Can I ask a question....
Discussion
without it getting closed? 
If every thread gets shut down, we open another one. If the admins don't answer the questions, we ask them again and again.
Moderators. You say they are volunteers, I ask why anyone would volunteer to work for a profit-driven business without payment? Surely they would be better off spending their efforts somewhere more needy, like charity work, so WHY do they do it? Please ask them to tell us why, as I worry about their motivation, and how it might impact the neutrality of their actions.
Secondly, why was the Porsche forum split not changed back when it clearly had a massive negative effect, and the polls were clearly against it? It's killed the front-engined posts, and your attitude to the Porsche forum in general is going to damage advertiser's perceptions.
Fair enough that PH is a commercial business, but please have some transparency about how the so-called volunteers who moderate it work. They clearly can't be un-biased?
If every thread gets shut down, we open another one. If the admins don't answer the questions, we ask them again and again.
Moderators. You say they are volunteers, I ask why anyone would volunteer to work for a profit-driven business without payment? Surely they would be better off spending their efforts somewhere more needy, like charity work, so WHY do they do it? Please ask them to tell us why, as I worry about their motivation, and how it might impact the neutrality of their actions.
Secondly, why was the Porsche forum split not changed back when it clearly had a massive negative effect, and the polls were clearly against it? It's killed the front-engined posts, and your attitude to the Porsche forum in general is going to damage advertiser's perceptions.
Fair enough that PH is a commercial business, but please have some transparency about how the so-called volunteers who moderate it work. They clearly can't be un-biased?
k off....pauljmcnulty said:
Moderators. You say they are volunteers, I ask why anyone would volunteer to work for a profit-driven business without payment? Surely they would be better off spending their efforts somewhere more needy, like charity work, so WHY do they do it? Please ask them to tell us why, as I worry about their motivation, and how it might impact the neutrality of their actions.
Secondly, why was the Porsche forum split not changed back when it clearly had a massive negative effect, and the polls were clearly against it? It's killed the front-engined posts, and your attitude to the Porsche forum in general is going to damage advertiser's perceptions.
Fair enough that PH is a commercial business, but please have some transparency about how the so-called volunteers who moderate it work. They clearly can't be un-biased?
I'll be happy to answer the above as best I can.Secondly, why was the Porsche forum split not changed back when it clearly had a massive negative effect, and the polls were clearly against it? It's killed the front-engined posts, and your attitude to the Porsche forum in general is going to damage advertiser's perceptions.
Fair enough that PH is a commercial business, but please have some transparency about how the so-called volunteers who moderate it work. They clearly can't be un-biased?
Firstly, the mods were here long before it was part of HM. Yes, we're all volunteers, covering PH 24*7. And it's something we enjoy.
Secondly, regarding the split of the forum - I genuinely can't answer that, as I was not involved in it at any stage. I do know that this was discussed in detail at the time with PH management. So I can only defer to their responses at the time, as they were valid then and still apply now.
And as for your biased comment. I don't understand it. The rules are pretty clear and apply to everyone. I don't understand how bias comes into it. I could not care less if you drive a Porsche or a Proton. We're all ultimately here for the same reason; and as long as we all play within the confines of the forums, then there's no issue.
I hope this helps a little.
I've edited and removed personal content as a genuine response to the 1st question raised, as it's being thrown back in my face
Kinky, thanks for the more measured responce that crossed my reply.
The forum split was argued over at length, and a bad idea. it led to a lot of the current issues.
It was a mistake, and it's easily rectified. The Porsche community wanted one site that wasn't split, you changed that one site.
The forum split was argued over at length, and a bad idea. it led to a lot of the current issues.
It was a mistake, and it's easily rectified. The Porsche community wanted one site that wasn't split, you changed that one site.
pauljmcnulty said:
Kinky, thanks for the more measured responce that crossed my reply.
The forum split was argued over at length, and a bad idea. it led to a lot of the current issues.
It was a mistake, and it's easily rectified. The Porsche community wanted one site that wasn't split, you changed that one site.
Yes, I hear you - absolutely.The forum split was argued over at length, and a bad idea. it led to a lot of the current issues.
It was a mistake, and it's easily rectified. The Porsche community wanted one site that wasn't split, you changed that one site.
Just as a bit of background, I should stress and clarify some of the roles within PH.
