Thread Title 'opinions Please' Vanished?

[Rob-]

Ta la

[DJ Syxx]

I think this is getting silly now. There's a difference between advertising and asking an opinion. Ben puts a link asks for opinions to improve the site lets be honest it needed a little bit of tweaking. If posting a link up to a company is banned then any links posted like SSDD motorsport are going to be banned as well?

[Chimp Choker]

I've deliberately kept out of posts like this as to be honest the content has nothing to do with be, but the re-occurring comments, the tit for tat approach for me is now becoming a bore.

we all agree that the site delivers the following

• a community based around the vehicle
  
• a good level of knowledge transfer from more experienced owners to new members
  
• a place to have a laugh, and sometimes a cry when it all goes wrong.
  

all this for £10 per year,to me its a no brainer. i am into my 3rd year of a paid member, and for the money invested, the knowledge, help, and advice that i have got back has far outweighed the money paid by myself. if you were to ask most paid members on here im sure they would agree.

but the constant reference to site sponsors, links to items for sale outside of the rules etc is starting to taint the real reasons behind the site. i appreciate that the site owners want a profit from this, and i am all for it being profitable for them. well done, but at what cost. i know i am not alone when i say that i have thought of leaving the Zone, other members have also said this to me outside of the site. this is where the issues will hurt the site the most.

you can have all the site sponsors in the world, but if your core customer is not using the site due to the issues, then where is the value to both sponsor and site.

a way forward to to review the rules T&C'c call then what you like, but when we all signed up, we had to click the box saying we abide by the rules T&C's etc, as you do on most forums. can we make these available to all, and any that are in a "Grey" area discussed at Moderator level, this then filtered down to the members in a uniform way.

this not a dig at anyone on the site, as to be honest i have no issue either way on advertising/sponsors etc, but as a customer of the site, i personally feel that its getting out of hand

[Daz 330 Cs]

Sound, ill go and have banter in for sale topics then. Since its now allowed.

Knock yourself out, I'll just delete

[Rob-]

I'll wait til you've gone to bed then lol

[Dr T]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but as far as Im concerned, Sam owns the site, and so is the uber sponsor and so therefore surely can advertise what he wants, when he wants...I've no argument at all with you ben, or you Blair, just the way I see it in all honesty.

Imagine you owned a magazine, and you had regular advertisers...and your aunt mabel wanted to put an ad in, and you did it for her free of charge...other people couldn't complain that their advert wasn't free, as you own the magazine and can do whatever you like.

My point is that there is by definition on this forum, some rules for some, and some rules for others.

Rules for Members

Rules For Subscribers

Rules for Sponsors

Rules for Affiliates

Rules for Mods

Rules for Administrators..

There is one rule for one and one rule for another, but its clearly defined imo...and you pay for those privileges. If you dont pay you dont get them.

i think for the most part you're on the money, but the thing that often gets over looked with 'rules' is WHY they are there, not from an overall 'why have rules' point of view but rather on an individual basis. It is this element that means we swallow some rules without question in life but kick up a fuss over others.

So while in general of course there must be one rule for some and another for others, there must be an obvious reason for it to be accepted by the masses. For instance the ability to modify other peoples' posts, clearly only a mod or admin should do this because the need for the ability is to ensure content can be amended if need be by those in charge NOT so we can all change each others posts to things like 'I like boys' or similar.

When it comes to advertising rules, there is no need for anyone to have a different capability in this case simply because the rule works for everyone. If we all follow the rules around this there are no issues. that is reason enough for us all to follow it, Sam included. Otherwise what stops all the forum sponsors putting up links to their mates websites.

I think given how little Sam stands to gain from making his post about his website (a few folk to proof read and a bit of publicity, most of which will fall on deaf ears as i would think golf and modding cars aren't the most common of joint hobbies) and in the light of the firming up of the selling (obvious or underhandedly via WIW or what do you think to this type posts) rules I think it was a poor call to post that thread. Whilst Sam's entitled to post what he likes, I would have thought most folk would have realised that perhaps they shouldn't do it in the interests of fairness and toeing the line (their line).

Lets face it, establishing and enforcing rules has rarely gone down well in history when those at the top follow a 'do as I say not as I do' stance. We all learn at a young age, just because you can, doesn't me you should.

[Daz 330 Cs]

I'll wait til you've gone to bed then lol

I'll set to "auto delete" anything you post

[Frobius]

Surely if you own a business you're entitled to a few perks from it?

Tell that to Asil Nadir!!

[Blair]

Zone is a forum not a business.

[Phantom Mark]

Can you blame a forum owner trying to recoup some of the running costs tho ??? Hardly cheap iirc.

[Dr T]

Can you blame a forum owner trying to recoup some of the running costs tho ??? Hardly cheap iirc.

i don't think that's what people are getting at though mate, its the fact the forsale and advertising rules have been fairly rigidly enforced of late, which i personally think is the right way to go, but then for the man at the top to come in and do exactly what we are being told we can't, while not the end of the world, does seem a little tactless. A bit like winning a race you organise, while not strictly wrong, its just something many of us wouldn't do as it just 'feels' wrong. Good social etiquette, if you will.

Edited August 28, 2012 by Dr T

[Sam]

I'm not going to reply to every post, but I want to voice my opinion.

If I saw Bens 'look at this site' post myself, I'd probably would have just moved it to the subs area. I've always said we're to be more lenient on the subscribers and they are helping with the running costs, but at the same time, keep it in the subs area, that's what its there for.

I find it hard to understand why people think I'm not a sponsor or a subscriber when I have spend thousands of pounds to setup, launch and keep this site going. Yes, it makes money from subscribers etc, but it also costs a lot to buy hosting, the forum software & support and everything else. Not to mention the 1000's of hours I've spend creating and maintaining the site, staying up all night to ensure the forum works the next day or working on the site whilst on holiday.

Its also very frustrating for members to tell me how to run the business side of the forum. Who knows, I may have now had sponsor payment from my other site. But its none of your business if I have or haven't.

I know of other forums that'd have just banned and blocked the members kicking up a fuss about the owner posting a link to an other site. Really, some of you must have some authority issues. I'm not going to do that, as it isn't the right thing to do, hence why I've said its open for discussion.

The administrator badge tops all of them, if I put myself as a sponsor, no one could login to the admin side of the site and it'd fall apart fairly quickly. Its weird why 'sponsor' comes above 'owner & investor' in some peoples mind.

Because all of the issues the site has had over the past short while (and it has only been more recently), I will review the rules and ensure we cover more aspects of the site and more them readily available.

[Daz 330 Cs]

Sounds fair enough to me