Why has my sig been changed?

[takai]

You know Cruz, i could oblige

[TheToyman75]

?eh

this new stuff is all getting silly isnt it?

i mean, can we still list what model car we own? or is that only one step away from a 'parts wanted' ad? i wouldnt want to tempt someone into offering me something? seriously, how is a 'parts wanted' a conflict of interest? quite the opposite id've thought

The rules Have been amended:

• Forum wanted ads are permitted in signatures provided there is a link to a correctly placed wanted ad in the Classifieds section.

[CrUZida]

Good result

[woggin]

meh, even to me, this new revamp/crackdown seems to be rather harsh and without logic. but thats just me... maybe i just cant cope with the lack of 'aussie flexibility'

agreed, some of the cr$p that Australia has taken on boad is just a load of cr#p, i like the fact that people agreed there was a problem with 'wanted' ads and that it has been rectified, its shows a level of understanding and professionalism...wat i dont like is comments like

"Agreed, the banning of signatures containing lists of random material assetts and pets is ghey too, Ban them."

and

"Personally I want to see 'past rides' banned from signatures.
Annoys the shit out of me."

you may aswell just ban sigs 100%, saying that you have had 5 lambos, 2 ferraris and a 4 dogs just adds to your E-cock, if you dont wna read it, you dont have to. Who really gives a f$ck if you have 'past rides' in your sig, IMO its a way of remembering your past rides,if you dont like it, dont look @ it!

now i am unsure if the last quote was sarcastically said or it if was serious, but if pisses me off how australia is being more and more constricted by this political BS, hoons this, internet censorship that!!! if i wna look @ porn i should be able to look at porn, with no consequences attached!!

maybe i am just more opinionated that normal

-end rant!

wog

[CrUZida]

haha, how the fuck did you go from 'wanting to ban past rides' to 'i want to look at porn' ?

[river]

Hi,

maybe i am just more opinionated that normal

LOL.. maybe you went off on a tangent. Nice rant though.

I give it an 8 out of 10 for sincerity and underlying anger. You lost a point for poor grammer (ie no caps or commas used appropriately) and also lost a point for lack of swearing.

seeyuzz
river

[YLD-16L]

now i am unsure if the last quote was sarcastically said or it if was serious,

Both those quotes were being sarcastic you fkn retard

Way to go, come in late with no idea.

Oh wait, you're from WA so you probably only just had the thread updated with those posts - my mistake.

[river]

Hi,

LOL.... YLD!!!!!

What are you doing on-line at this time? It freaks me out.

<goes and hangs garlic over my PC>

seeyuzz
river

[WDE_BDY]

Hi,

...also lost a point for lack of swearing.

seeyuzz
river

Swearing is a bit risky these days, he might get infracted.

Callum

[Robbos_Toyotas]

lol callum
i must say we are getting out of hand with how anal we are getting towards / language etc on the forum. (im surprised shots of cleavage are allowed as avatars!) i doubt theres many people under at least 15 on here...the old toymods forum was more interesting (ive been on toymods for about 9yrs now), we had our rants, biffos and the like...but we all get over it- or hate each other. there is no way you can get everyone to agree on everything - there are so many opinions out there (which sometimes is good) either way its not a bad thing to put some people in their place when they need it - so many cocksure people out there who have NO IDEA what they are talking about/ just talk crap. it seems we've lost this flexibility somewhat.

my 2c
Blake

[Robbos_Toyotas]

sorry for going off topic, but it had to be said.

[river]

Hi,

i must say we are getting out of hand with how anal we are getting towards / language etc on the forum. (im surprised shots of cleavage are allowed as avatars!) i doubt theres many people under at least 15 on here...the old toymods forum was more interesting (ive been on toymods for about 9yrs now), we had our rants, biffos and the like...but we all get over it- or hate each other. there is no way you can get everyone to agree on everything - there are so many opinions out there (which sometimes is good) either way its not a bad thing to put some people in their place when they need it - so many cocksure people out there who have NO IDEA what they are talking about/ just talk crap. it seems we've lost this flexibility somewhat.

