August 22, 2010 Car Show @ Cabela's in Scarborough Maine to benefit Toys for Tots.

Thanks or the invite. Always like to hear about good shows going on especially if they are for a good cause.

FYI: A couple people on here might get a little pissy about this post since it is not a free event. My charity car show post got blocked by the mods last season. Good luck and hope your event is a big hit.

 

I hear ya buddy. Mine was exactly the same. Politics...who knows.

 

Drive by cabelas on my way to my maine house ....will def stop by to this.

 

I love the post, but I am amazed it hasn't been removed yet. Putting it on my calendar. I like when people keep us abreast a long time in advance.

Is team 207 located in Maine specifically? Sorry, I didn't really look at the website yet.

 

i will try to be there hopefully by next year i will actually have a car to show

 

To clarify some misinformation about commercial posts:

Threads like this this one are fine. There is a minimal charge to show your car, but every dollar goes to charity. Alkivar, keep up the good work.

Other charitable car shows may have been edited/removed by other moderators in the past if he or she concluded that it was to benefit the business at which it was held, whether or not fees are going to charity. E.g., if I own an exotic car business, and held a car show on my property, even if I donate all the proceeds to charity, it would still be deemed to be a commercial post, as it's generating publicity and marketing for my exotic car business.

Think this is too confusing? Just ask yourself - who's benefiting from the event?

In this case, I doubt Cabela's really cares about making money from car show attendees, and the organizer is doing it for charity -- and for fun.

What I fail to understand is how there are plenty of exotic car-related businesses that can't afford the minimal amounts required for sponsorship, in order to participate in the most active Ferrari community in the world. Yeesh.

Oh, as an aside, if I catch someone creating a new username to try to get around these rules, by surreptitiously promoting an event as a 3rd party, I will ban you. I cut you some slack last time, but these shenanigans really peeve me. You are warned (and you know I'm talking about you).

vty,

--Dennis

 

Unfortunately Dennis I believe you may have created even more confusion for some. Threads similar in nature and purpose to this one have been deleted in the recent past (within the last year or so). Frankly, I was and I'm sure others here were surprised this thread hadn't been deleted yet. When this thread was started I gave it only couple of hours at best before it was gone.

For years these threads were allowed then last year they were being deleted and now you are indicating they are allowed again. And when they were deleted I did ask myself who was beneficiary of the event being advertised and they're always for a charity which had had me shaking my head wondering why on earth it would be deleted. On one occasion a thread that promoted a non-comercial event that didn't involve one dollar from or to anyone got deleted and that had us really scratching our heads.

I also noted that the sticky for event posting criteria that was up last year for this section was deleted which also added to the confusion. That being said can you please make sure that the other mod for this section is on the same page and onboard with your criteria?

Thanks.

Kenny k.

 

Hi Kenny...

 

Seriously! Stop trolling.

Dennis, I know you guys are really trying, so don't get me wrong by saying this. I respect you, Rob, and Dan and I think you know that.

The reality is that the rules have never been clear and people have been banned for reasons that are both not clear and consequential.

I hate to bring it up if this rubs you the wrong way, but **********************, which I'm sure everyone is joking that just by writting it I'm going to get banned. It's a completely free event that is open to everyone and has zero advertising involved and Manny has gone to great lenghts to stress that nobody makes money from it. The event was removed and the user was banned for questioning it strongly (maybe a little too strongly). Now he reads the above post? I would personally be furious.

Then there are other events that although they go to charity are done to promote businesses and they are left up. Maybe a little quid pro quo in the background? Who cares. I went to both events and had a blast so I could care less if they get removed from here.

And as you can see by Kenny's post it isn't just me. We all see it and we're just making a respectable point that the rules you stated above cannot be taken with a grain of salt because it will just change come spring when Manny wants to post up about his event.

 

and notice that the website actually blanks it out! And it's a free show! That's crazy that people can't even talk about it! Like $uperc@rr@odtrip$ is some sort of taboo!

 

Atleast I Used Punctuation.

 

Kenny, thanks for the feedback. I can't speak for Dan (the other NE mod), nor for moderators of the other sections, but I'm certain that our overall approach is the same -- although our specific judgment calls on "gray area" decisions may differ.

Let me try to make this even more clear for everyone.

FerrariChat is a for-profit business. This is Rob's vocation, as well as his avocation. Now, as part of the business model (and because he's a passionate enthusiast), the vast majority of users don't pay anything to support FChat. Instead, it generates revenue by charging sponsors for ad space and the right to make commercial posts.

That's not unlike TV stations or newspapers charging for ads. If sponsorship and ads didn't exist, then all of us would be paying $$ in mandatory membership fees, and the # of users and volume of interesting posts would drop. Would you all rather we permit ALL commercial posts, but REQUIRE EVERYONE to pay $50/year?

So, there are two big buckets of posts. The much bigger one consists of all posts (in all the various forums) that are NOT COMMERCIAL in nature. The smaller bucket is, surprise, all posts that are. Some are in a gray area, but ultimately, need to fall into one bucket or the other. That's where moderators have to use their discretion, and something that one might approve might be disapproved by another.

Similarly, any posts that might be construed as driving site traffic to a competitor of FChat would be deemed commercial, even if that other site is non-commercial in nature.

