Re: TAP TAP this thing on

by Limey SE Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:20 am

[quote="thatfnthing"]

bigredlaguna wrote:

I reserve the right to still make fun of someone who asks a half million dollars for an SE, though.

by Roadcaptain S3 Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:23 am

I still check in once in a while, but I seldom post anything. I spend most of my time on FB for various reasons. It is a shame that this forum has pretty much died. I do miss the "good old days".

by Limey SE Fri Jul 26, 2019 11:14 am

This Forum has not died by No means

by thatfnthing Fri Jul 26, 2019 11:33 am

Agreed. Reports of our death were greatly exaggerated. Smile

by Roadcaptain S3 Fri Jul 26, 2019 11:36 am

Oh. Perhaps I misunderstood the meaning of these posts.

by Mcarlo77 Fri Jul 26, 2019 11:48 am

Roadcaptain S3 wrote:I still check in once in a while, but I seldom post anything. I spend most of my time on FB for various reasons. It is a shame that this forum has pretty much died. I do miss the "good old days".

Personally, I avoid FB for various reasons. I guess the question I have from those who have fled to FB is what do you get there that you weren't getting on this forum. Or, is it simply that FB is much more trendy and the place to be because everyone else thinks it is? It would be beneficial to the survival of this forum to get some input from more of you. Unfortunately, there have been less than 10 individuals who have posted a response on this thread...and, most all are from those of us who are still regulars. It's going to be a pretty exclusive club if we don't get more people to return here.

by Joe73 Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:32 pm

I like this forum the best. Everyone is always willing to help out. We dont get a million of "generic" questions that have been answered to death. Members here are friendly, etc. On FB, I get more of a feeling of people just buying a car, look on FB for a group, and ask, what do I do with it?, whats available?, how many of these, where do I get this? Same stuff over and over, so I infrequently post there.

by Limey SE Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:32 pm

Roadcaptain S3 wrote:Oh. Perhaps I misunderstood the meaning of these posts.

was Just a Post for members to wake the up and See how everyone is coming along with Rides, Summer vaca's, projects

by Roadcaptain S3 Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:39 pm

Mcarlo77 wrote:
Roadcaptain S3 wrote:I still check in once in a while, but I seldom post anything. I spend most of my time on FB for various reasons. It is a shame that this forum has pretty much died. I do miss the "good old days".

Personally, I avoid FB for various reasons. I guess the question I have from those who have fled to FB is what do you get there that you weren't getting on this forum. Or, is it simply that FB is much more trendy and the place to be because everyone else thinks it is? It would be beneficial to the survival of this forum to get some input from more of you. Unfortunately, there have been less than 10 individuals who have posted a response on this thread...and, most all are from those of us who are still regulars. It's going to be a pretty exclusive club if we don't get more people to return here.

The main reason many "fled" to FB was that there were some off-forum incidents involving long time members who were scammed, along with some feuds over those scams. A few of these scams involved a lot of money, at least one totaling in the thousands. At one time, there was a lot of dishonesty and outright stealing happening through this forum. I would blame that as the main cause. The G3 community being fairly small, word gets around and many decided seek out places to buy/sell/ trade etc in a more honest environment.
I'm not talking out of my rump here either, because we (4 G3GM members) started a FB page for that very reason. It now has over 1500 members, many of them former/current members of this forum. We made it a closed page and keep the scammers and liars out)
Sadly, even some of the other G3 FB pages fell victim to the same thievery, and they died off as well.

Another reason is that car forums in general are waning. Some because their members are rude and cranky, but mostly because the rise of other social media and the old-timers are getting their wish. "Do a search" like you guys said earlier in this thread. So, rather than post, noobs just do that. I've seen it on numerous forums.

by thatfnthing Fri Jul 26, 2019 2:04 pm

Wow. Somehow I missed those issues, so I don't know any specifics. But I love a good story if someone wants to tell it.

However, to my way of thinking, that's all an argument for cleaning up and policing this site better, not for running away.

