Personal thoughts.

[exdos]

For the past 2 weeks, every time I've visited this forum, I've invariably had to wade through a load of crap posts from one particular ill-mannered individual and where I've found myself being repeatedly abused in his postings. This is the second time that I've found myself the target of personal abuse on this forum in the past 6 months, by bad mannered individuals. Reading their drivel doesn't actually hurt me or wind me up, instead I just find that their rubbish is utterly juvenile and tedious and spoils an otherwise outstanding forum.

Amidst all the crap postings, It was refreshing to read the posting by j1muv here: http://www.z3mcoupe.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=4869 in which he says: "The best thing of my entire ownership experience was the Welsh Weekend which Exdos organised". I found it refreshing, not because he mentioned that I organised the meeting, but because, like me, he enjoyed a driving event and meeting all the other MC enthusiasts who have only been able to come together because of this forum. Like j1muv I've found that participation on this forum has considerably increased my enjoyment of ownership of my MC. Instead of being a "parasite" or lurker here, I like to think that I've given quite a lot back to this forum by organising 8 meetings and writing stuff which I hope others might find interesting or useful.

I am both old enough and sufficiently worldly to realise that by being reasonably prominent on this forum leaves me wide-open to criticism. I can take any amount of justifiable criticism and am happy for others to pull apart absolutely anything that I write if it will increase my knowledge. However, I find the absolute juvenile behaviour which revolves around name-calling utterly pathetic.

I am really disappointed that this forum has now suffered two spates of bad behaviour by certain individuals, irrespective of the fact that I have been the focus of their abusive attacks. According to the Chinese proverb: "If something happens twice, then it will happen again"; this being so, then this forum needs to establish some basic rules of "posting etiquette". The vast majority of members on any forum are "lurkers" and in many ways I can't blame them for lying low, because, if like me, you actively participate then you are just putting yourself up to be shot at.

Yes, I must confess to having considered deleting all my postings, but there are far too many to do :wink: :!: and to do so would bring me down to the same level of bad behaviour. Likewise, I've no axe to grind with anyone on this forum except those who have behaved badly on here, so why would I want to muck-up the forum? I think that I've learned from the 2 personal attacks on me and from now on, I shall most likely visit this forum on an occasional basis and post much less, if at all. In writing this, I am not indirectly attempting to drum up any form of support from others, it's just an expression of my position.

Best wishes to all.

[Broccers]

At the top of the General page is a report abuse thread - if people publicly want to highlight bad behaviour there's that option or option 2 ask a mod via pm - you will note there's a few now so no particular individual can be accused of picking on users. I think you'll find from reading the last attacks on Lee and yourself it was subtly pointed out that there was zero foundation for them.

Like you know I've other things to worry about at the mo so bringing things to my or other mods attention and will speed up any deletions / bannings etc.

And on that note I'm going to watch Sheffield Utd lose again ........

Si.

[coupe fan]

exdos,

remember, for every 49 of the posts praising your thoughts/advice there may be just 1 deluded idiot who has got the wrong end of the stick. He can't tolerate intelligent discussion because it is beyond his mental and social capabilities. So when he observes it and cannot participate, rather than going away and considering his inadequacies, he tries to bring everything down to his level with personal abuse. He is an example of Tourettes Syndrome expressing itself on a website forum.

I know you and Lee have been the brunt of the latest outburst which turned out to be unjustified as neither of you had anything to do with his (alleged) misfortunes - he was blaming the wrong people. However, it did take 3 weeks to convince him of this and during that time he went completely off the deep end.

The technical stuff you write is, of course, not 'BS', as he suggests it is, and you do a great job organising the meets. Which all goes towards making this is one of the very best car forums around.

There will inevitably be another angry man along in due course; I'm sure this forum is big enough to take them in and spit them out. I hope you reconsider as the site would not be same without the technical stuff you write, despite not understanding a word of it usually (but that's my problem).

If you stop posting, then he's won and I can't see exdos agreeing with that :lol:

[BEN]

I hope you reconsider as the site would not be same without the technical stuff you write, despite not understanding a word of it usually (but that's my problem).

me too!

i could'nt agree more, at the end of the day there are forum members who post everyday, some relevent and non relevent things (thats me)!
but if it wasnt for people like you John taking things apart to see if you can improve them, or giving advice then this site would'nt be anywhere near as good as it is!

your right there is a line and some people feel it is ok to cross it, which on ocasions has gone way to far

This forum has so much to offer people if you want to know anything about modding your MC then Lee is the man to see, and people hold (or should) hold the same respect for you, as at least you have the ideas to think up and energy excicute them!

[physco1234]

Dont worry chaps, im not gonna hurl any abuse, infact I have some constructive suggestions that help protect everyone from malicious behaviuor. There are a number of forums such as 'the two sixties' which only allow car owners who have sent in details of their car (Vin etc etc) to post on the forum. Non car owners can read the threads but not post.

I know this means potential buyers dont have the oppurtunity to ask advice, but the reality is most of the time all questions a buyer wants to ask have already been answered in old posts.

For sure this approach may seem extreme, but it would have avoided the situation of Alexpalix posting maliciuos shite and me going of in the deep end.

Further to this, a half way house coudl maybe have a level of mebership that only allows viewing and posting PM's this way allowing potential buyers to PM chaps / lasses selling cars or to ask advice.

I guess this would alos meen as I nolonger own an MC I could no longer post on this forum, but im sure that would please certain members.

[Lee]

I think some of the stuff which has happened is pretty common for forums and thankfully Z3mcoupe.com is better than most but there will always be disputes that get aired.

I will be replacing my car at the begining of 2007 but will no doubt be hanging around as I really do not think car communities get much better than this.

John I hope you continue to contribute as I like your research!

I am sure things will calm down now.

[Quinten]

Although I am a real newbie at this forum, and only have 2 or 3 posts towards my name, I am also an administrator at Briskoda.net (it's for brisk Skoda's, honest ;) and with over 13.000 members we have our fair share of 'trolls'. The anonymity that the internet is offering to them is what they live for and all that they want to do is stir things up. We also rely heavily on the 'report bad post' functionality that the forum software offers, as you can imagine it is impossible to read every single post made.

What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't let anyone get under your skin, life is too short. Eventually they'll get banned or ignored and move on to another site to get their kicks.

[Broccers]

To be very honest lets draw a line under this ballix and carry on grinning with our top motor cars.


:D :D :D :D :D :D :D