An Open Letter to YarisBueller and VitzBoy

[TheRealEnth]

Thats why we need the A) WIKI IDEA or B) Really good Sticky Thread

[KCALB SIRAY]

Originally Posted by eTiMaGo

But, none of this can happen without the involvement of our founders, they hold the keys, literally. And no amount of pleading or reasoning seems to have an effect, so we're stuck.

who

[tuckevalastin]

I don't know why people get so offended by new members asking questions that have been answered before.

Some of the hostile answers that these people get makes me wonder how many new members actually bother staying.

If you don't want to answer something that you think has already been answered why not just ignore the thread all together. There are members who will happily answer and won't have to yell about the search button.

If you drive away all the new members the site will become dormant because there won't be anyone bringing in new ideas. The biggest problem I've ever seen here (other than the hack) is the bad attitude towards new members. I don't know if placing emphasis on being an old member will make this any better.

[ChinoCharles]

You were right on having mods from different time zones. That would help with the spam thing.

A captcha for signup would also probably eliminate 90% of our spam.

Thomas should have had admin status from the get-go. I understand that there is a concern about giving a member admin status because of the kinds of sweeping changes that allows a person to make, but the level of involvement from our two admins has been problematic at times. Thomas has proven time and time again that if we have a leader here, he is it.

As far as how this forum treats new members, I wholeheartedly disagree and I've grown a little disenchanted from all of the negativity regarding how people are treated on this board. This is the most docile, kind car forum I've ever seen, yet there seems to be some level of striving for a forumtopia among a small contingent of our members. I just don't get it. I really don't. I'm an active member of three car forums and visit another 2 or 3 and I can honestly say this one is a puppy in a lion's cage. Try as you may, you'll never legislate perfection, and to try to do so is overly tiring.

I've been rather happy with the forums lately. I think after Gene left things mellowed out quite a bit and I've only seen one major spam attack in the last month or so. I don't see what the big deal is, but that is just me, and you're CERTAINLY entitled to your opinion, Bernie. I hope you can see where I'm coming from. I always meet YW improvement threads with a good dose of meh.

[ChinoCharles]

And about the wiki... it would serve the forum no proper purpose to set a wiki up because referring people to an off-the-forum wiki detracts from the search engine rankings of the pages of the forum itself. If I don't know these forums exist and I Google something and land on a wiki, theres a good chance I'll never find them. That is all bad.

[AlexNet0]

I personally believe a wiki section will improve the ability of new members (and a good "finite" collaboration area for seasoned members) to find and improve/build/revise upon proven concepts, homemade mods, etc. I personally hate sorting through (as others have said) 5 pages of bullshit to pick out the 10 helpful posts to get something done.
I do, however, believe that this also should be moderated by select members, perhaps a "post and get approval by poll" before being added type system, that way it wont be clogged by useless posts, being the point for such a wiki in the first place.
To address the issue about not being directly linked to the forum, templates can be edited, links and graphics can be added, it can be made very clear that that piece (wiki) is only a very small part of a much larger community effort.

I would be willing to do this, with admin support, of course, since if this never even gets to them its just wasted KB's on their database.

[ChinoCharles]

The political thread adds no fuel to the fire Pavel. I haven't seen one dispute off that thread related to politics at all. You're the only one that carries that thread around, in all honesty.

[ChinoCharles]

I still love you Pavel.

[1NZYaris1]

Originally Posted by ChinoCharles

I still love you Pavel.

NOW Thats scary

[tomato]

Oh, shoot, almost forgot why I came back to this thread in the first place! Here goes:

TK-421 (hehehe, by the way, funny name) you wrote a really nice letter. I don't know about the rep level either but for the initiative, and the letter itself. Well done!

[tk-421]

Originally Posted by ChinoCharles

You were right on having mods from different time zones. That would help with the spam thing.

See? I knew you weren't completely opposed to my points above. Can mods change their poll answers?

A captcha for signup would also probably eliminate 90% of our spam.

Thomas should have had admin status from the get-go.

Agreed on both counts.

As far as how this forum treats new members, I wholeheartedly disagree and I've grown a little disenchanted from all of the negativity regarding how people are treated on this board. This is the most docile, kind car forum I've ever seen, yet there seems to be some level of striving for a forumtopia among a small contingent of our members. I just don't get it. I really don't. I'm an active member of three car forums and visit another 2 or 3 and I can honestly say this one is a puppy in a lion's cage. Try as you may, you'll never legislate perfection, and to try to do so is overly tiring.

Well, some of us may well be overreacting in this respect. But you have to agree that negative members/topics/replies have become much more commonplace as of late. I can take a bit of this negative vibe. But I also think we should have some contingency steps at the ready if this problem gets out of hand in the future.

I always meet YW improvement threads with a good dose of meh.

Oh, I've kinda noticed my friend...
Still, I do appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Originally Posted by ChinoCharles

And about the wiki... it would serve the forum no proper purpose to set a wiki up because referring people to an off-the-forum wiki detracts from the search engine rankings of the pages of the forum itself. If I don't know these forums exist and I Google something and land on a wiki, theres a good chance I'll never find them. That is all bad.

