Demo users are an integral part of the community in many ways but more often than not there is alot of senseless "noise" coming from that direction and it's usually from people who essentially only play in demo mode for years on end.

The latter is okay with me, different kicks and what-not and I can understand the appeal of a free fix, but why should we have to wave through all the rubbish in the forums?

And what's more why should new visitors that go to the official "General LFS Discussion" get alot of the same as an introduction?

Just as we don't have to get all the noise in the servers online, why not limit it in the forums as well?

So there, that's my three questions in a row wrapped up in a fancy and pretentious improvement suggestion. Count them. I know you will.

'Rest of forum read only' is quite a good idea, as we can still read it but some of us can't spam it. I think that only certain sections should be 'read-only', whereas others shouldn't; I'm thinking of 'skins' 'movies' 'screenshots' and the general off-topic sections at the bottom. For the top forums on the main page, I think these should have their own demo sections if you're really that bothered about us spamming (I can see why!)!

Would licensed people be allowed into the demo sections?

Quote from J@tko :

Would licensed people be allowed into the demo sections?

Well i guess they would because they are allowed on demo servers

-1 from me... there are a few guys here that are spammers, but they are already on my ignore list... so are some S2 licensed folks

Although it's a VERY tempting thought, I'm going to have to disagree.
Yes currently there are a lot of "career demo-ers" that you only see on the forum when they have somehow, in their mind, been negatively affected by LFS development, and that have now decided to come out of their hole to bitch and moan (I have no problem with constructive criticism, but I mainly see bitching and moaning which isn't the same).
The problem is that there are fair demo racers who have something good to say, although they seem to be less in numbers or not as vocal as the bitchers.
Also, it limits people who have yet to find their way to LFS, finding their possibilities limited beforehand. Among those future players could be valuable additions to the community that might be put off by that.

I'm not sure about making it read only for them but what about time expiring demo accounts?

-1

All we need is more patience and love :lovies3d:[etals:]

We all need the MODS to merge all the countless patch Y bitching threads into a single uber bitch patch Y thread as well.

No thanks, that just means a ton of work for the mods having to put up with both sides.

Plus.. everyone should be heard their voice, isn't fair otherwise.
Sometimes they have good ideas too, so let's not put all our apples in one basket.

Quote from sdrjfd1 :

Ohh yeah, and we sould put some yellow stars on the cars/avatars.
Its a stupid idea.

Anybody knows why.

Take it from a german, that's a stupid comparison.

The question on debate is whether the right to post on the general board is something you should obtain with the purchase of S1/S2, but, since usually demo users and licensed users talk about the same things really (tech support, improvement suggestion, racing talk) I give it a

-1.

If you don't want complaning spoilt demo users, then don't spoil them in the first place IMO.

Anyway in one or two weeks we will have forgotten that there ever was a GTT in the demo and we'll talk about it in the "You know you're a long time LFS player if u can remember..."-thread.

-1

Right now the idea is tempting, because there are so many threads from demo users, moaning about "rights" taken away. Most of them haven't posted here before.

But before patch Y, demo users on the forum were usually posting sensible and/or nice stuff, just like licensed users. After all the hubbub has calmed down, the freeloaders have left and the other demo users will still be here, contributing to the community.

Quote from sdrjfd1 :

Ohh yeah, and we sould put some yellow stars on the cars/avatars.

If you squint real hard then the "Demo User" under your username turns into one. Also, don't let anyone on this, but... demo users are being rounded up in demo servers.

Well, I didn't quite have in mind such a segregation as everyone implies. Just a single section for demo users to give their feedback on how they found the demo after sampling it for a short period of time - that's all. And yes, this was fueled from the same ole "major patch blues" we get every time such a patch is released.