I don't think that's necessarily the case.

The old forums were way out of hand with what people posted - both in text and images. These were aginst the old forum rules, but it was never moderated effectively, and that is why those posts and images would get through. Sure, it was fun, but it also was a mess and was starting to resemble other car forums where crap and stupidity are spewed forth with little regard for technical accuracy or basic decency.

This forum has been formed to be what we, the Toymods Car Club, wanted it to be from the very beginning. And that is a free source of accurate technical information for Toyotas. When I look at other similar forums I think this one, for Toyota, is arguably the best one out there for the accuracy and wealth of information it contains.

The biggest complaints we get are:-

Signature size and content
We get a lot of people whinging when they get their sigs pruned or cop an infraction for having one that is outside the guidelines. The reason we put a rule on sig size is we do not want sigs to detract from the main details of the persons post. Having large sigs, or sigs with images just detracts from the post and adds nothing to what they are saying. So, we have our rules set to limit the size of the sig.

The content of a sig is another area of angst for some people - specifically selling/wanted information. We have set the forums up with the necessary For Sale and Wanted sections and want people to use them. We listened to you and allow Wanted information in your sig, but we also want you to link it to the relevant post in the Wanted section. We request this because people that have something to sell often check the Wanted section to see if there is a buyer out there who is seeking what they have - otherwise it would be rather hit and miss to happen across someone's sig.

Putting For Sale information in your sig is more complicated. We have found that the forums were being used as a free trading post to sell stuff. The philosophy we have adopted for the forums is one which encourages useful Toyta-related contributions. This ensures we always maintain rich technical data. So we made it so, for some sales, you have to earn some reputation and spend time in the forums - to contribute - before you can use the free For Sale section that we provide. If we did not do this we would have people joining to sell something and then disappear. This may help those that are looking for parts, but it does not serve the informative and collaborative philosophy of what these forums are about. So, we took the stance that, unless you are a sponsor (or an approved group-buy seller) that there is no advertising allowed in the sigs. If you have something to sell the it is to be posted in the relevant For Sale section of the forums. I cannot understand why people make such a big thing over sigs, as the forums have enough sectiosn to satisfy all the buying and selling requirements possible.

Classifieds
This has been answered in the above. But, to repeat... the rules for classifieds is to stop people using the forums as a free billboard to sell their stuff. We want people to contribute and to contribute into the technical sections. I understand there are people who come to learn and cannot offer technical advice, and therefore cannot gain the necessary rep to be able to post in the classifieds. However, rep is something that all forum members can use - to add or subtract from another persons rep. I regard a good question (that is one that has not been asked before as the poster actually did a search) by a newbie to warrant rep. It's fantastic to see some people here who contribute great information, yet only a year or more ago they were newbies.

Lack of flexibility
There is no lack of flexibility in these forums compared to the old forums. The rules are basically the same, except instead of letting things go by we now actually enforce the rules. The forums are the "face" of the Toymods Car Club, and as we are a bonafide registered entity, we are legally liable for these forums and the content within them. So, what may appear to be inflexible, is merely us ensuring we keep the forums in check to avoid any legal issues.

Even though many of us enjoy looking at some flesh, we are not a porn site, and as such we need to keep an eye out for anything too pornographic or offensive in the way of avatars and pictures. I think, for a car-related forum, we offer the best tech information about, and the non-car area offers a place for people to vent their thoughts and feelings, post images and carry on like galahs. However, the non-car section is not the main focus of the forums and it is monitored for porno, descriminatory comments etc. And, we are quite liberal in that regard and often let threads, such as sex, politics and religion (which are regarded as prohibited topics in our rules) run their course so long as it's all done in a mature manner.

Infractions and Reputation
There's been some comments regarding both reputation and infractions. We found the rep system was being abused with people repping for crap, repping their buddies and generally not using rep in the way it was intended. The first thing we did was remove rep from all sections except the feedback, technical and general car areas. This was good on one hand, as it removed a lot of the areas where rep was given for crap, but it also upset others as the members ride section was excluded. The members ride section is a hard one because they contain both utter rubbish, along with absolute pearls of wisdom - and my members ride thread is a perfect example of that. We cannot mod every post in every thread and considering the abuse the rep system was taking, we decided to exclude the members ride. If there is info in there that would benefit others, then make a post in the relevant tech section and copy it across. That way it helps others as thye won't have to go through pages of crap to find what they want, and you'll get rep.

