THREADS !!!

[maicomc490t]

First let me preface this by PLEADING that we all concentrate on THIS topic. I don't want to read about how your FC Holden ute has done a diff or that your SHITzu has worms.

A recent unfortunate event on this great forum did point out one thing that is the bleeding obvious.

When someone posts a thread I am mystified why people hijack it and the whole thing ends up miles away from what the original post was addressing or querying.

In my job as a firey we often do 'Fire-Ed' talks to little school kids of 'Rescue-Ed' lectures to high school students and they can stay focused on the purpose of our visits and the subject matter so SURELY we can do it here.

Next time you hit the 'post' button reread what you have said and ask yourself is what you are posting TOTALLY relevant to the topic.

Should you feel the need to tell us about your dog or the blown diff in the FC, then post your own topic, eg "My FC has shit itself" or "My faggy little dog is riddled with tapeworms", lol !!! Don't bugger up some other persons initial post. (Often wonder why Holden chose those initials  but don't discuss it here - hint hint)

The old saying 'if it's not worth saying, don't say it at all' is very apt.

Have a nice day ladies and gents !!!

Dave Mac 

[GMC]

I think most of the thread changes are just what happens in real conversations, & if it's all intelligent posts I don't particularly mind.

What seems to wind me up lately are the inane pointless posts that are popping up more frequently. Some people have registered all their multiple personalities & then proceed to have conversations with themselves & the gullible.
Maybe I'm just turning into a grumpy old fart, maybe it's this dial up system that makes me wait 20 seconds to see a page only to find it was a waste of time.

We used to have some really good discussions on here,  be it rule changes, bicycles or what ever, but all the intelligent debate seems to have gone along with some of the original members, not to mention the guys we lost recently.(hey Doc & Tony, come back I miss you guys)

Sorry Dave, I guess I hijacked your thread with a completely different bitch

[paul]

next  there will be a dress  code

[IT490K]

People are always going to 'hijack' threads, it's just the way it goes.

When you see a thread going off topic, you split the thread after the last relevant post
and you rename the new post with a name relevant to it's content.

How many moderators are on the forum?

JUST for an example...
On the Yamaha IT Forum I have 6 moderators to help with the following:

• Moving threads into appropriate categories
• Splitting topics when they go off track
• Deleting anything 'unsuitable'
• Making informative and useful posts 'stickies'

I moderate the main categories but having these 6 members to take care of
6 categories helps a lot. Many hands makes light work.

You don't really need 6 but 2 or 3 people that knew what they were doing would
do the job.

There is a HUGE amount of resourceful information on this forum.
Without management the info will be harder to find and with a heap of threads
that have gone off topic the info will be mixed up - making it harder for users to
find what they need.

Daunting it may seem - this forum is a MONSTER! 56,385 Posts in 5,903 Topics by 820 members!
It is only going to get bigger, once something reaches this size it is too much for one man to handle, that is
unless the one man wants to sit in front of the computer for hours each day administering the forum!

Admin - decide on a few computer savvy, forum friendly helpers.
Contact them, educate them, grant them 'Moderator or Global Moderator' permissions and
let them help you with keeping this AMAZINGLY resourceful forum running 'on song'.

Jock
 

 

[GMC]

Yeah, I agree Wasp.
Their has been some over serious debates & it's good to see them interupted with some witty comment.
A lot of guys here have a good sense of humour & I often have a chuckle to myself, I think it's one of the attractions to the site.
I guess it comes down to your sense of humour.



I'm usually dressed in uniform when I type, jeans, T shirt & workboots.

[Marc.com]

People are always going to 'hijack' threads, it's just the way it goes.

When you see a thread going off topic, you split the thread after the last relevant post
and you rename the new post with a name relevant to it's content.

Jock

Quite agree, I think it is not some sinister 'hijack' but just they way conversations wander and then you start a new post or wander it back politely. To some extent when you start a topic you should try to moderate it or keep it on track a bit yourself. I am moderator on two other forums and we have few problems.

[vmx42]

Hey Geoff,
Just so long as you are dressed!!! The alternative doesn't bear [bare??] thinking about, especially on those chilly Broadford mornings. VMX and shrinkage have no place in the same sentence, unless we are talking about sheetmetal forming.

and Marc, wandering is just part of the aging process.

On a slightly different topic [isn't that what we are talking about here], don't you hate the never ending email that changes subject over and over again. Buggered if I can keep track of what they are saying when they can't even be bothered to simply rename the email to reflect what the hell they are saying. Just plain laziness!!! And the older I get, the more other peoples laziness drives me mad - thank god I am pretty much perfect.

Now where was I?
VMX42

[Graeme M]

Hmmm... well you won't like my reply then VMX42!

