Those that have been members on this board know that I have been here for a good while.  I say this first because I am going on my first rant in my long membership.

Those of us that had the pleasure of being members when Kerry frequented this board know that ANY question asked could be answered by him in detail with clearly taken and highlighted  photographs.  His posts were more informational than our Clymer manuals are most of the time.

RG and Davipu would offer insightful comments to noobs no matter how often the questions were asked.  GSJack was the tire guru, and he would offer help to anyone that asked.

You know, I don't care about some inconsiderate moron's mechanical engineering mathematical equations.  What I want to hear are real-world time tested facts.  I'd happily take GSJack's experienced opinions than some smart-alecs statistics.  I guess that doesn't matter now though, does it?

You know, the best warning for people that are inherently offensive (ajgs, sledge, etc.) is to ban them...permanently.  The inaction of people of authority during these situations is the exact reason for the escalation. 

GSJack was an elderly man with more years experience with motorcycles than sledge probably has lived.  Know when to sit down, shut up, and be respectful.  For any other new members, be sure to know the members of a board and how much knowledge and experience they have before you begin your flaming ignorance!

How many founts of information and helpfulness must we lose before we collectively say enough is enough? 

GSJack, Kerry, Davipu, RG...if you still follow this board, know that the silent majority of this board really appreciates your insight and care.  You are missed, and always encouraged to return!

Drop the hammer!!!

Quote from: oramac on February 14, 2006, 05:53:11 PMknow that the silent majority of this board really appreciates your insight and care.

And the not-so-silent do too...

Everyone knows I have no worthwhile advice...  But, I support those that do... 



My current avatar says everything about some of the things and people going on and off around here.

I believe Pablo and Scratch have peen pushed too far once too often.  They will be taking a much harsher stance.  They have decided and I will not stand in the way.

They can't be here every minute.  If something seems wrong or inappropriate then send them a PM.

I miss those guys . We even used Kerry's valve adjusting kit on my GS a while back, about a year ago. Good times. Somewhere around here I have pics of my Gs with a GSXR tail mocked up (never worked out though). Lots of new subframe insight with that experience, and many questions asked by myself and answered by others.

thank you. well said. gsjack i think has been riding longer than ive been living. plus he was/is the go to guy as far as tires go. if you had a tire question, you'd post it, and i can almost guarantee you, that gsjack would be one of the first to respond. kerry, no matter how you might offend him was more than willing to answer your mech related questions, and usually provide step by step pics to go by, that was very helpful  when i resurrected my first gs, jaCK AND KERRY P L E A S E  C O M E B A C K. PLUS WHATEVER WHOEVER DID TO OFFEND pablo STOP. as long as ive been on here, ive never seen him get pissed like that cmon all, we cant lose any more of these folks

I feel pretty strongly about this for personal reasons even though this could bring the ban hammer on me. 

Not only do I miss those guys, but I totally respected their opinion.

I kind of identified GSJack as a father/grandfather figure for one reason: because he reminded me of my dad.  My dad isn't an engineer but he has been building houses for 35 years.  I'd trust his opinion any day (he helps me out so much) over somebody that has logged a few more hours in the class room.  Big deal.  I say bring back the "oily rag", as sledge has termed it.  We need more oily rags around here! 

I think we have a lack of moderation.  At the top it says the moderators are (Moderators: Kerry, scratch, seshadri_srinath), now i know that RG was, and pablo is, but with RG gone, and Kerry and Srinath on hiatis that only leaves scratch and pablo.  Kerry became somewhat unfavorable at times with his sending threads to the farm but I think that ultimately his decision was the right thing for the board.  And before anyone gets the wrong idea i do not want the job, i can only imagine what a big job it is and how your decisions can make you unpopular.  Nobody wants to be the bad guy in some cases.

stay tuned.

Definitely had my share of crap sent to the farm.
One thing that it regrettably took too long for me to learn:
Arguing with idiots puts you on the same boat as them.

Having had my share of arguments, no matter how right I thought I was just added to the negative nature of the forum. I am definitely sorry for the negative contribution I made in having done so. I think if we just keep the friendliness up and ignore whatever is causing the negativity, we'll stay a nice tight-knit community on GStwin. If I disagree with Ed, Wilson, JoeRocker or whomever else I've had spats with, then arguing with them only perpetuates it. I'm all for keeping this a nice place to be

Also, another thing is- I regret seeing those guys gone. Kerry was definitely the Go-To GS Moderator. If you had a problem with your bike, that dude had the answer for you. I don't even own a GS any more, but I stuck around because there were good people to talk to. I barely post these days, because there is so much post-whorage and argument crap that I didn't want to be a part of.

