ex-webby

Thrust

Thanks for your constructive post...

Regarding the legal side.

ScoobyNet is threatened with sensible legal action regularly.. maybe once a month or more. (at least 4 times a month from people simply trying it on)
Maybe 20% of them go further, and few go to court (2 in the last couple of years)..

We have never been successfully sued, and just about the only reason for this is that we have been able to show a long standing history of due diligence and quick response to requests from disgruntled companies.

It is one of those infortunate facts of life.

If you saw what actually goes into action once these things raise their heads, and the way we deal with the companies in question, I promise you, you would not be thinking we were spineless.

An enormous proportion of legal threats are met with a response similar to "ram it" as they are just not justified. But some actually legally ARE justified, and we will not allow things to be posted on scoobynet that are illegal, or legally questionable, it's simply not moral or correct to do so.

It is this standpoint that has protected us over the years, and I'm sure you would rather than than have the board closed down within 6 months and shaun and I lose our homes! (actually some may not!! )

Hope that clears it up?

Cheers

Simon

wakeboardar

the best thing you can say about a moderator is that you dont know there there
true with this lot eh

Charlie WRXSTI

Dear Webby & mods,

TBH I have no complaints at all, I have been here for just over a year and its a fantastic run and well looked after place

As you all know I have had a few run ins with the powers that be but its in the past and frankly forgotten about.

I have met some great people muppets and non muppets, only last night I sat in a pub with about 10+ SN people all from different backgrounds and professions and had a top night.

SN has a second to none community feel, although 99.9% of my posts have been in the hutch, its still a great place as a whole.

Keep up the great and thankless (til now ) task

Charlie

ThrustSSC

Simon,

Thanks for that. Sometime what we don't see is important! If you're telling the mick-takers to 'ram it' you get my vote every time, mate!

Can I please change my constructive criticism to: "Tell us more about what's going on behind the scenes!"? It's perfectly reasonable to say: "We've been approached my xxx who are unhappy about thread yyy and we find sufficient grounds in their complaint to remove the thread for at least the time being." I'd also like to see posts like: "We've been approached by zzz about post aaa, threatening us with legal action, and we find no grounds for supporting the complaint. We've told zzz to 'ram it'."

I particularly like the latter idea. I am all for exposing those who prefer to use bully tactics and sheer rudeness instead of reasoned argument

Cheers,
Jeremy

ex-webby

ROFL.. I love the latter idea.. and whilst my initial reaction was just laughter.. there might actually be mileage in it! I'm sure it would disuade a good number of the pillock element from trying it on.

Regarding the former suggestion.. unfortunately, the situations are usually too sensitive to tell everyone what's happening (which makes it even worse). This is why you will sometimes see a post from the webby saying something like "please don't speculate as to the reason for any thread which may have been deleted".

If we mention company names or even that there is a legal issue, we can sometimes land ourselves in deeper water. We fell foul of this in the first year I was running scoobynet.

It's never easy, but hopefully the majority will understand we're not doing it to be nasty, we're just trying to protect scoobynet and also ourselves.

Cheers

Simon

ThrustSSC

I'm with you all the way mate! I'm voluntarily on the governing body of a national aviation association owned by its members. I find that sometimes you have to take an unpopular action because, if you don't, you may personally be liable. You still get criticised like hell, but those throwing the muck are quite happy for you to take the risk on their behalf!

ex-webby

what aircraft? pm me as I may be interested if you have space?

TonyG

I also think the mods are doing a great job. No complaints from me on the moderating at all. Keep up the good work.

ex-webby

Thanks again to everyone..

Thank you to those who have simply taken the time to post a thank you / well done whilst not actually wanting anything.
Thank you to those who have made constructive postitive comments
Thank you to those who have made constructive negative comments

We won't be able to cover everything you suggest, but we'll give it a bloody good go.

Keep them coming

Cheers

Simon

ThrustSSC

Simon - you have PM - Jeremy

Chrisgr31

My biggest complaint is about the Mods removing links to dodgy picture content before I have seen it! :-D

Other than that it is a thankless task and you can't please everyone all the time. I have no complaints about the Mods, but do believe NSR should be kept. In fact about the only forum I go to!

jods

Mostly extremely happy with Scoobynet since joining 3 years or so back.

Only comment to make now is that I think the Moderators should be subject to a community vote. The 3 Mods who generate the highest number of complaints about "high handed" moderation should be put up for community vote to be "De-Modded"

You know who you are !

mj

this is a message board, not some tacky,2 bob chav show on ITV.

LMAO

jods

True, Very true.

However, One bad apple can spoil the barrel.


Oh - Also those Chav TV shows get Mahoooosive audiences.
Good for Advertising purposes !!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Umm, not much to comment on really.

Perhaps a little gripe I've had in the past is in threads that require mod intervention.....

The case being threads locking, post deleting, messed about with etc or reporting users with the mod responsible not posting a comment/reason and hiding behind anononimty. When moderation is correct it's all fine, no gripes. But when it is border line or there is no apparent explaination and when questioned there is nothing but a wall of silence it's rather unproductive in terms of getting users to understand the reasoning behind moderation.

Otherwise, good job lads and ladesses - it's thankless....but I'm thanking you!

Other things to do? well...

Perhaps a change in guidelines in Cat thread moderation?

And can someone please do something about that god-awful colour scheme in the Wales Rally GB Forum?

Andy S.