Unless someone's found a way to read people's minds that I'm not aware of, you can't know who is a liar/scammer until you let them in and they prove it to you by lying/scamming. Therefore you can't be 'closed' and still allow people to join without running that risk.

So when another sneaks in, then what do you do? Close down that page and start another one just to get away from that person? That'll simply sow confusion among members. Or maybe simply not let new members in? That'll guarantee the exact slow death we're trying to avoid.

How is any of that better? I'm failing to see the logic here. scratch

by Roadcaptain S3 Fri Jul 26, 2019 3:38 pm

You make logical arguments. There are logical reasons why they wouldn't work on this forum.

I will tell you how it works on our FB page. When we started it we already knew who the worst offender(s) was. He just wasn't allowed on the page. That solved most of our issue.
Since then if we have a dispute we try to mediate a solution. That's worked for us in every case so far. If it ever happens that it doesn't and the proof is convincing, we ban the offender.
It's not as difficult as it sounds since many of us know each other. Again, small community in comparison the other car groups.
We screen potential members by asking a few simple questions and looking at their personal FB page. We don't approve obvious "salespeople" and and generally only look for folks that actually OWN or have owned a G3. Most of those have pics on their personal page. I'm pretty sure folks have tried to fake their way in (including a few with a bad reputation) but they are pretty obvious.
Hell, it's possible that the biggest con man sneaked in as a member, but even if he is he can't operate there without someone figuring it out pretty quick. He has a lot of enemies.

Many of the other G3 FB pages were open, and the same guy scammed people there too. They "fled" those pages and came to ours.

We also have a pretty strict policy against being rude and nasty. Trolls get one warning then get banned. We have a total of 6 admins that keep a close eye on things. We delete "do a search" posts and try to answer every question as thoroughly as possible, even if we've heard it 100 times. And since it's FB, you usually know who you are talking to versus some anonymous username. It's pretty common for folks to get together at meets or even travel around visiting each other.

by Mcarlo77 Fri Jul 26, 2019 3:56 pm

Wow...I'm also shocked to hear of this. I've been a regular since I joined in '10 and don't ever recall reading anything pertaining to what you're describing. I don't even know what to say to all that. So, is there a general bad-mouthing of G3 among the FB members and that is why this forum is floundering?

by thatfnthing Fri Jul 26, 2019 4:06 pm

All excellent ideas, and common-sense-based. I guess I don't see why most (or even all) of them couldn't be implemented here, though.

And am I reading it right -- all of this is due largely to one person?

by Roadcaptain S3 Fri Jul 26, 2019 4:10 pm

It wasn't just the con man. I think it's forums in general and this one suffered a little more than others because of that guy and his ilk.

Most of the forums I used before are a shadow of what they were, not just this one.
There are so many different forms of communication now that people spread out all over.

It's like back in the day when everybody only had 3 TV channels. Like 25 million watched "Happy Days" in the 70s because it was about the only choice. Right?

Now if 8 million people watch something, it's a big hit.

Instagram is also becoming a big thing with car guys, and all it usually is is a pic with a short caption.

by Roadcaptain S3 Fri Jul 26, 2019 4:22 pm

I will say that yes, one guy did a LOT of damage. Again, it's a small community and word gets around eventually.
He screwed a lot of people, and even if you tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, there were just way too many people telling their stories to ignore.

The most common scam was to "sell" parts and then never ship them. He would vanish for quite a while and then re-appear and claim some tragedy prevented shipping. There was always an injury, illness, dead relative etc. This happened over and over again. Another was to "sell" a pristine item and have it arrive as a POS that couldn't be used. There's a lot more to it, but I won't go into it any further.

Threads like this have a way of disappearing. Smile

by thatfnthing Fri Jul 26, 2019 4:31 pm

Was he here too? Cuz I'm really amazed that I missed it all...

by Roadcaptain S3 Fri Jul 26, 2019 4:36 pm

thatfnthing wrote:Was he here too? Cuz I'm really amazed that I missed it all...

