SR20 Forum - BLAH!

[Ben Fenner]

Here's my take:

First a blow-by-blow summary as we saw it on the forums.

1) Forum administration was changed from Matt to Chris.

2) New "look an feel" to forum (on by default, but optional).

3) New main page, new navigation bar, new IntelliTXT ads, random new guy 
named "ekool" posting in defense of said changes as an authority.

4) Heavy reaction to changes results in emotional postings by members. 
Some get banned from threads for personal attacks by the old moderators. 
This is mistaken as a complete ban. The members banned from threads are 
very important, influential members. Not sure, but one or two people may 
have been fully banned.

5) "ekool" makes his appearance explaining the method by which the new 
navigation bar can be mostly dissabled, how to dissable the IntelliTXT 
ads, and defends the changes.

6) New forum www.sr20-forum.com pops up seemingly out of no-where run by 
a forum member. Offered as an alternative.

7) Censorship on the forum continues by way of blocking the string 
"sr20-forum" and quickly after dissallowing edits, as people started 
editing threads to include the filtered string, and apparently they 
couldn't filter it during edits.

8) Edit is now gone. Edit makes the forum function. People edit in a 
minute by minute basis. This woke the entire forum up to what was going on.

9) The entire community joins the fight against this or that. The level 
headed seem to just want edit back.

10) "ekool" takes the advice of some calm members and introduces himself 
as John, and promisses to return edit functionality after things "calm 
down".

11) The outrage seems to continue a bit into the early morning (5 am. 
East coast) and then seemingly everyone's gone to bed.






The adminstration move went over without a hitch. Now we know why it 
happened... No big deal.

The new look and feel didn't go over so well. Basically people against 
change made a fuss, and were explained they could change back to the old 
skin. The old skin seemed to work for 95% of the forum (random bugs 
otherwise) and people settled in. I understand their frustration, but 
didn't care about the change as it didn't affect uage at all.

Then a bit later the newest changes hit the community seemingly 
blind-sided. The navigation bar moves the viewing pane over to the right 
a significant amount, making viewing content worse. The IntelliTXT ads 
are distracting at best. The reaction was predictable.

I read about the offered solution to the changes, and although I never 
saw the IntelliTXT ads because I run adBlock, I've seen them before and 
glad that others can dissable them. I agree with those who say they 
should be off by default though, as it gives the forum a horrible first 
impression, which I think is important in avoiding. Opt in ads never 
work though, and surely wouldn't bring any revenue, so I understand 
their choice.

I'm in the middle of a post, and I can't edit anymore. This is when my 
interest is piqued, as finally my forum experience is thrown off course. 
I watch the argument...

I am awestruck at the reactions. First I notice how tightly the forum 
members hold themselves. I don't think I realized until seeing this what 
a community people consider it. I can't imagine how surpirsed John must 
have been. I noticed how quickly another option (competing forum) showed 
up. I think this was key, as immediately an alternative popped up that 
seemingly everyone was willing to migrate to. Is there a better way to 
get John to pay attention, and respect the requests of the users?
I see what I consider over-reactive bannings/censorship/etc. by the 
moderators and owner himself. I know this doesn't mean much, but the 
other forum I belong to makes the things that resulted in bannings and 
censorship look extremely pale in comparison. I believe John had no idea 
how to react, and instead of playing it cool, he took out the big guns... =/

Edit finally returned.

As far as I'm concerned, it's business as usual on the forums. Except, 
it's not, because many important people have litteraly jumped ship, 
seemingly never to return.

I believe if the edit function were not removed temporarily, the 
splitting of the community wouldn't have been nearly as bad. It was what 
pushed me over the edge, and I'd say what angered the level headed the most.



As it stands now, it seems the new forum will be called home for 30% of 
the community, and may wane or grow... Who knows. This is bad, and I 
don't think I have to explain why.





As for the maturity of this list, the forum, and related topics. I'd 
love to add my thoughts, and will sometime soon. I have a final exam to 
tend to. I'll be back.

-BenFenner
1994 Black SE-R (VEMS, going turbo)
1994 Black SE-R (lame sunroof)