CyMoN

I have to agree with banning the political and religion threads last year you would not see some of the threads that have popped up recently.
and if they did it was gone after 4 posts.
I am here to learn about and help others learn about Toyota's I am not here to form opinions about other peoples beliefs.
I do not care to read about other none Toyota crap and for the most part I do not read the off topic threads anymore.
I log on once or twice a day and there are 4-8 pages of new posts on threads and 45% of those are not even Toyota related they are post padding threads.

I don't know if it is possible but if the mods could make it where posts in the off topic and in the for sale can be deleted by the original poster and that those two sections do not count on your post count.

there are so many ebay and craigslist threads that are dead links now that need to be deleted.

ozziesironmanoffroad

i wonder why a certain person on here insists on believing its a liberal thing to censor thoughts and stuff on YT, when Corey has already clarified: THIS IS A FAMILY SITE! people come here to.... to.. umm... not sure about that one, i know i come here a lot cuz i love seeing other peoples mods, trucks, everythin. the last thing i want to see is politics in here. and frankly, i dont care bout politics, ill get involved in them and voice my opinion until the oven heats up. then i jump out. so yeah, i agree with banning all political threads. dont agree with me on that? sue me.

stormin94

You have a good point on deleting old threads, but some old, but useful threads could also be deleted, and that valuable information could be lost forever. If we were to delete all the "what size tire can I fit without lift" threads from years back, would we be prepared for the onslaught of new threads covering that same beaten to death topic? This is all on the condition that new people actually use the search button, but I believe there are 3 or 4 new(er) threads started in the last couple weeks about tire sizes(specifically "what size tire can I fit....") We have to assume at least SOME people would use the search button at least once to find out that information.

ozziesironmanoffroad

stormin, even WITH the millions of old 'what size tire can i fit?' threads, more and more NEW ones are appearing every day! lol nothin would change

CyMoN

I am only talking about being able to delete the OFFTOPIC & 4SALE sections all the other threads would still be locked where the poster could not delete the whole thread.

but sadly I have seen some older threads handled in a childish manner where the poster gos back and edits their posts to.............. and deletes the info they had originally posted.

stormin94

I will be opposed to banning all "political threads". Here's why:

Who will determine what is considered Political, and what is not?
Where will the line be drawn?

While I agree that something needs to be done about it, I don't think that the banning of all so called political threads is the right way to go about doing it. The tech section on Yotatech is Awesome. From what I have seen, it has one of the best tech sections on the entire web. I have always been impressed by the sheer volume of knowledge that exists in the tech sections, as there are mostly nice and intelligent people on this site. I believe the off topic section is also a nessecary part of YT. I say this because it gives YT's members a chance to reflect on different things, such as home improvements, camping, and fun and interesting things as well. Some members are unaware of what exactly constitutes a "political thread". Sometimes in a discussion about gas prices, someone will move out and blame the president(this is just an example). Would this mean that gasoline price threads, which could be considered a political subject by some, would be banned as well?

I understand the need to have limits set somewhere, but I fear that people will take the regulations to ban "political" threads too severely, and may be afraid to post, or contribute. This may turn the "Off Topic" section into a barron wasteland of pointless threads because people are too scared to post anything even remotely related to "politics".

The off topic section is a great place. It is almost like going out to lunch with your friends. It gives people a chance to get to know all the members on here a little better than just on a sheerly business level. Now I would consider the tech section more of a business atmosphere, and the off topic section more of a casual atmosphere, generally speaking of course. I believe that in order to solve this issue better, we should have another thread where people can discuss how we go about preventing problems caused by, or related to "political" threads, or otherwise controversial material. I am guilty of getting involved in some political threads. I try to keep the discussion intelligent(although occaisionally I throw a joke out there for laughs). I believe that if properly controlled, so the situation does not get out of hand, that we can have intelligent discussions about issues facing us in our day to day lives.

I have a possible idea for helping keep discussions, of ALL threads(not just "political ones), civil. Here's the situation:

Jimbo starts a thread on banana bread.
Jimbo says that banana bread is the best bread there ever was.
Pierre says that he likes whole wheat better.
Jimbo says that Pierre's bread is stupid
Pierre says that banana bread is stupid-er.

And before it goes any further, a moderator steps in, and removes both from this discussion, or locks them out of the thread before it goes south. Is there anything in place that can lock two(or more) individuals out of a thread for any given amount of time?

I realize that this may not be feasible because there is not always a mod on duty, and they may be doing other things. But, is there a way we can have people who view the thread(innocent bystanders) annonymously(or not) report a posting to the mod, and have a mod review it quickly and determine whether to lock the two out of the thread?

This could be something as simple as a 6 or 12 hour "timeout" from that particular thread, or as much as a couple weeks, or unlimited ban from that thread. This, to me, seems more logical that banning any/all so called "political" threads. Maybe I'm too pessimistic, but I still think that people on this board can engage in an intelligent discussion about pretty much anything with out making it personal.

ozziesironmanoffroad

true stormin, put it on 'timeout'... never thought of that

stormin94

I just wonder if anyone else will take the time to read through the whole thing....

