found some of their threads colorful and informative...I could name many users that seem to fluff to get their way to 6th gear, or whatever "milestone" they were looking for.

Agreed...there have been useful posts made. That said, the issue, as a whole, has been the continued, multi-month, long-running behavior that has angered a lot of users, driven many away from the site, and has caused me to spend huge amounts of time reviewing and attempting to work with the individuals in question to give them every effort to work to benefit of the site. This has been ineffective and in consideration for moving the site foreward I was left no other option.

>>I sincerely hope we don't see a victory thread celebrating banishment of MCO members now...that's not right either.

Agreed...this is an action I did not take lightly or quickly. I have been trying to come up with a solution for a couple of months now and only realized recently that this is the only action that could be taken. I do not celebrate this action and I hope that others do not as well.

Mark

 

>>>>I too dont see what Team Mighty Miniz has to do with this other than Doug started the team. We dont make money off anything. Its a car club. If thats the case all sponsorships and car club logos should be removed from sigs.<<
>>
>>Ants, now your sig-line is basically an ad for a commercial website, "MightyMiniz Inn." All the other commercial banners are paid for by vendors. You wouldn't expect to see me post at MINI2 and have a link to MCO in my sigline, would you? Please change your sigline to reflect Mark's site guidelines.
>>
>>
>>
Actually Team MightyMiniz is NOT a commercial site

 

Errrmm... I'll chime in (as usual)

Mark--no doubt you did what you felt best for the site and I, too, have to thank you for running such a great board. But some of the responses/accolades have been a bit frightening to me, and seem to call for a level of moderation that would almost entirely squish the community spirit. One of the things that so intrigued me about MCO--as compared to the other forums--is a real, honest-to-goodness sense of community. Here thar be folks who have MINIs--sometimes we want to talk ABOUT them, specifically, and sometimes we just want to socialize with others who also have MINIs (there's my plea for Off Topic).

So, my point is that, when you put ANY bunch of people together--people who agree/disagree/like each other/don't--silliness is going to happen. Posts might get a bit south of decent taste, people might start off on little tangents... it's just the nature of the beast, I think. And I'm not saying that moderation shouldn't happen--to maintain the integrity of the site there needs to be someone cleanin' up the riff raff. I'm just pleading that it not get carried away.

That is all.

 

FASCISM? :???:

 

>>Not trying to be cute here - but should all sigs now be devoid of words / interest unless one is an MCO sponsor?

This is not what I want to convey. Signatures should be used to include something about yourself, your car, etc. In certain cases in the past these have been used to bash other clubs, advertise products and/or services, etc. Not all these are relative to the issue at hand but I hope that it helps convey what is intended for their use.

Mark

 

Once football season is over, I am done with this site. It's like they want to chase off longtime members. Mission successful.

 

>>Once football season is over, I am done with this site. It's like they want to chase off longtime members. Mission successful.

agreed.

 

Allow me to add my 2c worth of thoughts:

Generally, I am behind you Mark in all your efforts to keep this wonderful site userfriendly to the general community. While I see OmToasts point, I assume that as you have outlined, you have contacted some of these folks to discuss their posting habits with them. In these particular instances, they have in fact contributed not just inflated posts, but interesting and informative stuff as well, so it is a very difficult call to make.
Ultimately it is up to you and moderators to make that call, and personally I would prefer to see more of the athmosphere that was prevalent on this site some time ago.
I would personally also emphasize to all the difference between the MINI related forums and posts, vs off-topic. IMHO it would be ok to have more leeway in OT, but in MINI related forums there has been a large amount of fluff, and antagonism and criticism, more than I enjoy.
Regarding two suggestions that have come up in this thread:
I am sceptical about a 'review rating, or ranking, of posters, by other posters' (if I even understand this idea correctly). This is because with a user-input ranking system, there is always the danger of some ganging up on others and giving them a bad rating (see the stuff that has flown around in performance mod threads), so this could be very tricky.
regarding post counts: I do see the one value in the post counts of being able to tell if someone is brand spanking new to the site, vs an 'established' old-timer. Ultimately, users will make their own opinions of who'se posts are valuable vs not.
However, how about having fewre 'gears': not 6, but maybe 2 or 3, for example 1-25 posts, then 26 to 100, and then simply above 100. No more.

Cheers,
Markus

 

Face it, those "guys" (I believe it was one guy with multiple accounts) were a pain in the backside with their CONSTANT and mostly pointless posts. Lately they were simply cutting and pasting huge articles. I'm all for freedom of speech (God knows I annoy enough people around here), but they were abusing the privilege.

