esp140

speaking on the noobs behalf, although i like to think im vastly more intelligent than the stereotypical noob

i would gladly start paying the subscription fee in order to keep learning from the site. this forum one of my greatest sources of knowledge (the other being 'Maximum Boost')

i'd be pissed if i werent allowed to learn just cuz of my post count, or time registered, or something like that when i genuinely just want to learn

sooo +1 on the subscriptioin fee in exchange for knowledge

bryantaylor

iTrader: (5)

+1 to the subscriber only section. but make it where you have to be a sub for 3 months before you get access. the dumbass wont wait that long. and make the subscriber section NON-MODERATED!

y8s

iTrader: (8)

I volunteer to be the rogue noob-hater moder-ater master-y8r

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Well, if you had a "How not to get banned" sticky, they would just not read it either. None of these brats seem to read any of the stickies or the Useful Posts. Hell, if they read the stickies in the "Meet and Greet" section they would know they were acting like fools when they post that same garbage themselves. I vote for more Hustler.

The real answer is not to post a response at all to foolish questions. They would get bored and go away very quickly. Two or three posts with no interaction and the OP would shrivel up and die. The silent treatment. (It worked in my family. We had issues.)

Toddcod

iTrader: (8)

Has the layout been the same, and I didn't notice. Or did it just change?

Great Job Guys!


I am diging the new layout, newb up top, and then to business!

bryantaylor

iTrader: (5)

very harsh flaming works WAY better. on one of the local boards we VERY rarely have any new people that stay more than a week.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

The subscriber section was just a safehaven idea. I actually hate the idea of having to pay for access, because it means that we can't really kick anyone out.

What about a rule for newbs: If you post a thread, and the answer is obvious or it's easily answered by a simple search, you get probated for 30 days. You can't see the classified section, you can't post at all, and every time you log in the first place it takes you is the Useful Posts section.

That would clean it up pretty quickly. It's only gotten bad because we were told to stop flaming. I understand that Rick wants to grow the forum, but this is the outlaw forum. If I wanted to browse M.net, I would.

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

For awhile, I took it upon myself to bend most NOOBs over their desktop and e-rape them into clicking the seach button... but my example led to many disciples and I was often beaten to the gangbang... noobs having been properly cornholed before I got to them. It was a good in the land of MT.net.

That was back in the day when you could come home after work, click the "NEW POSTS" button, and have one page of threads to look over. Nowadays, I have 3-4 pages every couple hours to look over. The NOOBs are many and I am but one man.

The new format with the NOOB section residing prominent at the top of the forum will help a lot.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

There's a problem with this, though. Here's how this forum usually works (or at least how it used to work):

newb 1: hay u guyz is this trbo kit 4 my miataz from ebay ne gud
senior member 1: Chew glass, *******
sm2: Go back in time and tell your dad to use a ******* condom
sm3: Off yourself, you worthless sack of ****
newb 1: god u guyz r meen
admin: ban

If we all didn't reply:

newb 1: hay u guyz etc
newb 2: i herd the 1.6 and 1.8 motorz r swappabl so u shuld b able 2 put a 1.6 trbo kit on a 1.8
newb 3: oh gosh thanks u guyz i was wondering dis miself
newb 1: thx newb 2 u r so helpful
newb 2: thx ur cute 2 letz meet up for some poz/neg

(ok, mabye I exaggerated a bit on the last line)

Then the search function gets diluted with useless bullshit. If those useless threads just ******* disappeared, and the original poster disappeared with them, then this forum would be exactly what made it so great: A tight-knit group of DIYers and owners who know their **** and are willing to help people who are willing to help themselves. We aren't universally ****** to everyone; every so often there is some newb who posts with "I've done some research and I am going with a used FM1 kit with my own intercooler" and they always get a bunch of really long, good replies. I was that newb at one point (my first post on this forum is something to the effect of "after searching here, I think I can build my setup for about $3500 excluding clutch and exhaust").

kenzo42

iTrader: (6)

I like the idea of using the TEMP ban stick more frequently, perhaps 2 weeks at a time. Everytime a member can reply w/ an obvious "use the search" or "read the faq" qualifies for a ban. Simple and a good lesson learned.

johndoe

iTrader: (5)

I like Sav's idea of a temp probation and having to view the useful posts section. I think a little punishment is in order as well though. How about redirecting them to gay **** sites if they try to post during their probation. Some people might be getting themselves probation on purpose then I guess (cough...Hustler..cough).

Seriously though I think it's a good idea to give them the ability to search the site without the ability to muck up the forum with useless threads. I think that's fair, solves the problem, educates them, and can't be perceived as being overly harsh on noobs. It might even be a good idea to have a mandatory probation period like this for every new member who joins. Two weeks or a month of no posting with redirection to the useful posts section.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

you have no idea how many members get a temp ban here....zoom2zoom was banned for 3 days for his repeated for sale thread crapping.

Atlanta93LE

iTrader: (5)

Roughly what percentage of active users on this site have been banned for any length of time? I'd hope somewhere in the 80% range

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Savington,
I see your point about the noobs communing with themselves. I frankly hadn't considered that.
How about this --
1)The inability to post for a just a week as a noob would kill the transient noob traffic because they all seem to be of the "instant gratification" ilk.

2)Perhaps also limiting the ability to start a new thread for two weeks would keep the short attention span types from bothering. It would additionally simplify the list of new threads each day for us.
It really only has to be a little difficult to discourage most of them. That's why they never complete a build, they just talk about pie-in-the-sky hypotheticals and then disappear.

3)Then ban and/or temp ban the stragglers that remain if they earn it.

But remember, we certainly don't want to discourage the good, new talent that will continue to find us (I say us like I've been here awhile, lol).
A reasonable adult might either find us to be a bit difficult to take, or might see the additional value in this method. Hard to say...

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

This isn't complicated. Encourage "senior members" (that doesn't mean just Bruce) to belittle newbs who ask stupid questions, provided it is justified. Deal harshly with anyone that dishes out the **** with out provocation. If it gets out of hand the mods are there to deal with it. The problem we had previously was that people were going off with out reason making this a very unfriendly place.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

One time I thought about banning myself; it would probably be a good idea.

jayc72

iTrader: (14)

Your employer would probalby thank you

levnubhin

iTrader: (30)

But then would you be able to unban yourself?
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levnubhin

iTrader: (30)

Is there a way for someone with less than say 20 posts to get a pop up message everytime they click on a thread other than the FAQ's, useful saved posts and meet and great thread that asks if they have read thru those sections. Then the have the option to click yes or no. If they click no they get redirected to that section and if they say yes then they can continue on. Make it so that message comes up every time until they get to 20 or whatever posts.
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Stein

iTrader: (46)

Another thought. Make it so that newbs can only make ONE post per 24 hours, up to 20-25 posts. Remind them when they sign up in BIG PRINT that they only get one post per day, so make it count. It would cut down on clutter, eliminate spamming just to get to the post limit for the for sale ads and ultimately chase off the "pop in for instant gratification" posters. Anyone willing to pop in 25 times in 25 days is bound to do some searching and is serious.