CyMoN

well there is a way to have a post deleted if you find it offensive REPORT it
then a mod will read said post and make the decision to either delete it or leave it there.

stormin94

I forgot to mention that the two parties involved should be allowed to explain whether it was a good natured tease, or joking around, or if one of the two was offended. I think that durring the time when the moderator steps in, and asks the two to explain themselves, that they should not be able to post in ANY threads untill they have explained themselves. This may serve them as a minor "inconvenience" if the two are in fact joking, and the bystander who reported it did not realize that. I'm only suggesting a temporary ban for the two people involved from the thread that they posted in, not the entire site, so we can treat the people on here as, well, people. We are a very intelligent group of people here, and I think that we can make this work.

stormin94

And it is that feature that inspired my idea. But I think the mod should determine the penalty(if any) and also determine if the material is offensive enough to be deleted, or what parts to delete.

WCorbett

So maybe you come here to read about yotas, then why are you in off topic

Dare44

i personally like the political threads and 4mogger may have gone a little overboard on a few of them but i like seeing and talking about other ppls opinions about politics. and where better to get them from fellow wheelers and yota drivers lol. so i vote in favor of keeping them and wcorbett has a good point why are u in off topic if u want to read about yota's

stormin94

Many people do, but I'd find it extremely hard to believe that there are any number of people on this site who have never posted in the "off Topic" section.

But then again, I'm not quite sure exactly what you are saying.

CyMoN

the reason I am here and posting on this thread is I have been on this site and in this community for almost 2 years now and I don't like the direction the site has been going for the last few months.
things have become a little too lax on some subjects theres a thing called personal censorship I use it here to not offend other members on some other sites I frequent I am not so polite and I speak my mind more freely if you want to talk religion and politics there many forums meant for those subjects.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Stormin, you brought up the idea of locking two out of a thread.
Mods do not have access to that feature, only admins like Chris and myself do.
And it is an awful lot of work to do that, more than I am willing to do, very time consuming.

We should not have to do that.
Most are adults here, yet there are some here that act like 3rd grade school yard bullies.

There is a thing called forum etiquette on knowing what to say and what not to say on certain forums, and YotaTech has always been known as a work/family safe environment.

I think if some certain people can not control their anger online and keep conversations civil, maybe its time they throw their computer out the window and walk away for awhile, or stay away in fact.

And as for the subject of being able to delete old threads, I can set that up for the classifieds section where it would clean that up.
But I am not willing at this time to do it for other areas.
Why?
It was already mentioned that someone would go in and edit/delete threads that contained a wealth of knowledge.
I have seen that happen many times in the past and we lots lots of valuable tech in the tech areas, and other good stuff in off topic.

Some members did that while throwing a tissy fit, and it is downright immature to do that when they have an episode of anger that they can not control.

The best course of action when a thread does start to get out of hand it to use the Report this post icon.
It is directly below every members avatar, and when you report it, every single staff member gets an email of the post, and your post is also generated in the sub forum under the Staff section called Reported Posts.
It gives us a chance to look into it and make a decision on how to handle the situation.

And as for why no mods may have stepped in on earlier posts, staff is not on here 24/7.
We have lives besides YotaTech, and quite often if it is a weekend night like yesternight, we are doing other activities with family or friends.

And my thoughts on the political stuff still remains the same, I do not like them.
They never stay civil, and name calling rains out.

Some of the stuff I have read of flaming that goes back and forth cracks me up, as some of those same words said in a face to face conversation would get your teeth knocked down your throat.

Words of anger and bullying are easier typed on a keyboard than said in person for fear of a combative confrontation.

I think most will agree here that political threads never remain civil, they almost surely escalate into bowl of angry typed words.

X-AWDriver

It seems some members just enjoy stirring the pot by posting several threads in a short period of time discussing hot button issues like politics and abortion and when one member is starting these threads it just seems they are trying to cause conflict especially when they are trying to push one view on the extreme side and don't care what the other side says and is just trying to prove they are right and the rest are wrong.

If those said type of people want to discuss that kind of stuff and just argue then go find a some BB forums that are specifically for that since there will be others that will gladly join the game.

Even if people choose to not click the threads on this board people still will because of curiosity then bad feelings and anger ensue and sometimes bleed over into other threads that have nothing to do with each other.

When it come to most people on this board we all most likely would enjoy each others company based on our hobbies but when these personal opinions coming out it can make people less likely to want to meet other members at off road excursions and the like and create automatic dislike for some members.

Political and abortion threads seem to have no room for compromise or seeign the other persons side and that why these threads get banned. Do you really think a message board full of uneducated/misleading or ill informed opinions on those subjects is really going to change a person's mind.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Very well put X.
Those are great words you put here.

BajaRunner

Political discussion is okay as long as the personal attacks are confined to a minimum.

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

Which they can't seem to be here on YT, so ban em.