ohyeah

this has been said before in other words, but what I think we're suffereing from are the negative side effects of being around for a long time. Me included! Every day answering emails can get a bit boring and annoying, reading a mail from some crack-user wondering why he was banned on the forum, or no longer allowed to upload hotlaps. The nerve!
But, that is part of my job and that is my problem.

However, you old-timers (in the sense of playing LFS for a while now) probably have seen it all as well. The funny threads and pictures, the deep conversations about inner workings of sims and real cars, but also the bitching and and moaning and general topics you don't agree with. And now after all this time, what is there to write about?
I think it will be a good thing if we all stopped for a while (not literally please) and thought about that. It's what I have to do as well from time to time. Think back to when you were a freshman and remember the joy and try to get that back again. And be sensitive to one another. As is stated in the forum regulations :

Quote :

Please be aware that people of any age and from many different cultures visit this forum and post their opinions. Also not everyone is equally fluent in the English language which is used on this forum. It can therefore happen that messages may be misunderstood, depending on how you read them. Keep in mind that people usually mean well, so when in doubt, give people the benefit of the doubt and see their post in a positive manner. Doing so will make our forum a nice place to freely discuss anything you want (fully or remotely related to sim-racing), without the need for moderators to intervene.

I know it's probably an impossible task to all get along - maybe in another 2000 years - who knows, but gotta try now anyway

I find it a little interesting and a little sad that a topic like this has gotten so many hits and posts. I know I am not bored, I'm enjoying great laps and races, skins, good company, events and discussions thanks to Live For Speed and its community.

There are so many things that could be done to make your forum more engaging and informative to new and old members alike. If all the energy and words that have been posted in this topic (and others like it) were put to creative and productive use, I'm betting you guys could have whipped up some pretty cool projects by now. For example, members might work on something like a glossary of racing terms to be posted in the beginner's forum, to help newcomers blend in more easily and feel like they are in the loop with the rest of us. Or maybe some people might work on a detailed track analysis for each track area, with images and useful tips about where time can be gained and lost, overtaking and braking points etc. These are just random ideas, but I'm certain that many forum members would be able to un-bore themselves easily and get involved in some cool stuff for the benefit of all. You'll attract less spam in these types of discussions because people have some clear concept to interact with and develop together.

Well, it's just a thought.... :Kick_Can_

Quote from Victor :

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I agree 100% with that.

With the time of being here, the amount of new and original content is getting sparse and rare. There are very few threads which actually discuss something we haven't seen in our 3+ years of being here, and answering the same question of how to apply skins for the XXth time isn't exactly refreshing and motivating to answer in the nicest and most detailed way possible - especially since the LFSWiki is down. I really liked to post a link to the paragraph answering the question, and at the same time by knowing about the LFSWiki, many follow up questions probably got answered that way, too.

But while I do think some of the current "downfall" is related to boredom, IMO it's not the only fault. People in general seem to be more and more lacking in independence, all over the internet. Figuring out a problem by themselves seems to have become an unbelievable hurdle, and even filtering out the search results of Google seems require too much brain activity. Instead, many just ask a question on the forums and let the others do the thinking, which is a shame.

I can understand that on some complex or very special topics the search function might not be helpful. Or on many other forums, if you have subjects with 3 character long names, but the forum software requires a minimum amount of 4 characters per search term. On these occasions I can understand repeated questions. What I can not understand is, when even a vaguely related search term brings up 10 threads answering exactly the question that was now posted as a reapeat.

In conclusion, I think it's really sad that people can't be bothered to READ and THINK anymore.
But the question remaining is, are people really getting lazier? Or it the problem rather that the internet got so accessible that all those lazy people from "real life" now annoy others online? *sigh*

How about we all go racing then?

I've just had a flick through the thread and I've seen a few people wanting to restrict the post count per day.

Although this could eliminate a vast majority of meaningless posts, it could also see some vital posts and topics missed.

All it takes is for a few people to ruin what on the whole is a good community / forum. If we let these people know they are in the wrong, then they are likely to post less often.

I feel that sometimes we need to be harsh to be fair.