S4TAN ... An apology.

[S4TAN]

I vote we get a 'Blue Room' on the site - consenting members only ... then the 'delicate' brigade don't have to go there and get themselves all upset, indignant and holier-than-thou about the stuff they just had to force themselves to watch (you know; so they can wind themselves up into a self-righteous rage of piety and moral high-handedness etc ... which of course they really hate doing ... really)

[Andiroo]

You make an interesting point Julian, something we've never thought about here on RS246. The thing I suppose we need to decide is whether this site needs a 'Blue Room' and indeed 'Off Topic'.

Being as transparent as I can be, it is an absolute nightmare to please everyone all the time. Yes we are a dedicated, and I hope, 'valuable' resource to everything S & RS, and we want the quality to stay. But the Off Topic is an offshoot so to speak, not about Audi's and not about cars - so how do we try and moderate it for the benefit of the majority of users? Difficult one, as we all have different opinions and values, as do the Crew who are trying to give the 'majority' of users the best site possible whilst keeping free of <beep> (which again is subjective).

The easiest thing for the Crew to do is to 'delete' Off Topic and the subjective moderating problem simply goes away. Would the site be harmed by doing this?

I personally don't see the harm in the stuff that gets posted in here, but ultimately it's not what I want, or what the rest of the crew want, it's what the users want and what we can do to protect and better that.. I suggest you guys set up a poll, tell us what you want and we'll see if we can make it happen - how does that sound?

Cheers,

Andiroo

[s4woody]

I suggest you guys set up a poll, tell us what you want and we'll see if we can make it happen - how does that sound?

can this be a pole with birds dancing on and around it..or would you rather we plant some drugs and a gun on him and call the police...

[GardinerG]

can this be a pole with birds dancing on and around it..or would you rather we plant some drugs and a gun on him and call the police...

Just for you woody....

Disclaimer: if you are a weedy self-opinionated do-good weak a55ed gimp please dont click on the d4mn link, ok?? (Not you Woody! )
http://www.youtube.com/v/msy7TtyAVIc

This made me laugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVeqNuHcb-I

Don't worry no n4ked ch1cks were harmed in the filming of the clip, in fact she's not naked but hey we can't have everything.

CheeRS!

[rikrose]

Andiroo: As it happens, this is one of the few forums I'm on with a surprisingly non-active Off-topic area. Take a look at the SX Owner's Club forum to see how active their off-topic area is. I've been given URLs from there many times, covering lots of subjects. I don't think we have as many active users though - we've got a core of about 10 to 20 who post in our off-topic area, and so while it's interesting, it doesn't have as large a core of people who can all talk about the same things.

[S4TAN]

Ok - my point about the "blue room" (or something of a similar nature) is this: I made an assumption (rightly or wrongly) that this web forum was mostly populated by adult males (I'm pretty sure it's got to be >95% of the sites members that fit into this category) simply because we all drive S/RS model Audis - i.e. fast, powerful, expensive cars - pretty much the domain of adult males that have a penchant for such things. From that I made a further assumption that this type of adult male would also have, what I would term as, a healthy, mature and broad-minded sense of humour - further to that then I assumed that topics (such as a m*n being b*mmed by a h*rse) would be found to be humorous and/or bizarre by said population of well-rounded adult males.

I was certainly surprised to see the original post removed (especially considering that 2 crew members posted in humorous response to the original post) - then when I was informed that it had been removed because a few people had complained I found it both funny and disappointing.

Funny because no-one forced these people to (a) enter the Off Topic section (b) read the post in question (c) click on the Wiki link within the post (the last one really is bizarre - I mean why click on the link???). As stated at the beginning of this thread I can only conclude that these really are the type of people who will watch a TV programme that they find offensive - but instead of turning it off, or changing the channel (very easily done with a remote control!) they will force themselves to watch the entire programme, wind themselves up into a self-righteous state of indignation and disgust, then complain bitterly about how awful it was - these people are IDIOTS, they make me laugh.