I edited the above post

by thatfnthing Fri Jul 26, 2019 4:57 pm

Point taken.

Well, I'm still going to stick it out here as long as I can be helpful.

by 73ss Fri Jul 26, 2019 5:13 pm

thatfnthing wrote:Was he here too? Cuz I'm really amazed that I missed it all...

Wouldn't happen to be the guy that showed up out of nowhere answering wanted ads on here? About a month ago, Some of you called him out. Just happened to have parts that members are looking for. The same guy that asked weird odd-ball pricing? Example, $325.28. WTF is it with the cents? The replies are still up in the wanted section.

by Roadcaptain S3 Fri Jul 26, 2019 6:32 pm

thatfnthing wrote:Point taken.

Well, I'm still going to stick it out here as long as I can be helpful.

You should stick it out. Just don't buy anything. Hahahaha!

by bigredlaguna Sat Jul 27, 2019 12:48 am

I don't know much if anything about who this person is, but as far as why the flight to FB happened, I think it is simply easier to use FB on your phone. Trying to post here is a bit more complicated. You have to open a browser, then choose which format you want. The control buttons are small so I have to expand the screen to see what I am about to command. Expanding the screen makes it impossible to see anything else so you lose your point of reference. Then when you log in the next time, you have to shrink it down again to see where you are.

There might be an app you could download, but I haven't the gumption to do that because I'm sure there is something clunky about that too. Facebook for the phone is simply smooth in comparison.

by Dinomyte Sat Jul 27, 2019 2:05 pm

Not to be a Johnny come lately to this thread, but I try to look around at least once a week, but between life, family, work and other responsibilities, I run out of time in my world.

I like the forum because I can search, and I can read and I can find out without asking anyone that I need 2 1/16 inch small gauges, and 4 inch speedo and tach. Or anything else I'm looking for. I like the back and forth conversation. I like this. I'm not a fan of FaceBook, I've got a friend that refers to it as Feces Book, and from what I've seen it is the same Feces over and over again.

The reality is that it's all about time for me. And honestly my hobbies and my car tend to fall to the bottom of the list.

I'm here for the long haul tho. I just wish I had more to contribute.

As for thieving on this site, I've never had that experience, I've had people trust me without even knowing who I am, I've had folks send me parts I was looking for because they had them, and I needed them, and some that I even gotten to pay for. If you're going to steal, you're a crook, and I don't know that there is any amount of security we can implement that will stop it short of banning any sort of buy/sell activity.

Just my $0.02 worth, now that I've made it here this week.

by 73ss Sat Jul 27, 2019 4:28 pm

I don't see any scams reported in the feedback section. The only red flag I have seen was what I mentioned above, Someone showing up out of nowhere answering years old wanted ad's. I have bought, sold & traded with several people on here. Smooth transaction every time.

by Roadcaptain S3 Sat Jul 27, 2019 4:56 pm

73ss wrote:I don't see any scams reported in the feedback section. The only red flag I have seen was what I mentioned above, Someone showing up out of nowhere answering years old wanted ad's. I have bought, sold & traded with several people on here. Smooth transaction every time.

Correct. Like I said previously, threads like this and those that would be what you were looking for get deleted.

I don't want anybody to think that I don't like this forum or that it's a horrible place for G3ers to communicate. I was here a lot and pretty active up to a few years ago. I am just explaining PART of the reason that the traffic here is not what it once was. It's still about the only forum that's worth looking at as far as 3rd gen GM cars. It's just that I (and quite a few others) prefer a specific FB page. There is (or at least there was) a G3GM forum page on FB, it just doesn't get much traffic either, mostly because of what I mentioned earlier. It's not about FB vs. this forum, it's about a bunch of guys avoiding drama. Eventually, karma (or somebody who got scammed) will catch up and it will no longer be a problem, then maybe it will liven up around here a again.

I hope so.

by Keith Seymore Mon Jul 29, 2019 7:26 am

Limey SE wrote:

Where is everyone ?????

Sorry - gone racin'

Just got back.

K

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