(Sorry in advance for the novella, I type very fast. This post was split off from Shelby-Evan's original review thread of Ambrosio)
(Also, please do not quote this entire giant post, quote pertinant parts if you wish. Thanks)
I agree with Evan concerning not allowing other posts, that's a little concerning. For the last ten years as a side hobby, I own and run the biggest car & racing web forum in Colorado. I am the main Admin & Mod with a dozen or so forum Mods that I oversee. Over the years we have dealt with literally hundreds of online drama incidents in the car scene, of various degrees of negativity. Even streetracing crap-talking threads escalating to people "meeting up" to settle the score, it's not pretty nor fun. Therefore, my board has been strongly moderated to combat these types of situations.
Same with shop sponsors and various disgruntled and satisfied customers, we got 'em all, all types of people, all types of problems, from dragrace grunge matches, prematurely blown engines, incorrectly built heads, police incidents, lost parts orders, builds taking forever, shops not communicating enough, dyno arguments about correction factors and horsepower, etc., etc. In my experience, doing this level of censorship makes the Mods' life easier for sure, but to the detriment of free speech.
I've found the happy medium is strongly moderating the thread, keeping an eye on it throughout the day, everyday. If people post anything that isn't personal experience with the complaintant, or the shop, then they are asked to refrain from objective bashing. Keep posts allowed though so people can voice opinions with facts stated at hand, instead of heresay. Anything that is objective opinion or not substantiated, we must let the user community use their best judgement to filter those things and take everything with a grain of salt, with the possibility that it may or may not be factual.
I think we're all adults on this board, that I've seen so far, so this would not be hard to do, and you won't have a complaint/review thread with only two people in it, which really goes nowhere because they could just as well "take it to PM's". It's healthy to have people speak up about their good experiences and bad to add to the history of the parties involved.
I have no dog in this fight, since I've done business with BOTH parties, two times each. Both times were completely positive experiences, with no b.s., no issue, excellent and rapid communication, no shadyness, etc.
If I may state my opinion even though I'm not involved directly with THIS complaint, I would continue to do business with both Evan & Nick. NOT TAKING SIDES, and I'm not accusing Nick of anything, In the future I would just maybe be careful to communicate EXACTLY the stipulations of a pending transaction, payment info IN DETAIL, including times, availability, etc. if it was a concern to me, or a high-dollar item (like those Designer Clowns) especially. If a verbal deal was made for certain, then maybe something slipped through the cracks, maybe a 3rd party was forgotten about or one or more parties was not concrete with their wishes or timing, etc. Who knows? It doesn't sound like Evan is just blowing up for the sake of beating his chest, he sounds like he has an honest gripe, and maybe this 3rd party got sold his goods, if anything maybe by a miscommunication somewhere in this triangle of people, I dunno. So hopefully this can end peacefully, and maybe someone can admit a small mistake or timing error, whatever, and there doesn't need to be hard feelings on either side.
This is all common sense, and as adults, no need for censorship I think. When a thread boils over with lots of various opinions from the peanut gallery, the Mods should be able to easily "moderate", hand out verbal warnings about insults, keep drama to a minimum, etc. We've been VERY successful on CRN, and our board is considered one of the favorites of all local forums. We have many scores of members that have been onboard for a decade. Treat your members like adults, but expect respect and adult behavior in return. 99% of the time it works fine, while still allowing adequate feedback on shop/customer experiences and not stifling the community's feedback.
(Also, please do not quote this entire giant post, quote pertinant parts if you wish. Thanks)
I agree with Evan concerning not allowing other posts, that's a little concerning. For the last ten years as a side hobby, I own and run the biggest car & racing web forum in Colorado. I am the main Admin & Mod with a dozen or so forum Mods that I oversee. Over the years we have dealt with literally hundreds of online drama incidents in the car scene, of various degrees of negativity. Even streetracing crap-talking threads escalating to people "meeting up" to settle the score, it's not pretty nor fun. Therefore, my board has been strongly moderated to combat these types of situations.
Same with shop sponsors and various disgruntled and satisfied customers, we got 'em all, all types of people, all types of problems, from dragrace grunge matches, prematurely blown engines, incorrectly built heads, police incidents, lost parts orders, builds taking forever, shops not communicating enough, dyno arguments about correction factors and horsepower, etc., etc. In my experience, doing this level of censorship makes the Mods' life easier for sure, but to the detriment of free speech.
I've found the happy medium is strongly moderating the thread, keeping an eye on it throughout the day, everyday. If people post anything that isn't personal experience with the complaintant, or the shop, then they are asked to refrain from objective bashing. Keep posts allowed though so people can voice opinions with facts stated at hand, instead of heresay. Anything that is objective opinion or not substantiated, we must let the user community use their best judgement to filter those things and take everything with a grain of salt, with the possibility that it may or may not be factual.
I think we're all adults on this board, that I've seen so far, so this would not be hard to do, and you won't have a complaint/review thread with only two people in it, which really goes nowhere because they could just as well "take it to PM's". It's healthy to have people speak up about their good experiences and bad to add to the history of the parties involved.
I have no dog in this fight, since I've done business with BOTH parties, two times each. Both times were completely positive experiences, with no b.s., no issue, excellent and rapid communication, no shadyness, etc.
If I may state my opinion even though I'm not involved directly with THIS complaint, I would continue to do business with both Evan & Nick. NOT TAKING SIDES, and I'm not accusing Nick of anything, In the future I would just maybe be careful to communicate EXACTLY the stipulations of a pending transaction, payment info IN DETAIL, including times, availability, etc. if it was a concern to me, or a high-dollar item (like those Designer Clowns) especially. If a verbal deal was made for certain, then maybe something slipped through the cracks, maybe a 3rd party was forgotten about or one or more parties was not concrete with their wishes or timing, etc. Who knows? It doesn't sound like Evan is just blowing up for the sake of beating his chest, he sounds like he has an honest gripe, and maybe this 3rd party got sold his goods, if anything maybe by a miscommunication somewhere in this triangle of people, I dunno. So hopefully this can end peacefully, and maybe someone can admit a small mistake or timing error, whatever, and there doesn't need to be hard feelings on either side.
This is all common sense, and as adults, no need for censorship I think. When a thread boils over with lots of various opinions from the peanut gallery, the Mods should be able to easily "moderate", hand out verbal warnings about insults, keep drama to a minimum, etc. We've been VERY successful on CRN, and our board is considered one of the favorites of all local forums. We have many scores of members that have been onboard for a decade. Treat your members like adults, but expect respect and adult behavior in return. 99% of the time it works fine, while still allowing adequate feedback on shop/customer experiences and not stifling the community's feedback.
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