Thinkpads Forum

I find the moderation fine and hardly notice any intervention at all, which is a testament to the dedication of the vast majority of the members to the Thinkpad cause.

I've been a member of and a moderator of forums that are far worse in terms of the stuff that goes on. One of those forums only has 6 mods for over 130000 members, and needless to say that a lot of stuff goes unchecked. The one that I was a moderator of has 180000+ members, but around 150 moderators. And it can get quite heated at times there. Here though I've hardly ever seen a curse word, nor an argument, and I find that remarkable to say the least! Whether that's more due to the maturity of members or the staff's patrolling I don't know, but it's certainly impressive

hahaha.

NS is here to explain his long winded theory which can be done in his own blog.

The admins and mods here are ok. Tried to use gmail to register into this forum and BillMorrow allows me to do it without further probbing.

This forum will be a better place to live in exclude the frequent spams and disrupters.

I think the moderation is very good. This forum is full of decent info and lacks a lot of totally off topic stuff, which is what I like. I suppose one could associate the way of handling things here with professionalism (which I also associate with a thinkpad).
Although I don't post a lot I do read the forums nearly every day and am always impressed by the "huge" (3 pages of results when clicking "posts since last visit" I consider big as there's no crap) amount of new and interesting posts.

If I have to say one bad thing then it would be the requirement of an ISP e-mail. I use gmail exclusively and had to specially search on my ISP's web page to find out what my account is. (and as I never use it I wouldn't get any mail when someone uses that mail address)

Contact Bill if you want to use a gmail account. He approves those on a one by one basis.
Too many spammers were signing up using webmail addresses.

I don\'t like others to send me mail using gmail because gmail does not indicate the sender\'s IP.
And the reason for not accepting free webmail address is to prevent members from signing up for more than 1 account here with several email addresses. Banning free email addresses is better than banning all IPs coming from APNIC region...

Mods on this forum are WAY too strict.

I've never been on a more heavily modded forum ever. It feels like big brother weighing over you and pushing you down.

I am one of the few people who thought V for Vendetta was overrated, but the message was still crystal clear: That's how I feel this forum is.

That being said, it's still a nice place with nice content. But it just has cameras plastered everywhere and cops moving you in different directions that you "SHOULD" go, etc.

-3nigma

3nigma wrote:but the message was still crystal clear: That's how I feel this forum is.

Well, that's kind of the point...

3nigma wrote:That being said, it's still a nice place with nice content. But it just has cameras plastered everywhere and cops moving you in different directions that you "SHOULD" go, etc.

Forums that are not moderated are everywhere.

Kyocera wrote:Forums that are not moderated are everywhere.

Forums that are not moderated properly are everywhere ...

Yes they (nonny) are too strict - locking topics when no rules have been violated is simply someone flexing their mod power imho. Its got to the point where you can only answer technical questions, no discussion or debate is accepted, hence why I don't post here as much anymore.

And now she'd be even more likely to give you trouble. Why would you point her out like that??

dsigma6 wrote:And now she'd be even more likely to give you trouble. Why would you point her out like that??

Well, I might do that if I paid any attention to who posted what. Fortunately, for the most part, I don't.

Looking at the comment from snife, I assume this is over my locking the thread yesterday that had turned into a shouting match over quality or something? I had already dropped a message into it pointing out the no trolling rule, but the participants didn't take the hint and continued on.

Reasoned and civil discussions, guys. Reasoned and civil. Debates and arguments are for comp.sys.laptops which is thataway ->

snife wrote:Yes they (nonny) are too strict - locking topics when no rules have been violated is simply someone flexing their mod power imho. Its got to the point where you can only answer technical questions, no discussion or debate is accepted, hence why I don't post here as much anymore.

Please continue to post. People can discuss and debate - just keep it clear, cool and professional.

What I forget (and I am probably not alone) is that there are many ways to do things. I try to look at things from all perspectives so as to understand posts. However, I don't care for the fervour I see occassionally that "All of Vendor X product is bad"; "Something didn't work for me, so you should not use it"; "My way is the only way to go". I tend to step into to some of that kind of commentary.
... JDH

jdhurst wrote:Please continue to post. People can discuss and debate - just keep it clear, cool and professional.

I saw the thread that was locked yesterday and everyone seemed clear, cool and professional. It was a great thread with high-res photos of the 14.1" T61 (thanks Gator!), and it's such a pity that it got locked.

I think the reason it got locked was someone was emphasizing on

snife wrote:You can both agree but its still not true.

which is like saying what JD quoted in this thread:

jdhurst wrote:"My way is the only way to go"

ryengineer wrote:I think the reason it got locked was someone was emphasizing on

snife wrote:You can both agree but its still not true.

