Every other thread contains "4x4's are bad."

Jun 27, 2005
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I found this forum a few weeks ago when I was looking for information caravan bathroom fittings.

But all I see now is "4x4's are bad!", all over.

Many people seem to complain about them, but all I see from the Moderators are inflammatory comments, fueling the fire and abuse.

I am going to unregister from this forum and not come back, as I am annoyed with these posts - from either side of the fence - and disgusted with the moderation.

I must say that this does put me off buying Practical Caravan as well, as the quality of these forums reflects on the brand as a whole.

Darren.
 
Mar 16, 2005
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I have to agree that the quality of moderation on this forum leaves a lot to be desired but there again so do many of the posts. There is also something technically wrong when someone else can pose as a moderator as we have seen tonight.Unless there is a substantial improvement, I can see the entire forum closing as PC will not want the resulting bad publicity. This would be a major loss to many caravanners in UK who benefit from the many sensible constructive posts.

I have one or two suggestion.

1. Immediately close the Chit Chat area, this is too general and by it's nature will attract irrelevant posts. It also sends out the wrong signals as to what may or may not be acceptable. I enjoy a joke as much as anyone but a forum needs to be kept strictly on track if it is going to work.

2. The moderator should have the facility to immediately close a thread that is inappropriate or has been "hijacked" and the debate become irrational. I do not mean delete the entire thread, although certain posts may be be necessarily deleted, I just mean closed with no other postings possible - the message will soon sink in to those resposible.

I have seen this work to great effect in other forums, P C Advisor being an excellent example of a well moderated and controlled forum.

Sadly, it is a fact that the way things are slipping here since the revised forum was launched unless it is pulled back into line, there is a danger that many more will leave.

A moderator's job is never easy and indeed thankless but a firm hand is required here before the situation gets out of hand.
 
Apr 19, 2005
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I have to agree totally about people swaying from the original postings concerned. I posted recently about speeding caravans on campsites, the first few replies were sensible then people totally deviated fron the original statement and it became a forum for a few memebers who just exchanged childish banter with each other totatally irrelevant to the original post. I used to go on a another cararavan forum and exactly the same thing was happening, I no longer visit that site.
 
Mar 16, 2005
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I agree.

It's where to draw the line.

Would you advocate banning everyone who exchanges some lighthearted banter?

How do you measure how far someone should go?
 
Mar 16, 2005
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I'm imformed by the techies that a registered user first changed his nickname to Moderator and made several posts, and then later to Andy. When you change your nickname, it shows up on all previous posts as well as future ones.

The user in question has now been barred.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hi I agree that the quality of this forum has taken a nose dive in the past couple of months due to wind up merchants and people using aliases to try to cover their traks the method to get rid of these stupid people is to not bite when they dangle the bait,we all know who it is. and the thing they don't like is being ignored The things they thrive on is seeing how many people they can wind up by knocking 4x4 and BMW drivers and threads of this nature , "just blank them" .Ron C
 
Mar 14, 2005
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I am a subscriber to PC. However, I do not feel inclind to subscribe to something that allows something like this, the forum, to degenerate into a haven of smut and innuendo. Please do not get me wrong, I am no prude, but when there are seious topics being debated and then to have it totally changed by those who treat this site with disdane AND it continues, then those responsible for the administration of this site must take the consequences.

I will place an open letter that I will be sending to the editor and publisher of PC (wonder if that will be pulled).

Interestingly, one topic not too long ago was who buys PC - and the overwhelming response was that users of this site do not - strange loyalty to those who do, by refusing to police this site.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Paul - the frustation has been the "engine" not the will of the Moderator - who I have found to be trying to do a good job.

I was surprized to learn that the moderator is not a PCV employee.

The techies seem unable to provide the tools for effective control of unruly elements.

I hardly think we can blame the Moderator or PC for the actions of a few.

But I would agree that the Forum with its current flaws is open to abuse.

We now have to "police" it ourselves - it would be a shame if the majority let the minority "win"

Please stick with it and make a positive contribution.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Clive, whilst being one of those who looked forward to a 'free' forum it would seem that the moderated forum, i.e. where you submit something and await the moderators decision on whether it should be shown, seems to have failed and that people, in general, cannot be trusted to be responsible. In any society you need rules and those rules do not work unless policed. From my viewpoint I have witnessed contributors who will turn serious discussion into sexual innuendo, criticising whoever they can, downright bigotry etc. The rules require those who commit this to be barred and perhaps the moderator to publish the 'tag' of those who have been barred to make others think.

