Vendor emails via delica.ca - whats the policy?

[kb&2dogs]

Just so you know John, if we need any help with parts or whatever, feel free to send us an email!

[RichD]

What kind of policy would you suggest?

I would suggest that it is implicit that if you can't use a thread to post a pitch for your service you can't send an email to do the same.

Delica Trader provides a place for vendors to sell their wares. Its flawed, but its there.

I wanted to point out the lack of integrity in the existing policy and the need for improvement. I didn't expect that the moderation team would demonstrate a complete disregard for their own stated policy, or that the community would be unable to tolerate discussion.

Its no wonder that more than 80% of the readers of this forum won't post.

[LeeHammy]

So why not sent RMI a polite PM and ask them not to send you unsolicited PMs, &c.?

Falco.

Personally if this was done all of this could have been avoided. Posting it as a thread instead of using a polite e-mail which most people would do unless they were just looking for a fight, has caused a can of worms to open up. I would think that RMI has removed themselves from this for fear that nothing they say will calm the person who wants to see heads roll. Personally.. I don't blame them.

Ideal situation.

"Dear RMI, thank you for your input but I was not asking for advertising I was asking for suggestions by fellow owners. Please don't contact me using PM to offer/advertise your parts in the future. Thank you!"

..........end of story.

sheesh

[LeeHammy]

la P.S.

I didn't ask for an opinion I asked for a policy -RichD

Mark, Falco, speak up anytime. -RichD

[shealy]

Sounds like the moderators need to sit down with some people like Rich, Jesse and whoever else has been here for a while to discuss this. We've been in this situation before and from what I've seen in just over my year round these parts, squawking back and forth on a forum has not helped in the slightest. I don't feel that this is a constructive way to solve these issues publicly. It's detrimental to the community and of course we keep coming full circle as the issues never seem to be fully solved.

Why don't a few of you guys get together and discuss this over some friendly beers in person!?

[doodah]

personally, if I post a query, I don't mind getting a response from a repair shop or dealer.

I can understand individuals being concerned about the same touting their wares and services on the forum, but an email...?

I have received the odd email from them and found them informative.

"just sayin'"

[pajerry]

Is it not possible to have an option in your user settings that you can select weather you can receive vendor emails? Similar to the member email option? If not I understand the software may not be that flexible.

Rich, in hindsight do you think you could have just as easily emailed RMI and asked them to refrain from emailing you, as suggested? I think some email, PM's or talk over beers with the admins could have been a more effective approach.


On the other hand, I am still a firm believer in a proper vendor section where they can have all the advertising and top posting they want within their section. If someone wants to ask a dealer/vendor a question, they can.

I actually laughed out loud when I saw Jesse's graphic with the other delica sites.. It is the same for every active automotive forum as it is the only way to keep the peace. In reality, any forum where potential revenue can be exploited, which is every forum.

To the moderators, please take some time to browse other forums and note the vendor section layout. Going through some threads you may notice that discussion is courteous, no BS used salesman rhetoric and banter every two months. Also please note their policies. Another nickle..

[mararmeisto]

What kind of policy would you suggest?

I would suggest that it is implicit that if you can't use a thread to post a pitch for your service you can't send an email to do the same.

The current policy IS "implicit":
im·plic·it/imˈplisit/
Adjective:
Implied though not plainly expressed: "implicit criticism".

I would suggest that if your experience continues to be so unsatisfactory here at delica.ca, go start your own forum and organise/manage/run it how you like.

If you dislike the discussion that has taken place in the diaspora that is this online community, I recommend you instead send your question to one or all of the moderators. The moderators regulate the forum, not the masses.

Finally, if you don't want others trolling your threads, lock them.

[RichD]

I turned off notifies for a while. Just chiming in on the last page before I head out for the day:

Regarding talking to the admins: we have. At length. We've tried like you wouldn't believe. We can't discuss it here because of the censorship. Suffice to say you are only seeing what managed to get through the filter.

