hi,
There are differences in AAC and ETO Rules, but a point in common to both sites, is that the member agrees to Accept the Sites Rules before being admitted as a member.

I have been a member of AAC since 2010, I have not made many posts here, as ETO takes most of my free time.
If ETO did not exist, AAC would be the site I would be active on, its a well run site and I often link OP's to AAC's tutorials.
Eric

 

Your position is pretty much a mirror image of mine. I really do view us both as sister sites, not competitors.

An outsiders (and only occasionally a visitor) point of view, you may need to have a consensus meeting amongst moderators when banning members permanently (unless it is really blatant). There have been many times I decide not to do something after consulting the other guys.

Lord knows being a moderator can be thankless sometimes, people have trouble stepping back and looking at the big picture. The funny part is I have to include the moderators in this too. Of the 3 currently active guys we have here I am the hottest head of the group, and I do try to look at everyones point of view before doing anything. There have been times I have voted to ban people I liked, just as there have been other times I have backed off because it was for the greater good.

 

hi Bill,
We do as a Mod's group discuss Banning a member who has infringed the Rules.
Also we use/d a private Disputes Thread [now called a Conversation] to discuss the problem with the member. Hopefully it can and usually is resolved in private.

We also operate a Moderation queue in which Admin has the option to place all the offending members posts into Moderation for checking.

I agree, our two sites coexist in a spirit of cooperation.

Eric

 

[...]moderators do have control over passwords, but if a user wants back online he can do so just by requesting a new password.[...]

I don't think moderators can do anything to edit other users' accounts, except from banning and modifying profile signatures.

Maybe an Administrator could be able to set (not read) a password, but I doubt that as well.

Not a big thing, just saying.

 

I don't think moderators can do anything to edit other users' accounts, except from banning and modifying profile signatures.

Maybe an Administrator could be able to set (not read) a password, but I doubt that as well.

Not a big thing, just saying.

That's a topic area that has drawn a lot of speculation by many people. Who does and who does not have the capacity to access a members data and change/manipulate things.

As it stands for me and many people I know far too many have had reasons to believe that not all private conversations are secure from moderator and administrator review. I have heard accounts from people who are or were moderators and admins at other sites that some site software does infact allow them full access to any and everything and some don't.

Personally if I was the admin for a site and did the whole site setup myself I would want a way to access everything but as a member I would prefer they didn't.

BTW. For the guys who are or were members of ETO the thread for giving your input on their rules is open. Speak now or forever keep your mouth shut over what things end up as.

http://www.electro-tech-online.com/...rafted-member-participation-requested.139512/

 

BTW. For the guys who are or were members of ETO the thread for giving your input on their rules is open. Speak now or forever keep your mouth shut over what things end up as.

http://www.electro-tech-online.com/...rafted-member-participation-requested.139512/

Thank you tcm, but I have left that site for good. At least until some major changes are made. I wish you all the best though. Hopefully it fixes a lot of the problems that site has.

Regards,
Matt

 

VBulletin is a standard forum software. Admins can see everything by accessing their server, if they know how. Ppasswords are not stored as text anywhere, this is a common security practice.
However, extension packages and add-ons that add functionality to the forum software exist.

Contrary to common belief, the moderators have quite limited privileges, compared to an admin.
We cannot change site code, we cannot change passwords, we cannot even change usernames. We can only do what the site software allows us to do via checkboxes, menus and lists.

They still are a lot of things to list, so ask and I'll answer with a yes or no.

For starters, no, we cannot see PM discussions held by other members. However, there is an alert button on PMs but I have never received an alert for a PM message.

 

I have to agree with MikeMI, when he states:

"The wording of the rules don't matter much to me; I'm going to post what I'm going to post without referring to them, anyway...

As to Green boxes, or attaboys, I don't care; I let my posts speak for themselves."



That's always been my style.

If I get banned, so what?

There are a lot worse things in the Universe.

Speaking your mind====Priceless.

 

@tcm

I just read your thread over at ETO (without logging in, of course ) and I think you're on the right track. I was warned (got a red bar on my profile--not rep, but an infraction) once because I spoke my mind without technically breaking the rules. However, the moderators (one in particular) read between the lines of the rules and decided my post broke several different ones, even though it didn't fit into any of the "Do not's" that were stated there. If the rules read then the way you suggested in your post over there, things would have been a lot clearer. That whole mess would never have happened.

I'm not entirely unhappy with the rules or moderation. Most of them are fine. But I agree with you 100% that the rules need to be made much more specific. As they sit now they leave a LOT up for interpretation, which is most certainly NOT something you want on a forum such as ETO. It leaves it open for all sorts of trouble. You have my vote for changing the rules, for what it's worth.

