Many complaints - I am in need of some help.

[Doc B.]

Lately I have been receiving quite a few complaints about the signal to noise ratio here regarding the content of the posts. I am supposed to be the really nice guy business owner who says everyone is always right and just lets it go, but frankly it's been bugging me a lot longer than the guys who are complaining. Add having to hear about it from everyone else and it's obvious that it's time to say something.

My intention with this forum was to create a place where people can come for guidance on buying, building modifying and integrating our products with other gear. As long as we can stay there 90% of the time I have no problem with the occasional off topic post. I make them myself.

However I am getting complaints about the same two or three guys cluttering the forum with off topic posts and mundane remarks in an astronomical number of posts. Wading through the stuff is tedious.

It's not hard to figure out what or who I am talking about. I am asking nice that the guys who post here incessantly please get this under control. I am very tired of hearing the complaints from the other members of the community and if things don't change I can certainly change things myself.

I'm all for folks making friends on this forum and supporting each other. But it's a technical forum, not a frat house. Most of us seem to be able to strike the balance between posts with useful content and the occasional diversion. It needs to be all of us for the forum to be functional.

[Chris]

Haha, I believe I am indeed one of the culprits... I do apologize and well said Doc... Fun is over,  I guess., back to business... Thank you guys, I had an enjoyable time....     Chris, over and out....

[RPMac]

Doc, it's your forum and I will fully respect what ever you do, but...those that can't look at a post and who posted it and decide to move on, will always be complaining about something. No matter what you do, there will always be someone.

To Greg, Eric and Chris, I would like to say I have enjoyed your "fun". I think y'all have brought a little entertainment to the forum. Somehow I doubt we hear from any of you very much anymore.

[Doc B.]

I was very tired and frustrated about a project I was working on last night. Thus timing of the latest complaint was not the best. So I may not have worded my post as well as we would all want.

This morning I am musing that two of the people who have complained in the past months have post counts as high as two of the people being complained about.

Since I took the job of forum owner, I will accept that I am perceived by some now as a bad guy who was very unfair to some people. The real problem here is that I can't solve the problem for you guys. People need to understand how they appear to others and figure out how to make adjustments to fit into the community on their own. Some of that (maybe a great deal) is to develop tolerance, as RPMac is suggesting. Some of it is to look at one's own posts and think about who in the community you might piss off by what you are saying, whether it's really pertinent, and sometimes, if the forum is being beaten to death by the sheer volume of posts that don't really put much useful info into the forum archive. We also absolutely need to interject humor and real life to keep it real. And so we should probably find a balance point.

My position in this is perhaps the most predictable - no matter what I do or say, someone will be unhappy about it.

[vetmed]

I'm 100% behind you on this one. I never complained about it, but it was annoying to start reading a thread and see it hijacked. Often the OP did not get their question answered And it was always the same 2 or 3 individuals who were responsible. Having to wade through a lot of dross to find something useful has become tedious. If you have to piss off a few individuals that's unfortunate, but I will be grateful not to have to wade through a lot of drivel.

Robert Lees

[corndog71]

Some of us have perhaps a little too much free time. 

[galyons]

IMO, it is not the number of posts, but finding a fine balance of posting density versus contribution.  Many posts of pertinent content are always welcomed.  Multiple "Drive By Posts" of inane comments, not so much.

Your vision for the forum is clear and occasional reinforcement beneficial.  Hopefully your comments will be taken as making folks aware of the perceptions.  Mature forums seem to self regulate because frequent posters develop a sense of "what am I contributing to this thread" before hitting the "Post" button.  When this community awareness fails, in a few or many,  the opposite seems to take over... until......


That's why you get the big bucks!!!

Cheers,
Geary

[Doc B.]

Thank you guys. I'm going to lock this now so we can get back to bidness.