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The rules. Sorry - it's a long one!

pauljmcnulty

pauljmcnulty

Active member
I've been asked to post this, so please don't shoot the messenger! There are a good few people on this forum who earn either full or part time income from our cars. This is not aimed at the members who have the odd item for sale, please keep the garage clearances coming!

I'm being attacked from both sides. Some traders who have never used this site for promoting their business see it as unfair that others are pushing the boundaries. The other extreme comes from traders who are having to be modified repeatedly, which to my mind makes the forum a less pleasant place to be.

Guys, and you know who you are [;)], I've copied the forum rules below.


4: Advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, SPAM, virus warnings and solicitations are not permitted.
Please do not post announcements about your company's products or services, or otherwise use the PCGB
forums to bring attention to your product or service. Personal for sale postings are acceptable as long as they are
an individual member/owner selling his/her personal car or accessories.
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Firstly, I would personally hate to lose the input from anyone on this forum. Please consider this a clarification of the rules we all have to abide by, in the hope that the most active of the Club forums does not descend into a mess of deleted posts.

Secondly, if you've been repeatedly warned that your posts are not within the rules of this forum, please don't take it out on the moderators. Keep within the rules - they're not complicated - and we can all enjoy what is, for many of us, the most valuable area of the Club.

Lastly, if any of you think that the forum should be run differently, please let us know! There is often precious little feedback from people until they are really hacked off....this is your club, and your forum, and I, at least, am quite happy to be told that I'm steering things in the wrong direction.

So. Can we have no more price lists on the forum without losing the valuable input from you guys?

Thanks,



 
It's good that the forum is run this way. Although personally I've never actually noticed any advertising, but maybe that's because you've moderated them before I saw them.[;)]
 
How would one consider messages such as "contact me privately" ?
Is the author of such message a relatively disinterested enthusiast merely intending to get rid of sitting parts taking too much of his storage space or an established reseller logically using new means of communication to efficiently run their business and go through the anti promoting rules ?
 
Is this directed at me? :eek:(

I think I may have been modded twice (didnt gain any bhp from the mods - lol) [:D]

If its me, then please accept my appologies... not meaning to break rules [:)]

If its not me... then please feel free to ban them immediately without another moments thought! [;)]
 
Being serious for a moment...

If I get modded, I know I have over stepped the mark... So be assured I have learned from the experience and it should not happen again.

I try to keep all messages in here as answering quesitons... if one of the answers is seen as a conflict with the rules, feel free to mod me, I will try to make sure I stay within the rules..

And as I said before... if its not me thats the problem... feel free to ban the little bugglers! lol
 
tricky especially as it probably refers to the thread where we were discussing value (or not ;) ) , to be fair I thought the person involved didn't do too badly in the circumstances, it must be difficult and it would be a shame if they gave up completely.
Tony
 
As has been mentioned before I hugely value the input from all the specialists who contribute to this forum and have learned a hell of alot from them in a pretty short space of time and it is one of the greatest benefits (maybe the only??) benefit to PCGB membership.

Needless to say the best way specialists can sell their products and services is not directly to potential punters but via word of mouth from already established punters who are fully free and able to discuss their experiences on this forum with less constraints. Food for thought. I know whenever I buy any product or experience a particularly good service from any supplier or specialist I will always pass on my happy experiences and recommendations on this forum when appropriate - but I will also share my bad experiences which, thankfully, i've not had too many.
 
Hang on a minute. What's the problem with fellow enthusiasts offering their services and goods?
What harm can it possibly do? If they're rubbish they'll get rooted out, if they're good then we all win.

If i was after any parts and there was someone on here that either supplied or made them parts then i'd like to hear from them, either through word of mouth or ,preferably, directly.
IE "I'm after an exhaust.....", "I make exhausts...."
BRILLIANT!!
I go on a lot of VeeDub sites and there's no such ban imposed on vendors and it's great. But then there was a Hotrod site i used to visit where a very strict ban was enforced and it was crap. Just the odd person selling the odd bit of crap. The VW site has thousands of members, the Hotrod one has a few dozen.
If someone loves their Porsche so much that they've decided to try and make a living out of it then good for them. And we should be backing them, not banning them.

Or am i missing something?
 
Thanks guys, all good points.

Yes, TTM, most of the offending posts are deleted by John, Paul or me as soon as we see them, and it's a very fine line sometimes. It is difficult when people repeatedly push the boundaries!

Yes again to Darren. One of the main purposes of this forum is to point owners to parts, services etc. I guess that, to stick within the rules, no-one with a commercial interest can directly promote their business unless the Administrators change those rules. As such, we moderators HAVE to remove those posts.

I guess that the most satisfactory way of getting around this would be for satisfied customers to recommend a company or product, and if others have a different experience then a debate can be had. If an overwhelming number of members recommend something then that has far more weight than the business owner plugging their own wares!

Jon and Bert, as technical advisors, give up a massive amount of time, and therefore money, answering questions both on the various forums and by telephone. That's hugely appreciated, so not getting at you Jon! Don't push your luck though...[;)]

Hopefully this bit of the Club will now be an oasis of calm in the midst of a raging sea. To mix my metaphors. [&:]


 
As has been mentioned before I hugely value the input from all the specialists who contribute to this forum and have learned a hell of alot from them in a pretty short space of time and it is one of the greatest benefits (maybe the only??) benefit to PCGB membership.
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Scott, you're missing out on a lot if you aren't getting any other benefits from your membership!