You're welcome to quote me in your thread at ETO if you think it will help. However, I still don't think I'm ready to go back there. There's a lot more than just the rules that are bothering me at this point....

Good luck!
Matt

 

I have to agree with MikeMI, when he states:

"The wording of the rules don't matter much to me; I'm going to post what I'm going to post without referring to them, anyway... As to Green boxes, or attaboys, I don't care; I let my posts speak for themselves."



That's always been my style.

I think most people feel that way. I know I do. However when what is everyday acceptable behavior suddenly become off limits or put under high scrutiny for you and only you that when people get rubbed the wrong way.

I think that holds true for most everyone. Either play fair to all or place equal expectations and scrutiny on all. Don't pick, choose and single out one person because they used the wrong spelling of 'grey' one day.

That is what got so many people upset about over the rules. They were never held equal and without bias. One by one people got singled out for infractions or actions that the majority never got so much as a shameful finger shake tossed their direction for.

A guy slips up and leaves a mild curse word in a sentence getting them a mild infraction. Fair enough it happens. A guy gets banned for a week due to "questionable sentence structure" without reference to when, where or what that sentence was or what actual rule it breaks well thats being feels a lot like being singled out.

 

You're welcome to quote me in your thread at ETO if you think it will help. However, I still don't think I'm ready to go back there. There's a lot more than just the rules that are bothering me at this point....

Thanks but I am playing that thread as open and fair as I can with as little personal bias as possible which means anyone who supports me or the general intent will have to say so in person on that thread. Even if you/they hate the idea of being there for even one support post.

 

I too seem to favor MikeMl. I have never read the rules for AAC or Electro-tech because I generally hold myself to higher standards than most "rules" would.

In 7000+ posts, I have had to explain myself to a moderator, I think, 3 times, and I was even wrong on 2 of those occasions!

However, I did not have my public reputation besmirched and I was not threatened with punishment. We just communicated until I understood the requirements and life went on as usual.

That is not how it works at Electro-tech, and that is why I am not there.

 

I too seem to favor MikeMl. I have never read the rules for AAC or Electro-tech because I generally hold myself to higher standards than most "rules" would.

In 7000+ posts, I have had to explain myself to a moderator, I think, 3 times, and I was even wrong on 2 of those occasions!

However, I did not have my public reputation besmirched and I was not threatened with punishment. We just communicated until I understood the requirements and life went on as usual.

That is not how it works at Electro-tech, and that is why I am not there.

Same here. I have had a few instances here at AAC, but was able to speak directly with one or more moderators and was able to work things out just fine--never punished, never lost my image. You try to do that at ETO and you only get in more trouble. Some people are even banned for it. The disputes thread over there was a good start, but I'm not entirely convinced it is working the way it should.

 

Good lord people are actually starting to talk over there now.

Next thing you know somebody might just accidentally agree with someone else and ruin the whole thread.

Actually other than some kitten fights no major bloodshed has happened.

 

I think it has actually been very constructive, even with the kitty fights. It's gotten old grudges and hard feelings out in the open where they can be dealt with. Now that it seems to be simmering down, I think it might be possible for some real suggestions and decisions to be made.

 

Matt,

Even though you don't visit ETO anymore, that doesn't mean you can't contribute to the discussion.

The rules discussion happened a number of years ago here. As a long time "internet forum user", approaching 20 years in 2015, if I live that long, I certainly offered my observations.

I think I'll go over and read the thread. Who knows, the intercourse could be lively.

 

I glazed over after about 4 or 5 pages, but I have good news. As of page 5, two of the people that were trolling me have been banned for trolling, only a few years after I asked the moderators for help. The third is still wondering why the thread is even happening. To my satisfaction, he has been informed publicly of his inappropriate behavior in the past. To my dissatisfaction, he doesn't understand that he did anything wrong.

I'm glad they're working on their problems. I'm guessing that 90% of them are going to make a better forum out of E.T.O.

 

@ 12 ,what do you look for if anyone is trying to hack you.

 

I have been a member there for over three years; I have three posts.

Obviously, I like it better here.

Maybe we should let them be.

 

AAC can't force ETO to do anything nor are we trying to make them reform or anything. Personally, I don't know completely anything about how ETO works or what troubles it is going through.

This was a movement from ETO regulars who migrated here but still cared enough to look back and try to work things out.

I have nothing to gain if ETO falls. On the contrary, I link people to ETO daily, when I close down threads for automotive content. If I link people to a good site, those posters will be happy that I pointed them to the right direction and they make come back here for something else later.