The Rover-Landers of BC

Over the past year, I've been one of several club members targeted by a non-member that seems to be dissatisfied with the way we run the club, which I can tolerate cuz I'm a big boy -- sticks and stones. But it does take away from the overall values and friendly environment that we as a club are trying to maintain.

Currently we're friendly enough to let anyone that registers join the forums and attend our club events -- and we hope that we provide enough value for you that you'll sign up as a member as well. And usually it works.

I'd like some feedback as to whether we should consider making this a members only forum or continue as is. Or perhaps we need to establish a method of removing or blocking someone from the forum if enough forum members complain about the person.

Your thoughts? Please participate in the poll, and if you don't agree with any of the responses, write your own.

Dave

My vote is to keep it the way it is. As a moderator someone should already have the ability to shut down (lock), delete (if offesive) and/or ban membership from users who cannot maintain a reasonable level of decorum.

I do not feel that this forum has enough traffic to warrant limiting it to club members at this time. As for the rest of us users, use some common sense and restraint yourself and don't get sucked into some of the obvious attempts made at trolling for a reaction and don't make postings yourself which are obviously only going to lead to more of what we have already seen.

John Parsons

I'm with John, I agree with the points he has raised. I would add though that some of the more interesting threads come from outside and it is interesting to hear views of others. I find that clubs that have grown introverted have very little to offer, one of the main points of being on the web is that we reach a bigger audience. As long as personal insults and overly harsh language without humour can be avoided I rather like the banter and controversial commentary :twisted: :twisted:

Dear uncle Dave , your opinion poll appears to be coincidental and timely with yet another ' shot ' directed your way [ reference 11A 88 parts thread ] by the ornery Gord Land . Yes Gord is colourful , controversial and talented but does have a tendancy to piss people off at times , if provoked . Here is my issue Dave , if he pisses you off then exercise your site administration authority and be surgical about it and nuke him . No harm done and he probably could care less . Let's not have an opinion poll about Gord , because this is what it is .

I agree with Bill that the forum is healthy primarily populated by non Rover Lander members . Gord Land's sale of 11A 88 parts were no doubt to both Rover Lander and non-Rover Lander members ... which is good [ in the sense of exposure and the site being a technical /trading site ] . Maybe Paul C should have suggested a commission be paid to the Rover Lander site by Gord in addition to paying homage . Wouldn't that ' light - up ' Gord ?

The forum is good sans opinion polls and a suggested forum members complaint repository about other members . Gord would have that repository aced !

Gerry Bolduc [ member ]

I think the forum should remain open and that the moderator should have comprehensive power to banish anyone who berates others or is offensive. I understand this puts a lot of responsibility on the moderator and his judgement but it seems to work best elsewhere.

I am a member of a Jaguar XK list which nearly self destructed a few years ago over the use and composition of a fabric in XK interiors called REXINE. The rhetoric became so thick the list nearly shut down even though it had over a thousand subscribers. The word is now banished from use on that list...Weird but it worked...

Alan

I’m in agreement with both John & Bill’s comments. I think just about anybody posting info, parts for sale etc is contributing to our club member or not.

Disagreements & banter also add interest to our site. However I don’t think swearing should be tolerated, this isn’t an x-rated web site, who knows who looking in on us (i.e. kids interested in Land Rovers).


We could consider a “Members Onlyâ€

I think the forum is excellent the way it is and should remain the way it is.

:roll: I'm with Shawn and the rest. I don't think that all none members that use this site should be axed just for the sake of the few who are somewhat tactless on occasion. If someones posts are of a tastless nature then the post should be axed and the person who posted it should be banned if warnings from the moderator are not adhered to. I've always worked on the 3 strikes you're out principle.
The moderators job is not easy to say the least. They just have to use good judgement and a swift axe . That's my 2 cents worth.
Derek
'82Lightweightairportablehalfton 8)

I think that all the points above are good and valid but as I have said before the Rover Landers web site is open and free for the whole world to visit and use.
Though it does still remain the web site of the Rover Landers and Members of this club and acts as an advertisment and a tool to promote the club and recruit new members through out the world.
So what it boils down to is that the executives and mediators of the club and the web site have the responsibility and authority to act or deal with any issue ,situation or posting that miss represents the club.
What Dave was trying to find out from the members was how should their club and web site tolerate issues, situations and miss reresentations so that the executives and mediators have a better idea where they should draw the line.
So hows those Canucks
Andrew

Like Andrew said, the executive is just trying to gauge where the club wants us to draw the line when we encounter these issues.

