SR20 Forum - BLAH!
Ben Fenner
fenfam at sc.rr.com
Wed Dec 12 12:35:09 CST 2007
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)
More information about the se-r
mailing list