All I have here is an opinion and a repeat of an earlier suggestion.. The banter and the serious tech elements of the forum are equally essential to the health of the forum. The forum dies without both of them being in place. This isn't because everybody wants both, no. It is because some posters want the banter whilst others want the tech (plus a few can manage both). If we can manage to keep the majority of banter off of the tech threads, whilst encouraging it on the off-topic sub-forums, we can probably cater to most people. The tiny minority of posters who just want to pick fights and mess things up can be catered to as well, that's what mods and admins do. This really only works though if people stick to rules of etiquette. Tech in the tech threads, banter elsewhere. I know the temptation is strong to fire off a zinger in a tech thread - I fall foul of that even though I try not to - but if the health of the forum is at stake, I know I can do a better job of keeping my house in order. This post doesn't address "moderator heavy-handedness" or whether a given ban was justified. I am not telling anyone to "follow the official line". This is really only an observation of human nature, that some folk come here for the tech and some for the banter. To cater for both, we need to follow an etiquette. By doing so, the moderators, who are mainly only human and are doing the job for free, will have less work to do and h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶o̶p̶p̶o̶r̶t̶u̶n̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶e̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶u̶p̶ not make normal human errors of judgement. If we had more moderators, or the ones we had weren't working full time on day jobs, a less blunt approach to moderation might be possible. We don't though, so we see the hit-hard-with-little-subtlety method. If we self-moderate better, we'll see less of that. TL/DR Tech in the Tech threads, banter in the banter threads.
I have been here since the start and have been more involved in the technical side, we do seem to have lost some very good contributors over the last couple of years and i can only think of a couple that were confrontational the others were helpful and informative, i know the current format suits the majority on here and although i am on the forum every day I find myself posting less and less and even avoiding answering technical questions. I avoid confrontation at all costs, I can get enough of that at work. Steve
Ah, but without a proper explanation ... it just sounds like a rule, and many of us ride Ducatis precisely because we don't want to follow the rules.
Good to see you now confirm to this but on a serious note, can the tech threads be taken out of the recent posts, or have a recent tech post tab. It's the recent posts tab that can take you into tech trouble ;-) How's the cerb climbing going by they way
Hmmm, so where does that leave us? I'm always drawn to the tech questions and answers, so it's a huge shame for me if people like you are posting less. Where is the confrontation you are avoiding? Is it from 'trolls' or where?
poacher turned game keeper? :Angelic::smileys:. not seeing any agro. been another fall out somewhere?
I've seen, and heard from posters who have experienced it, where a discussion of a technical solution to a technical problem turns into a bun fight/pissing contest. It has happened. Some posters are put off by this and then post less as a result. This is quite different from the "banter issue". Aggressive posters need to keep it civil, others need to grow a thicker skin ... I have no idea what the answer is. Moderators enforcing the forum rules, I suspect.
