Off Topic Posting...

KevinP73 · 01-04-2003, 01:10 PM

I agree with you Wayne. As a business owner I believe we try to be flexible, accomodating, and generious to all of our customers. Unfortionately this is sometimes interpreted as weakness, and there are those who will play upon what they see as weakness. It sometimes neccasary to remind even our best and most valued customers that "this" is a business, further more it is "MY" business and I make the rules. They may not understand or agree with why you made the rule but they MUST always Respect that you made it. You make the rules in order to stay in business. If your business fails the customer simply finds another source to go to, they may miss you and be sorry your gone, but your the one who suffers. As a business owner I appreciate every customer I have, but it's the ones who repect me that stands out above the rest. And believe me it's easy to tell who genuinely respect you.

twin plugged targa · twin plugged targa's Garage

You're the boss!
Literally, this is a business and you make the rules!
Too many posters take for granted the efforts of PP and it's moderators to maintain and keep the quality of the board.
I have seen alot of changes in the past 2+ yrs software/hardware etc. improvements in speed and quality.
Any non urgent business of mine goes to PP regardless of price- I have not even visited other vendors sites!.
A reality check is never a bad thing!
Owning a Porsche without the support of this board would be a difficult and less enjoyable thing.

As a Captain of Private yachts I can make what rules I wish for my crew members. There are few employees 'rights' as the vessels are Cayman registered.
It gives me 'carte blanche' to make rules and break rules, however the crew have more respect for me and my rulings if I abide by the rules I make.

If the board is purely for technical questions alone I believe it would be less interesting with less soul perhaps. The general Porsche trivia questions and sometimes humerous auto based threads, give light relief to what might otherwise be a glorified database.
It is difficult however to justify the posting of something that has no relevance at all to Porsche's or even cars!.

The occaisional posting ie. the death of a loved one or the marriage of a PP celebrity may be exceptions to the rule.... but I guess that is for the moderator to weigh up!
Generally the content of the board is of a high quality and it's rare that it drops to mear drival.

I hope this makes sense?
Rgds Ben

Tinton · 01-04-2003, 03:09 PM

Agree completely, Wayne.

I just wanted to add a thought. It is also the replies to the OT posts that are a problem. If an OT thread gets a lot of posts, then pretty soon everyone feels that this is a sure fire way to start a good thread. I know I have posted in OT threads before. From now on, no one should reply to an OT thread unless it is in the right place.

Anthony.

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

I think airing private email conversations on a public BBS isn't cool (unless the other party gave permission). Yes, I know email isn't technically "private", but in spirit it is. Wayne, it's your board and you can make whatever rules you want. imho, a better way to have handled this particular scenario would have been to send whatever you want to the party via email, and then make a general post to the BBS concerning your "one warning" rule. Making reference to a particular post and including off-board conversation is a violation of community trust.

pwd72s · 01-04-2003, 03:18 PM

What is this? I'm finding myself in agreement with nostatic...again????

rhenriksen · 01-04-2003, 03:19 PM

Wayne, keep cracking that whip!

Zeke · 03:33 PM

Aw, the football poster (if you need to know who it was, visit the OT Forum) was just trying to get the 300,000th post and wanted to be here on the best BBS around when he did it. OK, so I'm strectching it a little here. Whatever happened on that anyway, I didn't see an anouncement.

It's true, the board is rather varied in topic, with a little philosophy, some humor, some berating, talk of events (which is not techincal) and so on. I wasn't here in the beginning years, so I can't say how it has evolved, but I agree with Todd that it would be very dry as a technical data base. Nevertheless, it's wake up call as to how keep the 911 board a 911 board. As a P-car enthusiast with past ownwership of five examples of the marque including a 911, BUT currently w/o a 911, I sometimes feel a little out of place here. But I really enjoy this board, the others just lack a little something that is here and only here. I, for one, will try to recognize my priviledge and stay on topic or stay quiet.

Decolliber · 01-04-2003, 03:46 PM

Have to agree with Nostatic here.
Wayne's Rule is fine, as long as Wayne and his moderators stick to it as well, which is not always the case ...

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by pwd72s
What is this? I'm finding myself in agreement with nostatic...again????

