How a moderator can ruin a good site for users

[turbof1]

I just posted something in the F14T topic about Haas Automation being a new sponsor on the Ferrari sidepods for the remaining races.. and it got deleted without any reason.. and no PM..?

Strange

Although I wasn't involved in that (so I don't know who did removed it, but you'll either get a PM or a message in the topic itself), sponsoring belongs in the team threads. Sponsoring, even if clearly shown in the car's livery, is a non-technical matter as long as it doesn't involve any actual parts.

So for instance if a sponsor is infact a technical partner who delivers, for instance, suspension parts, AND we aren't talking about the logo shown on the car but the actual technical implications of said parts, then it has its place in the car thread.

Haas Automation is about building machine tools. This doesn't have a direct, technical reflection, but on how Ferrari produces parts. So that's a team item, and not a car item.

That being told, I'd personally would have moved it.

[George-Jung]

Ok, now I 'understand' the reasoning behind the decision.. but still someone could have told my why.. because if I hadn't noticed or asked for it, I would never know what I did 'wrong'..

[turbof1]

Ok, now I 'understand' the reasoning behind the decision.. but still someone could have told my why.. because if I hadn't noticed or asked for it, I would never know what I did 'wrong'..

I agree. It's probably just an oversight from the corresponding moderator, I'll contact him. On behalf of the moderator team, I'd like to apologies for it. And you are right: if you didn't ask, you couldn't have learned from it. So thanks for bringing it our attention and doing the effort.

[FW17]

They ARE as they used to be. Back in 2009 a moderator never had to step in because the discussion was from itself strictly technical. Those were 20 pages at most full with technical relevancy.

But back then there were members who took time to compile the posts, specially pictures, showing the evolution of specific parts the car through the year. Now it is just a bunch of Sutton images (mostly wheel hubs and front bulkheads)which look the same week after week with no indication of what the changes or particulars that the author is trying to point out. If you want to keep the site/thread clean, remove all these picture posts and dump them into the race weekend thread rather than the car tech thread.

I don't know why WB walked off this site, but his posts were to be noted as well written rather than ranting.

[djos]

I don't know why WB walked off this site, but his posts were to be noted as well written rather than ranting.

Tbh that is debatable, when he got a bee in his bonnet about something he was insufferable! Eg betting markets, Diesel engines and so on.

Frankly I just stopped subscribing to many of the threads he was active in as they became a waste of time - sure he could write well but I don't ever recall him getting off his soap box for long enough to admit he was wrong despite others showing this to be the case on many occasions.

[FW17]

I don't know why WB walked off this site, but his posts were to be noted as well written rather than ranting.

Tbh that is debatable, when he got a bee in his bonnet about something he was insufferable! Eg betting markets, Diesel engines and so on.

Frankly I just stopped subscribing to many of the threads he was active in as they became a waste of time - sure he could write well but I don't ever recall him getting off his soap box for long enough to admit he was wrong despite others showing this to be the case on many occasions.

His debates were always supported by write-ups from some where else, not everyone's liked it as it became an ego clash. It was always nice to see different points of view on a subject, some put it across strongly but for the casual observers (with a technical mind) here it is clear what is true and what is not.

Visitors and participant of this forum should realize this is not their LIFE being defined here.

[turbof1]

But back then there were members who took time to compile the posts, specially pictures, showing the evolution of specific parts the car through the year. Now it is just a bunch of Sutton images (mostly wheel hubs and front bulkheads)which look the same week after week with no indication of what the changes or particulars that the author is trying to point out. If you want to keep the site/thread clean, remove all these picture posts and dump them into the race weekend thread rather than the car tech thread.

Members come and go, we can't change that. I think the effort Stefan puts in to sort the images by car is a huge feat already; asking him to check everything and omit non-upgraded parts is asking too much, way too much. I feel we should praise Stefan for what he has done up until now. It comes with some disadvantages, but it is also thanks to those pictures it'll be way less likely to miss updates.

Besides, we have more then enough members around who can spot the difference. Nowadays a lot of our members know certain cars that well, then can inmediately spot updatess. Like when somebody spotted a new floor strake out of the pile of images in the mclaren car thread.

We are looking for ways currently to have the images less of huge impact on the screen. We do agree that they take up too much room, making scrolling a bit of a weary task. Remember that we actually wanted to subdue the issue by introducing a new policy of constantly splitting off sub-topics from the main car threads. This generally didn't go down well with most members, so we took a step back from that. We can't please every single individual.

[George-Jung]

Why not make a photo's only topic about each car..
so people who want to see photo's know where to go, and people who want to read technical stuff also know where not to go?

[flyboy2160]

Why not make a photo's only topic about each car..
so people who want to see photo's know where to go, and people who want to read technical stuff also know where not to go?

This has been suggested previously, but rejected because most of the technical discussions would be severely hampered without reference pictures. The original intent of the car threads is that they are only about parts on the car that are real - that can be touched or weighed. NOT about lap times, hypothetical updates, speculation about how much a certain update means lap times, driver preferences, driver fan boy fights, sponsors, the last race, and livery.

All the latter are properly addressed in the Team threads, which are very loosely monitored compared to the Car threads. It's exactly for the reason you mention - for there to be a place where people who care only about the technology can go to see it and to discuss it - that the Car threads have once again been closely monitored. They were that place in F1T's early years, but, as I posted above, had recently grown intro a non-technical mess that was a chore to wade through if all you cared about was the technology.

The guidelines for the car threads are posted at the start of each thread. Admonitions about what NOT to put in them are repeatedly posted in them, but not necessarily after every cleanup.

[Ultra]

...
IMHO the "problem" is a good one: the site's growing popularity and the passion of its participants. As more and more people join, the average technical level of visitors, and therefore threads, will certainly decline a bit.
...
We have lost some intelligent -- even eloquent -- members. That is at least partially a result of the current state of F1. All just MVHO.

Sorry to disagree Don, I think the discussion at hand here is the sudden new policy to simply delete posts when a certain moderator considered it "off-topic" or something else, not necessarily breaking any formal rules for posting.

For people like myself who has been here for quite some time and made a few friends which I keep in contact with outside the forum, it is natural that you establish a good-spirited bickering with an eye-twinkle. Such posts are now all of a sudden regarded as foul and being almost brutally deleted.

This is very disappointing.

Agreed!

As a long time lurker, the moderation has taken some of the pleasure out of reading here. Seems to happen at most forums though as they grow.

Find a mission statement and then STICK TO IT! Anything else just seems to muddy up the waters and leaves a forum a pale shadow of what it once was with a dozen die hards swearing the forum is better off for it.

I've seen it more than a few times before.