After Craigs post this morning I've really been thinking (my brain hurts).

 

How do people want to see this site in... say... 6 months time? From what I've gathered this place will be like has been for the last couple of months, boring, monotonous, no fun, same old same old. Do something about it, everyone has a great laugh, then it gets frowned upon :(

 

The regular posters on here all had a great day - now the keyword there is REGULAR. YES there are many many members on here BUT there aren't that many who come here frequently and have some input into most threads.

 

In my view, the opinion of the unpaid/people who aren't too bothered about this place unless they want some free advice/etc etc are the people who are being listened to the most. Is this the way it should be? If thats the way this site is heading then I'm sorry but its not for me.

 

Now I'm going to get called a trouble maker etc etc but sticks and stones.... ;) The site had reached (IMO) a stagnant position and wasn't going anywhere but wallowing in the depths of boredom. This was while the site was in the state in which (from what I can see) everyone wants it to be.

 

CheerZ,

 

Andy

Are we expecting 2 much from this ?

 

if we always had a "nething goes" policy, it wud not b a very useful place and the laughs wud bcome monotonous and boring. Many of the older members prolly find it boring after a while & move on. It was more fun when it was more of a novelty. Well-menaing moderation is often confused with heavy-handed censorship - an us&them feeling. I have never felt the moderation in here to be OTT. OVer-zealous? moderation isn't a response to personal jeering/taunting is it ?? ie. let's post a slightly provocative post, wait for it to be moved then put the knife in ??

 

I think we expect 2 much ?

 

My 2p ;)

to have a place for nething goes laughs AND somewhere where important Halp 7 advice is readily available - it (LAUGHS) needs to be in a frequently used section - eg. General Chat. y not have an nething goes in there and keep help & advice (mostly) serious to allow those with problems to sort them quickly.

 

We NEED some rules surely !

Andy, the next 6 months is obviously going to be a make or break period. And I hear what you're saying.......as if its like "great, this place is now just what we were aiming for" (yeah-boring and dull!)

 

The people on the board MAKE the board, its simple.

 

The characters on here make up the coulourful spectrum that it is, we dont want our colour being drained away.

 

So basicly, carry on as normal I guess. I never like to make a negative post as that just promotes negativity, which is why Craigs thread annoyed me a bit.

 

It can move on to being bigger and better........and its down to each and very one of us to do our bit to guide it that way.

Before I say anything. I have to say this... if anyone reads into this in a personal way, then please relax and reread it. In no way am I thinking of individuals when I say this, so if you take it personally then I'm not to blame. You guys and girls on this place are the nuts and I love everyone of you (not in a gay way, you bunch of fags :D ).

 

Although I'm a regular poster and a subscribed member, I try and stay out of the politics of this site.

I think the Moderators and the administrators have a job to do and as far as I know they are aware of the problems with this site and they are (unless I am mistaken) having meetings to discuss the direction of this forum.

 

To be honest with you I would hate to be a moderator or administrator on this site, because it's basically too much hard work. Take Anita for example. I'm sure that when she was made a moderator she was given a set of rough guide lines. She moved threads and deleted posts because she though she was doing what was asked of her. Then everyone started having a moan (including me). I personally think she has taken it very well, considering the amount of stick she got. Was it wrong of her to move the posts to fight club ?. What is wrong and what is right in his place. Where's the rule book ?. Although we paid out £20 we don't make the rules.

 

I can't see this place changing if we keep interfering with things and moaning about stuff. Yeah, I know I'm also a moaner :)

There is too much noise in this place to be able to see a clear picture of what everyone wants as a whole. This has been demonstrated with the recent increase in posts and poll in the forum suggestions section. After about 100 posts and so many polls being voted on. What has been the outcome ?. Nothing !!! and why ???. Because everyone in this place is different and unless 100% of people agree then there will always be moaners because they were left out.

 

I personally thought Craig's post was a little OTT and a little offensive to all members in general, but at the end of the day it only seems a lot worst than it is if you start to take it personally.

 

Yes, we are a community of Z owners and I like to think I have many friends on here, but at the end of the day this is still only a forum, lets all calm down a little and leave the politics out of it. I understand the recent issue with Nico and not knowing Nico personally I can't really comment and I really don't want to get involved. But I don't understand what the big deal is. Can't Nico just talk to Craig and sort it all out without bringing the entire forum into chaos ?. I understand that he is a very important person in regards to this forum and also he a great wealth of knowledge but do we really need to start causing a riot about it ?

 

Please feel free to kick the shit out of me at Billing if you feel the need :D.

Originally posted by Nelson MainFella

to have a place for nething goes laughs AND somewhere where important Halp 7 advice is readily available - it (LAUGHS) needs to be in a frequently used section - eg. General Chat. y not have an nething goes in there and keep help & advice (mostly) serious to allow those with problems to sort them quickly.

