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Autoshite Changes  

202 members have voted

  1. 1. Would you like to see the proposed changes with more sub-forums?

    • Yes, I'd like to change to the proposed structure
      156
    • No - remain with Main, Open, Modern and the existing rules of no politics/religion/potentially sensitive allowed anywhere
      46


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I'm happy with 99% of that except for one small point.

 

If the 'modern' goalposts are now being moved from 10 years old to 'this millenium-ish' then that will mean that huge swathes of member's cars will no longer qualify for the main board. The current age limit is common knowledge as far as I can tell and those who own such cars maintain a separate thread for them in the modern section, like me.

 

A lot of members have fleets that that are served by 1 thread but whose cars age from the early 2000s to as far back as the 1950s will then have to split their threads.

 

I think this this will create unnecessary work and may annoy a few members.

 

I don't have issue if the modern age limit will be extended but it's just a suggestion.

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I'm happy with 99% of that except for one small point.

 

If the 'modern' goalposts are now being moved from 10 years old to 'this millenium-ish' then that will mean that huge swathes of member's cars will no longer qualify for the main board. The current age limit is common knowledge as far as I can tell and those who own such cars maintain a separate thread for them in the modern section, like me.

 

A lot of members have fleets that that are served by 1 thread but whose cars age from the early 2000s to as far back as the 1950s will then have to split their threads.

 

I think this this will create unnecessary work and may annoy a few members.

 

I don't have issue if the modern age limit will be extended but it's just a suggestion.

 

I'm sure that deciding the exact year a car becomes modern* or not isn't going to be a precise thing, or (famous last words) anything that will see a fuss being kicked up. Look at something like (random example) a 2005 City Rover, it's crap enough to be mentioned on the main board, so why not a 2005 Honda, or whatever? Also if people have their own thread for all their motors in one then makes sense not to split them up. 

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Being a member for 14 months I currently don't have issues navigating the site, and didn't from day 1. I did get a little confoozed when threads got renamed (stereo lounge, grumpy) so I'd prefer topics don't get renamed in future unless the title is deliberately offensive.

 

Keep the main panel, modern & open largely as they are, move the roffle/sale/sold posts to the relevant new panel.

 

+1 on the idea of separate for sale threads kept out of the main, modern & open categories. Personally I think it'd be better as 3 sticky threads - sell your shite, shitespairs & non-motoring - that can't be added to. Merge in the shitecycle threads to the relevant panel. Contact seller by PM.

 

I do think a technical/q&a thread would get too big unless it's, like my suggestion for selling, limited to a set number of topics - engine, brakes, gearbox, wheels & tyres, steering & suspension, electricals & bodywork/trim. Maybe a "parts commonality" list would be a good topic? No need for the overkill that the link in the initial post by admin has shown us.

 

Sensitive subjects? I do think request to join would be the best way. Must be a member for 2 months, posts a minimum of 20 times and no warning points. Also lock out the sales & open threads for a similar length of time, so we know a newish member is into cars, contributes usefulness to a thread and isn't just a spammer or troll.

 

My penny's worth of thoughts.

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I’ve voted for the new changes. I don’t particularly dislike the current set up tbh but clearly some people do and I don’t see the harm in at least giving the new set up a try?

I just really hope anything that goes on in the new ‘entry by request’ section for political crap etc etc stays in there without spilling over into the rest of the forum.

 

 

Just one thought though,

I’ve suggested it before but since we’re on the subject now, how about instead of trying to come up with a date/age for stuff to go into the modern section or not, instead could we have an ‘Autoshite Classic’ sub forum?

That way anything eligible for the modern forum or shite forum can stay together. But for those of us with a specific interest in classic shite (say pre 1990 or something?) those cars and projects can be easily found and all together.

No big deal really, just a thought?

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Think it's a good idea for a new format. Technical section would be good. Also non motoring news sticky would be good as well. I and other people may have some non car news to share. I don't have car news really at the minute. I have a toyota. So get in it , drive it and then get out. Nothing happens really. Although that may change seeing has one or two importers have a 3.2 xc90 for sale.

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I would like to suggest that at day 1 of this change, no existing topics be moved - it would be a mammoth job to do and doesn't really help much. However I would hope that a month down the line the two 'new' pages - Technical Questions and For Sale will have naturally started filling up with content with would otherwise go into the main page or off-topic.

This.

 

Let the new sections fill up naturally, moving existing posts seems to upset some members greatly.

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I've read but not commented on the hot potato thread of discontent on the open, for the sake of simplicity I'm going to post here.

 

As many have said over there AS has grown considerably in the last few years. I remember when I first joined you could post a thread to the front page and it would still be there several days later. Now the front page turnover is hours at most. This means lots more cars, more stories and more opinions. Not all those opinions will be in line with the old crowd. AS has always been a broad church. Moderation has become more necessary as opinions have become more varied and extreme.

 

It feels like a large amount of the moderation is down to the increase in turnover and contributors. Autoshite has always had unwritten posting rules: don't post a question up as a new thread; use decent grammar; don't post a new thread for every car you find for sale; don't post inflammatory/ political shitposts; try and post your own material; the quirkier the shite the better. These used to be things you just learnt by observation of what the existing crowd were doing, or when you tried to post you got a witty/ courteous/ lightly abusive remark and learnt your lesson. It was part of being in the club. As board traffic has increased it's become difficult to learn the old way, and so these posts get moderated instead. The authors of the posts don't understand why they've been moderated and feel hard done by because they missed the unwritten memo.

 

I think the new structure the mods are proposing will help to direct the traffic and slow down the front page churn. We need to remain true to the AS roots IMO; the moderns should be what you perceive as modern, shite what you perceive as shite, etc.

 

I welcome the mods suggestion that when posts are moderated they leave up a post to explain why. Hopefully that will prevent the perception of bias and prevent misunderstandings which appears to be reason for the minority malcontent.

 

In the interest of transparency I would propose that for the wielding of the banhammer, temporary exclusions or warnings, a locked thread is kept where mods post the reasoning behind their decisions. This would include copies of the complaints made against the party. Any responses or complaints can then be directed via PM.

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I think these changes will help rectify the issues with threads being pushed off the main page, but also the concerns over merging threads as the majority of these issues, in the main section, were with questions and for sale threads.

 

In regards to moving threads between sections, can this be changed so it can be done by the OP? That way when Joe Bloggs wants to sell their car they can move their thread to the For Sale section by themselves, or move it back to the main board if they change their mind/roffle fails, or move their advice wanted about X car thread from the questions/advice section to the main board when/if they buy X car, etc. It would also mean established threads can go to the correct section at the discretion of the OP.

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It all sounds like an improvement to me.

 

I think the key things to also implement to reduce bad feelings about the levels of moderation are:

 

Leave some words when a post has been removed or edited - if the user also gets a chance to edit their post to make it compliant this will I think be taken better than disappearing stuff.

 

Use a different font colour or even [mod] tags when posting as a mod. Mods are users too and have the right to post as such, but many of the posts from moderators in the big bad thread were clearly their opinion / input as users, being able to separate this from posts with a mod hat on will provide clarity in future.

 

Also, pop up a sticky to state any new rules and restate any existing rules so everyone is crystal clear.

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