 

>>So, my point is that, when you put ANY bunch of people together--people who agree/disagree/like each other/don't--silliness is going to happen. Posts might get a bit south of decent taste, people might start off on little tangents... it's just the nature of the beast, I think. And I'm not saying that moderation shouldn't happen--to maintain the integrity of the site there needs to be someone cleanin' up the riff raff. I'm just pleading that it not get carried away.

Its not my wish to introduce a bunch of moderation to the site. I do however, want to have a set of guidelines that will help moderators understand what is expected of them as well as what the membership can expect from moderators. I have attempted to stay out of most issues on the site in the hope that members can work through them on their own. Only when it becomes nasty and/or detrimental to the site as a whole do I feel like I have to step in.

Mark

 

If you consider those "guys" post pointless then half of whats in off-topics is also pointless and should also be deleted.

And theyre not the same person with 2 accounts, theyre two great guys I call my friends.

 

They were indeed seperate entities....let's not specualte on what constitues "pointless" either. If a thread doesn't interest me, I don't read it. Yes, I have read wacky and at times infuriating posts, but it doesn't send me over the deep end. Again, let's not single out 2 people here. many of us have at times engaged in silly banter and starting threads we KNEW would create chaos. face it, a lot of members are people working in creative fields...and that part of one's personality is bound to spill over.

 

Sorry. I just calls 'em like I sees 'em. Besides, it's Mark's opinion on their posting that counts here. Not mine.

 

I wouldn’t be saddened to see large picture signatures go away altogether. When you are relegated to a 56K modem that runs at best at 26.4Kps, it takes a while for the page just to open due to all the graphics.

I personally like the post count but can see where it has become a problem with some.

My favorite gears in my MCS are 3rd and 4th.

And I think the moderators do a wonderful job on this site and I truly appreciate their hard work and diligence but think the action taken was a little harsh, Ryan is my buddy.


_________________
2003 Chili Red/White MCS, sport pack w/white wheels, cold weather pack, black leather w/anthracite dash, DVD-based Navigation w/OBC, HK sound, MFSW, PDC, rain sensing wipers & auto dim mirror.

 

No harm to these people with these sigs, but look:





Our sigs don't even point to a site. Did these people have to pay or be a MCO vendor?

I have been working on the website but NEVER announced its launch on MCO.

Mark - I might be wrong, but I remember hearing that M7 IS a MCO vendor, GoFast is not even linked.

I will continue to keep my sig as is and if I too get banned for it....

karma is a *****



_________________

 

>>And I think the moderators do a wonderful job on this site and I truly appreciate their hard work and diligence.

Ignorance is bliss

 

I think the bottom line is that this is mark's business (literally). MCO is his job. He is responsible for it being a fun place to be and a convenient place to gather information about everyone favorite car and learn from people about new products and then buy them. Maybe not everyone realizes this but the sponsors pay Mark to advertise here. Whether or not you agree with these characters banishment or not, i think we can agree that there was a problem.

What happens when mark says "i get 1000 posts (arbitrary number) a day" to a potiential advertiser and they check out the site and see all these silly garbage posts?

What happens when an existing sponsor sees legitimate questions about his or her projects or products get drowned in worthless garbage? Is that the kind of exposure they pay to recieve?

What happens when mark spends his day cleaning up messes when he could be developing new directions for MCO to grow in, improving the current, etc?

Mark runs a business. Sometimes the best business decisions arent the best personal decisions but mark needs to eat! :smile:

--
Cheese

 

I believe that there ought to be a fall off for old threads, or at leaqst an archive. I am admitedly inexperienced with a forum as active as this one, it just seems a LARGE block of numbers of pages of threads looks blocky. If people post a ton to get a post count, (star pharmers has been a term used in the past as stars are usually used to show the users level of activity) you may wish to look into the ranking system and post counts. Perhapse simply a date of joining. Simply put, if there is a post count, some people will want to pump theirs up. I did like gettimg mine to a certain level, though it does not matter to me now. As far as signatures it's entirely your call. I would suggest limiting the size of them, or perhapse allowing a 90X90 pixel avatar instead of a sig pic. For the club offiliation business, I think that I am staying WELL CLEAR of that issue. I can see both sides and I do not want to offend either.

 

I found it hard to know if a question was real or just bait to start an arguement.
After working hard, at a very stressful job, I found it hard to constantly read debates, challenges, etc... I hated to answer a post asking an opinion because after I did, I'd get a PM telling me why what they thought was really correct... so obviously, he didn't want opinions. Sometimes it was just too much to deal with after dealing with deadlines, complaints, and problems all day at work.

Mark - I know it was hard for you to do this. But Thanks, it will give back our freedom to be ourselves. For many of us this is our escape from the constant hassel and drama of everyday lives. I really like MCO, it's has everything from spark plug wires and coils, wheels and tires to Off Topics about hurricanes, food, pets, and movie stars!