The Mods listerally just look after the posts on the forums - a good example (or bad, depending on your skewed viewpoint) is the Crimp scenario. That's where we typically get involved. When it comes to site structure/format, that's down to the PH management team - as CampingGaz keeps asking for - Nathan and JD, whose contact details are freely available and have already been posted.
The mods are unable to change/fix anything like that. The same applies to the classifieds .... let's say there's the blatant scam ad on there, we can't remove it. We can report it of course (as can anyone else); but again, requires the PH techies to remove.
So our role is purely that of keeping the forums ticking over; making sure that it's a safe environment for everyone; at work, at home with family, etc.
May be waffling a little, but ultimately what I'm saying is there's nothing we (as mods) can do. I don't know if it's a case of "tough, accept it and move on" or if there is scope to do something.
I should also stress that I'm probably stepping on Daz/Dom/JCs toes, who typically look after these forums; so I would always defer to them. But again, from a technical perspective, they would not be able to assist.
I hope that's of some little help; or at least clarifies a little.
craigjm said:
If you just click Porsche in the gassing station area don't you just get one list rather than the individual sub forums?
Craig, this has been argued to death!Of course you do, but you can't post from there.
If you wanted one joined-up forum, then it would be one joined-up forum. Able to read/post from. If you want separate forums, then there are any number of them out there.
It wasn't broken, and there was overwhelming support for it to be changed back.
Kinky, thanks again.
I still feel there is a very strange role for the mods here. No pay, no reason to do it, and little thanks. You have to enforce commercial rules, even if you don't agree with them.
I understand volunteering to moderate some sites for free, but not Haymarket's businesses. I wonder if PH would be uneconomical without the volunteers, which makes it a poor business model?
I still feel there is a very strange role for the mods here. No pay, no reason to do it, and little thanks. You have to enforce commercial rules, even if you don't agree with them.
I understand volunteering to moderate some sites for free, but not Haymarket's businesses. I wonder if PH would be uneconomical without the volunteers, which makes it a poor business model?
pauljmcnulty said:
Moderators. You say they are volunteers, I ask why anyone would volunteer to work for a profit-driven business without payment? Surely they would be better off spending their efforts somewhere more needy, like charity work, so WHY do they do it? Please ask them to tell us why, as I worry about their motivation, and how it might impact the neutrality of their actions.
We are volunteers, not paid and as JD said on another thread we get the odd pint when we meet up, we also don't have to sign up for any Sunday service if we turn up we give the funny handshake and we get in, we have to buy our own bacon butty's though. Why do we do it, not an easy question to answer on a weekend like this one, but believe it or not we enjoy it (most of the time). You have your forums we have ours one of them is the mods forums not much goes on in there usually other than the various reports coming in which we can act on or not as the case may be. I also have a broom that I use to sweep the corridors and tidy a few lockers, I DON'T make the coffee or tea though, seniority does have some benefits. We are really all Petrolheads we all like cars and are passionate about the site and it's welfare. We like to leave it clean and tidy and make it a nice place to hang out.
Yeah we could do charity work but we don't, I like being here so HM allow me that privileged, I inherited my modship via Ted some 12 years ago and this a place is a bit like an old overcoat that you'd prefer to keep around rather than throw away when it gets a bit tatty around the edges, a comfy blanket one might say.
How can I be impartial, well I hate everybody (I jest) so I can moderate any forum in the same way Ads are Ads, Abuse is Abuse, posting Porn is posting Porn etc etc, they all contravene the rules of posting that we have ALL agreed to abide by on a few occasions during our membership. So I act in accordance with those six rules, and the occasional T&C's. If I'm not sure of my ground I'll ask for guidance/advice from HM or my fellow mods.
At the end of the day we are just fellow members that police the forums to ensure that the rules are being adhered too. We're not out to cause grief or go around upsetting members, in fact if members didn't break any rules you'd never know we existed.
Hope that answers some of your questions, sorry for the lengthy post but you did ask and I don't get out much.
Sorry I can't answer your second question, that's for HM to respond to.
The mods roles were about long before HM came along and it's continued in that same vein.
We were mostly here from Teds days.
You could argue the same about any forum. There won't be many that that don't have ads, partners, paid-for trade classifieds. But still has Mods who are unpaid volunteers.
We were mostly here from Teds days.
You could argue the same about any forum. There won't be many that that don't have ads, partners, paid-for trade classifieds. But still has Mods who are unpaid volunteers.
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