This is just a warning. I don't mind two or three letter abreviations for other online communities. EC is EC, so what should the other be? ECT? Thanks, rob
you know nothing about me, why would you make this comment? very disrespectful, but I will stop before making judgments about you. I have an idea though.
i guess i get it...i think its kinda dumb, but thier ur rules on ur site, so im not gonna complain, but if the company/website in question ******* or watever, was a sponsor, you wouldnt block it out right?
Blocking URLs makes it difficult to continue to post and share on Ferrari Chat. Additionally, it's 100% against the spirit of the Internet. Sure, You might not want me to link to a particular photo hosting provider, but you're gonna have one helluva time dealing with your walled-garden approach. In the RSS enabled Internet it's an uphill battle. http://www.******.com/photos/emilgh/sets/72157600041754159/ http://tinyurl.com/yoah4s http://emilgh.tumblr.com/ Plus what's good for the goose is good for the gander. ferrarichat.com is banned by websense proxy systems. So we have thebestemployee.com because blocking access to a web site is just plain nutty. Ferrari Chat will succeed by continuing to be a free place to exchange ideas. By continuing to be the hub of the community. By continuing to be the authoritative voice of the community without being an authoritarian. Communities fail when the audience is no longer the most important thing in the eyes of a forum operator. Good luck with the walled garden strategy. It won't work. It never does. Not once in the history of the Internet. The audience is way smarter (which is why you have to make a rule that won't be followed) and their needs are way more important (which is why we're having conversation). ...and I'd be more concerned with folks running ad blockers than anything else.
Well said, couldn't agree more. Whats the point of going somewhere for information when the information is blocked because the site owner doesn't approve? I think its fine to censor offensive slang words, but it seems as if fchat has expanded their censorship system to be what Rob thinks is best for us.
I don't understand this, last week I'm in Home Depot with the store manager looking for brass cover for my heat vents, they didn't carry the size I needed so the store manager tells me Lowes carries the size I needed to try them. Exchanging information is why we all come to these sites, to block links where the information we could use is insane.
Guys, I love Wendy's. If your looking for some good fast food, skip right over McDonald's and Burger King, go straight to Wendy's. I also love Facebook. Myspace was good, but Facebook is much easier to use and network with other people. If you want another good car forum, with great exchanges of information, and high res pictures, check out ***************. It really is an excellent website. Youtube is also great, as is google. I suggest you check all of these sites out. I just thought you guys would like to see some of the other things on the internet (and on the planet), but make sure you dont spend too much time away from fchat, rob needs to make a living ya know? no offense rob, this whole thing reminds me of when we studied HUAC in 20th Century American History last year. It seems like it is less the nature of the site involved, and more about whose running it. Why can I tell everyone about facebook, but not ecricket? why youtube, google, imageshack, but not flicker? are you going to put in every other website/business' name in the censor list so that the only thing we can discuss is fchat? linking to direct competitors is one thing (though i dont see how it applies to the sites involved) but not even letting us TALK about them? f-ing rediculous. ps, if you guys want to find some ferraris for sale, check out autotrader
I don't expect this to be a popular policy (especially in this EC tri-state hood), but that's because the only motivation for this is protecting market share, which users could give a flip about. I'm the one that started FerrariChat.com in 2000, I'm the one the wrote all those advertising checks, I'm the one that initially had the users and traffic that went off to form their own communities using what was built at FerrariChat.com as a base. An example is an investment rep that leaves one house for another with their customer list. I'm not trying to be the bad guy, but so far this policy has been successful and has received very little heat until ECRKT was involved. I've been blocking blatant links over to F-T, L-T, LP, FF, and others since the beginning. This is nothing new. ECRKT is in a new category though, so possible we'll change our current policy. I'm erroring on the conservative side until I gather more information. Emil has some good points. However, it is always those that have the most to gain that preach the "free internet". This isn't the 90's anymore, internet is a viable business medium and its not the grass roots movement sticking it to "the man" as before. I encourage this discussion to continue, but I don't expect a majority to agree because you aren't in my shoes. If you want to sway me, you have to address the business end of allowing free traffic diversion and from a sponsors perspective why allow others to make commercial posts for free when they pay. Thanks, rob
Discouraging the linking only makes people more curious. At least it does in my case. IMO its completely ignorant to think that this protects your marketshare. Also, how does F-L-I-C-K-R conflict with Ferrari Chat? I dont see the connection.
It has Pictures and a chat feature. This has Chat and pictures. One of the main draws to FerrariChat.com is the unbelievalbe amount of great photography that gets shared here. If that starts to move to other sites, then so does the audience for that. Sponsors pay for visits to this website. Rob wants to protect his traffic, and his client base. If a website takes some of that away, he loses. I don't blame him in the least for not wanting to advertise for sites that will draw traffic from here. Not sure the ECIRQUIT, would take traffic away from here, but I'm damn sure the FLUCKER would. DM
That was because someone created a profile or whatever you want to call it and actually branded it FerrariChat.com. That's over the line, but maybe not the other features of it, we'll have to reevaluate that too.
Actually ****** helps SAVE Rob money, not lose. Most of the bandwidth is images, why not allow a 3rd party to host them? Flikr doesn't deter from the FChat experience, it enhances it. Much the way ECkit does. I don't see any users leaving here going "F FChat! Let's conduct our conversations on Flikr instead!" That line of thinking can be extended to virtually any site posted here. Better not link to ferrari.com for technical specs as FChat has em already! Let's be serious now...
If anything will deter people from FChat it is these communist-type actions..not some website that hosts photos..
I'm sure many people do. Rob owns this board. He can do whatever he wants. He could shut this place down if he wanted. He could erase the NY section if he wanted. Would those two things be in his best interest? Probably not, but the things that he does do are in his best interest.
i agree with some of what rob said, he definately needs to protect the interests of him and his sponsors. but were not talking about commercial posts, those should not and never were allowed. were talking about making its name unspeakable. you are not allowed to talk about it. that is far from protecting the market share of sponsors. people representing ecricket have in the past made posts of questionable motive, but those should have been deleted, the word should be censored. also, flicker will allow you to host high resolution images, fchat does not. so, there is a valid reason to use flicker, it has something that fchat will not offer. should we say no high res photos are allowed to be shared on fchat? talk about taking away from the user experience. alternatively, start offering hosting for higher res photos, and people wont NEED to go elsewhere.