My personal tuppenceworth and not that of an admin. Timelines of matters of fact may be out of kilter, but the gist is there.
Society in general has changed such that even the quietest of minorities can and do make themselves heard to the extent that the greater good of society changes to accomodate their thoughts and wishes.
OOF originally was a WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get - forum with little or no moderation, simply because none was required. It was about Omegas, how to repair them cheaply and not pay full dealer or garage prices. Such was the ability to share such information via howtoo's and clever folks keen to be online and impart information, freely and at no cost, the forum grew.
There was a demand for an area where anything could be discussed, hence the gendiss area. Again, common sense prevailed and the assorted adults (note 'adults') were able to have a laugh and share jokes and banter at The Nags Head. Look back the old threads and see whats meant.
There were a few very good meets, including a tour round Drax power station courtesy of member miked, and the cameraderie simply grew thereafter.
The Omega got older and less mainstream and its availability to those of us with lesser means became more and more. The forum started to reflect that.
What was initially a relatively small group of enthusiasts quickly became a larger mass of folks wanting to run large expensive, well specced cars on the cheap. With that came a degree of political correctness and some upsets and tears at some of the good natured banter and repartee.
The well learned maxim that religion and politics should not be discussed in a pub with friends was quickly forgotten and such things soon became common place.
As the years continued to turn, so did the mindset of the membership, in my opinion. Gone was the happy understanding that jokes and banter were that and umbrage was taken by some, thus the 'alert mod' option was introduced and with that, came what can be perceived as moderator intervention overload.
As I said earlier elsewhere, we reap what we sow.
If you take the huff about something without having some consideration for others folks standpoint - be that PC or very non PC - and simply 'tell teacher', what do you expect to be the outcome?
OOF is publicly accountable on so many various levels, be that technical, copywrite or some of the PC guff as I outlined, so you have to get what you asked for, within reason.
As said, my tuppenceworth as OOFer and not an admin. Those who have met me in person know that I call a spade a spade and can cuss and blind with the best of them but those that simply launch large on the forum and do not take the very small step to make a meet to show themselves face to face? Ach well, we all need keyboard warriors, I suppose.
If this is a rant, well, I suppose thats now /end rant...
Thanks for reading thus far....
B
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Topic: Is it me or has the Forum Changed?? (Read 13876 times)