I would suggest that if your experience continues to be so unsatisfactory here at delica.ca, go start your own forum and organise/manage/run it how you like.

Regarding starting my own forum: Paul, it is quite common knowledge in the Lower Mainland crowd that you are one of the key players that was pushing for a competing forum to unseat delica.ca. Takes a lot of gall to post what you just did. Quoted in case you try to edit history again.

Regarding calling the vendor politely, I did. Says so in OP.

Regarding locking the thread, I cannot. I asked a mod to, he would not oblige.

I want to point out that not one of you trolls has acknowledged that RMI responded to a Beef post about fabrication not parts. Not a "I want parts" post. That is bloody opportunistic.

This is what I said about this thread on the other forum:

My post on delica.ca was a failed attempt to illustrate the hypocrisy of the administration regarding their dealings with the vendors. In desperation some of these guys are just spamming random people, when really we should have made a home for the vendors to show off their offerings instead of trying to monetize the community forum with the crudely made Delica Trader spinoff.

I wanted to demonstrate the flaw in the policy by raising it to debate. That failed hugely because I underestimated the degree of negative community input that would happen before a mod chimed in. I tried to redirect my post to topic but it just made it worse. One problem with the forum format is that a hostile community environment can lead to things piling on and whatever merit there was to the discussion is lost. All that most of those people saw in that thread was an opportunity to buddy up with their parts supplier.

The comment made upthread here that I wanted the mod to filter out disagreeing opinions is ridiculous. I was just pointing out that the so called positive contribution policy is not really being enforced or even followed by the mods themselves. A good moderator will redirect a discussion instead of squelching opinions he disagrees with or introduce controversy. i.e. "moderate".

You guys should be glad that you have a working community site because ours has been falling into dysfunction for some time now and unfortunately the community is divided between the silently outraged and people who are against all change. So we don't have the buy in to fix it, which is leading to stagnation.

I recently started engaging again on this forum after about a year off. I've taken a few days to reconsider that choice.

Now unlike the vast majority of the people on this forum I actually spend a lot of time helping out my fellow Delicans and I have been an active and positive member of the community. You can't even compare my forum contributions - even when I was active - to what I do IRL. And I'm one of the few people willing to stand up and discuss things that are hard to talk about like change. It takes some cojones to express an unpopular opinion. But most of you wouldn't know because you have never even considered that popularity has nothing to do with what is true, let alone what is right.

You find it fun to sit behind your keyboard and throw mud instead of trying to actually communicate and find common ground, its all great for a few lulz but if someone as confident as I am decides to withdraw from participation, you can be sure that you will never hear from many others regardless of their opinions. Who wants to communicate in a hostile environment like this? If I won't, neither will most. There is nothing "moderate" about the moderation here and that was my point. But now I don't even care because what has really affected me most was how easily the community piled on me and how little they did to even attempt to reach a level of understanding.

[mararmeisto]

Regarding starting my own forum: Paul, it is quite common knowledge in the Lower Mainland crowd that you are one of the key players that was pushing for a competing forum to unseat delica.ca. Takes a lot of gall to post what you just did. Quoted in case you try to edit history again.

"Unseat?" I thought what we were doing was much more about providing an alternative to Delica.ca - not to depose them. I obviously grossly misunderstood the intentions of that group if that was to have been our objective. Don't put words in my mouth.

With respect to posting my recent comment: no gall applied, just standing by my previous position. Still do. As it was a business venture I personally felt obliged to stay quiet until we launched - which we never did. And so, I no longer have anything to keep quiet about. Doesn't mean I'm going to run about blabbing about it.

I'm still unhappy with some aspects of this forum, but I'm willing to live with them. Squeaky bearings and all. And I still stand by my previous comment, and I'd like to re-state it: please, go start your own forum and leave this one alone if you're so unhappy. Falco has stated the policy for vendors, has tried to accommodate those of us WHO PROVIDE NO INCOME to this forum against those who do (as I understand it), and that's still seemingly not enough for some.