How about a Enter at Your Own Risk Section?

[Motorbike]

Like the topic says , how bout it ? Rules would be what takes place inside should not affect other posts or section of the forum . There could be a written disclaimer to click on before entering or something similar . We might could speak freely about other topics and learn more about alot of things in what could be called The Oil Cave Section

 

[Bio-T]

MB, You have an excellent idea. My long range plan is to : 1: Have a technical section for engineers, password entry only. 2. Have a General/Off Topic, password protected. 3. These would be totally free to the participants. Neither section would be Moderated except for language or name calling. NO content moderation and by invitation only. Then violators would only be restricted from that particular forum if they do not conform. 4. These ideas will require a new program. So that will take time to switch over, then when it is stable, incorporate the new ideas. The hold up is that our present board has 99.9% up time and the other on the market are not that good. IMO. Really if you notice, at times our Mod Corner is not even secure, so we don't use it. That is the Only gripe I have on this program. I hope this answers your questions.

 

[Gary Allan]

Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah Let us share our pointless points of view - BRING IT ON!!!

 

[labman]

When I am here browsing through the ''get daily'' looking for lubrication and other automotive topics, I do not want the distraction of a bunch of leftist, anti Christian nonsense. I am enjoying the site much more since the ban on RSP. There are plenty of places on the internet for those that want to engage in endless unproductive debates on that. Oh and by the way, BITOG disappears from time to time, but I think less often then many other sites. Keep up the good work. I also think it loads faster than many sites with more flash and less substance. Not everybody has a T1 pipe and the latest, most poerful computer with all the up to date software and a systems ad to keep it up. [ October 01, 2004, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: labman ]

 

[Matt89]

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I do not want the distraction of a bunch of leftist, anti Christian nonsense.

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I suppose others are happy not to be distracted by "Right-wing, fundamental Christian nonsense" Personally, if people want it, I think it's a great move to keep it separate from our mainstream automotive discussions.

 

[Motorbike]

Just an opinion . I'd think the proposed Engineer section would be of worth to ask for a small donation fee for a couple reasons one being the ones paying might respect it enough to not post distracting off topic replies . What I'm saying is the ones entering in this way would be truly interested in furthering their learning and not so apt to post one liners in reply which are not ammusing in most topics . I sure like how this UBB operates though . It's fast compared to other sites but yet maybe other forums are not properly lubricated with oils chosen based on knowledge gained from a site like this and are effectively loosing speed due to friction

 

[ArBee]

Such a General/Off Topic section will need close monitoring. I used to frequent another, truck related, web site that allowed broad political and religious discussions. Invariably heated arguments broke out that sometimes caused lasting ill will between the participants. It got to the point where that feature was devouring the entire site, and the administrators had to shut it down. I would hate to see that kind of anger, partisanship and sheer, simple discourtesy here at BITOG. My two cents, of course...

 

[tweeker43]

you could call it the "abandon all hope ye who enter here" section... i don't know, even if we have no-holds-barred pol section, what's the point. i don't see a lot of minds being changed. it's not like we'd have a "virgin politics analysis" and a "used politics analysis" section with emperical data. it just turns into name calling and finger pointing. people take things personally, then take their oil knowledge elsewhere. the mods have enough to do without stomping on some flaming pile of political dog **** . on the other hand, we could vote on it. i'm good either way.

 

[rugerman1]

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the mods have enough to do without stomping on some flaming pile of political dog ****

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[Calvin]

One of the things I like about this place is that it is populated by many bright and intelligent people.There have been many discussions here in witch I have been exposed to commentary or points of view that I had not considered before.With peoples from all over the world with different back grounds and political , educational , vocational ect backgrounds , there is bound to be some disagreement,I would certinally think that to be quite normal. I have to say that compared to some of the other forums I was active in the political discussions here are down right cordal and very bland with respect to finger pointing , flaming and war starting..... But they also are some of the more intresting and thought provoking in content.There is something to be learned from these discussions.I have certinally become aware of some things that I didnt know of and have bennifitted from them. Some years ago there was a guy who started his own guitar forum , that I was a member of. He included a place called " The Padded Room " where if anyone had a beef with someone else they went there to settle it.... This person even went to other forums to invite combatants to the " Padded Room " so as to ease the burden on the other forums. Crazy idea but it did work for awhile.But he was a single person trying to maintaing the whole forum got to be too much and he dropped the whole forum.... BITOG is such a well run forum and since it really is a " No Spin " zone populated with technical type people ...well... I certinally would like to see some sort of method of preserving the off topic type discussions that many have enjoyed and bennifitted from.

 

[Gary Allan]

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I do not want the distraction of a bunch of leftist, anti Christian nonsense.

