GTP!! Where have we gone wrong? Can we fix it?

  • Thread starter Small_Fryz
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Dieggo, my point is simply that just because the leader is doing something that they have explained is correct and good for the community, doesn't mean that the community is going to respond positively to it. I'm not talking about whatever reasons the community has as that's beyond subjective.

Just like people make America great, the members make this forum great. And while Jordan does have the final say on all major issues, the community determines the general attitude and "tone" for the forum.
 
Swift
You're not sure what they were, but you want them back. Interesting position.

My point is simply that the community itself determines the quality of said community. You can have a strict or loose ruleset and the difference will be how willing the members of said community are willing to adhere to the rules and NOT upset others on purpose.
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I didn't say I didn't KNOW what those times were, I just havent been through them. I know times have been better and I sometimes dont like how strict the forums are either so I would like the "old days" to come back yeah.
Maybe this does make some sense:).
 
Swift
Dieggo, my point is simply that just because the leader is doing something that they have explained is correct and good for the community, doesn't mean that the community is going to respond positively to it. I'm not talking about whatever reasons the community has as that's beyond subjective.

Just like people make America great, the members make this forum great. And while Jordan does have the final say on all major issues, the community determines the general attitude and "tone" for the forum.
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Alright. I stand corrected. :)

Just one more thing, could you avoid spelling my name with 2 Gs? It's not the first time you do and I should be telling you this through a PM, but since I'm already here, what the heck.
 
Diego440
Alright. I stand corrected. :)

Just one more thing, could you avoid spelling my name with 2 Gs? It's not the first time you do and I should be telling you this through a PM, but since I'm already here, what the heck.
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My bad, I just keep thinking it needs two G's because of my wonderful English skills.:dunce:

To add onto my last comment. I am not blaming any one member or all members for the current state of the boards(the GT4 drift board is blowing up if you haven't noticed :D ) But instead saying that the members have it within themselves to raise the level of the boards should they choice.

Much like what happened in the drift forum. It was getting pretty slow and kind of mundane. Then ONE member decided to start a photo competion. From there it sparked interest and we have several new competions going on right now. We have almost as many new people as we did when GT4 was released and things are going quite well. Infact, we're getting ready to start yet another video competition.

So the members can take it up a notch...when they want to. :sly:

Niels
I didn't say I didn't KNOW what those times were, I just havent been through them. I know times have been better and I sometimes dont like how strict the forums are either so I would like the "old days" to come back yeah.
Maybe this does make some sense:).
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Niels, it's going to sound like I'm a huge jerk. But if you haven't been through the times, then how do you know they were better? You don't have to respond to that if you don't want to, just think on it.
 
Thats a part thats still possible in the forums, just creating threads and well, set up fun competitions or some other stuff.

However, we simply cant change how strict the rules are and wich threads will be closed and wich not. Because the competitions are good and I dont think they're the problem this thread refers to.
 
I've been here for approaching 2 and a half years.

This place has changed.

It is down to a much younger membership.

Younger users is a general trait across the internet.

When I joined I was one of the youngest members. There was no benzo_boy, no Jon., no G.T, no standard235 and no RSCosworth. All members who are about my age or younger.

Jokes could be made that weren't seen neccesarily acceptable to younger members, but were let go because there weren't many to see them. Now we know there is a much larger ~14 membership and that is leading to more censoring.

But also a lot of conflict is down to the simply huge amounts of information availble on GTP. People make a thread that was done 6 months ago. This wasn't so common when I first joined, but perhaps it is also to do with the fact I joined so late after the GT3 release.
 
Niels
Thats a part thats still possible in the forums, just creating threads and well, set up fun competitions or some other stuff.

However, we simply cant change how strict the rules are and wich threads will be closed and wich not. Because the competitions are good and I dont think they're the problem this thread refers to.
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But it took the drifting COMMUNITY to make those competitions successful. When the community works together, the need for "strict" moderation falls almost off the chart.

The only threads I've closed recently are the standard new person threads. Nothing obscene, rude or insulting. Just duplicate threads and things like that. Is that strict? To close a duplicate thread that has a twin on the SAME page? If it is, then you're right the moderation staff has seriously gone over the edge. But if not, let's ALL(mods and members) do our part in lightening the mood and working together.:)
 
Hmm well the rumble strip I think has more issues on "is that topic suitable or not". So it might not count for the drifting forums much at all. But I can see your point.
 
Diego440
That is one of the problems now in GTP. People are not reading.
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Ding! +199 A-spec points.

That's what's fimmature (not young) members do. They post first, and read later. Some learn from their mistakes, but others don't.

Somebody tells them the answer and posts a link.

Somebody else tells them that they're both slightly wrong, and posts some pseduo-intellectual argument type of crap.

