Not a joke poll.

[Gayle]

As I expressed in Charles's joke poll, I think we need return to the previously level of moderators this board has historically had for the sole purpose of put an early end to the deliberately inflamatory posts that turn into thread wars. We can all recognize the type of post that is just designed to stir up _____. I am not talking about censoring the regulars. I understand that it is censorship that made people leave roadfly and found this forum. But there is a middle ground between censorship and anarchy. We have no mechanism in place to deal with the occasional troublemaker who goes way over the line.

Examples of inflamatory posts are:

1. UMK5
2. that woman whose name I don't remember who made a string of posts claiming this guy was a lyer and thief because they were from the same city
3. cschollum
4. HDhandyman's starving children picture

Anything below this level of rudeness and ____ stirring is ok. It is the joking and sense is play that makes the board what it is. Don't want to end that.

This would be a return to the level of moderation in place a year ago when there were two moderators (Illya and Bimmerd00d) and the moderators were reading board on a regular basis and intervening in the extreme circumstances.

[DanH]

We only need mods for really abusive posters whose intent is to sabotage the forum.

If you don't like someone's posting style you can go to UserCP-->Buddy/Ignore List-->Add their userid to the ignore list. No more problem with them.

[Paul in NZ]

I agree,if we ignore those posts they will go away....

[Gayle]

People are unable to ignore the really inflamatory posts. It only takes one or two to respond to an inflamatory post and the thread wars start. 98 people can ignore and 2 respond and there you are.

And Dan makes my point exactly. We need the mods only to deal with the really inflamatory ones whose intent is to sabatoge the forum.

[Zeuk in Oz]

Have to say I agree with Paul in NZ on this one Gayle.

All we need is to tell these people off, however others must see this for what it is, not inflammation rather putting people in their place.
They will eventually go away when they are subsequently ignored.

Nothing wrong with a good, spirited, argument.

[genphreak]

We need mods for the occasional marauder and argumentative troll.

When these people take up space on the forum, they bore, annoy or just make life plain hard for the regulars, and stop knowledgable people engaging with an otherwise fun and productive community. I have no doubt they turn off newbies who might otherwise stay and become great contributors.

So I voted completely for mods- esp. as the current mod team have done very well.

However- we need some cool rules to make the moderators' roles less contraversial and to prevent arguments over what and what isn't acceptable. I've never been able to find any on the forum; so to help people be clear about what I mean- I am suggesting a set of rules best summmarised as follows:

Introduction

By maintaining an account and posting on the bimmer.info forums, you hereby agree to abide by the rules below.

Breaching these rules can result in post or thread deletion, and continued breaches can result in your user account being put into the penalty box on either a temporary (binned) or permanent (banned) basis.

What do the Rules apply to?

The rules apply to all of the following:

• post contents,
• quoting of post contents,
• thread titles,
• quips,
• usernames,
• wiki entries,
• web links on personal pages,
• public email addresses,
• etc.

The Rules (Summary)

• No abuse, insults or personal attacks
• No foul language
• No trolling
• No inappropriate or illegal material
• No "For Sale" or "Wanted to Buy", except in the For Sale forum
• No business advertising, except in the For Sale forum
• No forum spamming
• No "religious" debates
• No defamatory comments
• No complaints about moderation (PM a mod instead)


A set of rules like those above enables a mod to moderate withut argument from others as everyone has agreed to the rules in the first place. Debate can be made about rules at any point so they may remain current, but not without breaching them. Posters whose contributions are moderated can be referred to the rules to prevent uninformed reactions polluting the forums further.

This is what most forums have. Now the bimmer.info community has grown we need the same.

I can define these rules more deeply (but its a lot of work) so I'll only do it if others agree its a good idea and I get some input along the way.

For the moment I thought a summary would be best for floating the idea. Please bare in mind the rules are exactly that; they are only rules. How much members are drawn to account on them is all up to the mod team at the time!
Nick

[632 Regal]

how bout a big ass stun gun that would zap them through their pc screen?

[genphreak]

The trouble with rules are that a moderator will have trouble enforcing them when they break them themselves... as even idiots can effectively point out hyporcrisy when they see it.

This can make a mods work less fun (of course you know we all love your contributions Jeff ), but other forums take the trouble to do this as it reduces the workload on mods by 90%.

I can't see the rules being called on to support a mods decision once they become adopted- well maybe a few times a year at most.

[632 Regal]

I forsee mayhem no matter how you slice it.

The trouble with rules are that a moderator will have trouble enforcing them when they break them themselves... as even idiots can effectively point out hyporcrisy when they see it.

This can make a mods work less fun (of course you know we all love your contributions Jeff ), but other forums take the trouble to do this as it reduces the workload on mods by 90%.

I can't see the rules being called on to support a mods decision once they become adopted- well maybe a few times a year at most.

[Dave M]

I forsee mayhem no matter how you slice it.

Agree with Jeff,

We can't be "cut and dry". I for one would enjoy throwing a 'for sale' add up on the main page every now and then.



If there is a way of distinguishing between the malicious threads and those that are otherwise well meaning, then I say we go for it!

Nothing short of difficult if you ask me. If we can deal on a case by case basis with the ars-pics, which i think we have done, then lets continue on our merry path.

it ain't all that bad. Ive been here for 4 years and i'm not goin anywheres soone. I didn't mind mind ukm, I just thought he was a prick

Dave M