Jamo

iTrader: (23)

As for cyber attacks, that sounds like an excuse to me. all else fails blame the cyber terrorists. lol

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

?? What I said, or performance?

I'm sorry I personally can't do anything to help. I can only try to explain (badly) what has happened lately. As for previous, or even current issues, I can only say as I did before, and that is post on the thread in bugs.

It keeps the issues in one place, and hopefully draws more attention, if you are having problems.

RA Dunk

IB need to try deleting some of the crap off of this place, there putting advertising in front of their paying members, with out members who is there to advertise too and click there stupid ******* links?, we are the back bone of the place yet were the ones who are getting shafted with all the **** they install on the site

Myles

iTrader: (40)

Shaggy, I think the problem is that the 'cyber attacks' only affect the paying members of the site, as they are axactly that, paying members and they are being denied the service they have paid to receive. Whereas, the thread that was above this when I started typing says it all. No aid from the moderators, having to ask for help to locate the guy who has his money/goods. (it was ANOTHER scammer thread BTW)

If the paying members start to leave the site, or even worse for IB, start their own (there is a thought), then IB will see the problem in real terms, ie. loss of profit from purchase of space on the internet and nothing else it seems. The loss will not be just financial, the experts will take their knowledge elsewhere and all that will be left will be the search function for their archived help.

This will roll on to the non-paying members who will remain non-paying, but can not now be regarded as potential paying members (where is the benefit?), use the site less and less, choosing to use the fantasy site set up by the disgruntled ex-paying members.


Its the future, beware........

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Hang on: Paying members (as in plus members ) should be able to turn off the adverts

What I don't understand is the layout and adverts hasn't changed since SDB was still runnning it (RH advert, forum sponsor, header ad and footer ad). So who do you blame? The person who first implemented it all (SDB), or the people who carried on using the same layout (IB)? Bearing in mind the latter is running it as a profitable commercial venture so needs them to make SN financially viable, whilst the former did it on the side as a personal interest and just to fund the overheads (originally, anyway).

The point being is it hasn't changed much, but being owned by a commercial organisation that earns its revenue via advertising, I would have expected even more adverts. (i.e LH ads, inline text ads, pop-ups, drop down ads etc) for non-plus members.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

It's only £2 a month you do get a lot of "extras" ...

TX.

Mr_White

iTrader: (1)

The onus is to a degree on both parties, but there is more that could and should be done by the admins.

1. A high number of minimum required amount of posts before being granted access to any sale forums, a required amount of time on the site would also help, as with a post count to aim for, people can tend to spam to get there, and if there isn't enough vigilante moderation to kerb their post count, this safeguard won't fulfill it's potential.

2. Feedback, a feedback system has already been implemented, but it's not used by most, buying from an individual online without any feedback always has a large potential to result in a scam.

Although the first point being implemented would greatly reduce this, some may still be determined enough to scam you, so if they're not involved enough in the community to build up good sales feedback through smaller transactions, and a good reputation as an individual, is it really worth doing business with them?

Some may say the sense of community isn't as great as it once was, so it can be harder to use reputation as a gauge of trust, but that still leaves the trader system, which is up to the members to make work, and up to the admins to convey the benefits and the need to utilise it.

3. Don't accept a gift via PayPal, PayPal at the best of times doesn't offer great customer service, but if you accept payment as a gift, to avoid any fees, or because you're simply not aware of the ramifications, then you have no comeback and no protection.

A gift transaction absolves you of PayPal's protection and rights, which although don't always do their job when needed, is still another level of protection that you can ensure, obviously if you feel someone has sufficient feedback and reputation, that it's worth doing to save fees, then it has it's uses, but be aware of the risks.

4. Moderation, the sales forum need a strict set of guidelines, and a strict team of moderators, of all the forums I'm a member on that have sales sections, the most successful are those which employ all of the above points, a strict set of behaviour and conduct in the sales forum, and to ensure they are properly moderated, suspensions of accounts and removal of sales forum access if people can't even be bothered to adhere to basic rules and etiquette just to make a quick buck, are they people you want to do business with?

Some might not agree with the above points, but as stated, of all the forums and communities I'm part of, some of which are larger than this, those which employ the above points all have a very successful and prosperous sales community, with an extremely low rate of scams, maybe one a year if you're unlucky, but generally those scammers get their comeuppance, as by that point, they're usually not as anonymous as they might like.

Some of these points are in effect to a lesser and ineffective degree, and with no real enforcement of them either, there is one forum that only plus members can post in, which in it's self is too easy to gain access to if you want to scam someone, but then there is another forum being used for pretty much the exact same thing, so they don't even need to bother getting access to the other forum, apart from that, there isn't enough being done.