I agree with Nelson, but then again, this is what these two particular forums were created for anyway, so we're not really saying anything new here :)

 

Yeah, we all had a great time on Friday (well, several did) but I don't think anyone can expect to keep up that level of interaction permanently (if we did, we'd probably get sick of that too. Anyway, I don't think that hijacking the Tech forum so that a few people can have a laugh (myself included) is something that should be done regularly. That forum would become pointless if that were to happen, and like it or not, the Tech forum is the main reason this place came into existance and why it continues to operate. Besides, it was only funny because of the novelty anyway... well, okay, the sparkling wit of the participants helped :D but it was mostly the novelty :)

I agree smw1 - I used to get really angry sometimes in here -but it's not worth it, u look silly and u usually regret it. It's an INTERNET FORUM not the European Court of Human Rights FFS;) :D If a mod or another member annoys you, simply tell them u don't agree and move on - forget it.

 

I still get really angry sometimes - but not due to this forum - due to real life events. Most ppl on here are cool IMHO -even the mods. So let's all chill and move on and keep this place a useful funny place for fellow zedders (money permitting). don't get PERSONAL - but that doesn't mean you can't make friends - some of the ppl I've spoken to on here I would like to meet sometime - to A - see what they are like in real life and B - because it could be fun/intersting.

 

HTH

Agree 100% with smw1.

 

That's it - nowt else to be said. Lock the thread :D

Nelson.........that is my favourite post of yours!!! :D

Originally posted by james300

Nelson.........that is my favourite post of yours!!! :D

 

Thanks !;) Glad u liked it !:D

not being a payed up member im probably in no position to say anything but as ive know most of you for some time ill say it anyway................its the people on here that bind you all you all have strong personas and as such every now and again trouble will flare because of it but thats not a bad thing.its your characters that make this forum what it is. i dont post as much as i used to as i feel a bit cheeky not paying but that was my choice but i visit every day just to keep on what you guys are up to. to much moderation isnt good you need a lttle leeway to keep the fun in the forum.....in the good old days of flaming some people did get burned but for the most part you all did it in jest now it seems like political correctness gone mad

I usually keep my mouth shut on these threads and I don't know where im going to go with this but I would like to quote andyp

 

"this is not a democracy"

 

Your £20 donation was a donation to get the forum out of a slippery period, it was on borrowed time on shitty hardware running crappy software. This forum software alone came to over $200, it could quite easily have been run on free software but you would have been subject to the frequent DB corruptions of the old forum. There was then the cost of the server, a lot of you won't have experience with the costs involved in this, the average cost for a 1u case is about £250 that is before you even start thinking about what you want inside it. As I see it the £20 was a donation to keeping alive something that you enjoy, do you really think if this forum dissapeared craig would be out on the street? noone running this site makes any profit from it.

 

I think its a shame craig feels he has to leave, I know he feels as though his work is constantly thrown in his face, he is the legal owner of this site if you look at the nic records for the domain. You like to knock the powers that be but without them then I can guarentee this forum would be dead within 3 months.

 

O and to clear something up,

 

Administrators: MikeGroves, AnydyP, Craig

 

Moderators: Ajay, AndrewG, AndyP, Gio, lymon, martinfa

 

Administrators: We keep the back end going, I personally do not actively moderate unless its 100% necessary, me and craig have however sat up until 1am making sure this thing keeps running correctly.

 

Moderators: The role of the moderator is to follow the guidelines of the forum and to keep the status quo, it is not their job to have every action they undertake downtrodden by the population of the board. Like i said before if you can only find fault in 1 out of every 100 moderation decisions then they are doing a bang up job.

 

On creation of the new forum quite a lot of people were consulted and a lot of subforums were created, the pain purpose of this was to keep the Help and Advise forum strictly for techincal purposes with everything else going into the relevent subforums, this did not work with the general area locked for nonmembers so the general forum was opened up as were a few other forums to try and keep that forum as on-topin as possible, touch wood I don't use that forum much as my zed is extremely reliable and andyduff and macca generally set me straight before i get to the panicking stage :)

 

Those who speak to me regulary know Im as up for a laugh as the next person, but when comments are snidy and below the belt I believe that is well out of order, at the end of the day you are supplied a resource and left 99% of the time to do with it as you would, occasionally you are reminded that this forums purpose was for the discussion of the z32 and related items.

 

Michael

 

(ready to duck)

Originally posted by MikeGroves

(ready to duck)

 

Crispy aromatic?

 

Seriously, its good to know some of the details you posted there Mike.

This is the best Z32 forum on the net IMHO. I occasionally use others for reference but I check back here 2 or 3 times a day. I've been to a few meets and met some great people. It has a membership with a huge amount of technical knowledge. It also makes me LOL frequently! The Admins and Mods do a great and thankless job.

 

Of course it's never going to reclaim the exciting and ground breaking feeling it had when it was started, but that's life. All things (including internet forums) evolve and move on eventually. It's up to us (the members) to decide on which way it should be going...

 

Cheerz

 

Steve