chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

only shaun at a guess?

wrx-kenny

how many people have mod access and how many people have admin access ??

its only people with admin access that can ban people

WHEELSHOP0_0

Dan I really wanted a view from the people who pay for this forum as they have more clout than ordinary members and now that some replies have arrived I think the mods can see what the opinions are and hopefully confirmed what they already knew.
One other idea was to have an ASBO section as the "Iffy" posts get moved to muppet section and this is a little unfair on the muppets as they are the biggest posters on here and people who get the threads moved there then continue to post in the muppets section spoiling what can be very entertaining(they do scare me a little tho ).
The asbo section could be limited to posters which have a passable rep. position, therefore "iffy" threads could be improved as they might have a value if they dont deteriorate into a slagging match.
The genuinely offensive would just die as these posters cannot post in that thread once it has been moved there.
This does not clamp down on peoples rights as if they keep the responces legal and within accepted rules than they would not get poor reps or be moved into ASBO's.
Just a thought but could it work?

ScoobyDoo555

Good idea, but very time consuming + is it possible with the BBS software?

Meant to also add - the reason contacting the admin, is moreso that they are accountably to all those who pay (inc + members)

one other suggestion would be to put all newbies onto a trial period, based on both post count and content.......

Dan

edited for pressing delete and submit at the same time

MaDaSS

At the end of the day it is a forum. By nature of that fact it means anyone can post and apart from bypassing the swear filters they can more or less post anything at all. It stays there until it gets spotted by an admin and removed, which takes time.
The only comments that wind me up proper are the racist ones.
Oh, and the only posts that wind me up more than that are the ones where ppl ask about getting gold wheels! Lolz0rs to that f00ka!
But i am pretty much very happy with the site and the community as a whole. I generally always get the advice i am after although one of my latest posts got ignored completely, but alas that happens.
You will find trolls wherever you post but i think SN do a good job of sorting it out asap imho.

Sweepickit

Just my thoughts... There has always been a bit of friendly banter here, it just seems that recently it has become slightly more personal. I guess there will always be trolls waiting to do what they do, but that is life on a public forum. We could all help the mods by reporting the offensive posts using the "!" button to the left of the post. That way it will be flagged and posibly dealt with much quicker, as opposed to mods having to trawl through every post!

WHEELSHOP0_0

Top answer

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

I second that

scoobynutta555

What has changed in the years I have been here is an explosion in membership. I assume a big chunk of the new members are not Impreza owners but blow-ins from iffy sites like Zoints etc. Also, 'muppetisation' of threads where the topic is blatantly steered to banal and childish replies by members keen to add to their already sad high post counts.

I would like to see plus membership compulsory and an end to this culture of trying to expand membership/ad revenue at all costs. The site has been purposely allowed to move away from a Subaru orientated site, I'd imagine to boost revenue from the Google and Zoints advertising.

On the issue of spelling etc. I can't see a problem when someone is corrected on something other than typo's. Some posts on here are so dreadfully typed you wonder if the author ever attended an English lesson. It's quite a poor reflection on the community as a whole if some uneducated oik is allowed to publish with impunity childish gibberish, true dyslexia obviously not included.

Jerome

I wouldn't be surprised if many advertisers are reluctant to comment in this thread for fear of alienating customers. Just because someone is a troll on here, it doesn't mean their business isn't welcome if they have money to spend.

Having been around for a while, I have noticed a change in SN over the years. Some change has been good and some not so good.

I noticed someone commenting the other day that even the muppets section wasn't as friendly as it used to be. Although I don't go there that often, it always used to be a friendly (if a bit cliquey sometimes) place.

The trolls/keyboard warriors often ruin an otherwise good thread. I had a thread recently where several unwelcome posters (who didn't seem willing to actually read the whole thread) posted inflammatory remarks which distracted from the threads purpose. I don't mind people disagreeing with me, I do mind people making needless inflammatory remarks which harm the thread. This also serves to deter would be thread starters from posting anything that may be of interest.

