Neil Smalley

Andy et al,

Please reconsider.

I understand your feelings of being insulted by some of the remarks on the 'Racist' thread. But please take into account this is just ONE thread of about 200,000.

There are over 11,000 people registered on scoobynet. That's the same population as a small town!!!

Statistically there are likely to be
1100 Gay men/women
110 transvestites
100 ****'s
150 Communists
3000 muppets
600 people with IQ's over 130
200 people with IQ lower than 90
320 people with criminal records

etc etc

What I am trying to get at is not everyone will share the same beliefs, value systems and standards as you(we) do. The lesson for all of us here is tolerance within boundaries.

You know as well as I do, that if a post steps outside of your boundaries report it to the moderators. If they agree(and they usually do) then it'll get dealt with.

A lot of us are getting fed up with the influx of the max muppet variety, but they will learn and will blend in. Exactly the same way as all the people groups I mentioned above do.

Scoobynet has now grown massivley in size and scope, and I guess is now like a teenager trying to find his place in the world. It's down to every one of us to make sure it turns out an upright member of society, and not duffing people up because of their cars(http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...threadid=78683)

These 'teenage years' are the hardest part of growing up, not only in human terms but in the life cycle of communities. If we want to see it work(and I would wager 10900 people on this BBS do) then we all need to work at it, it's not just the moderators(parents if you like) who need to do this, but every one here(scoobynet's mates)

For you to leave would be a massive pity, and I believe a great loss to the BBS. We need your input to help grow this place into the next level of maturity, because once it's grown up then we can really start to have fun

Here endeth the lesson

elondan

I agree,
Andy I understand what you're going through , but I think giving up is not the way to deal with these kind of things.
You have to stand up for whats right, and by using the tools (writing, moderators...) you have make sure you're view is heard and put those people back in their place.

Brian Swan

Neil, this was my point about Freedom of Speech only going so far. Out of your list above only the 320 with Criminal Records is of importance because that is the only one where the law intervenes.

Being a Transvestite is not against the law so cannot be moderated.

As a moderator you have to control what is illegal. From there the board will find its feet regardless of whether it is still a baby or not. We cannot and should not control "my car's better than yours" because that discussion is legal no matter what people want to think about the merits of.

Anyway, me and my Ms.Wong are now going for dinner

FreeT

Unlike society - people on this forum (great forum) are here because they have a common interest, not sure what the link with sexuality is (maybe just diversity of people). Unfortunately alot of them are a bit odd and outspoken, lost there sense of humour. Idon't know you but IMHO stay, for these oddities will eventually leave.

SecretAgentMan

...whooooaaa....3000 muppets?

Weird.

/J

Josh L

Neil,

Whilst I agree with your sentiments, I have to admit my feelings are similar to those of Andy. Although not necessarily for the same reasons.

While racism is rife in our society, and I believe very strongly that it is perpetrated by both sides of the fence, it is effectively no existent on Scoobynet.

However, the purile nature of many posts is really getting to me. The moderators put in a tremendous amount of time and effort, yet time and time again their efforts are expended moving threads to the technical forums, whilst leaving pointless and childish threads in the general section.

I've never been that technically minded, so I've never spent much time on those threads, but I'm spending more of the time I spend on Scoobynet there, as there is still a degree of sanity there.

There's always some idiot who just has to comment on a topic, regardless of there interest or input, hence those who have racked up 4 figure postings within a matter of months. Whereas there are some of the older guard who haven't reach the same figures after being here since the begining.

I'm afraid that if things don't change Neil, then Andy won't be the last valued member to leave. Many have already started to drift away.

Josh

Dream Weaver

Well said Neil.

I am not exactly sure what has gone on, but come on Tango you need to stay here. Perserverence.

As neil said, Scoobynet is like a small town now, and you wouldn't stop going out just cos there are a few muppets about. It is bound to happen in any community but you have to hold your head up high as a valued member and overcome it. There are too many people downing tools at the moment on here and leaving. Lets all stick together and make Scoobynet the BBS it was this time last year.

To do this we all need to post quality threads, and contribute to other threads. Just steer clear of the muppet threads, they will get bored and leave.

I have some ideas for Simon that may help.

Keep with it Andy and everyone else.

And stay happy, life's too short

DW

PS My IQ is 142, so who are the other 599??

Neil Smalley

Josh

I agree m8. I think we should petition the FIA to cancel the WRC for a while to give Simon time to put in these enhancements. In the event that this does'nt happen then try to hang on..

I get fed up, we all get fed up and think about leaving(I did over a year ago now when I went to a track day and nobody said hello) but I decided that I was'nt going to let a few ignorant idiots ruin my enjoyment. Now that sentiment only lasts so long I know, but we all put too much time in to see it ruined.

Bitten Hero

Yeah, agree with most of the above, particularly Josh's comments. One point is that you should divide those numbers by about 5 as there's no way 11000 members - user ID's yes, but not members.

My main annoyance is that it just gets tedious reading a sensible thread and then get stupid comments posted in the middle of it - we all know the type I mean. Anyway the ways forward have been discussed at length on a different thread so I won't re-open them here.

I won't be leaving for now, but I already read few of the General threads, and look mostly on the technical ones as they're more interesting, to be honest. Also it's a great way of getting people together - see the Jordan karting, DHarbige's MK karting and Gridlock Mikey's massive (around 100 cars?) meet as prime examples.

The balance is always going to be hard to find with so many people but I'll stick with it for a while yet.

Cheers
Richard


ps My IQ's 158 so where are the other 598?

IanW

BTT

As I agree whole heartedly with Neil's comments.

Dream Weaver, please dont tarnish the majority of the muppets, I class some of those as my best friends whom i have met, and had many a good laugh with.

