may i vent an opinion regarding the Automotive forum? (sort of a rant)

[-Fred-]

I would like to express some sentiments that, i am sure, are shared by fellow members. I fail to see the purpose of the Automotive forum, mainly because it is impossible to have a real, technical or non-biased conversation about a subject. Every new thread started usually ends up in bashing a certain carmaker, a certain car, or country, or simply stating blind facts. Especially considering the fact a good percentage of the members here have never even driven a car.

replies like:

Originally posted by someone i'll leave anonymousAnd BTW German cars has everyone beat in ever area u can think of

shouldn't be allowed by the moderators, if they were doing their job properly (sorry for the stab in the back, guys.) and that's not mentionning the general bias against certain marques, or blind support and worshipping to others (not naming anyone, nor any carmaker.)

i know what you're all thinking, with the soon to be coming GTP5... don't. I'm not asking for that

what i'm asking for, however, is if we'll be able to have decent, un-biased and non-childish conversations about the cars we drive (or drove), dream about, or simply some technological tidbits, or if it shall remain to be a forum full of bias and unverified informations.

sorry for wasting your time, i'm well aware the Automotive section isn't the most important, but as it is right now, i feel most of the current content is an insult to any automobile fanatic.

edit, apologies for the lack of capitalisation in the title...

 

[Pupik]

Yeah, I agree. But it seems there are a lot of members that don't even have a driver's license that post there. Some have maybe driven two or three cars in their life, and suddenly they're an "expert". You have your marque bashers, and those who display a complete lack of intelligence towards a certain super-power's ability to produce decent cars.

Of course, I don't think this has much of anything to do with Suggestions & Feedback, except to strengthen the moderator powers that aren't really used all that often in that forum.

You do have some very interesting stories in there, but maybe a code of conduct at the AF should be implemented.

Start authoring it, PR!

 

[MazKid]

Well, as a mod there has to be freedom of speach allowed. I read that comment that that guy posted, and either it was his oppinion or he's a major idiot.

I don't have my driver's license, but I know a heck of a lot of stuff. Yall know that. But there are some people who don't know what they are talking about. There is a purpose for having an automotive forum, everyone here likes cars really.

But people need to think about what they post. People(like the person who said that about German cars) are basicly discriminating automotively, which causes fights and mis-knowledges.

Now I know that I am biased to Mazda, but I don't think that Mazda cars are better than any given car. But sometimes they are better. Most in the automotive forum is opinion based, but I try to go by what the cars are rated by mags and other info.

That's about it...

 

[Jordan]

I know exactly what you mean, PunkRock. Do you have any suggestions or recommendations for correcting this problem?

 

[-Fred-]

Well, there's not a lot we can do with pure mis-information, or dumbness, but maybe a strict-ier filtering of the threads by the moderators could help? granted it's a pretty big job for 2 moderators only, however. There's always the idea of a sticky thread stating the "rules" of the forum, but we all know there is only a small percentage of the people that read them...

 

[Cobraboy]

Hmmm, not pushing or anything but are some new mods on order??

I now my way around cars more then the average joe, but I dont go around being a know all or anything. Which reminds me, I havent been out for a drive in a while. Might have to do some when I go up north and there is not so much traffic..

 

[1X83Z]

What are you talking about, dumb-buttz? Don't you know that Finnish carz 0wn j00?

Haha, seriously. The problem with doing what PunkRock's talking about is that the members that make stupid comments like that are usually not going to change their viewpoint unless they had a real sit-down rather than selectively read some well-written paragraphs on the Internet about how their opinions are wrong. And of course, banning is too harsh an action for someone, no matter how extreme their viewpoint, unless they directly violate a rule of serivce and use. I think the best thing we can do for these people is to have one prepared GTP statement and whenever someone starts into their 'Japanese cars rule' rant, just copy and paste it, changing the country name when necessary. Problem solved.

 

[1X83Z]

Originally posted by PunkRock
Well, there's not a lot we can do with pure mis-information, or dumbness, but maybe a strict-ier filtering of the threads by the moderators could help? granted it's a pretty big job for 2 moderators only, however. There's always the idea of a sticky thread stating the "rules" of the forum, but we all know there is only a small percentage of the people that read them...

Not only that, it makes our forums look bad to new members because we have to have a rules sticky on each major forum to keep members in-line. When I first registered at the GTF in September, about half of all members appeared banned, and there were several sticky threads warning about behaviour. Needless to say, I abstained from any more GTF visits.

 

[-Fred-]

but the banned peeps were the ones that acted like some people are acting here, or on Supercars.net... i could show you a few threads that aren't pretty. It's all about good behavior, really.

 

[Vasco]

I haven't really driven a car (once on an abandoned road) but i would be sure not to make a comment like that!

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Well it strikes me that the problem is that too many people are willing to venture an opinion without the wherewithal to back it up.

A fairly non-destructive way to inhibit this behaviour is to simply ask the user concerned to justify what they've said, like:

What are you talking about, dumb-buttz? Don't you know that Finnish carz 0wn j00?

Would be responded to with:
"Oh, I'm not sure that that's correct. Would you please explain which Finnish cars are particularly impressive, and compare them with other cars in their class?"

With such challenges, members who actually have reasoned opinions would be able to respond quickly and authoritatively, and their opinions would then likely become more respected within the group.

Silence or wild ranting as a response would have the opposite effect.

In short then, I'm not sure that it's something that's exclusively a moderator function - anyone here can ask a user to venture their opinion, and it's up to the community to judge how that is responded to.

 

[MazKid]

Well, new mods? I don't mind. It would be fine with me to just mod the MAZ forum(BTW, go into the MAZ forum after going through the Automotive forum, notice how there is logical discusion? Also, check out my thread in there, "the New 626", it's cool.), I mean I never really did anything with the Automotive forum, I kinda left that up to Vat.

What we really need are more experts in there that can really answer people's questions in the right way. That would fix the problem...

 

[1X83Z]

Originally posted by GilesGuthrie

Would be responded to with:
"Oh, I'm not sure that that's correct. Would you please explain which Finnish cars are particularly impressive, and compare them with other cars in their class?"

And taking on the persona of the Finnish car lover...

w00t!! Finnish carz rool! Nothing u can say about that.

...and then we have to push them harder and harder until they finally admit that a) Finland doesn't make any cars and b) They have no evidence to back up their wild claims. But that might be after some flaming by the Finnish car lover. Perhaps for the sake of behaviour, we should just let everyone believe what they wish to no matter how entirely stupid and only infrequently ask them to clarify their opinions; if they don't, we just let it go.

 

[vat_man]

Well, you could also drop a line to the mods - the Report to Moderators link has been problematic, but, since I'm not here anywhere near as much as I used to be, just drop me or any other mod a PM (other than Jordan!) with any problems rather than setting up a public thread.