Does FerrariChat.com need to do anything to minimize user "burnout"?

Make it so it's IMPOSSIBLE to miss even a single post!
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Perhaps, in the Rosso or Silver subscribed sections, we can have Internet Group Therapy- somebody who appears to be losing it could be called out, confronted, and be forced to address their issues. They could be assigned a buddy to help them through the private messaging facility. Of course, the first step is acknowledging that you have a problem, right?

 

I can report this: After about a year of reading way too much info on whatever my newest car is, I get tired of it, and it's happened with my 308, too. I'd log on here several times a day, and I read a lot of it until a few weeks ago. Now, I still log on too much, but I don't read every post with 308 in the title, very little sparks my interest any more. It's natural!
What's FerrariChat gonna do, limit our login time per day?

 

Well Rob, you could model Fchat after what major corporations are doing to keep their employees sane; install a gym, an indoor pool, offer assorted physical activity classes after their Fchat shift. Go the extra limit and have an on staff nurse. Team build with off campus activities, I'm sure somebody here can give a good rate on insurance just in case

 

I can still remember reading a post on the first car board I ever went on and it was something like how often do you post here. When I saw there were people posting daily my only thought was "get a life"!
Then I got interested in modding cars and of course frequented more boards.
Then came fchat.
At first it was just a couple of the "safer" areas, but slowly as Robs insidious drugs began to fully course through my poor system, I began to read and post in more and more sections.
Recently, I bought one of darths computer crappers so i could be online all the time and never miss anything.
Then I bought another computer so I could follow multiple threads.
Tommorrow(I promise) I am going to seek help. No really....

 

Rob,

I, and I'm sure others can appreciate your philanthropic motive on this topic, however, it is soley up to each individual user to monitor their "addiction" and if they fail to moderate on their own, they need to seek professional help.

It's kind of like the Phillip Morris commercials advertising help on quiting smoking, or drinking water from a toilet - it just aint right.

The only possible thing you could do is put a 'burn out' button on the page where users who burn out can press to automatically compose their form burnout flame and submit it for them. Perhaps you can only make it visible to that user so they can feel satisfaction when they read it, but hide it from the rest of us who are tired of seeing everybody and their brother being blamed for their problems.

Peace!

Mike

 

I've found myself staying to specific areas (racing) and every now and again looking through others.

I don't think it's just chat boards in general though. I've found I've been migrating away from a lot of media, what I listen too, programs I watch, it's all been reduced. I guess we all learn to become good shoppers for goods and maybe were becoming more discreet shoppers of information.

I will say the one thing that helps keep me away at times is the random posting of information under the "oh, that's common knowledge" guise and that it's fact. Most of us learned how to site sources in High school and College and suddenly it's no longer required in public forums. Granted that's what this site should be helping us all do, cut through the chatter and get down to actual hard facts. But, unfortunately many still just throw out information with little regard. It's a bit of a Chicken Little situation with information. I've been wrong on information I've posted but, I do try to make every effort to state if it's my personal opinion or not and if not, do my best to site my sources.

There are many who consistently don't and I now just ignore their posts.

 

I think having fewer repeat threads would help. Improved search facilities are key - I see a lot of threads that would not have started if the user searched and got back a previously posted thread. Every time I search (using advanced) I end up with a huge number of threads that generally do not have much to do with the query, and they provide no efficient way of scanning them (e.g., highlighting search keywords). I think it is better to resurrect and add to previous threads than to start another one.

 

F-chat 12 step program??? Seriously, if you can't manage your own life and keep things in balance the system will end up doing it for you i.e. you'll get kicked off etc. I think that the way this community is set up, it purges the "out of balance" users. Many wise abusers have taken a break and come back fresh with a new attitude. Some have chosen to just move on. Whatever works.

Maybe there could be a questionaire set up with 10 questions to answer? Example: Do you find yourself refusing sex to log on to F-chat? Have you found yourself skipping a meal or two to continue a flame war with some ******?

If you have answered yes to 3 or more of these questions you could be an F-chat aholic. Please consider a self-ban for 2 weeks

 

Or, like me, you could be subscribed to several auto-forums and have 4 times the fun!

Ok, I know... I need to get a life...

 

In my humble opinion, people should take responsibility for their own chatroom mental health issues. If you are finding yourself getting aggrevated or frustrated - take a "time-out" and relax. Go to a porn site, or read the New York Times... whatever gets your rev's up!

At the most, perhaps offer a Forum where guys can vent their issues. Call it something like "Red Lining". It can be about ANYthing - not just the site, fellow members, or how you are going to pay for the next major service... If we can have a forum for religion and politics, why not mental health....? We can visit when we need to and not visit if we are OK with life.

No shame or blame to anyone!

Be happy - we own what many in the world would KILL for!

 

I'll be ok if we can just ban all threads about Personalized Plates.