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Nor do you have to, labman. (kind tone employed) Don't read that which you are offended by. Pardon me and expand the meaning of "it is better to light one candle ..then to curse the darkness". That is, in this case ...don't go there if it causes you distress. No challenge made here needs a vailliant champion. One has to also consider that I would say that the mass majority here are right wing and pro-Christian. I am very Christian (not like you can truly be half way on it) ...but don't necessarily hold fire and brimstone Old Testiment laws in my heart. Am I a left winger ...am I anti-Christian? I doubt Christ would be considered 'right wing" ..but Moses certainly would. You cannot fix the world ..since it is truly flawed. Don't distress yourself on this impossible task for it is much bigger than you and me.

quote:

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There have been many discussions here in which I have been exposed to commentary or points of view that I had not considered before. With peoples from all over the world with different back grounds and political , educational , vocational ect backgrounds , there is bound to be some disagreement,I would certinally think that to be quite normal.

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Excellent POV. One that I share. All of us are products of our environments and none of us span all walks of life alone ..yet we can do this in the community environment ..and this tends to be a more educated crowd. It would be hard to find this outside of a college campus ..and they wouldn't be mature enough. I don't take offense to anything anyone says here. It just isn't worth getting your panties in a knot over. I think that most of your heated assaults happen when someone shatters another's paradigm ..and they aren't prepared for the shock. The members that have taken exception to my POV tend to just get annoyed at my lack of "carpet bombing" certain issues in a black or white contrast. We all know things aren't that simple ..but like to deal with them in those terms. Anyway ..the overwelming evidence suggests that we DO like to dwell in this arena in spite of an occasional scrap or two....

 

[Motorbike]

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Originally posted by tweeker43: on the other hand, we could vote on it.

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I guess so but I think the X number of members here with multiple user names would kinda mess up the outcome And no , theres but just one of me registered here .

 

[Al]

I don't know how I feel. It seems like there are a few people who feel that a post needs to get twisted into a certain ideology then someone from the opposite ideology feels compelled to reply in the negative and then the thread gets locked. I think whomever caused a thread to be locked should have a avatar next to his name.

 

[Gary Allan]

Al Socialized explanation: Just respond to those people with calm, factual, civility. Let them stomp their feet and cast their flames and basically make fools of themselves as they're consumed with their anger and zeal. Why would someone going off the deep end mandate a reciprical response from you? This is reflected in most of our social and spiritual tenets. You don't fight fire with fire. Debate format explanation: There is no more effect tool in any debate then to grant concession when it is due and still assert your POV without resorting to salvo exchanges on a hostile level. You simply use your civility and calm authoritative dialog to discount the validiity of the "out of control hot head" and make them look like the raving fanatic that they probably are. The problem is ..most people subscribe to "blind agendas" on just about every topic. They see a one dimensional view of things and give a blanket label to cover it all. Most things are most assuredly multi-dimensional ..and those types don't deal with alternative POV when they come in conflict with thier prepackaged, off the shelf, impressions of how to cope with them. It's all very passive aggressive and very effective at getting through a tough topic. Never bring a gun to a pillow fight ..you'll always look like a bully (but always bring plenty of pillows ) [ October 02, 2004, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: Gary Allan ]

 

[Ugly3]

Start a whole new "board" call Bob Is The Political Guy and maybe another called Bob Is The Sex Guy. This is an oil board. Stay focused. Don't pollute. Don't dillute.

 

[00 scrub]

Don't make the engineering/tech section of the board off limits to the other members. At least make it viewable if you do. It would be the best way for students, and non-tribioligical engineers to learn more about oil. Most internet message boards lack tech. There is too much hearsay on most, and having an open tech section woud really be a benefit. The EAYOR forum would seem fine as long as racist remarks and names aren't spouted off in everythread like they sometimes are here. If it starts to casue problems for the entire board, shut it down.

 

[Steve S]

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Originally posted by Ugly3: Start a whole new "board" call Bob Is The Political Guy and maybe another called Bob Is The Sex Guy. This is an oil board. Stay focused. Don't pollute. Don't dillute.

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[Matt_S]

Personally, I like the way the board is currently managed. It keeps things civilized. To have an EAYOR section, IMHO, is a recipe for flame wars, unkind remarks and overall immature behavior. Take a look at the "Almost Anything Goes" section of clubgp.com to see what I mean. I regularly see racist and sexist remarks, a lot of vulgarity, a fair amount of pornography and overall immature behavior. The atmosphere there is much, MUCH less professional than it is here. I'd prefer to keep things civilized and mature. Besides, it seems that the moderators here have made it known that we can venture into certain "forbidden" topics, as long as we keep it civil, which is the way it should be. I think an EAYOR section would detract from the board as a whole. I like having this board be something I can safely view, no matter where I am.

 

[00 scrub]

This board still does get a little racist sometimes. I've remember reading various types of ****heads mentioned on here without any sort of care.

 

[XS650]

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Originally posted by Matt_S: Personally, I like the way the board is currently managed. It keeps things civilized. To have an EAYOR section, IMHO, is a recipe for flame wars, unkind remarks and overall immature behavior. .

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I was on another board where the moderator set up a completley separate board for off topic and flame war posts. He set up the secondary board on yahoo groups and pretty much let it run itself. Flame wars didn't last long there because the audiance was small so the flamers got bored pretty easily and left.