Actually this can be easily solved by providing a link to the relevant YW forum thread inside the wiki article. SEO would actually be strengthened, since you have a link to a relevant (though not the same) topic. For a good example of this, check out mp3car.com. They have all sorts of stuff (wikis, forums, blog, store, etc) and they make it all look like just one big site. Google rankings are extremely high for them too.

Originally Posted by PK198105

i refrained from voting since, its kind of a waste of time , no disrespect to you TK, but if i remember correctly in the last 6 months we had at least 5 other Poll threads with improvement ideas and it did nothing, we still get spammed, people still bitch at each other and might as well take off the search and FAQ section as no one is using them.

Actually, I think you would've wasted less time by just voting, but I may be wrong.
Thanks for your input nonetheless, Pavel. I really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by AlexNet0

I personally believe a wiki section will improve the ability of new members (and a good "finite" collaboration area for seasoned members) to find and improve/build/revise upon proven concepts, homemade mods, etc. I personally hate sorting through (as others have said) 5 pages of bullshit to pick out the 10 helpful posts to get something done.

Thanks for your input, Alex!

I do, however, believe that this also should be moderated by select members, perhaps a "post and get approval by poll" before being added type system, that way it wont be clogged by useless posts, being the point for such a wiki in the first place.
To address the issue about not being directly linked to the forum, templates can be edited, links and graphics can be added, it can be made very clear that that piece (wiki) is only a very small part of a much larger community effort.

I completely agree with the above. There are many ways to have wikis and forums co-exist without deterring from each other's importance.

Originally Posted by tomato

TK-421 (hehehe, by the way, funny name) you wrote a really nice letter. I don't know about the rep level either but for the initiative, and the letter itself. Well done!

Thank you, mater! Took me a little while to get everything out without it sounding offensive. I'm glad it came out OK.

Originally Posted by toad

my .02(if anybody cares). i've been on here a couple years now and bought my second yaris partially because i discovered what a valuable resource this was after buying my first!

The above should serve as a testament of how YW has truly served as a great resource for lots of ppl around the world.

rep points are silly because(as again already stated) most of us 'regulars' already know who is full of knowledge and who is full of....it. heck, get rid of post counts for that matter.

If it were up to me, I'd place the post counts inside each member's profile area (where one leaves personal messages and stuff), and I would certainly remove them from their usual place.

As far as the "rep points" idea, I am not completely married to it. Please post some ideas on the subject if you have them!

Originally Posted by advocate

As someone who is almost completely car illiterate, a wiki would be great to save me the embarrassment of asking things like "what does LSD stand for?" Rather than find out the hard way after 4 days of seeing the term used so many times that someone finally posted the un-acronym version.

Thanks for your comments, advocate!

[jclo3313]

All I can say is that I have made some new, and might I add good friends on this forum. That being said we are in need of help and I would gladly donate any of my circuits or gears if it would help.(If you catch my meaning) I miss YW of days gone by. I'd love to see it brought back to it former glory. This forum weighed heavily in me even buying my YARiSin the first place. I know that I have not been as active as I once was in part do to real life holding me back, but also due to some of the concern mentioned in this thread. I'm rambling but I'm back for good (I never really left) and I will do what I can to help.

[tomato]

One more thing, BTW, since the purpose of this thread is forum improvement, I believe.

You have to make clear to the new members somehow, whether this is STRICTLY an enthousiast forum, or if this forum is open to everybody who owns a Yaris and just wants to be part of an online community.

I feel, sometimes, that some of the "old" members may resent the presence of the "average user" who don't know very much about the technical end.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

hahaha, I actually forgot about the "this is an old thread, don't bump it up" thing. I agree with you on that. I see it on Fit Freak as well. But yes, if someone doesn't want to answer the questions of the new folks, just don't answer. I, or someone else who would not mind, will answer (if we can, lol).


As for the political, religious, etc threads, I feel that if it can be a civil discussion, as I have asked for opinions about religious stuff, then the thread can stay open, as my threads have. However, once it gets out of hand, then it can be closed. This is why we have an off-topic section of the forum. In all honesty, just talking about the Yaris may get dull without any other things talked about. As for the really "sensitive" topics, there should be a subcategory in the off-topic section. FF has one (I never look at it tho), it's called "The Wastelands". In it's description, it states that anything goes and is not moderated, so if you have a weak stomach, stay out. I can see some ups and downs of having something similar to that here.

[AdeJong 03]

have either of the owners been personally contacted? not pm'd but actually emailed

if they went through the trouble to make a forum i imagine they check their email pretty regularly. why dont they assign limited admin rights to a veteran? ive seen limited admin rights before its not a new concept

[eTiMaGo]

Originally Posted by AdeJong 03

have either of the owners been personally contacted? not pm'd but actually emailed

if they went through the trouble to make a forum i imagine they check their email pretty regularly. why dont they assign limited admin rights to a veteran? ive seen limited admin rights before its not a new concept

They have been PM'ed and emailed countless times by both myself and other members

[Malaya1221]

the owners seem not to care as much as some members for this site...perhaps we should start a new member owned yaris web site that would provide more flexibility for the mods/admins and members!

[ChinoCharles]

Originally Posted by Malaya1221

the owners seem not to care as much as some members for this site...perhaps we should start a new member owned yaris web site that would provide more flexibility for the mods/admins and members!

-whistle whistle whistle VVVVVVVVVV