With stricter rules, such as those outlined, and an active and vigilante moderation team enforcing the rules, people quickly become more aware of that fact it's a privilege, and it creates a more formal and polite sales forum, without constant BTT posts and other tactics, without clutter and chaos, and it generally creates a community of much more aware contributors, and those which understand the rules are there to create a good community for everyone, not for people to just turn up and make quick money off of, which instills a sense of community, which has possibly become somewhat lost on SN, and which people will want to protect and further as a whole, and will all want to take responsibility for ensuring it's future prosperity, I've seen the results plenty of times on a number of sites and communities, and the result is a great sales community that far outclasses what SN has right now, which is one that some people seem to have lost faith in, understandably.

Without moderation to enact and enforce such policies, the members are left feeling that no one cares, and that it's just a free-for-all, with no attempts to improve it for them, but once improvements are made, and moderated vigilantly, members will have something that's worthy of protecting, and will feel more of a desire to help self-regulate the community, which starts a reaction of constant improvement, an attitude which can propagate throughout, to the benefit of everyone, this is an approach and attitude that can spread much further than just addressing the issues of the sales forums.

Just because the owners have changed, doesn't mean the members and moderation can't do anything to improve upon the community, the former is already done, this place exists for their profit now, but the community can still turn itself into more than that, the community is all the members of SN, the community is not Internet Brands.

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

Definately slower than it used to be. It would help if IB hosted servers in the UK...it's 17 router hops to their US servers.

Tracing route to bbs.scoobynet.com [67.201.17.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 12 ms 20 ms 10 ms 10.87.64.1
2 11 ms 14 ms 15 ms nmal-geam-1a-v11.network.virginmedia.net [62.30.
112.131]
3 20 ms 25 ms 17 ms osr01croy-pc111.network.virginmedia.net [62.30.2
42.37]
4 11 ms 11 ms 74 ms bre-bb-a-ae2-0.network.virginmedia.net [195.182.
178.82]
5 21 ms 23 ms 29 ms so-7-0-0-dcr1.lnd.cw.net [195.2.9.149]
6 23 ms 28 ms 22 ms xe-5-0-0-xcr1.lnd.cw.net [195.2.25.121]
7 * 89 ms 95 ms ge-11-1-0.xcr1.nyk.cw.net [195.2.25.22]
8 118 ms 100 ms 101 ms nyiix.ge2-6.cr01.lga01.mzima.net [198.32.160.169
]
9 231 ms 198 ms 202 ms te1-1.cr01.iad01.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.62]
10 228 ms 199 ms 304 ms te1-3.cr01.atl01.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.53]
11 218 ms * 245 ms te0-1.cr01.dfw01.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.49]
12 261 ms 204 ms 205 ms te1-1.cr01.phx01.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.37]
13 234 ms 300 ms 204 ms te1-1.cr01.lax02.us.mzima.net [69.174.120.33]
14 240 ms 200 ms 201 ms xe1-0.cr01.lax01.mzima.net [64.235.224.181]
15 318 ms 204 ms 204 ms xe0-0.cr01.lax06.us.mzima.net [216.193.255.98]
16 231 ms 205 ms 212 ms 67.201.17.150
17 232 ms 204 ms 205 ms 67.201.17.106

...and they can't blame the size of this forum. I use AV Forums and I can't remember the last time is was offline or slow. They have four times the users and a lot more forum categories.

AVForums.com : The UK's biggest and best audio visual home consumer electronics forums

Not sure I'll renew my subscription if they can't sort it out.

Anders

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

my favourite being the monthly competitions and draws....

ile get my coat ......

RA Dunk

paying members as in Orange members as in full members , cant turn off adverts, are you trying to tell me theres no more crap installed now than when the last lot run it? what about the big bill board A-plan advert which dominates my screen? i dont think so, what about all of those sites that load on the bottom left side of the screen these are the ba$tards im on about as one of them normally decides to take its time or dosent co operate at all and just sticks fully...

Dont know why your defending them TBH, you on the pay role or something?

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

But, as I said, posting in bugs gets little or no response, so why bother?

IB are still raking it in, why should they care? It's STILL not right, ten days after it all kicked off. IMO, if they can't do owt about it, it's time they sold up to someone who can.

I seriously hope their advertisers kick off bigtime

harvey

iTrader: (48)

Mr White : You obviously put a lot of effort in to the post above and I broadly agree with much of what you say.
I think the server issues will be sorted out fairly soon because failure to do so will result in loss of revenue quite noticably. I plan to spend more time on SIDC as opposed to here for instance and I know that many others are contemplating a similar change.
However, fundamental to running this site is the attitude and intent of the Webmaster. I am not the only person emailing him that receives no response on matters of some importance and he appears to believe that Internet Brands are providing a forum for Subaru owners to exchange information and conduct commercial transactions, private or business but that Internet Brands have no control or responsibility over the content of the site. You don't have to be a Legal Eagle to know that the owners of the site have a responsibility for the content. Furthermore, what is the point of having clearly defined rules and then failing to police them and censure those that ignore them. For me this is nub of the problem and I find it very disappointing that the average Scooby owner out there looks on Scoobynet as one large happy family but in reality it is a money making tool where anything goes. Obviously Internet Brands need to run at a profit and I am all for that but the lack of standards and integrity displayed now is diabolical and I am sure there will be a sea change within the membership.

