Where is Evan?

[G.Irish]

That's the thing, the person who you were making fun of or whatever was not your friend, he was someone new.

you are 100% wrong Gerald, as I mentioned, I did not make an insult. I made a generic tease on car shows in general

So the line about 'if you didn't notice it says Madison Motorsports' wasn't directed at him?

Im floored that you would post the specifics of a private conversation public. To take a private conversation public is without a doubt the biggest bullshit move I have ever seen you pull. For someone who tries to come across as taking the high road you couldnt get any lower. To take my statements out of context just to make me look bad is a whole new level of slime.

Well since you took it upon yourself to say I was acting on some 'false authority' and that was the reason you left the forum you were taking it public. The whole reason I PM'd you in the first place is because I thought you could be reasonable about it but instead you got all angry with me and left the forum over it. Why wasn't your response to post in the Site Suggestions forum that we need forum guidelines?

If you didn't want to get called out then you shouldn't have brought me into this. If you feel your statements were out of context feel free to post the entire conversation. Bottom line is that your attitude started with 'Fuck him if he can't take a joke' and that you ended by accusing me of protecting ricers and douchebags.

And no I did not just delete your post on a 'whim', like somehow I go around deleting posts for no reason.

Then please quote the forum guidelines that outline the post policy? FACT: you didnt like a post, so you deleted it. This I disagree with, and so I left without drama. No big deal, no bitching, just no more forums.
And now you dredge this up, bring private conversation to slander me, and make it personal.

That's a valid point and we are going to come up with forum guidelines. In the past we didn't think they were needed but obviously they are. We are also coming up with guidelines for moderator action.

Slander is for me to say something that is not true about you. You most certainly did say those things. Again if you feel that the rest of the conversation would change the meaning of what you said feel free to clarify.

And we don't need to be representing hostility to new people.

for the last motherfucking time, I was not hostile. at all, so get off the bullshit train.

Maybe you just don't realize how it appears to people who don't know you but when you start making fun of people like that what are they supposed to think?

Why is it that more than one person here expected you to be posting hateful things in here? Could it possibly be because that you've been hostile in the past? Or is it just that everyone is lying and unfairly characterizing some of your posts? You yourself said that you've been hostile to noobs in the past. Maybe you didn't mean that post to be hostile, fine. Maybe I made a mistake in deleting it, that's fine too. But there's no reason for you to be getting all bent out of shape and angry now over one post.

If the issue was that there needs to be forum guidelines, then make it about forum guidelines. You instead focused on being angry that someone dared to delete your post.

and I stepped up to become a mod again. Maybe we need to have a vote for who should be moderator and who shouldn't if people have a problem with who is a moderator.

how many moderators do we have? 15? for about 25 regular posters? thats retarded.

We have 8 moderators, 3 of whom don't post here very often. As I said, maybe we need to have a vote for mods.

The MM forums are not the regular car forums that we have all grown accustomed to as part of the car culture. It is a forum based on real life interactions and thus represents those in person relationships in an electronic manner. To assign an authority level without any guidelines or terms is completely unacceptable.

Again if that is the issue I would agree that we need to have guidelines.

Its interesting that between this, and the great hate, there have been many many problems that have gone from fairly obvious to neon sign in the road, but instead of thinking of ways to solve them, you blame other people.

I didn't say you were solely responsible for some of the unfriendliness but you have certainly done some of it. And I'm not sitting around coming up with people to blame for the clubs woes and you know that. Where am I blaming other people for the club's problems?

Why are potential members coming to forums instead of meetings?
If nurturing potential members on the forums is so important, then why isnt there a FAQ section? A introduction section?

I've brought these things up before, as a matter of fact I brought this up when the whole separate forum idea was first discussed.

Even then, for people who are looking to join a group the natural thing is for them to come check out the forum to see if they fit in. Especially people who've found us on the internet. Maybe it would do us well to lay off the sarcasm and flaming and what not for new people? Or am I just imagining that the forum has become unfriendly to noobs?

You blame me for making a passing joke on carshows as being unwelcoming, yet YOU are the one who isnt willing to put any sort of thought or effort into solving the problems at hand.

For you to even begin to say I am not willing to put any sort of thought or effort into solving the problems at hand is preposterous. I've stayed involved with the student leadership every year since Chan and I started this club to try to help them out and give them guidance on whatever issue is at hand. I'm not out to try to control the club so I largely don't interfere with the officers unless they're specifically asking for input on something or to give input on an idea they're having. I do try to push to get events done or to get stuff started early or to set goals.

The truth is I've given a lot of thought of why this forum sometimes descends into a bunch of useless bickering and hate. For most of this forum's history it hasn't been moderated very much at all but the tone has progressively worsened over the years. We're sort of turning into the obstinate, insular, unfriendly group of old guys that we've encountered in the past at some SCCA events or in other car clubs.

Not everyone knows everyone anymore. We shouldn't have to be constantly making disclaimers to new people about, "People are not as mean as they seem, you have to get to know them." I'm not saying we can't joke on each other or whatever but we have to be better with new people.

When it became apparent that the students were becoming increasingly frustrated with the tone of the forum John and some of the other moderators started moderating more aggressively. People also started stepping up and calling people out for being rude or flaming people. The next step is forum guidelines and maybe a mod/admin vote. If people vote that I don't have mod privileges anymore I'll gladly renounce them.

At the end of the day I and others here would like you to continue posting here.