Someone tells the newbie to search first.

Then somebody tells them that they're a newbie again (as if they didn't know that).

And then two members go at it over dumb crap, and drags down the meaning of post.

A mod comes by, and sprays the fire with foam.

Later, the first member or another member in the original thread decides to start another fire, for no good reason.

Mod closes it, warns the firestarter.

New member doesn't know what to believe. Somewhere, a fan club, hoisting shrunken heads on a stick, is glad it's happening, and they rally one of their buddies into posting a new thread "You f'n mods are natzees!"

And it too, gets closed.

And yet...here we are.

It can't be all that bad.
 
Want a picture of what I look like? See my profile. Not everyone is willing to plaster their mug shot on the net, personally I could care less.

I think all the members that have been here a while (5 years this summer for me) can agree that GTP has seen many changes in a lot of different areas. Demographics, attitudes, community moral, global autonomy, and increased social diversity are a few things that come to mind off the bat. I can contest that from a small community it is easier to know all the members which is a huge benefit in defusing certain situations. Knowing someones personality is a great insight into why certain things have been said or why they reacted a certain way. What I strive to accomplish and the same can be said for other moderator's style, is to educate the offending member of what they did. It's one thing to just slap a warning on their account, it's another to explain their actions and to help that member mature and grow in the community. There were a lot of snot nosed little punks that I saw grow into valuable contributors. I think that it's awesome we have a community that can actually help members mature in social interaction, it's also rewarding to see. There are also members that are beyond help of the scope of this community and are generally banned, ignored, or otherwise just quit coming around.

I think consistency is great! We have had many discussions among our administrative group on this very topic. Problems arise when there are different interpretations of the TOS or AUP. I have seen moderation techniques used that I don't agree with and have asked that moderator in private as to why it was handled a certain way and the same can be said for me as well. One issue with this inconsistency is that we are ALL human! As administrative bodies, we are often held to a higher standard (I agree as we should lead by example), but please remember that we are not perfect and I can speak for myself that I don't ever claim to be. Jordan hit the nail on the head when he said to communicate! I commend you Small_Fryz for doing just that with this thread and for not just making this a complaint session. I see your genuine care for the community and that means a lot. What I would like to see is the issues being addressed as they happen. Contact me directly if you see my moderation style as unfair, or one-sided. I will try to explain my stand on the matter as best I can and look at the situation to see where I went wrong in my decision making process. If you are still not satisfied with our dialog, contact Jordan as he requested. If we can keep the communication lines open, as a community, we will continue to grow in our efforts that we see present here at GTP.

Mr. P,
Good to see you again Ron. It has been a looooong time since the days of heated discussions of TeamGTPlanet. :) Glad to see your still kickin' it.
 
I think this shouldn't be taken a too serious as well, this thread. I mean the purpose is very serious but you only need to change the attitude a bit I think and just be a bit more allowing. You means in general not only mods or something.

I think the mods take it too seriously now, I dont think we ask for much change, just loosening up a bit.
Shouldn't be a big problem either really.

OH BTW GUYS HELP ME IN MY POST IN THE "falling in love" THREAD:crazy:. I need some judgement, sorry, I dont care about looking stupid now lol this is important.
 
Pako
Mr. P,
Good to see you again Ron. It has been a looooong time since the days of heated discussions of TeamGTPlanet. :) Glad to see your still kickin' it.
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Hi mate 👍 .... Looooong time no see for sure :)
I'm amazed you still remember me :dopey: I'm glad to see the Blue Onion man is still around the house also! the days of Team GTP sure do bring it all back even though it seems a lifetime ago :scared: .. Good days all the same :cool:
.. anyway thanks for the mention mate, all the best to you and your wife and all the little onions :sly:
Take it easy buddy :cheers:
Ron.
 
GTP has changed...it seems to have become more 'sterile' you know?
 
What i hope comes from this thread is that..

Members read it and be more concious of themeselves and what they say. Maybe if you have a grudge against a certain member, just drop it. Make an effort to raise the atmosphere of GTP and try not to wreck threads with stupid off topic discussions or bickering that could easily be said over msn or PM, we as a communtiy dont care about these things.

And Moderators have a think about the points raised in this thread and reflect on them, and even try to keep them in mind when you make your decisions, I personally think locking a dicussion thread should be the last step, trying to fix the thread and delete the bad posts should be step 1, but im not a moderator....

I think GTP can make a decent effort and at least the people in this Rumble strip can change, now that we are aware of what is possibly going wrong we can address these isuess and think about them and try to fix them.

Needs to be less hostility, conflicts and off topic Bull****.

I think if we work together on this and EVERYONE makes an effort we can at least make GTP better, probably not how it used to be, but better than it is now.
 
