Now. This is a mess. I must say, i'm getting sick and tired of the way things are developing. The whole princip about outsiders, who comes ind and starts taking control and taking decisions is bad. Compare it in some ways to an invasion of a country.
No, i'm not comparing the Tenths staff to a militant nation, but i just want to turn attention to the lack of staff-user dialogue here at Tenths - or at least on the part of Tenths i know off. There are thousands of examples out there, that a close dialogue is always the better. And that is not at all what we've seen here.
What we're seeing here is a peaceful community that existed within itself, both before and right after the new sub-forum status, being overrun by people from other places who has got influence on the way things happen in here. Now that to me is totally wrong. If we are going to have our own forum here, we are going to decide. Or at least, get asked.
I am still surprised and horrified, that we were not even asked or confronted with the fact, that our community was about to be shaken up by people who have nothing to do with the community. That is very undemocratic, and it is an example of that top-to-bottom hieraky, that clearly exists here at Tenths, and that i've come to see and realise during this proces.
All of this turmoil in this forum makes me feel bad. It could all have been avoided if we had been included in the proces of making this sub-forum. That way, we could together, users and admins, have found where to cut the line in this forum. Instead, it became just a decision from the top, kinda like if i became a moderator in the ChampCar forum (which i dont know anything about
).
Now, some of you might say that decisions like that should not be discussed, and that too much dialogue will only hamper the decision process. On that, you're partially right, but only partially. I've experienced a situation like this, on a major danish language forum, which eventually led to very unhappy users, and eventually a mass-emigration from the forum. Now, i'm not saying that this is in danger of happening at Tenths. Because, despite all i've stated above, i still respect Tenths for being a unique, and very very great messageboard with no equals in the F1-world. I'm just reminding you, that you should not forget the users in all of this.
Now, that was the torrent of words (
), lets turn attention back to the specific case - the MyTracks forum. I must say, that i've got extraordinarily mixed feelings about this. Yes, i see the point of a possible expansion and bloom inhere, and there is ofcourse also the technical part of it, that the MB is not able to handle such large threads.
But this has been done all wrong. As pirenzo stated above, the offtopic in the 'old MyTracks thread' was more of a sidetalk, and chit-chatter (is that an expression?
) between the more on-topic action. This is almost impossible to do in the new forum. But still, it's necessary.
We cannot make offtopic posting fully illegal, because that would destroy the side-community completely, making some kind of a boring, clinical showroom. But we cannot make offtopic fully legal, because that would make this forum very very closed, and very internal, and that's not in the interest of either users or the Tenths staff.
Now, i suggest this: We point ot a workgroup (i know this is probably something totally new, but not everything can be done simple and easy), consisting of atleast one of the current mods inhere (Ayse or Hobson), one or two from the Tenths staff, and two or three from our ranks, the users here.
Bear in mind, that this is Tenths' golden chance to show and proove that the users
have a say, and that there
is a dialogue going on here. To show, that this is not some tight-fitted top-to-bottom-controlled forum, but more of a free place, where solutions will be found where ever solutions are needed, by whatever means necessary, ofcourse, under certain circumstances. I understand, that the users cannot have fully free roaming, i'm all against that, that would seriously make the MB worse, but there should be a dialogue going on. And in fact, i dont doubt that this dialogue between users and staff is going on in other parts of Tenths. We just need it to get going here too.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by EvilPumpkin
I know it's been suggested that a new forum be set up elsewhere to get around that - and I suppose that's up to you - but it's not going to actually change anything. You won't find any BB software out there - free or commercial - that is going to support one thread of the size you've been using. So you'll still have a forum - just like you do now - but without the technical resources or user base of Tenths.
|
And without the limits of Tenths
. No, seriously (and i'm the one who mentioned this scenario as an option), i would hate to see that happen, because i love to be here, and i believe, that if we do this right, we could make this a thriving place for the track-designing community, perhaps even more thriving than before. But if we're enforced a clinical, anonymous showroom, i would seriously consider doing what mentioned above. Though, i dont think this is really an issue, since i cant believe that no changes will be made here - to the better or worse.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by EvilPumpkin
As for not venturing into other forums - I think that's a terrible shame. You're losing out on the opportunity to meet lots of motorsport minded people who can probably give you lots of valuable experience of tracks past and present - and even future - along with the chance to discover whole new areas of motorsport you may never have known about before.
|
I do not intend to expand my adventure on Tenths, as i do not have the time. I am co-founding crewmember of one of the largest danish-language motorsports websites, and thus, that is where i do my 'ordinary' debating. I have to, and love to, come here to discuss tracks, as this is the only real tracks-discussion forum around. Atleast that i know of.
Now, i know that some of you might see this as somewhat of a torrent on everyone and everything involved in Tenths, but it is just a suggestion as to how we can make MyTracks better, and make it a role model for other thriving side-communities around, both on Tenths, and on the big wide web
.