Z4 cars for sale section and new sign-ups. Poll.

Poll Poll Should a member be allowed to post a Z4 for sale?

  • Yes. It's a free Country

    Votes: 10 34.5%

  • No. Not as a new sign up and first post

    Votes: 2 6.9%

  • Yes if they signed up some time ago but haven't posted

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Yes but only if they have introduced themselves in the new member section

    Votes: 2 6.9%

  • Yes but only if they have a minimum number of other posts

    Votes: 15 51.7%
  • Total voters
    29
In some forums, as a new member you can't access the full site specially the "for sale" section unless you made a certain number of post.
 
What I’d favour

Allow established members to sell, but not a brand new member whose first contribution is a sales advert.

I’d make the rule something like:

Account must be at least 30 days old
Member must have introduced themselves
Then they’re allowed to advertise a Z4.
 
GenZed said:
In some forums, as a new member you can't access the full site specially the "for sale" section unless you made a certain number of post.
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I have joined many car forums over the last 25 years or so. Too many to remember TBH. Lots of them had different 'rules' about for sale ads and everything else. Almost every one with heavily moderated rules are now dead, or just 2 old farts talking to each other about the 'good old days'.

All migrated to facebook pages, millions of them, where there are no rules but seem to just be constant arguing and bad feeling.

This is one of the last (from what I have seen) proper old school forums which is still busy and popular. There must be a good reason for this. I have my own ideas why, but they may not be correct.
 
jasecasecarr said:
What I’d favour

Allow established members to sell, but not a brand new member whose first contribution is a sales advert.

I’d make the rule something like:

Account must be at least 30 days old
Member must have introduced themselves
Then they’re allowed to advertise a Z4.
Click to expand...
That seems sensible to me. I would be interested to hear what Jim @sp3ctre thinks about all this. Seeing as he owns the site.
 
The main issue with me is the accuracy and tone of the advert. Don't come on a specialist site and try to bullshit, or worse deceive a pretty knowledgeable group.

Someone could appear, post a 100% accurate advert and it's exactly what someone already here is looking for. The caveat for the purchaser is they are buying on the forum from someone with no known history on the forum. So its not really a "forum car" That IMO isn't going to change if they've been a member for 30 days.

The minimum post thing can just lead to new members "spamming" threads just to get their count up.

One way round it could be if you've not been a member for xx days/months a flat fee of say £10/15/20 is payable going towards the running of the site.

This might involve a Mod screening car adverts before they are made live.

I don't know how feasible or time consuming that would be but if it was made clear in advance something like an advert may take up to 3 days to go live.

What I would be against is a total ban of some description on new members posting as it might deprive someone already on here of exactly what they're looking for.
 
Pondy said:
I have joined many car forums over the last 25 years or so. Too many to remember TBH. Lots of them had different 'rules' about for sale ads and everything else. Almost every one with heavily moderated rules are now dead, or just 2 old farts talking to each other about the 'good old days'.

All migrated to facebook pages, millions of them, where there are no rules but seem to just be constant arguing and bad feeling.

This is one of the last (from what I have seen) proper old school forums which is still busy and popular. There must be a good reason for this. I have my own ideas why, but they may not be correct.
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I've been around forums since the early days of the internet both creating and partaking (used to work for a newspaper group) and I'd agree - too many rules generally cause more issues than they solve. In my experience, the communities can become clique's which then puts off new people from engaging (plenty will continue to join, fewer will feel comfortable posting and the spiral is difficult to pull out of) so I think openness, sensible feedback and basically talk to people how you would in the pub is the best guideline.

Often it's the stronger personalities that can kill a forum as they disproportionately distort the 'feel' of the place. It's a fine line between Troll and Serious Contributor but sometimes they just need reigning in (one to one rather than publicly) as it creates its own dynamic (i.e. in-fighting spirals). I see way too many times where a few select members just get into childish battles and it just stops new people engaging and the forum dies a slow death.

The VX220 forum was one of the best I've come across but had some technical issues and has now turned into the 'two old blokes talking about the old days' - it was THE place for VX owners back in the day. But the knowledge on there (on old threads) is incredible. Such a shame. I've indexed the info and passed it into AI so it's got less chance of being lost forever once the owner doesn't pay the £50 hosting fee...

Personally can't stand Facebook for this type of community. Too many groups, duplicate, thin posts, transient content, no consolidated knowledge base, etc - just does a different job to a forum for me.

FWIW, I quite like it here - seems fine to me. Everyone is friendly, plenty of comments, etc - I said 'hi' when I joined and got some friendly responses - a very good thing in my view. I'm not in all of the threads or areas but from what I see, no major problems so perhaps ride things out for a while and see if it settles? Personally don't see an issue with a dealer advertising a car - if it's a Z4 - someone on here might be interested. If they're posting Bitcoin BS then yep, get rid but if it's relevant and adds value, why not let them post? Let's not get too precious eh :)

Perhaps ask Dealers to mark the advert as such or the community members reply saying something like "for info, this isn't likely a forum members car" just for those newbies as Argyll Andy said. TBH, whenever I've seen a forum members car for sale there tends to be follow-up posts from other members anyway so as a new member, it was clear to me whether it was a dealer or not.
 
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I haven’t voted as I really don’t see the point. What really annoys me is the constant destruction from a few members regarding for sale threads. It seems that one will comment negatively then another will come along and do the same and the seller will respond then it’s backwards and forwards page after page until the thread gets deleted.
At times it feels like bullying to me which is wrong. When new members join they don’t know that they should introduce themselves or whether certain people on here have a problem that their first post is to sell a car, so what if it is. As I’ve said before it could be a car that could benefit a forum member. I have been on here a long time and have lots of Forum friends that I have met up with but the way some act on here wouldn’t be done face to face. I was at Zedfest yesterday which I’ve done for about 8 years now and it was a great event once again and I spoke to lots of lovely people and that is the way it should be.
 
I’m in agreement with the above sentiment. A good car may make its way to the forum via a first time poster. The quality of their ad is the only thing that should be commented on constructively- asking for more info, insisting on a price, pointing out things they may not know or have forgotten about their car etc. The only time a new member should face ‘hostility’ is if they are deliberately dishonest.
 
I have absolutely no objection if someones first post is a for sale one, however, two things. If it is for an actual road worthy Z4 then a contribution to the forum should be mandatory, even if it's their first post or their ten thousandths (but not for spare parts). There should also be a warning that for sale posts may be derided if the advert does not meet a certain standard, which is laid out in the guides.
 
sars said:
I have absolutely no objection if someones first post is a for sale one, however, two things. If it is for an actual road worthy Z4 then a contribution to the forum should be mandatory, even if it's their first post or their ten thousandths (but not for spare parts). There should also be a warning that for sale posts may be derided if the advert does not meet a certain standard, which is laid out in the guides.
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To be honest, and I'm saying this is a very nice way, that's the kinda stuff I mean about too many rules. It just puts people off. I don't think it's so bad that anything major needs doing. Just my 2p :) I'm not sure anything drastic needs to happen here - first thing I did when seeing a For Sale post was look at the users post count to see if was a proper forum members car or part.

As a newbie, just sharing my experience, that's all. Feel free to disregard.
 
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