Jock, all good points and excellent advice. But I am just a lazy prick. I can't be bothered. I do try to read most of the posts each day, and if things are a bit screwy will split a topic or move a post or thread. I'll even step in and try to wield a big stick sometimes. But by and large, the truth is I don't care that much. I LIKE it when topics meander around and weird things get said. Personally, I even thought the now infamous Suzuki thread was pretty funny, even though some 'folks' (hey, I like that word!) were getting bent all out of shape.

I guess I could make a bigger effort, or even appoint some moderators.

But probably not...

Getting back to Dave's original point though. Yes, it is probably a good idea to try to keep on topic, or return a thread to the subject. Just remember when you do it's gonna work better if you do it good naturedly. We all know what happens if you get testy.

[Phil]

 Threads usually take their own direction and I reckon that in some cases the deviation a good thing. Some questions and subjects are repeated over and over and often they're asked by regulars who should know better and are too lazy to research back into the archives to find previous threads that discussed the subject. A good example is the inane and totally stupid rehashing of the old 490 Maico shitbox/worlds greatest/overpriced/over rated/ugly/beautiful discussion. It's been done to the end of its natural life but you can bet some rocket scientist will soon come along with his socalled original and 'hilarious' take on the model and off it all goes again.
The "Great Pre 90 Debate" is another. It's been flogged to death with good argument coming accross both for and against it's introduction. Every time the subject comes up you can actually feel the tension/passion from some of the posters, just itching for an argument from proponents of the opposite cause. I think it's been covered pretty well in previous posts without going through it again. Save it for the pre 95 discussion this time next year.

I don't know how we're going to get back the guys that've left. Doc, Tony and Yamaboy are good long termers and I've met both Yammy and Doc and know their passion and knowledge is real and vast. Docs Suzuki knowledge will be especially missed. Tony is also an interesting and knowledgable contributor with some interesting perspectives. Yamaboy put a different Klub Kevlar perspective and is one of the original 1988 vintage racers.  I've noticed that Firko, Nathan, Maico 31 and some other posters I can't recall right now that have something interesting to say are contributing less and less, much to the detriment of the forums knowledge base. I don't know their reasons but I can guess it's to do with certain forum pests getting on their nerves and wearing them down.

The lessons here are to think before you press the POST button like Dave said. Ask yourself if your post is going to contribute in a positive way to the thread, If your information is factual and helpful, if your post is articulate and with the best grammar and spelling you can produce and finally if you are being mischeivous and deliberately disrupting the thread. If you are posting poorly constructed,inane pointless drivel that I've seen creep into the forum over the last year or so STOP NOW. You're not helping at all and in fact you're actually contributing to the dumbing down of the forum.

 

[Lozza]

Glad to hear your dressed Geoff not like that naked_amphibian whom always sits in front of his computer in the NUDE



Oh was this supposed to be about NOT hijacking threads

[maicomc490t]

I'm with ya Graeme!

Lazy? You claim to be so, however even the laziest prick could not create such a good forum so yeah prick you may claim to be but lazy? I don't think so, lol !!!

All I wanted to do was to try and get everyone to TRY not to stray.

As for you Paul - If you are going to come into the forum at least wear some clothes. Wearing the chainsaw 'chaps' on their own don't cut it - OK !!!

Dave Mac 

Now did I tell you about what happened to the diff on my old ute? Think it was back in about '79......................................

[Freakshow]

the topic only gets interesting after the first or second person in has answered the question anyway.  after that it gets interesting cause thats when you find out all the other stuff that fixes all the other things or highlights new things that you never though of, or other people cant be bothered to post in a thread cause it didnt seem that newsworthy, or they only just remeber the technique that they used to remove a whatsee.

 if you only stick to the topic there will be very few topics and you will never tease out all the real interesting stuff, which is the gear you really want to find out anyway, if you have a specific question garenteed its been covered before, so rather than post asking the same stupid question why dont you suggest people do a search in the search bar first then we wont go over the same topic again, which is usually the ones that we make go west.

and as far as the firey analigy thing goes maico man, you got to remeber your talking to 2 captive audences there, like where are they going ?  Bet you any money that 1/2 of them aint even in the room.  If we on the other hand we there im sure in about 5 minutes after you bored us to depth with the old water on paper and blanket on oil drill we'd be bored shitless and be asking the more interesting questions like , how much do you guys get paid really, and do you get more if you actually have to put out a fire on that shift,  and why do cop's always sit in the car with the engine running wasting petrol when they are clearly just parked ?

what was this thread about again ?  

[paul]

it going to be hot in melbourne again tomorrow 43 or more so my forum attire will be a stainless steel bucthers apron and thongs  ,just in case off forum  knife  attack

[Bruised]

when I first saw this I thought, "great someone will have a good idea on getting out a broken bolt instead of using an easy out."

Wrong thread I guess ...

[Freakshow]

IF you ever wanna see off topic go back in here  -->  http://ozvmx.com/community/index.php?topic=5830.75  its must be the hot weather so how now its gotten onto Fukas ?