Look what I found on teh interwebs

[Black]

to me toymods is a social place, and as like any other, you will have a good yarn and a laugh, eg toymods monthly meetings, yeah business goes down but im sure u all kick back and relax and have a laugh ? as you would do at work even, we all no we do the normal hard yards but then the emails come around the office for a laugh and a break... but anyway that is just my opinion that wont really count to anything as my 'rep' is basically 0% tech aswell.

cheers Black

[Starfire]

Toymods is a great technical resource, but it's also a way to socialize with other like minded car enthusiasts.

I must admit that I don't spend much time in non-car but sometimes there is some really funny stuff in there.

I would suggest that the reasonable amount of posts/views in the non-car shows just how many users enjoy reading it and therefore justifies it's existence.

Cheers,
Terry

[Major Clod]

I would suggest that the reasonable amount of posts/views in the non-car shows just how many users enjoy reading it and therefore justifies it's existence.

The problem is, the majority of those people are non-club members. I can see how that itself is an issue, it's almost a case of "leeching" off paying club members.

I do however agree with the points that Toymods is also a social place, and it is a lot more enjoyable to talk about crap with some friends on these boards, rather than sit at home trudging through it. Most often the funniest aspects of these threads is the comments made by other forum members on the topic, rather than the initial post.

Even if the intarweb posts are cut back, it is still a good place to have a yarn about other local and worldwide issues, etc... It's all well and good to simply say "Go to another forum and talk" but in reality it is much more fun to debate and discuss with people you are familiar with.

That all being said, I think it would be a good idea to let the financial members vote on the outcome of this, afterall it is their money that is providing us with this online space. If they choose to remove it, so be it. It will still be a wealth of technical knowledge, however it just won't be quite as fun in the process.

[ed]

ill clarify my main whine with the intahweb links - its almost always a link back to say youtube.com

its not a discussion, its not world events, its not creating anything, it serves no purpose. ALL it is doing is creating a catalouge of individual threads indexing the whole damn youtube site - isnt that what youtube itself is??? just go there and take advantage of the fact that its already done for you

[PlacentaJuan]

i feel sorry for the admins, sifting throught some of the crap posted in 'looky - interweb' threads must feel like the biggest waste of time when you could be working on your car or writing a tech article.

[rn-85]

just an idea could the general disscussion be used like the clasifieds, you need a certain rep rating to be able to post there. or have a band with rating on it and once it hits a certain limit no one can post at all.

[old_mr2]

95% of the time its the +30 rep users that are posting the 'interweb' threads...

My 10 cents - have a big thread with all the Interweb stuff in it. If you dont want to see interweb stuff dont go in.

[RobST162]

I'll have to disagree with you again there ed. Sorry mate.

I feel the words, "whole damm youtube site" is a slight misrepresentation of what's going on.

Generally the link posted by one of my peers on Toymods will be one out of 30 or so sites (or videos) they visited. (edit: and it's shared because it was something that tickled us, or made us laugh you know, for a reason not just completely arbitrary linkage )

What's great about Toymods is the opportunity to share with a community we are familiar with.

One of the things we all love doing in life is just simply sharing things that are fun and enjoying the ensuing conversation amongst our friends.

Cheers

[Lambolica]

All point above have merit. some more than others. The main reason I don't really like it being posted is as a moderator of that section, you notice that it is the same people that post alot of these links, inturn people find it amusing (as I freely admit I do at times) and these people get + rep for it. So they go find more.... I end up spending all of my limited time on the forums keeping on top of all of the crap.

Listing the Pros and Cons of this section
CONs
These types of threads do not generally contain discussion.
They are a mis treatment of the rep system.
They don't really add to the technical nature of the forums.
They are a waste of bandwidth.

PRO's
This section promotes a community feel to the forums
Keeps all of the gutter talk out of other sections.
Provides light entertainment to the people who live on the forums.

