Owner's Forum

I thought that existed already.

 

I think that we just need a tighter handle on the trolls and quicker ban button for guys like DJ4200comeonguystrustmeIreallydoknowwhatImtalkingaboutandIdoownFerrarisGT.

 

with this suggestion i take it that you are a FERRARI OWNERS CLUB member the reason i joined fchat as its down to earth people not all this class thing that goes on in the owners club

 

I'm not sure about any prior discussion of pro's/con's for an owner's section; but it seems to me that is already served by the official Ferrari's owner site as well as FOC/FCA. In any case the real issue you seem to be bringing up (reference to newbies) isn't really whether they're an owner or not; but whether they're a BS'er or not. The presumption is that ownership acts as a proxy for responsible behavior, but an owner might be a BS'er too. You also get into the dilemma and headache of how to prove ownership.

When I first found it, I liked the fact that F-chat was mostly open and that I found lots of good info to get back into F-car ownership - so the open nature of F-chat is appealing to me. At the same time, I do remember mentally categorizing people as I went researching through threads - "this guy seems to know what they're talking about, this other guy doesn't", etc. Also there could be knowledgeable and pleasant people that are in between cars and wouldn't qualify for an owner's site.

There are membership groups that I have some involvement in that require endorsement or sponsorship by an existing member or two to gain access, or even a vote. Perhaps something like that would be better suited. Say that 4 levels are created: associate, member, silver, rosso. Associates can post in most but not all open forums (which ones?); but can read from all. Members can post in all open forums. Silver and Rosso have access to their private forums. Associates become Members when a Member sponsors them for "Member" and at least one (or two, three, whatever) other Member(s) supports it. This way, an Associate knows that there is something worthwhile to be gained with good citizenship. And Members know to be on the lookout for "good guys" that are likely to be worthwhile contributors. You could seed the initial Member pool with Silver, Rosso as while as posters with more than 1 year registration and more than 250 posts.

Another idea is to provide every post by a member with a "thumb's up" and "thumb's down" button. So if someone puts a really good, helpful post up, they can be endorsed. If they spout BS, they can be dinged. Just like the buyer/seller ratings on E-bay. The score is visible next to the poster's name. This allows people who are just coming across a poster to see what the consensus of the poster's knowledge/contribution is. They can then ignore or give weight to that person's comments based on the summary rating. You could also add an ignore function for people whose rating summaries are below threshold/negative.

If either of these are too complicated, the willingness of the those who confront the BS'ers and an effective "ban" methdology does seem to address the worst offenders. The ones who are annoying, but superficially polite are a bit trickier to deal with.

 

I support the formation of a member's only section.

Beyond that, FChat could integrate Slashdot style post moderation.

 

Even though, I don't own a Ferrari, yet, I think that there should be a section for owners only (kinda like silver/rosso). I.E. everybody can view it, but only owners can post.

 

Is the problem the riff raff or that you want to discuss certain issues with owners only that you can't do privately via PMs or the subscribed forums?

How about making a private area invitation (permission based) only area rather than a strictly owners only area if you really want nothing but the best material on and off topic to go in there. Or the ability to invite others.

I could give a rats about being excluded but do have to wonder what brought you to such a conclusion.

Sunny

 

I think what he wants is a place where can get away from all the trolls, and people wasting others time with reposts, etc. Not just an area for owners, because many of the users here who are incredibly knowledgeable (namely NNO comes to mind) don't own Ferrari's.

I agree with your idea. Perhaps an invitation based forum/area would be better.

 

IMO an owners section is a waste of time. An idiot is an idiot regardless of whether they own a Ferrari or not. Should great sources of experience eg mechanics be excluded becuase they are not owners? The only sensible solution to this that I can think of would be to make it an owners/invited site for posting to the model specific discussion areas, with viewing for all and no such restricitons in OT and regional forums.

 

well who is the idiot us for owning and spending a fortune on them and listening to non owners or them for pretending to have one with no expense

 

IMHO

How about one of the following

Newbies can't start a thread for 2 weeks after registering
Newbies can't reply for 2 weeks
All newbie replies to threads to me moderated for 2 weeks

Just a thought, and yes I know this has been proposed before

 

Those people won't be exluded. They will still be able to participate in these forums. The same forums that have been good enough all along.

The whole point of having an owners forum is that real owners can go there and have real discussions about the cars without having to wade through a bunch of grey noise posts from posers or random teenage yibblers or posts from people looking to extend their e-peni. Sure, there will still be junk threads, but threads from the Lamarossas of the world would hit the forum spam filter and vanish.

I am just a little surprised that the forum doesn't already have an owner's only spot...not to be exlusionary or elitist, but to have a place where the signal to noise ratio tilts in favor of the owner.

I'd be willing to help add names to the list to help out Rob and the site, or whatever clerical **** that would need to be done in order to make it happen. I would be excluded from the forum since I do not own, but it is still a good idea.

 

How do you sort owner/non-owner?

Does it become another "honor" system? I can get 100 Ferrari VIN's from ebay at any given moment and pretend to own a car that I don't. I can get thousands more on the internet.

Post a picture first? Ebay can take care of that too.

Post a picture with you in it? How do I confirm that it is even you? Nobody knows what we really look like. (In some cases, that's all for the better.)

I like the idea, but I can't figure out how to control entry.

And, what would we talk about? Rossa and Silver subscribed sections seem to be mostly dead, and they are FerrariChat "exclusive" sections.

Just my $.02.

 

I'm not sure if I favor an owner's section or not, but if you had someone willing to administrate it, seems like having an owner fax or scan registration and/or insurance card would do for ownership proof. That's what FNA asked for when I wanted a Rosso subscription. I guess they could still be faked, but if someone's willing to put all that Photoshop time in then there's probably not much you can do. It's like locks and burglar alarms - they only keep out the mostly honest people.

 

www.owners.ferrari.com is only for owners and you must enter your serial number to eneter the site.

 

Wow...! What a compliment...! Unfortunately, when it comes to Ferrari knowledge, i'm still at the bottom of the food chain... Still, i understand what you're saying and agree; until not too long ago, Ausbrooks wasn't a Ferrari owner and he really knows his stuff... i know Gerald Roush rarely posts here, but i don't think anyone knows more than him and he hasn't owned a Ferrari in a looooooooong time...

 

See how busy the forum is there! No thanks, don't want to turn Fchat into the joke that is the official Ferrari owners forum.

 

Would you associate with any club that would have you as its member?

 

I'm with Korr and judge on this one...There are very few people that could truly pass off owning a Ferrari and get away with it for some time...

Think about how often the Fchat police nail people for lying about it...and it should be for PREVIOUS or CURRENT owners...if you sold yours a week ago, it doesn't mean you get kicked out...

and there should be designations for people that don't own, but deserve to be there...whether they work on them, work with them (like our VIN mastermind Carbon). Its just another forum...what would it hurt...if nobody uses it....so what? it doesn't get used...big deal...

And this has been discussed before at length, when are we just going to try it?????
If you don't want to be in forum, then DON'T GO...that simple...now lets get a plan and get Rob to set this thing up!

 

I can understand why some people may want an owners section, but as a non-owner, I enjoy reading about what you owners write about. The reason I post/read through this site is so that I can hear it from the people who have my dream of what its like. I wouldnt frequent a forum of just ferrari nuts but no owners as much as I do with this site.

Maybe you can set it up so that non-owners can only read the posts in the owners section, but not actually post themselves. I think that a lot of non-owners would appreciate that.