Hi, Not sure what happened in between all 17 pages of posts, but as far as I`m concerned this is the best Ferrari forum by far!! I don`t agree with everything that goes on here but thats life. No One wants trolls causing problems here, so lets just get on together! Thanks Rob!! Happy Christmas everyone!! Phil.
The other thing is, the unhappy <1% are very vocal while the happy majority are generally peaceful observers to debates such as this one. On a forum - any forum - those who decide to move on tend to make a huge fanfare of it, want to nail an individual or group to the wall (usually those in positions of authority) as the reason they're being driven away, and misery loves company so they'll try to recruit as many other dissatisfied people for their 'mass exodus' as possible. Those who cannot simply slip quietly away want to burn their bridges, be missed terribly (pleaded with to stay), and remembered as the guy you shouldn't have irritated because X number of good people went with him to some other site. People who are happy and plan on staying long-term to support a site don't feel the need to continually publicise reaffirmations of their loyalty. So the discordant posts you read on the forums is not representative of popular opinion - far from it. All the best, Andrew.
Drat... having reworded that before hitting submit, I accidentally typed "is" rather than "are" in that bit you quoted. I hate sounding uneducated. Oh well... All the best, Andrew.
+1. I'm perfectly happy with this site, and this is my first post in one of these threads. Having said that, the dynamic that I've seen in my local forum -- the Mid Atlantic region -- is that the "cool kids" got banned, found a new forum where to hang out and human behavior being what it is, the not so cool kids -- like luke -- are hanging out there as well. The net result is that traffic to the Mid Atlantic Region forum is about 1/2 of what it used to be this time last year and for fear of missing out on some good information, I personally have to check a MAR forum on two boards (ferrarichat and another one) now instead of one, which is a royal pain in the behind, and something I wish I did not have to do. However, I feel like I have to do it, if not I would have never found out Competizione is moving down the street which is very interesting to me. SO, Rob, while many of us are very happy here, I do think that your rigorous application of the rules and banning long time posters is impacting portions of this site and driving happy users to at a minimum check another message board in addition to this one, if not defect entirely. As a person who runs internet businesses for a living, this does not seem like a good long term strategy. Internet brands and franchises come and go incredibly quickly, hot one day, blah the next. Just my observations, hope it helps.
It is somewhat a balancing act between getting rid of users that drive other users away or if they add more value than they take. We've always tried for quality over quantity on FerrariChat.com, but evidently focusing on quality helps our quantity too. There have been dozens of users and groups leave FerrariChat.com in a huff starting or joining another community. The negative effects to FerrariChat.com are lower activity in specific sub-forums and listening to all the noise on exit, because no one is ever able to do it quietly. They are always looking for attention. The positive effects are improved quality as the problems that existed with the problem users goes away. Long term the users find the grass wasn't greener at the other communities. Even if they don't admit it you can find in the stats that the "Dear John" users still spend more time on FerrariChat and post more than the replacement community they claim to call their new home. With so many personality types and ranges of mental health I can't get too wrapped up in specific users or small groups. If we keep doing the best we can, learn from mistakes, and focus on the quality everything will be OK.
I agree checking two boards is a pain although I have to admit it's nice having the MD/DC/VA section. I voted for that here on FChat but not that many other mid atlantic guys were interested when they put out a poll. No offense to the PA/NJ/Del guys but it's a little far for me to drive so I'm not as interested in events north of the MD line. So now I come here for intellectual conversation and there for pics of naked chics sprawled out on Ferrari's.
Anyone know what happened to the 94 F Spider? anyone know more info on it? i would love to see the progress of it now
sigh....another bunch of discuss to the poster postings before the meat gets back. wonder why things make for a huge waste of time.... I got a recommendation: how about a +/- tab to cut out the posts one doesn't want to read that are off topic...we can start with this one after the tab is created.
Which is exactly why I asked how long the ban was for... So, maybe it wasn't so far 'off topic' after all.... Mike in Kuwait
Let's call that casual conversation a friendly chat and re-instate the OP!?!? This was/is a fascinating story. Would love to know more about how the car is progressing.