Great job being done by all the mods, thank you


I have only asked for the assistance of mods once, and I was happy with the out come

I find it hard to believe that you can get sued by somebody off a BBS glad to see that you are safeguarding yourselves. Its a BBS FFS

PS are you having a mods party afterwards? Dont get too pi$$ed LOL

So no mods on Saturday then LOL

korky

Only comment is that there are sometimes too many arguements that gat a bit personal. These threads should be moved into a 'boxing ring'

Korky

Bubba po

I suppose that there was once a time when the muppet forum was the very thing that some members are advocating; i.e. a rubbish bin.

The thing is, the Muppet forum is now one of the richest and most rewarding communities on scoobynet. We have lots of meets, lots of us own subarus, and the majority of us are successful, intelligent people who prefer to interact with each other in a highly specialised form of banter. There is no need to single out any particular part of this BBS for removal just because its output is generally incomprehensible to the rest.

I know that some of us (myself being a culprit) do give mods a slight problem when we stray onto other forums, but, speaking for myself, when I stray I generally try to keep my contributions light-hearted, if a bit trolly; it's all part of the "community" experience.

I love this site, me; I have a scoob, I've met loads of new friends (and made a few enemies, for some reason) and will continue to use and enjoy it as long as the site is being run in the way that it is.

Keep it up.

Bob.

(Not Geoff, Dennis, Bubba or any other nickname I seem to have attracted)

Little Miss WRX

Thank you for all of the constructive comments so far.

Not all are going, due to location I will not be, so I will be around to mod the forums.

sciboy

Doing a great job keep it up please

ex-webby

Thanks again everyone

I notice there have been no posts needing moderating during the night, so thank you to everyone for taking this in the spirit it was intended now

ALi-B

I think you raise a very valid point. Unfortunately there isn't time to post an explanation to everything, so we have the policy forum there for questions if it's important.

I thin what we need to do is put together some kind of commitment that we will always answer. Maybe we'll always answer respectfully asked questions, and we'll simply ignore the agressive demands?

Cheers

Simon

jasey

Most important thing for Mods to learn;


Don't take it personally.



ps I do know this is easy to say when I'm not on the end of it - but all good customer care is based on this .

pps It's also why I could never be a Mod (that and I'm never likely to be asked)

Old_Fart

Scoobynet shouldn't need moderating. Scoobynet should be a close community of scoob enthusiasts running off a cheap old server stuck in someones bedroom. Death to the muppet forums. Death to the advertisers.
Chuck
Old and farty this morning...I remember the days...........

the moose

Did you really keep a straight face while you were typing that? I'm not advocating the removal of Muppets, but "richest and most rewarding" strains credulity just a little too far.

I'm in two minds about Scoobynet. On the one hand it's clearly highly successful, and answers the needs of 99% of users 99% of the time. I do feel, however, that there's a somewhat patronising view of said users when it comes to moderation.

Threads are sometimes removed because they offend, but at other times others, which are just as offensive, stay. Persistent troublemakers are allowed to remain, whereas a very clear statement would be made about behaviour if they were simply banned, permanently. Worst of all, there's a wall of silence behind which the moderators sit. In most cases, people will accept a decision if they understand the reasons behind it; silence only creates animosity.

Oh, and the ScoobySport/ScoobyNet thing was disastrous. Probably a great idea commercially, but really, really badly handled.

ex-webby

Old Fart. Watchit!

the moose

Your first paragraph is unfair. Please do not insult other people's views simply because they do not agree with your own.

regarding the rest of your post. Forgive me if I've misread it, but it reads like a sermon rather than a constructive list of items you'd like to be discussed.

Can we keep it constructive please?

Cheers

Simon

Phil

Have to say lost me on that one!

Moderatoring is a thankless task - Fact

Can it be improved - VERY difficult IMHO

1. Inforce the T&C's strictly to the letter of the Law - Accused of not being flexible.

2. Use a bit of "common sense" - Accused of not following T&C's

Not sure if its possible but if a Thread has been deleted that perhaps the Title Remains [as long as that is not the reason of course] and a Very Brief statement is issued. i.e. Thread removed for pornographic links,etc

This would stop WHY HAS MY THREAD BEEN VAPED THREADS!

Also the RBP it would be great for a response even if it was like the PM's having a this was read at ##.## am/pm so we know that it has been looked at

Hope that was constructive because it was meant so

Keep up the good work and enjoy the weekend, location is being kept secret I assume

flat4

could you sort the join date while all the great SN minds are together in one room?

the moose

And *my* comments sound like a sermon??

Several points

1 I think Muppets takes itself too seriously (no, I'm not joking), and I was pointing that out to Bubba. That said, I support its right to stay.

2 Try re-reading my post; what I was commenting on was

a) Inconsistency of moderation
b) An overly tolerant attitude to persistent troublemakers
c) the silence which follows partial deletion/vaping of posts, and the fact that users would accept this far more readily with some explanation.

If points 2 (a) - (c) aren't on topic, what are?

David_Wallis

well I would say bin muppets.. its a subaru site.. it might be popular, but it costs bandwidth, and bandwith costs money.. Ive many a time asked how much bandwidth scoobynet uses but never been answered

Thus ditching muppets = less bandwith = Lower Costs = More Spare Cash = Better Subaru site



David

ex-webby

David and all. MUppets will not be closed. A number of people really enjoy it, and it does no harm to anyone else.

muppets = less than 5% of scoobynet bandwidth = drop in the ocean