make rep info open to public

[oldcorollas]

The actual Car Club has less than 100 members. These members, along with forum sponsors and money we get from events is used to keep both the forums and the actual car club going. The forums support over 12000 users, with about 100 per month getting added.

There are 8 board members who, in their spare time do the following..... tech support the forums, monitor the forums, do the club minutes and the appropriate liason with legal/business registration groups, organise events and cruises, do the club financials, add/delete forums users, historic plate registration and liason with RTA over various matters, try and resolve selling issues, merchandising, and any other thing that is required to keep the club and forums operational. This is all volunteer work, but we do it 'cos we love our cars, the club and the forums.

i just wanna reiterate that...

non-members often bring up the argument that the classifieds attract new members... but the reality is that VERY FEW forum members become club members...
less than 1%
to say that the forum needs new members is foolish.
to think that the whole point of the club is to attract new members to get the money that comes with them is foolish.
at the current rate of increase, with 1% of forum members becoming club members.. that is about 1 club member per month...... the othe 99 people per month have no interest in the club?


the club needs more members, but only ones that are interested in cars adn the toymods CLUB community..

it would be nice if more people actually signed up for CLUB membership, but then again, i didn't for many years as i was lacking funds, not able to attend events, or not in the country...

It would give to clear distictions for forums users aswell. Some known as 'Traders' and others as 'Techies'.

Does toymods want to have "Traders"?? there are already club sponsors and forum sponsors.
arguably, if someone sells enough to be a "trader" then they should be a forum sponsor, no?
i would rather everyone be techies, as opposed to traders.... there are traders everywhere, on every forum and every auction site... even in real shops.. but there are very few techies around,

and THAT is what makes toymods different.. because it encourages techies instead of traders...

on original point, sure make rep open, or at least comments, but will that give rep any more meaning? probably not. does it need more meaning? arguably not..
will it stop people from giving stupid rep? probably not..
the people that can actually do anything about it already (mods/admin) have the power to view and remove rep...
will it make a difference when it is visible? who knows.. may as well give it a try

[Cuts]

I doubt it will change anything having rep open or not.

But splitting up rep could be good way to sort the wheat from the chaff. Will the little bit on the side become too cluttered if we add a rep line for this and one for that etc?

Prehaps a higher ammount of rep is needed before being able to post in the for sale section, 30 isnt much on the greater scheme of things.

And i sure didnt join this forum or any others fo sell stuff, rather to share information and lust over other peoples cars, and go for cruises, club days etc.

[Noof]

I don't want to stick my nose in where I am not really necessary but I have a small comment about rep.

I joined the forums recently although have had a TA22 for 7 years now. I know a little about it all but it is really hard to earn rep on a technical level as there are some walking toyota encyclopedias on here. I have found great value in their technical knowledge but for someone like me, who has only basic toyota know how, generating even enough rep to gain access to the classifieds was a little difficult.
As a newish user I dont mind the system being all together tech/humour/non toyota/etc as it has helped me gain the rep I need to become more of a part of this forum.

Cheers
Nathan

[Z2TT]

Hi,

Since Toymods has all sorts of discussion area's (Tech, Off Topic and Chat), then rep should be available for all area's, if we can discuss more than just Technical information, then rep should be allowed for all area's. For that reason a user should have a few different rep counts, one for Tech, and another for Off Topic, and maybe another one for trading.

[oldcorollas]

Hi,

Since Toymods has all sorts of discussion area's (Tech, Off Topic and Chat), then rep should be available for all area's, if we can discuss more than just Technical information, then rep should be allowed for all area's. For that reason a user should have a few different rep counts, one for Tech, and another for Off Topic, and maybe another one for trading.

so.. you're saying that non-car discussion (remember there is no such thing as "offtopic" section ) section should be canned?

[4DaDrift]

Edited post.

[oldcorollas]

Something that I feel hasn't been taken into consideration, is that not only does the rep system prevent sellers, yet also prospective buyers.

Now, to me at least, a person becomes more involved in a community once they're driving something that follows the clubs theme, and this alone is the best realistic way to encourage new financial members, as they are able to relate a direct benefit and become integrated and feel welcomed as a part of the club through attending events.