I think part of the problem is every new guy under the sun and even some more "veteran" members trying to act like little smartasses with every post. Back in the day we used to joke around in humorous manner but now everything is "I pwnd u" or some little brat getting defensive because someone said he was wrong. I don't really like posting much at GTP anymore except for the Music section, where I think the members have remained pretty constant.
 
I haven't been around here as long as everyone else... I joined in late 2003. But, I will say that I have noticed a change in attitude and demeanor around here. Why? Well, I can't say exactly why. The younger demographic makes sense, but also the fact there are only one or two members out of every hundred that [I think] contribute significantly to the site and the forums. It seems we are losing senior members faster then we are gaining them (take Joey and Doug for example).
I will admit I didn't read the whole thread here, but just the initial couple dozen and a few interspersed through the rest of the page. But I did notice a few gripes about the strict moderation here. I am not complaining by any means, as I think that we need the moderators to keep the idiots out of the site. As it is, I think they are doing a great job, and hope they continue to do so.
That said, I would like to present an idea for a new subforum on GTP. I think a subforum for the senior (Lets say, 18 years of age of older, the age of majority) members only would be appreciated by many. A place with less-strict moderation (Nothing extreme, but just to let a little more content slide than allowed on the rest of the forums) where the adults can go and talk.
Two forseeable problems with this are age verification, and those that will moan and complain about the older guys having their own forum. A mandatory age field could be set up under registration, and the rest of the provided ages could be assumed to be true (Why would you lie about your age here?). Anyone with no age provided can be denied access until age verification can be provided on a case-by-case basis. Those who are underage simply cannot see the whole subforum.

And just for the record, I'm not over the age of majority, yet. I'm still 17 for a few more months.
So? What do you think of this idea?



OK, I think I'm going nuts, here. Disreguard that idea, I have no clue what I was thinking when I wrote that post. GTP's fine as it is.[/size]
 
I think it presents some massive problems, personally. The major issue is lying about age. Sure, some people can be caught out, and some people's ages are already known, but it would be irresponsible of us to provide a forum of adult content when it would be easy for the underages to access it.

Secondly, this is a family forum. There is no real reason to provide such a forum, especially when you can find thousands upon thousands of forums with adult content anywhere else on the web. Some members from GTP have their own forums, too, in which they are free to discuss anything.

Besides, there's also MSN Messenger mass-conversations which basically is a free-for-all free-range forum in itself, in a way. I'm pretty sure this subject has been raised before, and I'm pretty sure it got the same kind of answer. A sort of forum like the one you stated might be attractive to a lot of users, but it's not necessary at all.
 
live4speed
Agreed, for example I've just noticed the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 thread has been locked because two members decided to discuss Ferrari's and how their models have evolved over the years. Now, I don't see any reason why a mod couldn't have just said, keep it on topic guy's and let the thread continue. Cases like this where theres nothing wrong with the thread, but a couple of members have started an off topic discussion between themselves can be dealt with, without locking the thread. Locking isn't always the best way, sometimes it's neccissary but sometimes it's not. Despite some shortcomings of the human moderators we see from time to time, this site is still one of the best moderated sites on the net.
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And I will take responsibility for as I should for being in it.
I don't care if you gave out my name, heck, I really wouldn't care if anyone gave out my name as it was stated, "Members are to afraid to give out others' names."

Now, I've been here for over a year, and the only change I can see is that many of my closest friends are gone are just comin' in less and less. But as long as they come, and talk, it's cool.

I do agree, the mods have gotten a little stricter, but as said before, with time, a younger age, or "new generation" of internet and forum members come and many are not as mature about things as they should be.

I don't agree it's gotten as bad as some say it as. More members mean more diverse thoughts and interests, again, not always for the better. When the time comes to moderate these new members, mods need to be strict.

I give the mods and admins credit for what they do, and for providing a place that's at least not a flame, spam, and all other unneeded junk fest.

Niels
Ah yeah I guess. GTPlanet is sooo friggin big, although I feel like I know all the posters in this forum...
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You may feel like that, but you don't.

It takes more than a month to actually get into a member's personality and actually understand the member.
 
*McLaren*
It takes more than a month to actually get into a member's personality and actually understand the member
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[offtopic]
he's been a member for over a year... previously was GT4Fan. [/offtopic]
 
Thought this would be interesting for this thread, since I dont think your experiencing the GTPlanet some do:
I am not going to my new account anymore. People suddenly became way more hostile towards me ever since I got my new account.
Trust me guys, if you think GTP has gone stricter, I can tell you: you are still being treated well. If you make a new member's account and just be yourself then you got warnings all over the place. You have to watch your post count per day so no one will get suspicious you arent just posting for a stupid custom users title. You will notice you get quoted WAYYY more just because people want to prove another noob wrong again. While those same people are probably not paying attention to your actual post at all.