 

I work typically about 60-70 hours a week (although like in Office Space, I would say I really only do about 5 hours of REAL work a week, the rest is downtime). We have a computer but no T.V. I actually get a lot of my...NEWS UPDATES from Fchat. True, I always have the Fchat loaded and many times I will be scanning the off topic section and read about updates on current events, THEN go to CNN.com and check out the full story. I have noticed that usually if there is breaking events, its posted on this site within 5-10 minutes. I guess even crack has by-products.

 

Hey Rob, can you add a videogame section? For example, get some race car game (Something really simple, think "Grand Prix" from the 80's, Atari), and let us all compete...that would help with stress, and keep folks on longer!!!

Might be cool to have competitions, etc. And this would tie into FerrariChat as it involves racing...

 

I'm just trying to move up from Formula 3.

Ken

 

This obviously extends well beyond the topic at hand or even the subject of Ferrari (if such a thing is possible). But we are our own worst enemy. The demons lie within yourself and you must learn to confront them and to conquer them. FerrariChat is no more the source of addiction than any other pleasure or temptation in life. Didn't mean to freak anyone out.

Vlad

 

i don't think there's that much "burnout". it's just a natural ebb and flow. i don't know how deep the vBulletin data goes but if you could plot for yourself the posts per day or week for the top 100 users, i bet you'll see a bunch of peaks and valleys - not one big hill that drops off at the end.

fwiw,
doody

 

I also think that its up to the individual to control his time on this site or ebay or any other area of life that we can easily spend too much time on its all balance I fancy some of us spend too much time working and less with family than we should its all balance. I have only been involved with the site since last year and find it a fantastic resource and I do use it a lot when I am trying to get specific information. Thanks for asking Rob.

 

I find that F-Chat is not the place it once was.

The most significant reason: there are too many posts; there are too many threads.

Often people post just to chat with one another in a private fashion. This has no utility for the forum, as such a conversation has no public aspect to it. Nor does such a conversation usually have anything to do with Ferraris. You'll find this phenomenon especially in the geographic forums.

I don't at all think it a virtue for someone to have thousands of posts in his/her post count. On the contrary, it probably means the user has posted countless useless posts -- useless meaning that the posts have nothing to do with Ferraris or the topic at hand.

I would be in favor of limiting the number of posts a user could make per day. Perhaps the privilege of posting could become greater in scope with seniority. That is, different users can post a different number of times, depending on criteria to be set by the administrator.

I think a good start would be to limit new users to creating only one thread every two days, or something like that. The number of posts could also be limited. Perhaps the privilege of posting could be "rolled over," like Cingular minutes. That is, for example, if you don't use your 1 post that you have the privilege of making on Monday, you can post twice on Tuesday. Or something like that.

Here's a great example for my argument. Just look at the Ferrari discussion (not model specific) forum.

That used to be a great place for interesting discussion. I think a majority of users on F-Chat who have been around would agree that this particular forum (Ferrari discussion, not model specific)--once a great one--has become utterly useless. There are so many threads, so many useless contributions. I actually feel bad for the moderators--they have to sift through all the garbage to try to keep F-Chat useful, and that is a job I don't envy.

I don't know... but something needs to be done. I've seen countless great contributors to this board simply disappear. I myself don't find the site as informative, useful, or enjoyable as it once was. I'm never on anymore, and I'm not bragging when I say that I've helped many, many people out. And several who have helped me and others to a great extent are no longer around. That defeats the purpose of FerrariChat.

 

Wait a minute.

Most, if not all of the burnout occurs because of exchanges between members who espouse extreme positions, or from folks who don't get their way.

How many middle of the roaders fire off an angry missive, followed by a parting statement letting all of us know what a lousy job Fchat does managing those things that bother them most.

Answer.... none!!

Only the most extreme, or those who feel they are wronged move on. It has cost some good members, but all in all, I think the site is the best, most informative, least annoying car site in the planet.

they way to cdontinue to avoid burn out is to continue to innovate, and listen to your members when they make good suggestions.

DM.

 

I would be in favor of limiting the number of posts a user could make per day. Perhaps the privilege of posting could become greater in scope with seniority. That is, different users can post a different number of times, depending on criteria to be set by the administrator.

I think a good start would be to limit new users to creating only one thread every two days, or something like that. The number of posts could also be limited. Perhaps the privilege of posting could be "rolled over," like Cingular minutes. That is, for example, if you don't use your 1 post that you have the privilege of making on Monday, you can post twice on Tuesday. Or something like that.

It sounds like you really like and enjoy structure in your life. You should try some abstract thinking once in a while. It may open some new doors of perception for you.

 

If a user has to force themself off, there are bigger issues in their personal life and putting limits is a bandaid solution. If they leave here, they'll just replace it with something else. It's funny reading this thread because it seems that some people need an adult daycare center. People have got to learn to own up to things. When a forum has to cut you off like a bartender, it becomes comical.

 

People need to spend more time on F-Chat ... to keep individual issues from "the real world" from interfering with your cyber experience.

Remember, fellow sharks: Fish are friends, not food.