Disappointing because the post was removed without any communication whatsoever - it simply disappeared. My original post was pretty innocuous in the great scheme of things, and I've certainly seen much worse on this site that has gone completely un-moderated (a web-link to a pornographic act posted in OT readily springs to mind) - so to me it seemed a little heavy-handed, and targeted, to delete my original post.

If the "morally imperious" brigade feel so bloody compelled to read the OT section (eagerly looking for something to enrage themselves about no doubt ) then perhaps we should have a 'Blue Room' for the more enlightened and broad-minded member - it should have a warning/disclaimer ("enter at your own peril - humour inside" for example) - if the delicate people choose to enter and view topics then they have no right to bloody complain: NO-ONE forced you to look!!!

If not a Blue Room then keep the OT section - but again a similar warning/disclaimer should apply: "well adjusted adults with a sense of humour only" or similar ...

If you plan to scrap the OT section altogether then that's your choice as site owners/moderators - but you'll be losing a part of what makes the site a great community - fast cars, technical info, banter and humour.

If it's just reduced to a technical resource then fine - but that's a pretty bloody arid and sterile environment - normally blokes with fast powerful cars have a good sense of humour - if you take away the humour then all you've achieved is to let a few pompous idiots who lead seemingly sheltered and humorless lives control the sites direction - I'm sure they'll feel smug in their self-righteous satisfaction.

Bottom line I guess is you guys run the site so yours is the final say - but why not try polling your membership first and go with the majority - I believe they call it democracy.

All IMHO and just my 2p.

P.S. If anyone replies with that dreadful old cliche "to assume makes an ass out of u and me" then you're a <beep>.

[s4woody]

how about "to many cooks spoil the broth"..thats a good old saying..

[derdle]

In the Sticky posted by PhilT (Gentleman's Toilet) I proposed a section for more adult humour. I'm all in favour of it.

I suppose I receive up to 10, maybe 15 "jokes" a day, some innocuous, some very non PC, some soft porn and others hard porn...I'm the "fun police" at work and permit it although network access is restricted simply to those who have expressed interest in such stuff. The majority of these jokes etc are then punted out via e-mail to similar folk. Some of it is copied and pasted into OT here..but only the milder stuff. I'm sure there are many other forum users who receive similar e-mails every day.

On the other side of things, are the forum owners/mods responsible for what is posted. Sadly we live in a PC Country and if someone took grave offence to what is posted, can the forum owners be held responsible legally? I know someone who ran a Bulletin Board yonks ago who ended up inside because of some of the stuff posted there by other people, so I can understand a stance from that viewpoint.

If posting on wiki, youtube, the register and so on are alive and well with no problems then I would assume that similarly the forum owners/mods will be legally ok here too...especially if it is only a link to an outside site?

So in conclusion - let's have a Blue Room!

Paul

[Andiroo]

Bottom line I guess is you guys run the site so yours is the final say - but why not try polling your membership first and go with the majority - I believe they call it democracy.

Sorry Julian, you don't seem to have read my post, particularly the last paragrah, you muppet

Cheers,

Andiroo

[derdle]

I've started the ball rolling....

http://www.rs246.com/index.php?name=PNp ... ic&t=67970

[Andiroo]

I've moved it to Site News, Issues & Suggestions so you guys have a wider audience

Cheers,

Andiroo

[S4TAN]

Sorry Julian, you don't seem to have read my post, particularly the last paragrah, you muppet

I did Andi - but I genuinely thought that instigating a referendum concerning site-content would be the remit of the crew, honest guv! I think if I posted it up it may be construed as simply "S4TAN being a <beep>" (which I clearly am, but that shouldn't affect the referendum) - better if it comes form the crew IMHO.

Anyway - do it yourself you lazy slag.

[Andiroo]

IMHO this site is for (all) you guys, all we do is try and run it the best we can (sometimes badly, we're only human) - I think there should be a poll for this, that's why I suggested you start one....

Anyhoo Derdle just kicked it off - cool, let's see how it goes, and if it's what the rest of the users want we'll see if we can accomodate.

Cheers,

Andiroo

[derdle]

I've moved it to Site News, Issues & Suggestions so you guys have a wider audience

Cheers Andiroo.

[Turbo Joe]

Repent ye sinners and turn from such filth and darkness!