Steve Whitehorn

iTrader: (13)

I first came on here in early 2001 and it has all come and gone over the years....and why when membership came in it didnt mean much to me ...its about contribution to the community.

Yes it has gone down hill.
As mentioned the scammer thing, buggers it up for the ret of us - Harvey summed it well
site speed and all the crap on here that slows things down

I will post if strictly necessary ...but will take a rain check from this place to see how it pans out.
wonder if the SIDC has seen more traffic over these past few weeks??
All the best
Steve

I am now heading off to SIDC for a bit

CaptainJohn

The performance of SN is so poor at the moment for everybody because of all the embedded advertising e.g.googleads which the majority of people who have decent security will be (or should I say should be ?) flagged up as phishing etc.. IB are obviously trying to raise revenue this way but the performance of the product has suffered as a result.

Coffin Dodger

Lets face it the rot started to set in quite a long time before IB took over. The webclown days along with the dissolution of the muppet forum were the beginning of the end for SNet and drove away a lot of the regulars.

The site speed issues certainly aren't helping at the moment but the underlying issues are much greater

snOOpy86

iTrader: (1)

I know is only £2 a month, but what "extras" exactly do you get for that?

why is SN membership more expensive than PF?

why is there 2 sub forums to sell parts/cars (again on PF you have to be a member to sell parts - this in my opinion gives you some protection from the scammers)

Site performance isnt up to scratch.

Adverts EVERYWHERE!

And for me there is no real reason why i would need/want to pay to use this site, when everything is so availible.

jonny_693

iTrader: (5)

I have allways said to myself i will become a paid member when this site functions properly. Stu and his team arrived full of promise but have failed to deliver. I'll keep hold of my £2 a month for now, and if I want **** I will google it.... its free.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Ahhh orange and blue club. Don't quote me on this but I think that may have been SDB's personal holiday fund. After the server move and upgrades, normal non-paying members were given almost all of the same features (ability to use use full search, larger PM box, etc.), so barring the coloured banner we never saw the point of it, which is why its no longer being offered.

Plus members do have the ability to turn off ads (not sponsors though). Under the current system, plus member option 1 is what I term to be as a paying member.

Forum sponsors were here before IB, they just continued with them. I remember the debate when the A-plan ad appeared, but its pixel height is lower than some of the others, the page space used is actually the same as Greenlight's banner, just A-plan's lettering is sodding huge. But they do pay alot of money for that banner, so its swings and roundabouts...



Of course, if you suffer problems with site access/speed due to adverts, I've never condemed anyone who modifies their browser or installs software that will block adverts - its your computer (I'm assuming its yours ), so you can do what you like with it IMO.

To be brutally honest, I thought the place went to pot BEFORE IB had any involvement, I think it has improved. We don''t have random feejits dishing out infractions on whim, we don't have an abrupt and moody webhamster anymore, and its no longer a one man band who is expected to sort out everything whilst maintaining a lifestyle outside SN. What it does have now unlike before is the resources to sort stuff out when it hits the fan (like last week), both technical, hardware, software (IB owns Vbulletin), and legal staff.

The problem and major downside of it all now is that its all shared; We share Stu with PassionFord and his daytime job, we share servers and bandwidth and IB's tech staff are shared with other forums. I do however suspect other IB sites get priority treatment over SN (don't quote me on that though, its just a personal gut feeling) although I have not seen any evidence to say either way so its just conjecture on my behalf.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

No, we have a webLOBSTER LOL :

When are they gonna do it then?

Ah............it begins to make sense.

Headlines on Scoobynet tomorrow morning: "Outspoken moderator sacked for whistle-blowing".

MMT WRX

Well I reckon the site is a lot slower than it was before and the last couple of weeks has been hit and mostly miss, whether I could actually log on at all.

It’s a shame because I like the site but, I give it a couple of attempts and if its slow or difficult to log on, I just don’t bother and go elsewhere.

I don't complain though as I don’t pay and therefore don’t have any say in how the site is run. However, to be honest I really don’t think you should have to pay as the advertising costs should support running the site and some.

For me to advertise my business here though I would want totally free membership and I would not be impressed with recent issues, I would definitely be looking for some sort of rebate for the loss of advertising during all the outages.

hodgy0_2

what adverts

most adverts are delivered to you by special ad servers - Parasites if you will

I never get any -- I have a local host file that bins all of them hence website loads fine -- apart from when it is under a denial of service attack

see here

Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

disclaimer -- p1ss around with your pc at your own risk