Gerald, yes the most recent comments by GordL precipitated this post, but it is not these alone. I've had emails from various members who have been disappointed with some of the posts, either because they were inflammatory, or downright rude, and certainly Gord cannot take credit for all of these. I'm not picking on him here. I've warned a number of users about their posts, deleted or edited a number of posts, and also had to block two other users. This is not an easy judgement to make at times, as one doesn't want to limit free speech nor make it appear that you're sanitizing any posts that are negative toward yourself -- thats what makes a board like this interesting to read.

I think, from the results of this thread, the executive should be able to come up with a bit of a policy -- or surgical guideline -- as to where to draw the line.

Dave

I think that as a club forum We as the executive should bring the annoyances up at our monthly meeting for discussion , and coments. and resolve them there, so that the end result has some semblence of policy as agreed to by the members present rather than DAVE alone. thanks. rick.mellenger club secretary. A ROVERLANDER.

I guess if this is a club based forum then the club should decide what policies to follow, but I think this forum is more than that. I frequent many UK, USA and Aussie sites to keep up on the tech and Rover gossip, but this is the only site that gives a local spin on everything. So I think the site should stay open to anyone who takes the time to visit.

It is unfortunate that some individuals can't keep things civil, differences in opinion are great but come on, be polite. As a suggestion, contact some of the moderators of the larger Rover sites and see what kind of policies they have. If it seems to work for them....

Well its only in recent times that we have had to address problems like this so we haven't needed a policy in the past for this so we are now trying to guage our boundaries for tolerance.
Not all of our members are not able to attend all meetings and this was a way of reaching those who use the web board and are not able to make it to the meetings but it will be an item on the agender for the next meeting and a policy set from feed back from both the forum and the meeting.
Thank you
Andrew

I think the real question here is how do we as club members and web site members and users want to deal with personal attacks, remarks,and unacceptable web conduct and where do we want to draw the line and how do we want to deal with these problems.
I find it very highly unlikley that the club will ever make the web board club only.
Thanx
Andrew

I feel it would be in everyones best interest to keep it public. Users have to register to contribute and there needs to be a an acceptance of terms that include information that if a post is defamitory or off colour that it will or may be deleted or editted by the forum administrator or moderator. This puts a heavy resposibility on the admin/moderator to judge and to keep up with postings, mind you, if something "off-colour" were to show up, i'm sure enough people would be sending them text in caps that they would know about it soon enough. They also have to be impartial while at the same time being fair and firm. Abuse of power would have to be watched so items edited or deleted from the forum should be an agenda item at the monthly meetings. This way the membership maintains some control as well and can decide collectively if someone in particular should be banned altogether.

I don't that anything had to have happened recently or that it did, to precipitate this poll. It is an item I thought would have been addressed long ago with the inception of the forum in the first place. If it hadn't been done in the past. It is time the question was asked and a protocol put into place.

Hi Everyone,

From the poll results, your posts and the meeting we had tonight, it is obvious that the vast majority of us want to keep this forum open to both members and non-members. And, we will continue to keep it that way.

We also agreed upon a course of action at tonights meeting for dealing with abuse or insults on the forum.

First, lets review the User Agreement you and all other users of this forum agreed to when you signed up:

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit.

Second, we have made the club vice president moderator of the forums. He will exercise his right to warn, remove and block posts as he sees fit. If required he will ban users that continue to post insults. When the moderator is dealing with these issues, he will use a 3-strikes, you're out policy to decide whether to ban a user.

Thanks for all your input on this issue.

Dave