SR20 Forum - BLAH!

[mike kojima]

I am probably going to work with the owner of the new
alternative site as a chance to start anew and rebuild
the stuff that Young destroyed.

I really wanted to buy the forum from Matt but I hope
he sold it for an amount far greater than I could
afford.  Good for Matt, bad for me.  Matt don't let
the crtics get you down.  You did the right thing.

I hope that you guys will support my new venture if
our preliminary talks go well.

I think it might be the next level of on line
comunity.  I think a lot of you might have seen the
beta before Young wrecked it all.

I would have done it with the old forum but I didnt
get the chance.


--- Ben Fenner <fenfam at sc.rr.com> wrote:

> 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)
>
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
> The mailing list home page is
> http://www.se-r-list.org/
> To modify your subscription, go to
> http://lists.deskmedia.com/se-r/
> 



      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