'The Muppet Show' has outgrown the general area for any obscure threads etc, its 'normally' a very close community, which will welcome anybody who wants to join in and have a good laugh.

I'm sure that things will get sorted. I have said it before, and i will say it again, i personally appreciate all the time that the moderators and Si put in. Si knows that if there is anything that i can do to help then he has only got to ask me by mail, phone SMS whatever!

Ian

Dream Weaver

Ian - sorry, should have been clearer. I wasn't referring to the "muppet forum", just to the actual muppets (read: idiots) that have started posting recently in the general forum. The ones that reply to threads with utter drivel.

The muppet forum is a fine place to be, every now and then

DW

Gordo

excellent, do we need a **** newsgroup? hands up those who wish to join (and apologies to those you believe this post is puerile and therefore pointless, but you could always just go and buy the Haynes manual )

Gordo

ptholt

and then as an example of what everyone was talking about, up popped the above post..........

Gordo

Ptholt - here's the link to help you out. perhaps you and the other apparent 'oldies' on here could organise a group buy and get together in your garden sheds at weekends to chat about it?

http://www.haynes.co.uk/inc/viewbook.asp?bt=H825

stop taking yourselves so feckin' seriously! the board's here to be light hearted as well as educational and for people to air their views. if you don't like them respond to disagree or read the next thread. not everyone wants a pseudo intellectual debate as to what should and shouldn't be on here - it's a freedom of speech board and should be used as such.

(my quip about the **** board was deliberately light hearted but also to re-inforce the richness of the population on here)

Gordo

Josh L

Unfortunately it's the same mentality as those who feel they must add a reply to a 'for sale' thread, despite their not being in the least bit interested in the item.

There's no harm in a humourous reply, where apropriate, but incessant fatuous replies or, worse still topics, is doing the BBS not favours IMHO.

Neil,
I'm sorry, but I fail to see what SDB has to do with the matter. You can't code for morons. Personally, I think less time should be spent moving topics about, and more time deleting the garbage. If the idiots who post most of the futile topics find them deleted, together with their pathetic replies to others, then they'll soon get bored. Hopefully they'll then think about their postings a bit more, or just take a hike.

Josh

Neil Smalley

Josh,

Simon needs to add extra moderators to the more popular forums and to maybe add a dross forum, to stop the max muppets posts and have somewhere else to put them.

Moderators can only move posts in their own forum, so I can't do anything about stuff in general no matter how much i'd like to. Only Simon can fix this.

No slight on Simon at all, he has a day job that happens to take all night too!

ptholt

to a certain degree yes it is a 'freedom of speech board' but certain topics just dont deserve the bandwidth there wasting and in many other cases contain potentially libellous content that i know sdb and the moderators will take action on, so no quite that free.

Harry Potter

11,000 names.

How many active members?

What would be cool is some accountability

No Hotmail/yahoo accounts etc.

I have friends in chat texting me about outrageous comments from a "pseudo Internet Celebrity" saying: "hang the fat **** of an Israeli Prime minister he was only brought in to kill Moslems" and he is not banned! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

I was banned in my own name, for causing problems = raising the issue of decency, over aforesaid pseudo celebrity.

Andy is right to be annoyed at double standards. (Admission of partiality my common law wife is Chinese )

banshi

Josh
Fully agree with all you have said, and something has to be done.

As content deteriorates the new car enthusiasts will not subscribe, the persistent babble of 12 year olds will encourage them to look elsewhere. The knowlegable individuals will drift leaving a generalised bbs with a periferal link to cars.

The bbs was originally dedicated to Subarus, then widened to "performance" car owners, computer geeks and now Neil suggests a Max Muppet Forum. I understand why but if its irrelevant crap moving it into a dross forum doesn't change the content.

Lets have a Max Moderator, bring in a CK 1 or 2(Crap Killer). With absoulte power to delete and beat!

Sue

The balance is always going to be hard to find with so many people but I'll stick with it for a while yet.

Cheers
Richard


Oh good!!!! x

Claudius

Damn, that works out 10% of this country's population is gay!! What an insult to Mother Nature!

Why dont you let the guy f*µk off if he wants to? We're still free (for now...)

Trout...

I have obviously missed something here - has Andy left - was it related to racist remarks - should I be offended too?

Anyway - to step back I see the policy of not allowing HOTMAIL/YAHOO users not be allowed to create memberships. That is dumb - if that rule was true I would not have signed-up, nor my alter ego Rannoch.

But there again you may have been better off without me!!!!

Trout

MATTeL

Trout,

Better off without you? Nope!

Sad that Andy feels he had to leave? Yes.

If all hotmail users where not allowed I wouldn't be here either. The last thing I would do is give my work e-mail address out on a public forum. Sorry but I was burned in the past for that and I am not daft enough to do it again.

Simon could always use the ban button...

Mark

Neil Smalley

Brian,

You are correct in what you say. That is why the muppet forum was created, so that mine vs yours style discussions could be exiled there and so avoided by those who did'nt want to read them. However the muppet forum has become something else(god knows what mind you) and so I believe we need a 'dross' forum to put all this stuff. It's also why we try and delete stuff that could be illegal right away. In some rare cases where we're not sure, we sometimes have to ask a friendly legal eagle, and that can take time

In the short term, I guess one can always not open and read threads that look as though they might be ones you don't like. Just like the TV, nobody forces you to watch daytime TV if you don't want to.

I also don't discriminate against people regardless of who or what they are. But if people feel discriminated against, then it would'nt be responsible of me to ignore their feelings.

Back to the point, it's unity in variety that is our strength, not our single mindedness of like minds..

[Edited by Neil Smalley - 3/12/2002 8:25:46 AM]