As my avatar sez, "shocking, isn't it?"

I think this board is a pretty good balance of on-topic, mildly on-topic, and off-topic. I visit other bbs's, and some are either all off-topic (useless), or rigidly on-topic by the mediators (boring, not well traveled, and hence, useless). The community here is pretty good at keeping things civil, especially considering the size. I think the occasional reminder and warning from the uberfuhrer are just what the doctor ordered, my caveats above not withstanding.

motion · 01-04-2003, 04:49 PM

Since its evident that the folks on here don't really like to visit the other boards, like OT and Regional... how about this idea: What if we had one OT post going all the time, and everyone would have to put all their misc OT stuff in that one post? Might be kind of interesting...

Doug Zielke · 01-04-2003, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

-Feel free to comment...

Thank you. I will.
Nostatic is right. I too feel it was inappropriate and completely unnecessary to embarrass a member directly on the BBS.
Do I or anyone else have to dredge up some OT posts made by the *moderators* here in the past?

rstoll · 01-04-2003, 05:02 PM

Would some able-minded moderator please move this "power trippin", "off-topic", bullsheet to the proper forum??? thank you....thank you very much.

MMARSH · MMARSH's Garage

Well I guess as long as everyone know the rules. The rules would seem to be very simple, unless you're Wayne or a moderator, post everything off topic in the off topic forum. Hey, don't forget people, this is Waynes World.

MMARSH · MMARSH's Garage

Noah is correct. The "Broken Windows" theory is what all Law enforcement agencies use as the backbone of their Community based Policing programs. Actually this is off topic.

tchanson · 06:12 PM

Sorry, but I agree wholeheartedly with Wayne.

I guess I can understand why some would disagree, given very similar posts, equally wildly OT, that were still on this board after several days, (at least as of the the time this was written).

Why should Wayne, in his own words, have to"waste (his) time deleting and moving posts that are OT", let alone explain his actions ad nauseum after the fact? If enforcement involves a somewhat draconian, semi-public flogging, well, ...as has been noted many times by others previously, Wayne's World is not a democracy, and we are all here by choice.

It appears to me that Wayne teed off on the implication of a "threatening tone". I don't see that in the brief initial email that he sent.

Of more importance to me is the validity of his larger point, which is the real potential for erosion of the utility of this board when entirely OT posts go unchecked. ( Although I may now have a recurring mental image of Wayne as Barney Fife, chanting "Nip it in the bud! Nip it! Nip It!"

)

Debate his methods, but the point is valid. The OT forum exists for a reason. If you want to discuss football or your favorite pancakes, knock yourself out in OT. It seems to me that the main reason most cite for not posting such topics in OT (the lack of traffic) would begin to change if their OT posts started there in the first place.

Tim

TimT · 01-04-2003, 05:44 PM

This off topic post is decidedly going nowhere.... people trying to predict which "rule de jure" governs the definition of off topic posts....

I will immediately reel this back on topic..does anyone have an idea of tire pressures I should use with my Yokahama slicks? rears are 320/15

KevinP73 · 01-04-2003, 05:46 PM

I guess the only retoric question remaining to be answered is where we all going to meet when Wayne decides this BBS isn't worth his time, effort and expense and pulls the proverbial plug on the bunch of us. I for one,and I'm sure I'm not the only one, appreciate Waynes efforts towards maintaining this board and if that means that this is not where I come to talk bowling or download porno than fine I'll do that where it's appropriate.

TimT · 01-04-2003, 05:51 PM

This all is obviously worth Waynes time and effort. He has a legion of rabid 911 owners begging him for the date of the book release.....and most bbs visitors buy there 911 parts from Pelican

If Wayne pulls the plug..... rennlist will have a big wake up

stew · 01-04-2003, 06:51 PM

so far two pages of ot ranting, not one good mention of a 911. my 2 cents

Zeke · 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by stew
so far two pages of ot ranting, not one good mention of a 911. my 2 cents

Ah, but you're wrong. You didn't read my post. I purposely put in a little 911 to make sure I stay on this side of the line.

Man, how would you feel if you recieved the FIRST AND ONLY WARNING? Is there a probation period?