Good idea. I used to co moderate a religious discussion page (you think it gets wacky here? lol) 5 is a magic number. Maybe this board can be amazing again as it once was. II still love you guys but don't have time for logging in much) I think nominating and voting is the way forward, and for better or worse.. Make em 70 percent Canadian, cause we are awesome. Cheers

Time to remove SPADEKEVIN and all his robo-spam postings.

Somebody is looking after us - some spam-type threads have been quickly removed.
It is very much appreciated.

Don, why not a staff member? Maybe an intern.

In any case its needed. Jan used to be real good.

I'm thinking those who have been here for 20 years and still hang around realize this will never happen. I understand Don and Dennis have more pressing things to do than baby set this board. I offered but on second thought I don't want the job either. I had my posts and some threads deleted or edited right before leaving for over 5 years. I don't want to leave but don't care much for staying. Guess we are on a wait and see path. Steve (CTR)

Now would be the perfect time to have moderators. Get rid of the spammer that just popped up.

cheeky pete.. might take a peak in the mirror, the only joke is YOU.. the message board here is doing quite fine and with out you.. later bc

This site needed moderation years ago

As mentioned before it's a shell of its former self. I think I had 20k posts at one point and lived on the thing

Currently, and I only drop in very occasionally, it's a joke. Idiots/trolls causing agreavation with zero effort to control them

Can't read a post without a troll commenting and folks warning against the troll. It's like a bad Benny hill skit.

Okay Bill before we all had names were you "dot man" ??

Don as for moderators I kind of feel like the horse is out of the barn and some light moderation may not be bad but we all have bad days. A lot of people have been here for a long time and lot of people have left; but no I'm not volunteering.

well here is my 2 cents.. nothing wrong with moderation.. but I have seen boards be OVER moderated. and it KILLS lots of truths about con artists.. and scams.. I look at MM several times a day.. and I was BANNED for a very long time.. but life goes on.I have been here for 20 years.. and I am about the ONLY lic dealer still in business..dealing in classic minis and mokes.. pretty well speaks for itself... later bill cox MBA lic North Carolina dealer , SCAC, TWIC , ACE and WMI for moke. www.montecarlomini.net phone.. 001.704.487.6406. shop.. 001.704.487.6797 and Ayesbury England and Wuhu , China

Seems pretty reasonable to me, though maybe edit/deletion of a single post by a single moderator should be limited to offensive or abusive posts. If something obscene is posted the moderator should be able to act immediately, though he/she shouldn't be able to sensor someone he/she doesn't like.


Agreed - that's probably the greatest concern.
Harvey's other comment about people reporting a problem to Don exists now and would still be viable.

Some responders here have posted their comments in the thread but some may not have clicked on the purple survey line on Don's first post.

Don, thanks for this forum. It has been valuable to me and I hope it continues.  Harvey


It seems to me that having moderators vote and delete individual posts would require lots of time to read, analyze, and vote on individual instances of inaccuracy, insult, off-color or whatever .

Isn't the bigger demand not for those isolated/intermittent problems but instead for the persistent, annoying and clearly inappropriate individual troll? That has been the current problem.

What about a system whereby all users can report offensive person and let Don swing the axe? If someone got say, 10 bad marks from 10 different people, then out they go.

 

Still looking for more votes and/or volunteers.  April 15th will be decision time. Vote now or forever hold your peace!  There have been 8 people that have almost volunteered for the task.  I would ask each of you send me an e-mail with your details and why you are willing to take on this difficult task.  We will then submit the final list to a vote on this board and the top 3 candidates will then be asked to work together to outline some guidelines to insure some uniformity in actions.  
In very broad sense I might suggest that all 3 had to agree before anyone individual was banned from the board and that 2 out of 3 had to agree before a message tread could be deleted. And perhaps single posting should be able to be deleted or edited by any single moderator?

+1 to what Alex wrote.
And I nominate him for moderator as he's the first to catch Don's reading acuity test. (It was a test, wasn't it Don??)

Bestest typo in ages !!

Prepare for Bill's opinion...

All I will add at this point is this:

Look at the traffic increase.  Look at the variety of topics/threads.  Look at a few old faces popping up.

One change and one change only has caused this - and we know what it is/was.

Moderation as seen in other places is unneccessary, just a watchful overview and a level headed response to trouble - and that trouble isn't a few of us letting off steam, it's what we've seen over the past few years - and I'm sure the 'Elders' will let you know if there's a repeat.

Would very much like to see more feed-back before making such a big decision!  Encourage your fiends to share their opinion! 

Re: user IDs with ID in order to buy parts....

It was a suggestion to verify IDs . I can create 20 fake email IDs in about as many minutes on some of the free sites... but I can't get credit cards in anything other than my real name. At least legally, and that's how I roll.

I gave up on the forum years ago because of the crap that was directed my way. I still will not offer parts to this forum, having been jerked around too many times. It has the potential to be a good resource, but if newbies (and experienced people) get flamed for innocent questions it's not a resource, just a source of amusement for... um... jerks.

Prove me wrong.

There are many other online groups this day. The MM site has great technical information, I don't bother looking here for helpful information from the forum.

Cheers, Jim aka britbits

ps.. My Avatar is the infamous Pumpkin. I gave it to someone who wasn't a jerk.. my brother. It's the last thing I will ever offer on this board.

Requiring contributors to set up an account complete with payment information would not be practicle seeing as there have been in the past and will continue to be in the future, a host of folks who do not yet own a Mini, therefore have never had the need to purchase goods from MM. These folks come here in search of help and information prior to jumping into the fray.

Dan told me last week that there were some recent changes here, but I only saw his E-mail this evening.  I figured I'd drop by...

Well, like Mike, I used to really like this place.  In fact, being on here 'back then' bolstered my budding enthusiasm for the hobby through not only the quality of advice given, but also the (mostly) light-hearted and social aspect of the community.  I felt like it was a sort of family, disfunctional at times, but helpful, warm and welcoming.  Alex captured this in his post.

Moderators weren't necessary back then, but when MiniMania and MiniSpares first split their once-common message board, Suzi, Steve and I became moderators on the MiniSpares forum.  I still have my old signature images...  I don't think we ever needed to 'act' as moderators, as members were 'nice' to each other.  

In fact, the deterioration of this forum left me quite disenchanted with the hobby and the 'community'.  As conditions here deteriorated, I migrated to another forum - but it's not the same.  Sure, it's friendly and helpful - has games also - but it's still not the same and I rarely post.  If this message board reflects current society's hostility, well, I'm glad I've become quite the selfish recluse. 

I would support light and monitored moderation, where the moderators' activities are subject to review, yet it bothers me somewhat that it's necessary to 'moderate' what used to be a by-and-large civilized community.

It's up to you, Don - it could be great again, but it's not the only rodeo in town.  (Make MiniMania Message Board Great Again?)

Requiring board members to be purchasers (active or inactive) would be counter-productive - we receive valuable and very experienced support, advice and knowledge from several people who reside not in North America but in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, continental Europe etc., so would never order from Minimania.