There is going to be a bit more tiffs on this site because it is so close knit.  It is close knit. 

I regret argueing with Joerocker too.  I just didn't know any better, even though John tried to tell us all we were being baited. 

If Kerry came back, I think he'd see some very positive changes.  Hopefully he is lurking and one day will re-join us.  He was awsome.  Remember that thread where somebody wanted to know what kind of water to put in their battery?  Kerry posted a picture of a bottle of distilled water with a red circle around the lable?  Awsome!  That guy will be mised.

GSJack has logged like 180,000 miles on a couple different GS's and did his own maintenance.  That is so much knowledge that we are losing out on. 

OK, rarely do I ever post on topics such as these.  But since I've been a member since only a few months after the board was created I feel like I have to post up.  As you can see I post rarely, but I have used the resources of this board ever since a purchased my GS.  

Seeing the rash of VERY good and knowledgeable people leaving latelty is truely disheartening.  These people were extremely helpfull to new people and incrediably patient and comitted to making this board one of THE best places on the net to get good information about not only the GS but motorcycleing in general.

Obvoiusly the extremely confrontational nature of a few members have driven them off.  With that in mind I have to agree with Oramac.  In a perfect world nobody would ever have to get banned, we we all know thats not the case here.  The moderators of this board are a outstanding group of people, and I can't imagine why people try to push them so hard.  But if they have to be the bad guys, they have my FULL support, even though you won't hear from me your actions will be appreciated.

I think most of us have a pretty good idea of who the few rotten apples are.  If we can look back though the thier posts and see that they are 95% hurtfull or inciting flame wars and really have nothing to do with either the GS or are good natured banter.  Just kick them, maybe a warning PM, but doing it sooner than later will help keep the positive attitude that is usually prevalent around here.  At some point somebody said something to the effect of "This is just a message board on the internet." I beg to differ, this is OUR message board on the internet.  It is what we make of it.

OK... enough of that.  I have motorcycles to think about.

Motor on..

Quote from: CasiCUA on February 15, 2006, 11:12:40 AM
Also, another thing is- I regret seeing those guys gone. Kerry was definitely the Go-To GS Moderator. If you had a problem with your bike, that dude had the answer for you. I don't even own a GS any more, but I stuck around because there were good people to talk to. I barely post these days, because there is so much post-whorage and argument crap that I didn't want to be a part of.

same here.  haven't posted for a while since all i've seen is post whoring.  i tried to mention it but pretty much got ganged up on by the said people.  they know who they are.  sorry to say it but this forum has gone down the toilet for the past year.  it was such an excellent one when i first joined.  hope it goes back to that status some day. 

It can with help.  Pm a mod if you see something offensive.  Not that I'm not watching, but I have to work and sleep sometime.

Quote from: pdg108 on February 15, 2006, 12:40:11 PM

Seeing the rash of VERY good and knowledgeable people leaving latelty is truely disheartening.  These people were extremely helpfull to new people and incrediably patient and comitted to making this board one of THE best places on the net to get good information about not only the GS but motorcycleing in general.

....I agree mostly....although if they were truely committed, we wouldn't be having this conversation....perhaps they have been committed ?...

Quote from: pdg108 on February 15, 2006, 12:40:11 PM

Obvoiusly the extremely confrontational nature of a few members have driven them off.  With that in mind I have to agree with Oramac.  In a perfect world nobody would ever have to get banned, we we all know thats not the case here.  The moderators of this board are a outstanding group of people, and I can't imagine why people try to push them so hard.  But if they have to be the bad guys, they have my FULL support, even though you won't hear from me your actions will be appreciated.

....but here I disagree....most of us have lasted through the myriad of posts from JoeR and his gang....those were much more full of hatred and ignorance....I don't blame their leaving on anyone here's attitudes.....perhaps some could use a bit of netiquette education....but don't blame them for others leaving....

...They left of their own choice....they are adults....as moderators and members of the site leadership they should be MORE capable of ignoring any "confrontational" posts and handle themselves as professionals...I expect more tolerance from the mods/admins then from other members...if they can't hack it....well we've seen what happens....



ok....now....I'm not saying they were bad people.....or that they should be gone....or won't be missed....but simply...."there's no point crying over spilled milk".....we will get along just fine in there absences....

