How we approach moderating on the forum

[lion shf]

I'm 48 now, this was when I was young and full of the joys of spring and all things Wolfsburg 😉😂

Just changed son2s oil, air filter and slapped on his snows. I’m trying to tell him good things happen when he visits his old man. What VAGS did you rock?

 

[Pugwash]

Hey Mods,
a quick thank you from me. It’s a bit of a thankless task you are taking on and ultimately you have judgement calls to make. Keep up the good work.
As a suggestion, could you add into the ID box on the left an additional field with Emira on order / Emira not on order - a kind of summary of the who’s in and who is out (or was never in in the first place) thread? That might give us a better view of those who are here to really discuss the cars and who is here for other reasons?
[I am sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me that’s the stupidest idea they have ever heard, but if you don’t ever get any suggestions for ideas on the forum rather than just grumbles it makes forward development of the forum difficult.]

 

[lion shf]

Hey Mods,
a quick thank you from me. It’s a bit of a thankless task you are taking on and ultimately you have judgement calls to make. Keep up the good work.
As a suggestion, could you add into the ID box on the left an additional field with Emira on order / Emira not on order - a kind of summary of the who’s in and who is out (or was never in in the first place) thread? That might give us a better view of those who are here to really discuss the cars and who is here for other reasons?
[I am sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me that’s the stupidest idea they have ever heard, but if you don’t ever get any suggestions for ideas on the forum rather than just grumbles it makes forward development of the forum difficult.]

id Like to go on record right now that I’ve given Philly lotus a 20k deposit a year before goodwood.

 

[Nova]

Hey Mods,
a quick thank you from me. It’s a bit of a thankless task you are taking on and ultimately you have judgement calls to make. Keep up the good work.
As a suggestion, could you add into the ID box on the left an additional field with Emira on order / Emira not on order - a kind of summary of the who’s in and who is out (or was never in in the first place) thread? That might give us a better view of those who are here to really discuss the cars and who is here for other reasons?
[I am sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me that’s the stupidest idea they have ever heard, but if you don’t ever get any suggestions for ideas on the forum rather than just grumbles it makes forward development of the forum difficult.]

Not a bad idea... I like it!

 

[Leonard]

Hey Mods,
a quick thank you from me. It’s a bit of a thankless task you are taking on and ultimately you have judgement calls to make. Keep up the good work.
As a suggestion, could you add into the ID box on the left an additional field with Emira on order / Emira not on order - a kind of summary of the who’s in and who is out (or was never in in the first place) thread? That might give us a better view of those who are here to really discuss the cars and who is here for other reasons?
[I am sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me that’s the stupidest idea they have ever heard, but if you don’t ever get any suggestions for ideas on the forum rather than just grumbles it makes forward development of the forum difficult.]

Great idea 💡 as long as its not simply to divide us further 😉

 

[Leonard]

Just changed son2s oil, air filter and slapped on his snows. I’m trying to tell him good things happen when he visits his old man. What VAGS did you rock?

Pm'd so as not to go off topic 😇

 

[EspritGuy]

Hey Mods,
a quick thank you from me. It’s a bit of a thankless task you are taking on and ultimately you have judgement calls to make. Keep up the good work.
As a suggestion, could you add into the ID box on the left an additional field with Emira on order / Emira not on order - a kind of summary of the who’s in and who is out (or was never in in the first place) thread? That might give us a better view of those who are here to really discuss the cars and who is here for other reasons?
[I am sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me that’s the stupidest idea they have ever heard, but if you don’t ever get any suggestions for ideas on the forum rather than just grumbles it makes forward development of the forum difficult.]

To build on that Left Box legend, there are 3 categories:
include Depositor. I get constantly pleasantly surprised how often Guests vastly outnumber Forum members on line.
Pardon the obvious yet unintentional pun, the traffic is noteworthy.

 

[TomE]

My opinion is that the moderators are doing a really good job at keeping it friendly and non-toxic. (Or here are just really cool and friendly people ✌️☺️?)

Clearly, the job of watching the discussion not go off-topic is taken very serious and I also noticed that this is a bit stricter than in other forums. On the one hand, it helps the information provided stay relevant. On the other, it reduces the vibe of a "group of friends" hanging out and having a laugh (or fight).

The atmosphere of the Emira launch probably doesn't make it easier as a lot of posts are related to voicing concerns or disappointment. You can only post so much about a car that hasn't arrived yet.

If I would have to say something, I'd suggest to dial the off-topic filter down a notch but stay very strict on toxic or impolite / personal offensive posts.

In any case, thanks a lot for the hard work and dedication. Being a mod is a hobby that is not very rewarding.

Edit: It's probably also just natural that discussions start to form out of another thread. Eg. the F-Type comparison came out of the I'm out (?) chat and clearly belongs into another area. But it turned into a valid and interesting discussion which was worth moving so others can more easily chime in that might not care for the "I'm out" talk.

Thanks for the useful feedback. We will reflect on how we apply the off-topic filter, particularly to think about the context of which topic the post is in.

