Tractor Forum and Rules

[Rich Riddle]

I recently joined a tractor forum. One of the rules is you must know every topic ever discussed since inception. If they ever discussed the topic in the past, you must add to that discussion or your topic will be deleted. I am just pondering how long a band saw thread would go and how many band saw threads would be deleted. That's just one example. I posted a few threads but they were all deleted. Oh well .......

[Tom M King]

I'd pass on that one.

[Rich Engelhardt]

That would make for some real confusing threads.......
It's bad enough when someone pulls up a couple year old thread here and you start to reply to it - - then see the date and notice the OP has vanashed off the face of the Earth..

Oh well, different strokes for different folks.

I was on one forum sort of like that.
If you started a thread on a topic already discussed, they would close your thread and chastise you for not using the search function.

[Rich Riddle]

Tom and Rich, yes real internet warriors. The owner brags about what a jerk he acts like. A waste of time.

[Ian Moone]

I have owned a forum and run it for many years before finally giving up.
One of "the big issues" is that forums only survive on content.
Without regular content update, your members slowly dwindle.
The thing is as owner your not the one actually providing that content, your members who contribute are!
And the honest truth is - what they contribute is their own intellectual property.
And the sad fact is - that intellectual property - the moment it's posted ceases belonging to the contributor/member/poster.
Owners and moderators feel the right top treat it with disrespect - delete it ban people etc.
Its like having someone disrespect a member of your family.
GOOD forums with good owners and mods recognize this fact that what they are deleting editing etc isn't really theirs to mess with without risking the ire of the original contributor.
Good Forums aren't autocratic - they treat contributors intellectual property with respect - they edit objectionable content judiciously to retain the main thrust of what was posted, while falling within the posting guidelines - rather then just delete.
Lazy Owners and Mods just delete... and forums owned and run in such a way soon decline and fail.
It's about mutual respect.
If you do not respect your members and their intellectual property in the form of their posts - then members can and do vote with their mouse and move on!.
It's not so hard to work out.
Where it gets tough is - members who take a dislike to a particular poster, can without ever posting up or communicating with the said poster by P.M. just form a habit of looking at any excuse to report posts to mods... for ANY minor infraction, and if its a case of lazy mods, the posts get deleted repeatedly until the member gets the message no one wants to hear anything they have to say & gives up and leaves.
I've seen this happen for commercial gain reasons - members associated with say a particular product about which a member has had an bad experience and voiced it publicly get surreptitiously driven away bye being constantly reported / deleted in order to hose down discontent.
I've seen site owners delete content regularly and ban posters, in order to preserve advertisers support and provision of free product sponsorship!.
Contributors aren't stupid - they eventually work it out and find somewhere else to contribute/post share their knowledge.
Youd be surprised how often back door deals involving $$ are responsible for some of the most knowledge able and best contributors leaving / being shut down!.
Its the nature of MANY forums where all of the rules afford a member absolutely no rights and ascribe to the owners and moderators absolutely no responsibility, to the actual members or their intellectual property that they freely contribute for the forum owner to then sell for advertising revenues.
Tis the nature of the beast with forums and why largely facebook and twitter etc social media networking has taken over from forums participation!
Tis no different for those who wish to share their skills and knowledge on say Utube for free with fellow enthusiasts - the big players (Google et al) all want to monetize their content and support their revenue source advertisers!.
Those who choose not to sign up with Google monetization agreement etc find their free to air content just vanishes!.
At the end of the day $$ talk and bull dust walks.. tis the way of the world (sadly).

[Chuck Wintle]

I recently joined a tractor forum. One of the rules is you must know every topic ever discussed since inception. If they ever discussed the topic in the past, you must add to that discussion or your topic will be deleted. I am just pondering how long a band saw thread would go and how many band saw threads would be deleted. That's just one example. I posted a few threads but they were all deleted. Oh well .......

How could they reasonably expect a new member to know all the threads and topics posted? Unless that was sarcasm?

[Brian Elfert]

I recently joined a tractor forum. One of the rules is you must know every topic ever discussed since inception. If they ever discussed the topic in the past, you must add to that discussion or your topic will be deleted. I am just pondering how long a band saw thread would go and how many band saw threads would be deleted. That's just one example. I posted a few threads but they were all deleted. Oh well .......

Many forums don't like when threads are resurrected. Seems a strange way to run a forum to me.

[Tom Stenzel]

Seems this thread should be deleted. Didn't we discuss once before discussing things once before?

I'd look it up but I'm not sure when we discussed discussing.

:D

-Tom

[Don Morris]

Ian,

Thanks for the informative reply on being a moderator, etc. Sort of thought those things may have happened, but now know for sure. Too bad. I sure do like the way I'm treated here at SMC. I'm a serious amateur, but love the help and love to help. I often do a search, but not always. Sometimes, when I search, my search parameters get chosen incorrectly. I guess if I had done that on the "other" site, I would have been closed out. Wow, that's a bummer.

[Randy Rose]

Don, try " Mytractorforum" there is a reasonably active Yanmar subforum and know it all snarkiness is kept to a minimum.