As for spelling and grammar, it can be irritating, but unless really bad, it isn't a big deal for me. I do however hate text speak in a forum. Some forums delete posts in text speak routinely. Many forums also ban multiple user accounts (says he with several accounts - none used for trolling though).

SN does seem to be doing something about the trolls etc, at least that's a step in the right direction. I hope advertisers will see this as reason enough to keep supporting SN if they are contemplating leaving or not renewing.

MattW

But would you get the requisite number of subscribers. I wouldn't buy plus membership, no longer have an Impreza. However I do contribute to a number of Impreza related posts. You would lose that from myself and any number of ex owners.

scoobynutta555

I would imagine the plus membership could be cheaper than it is now due to the increase in membership uptake. I would continue to be a member even if I didn't have an Impreza, as indeed I wasn't for a year and still posted on here.

Anyone who wouldn't pay, say a tenner a year for membership, for an increase of quality on the site IMHO shouldn't be here in the first place.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Sadly in the real world it doesn't work like that There isn't much moderation done these days because there aren't enough moderators or the ones that are here don't have the time

The Rig

iTrader: (13)

In my opinion,the state of mind is that if your not minted,have a double garage and earn £45k+ a yr,u shouldnt be here or have a subaru.

It seems that most on nhere are loaded, or seem to portray they are....

Jerome

Maybe if the cost to be able to post was a one off payment of £10, it wouldn't put off most potential members. By paying online, there should be enough details about the member that, if they misbehave, they cannot continue their trolling with a new account.

Also limiting the frequency/number of posts per day, unless they have paid £10, would be enough to keep occasional posters here, yet prevent indiscriminate trolling.

WHEELSHOP0_0

PP you have been here a long time with plenty posts and are a SN+ member do you have an opinion on this topic, pm me if you dont want it public.
Also for the other replies a small fee would be good/bad what do you all think as I have seen several posts from people stating that they will not renew the + membership?

Also I think the reporting of a bad post will be better than not as if you dont do anything about it you cant really complain.

Could we have a members veto like a sin bin idea in which long term respected members can sin bin someone until a mod can arbitrate perhaps.
I know nothing about the system could this be possible to do?

stilover

I have to disagree with you there.
I would definitely not be in favour of having to pay to join the Forum. I'm not tight, but if Scoobynet started charging, I'd stop posting.
I also think you'd see no or very few new members. Someone thinking of buying a Subaru, and having to pay £10 or whatever just to ask a few questions regarding buying advise is going to look elsewhere for advise. Thus discouraging potential new genuine posters.

scoobynutta555

I posted that I wouldn't renew my plus membership as it simply was not worth renewing as I can achieve nearly all the same benefits without being a plus member. I think if there was compulsory membership or the gulf between membership and non membership was larger this would not be an issue.

As pointed about above a fee would require payment details and formal identification etc. Trolls, racists and other bad apples would be put off with multiple account listing if there was a fee each time and their identity was easily traceable. I would imagine there would be more self restraint and greater following of the rules on SN too.

What really is needed is a poll of members to find out if there would be significant uptake on a compulsory membership scheme to find out if it is viable and a discussion on any negative impacts. I would imagine that a scheme like this is never far from the Webmaster's mind. From what I've seen though, there has been no official Scoobynet backed discussion on this issue.

scoobynutta555

What stikes me then is a small area for 'free' members and the majority of the area for paying members. Currently it's the other way around.

agent003

Well....TBH I dont think charging money will be the resolution to what is actually in fact a moderation issue.

We do have a large database for reference hence alot gets sorted without posting (for those who use it).

We also have alot of members that mostly post to help and not to seek help hence i dont think they will find it very amusing having to pay to help others.

In regards to what some say its just a bit of "banter".... wilst i think its ok to have a bit of a mess around between more established members as its my opinion that to levy this on new members is just taking a bit of liberty with "strangers" and more than often ends up with off topics, people feeling unwelcome and having a premature opinion towards others or forum in general.