I was one of the targets of that comment and I wasn't offended the slightest bit. We were just speculating about the future of Thinkpads and of course, speculations usually turn out to be not true. So I actually agreed with Snife.

Yes, this comment by Snife had the potential of causing the debate to escalate into something ugly, but it did not. Perhaps it would be better to lock a thread only after such escatation has actually happened, instead of terminating a thought-provoking, fun discussion prematurely. I know that by saying this I am making the mods dislike me more, but similar situations have happened so many times that I feel compelled to make a suggestion.

I think my post was taken out of context. I was supplying in quotes the style of post that causes locking or causes moderators to step in. I am not debating anything in here, merely trying to shed light. I don't think I posted anything in the locked post (or else I forgot already).

@ryengineer: please consider editing your post. Thank you.

... JDH

pianowizard wrote:Yes, these comments by JD

Sorry, I was only quoting JD's comment from this thread. JD did not play any part in that thread.

No problem ryengineer. Thank you much for the clarification. ... JDH

I've edited mine as well.

Sorry - I know I have a tendancy to be a bit blunt (or efficient in my comment typing as I like to consider it) but I know for a fact that Lenovo have no plans to merge Lenovo 3000 and ThinkPad and this is what I was trying to convey, my comment was not intended to offend but simply point out that the discussion was invalid because the speculation is definitely false.

My other comments about me not liking Lenovos business decisions are not fact but my opinion, i doubt anyone would be offended by those though.

I don't think the thread was a slanging match and didn't understand why it was locked.

pianowizard wrote: I know that by saying this I am making the mods dislike me more, but similar situations have happened so many times that I feel compelled to make a suggestion.

Not even a remote chance of that Kwoon, you're way to nice of a guy, not to mention a pianowizard!

I think the premis of the poll is flawed to start with.

@pianowizard,

No one will hate you here. You are a trusted member..

@snife,

Dear friend, please show nonny some respect by using the PM to contact her and tell her about your displeasure with her moderating. I don't find anything wrong with her moderatings. She has a reason behind all the moderations. Ask her in private. It is not necessary to shame her in public. She is an admin and please show her some respect.. We love each other (all members) in the forum.. All the moderators and admins have closed 1 eye on something regarding your location

Relax everyone.. We are here to enjoy..

Good night..

Just for the record, I don't have a problem with this being discussed openly in the forum.

Nonny, is it possible to have that thread open again? I will add a sentence in my first post warning people not to indulge in unwanted Lenovo bashing ... I started that thread because I felt we'll see some interesting comments regarding the design (and because most of us were curious to see a real-life pic of the T61).

It's not Lenovo-bashing that I have a problem with. You may say anything you like about them in this forum as long as you back it up with facts and say it in a civil manner. Heated debates that degenerate into "is not, is too" arguments are the problem.

I'll re-open it, but at the first hint of trolling or incivility, I'll shut it down again for good.

First of all: this is an outstanding forum, and the moderators do certainly contribute to this excellence.
What I especially like is that there is such a large number of moderators.
Maybe they are just very present, but it seems like every second guy is a mod. A big advantage in my opinion, as in this way, mods are just people, and it's not a small number of guys having too much power.

And, I apologize, but I need to quote this. I usually don't pull that Learn-from-us-Europeans-stupid-Americans thing, so please forgive me this one. I don't mean to offend anyone.

JHEM wrote:Nope. The first thing to remember is that this is an Open Forum

vs.

and as such there are only three things that are absolutely prohibited.

...

JHEM wrote:Discussions pertaining to religion.

...

Discussions pertaining to politics.

Let me tell you one thing: A lot of things would be better in this country if people talked more about religion and politics.

The day we started avoiding topics out of fear of offending someone, was a sad day for our civilization.

Sorry for OT, and no offense meanr, James.

Thanks, I don't think any of the mods or admins here are on any kind of power trip, we are just regular people, trying to help.

I agree that religion and politics need to be discussed but there is a time and a place for everything. We are not "avoiding topics out of fear of offending someone". That is not the point. These topics spark emotions and lead to flamewars. This is a technical forum not a religious or political forum. There are many forums out there to discuss religion and politics. That is the place for those discussions. Here we talk about Thinkpads.

Jan_Hoho wrote:Let me tell you one thing: A lot of things would be better in this country if people talked more about religion and politics.

This is not an "in general" discussion forum, its for the discussion of a particular and reasonably narrow topic area (ThinkPads and some closely related technologies). There are plenty of other places to carry on discussions about politics and religion.

Cheers,

Bill B.

I know, I know, and I do agree with both of you. The opportunity for some general socio-philosophical lamenting was just too good to let pass.