The rules for the section
Posts that are rude, offensive, insulting, slanderous or encouraging illegal activities are not permitted
Political, Religious, Racist or Sexist comments or threads are not permitted
No pornographic content or links are permitted
Ensure you post threads in the appropriate section and that you do not post the same thread more than once. Threads in inappropriate sections will be moved or deleted
Posts should be constructive and on-topic for that thread
If you have concerns about any posts or threads then e-mail a moderator, select the 'Report message to a Moderator' option or email the board at [email protected]


From the boards point of view,

Non-Car discussion was included in the new forums to keep the trash out of the other sections, this was killing the old forums.
The possability of not having this section was concidered but there is a place for such a section for the above reason.
The possibility of making this section members only was concidered but would lead to trash filtering to other sections

From a Moderators point ot view.
If someone "Reports a thread" the moderators Act on that report.
Seeing that any one can report a thread, it means that everyone has a say.
If someone has reported it it probably means that it has offended them in some way. (refer rules above)
Moderators give up their time to look after their sections and generally only have 1 or 2 sections to look after. Classifieds and Non-Car Discussion require most moderating.
Moderators will look at a thread and if it doesn't follow the rules it will be locked or deleted.
Different moderators will look at different threads in a different fashion, I may let somthing go where as Dong will Delete, -rep and apply for the used to be banned in a heart beat.
If the topic doesn't contain "discussion" it is against the rules.
Bahahahahaaaaaa..... as a post doesn't mean there is "discussion"


When you sit back and digest all of this information (and there are probably more to add) you can see that there is alot of leeway given, there is alot of loopholes in the rules and there are always people wanting to push the bounds.

Drawing a defined line on what is acceptable and what isn't is hard. generally if a thread is reported it is deleted. this is the case with most of the "look what I found" threads

The board as a whole has tried to provide a section and uses self moderation to keep users happy. even different Board members have vastly different opinions about the section. Robs opinion above...... My opinion is Members only.

The fact of the matter is that things on the forum are still evolving, new things are popping up that haven't been previously accounted for and there changes to reflect this.

A poll may very well be a good way of getting a general idea of what people want, but even there will the poll be open to every one or Financial members only ( who keep in mind is why the forums exist.) This topic is discussed in some way shape or form at every board meeting and we as a group are yet to come to somthing that is benificial for everyone.

Until such time as a line is set. The rules are are it. the moderators will do their job based on the current rules and their own discression. My general feeling is that there is no way that a line will ever be perfect for every user and that there will never be unanumouse agreement on how the section should be run.

So where do you go from there?

Cheers
Simon

[RobST162]

thanks Simon Some clarity is nice for us all.

Well, an explanation at least.

"They don't really add to the technical nature of the forums." Not sure exactly how this is always a con, but anyway, your call. Are we after a dictionary or a technically oriented community?

I am sure we'll go where we've always gone. Mods using discretion and continuing to define Toymods as they go.

Personally I can totally visualse the problems with 'look what I found on teh internet' threads - 'cause they often to get a little dumb. Hence the merit in Placenta's idea.

Yes I know I created one, but that sits me in the best position to share some thoughts from someone who enjoys the broader scope of the Toymods community.

An alternate perspective than a net-nazi wearing technical blinkers while riding a technical bandwagon I suppose

I thought it was something worth sharing at the time. I'll keep these things that make me laugh to myself. Ah well.... You'll have to find the ur own dang self now 'mkay.

cya all monday

[chris_85]

i really do enjoy the non-car discussion sections, and have a laugh at some of the stupid stuff that gets posted, but perhaps if this forum is intended to be a technical one, alot more emphasis should be put on this.

maybe rep should only added for technical articles and contributions to the technical pages? maybe the non-car discussion section should be taken down all together?

[RobST162]

I like the idea of no rep possible for posts in non-car discussion...

[river]

Hi,

I like the idea of no rep possible for posts in non-car discussion...

Same here.

seeyuzz
river

[old_mr2]

Thirded.....

[Dimmy]

I like the idea of no rep possible for posts in non-car discussion...

fourth-ded

I do enjoy the odd laugh in the non-car discussion but there is some really useless crap in there at times. I don't think the efficient solution is to just ban it seeing as it's always going to pop-up, but disabling the rep system in there would be the best thing

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