It makes them look good or something. This has proven to me, that GTPlanet DOES have to change the general attitude.

As for the people warning me to be less active, I thought I'd just keep my activity down then, but thinking again, I'm not gonna be less active and all of that and force myself to post less times just because some here are overly suspicious.
I hope I can post normally now again, as long as it isn't spam, cause on this account I already got my "valuable custom users title and custom avatar".

It kinda makes me wonder how friendly some of the people really are here:grumpy:

Edit: This has nothing to do with McLarens message either, he just wasn't aware I had been on this site for a longer period of time.
 
One thing I don't get is ,why we don't have a chatroom. We could limit it to member who have more than 500 or 750 posts... Am I allowed to create a thread with a link to a GTP thread ? No ? I thought so..., why ? ;)
I also don't understand why the convo thread was closed. I've never been there, so I and 95% of GTP don't care about it, but some loved it, why take it away ?
 
G-T-4-Fan
As for the people warning me to be less active, I thought I'd just keep my activity down then, but thinking again, I'm not gonna be less active and all of that and force myself to post less times just because some here are overly suspicious.
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I think you may have gotten your "warning" because your post count was at an unhealthy 20+ posts per day. Which could seem to some as a desperate attempt to spam up the threads and thus, be able to modify your avatar and user title.

Cosmic
Since the convo got closed this site have been pretty dead
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I bet that was the idea. Not to kill the site, but to ultimately stop people from slow chatting and "spamming it up". The site won't die, but a lot of peope will probably leave or stop posting as much useless stuff.

Max_DC
One thing I don't get is ,why we don't have a chatroom.
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This idea was rejected I think directly by Jordan. You culd check out Der Alta's post on the reasons why the convo thread was being closed. I'd think it's still in the stickies on the convo forum.
 
Diego440
I think you may have gotten your "warning" because your post count was at an unhealthy 20+ posts per day. Which could seem to some as a desperate attempt to spam up the threads and thus, be able to modify your avatar and user title.
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*sigh* I dont know from wich account to post anymore.:crazy:

Ok well anyway I had an unhealthy posts per day number not just because this thread. I have just been a bit too active recent days, also on my g-t-4-fan account but thats pulled down offcourse by the times I was inactive on GTPlanet.

Anyway it's being sorted over PM now.
Things still could improve though, being a bit more friendly. It's not that hard:irked:
 
Small Fryz took the words right out of my mouth (in all his posts here) before I even thought about having the balls to speak them (so thanks Fryzy!). There was indeed something about GTP that I'd felt was less appealing (and hence my slow disappearance over the last few months), but just hadn't known the extent to which others felt it too. The apparent change in the sterility of the site and added PC-ness/touchyness of the modding seems to have gotten a little more obvious in recent times. When I joined, I thought bannings were a HUGE deal, but I know loads of people who've been banned, come back etc.. This is AFTER being decent non-banned members for a LONG time previously. All of a sudden certain people aren't tolerated... I'm not saying names, but its just something I've noticed that shows the change in the modding style. Whether this is in line (and hence ok) with the increase of the immaturity of members or not seems a very hard and impossible thing for me to know for sure.

I feel the community isn't quite as strong and.. erm boisterous as it was (even a year ago - for whatever reason) and the mods far more strict and less transparent in their existence shall we say - giving the place an overall loss of FUN - leaving only the core "information source" function of GTPlanet that kept me visiting recently (best source of auto news pretty much). I know it's not really any one mod's fault, but this is just the way it seems to be going.

At least the very existence of this thread and the responses therein shows that this community IS still the mature (well, mostly) and strong family it was not so long ago - we do just need to be given enough rope, as it were. I don't see the core group of active members as being THAT different when GTPlanet seemed more fun and better - but I HAVE noticed a change in moderating style, that may be totally in line with the hurly burly of the newbie-central GT4 section, but perhaps slightly too hardcore to be carried over to where the old-timers hang.

Its kinda like using riot-police to control football crowds, but then sending those same riot police into the bowls club (full of seniors that have mostly proved good members) when some old bloke makes a slightly colourful joke. I know this is a little too hardcore an analogy, I basically just agree with everything Small Fryz has said, his is basically my stance to the letter.

I commend Fryzy again for finally coming out after all this time (sorry to phrase it like that :lol: ) and putting some tricky subject matter into good words.
 
GTP has changed. It's way bigger than it was when I first hopped on, and with growth, moderation has changed. It was for the better, IMO. I dig GTP, and regardless, I'll stay to the bitter end. Unless, of course, I get banninated.
 

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