I'd like to repeat what I said in my initial post:
"I understand that this (off-topic posts) sometimes is a gray area and I try not to be hard-nose about it."
Informing the forum that a fellow member is ill, had an accident or his/her area was hit by a tornado and other similar things would never be deleted as "off-topic". In that regard, there is no desire to "stifle" the sense of "Studebaker community".
I agree that the percentage of OT posts is low right now. However, I stand by my assessment that the number is growing. So, do I wait until it becomes a real problem or do I issue a friendly reminder that this is a specific focused forum?
Off-topic discussions that get us into trouble are those like the recent posting about a Nash Metropolitan. Relatively harmless until a reply used an ethnic reference. It was subsequently deleted but things like that do not cast the SDC in a favorable light IMHO. I am not singling this one or its authors out but offer it merely as one of many such examples over my tenure as webmaster.
In a perfect world, this forum community would be 100% self-regulating and all off-topic posts would reside within some gray area of acceptance. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that once the reigns on off-topic discussions are loosened too much, the forum gravitates more and more off-topic until it is dominate. I believe we all want to avoid that.
I'll close by again repeating...
"I understand that this (off-topic posts) sometimes is a gray area and I try not to be hard-nose about it."
BShaw,Webmaster
60 Hawk. 49 2R5, 39 Champion
Woodbury, Minnesota
"I understand that this (off-topic posts) sometimes is a gray area and I try not to be hard-nose about it."
Informing the forum that a fellow member is ill, had an accident or his/her area was hit by a tornado and other similar things would never be deleted as "off-topic". In that regard, there is no desire to "stifle" the sense of "Studebaker community".
I agree that the percentage of OT posts is low right now. However, I stand by my assessment that the number is growing. So, do I wait until it becomes a real problem or do I issue a friendly reminder that this is a specific focused forum?
Off-topic discussions that get us into trouble are those like the recent posting about a Nash Metropolitan. Relatively harmless until a reply used an ethnic reference. It was subsequently deleted but things like that do not cast the SDC in a favorable light IMHO. I am not singling this one or its authors out but offer it merely as one of many such examples over my tenure as webmaster.
In a perfect world, this forum community would be 100% self-regulating and all off-topic posts would reside within some gray area of acceptance. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that once the reigns on off-topic discussions are loosened too much, the forum gravitates more and more off-topic until it is dominate. I believe we all want to avoid that.
I'll close by again repeating...
"I understand that this (off-topic posts) sometimes is a gray area and I try not to be hard-nose about it."
BShaw,Webmaster
60 Hawk. 49 2R5, 39 Champion
Woodbury, Minnesota
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