I haven't been on the boards lately, i come back to find some new stuff and a little drama. Oh well......
Reminds me of the stages of a mailing list (old USENET posting): 1. Initial enthusiasm (people introduce themselves, and gush a lot about how wonderful it is to find kindred souls). 2. Evangelism (people moan about how few folks are posting to the list, and brainstorm recruitment strategies). 3. Growth (more and more people join, more and more lengthy threads develop, occasional off-topic threads pop up). 4. Community (lots of threads, some more relevant than others; lots of information and advice is exchanged; experts help other experts as well as less experienced colleagues; friendships develop; people tease each other; newcomers are welcomed with generosity and patience; everyone -- newbie and expert alike -- feels comfortable asking questions, suggesting answers, and sharing opinions). 5. Discomfort with diversity (the number of messages increases dramatically; not every thread is fascinating to every reader; people start complaining about the signal-to-noise ratio; person 1 threatens to quit if *other* people don't limit discussion to person 1's pet topic; person 2 agrees with person 1; person 3 tells 1 & more bandwidth is wasted complaining about off-topic threads than is used for the threads themselves; everyone gets annoyed). 6. Finally: 6a. Smug complacency and stagnation (the purists flame everyone who asks an 'old' question or responds with humor to a serious post; newbies are rebuffed; traffic drops to a doze-producing level of a few minor issues; all interesting discussions happen by private email and are limited to a few participants; the purists spend lots of time self-righteously congratulating each other on keeping off-topic threads off the list). OR 6b. Maturity (a few people quit in a huff; the rest of the participants stay near stage 4, with stage 5 popping up briefly every few weeks; many people wear out their second or third 'delete' key, but the list lives contentedly ever after).
i agree with moose... we are experiencing what a growing community / company experiences... earlier, moderator intervention was minimal and sporadic... everyone here shared the same mentality about what was acceptable and what was not... now things are changing and people come here with different ideas of what is acceptable... so as far as i can see, we have 2 options: 1) do not intervene at all: this will end up in members being upset with other members... people start to squabble... site becomes an ego fest... quality drops 2) increase level of intervention: this sadly ends up in members being upset with the enforcers, who in this case are the administrators and moderators... however after the initial shock, the quality of the site can be upheld, albeit at the loss of a certain level of freedom. so far we have been following option 1. this worked fine when everyone was on the same page. now option 1 is starting to fail. now all the older members know that the site was originally run following option 2. we didn't allow inter-shop battles and squabbles, no low blows, no bashing and this was strictly enforced. over time, people stopped doing this and we did not have reason to intervene, hence allowing us to switch to option 1. with the recent growth, option 1 is not working anymore. i'd rather this be known as a strict, but quality site rather than a loosely controlled ricer fest. i hope members who want WRXatlanta to be a quality site will agree with me. the goal is to go back to the way things were: friendly, helpful, welcoming, relevant and beneficial to the community. we need members to cooperate with the enforcers if we need to bring things back to how they were.
i agree, keep admin'ing. i know i don't post much here, but i have found this site much more friendly than nasioc, i post even less there. lots of good information to be found here, and you guys rock. one of these days i will make it to atl for a meet up there so i can meet all y'all face to face.
i agree totally. i do not what this site to turn into flame war rice fest. thanks milo, alex, and all the mods.
+1......also I think it's cool to actually know or atleast have meet a good number of the active community on here....so If they need advice or have problems or vice versa....it means that much more :hug:
i'm with miloman on this one i'm pretty new to this site so i don't know what it was like in the beginning but when i met up with u guys at a g2g it was very welcoming and everyone was willing to help each other out. i say put away your pride and help where you can and don't feel bad for asking questions you don't know the answers to. we are all in this to help each other out in a brotherhood sort of way. i think of this as a kickass fraternity of wrx'rs...keep up the good work admins and moderaters every good community must have rules that all the members follow and that way there will be progress, so enforcers of these rules are a must!
Maybe I'm just not reading the right threads? I still haven't seen any notable amount of drama. Some friendly jabbing here and there, but nothing that I worry will rip apart the beautiful tapestry we know as wrxatlanta. Sure the off-topic section is a lot bigger than it used to be, but I feel that only brings the community closer together. I mean, what fun would get togethers be if all we talked about was the latest turbo the greddy just put out? Edit: Not that I am going to complain if the mods feel they need to start intervening. I just think we are no where near this point.
Well there is a little drama floating here and there. Its certain things should not be posted on the board that offend a member(s) or future member. Just remeber when your posting about something that the admins and mods dont want to have the job of your parents. They rather be spending there time making events, g2g, hang out, and making the wrxatl a quality experence.
I do not have much to say other than use common sense when you post something on the internet. We think before we speak in a personal interaction, why is the internet any different? Understand that when you post something upon the internet it is now free for those who read it to debate such. With that said, there's nothing to worry about. There are some changes on the horizon, all of which to help improve everything it is that we know and love daily. Oh, and excellent post Moose. What we are beginning to experience is what everyone experiences. The cars are undergoing their product life cycle and are experiencing different phases of growth, and thus an influx of varied owners. IE, the whole bit about how owners are waving less and less, etc. It's marketing at its finest baby Cheers, Alex
I must have missed the drama too... I love this site. :hug: I think the moderators making sure that things haven't gotten out of hand have helped make this site as positive and friendly as it is. I personally have not seen any "over-moderation." One of the best things about this site is that I have always been comfortable referring new people to it. I always say "It's a great site. Over 800 local members. You can ask anything on there without worry about getting ripped on. It is good to search before asking, but even if you ask a repeated question, they are much friendlier than anywhere else." The worst case I've ever seen of "over-moderation" ON A DIFFERENT SITE (not here) was a MODERATOR that replied "SEARCH" then locked the thread. Yes is was the 1,000th time the question had been asked, but at least link him to the answer before you lock it... Anyway, I love you guys SS
i didn't mean to stir anything up. Due to my new job, i haven't been on here as much i would like to. But i guess with each new member, brings a new aspect to the site, good and sometimes bad.
things have changed i agree, i know for 1 i have not had the time to whore the boards like i used to.
I wouldnt encourage him if I were you...he will be past you on the postwhore list before you could say BAN!
i'm with you brian...i haven't had half the time i did before to be on here. sucks but that's life. however, i am seeing more and more new folks on here which is awesome btw. i have faith in our mods, and even the club to keep it where it has been.
You obviously haven't been to the invitation only parties. hnoes: The whole car club thing is just a disguise. The real clubhouse has a sauna... nuff said
Ha ha thats great! I suppose you have been right up in the Sauna! Let me guess You were the first in it! hehe:keke:
I always thought that the real initiation was when Amol would try to illicit gay sex acts out of you, I never heard anything about a sauna, I feel ripped off and violated . . .
Well, all I can say is everybody I've met on here is cool, And all the mods Rock!! :bowdown::bowdown::bigthumb::bigthumb: keep on keepin on.
Yeah I hate Nasioc but I still lurk there and post around. Getting to the point where I am gonna stop that because of all the haters there and disbelievers. This was actually brought up in an mag article I know of (Nasioc wasn't pointed at but I personally know that was who they were talking about). Just so you guys know I used to sport the Nasioc banner on the side window. After my first tune with SS and meeting Milo.....that banner was ripped off and the WRXAtlanta.com has been proudly displaying itself.