WBR

WBR

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

I think that Scoobynet isn't like it was at all. I joined back in 2001 when a friend (astraboy) told me to join up. It was such a different place back then. It was a really friendly place and nobody used to have multiple accounts to abuse other users, there were no trolls & there were no users that were checking on your grammar. Everyone was so helpful and friendly and it was a proper community.

I used to be a moderator on here but I got sick of the trolls ruining the atmosphere on here and I felt that I was spending far too much of my personal time chasing them up and moderating the abuse, racist posts and pointless trolling. I was originally going to quit as a moderator in January this year but I kept on hanging in there hoping it'd get better because I was doing a very high percentage of the moderation in general and non scooby related.

I feel guilty for the way that the board has gone in the last few months, if I'd stayed on the board wouldn't be as bad as it has become and that I am very sorry for. I hoped that when I left they would have replaced me with another moderator that could dedicate as much time to the job as I did.

I have made many good friends on Scoobynet though but none of us really post on here anymore We all still meet up and post on another board.

WHEELSHOP0_0

Cheers P. thanks for that.

scoobynutta555

Most long term members on here are happy to help sensibly asked questions from newbies. The same as most would be willing to help others even if they had to pay a membership, that's what being a member of a community is all about.

I do not know about other Plus members, but I feel a sense of contribution when I paid my subs. What makes it galling for me is contributing to a service that allows misuse and trolling by free members who don't contribute to the community anything worthwhile and can do so for free.

I still feel that some sort of monetary contribution should be made by the many and not the few. And if Scoobynet is as important to some people as they make out, and their post count suggests, then surely a nominal fee is not so much to ask is it? The best form of moderation is self moderation, and this I feel can be acheived much more easily through a subscription basis. People who get banned on one name can activate another in minutes and start all over again. I would like to think that this practise would be curbed if they had to spalsh out each time.

IMHO free members should only have limited access to the site

Again, I find it hard to believe that if somebody uses a Forum like this regularly they would begrudge paying a nominal annual fee for its maintenance and moderation etc. Seems that most people slip into a 'free lunch' mentality when it comes to it.

I'd like to see an instance of a Plus member being banned, has this happened before?

MattW

The simplest answer is to have some sort of search function that allows a user to search what other usernames have psoted using the same ip. no need to display the ip.

MattW

You would see new membership decline though, and as older members move onto other makes/models then you will get less activity from them.

Jerome

Fair enough. What about if the fee was a one off £1? The only reason I suggest £10 was that it may cost more than a pound to collect a pound.

Markus

Interesting idea, but if you're using a proxy server, and some if not all of the multi-id users/trolls (most of the time they are one in the same) then the IP address could well not match, which is the whole reason for doing this, so you can't ban an IP address/range.

agent003

Hi Paul,

I think it will be fair to say that back then one could not find these cars on the cheap like sometimes averaging £2000 for some shady classics hence the ones that had them were trully more enthusiastic of the car they owned.

Well as you can see now days due to these being cheap some people just get them for cheap speed to abuse them and then come around here with no regard for the true scooby community.

I know alot of people do complain with good reason about insurance now days (including me) but could you imagine if the insurance on these was cheap also ....

WBR

scoobynutta555

Yes you would see new membership decline, but is this a bad thing?

I've seen posts on here praising the old days. I can't remember how to do the member number thing, but I think when I joined there were 5,000ish members, now there must be over 50,000.

And I doubt old posters will not continue to contribute just because they do not own an Impreza anymore. I didn't have one for a year yet still posted. This community is more than Impreza ownership, there is a homogeneity about it's core members, something that would be hard to find elsewhere. There was plenty of useful information on a wide range of subjects (not necessarily just Impreza related) when the membership was far smaller.

Markus

Jerome,
If it was a one-off fee of up to £15 for lifetime membership, access to everything, and the assurance that trolls and other fools would be dealt with harshly then I'd more than likley cough up.