My understanding is that this forum is controlled by the publishing company of which PC is one of the publications and those responsible for PC need to impress on the publishers that action needs to be taken - or are they happy with this situation?

As for policing it ourselves - how? We can do nothing apart from make our voices heard or, as I am proposing, to withdraw finance from the company.

I am loathe to leave this forum, or what this forum once was. Clive I will heed your plea and write an open letter to the editor of PC asking pertinent questions as to what PC is doing about it, or is PC happy with the situation. On the basis of any reply, I will make my decision. Naturally, a non-reply can only mean one thing.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Paul - I agree with all that you say. Only differing in the single point that from where I stand I feel the Moderator has done his/her best with a fairly poor system. A system that has allowed the abuse.

I vividly remember the confusion when one of the idiots impersonated others, including me and of course the Moderator. The three main offenders actually posted that this was "cool!" Obviously, to their schoolboy minds this was "wizard wheeze" as they could now make it look as though others were saying outrageous things not just themselves.

As far as I am aware, the real Moderator has NEVER expressed an opinion (on 4x4's or anything else)- therefore what you saw was a post impersonating the Moderator - which I think someone else confirmed by doing a search.

This Forum would work well if only those of a mature mind, able to have an adult debate and able to agree to differ where appropriate, just used it as they always have. Now, because of the sillyness of a few there is a need to revamp the Forum to stop the hijacking and impersonation.

I do not think you can blame PC or the Moderator for their initial belief that they were dealing entirely with sane normal indiviuduals.

If you, I and all the other "sane" individuals walk away then the Forum WILL become an idiots circus. And that would be a shame.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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How on earth can we police this forum as users...this is not a solution. I tried to do this a while back after receiving abuse from a particular individual. I did get rather angry at his comments which meant I did tell them where to go (using a few regretable choice words). But this is how much I was wound up by the goings on at the time. I then tried to get the individual barred and was put down by a huge amount of members on the forum. Again looking back I can understand why I got the objections, However what is interesting to me is the latest goings on and amount of people who have been barred recently etc etc. It has only calmed down now that the moderator has stepped in and tried to do something about the situation that was developing. How are we supposed to take such actions? Clearly if we try to diffuse a situation with comments, this has no effect and only adds fuel to the fire (just look at all the open complaints on line) none of them worked, the problem people persisted to be problem people untill the point that drastic measure were take...
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Paul & Ruth - I must admit that I too have been sorely tried by certain individuals - so much so that I have come so close to "letting rip" with a few choice words of late!!

I think it is fair to say that I certainly can empathise far more with the situation you had thrust upon you by a certain individual. I say this because I was highly critical of your use of Anglo Saxon!!

As for policing the Forum ourselves - I have no idea how this will work - but it does seem to be better of late.

I do believe the techies need to update the Forum drastically as sadly it was designed for mature adults to use, not the childish individuals you and I have bounced up against in the past.

It would seem that a thread cannot be locked. This is a shame because as in all conversations a subject is raised, discussed, dismissed and a new topic emerges.

It should be possible for new threads to evolve from existing ones rather than the existing ones simply chugging on drifting further and further from the original topic.

Without this facility, doing a search is virtually impossible.

I hope that things change - but it is a shame that we even have to consider this. Still it has its compensations - only today a lady I have never met before has called me boorish and accussed me of berating people on another thread.

Some people would pay good money for that sort of service!!

Laugh!! What else can you do?
 
Mar 14, 2005
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CliveV

Thanks for your message and, having looked around the site again and seen that the Moderator has started to take action that hopefully things will improve.

I subscribe to another forum (not about caravans) and someone criticised someones spelling - and that was not tolerated by othet users. It was good to see maturity.

So let's see how things go.

Mr Moderator, you will be accused by some of being the villain by deleting items - but please bring some sanity back.

The other option is to 'invade' the Practical Motorhome forum as that is still moderated - i.e. postings have to go via the moderator first.
 

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