Infractions are a new feature of the upgraded forum software we have. If rep is the carrot then regard infractions as the stick. Only financial club members can infract people. After all, these are the people who have handed over money to be in the club and help keep the forums and club running, so therefore they have the power to infract. The infractions give the power to penalise people in the hands of the financial club members to those that break the forum rules. These are basically the same rules that were in place in the old forums, but are now enforced more readily than what they were, plus we have widened the moderation capabilities of the forums by allowing financial members the ability to infract. I encourage all those that have the ability to infract to use the system often and as required.

Being socially responsible
Toymods, as it has grown both as a Club and in the forums, is no longer a small bunch of guys who do the usual guy things of working on cars with no regard to others, swear like troopers and give scant regard to political correctness. Do I like being PC? No fucking way, it shits me... but in this ubiquitous realm of Toymods (both the Club and the forums) there are necessary compromises that must be made. We now cater to a much wider audience and have females, families and minors who enjoy the social aspect of the Club. So, we need to reflect this change in our member base. Therefore we need to be aware that our larger audience consists of many people of many races, genders and each individual has their own comfort zone. We can never keep everyone happy, but we try to adghere to some basic rules of respect and common decency. This, to some, is portrayed as being inflexible or too PC or some other form of limitation. I make no apologies for the direction we are taking, and to survive we need to be more cogniscant of our growing and varied membership. That is why some images and avatars have been removed. If you desire to perve on cleavage and psuedo-porn then there is a whole internet out there - this is a car related forum.

Having a rant
If someone shits you or is totally clueless, there is nothing in the rules to stop you having your say. Go for it. If you can say what you want without resorting to emotional and vulgar language I doubt anyone will get upset by your post. What's the worse that will happen? Maybe someone will slag back at you; maybe a mod will close the thread or delete your post; maybe someone (and it wuold have to be a financial club member) will infract you; maybe (if in a tech section) you will lose some rep; and maybe the Board will get an email from someone who is complaining about your post (in this case we look at the post and delete it or let it be). So, really.... it's not like you're going to be sent to the gallows.

Final Note
Nothing really has changed, except we are more stringent on the rules (which were always in place). There is no reason why you can't have fun, post dribble (in the non-car section), have a dig at someone, or whatever. The only thing that makes people think there is a loss of flexibility is the relutance (or fear) that they cannot post like they once used too. Of course you can, but just make sure it's nothing way over the top.. like graphic porn, or going absolutely troppo on someone (with words that would make your mum blush). Go for it. Open up and use the forums like before. Even the old forums would get a clean out by the mods.... like, it may have been more slack in the moderating department, but I remeber many threads and posts being closed or deleted in the old forums.

Enough from me. You can tell it's a quiet day here at work.

seeyuzz
river

[Stomps]

The rules Have been amended:

• Forum wanted ads are permitted in signatures provided there is a link to a correctly placed wanted ad in the Classifieds section.

sweet... common sense has prevailed...

it seems that the "everyone but you see this as advertising" comment i got along with an infraction for it wasnt accurate after all..

good result..

Stomps

[timbosaurus]

My opinion FWIW...

- Don't like big fancy signatures standing out more than the post, but couldn't car less whether it has past rides or not
- Don't like advertising/wanted at all in sigs, as I consider signatures should be more about personal info. Who you are, what you like, what cars you have, and what you have done to them etc.
- Don't mind swearing, but like it to be kept at the common 'TV show' level to offend the least people.

Cheers,
Timbo

[twentyEight]

Can I ask what the thoughts on the following user's sig is?

http://www.toymods.net/forums/showpo...4&postcount=12

IMO, it's advertising his business (an he isn't a forum sponsor) which is far worse than advertising a thread for sale, etc.