One note of caution around this. The "group of friends" and "pub talk" vibe can sometimes appear rather cliquey for people new to the forum and hence be a minor obstacle to how comfortable some feel about chiming in on a topic. As always, it's tricky trying to get the right balance. When you're down the pub it's easier to spot the quiet person in the corner who might be fine to just listen but equally could have something interesting to say but feels uncomfortable chipping in over the talkative folks.

 

[TomE]

I say curating and deleting off topic discussion in the most important threads is necessary - i.e. "test drive" "Emira problems and solutions" etc.

The I'm out/I'm in, regional and more loose topic/discussion will always eventually veer in and out of the topic. Less moderation is probably required there.

Politics, global warming and EV's, non-car related discussion that escalates into more touchy subjects is the tricky one. How far does that get moderated? It's a fine line and I am ok with that being moderated. Although the humour side of things is pretty entertaining to read. The line of offensive and humour are sometimes very blurred. I would say as long as the discussion does not get "heated" I would let it play out, just not in the more vital informative threads that many non-members would be interested in.... I mean random people probably don't care about @emiraspain 's dating life or @Leonard 's love for fine timepieces and his Yaris'. (odd combination BTW....) Although, I will say I have had a few good laughs from it.... and many other members.

Besides that I think the moderation from my perspective has been mostly fair. - I still think it's funny we are moderating the moderators on how they should moderate....

Thanks for the feedback. I think we try to apply the level of moderation differently to different topics, broadly in the way you suggest.

We've previously seen some topics can escalate into needing more active moderation, so we do tend to jump in and nip those in the bud quite quickly. We have a mechanism to alert the whole moderator team to keep an eye on a thread we think might go outside our parameters, so we'll often let it run to see if it stays OK. A common example is EVs and the ending of ICE, which is a fair topic on a car forum. But if they stray into government policies on taxation, emissions regulations and climate change then it can cross over into political arguments.

We did set up the Hethel Arms for some of our more talkative members to have their regular chats, but some of them still insist on chatting on main forum threads 🤷‍♂️

Maybe someone could organise a pub quiz?

We've had some discussion amongst the moderators about how we do things and it seemed a good idea to ask you all for feedback. I realise many of you aren't used to that kind of direct customer-supplier interaction

 

[TomE]

Just changed son2s oil, air filter and slapped on his snows. I’m trying to tell him good things happen when he visits his old man. What VAGS did you rock?

Now that's a bold post - going off topic in a topic about moderating off topic posts

 

[TomE]

Hey Mods,
a quick thank you from me. It’s a bit of a thankless task you are taking on and ultimately you have judgement calls to make. Keep up the good work.
As a suggestion, could you add into the ID box on the left an additional field with Emira on order / Emira not on order - a kind of summary of the who’s in and who is out (or was never in in the first place) thread? That might give us a better view of those who are here to really discuss the cars and who is here for other reasons?
[I am sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me that’s the stupidest idea they have ever heard, but if you don’t ever get any suggestions for ideas on the forum rather than just grumbles it makes forward development of the forum difficult.]

Good idea. We'll have a think. It would have to be self-declared, as we can't easily verify it. I guess the options would be Own an Emira, Emira on order, No Emira on order. We don't want to over-complicate it with other options like "Used to own an Emira" or "Owned an Emira for 24 hours while I flipped it"

Some car forums have a more free-text option where you can add what car you own. Some people have already done that in their footers. I know the footers and side boxes aren't always visible if you're on a mobile phone or tablet.

 

[hml_xy]

The "group of friends" and "pub talk" vibe can sometimes appear rather cliquey for people new to the forum and hence be a minor obstacle to how comfortable some feel about chiming in on a topic.

Good point that I haven't thought about. Thx for the feedback.

 

[TomE]

Hey Mods,
a quick thank you from me. It’s a bit of a thankless task you are taking on and ultimately you have judgement calls to make. Keep up the good work.
As a suggestion, could you add into the ID box on the left an additional field with Emira on order / Emira not on order - a kind of summary of the who’s in and who is out (or was never in in the first place) thread? That might give us a better view of those who are here to really discuss the cars and who is here for other reasons?
[I am sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me that’s the stupidest idea they have ever heard, but if you don’t ever get any suggestions for ideas on the forum rather than just grumbles it makes forward development of the forum difficult.]

Thanks for the great suggestion. It’s got support from others and we on the moderator team like it a lot.

Our clever admins have now added this feature, so you can add your Emira deposit/ownership status on your profile.

It can be updated here: https://www.emiraforum.com/account/account-details

There is a tick box menu with the following selections for Emira Status:
- No selection (default)
- Waiting to order
- Emira on order (deposit paid or order placed)
- Emira Owner

This is displayed under the Location field in the user information block.

 

[hml_xy]

Nice! That's a good solution. Just ticked the box.

For anybody checking on their phones in the usual vertical orientation: It only shows in landscape (or a desktop browser).

 

[Pugwash]

Thanks Tom and Admins. Box ticked!