Without trying to sound like a sycophantic toady, you should have heard our illustrious Chairman on the subject. During his day on the stand at MPH '06 one member of the public made the mistake of asking him "so, what do you get from membership of the club then?" The list of potential benefits took some time to list, and I suspect that the poor guy joined just to shut David up! [:D]

Seroiusly, if you're not getting enough out of the register or your region, or from the club infrastructure such as magazine, archive, national events, discounts, track days, holidays etc., let us know. One of the real problems I have in running a register is that very few people ever suggest anything!

 
I agree entirely with Scott's comments on the specialists' comments here and that this forum provides a wealth of knowledge which in turn seems to be the main benefit of PCGB membership.
I think the two specialists in question have BOTH provided valuable technical information; one usually stays the right side of the 'commercial line' and the other sometimes strays over it and has obviously been moderated. I think we know which is which!
I wouldn't want either of them to stop contributing (although sometimes I can't understand what the hell they are talking about).
I also think it's a shame 'personal differences' have crept into the posts in the past and these should be equally worthy of moderation as well as commercial posts.
This is a great forum giving friendly help at many levels and long may it continue. I would rather the odd bit of commercialism crept through (and just accept it for what it is) than lose the technical input altogether.
I'll get off my soap box now [:D]
 
Is the author of such message a relatively disinterested enthusiast merely intending to get rid of sitting parts taking too much of his storage space
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We have a separate thread for this circumstance, which seems to have gone quiet for now.
http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=187068

The best promotion any supplier of goods or services can get from this or any other forum is recommendation from satisfied customers, this is usually prompted by posts such as " I need to replace my ........... where is the best place to get one from?"
 
You're right Paul, I didn't mean my 'off the cuff' comment as a direct slurr on the club, its benefits, its membership and those kind enough to dedicate their own free time to make the club run as smoothly and efficiently at is does. I am probably guilty of being lazy and not seeking out and taking full advantage of all the clubs benefits. However it does say something about this forum if I keep paying the full membership fee basically for access to the forum. I will try harder in future!
 
Paul is quite right in his posting.

While we can all debate the merits, or otherwise, of promotion on the forum the rules is the rules and, if we want to continue to enjoy this facility, we have to work within them.

Like many, I am an enthusiastic amateur tinkerer (if it ain't broke, fix it till it is) and gain a great deal from all of the comments on the forum from specialists and amateurs alike. These comments have saved me £££'s in the past - and cost a fair few as well - stop talking about upgrades.

One of the dangers of people promoting themselves as specialists is that, regrettably, they aren't infallible. When one receives comments from "Joe Public" one tends to evaluate their merit and act accordingly. Information from specialists tends to be accepted as gospel and could perhaps be followed to your ultimate detriment. Who is to say that the specialist has understood your analysis of the symptoms correctly or, more likely, do we always give a correct description of the symptoms for them to provide the correct view against. (Please feel free to read between the lines)

Jon has commented above and I have very rarely moderated him (once IIRC). Posts such as "this happens because.....and you could solve it by tightening up a .......and changing a ......." are very helpful and a considerable benefit to all who read it. Posts such as "We can.........." are IMHO outside of the rules of the forum.

As Tony has noted, where we get into a grey area is when someone comments about the merits of a Porsche related service, or product, and the supplier responds to those comments. Personally, I don't have an issue with this, assuming the comments are technical not personal. Public technical debate is advantageous to all - even the supplier. The supplier is, after all, getting the benefit of free pubic opinion and the results of long term component testing - be they good or bad.

The forum would be a boring place if all we could do is discuss how wrong guards red looks on a 944. So long may the technical debates continue.......but please try not to let such degenerate into slagging matches......thats's what paint colour debates are for. [;)]
 
ORIGINAL: Darren

So why can't people advertise their services?
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Because it is against the rules. Whether that rule is right or wrong remains to be seen; but it is the rule.

While I might have considered such a rule as overbearing initially, it does ensure the forum isn't over run with advertisements for everything mildly Porsche related. You only have to search 944 on eBay to see how bad that would be - watches, key rings, coffee tables, caps, hats, tea shirts, tea towels, knickers, Y fronts, empty Porsche boxes, miracle performance upgrades, the list goes on.
 
ORIGINAL: Darren

So why can't people advertise their services?
Click to expand...

Hi Darren,

Because it's the rules! The actual terms and conditions we've all agreed to state:

"Please do not post announcements about your company's products or services, or otherwise use the PCGB
forums to bring attention to your product or service."

Which is what some people have been doing, and why I thought it worth just clarifying it!

Personally I prefer a gloves-off forum in many ways, but I guess that there are potential problems with advertisers and the Club in general. I know that there are rules regarding modifications to cars in warranty, registered trademarks etc., so maybe a blanket "no advertising" rule is the only way around it? If you want a completely un-moderated 944 forum, then Titanic is also out there.


 
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