Again, here are some examples. Yes, it's pedantic, and yes, it's lengthy, but since there seems to be a lot of confusion, I hope to be covering most bases:

1. I want to put on a car show. I rent a big green lawn from my town, invite folks to come, no charge. NON-COMMERCIAL

2. I want to put on a car show. I rent a big green lawn from my town, invite folks to come, there is a charge, but ALL the revenue goes to charity. NON-COMMERCIAL

3. I want to put on a car show. I rent a big green lawn from my town, invite folks to come, there is a charge, but some or all of the revenue goes into my pocket. COMMERCIAL

4. I want to put on a car show. I arrange to borrow the parking lot of my local strip mall, invite folks to come, no charge. NON-COMMERCIAL

5. I want to put on a car show. I own Etceterini of Boston, a big Italian car dealer, and hold it on my lot, invite folks to come, no charge. COMMERCIAL - because it's promoting my business.

6. I want to put on a car show. I own an Italian restaurant and hold it on my lot, invite folks to come, no charge. Gray area - because it's promoting my business and I'm hoping to get folks to spend a few bucks on lunch, but since it's unlikely that a local restaurant would sign up for an FChat sponsorship package just to get a few folks in for lunch, I'd permit it (but other moderators may not).

7. I want to put on a car show. I rent a big green lawn from my town, invite folks to come, there is no charge, but I'm telling Fchatters to go and join my club and receive my emails -- which is free -- to learn more about the event, to get news of upcoming events, etc. COMMERCIAL - because it's piggybacking on FChat functions.

Now, keep in mind, AGAIN, that the above is how I look at this topic; I don't speak for other moderators; remember, the point I'm trying to make here is that there are gray areas.

[As an aside, Silver Subscriptions are only $15/year. Yeah, that's right, for less than an Imax ticket, less than four cups of fancy coffee, less than 5 gallons of gas for your Ferrari, you can enjoy FChat that much more, and support something that brings a lot of interesting stuff to your life. Not mandatory, but consider it.]

Remember, all the moderators on this site are VOLUNTEERS. We do it because we were asked, and because we rather like this very cool piece of cyberspace. We want to see it thrive and serve all of its members well, and making sure that there is funding for Rob and all of the hardware and bandwidth is key to that. Please keep that in mind the next time you may want to complain (or ***** and moan).

Thanks, all.

vty,

--Dennis

 

Allen - the incident to which you refer involved Manolis, Dan and Rob, and not me. I'm not deeply familiar with the details; from my limited understanding, however, two important points must be made:

1. the BAN portion of the incident was handed out because of the tone, language and attitude of the party involved. Again, I do NOT want to re-ignite that debate, but from what I did end up seeing, the TEMPORARY BAN was appropriate. BTW, here's a suggestion to everyone: like arguing with a kart track referee for giving you a time-out during a race, why not just keep it to yourself and prevent the ban from being extended? Jeez, the first thing you do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.

2. I've never met nor even spoken to Manolis. He could be the greatest guy on earth, or a complete tool. Doesn't matter, in this context, as all I'm doing is watching what he posts. And his club/site? Hey, if he wants to get FChat members to join his group/site/whatever, pony up some sponsorship bucks. Even if it's not-for-profit, clearly, he's deriving some benefit from it, or why bother putting it together in the first place, when FChat would otherwise serve as a logical place to organize attendance at such events?

As an aside, I think the trip to Foxwoods was a big hit, and I truly encourage him to keep putting on great, fun events. But if he wants to promote his events on FChat, he needs to comply with the rules.

Specifically; the first couple of his events were touting a car show at FoNE, which was not a sponsor at the time. See my post above; clearly, this was a commercial post. Second, the roadtrip was done with what appeared to be commercial sponsors. As you pointed out, was there a quid-pro-quo? Who knows? It's a gray area (and if it were up to me, I might have been inclined to cut him some slack, but then again, I wasn't the one to whom the flurry of self-righteous emails were being sent).

Hope this helps.

vty,

--Dennis

 

What are you talking about? No space and all caps at the beginning of all the words. You really showed us and you managed to troll some more as well.

Dennis:
I want to talk some more Dennis, but I can't. lol And since we've hijacked poor Alkivar's post lets close it up or move it to a new thread. Sorry Alkivar!

Dennis I think it's important that you know that we understand you guys do your best and it's not always easy, which is why we piss and moan because we care and want this forum to look its best at all times and we don't think it is. We really do want to meet you half-way.

 

Apparently we can have fun.

 

Allen, be glad that you edited your post, otherwise you would have gotten an earful from me on what you wrote originally.

So, I'll just leave it at this: of course FChat, Rob and the moderators are looking for feedback, preferably of the constructive type. Don't like something? Point it out (hey, there's even an easy way to do it!).

But there is a world of difference between pointing something out (or even just complaining), and pissing and moaning. Be polite, be constructive, and don't be a jerk.

Nuff Said.

--Dennis

 

Aklivar, see what you've started. Welcome to the NE section of fchat !

 

I've been in this industry for a very long time. I'm looking forward to a get together again bro. Then I'll be all ears. he he

Kenny, don't blame him, lol. Don't worry Aklivar, Kenny and I have been rocking the boat for way longer than you've been here, but welcome to the party. lol

 

Jeez--I don't even want to think about the END of summer yet! I don't even have spring fever!

I'll keep this one in mind (although I'd be under import/tuner).