Also, as members, by selling/buying items to fellow members, we're helping each other out !

A happy balance does need to be found, and irrelevant of what's integrated, not everyone's going to be happy with the solution and propose something they feel is better!

no it doesn't. anyone can post in for sale threads.. you just can't START a thread unless you have X rep.
(and even if that is incorrect, ANYONE can PM someone from a for sale thread)

[4DaDrift]

Edited post.

[oldcorollas]

I could be wrong on this (it has been known to infrequently happen) yet even if that's the case, sending someone a PM could be construed by some as circumnavigating the very essence the current systems in place and worse, non transparent/not fair to other prospective interested parties!

i think.. you are wrong.....

what systems are you talking about? toymods is no auction site.
stuff is for sale for a price...
afaik, people usually work on either first PM has first option, or first to show with money gets it. unless they have a specific salee in mind...

[o_man_ra23]

Read the rules posted in the classifieds.

All signed up members (forum or club) can view and post in any thread in the classifieds. They can also start threads in "Toyotas For Sale", "Toyotas wanted" and "Parts Wanted" sections. So this allows people to purchase the vehicle which will get them more interested in the club, and also allows anyone to be a potential buyer, so club members and contributing forum members are not disadvantaged. I am not sure whether the giveaway section is fully open to low rep users or not.

Other than that, once you get X rep, the only sections not fully open are the forum sponsor's sections (where you can post, but can't start a thread unless you are the particular sponsor), and the miscellaneous section, where you must be a paying club member to advertise.

Sending PMs from a sale thread is common practice. I don't recall reading anything about it in the rules (maybe I should revisit them too), so I cannot see it being classed as circumnavigating anything, much less your ability to post in somebody's for sale thread (which you already have the ability to do).

[_gear2]

Im almost a non existence member of the toymods forum ‘community’. I don’t really contribute to the toymods in any way, im not a member of the club, nore am im one of the trolls that lurks on the forum at all hours. But in all honesty the rep system to me seems all but pointless. As someone else mentioned in this thread most people can discern between those members who are actually giving useful advice and those that are just spewing crap. I don’t look at peoples rep and I can think of only a handful of times ive given it.

It is more likely to attract dodgy sellers too because it's easy to pick a random address/name/number out of a phone book to use as details, and then when the hounds come calling they're lead up the garden path (some forums now requires a phone verification to stop this).

If there is such a major issue over would be ‘wankers’ and time wasters using the classifieds why not make forum members pay a $5 fee each year to be able to use them?. One it will generate a larger income for the club and two it will also make people think twice about exploiting the classifieds if their sellers rights can be revoked.. that being said toymods is not ebay and implementing something like this has certain implications... and this is a 'Technical forum'

[Z2TT]

so.. you're saying that non-car discussion (remember there is no such thing as "offtopic" section ) section should be canned?

By Off Topic I mean the Non Car Discussion.

No topic should be canned.
People should be able to recieve and give rep for posts in all Sections.
There should be Rep meters for different Sections.

[oldcorollas]

By Off Topic I mean the Non Car Discussion.

No topic should be canned.
People should be able to recieve and give rep for posts in all Sections.
There should be Rep meters for different Sections.

one problem is that people still think of the "non-car discussion" section as the "offtopic" section.. but that is a different issue
why do you think it was renamed?

[Lambolica]

so.. you're saying that non-car discussion (remember there is no such thing as "offtopic" section ) section should be canned?

Yes Please...

As for the whole rep thing, the reason rep was used was to stop the classifieds being used as a free trading post. the concept being that you had to "contribute" , gain rep before you could use the classifides. Beyond the 30 rep points the rep system is pointless except to the extent that you can use rep as a guide to how good a posters info is. (that is under some question from certain posters who gain rep from the non-car section)

Yes I would like to see rep be made transparant, as a Moderator, I would like to see those users that hand out rep needlessly. So I can remove it from both parties... with interest. But with the next version of the forums around the corner, there is little reason to change things massively as the concentration is going into that migration. If it were a flick of a switch, I'd definatly like to see it happen.

As to the pay for classifieds thing, it has been discussed previously, the catch is monitoring the payments, the next version of the software has the potential to control this.

Cheers
Simon

[4DaDrift]

Edited post.