How would you make FerrariChat.com better?

Smile when you say dat ponder. Oh look, there's Chuck Norris.

 

That's a cop out.

You, "I have a list of folks who have been banned here that were important contributors."

Rob, "So, tell me what you have."

You, "I'd rather email them"

Rob, "Here's my email address."

You, "Never mind, you won't listen anyway."

C'mon dude, that's the cheapest pile of crap I've seen here in a while. Either you have the courage of your convictions, or you don't. Rob is a lot of things, some good, some not, like the rest of us, but I've never known him not to at least consider a suggestion before rejecting it.

D

 

I doubt Rob will consider unbanning Fabio and BJJ, whose contributions I found invaluable -
and going back to them, still do. I am guessing there are others, as I don't follow all the forums. Rob has his reasons. But in answer to the original question, unbanning them, and some others, and not getting all intemperate about it, would make Ferrarichat.com better, no doubt.

That's the end of this specific suggestion from me. My day job is all about how to make various media better, and this is not a battle I wish to have on the internet. And Fchat is great, warts and all. A league above any other forum I can think of (cars, travel, luxury goods, fashion, art).

 

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The site looks funky today.... What's up?

 

I’d stop letting sponsors like yellow compass berate other members with insults when people ask him to post prices on cars for sale. All he wants to do is play games and make you call him. Multiple people on here have worked out deals with him just to have him pull his offer last minute by dropping prices 10-15%. He’s dirty and he insults so many people it’s ridiculous, if he wasn’t a sponsor he would’ve been banned a long time ago.

 

I know Mike at Compass to be a reliable guy who I have known for years.

 

That’s great but he has horrible sales gimmicks and he talks down to a lot of us. If he would stop being an ass he might actually move some of these cars so he can stop bumping threads for months

 

He is definitely the "Wacky Waving inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man" of the site, especially when compared to other vendors like Cam and Ryan

 

Don't you have an ax to grind with him?

Didn't you try to work a deal with him on a challenge car, and then argue with him publicly in the thread about that and a car you had for sale?

Here's my advice on how to improve your experience here. PUT HIM ON IGNORE.

Here's my second piece of advice. PLEASE LISTEN TO MY FIRST PIECE OF ADVICE.

Really, let it go. Mike is who he is. If his approach turns off buyers, he has no one to blame but himself, and if you put him on ignore, well, then you won't be bothered by him anymore.

D

 

For starters, I have no axe to grind with him. What upsets me about him is the fact that mods allow him to berate F chat members just bc he's a sponsor. Anyone else who says or does some of the stuff that Mike does would be banned. Many have been banned for much less but its frustrating that bc of finances Mike is allowed to basically run wild. That specific 355 challenge car thread, for starters months later that car is still not sold and he's constantly bumping the thread, for such a super rare car, its odd it hasn't sold in months on a freaking forum of enthusiasts of rare ferraris. Again from day 1 I asked him to post a price, surely if he had done so, a member on this site would own that car by now. I could care less, but his tactics hurt him more than anyone else, most of us already own Ferraris. The part that really pissed me off with him is someone said something to him the other day and mike fired back that if the user had a job he wouldn't have time keep up with mike's doings. That is ridiculous, we're a community of car lovers and without owners like the guy mike put down, there is no ferrari chat.

That owner sure he had an axe to grind but you don't understand how many of us have wasted hours of our time sending him all kinds of paper work, pictures, and info on our cars to get deals done and he agrees to "X" price and then out of nowhere as the deals about to close he pulls the rug out and offers 10-15% less. That is just unprofessional and has been to many guys. A couple guys who I've spoken with said his name isn't even Mike Craig, can F chat even verify if thats true, if not thats a black eye that a sponsor is out there using a fake alias. Regardless all Im saying is paying customers and unpaying customers should be held to the same standards and yellow compass is the reason I don't donate to the site and I've been here for over a decade.

Just something for you guys to ponder.......you asked for ideas on how to improve the site and Im telling you there is an army of us that are angry with one specific user. Perhaps a set of rules in the classifieds section like you must post a price, no gimmicks. Perhaps anchoring threads after a long time so he can't keep bumping threads to have them go over other guys threads. Perhaps you limit how many price changes he can make? Some cars he drops prices for months and keeps bumping them. They're overpriced, he tries to pull one over on some newbie and it doesn't more and we have to deal with months of posts about how much of a steal the car is. In reality any car thats a steal is sold instantly( specifically his black 575 thread ).Tons of options out there to deal with a guy like him.

 

1) Mike has been banned at least twice by me for attacking other users on his ads. I'd have to check the records to see if it's been more. So BS on "mods allow him to berate F chat members just bc he's a sponsor".