...lastly....I'd like to offer a pat on the back to scratch, John, Srin, and Pantablo for not quitting simply because they took issue with someone's post or ideas....I've differed on opinion with some of them from time to time....and lost my cool here once or twice...but I've never felt unwanted afterwards....so thanx guys....

The greatest effort any of us could make to put an end to this current slump is to stop creating threads aimed simply at complaining about the forum, it's current state of health or the people who provide it to us at no charge.

Quote from: makenzie71 on February 15, 2006, 02:38:03 PM
The greatest effort any of us could make to put an end to this current slump is to stop creating threads aimed simply at complaining about the forum, it's current state of health or the people who provide it to us at no charge.

Eh I don't mind them.  I don't have a lot of time either so I miss some of them.

Now, Everybody here has said something inflamatory from time to time.  I have, YOU HAVE, we all have.  But most of us do it in good humor most of the time.  The few who don't ever let go and fight endlessly are causing the most friction.  Those people need to seriously chill or they're gone.

Keep in mind, and those that have been here for a long time will know this, I have been a big proponent of "hands off" the mebers.  I never banned anybody till recently (other than spemmers).  I always felt the members had a right to say what they felt they had to as long as it wasn't threatening or pornographic.  This has changed.

I fought like hell to keep from having an open forum on this board.  My fear was not post whoring, but an addition of non rider post whores who would A) clog up the forum  B)suck up huge bandwidth C) change the friendly atmosphere.  Well guess what, everybody got their wish for the odds&ends forum and look what happened a couple years later.  The geenie can't be put back in the bottle, but we're going to start enforcing some standards of decency and civility.  We need to steer this forum towards friendlier waters.

We really need another dependable moderator who will be able to make the tough decisions and keep people straight.  If somebody comes to mind let me know.  Not overbearing, but can be firm yet fair.

Maybe somebody should do a poll for a new moderator.

Quote from: john on February 15, 2006, 04:38:43 PM
Now, Everybody here has said something inflamatory from time to time.  I have, YOU HAVE, we all have.  But most of us do it in good humor most of the time.  The few who don't ever let go and fight endlessly are causing the most friction.  Those people need to seriously chill or they're gone.

I've kept silent on this issue because alot of you are going to think I'm one sided. I'm not. I try to stay out of fights and I try to walk away from them (aside from a few drunken incidents) I completely agree that people need to cool it. Heck I took the time to get to know Wilson, and he's a decent guy. I think alot of the issues come from people looking at this forum as 1)A place to socialize and make friends not necessarily as a simplistic exchange of information and 2)As family  with all of the annoying ups and downs of a family except people here don't have to put up with you and accept you for who you are.

Quote from: john on February 15, 2006, 04:38:43 PM
Maybe somebody should do a poll for a new moderator.

I completely agree John

I've been posting a lot on online forums for almost 5 years now... tens of thousands of posts over the years on several large forums.

This forum is not unlike most othe smaller forums i've posted on - everyone is super friendly and helpful. As forums get more new users there's always people who want to crack questionable jokes or want to pick fights with other people. Good moderation is the key - many moderators so the threads are always being evaluated. It doesn't have to be a bunch of hardasses saying "you're an @$$hole, leave the forum, you're banned now" - becuase that just pisses people off and ultimately leads to a bunch of angry people spamming the hell out of your boards, and the admin has a lengthy clean up job to do (this will happen for sure if you constantly ban people for being annoying).

I would suggest more moderators and better forum seggregation (split up the general GS talk forum into bike questions and one strictly for posting pictures of your bikes). More moderators would ensure that threads are always being looked at and the users are being pointed in the right direction for the information. The classic example is "how do i do xyz" and then everyone responds "search" "search" "search"... the newbie doesn't really realize that there's a huge wealth of information here. Its up to moderators to say "hello newbie, luckly for you we have organized many of the common questions, please see the sticky FAQ above" The forum has great information, but if its all scattered though tens of thousands of posts you have to search through and decide for yourself what your options are.


As for moderation, as suggested above, i would not go with the route of staight out banning people - a more useful style is to have the moderators issue warnings and then take a course of action. Remove the user's threadposting abilities for a peroid, etc. The moderators should also have their own forum where they can talk amongst themselves and report when they've taken action against a user.

Those are my two cents

well i am here watching threads too.. while i stay quiet and not get into agruments, i do read most of the threads.. i come in 2 times a day atleast, most times i am not logged in.. since i am surfing in from school..

I agree, teh moderators (me included) need to start being more proactive, but as users you guys need to restrain yourself too.. we cant be doing it alone, after all we got lives too.