2) Nothing stops you from starting a thread about a sponsor's behavior IN THE DISCUSSION FORUMS. However, do not diss any advertiser, whether sponsor or simple subscriber, about how they run their ad on the ad thread they paid for. That's a simple courtesy.

 

I learned a lesson that you have to do it in another area, I was banned for a week bc I asked him to post a price two times. Whatever it is, the 355 challenge car with a street title is an awesome car, a car like that should sell in a matter of hours on a site like this full of guys drooling over rare ferraris. It's been months and it hasn't sold and he hasn't posted a price. I'd call him up and try to buy it from him but dealing with his games in the past no thanks, but damn I just want the car and that jerkoff has it in his possession. If he'd post a price I could call and get it done in a few minutes.

 

Calling mike a jerkoff is a personal attack. It's a violation of the TOU. would you like to take a vacation? Maybe another week for a personal attack? NO? Fortunately for you, mods are allowed to be flexible.

Now, back on topic.

In this imperfect world, when the other guy holds all the good cards you either call or fold.

So, simply put, if you want the car, and he has the car and his rules are call him for the price or move along, then call him or move along. This must be your 8th or 9th post about this car and your dislike for his policy. BUT, it's his car, and it's his policy, so call him or fold.

Sorry if he's not prepared to conform to what MANY of us would like him to do, but we don't get to dictate his company policy. We do get to decide to do, or not do business with him based on his policies. That's all we get to do.

Mike and I have had several conversations about his being less confrontational. It slows him down for a few days, then he's right back at it. But he doesn't initiate the contact, users do, then he reacts strongly. SO, if you don't want him up in your grill, don't push his buttons.

What's that old saying, "The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." Well, banging heads with Mike, hoping that he'll suddenly start posting all his asking prices, is insane.

D

 

You're right, its his loss. Im a huge art collector and 99% of art galleries websites all say call for pricing and I don't call. I buy all my art all the way from 1 major gallery in london that posts prices online, what a novel idea, I see the price and within seconds compare it vs auction results from sothebys/phillips/etc and boom deals are done and art is shipped all the way to Miami. I guess its just irritating to see the guy be in possession of some amazing cars occasionally and nobody wants to deal with him bc of how he does business. His own company website had every car on there listed as "sold" last week, someone trolled him about it and now his website is down. He just does business in one of the oddest manners I've ever seen, o well, guess I've gotta wait for the next 355 challenge car with a street title to appear somewhere.

 

Mike is a terrific guy. Visit compass in NJ.
If anyone is interested in his cars: $ talks; BS walks.

 

Why are you so adamant about defending him? Most of his cars he lists on here do not sell and he just keeps bumping them for months even though they’re “steals” the reality is most people do not want to deal with the guy, mods know it, they know tons complain about him.

 

Have you spoken to him? Visited his shop? Looked into his customers comments? Why are you denigrating a guy who works hard, employs people, and loves cars?

 

Speak for yourself, but don't imply that you know what we "know" or "think".

 

Im not trying to start anything with you but a mod told me that he gets plenty of complaints about yellow compass so im not implying anything......lets just end this here, not trying to cause any problems, it is what is. Ok wanna make ferrarichat better, dont let guys like yellow compass keep bumping threads nobody is even looking at on cars nobody is buying for months on end, set limits there and maybe the spam will stop

 

As a sponsor, I'm not aware of any hard rules about posting or bumping sponsor threads. I seem to recall Rob making a soft comment at one point. However, as a sponsor, it's a bit of common sense to not spamvertize. While all sponsors want to promote their offerings, it's wise to space out bumps, new threads, etc.

What I try to do (take note to "try" - I'm far from perfect) is to add content when bumping (a photo, a video, some new information). That at least offers something of value. In the classifieds, I do bumps "in stock" as those threads just may not be appropriate to add information otherwise.

 

You used the terms "most people" and "tons complain". The reality is that complaints for any user are in the handful out of 200,000 users. So the actual numbers for any user as a percentage have 2 or 3 zeroes after the decimal point. This is not at all consistent with the implication you created.

Further we don't moderate a user just because of complaints, if a user is reported, we assess whether there is in fact a violation of our rules and policies. Some users complain about a behavior that is not subject to moderation.

As Dave Rocks mentioned, it is a good idea for sponsors to limit their commercial postings in the discussion forums below a certain user tolerance threshold. However, sponsors and Classified Subscribed users are specifically allowed to bump their threads in the commercial classified ad forums. They pay good money for that privilege and it is not based on whether they sell their car or item, how long the ad has been in place, and whether or not other users like the way they run their ad or business. Basically none of the things that seem to bother you about Yellow Compass.